FOREWORD

Goddamn plot bunnies. It's my own fault for letting them breed. That, and playing Undertale. Having read up on the game while playing it (yes, I know, but I'm the sort of guy who enjoys reading spoilers in advance), I was entranced by the lore of the story. I decided, for Halloween, to have a fic ready.

My first ideas didn't go anywhere. Then, I was struck by inspiration. This is a Halloween story, and one crossover not yet done with Undertale is FEAR. I felt Alma got a bum deal in the games.

Anyway, this story is a what-if. A one-shot, true, but I may yet expand it into a full story. What if Alma, instead of Chara, fell into the Underground, having barely escaped her fate of being locked into the Vault? Would she be worse than Chara? Or would she be better? There are certainly scary comparisons to be made between Chara and Alma, as well as Frisk and Alma. They are all, after all, filled with determination that allows them to transcend life and death…

Incidentally, the title means 'While I breathe, I hope' in Latin.

Anyway, time for the usual disclaimers. Firstly, there will be spoilers for both Undertale and FEAR. If you want to avoid spoilers for the former especially, don't read. This is also something of an AU for both, especially Undertale, so please don't complain.

Secondly, there will be heavy annotations, as is usual for my works. You have been warned.

Thirdly, this is an M-Rated work. There will be coarse language, violence, and horror themes. Again, you have been warned.

Finally, the following is a fan-written work. Undertale and FEAR are the properties of their respective owners. Please support the official release. Otherwise, Flowey the Flower will give you a lifetime's supply of Friendliness Bullets…I mean, Pellets…

DUM SPIRO SPERO

To the monsters of the Underground, she was the first human they had seen in centuries. Some had never even seen a human before, outside of pictures, having been born and raised Underground. But even the monsters knew that there was something very unusual about the girl who had fallen.

Her skin was a grey that seemed to belong on a corpse, but she was definitely alive, and that didn't mean anything, given that there were in the Underground the Font Brothers, who were living skeletons. Her eyes glowed an ominous orange. And her face was, at least for quite a while, little more than an impassive mask.

That was unnerving enough, but there was the fact that, unlike most humans to those who knew about them…she could read their minds. And she almost never spoke with her mouth. Instead, she spoke directly into their minds.

And yet, despite this, the Dreemurrs, the Royal Family of the Underground, had accepted this child as one of their own. Then again, the child was used to being called a monster. It felt fitting to Alma Wade to actually become part of a family of monsters…

It was sheer luck, Alma would reflect later, that she managed to avoid being drugged, injected with a substance that suppressed her psychic abilities. She had managed to catch wind of Armacham's plot to lock her up, put her on life support and an induced coma, and then, once she was a teenager, use her as a brood mare for creating psychic soldiers. Her father had been in on it. Reluctantly, but he had given up on her completely. That had hurt most of all.

She fled, killing anyone who tried to kill her, or capture her with anything approaching force. Anyone who merely tried to bar her path, she flung to one side. She set free other psychics to distract her pursuers. She unleashed her inner demons, making them manifest in reality, killing anyone stupid enough to get in the way. And then, she fled.

Beyond the outskirts of Fairport, there was a mountain. Mount Ebott. Local myth and legend suggested that, centuries ago, there was a war between monsters and humanity. Humanity managed to win, and sealed the monsters behind a magical barrier. According to myth, they lived beneath the surface to this very day.

Alma hadn't put any stock in such things. The harshness of her life ensured that fairy tales had little meaning to her. She only viewed the woods and caves of Mount Ebott as a refuge. Away from her father, away from Armacham…away from humanity. Away from the disgusting babble of their minds. Especially those of the scientists and researchers and executives of Armacham.

It was determination that had led her up Mount Ebott. It was curiosity that led her to the hole in the cave. It was clumsiness that led her to fall down it.

She had landed in a flower bed in what seemed like an underground garden. And soon, she met her first monster. Which was…mildly disappointing. Alma was tormented by inner demons and nightmares that would have made HP Lovecraft shit his pants. But the monster she first met was, well, rather cute and endearing.

He was short, about as tall as she was. He was dressed in clothing that was surprisingly mundane, a green shirt with yellow stripes, and black trousers. The exposed skin of his hands, feet, and head were covered in white fur. The head itself was actually quite extraordinary, with large floppy ears, and an elongated muzzle that seemed to have an expression that was both wary and curious. His hands and feet had small claws. If it weren't for the small pair of fangs (which managed to look cute and endearing rather than menacing), he would have looked like nothing less than a kid in the form of a humanoid goat…a humanoid kid, so to speak, given that a kid was another name for a young goat.

She soon realised that the monster wasn't attacking. She had relaxed, only slightly, just in case it was a trick. Then, he had spoken.

"Howdy! I'm Asriel. Asriel Dreemurr. What's your name?"

After a moment, she said, into his mind, Alma Wade.

She would never have thought that Asriel was royalty. And yet, he was, the son of King Asgore Dreemurr, and Queen Toriel Dreemurr. They were so…nice to her. And genuinely so. True, they were wary of her, both for being human and for having disturbing psychic powers…but they also wanted to give her a chance. Unlike those damned scientists or executives at Armacham, whom she knew wanted to exploit her. Either that, or they were so scared of her, it wasn't funny.

They also didn't act like royalty. Asgore, despite a potentially menacing appearance, what with the big horns and all, was actually a major goofball. And Toriel…well, she was extremely kind-hearted. Alma had never known her mother: she had died in childbirth. That had left a gaping void that begged for maternal affection, and Toriel filled that void quite well. Even if she looked like a humanoid goat in a tabard.

The fact that their thoughts, while still laced with fear and wariness, were warm and comforting to Alma, went a long way to help her relax. While she hadn't quite gained their trust, she was gaining it. They were giving her a chance, something her own father hadn't really done. No, he all but threw her to the researchers after her powers first manifested.

It took a couple of weeks, but Alma was soon calling the Dreemurrs family…

"So, you're the human everyone's been talking about, huh?" The teenaged fish-girl with the red hair and eyepatch peered at Alma both curiously and critically. Undyne, her name was. Her thoughts were aggressive and belligerent…but not actually bad. She was a monster Asgore was grooming to become part of the Royal Guard, and was certainly talented. The Royal Guard certainly needed talent, and some of the more enthusiastic applicants, like Papyrus, didn't quite have the ability or killer instinct.

In any case, Asgore sometimes used Undyne to babysit Asriel, telling her (with a certain degree of truth) that babysitting Asriel was like being his bodyguard. Undyne was the sort of person who didn't back down from a challenge, and when a human got thrown into the mix, well, it was even more of one.

Asriel, sensing some possible tension, said, "She doesn't like to think of herself as human anymore, Big Sis. Apparently the humans she knew treated her badly. They called her a monster long before she knew of our existence. She's a psychic."

Undyne blinked (her single eye was golden, with a slit pupil), before peering at Alma curiously. "Okay, so, what number am I thinking about, kid?"

Alma looked at her, before saying, Forty-two.

"Geez! Okay, that's spooky! Just…don't read my thoughts too much, okay?"

Your thoughts are very loud, Alma responded. You are trying very hard not to think about that crush you have on that nerd lizard girl Alphys.

"NGAHHH! Stop it! My head's a private zone!"

Alma actually smiled. Asriel noticed. She only really started recently, and the smiles were invariably small, but they were smiles all the same. It was better than her having that impassive mask of a face. Alma was learning to enjoy herself. If there was anything that was an achievement in the Underground, it was that…

Alma frowned at the history textbook her mother (she was calling Toriel her mother!) was having her read. According to this, the barrier the humans made to imprison the monsters could be bypassed by someone with a powerful enough soul. She kept the information to herself.

It wasn't that she wanted to leave this place. She didn't. Here, she was treated like a person. She was treated as a child. An unusual, dangerous child, but she was allowed to play, to grow, to learn. The so-called monsters treated her far better than the humans ever did.

She found it ironic that many within Armacham thought her to be a monster, and yet, they treated her far worse than any monster in the Underground had. Not all of the monsters were as caring and good-hearted as the Dreemurrs, or as entertaining as Undyne or that wisecracking skeleton Sans. But they were far better than the humans she had encountered. Only a few at Armacham seemed to show anything like the qualities of most of the monsters she knew here.

It was because of that that she wanted to know more about the barrier. They didn't deserve to be trapped here, underground. Oh, it was spacious and filled with enough to satisfy all kinds of monsters, but it reminded her a little too much of her own fate, the one she nearly fell into. Locked away in the Vault.

Even now, she had nightmares, or rather premonitions of what could have been. Floating in a cold darkness, drowned, but still alive, violated by tubing and wiring, breathing a drug and nutrient-laden liquid that kept her insensate. She had nightmares of giving birth to one child, two children. Her father there, saying things to her children, and then taking them away from her, while consigning her to her prison once more. To a living death, drowned alive.

Then, they forced her to die, just after she reconnected with one of her children. They shut off the life-support, and left her to drown in breathable liquid that would become tainted by her own carbon dioxide. It took her days for her body to die…but she didn't. Not completely. Because she was determined to take back her children.

The nightmares seemed far more vivid than most. Alma knew, having had dreams like this from an early age, how to tell the difference between nightmare and premonition. She knew that would have been her fate had she not fled Armacham. They were lucky no other human had stumbled into the Underground. Especially not one from Armacham.

Even so, she didn't want the monsters to be trapped any longer than they had to be. She was determined to free them.

Asriel was sure they were going to get into a lot of trouble. Very few were allowed near the barrier, the exit to the surface. But Alma had insisted, telling him that she intended to free them. And when his adopted sister got an idea into her head, she never let it go without a fight.

He glanced over his shoulder at her nervously. Her black hair, once lank and a little matted, still hung around her pale grey face in a vaguely sinister manner. Her orange glowing eyes were also sinister, especially now that they were set in a determined expression. She still wore blood red dresses, like the one she wore when she first fell into the Underground, and she habitually went barefoot, save in places where it wouldn't be wise. Like Hotland.

Soon, they came to the corridor that led to the barrier, where waves of light and energy pulsed along the otherwise bleak corridor. Asriel could feel it, feel the magic used in times of yore to trap his people down here. "Alma…are you sure this will work?"

Alma didn't reply. Instead, she stepped forward, and glared down the corridor. Then, the floor began to tremble beneath Asriel's feet. The waves of light and energy pulsing down the corridor stuttered, and then halted…before continuing. Alma's glare intensified, and so too did the tremors.

A strobe of light seared at Asriel's eyes. The mild tremors began to devolve into shaking. It felt like an earthquake was beginning to rock the area. Blood began to trickle from Alma's nose and eyes.

"Alma, stop it! Don't hurt yourself!" Asriel protested.

Alma didn't listen. The trickle became a stream, her usually impassive face became a twisted mask of pain and determination. Another strobe of light, showing a crack in the air, leaking light, before it faded, like a parody of a lightning bolt. Another strobe showed more cracks. And then, Asriel heard Alma's voice in his head, babbling obsessively.

It's breaking it's breaking and they'll be free my friends and family will be free they don't deserve this not this prison dungeon living tomb I'll free them and…

Suddenly, Alma stiffened, then convulsed, coughing out a great gout of blood, before collapsing to the floor. It took Asriel too long to shake himself from his shocked state, and then run to find help…

Alma hadn't expected to wake up, much less find the concerned and angry face of her mother glaring down at her. Toriel swept her up in what would have been a crushing hug had she not stopped herself at the last moment. Instead, it was just a warm, comforting embrace. "Don't do that ever again, Alma!" Toriel wept.

But…I wanted to free you. I wanted to give you freedom. Isn't that worth the cost? Alma asked.

"Not if it means you die," Toriel said quietly. "Asriel's crying away in his room, while Gorey's tending to his flowers. Alma, you've become a symbol of hope to us, that monster and human can one day be reconciled. If you die…our hope dies with us. And you do know that you're Asriel's best friend, don't you? If you died, it would break his heart…and ours."

Alma nodded mutely.

"…I thought you had died. Your heart had stopped beating, you weren't breathing…and yet, I could see part of you was trying to move. Determined to live, even beyond death. Maybe that's what allowed me to save you, bring you back from the brink of death. You are a most extraordinary human, Alma. But I don't want you to die trying to help us. You help us better by living."

I cracked the barrier, Alma said quietly. Maybe one day, I could break it. I'm young, and already powerful. She looked into her mother's eyes. I will try again one day. And on that day, we will be free to live as we should.

Toriel opened her mouth to object, before she saw the determination in her adoptive daughter's eyes. Quietly, she said, "Then promise me this. Don't do it again until you are absolutely certain that you are strong enough. Because we will live on the surface…together."

After a moment, Alma spoke. Not using telepathy, but with her voice, a disused rasp that could have sounded sinister. Instead, it was filled with determination. "Yes. We will live on the surface together, mother."

Soon, Asriel and Asgore came in, both hugging Alma. Indeed, they roped Toriel into a group hug. The sentiment should have made Alma retch, mentally speaking…but in truth, she knew they cared about her. And Alma had come to care for them. It was why she undertook her disastrous attempt to breach the barrier. She wanted them to be free. And she had nearly managed it too. But she had also nearly succeeded in causing them the worst kind of pain. Nothing as mundane as injury to the body, but to the soul.

Alma didn't want to put them through that. They were her family now. But she still intended to repay them for the kindness they had shown her. One day, they would be free from the Underground.

She was determined to make it so.

THE END

STORY ANNOTATIONS:

One day, I might revisit this with a full story. It's not much of a Halloween story, given the lack of horror per se, even with Alma in it, but hey, it's the first marked crossover between FEAR and Undertale.

Alma survived nearly killing herself while destroying the barrier because, well, not just determination as in Undertale. Let's face it, Alma is one of the most ridiculously determined characters ever in fiction to survive after death. Surviving her attempt to destroy the barrier is a doddle by comparison.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it.