"Frisk… you came from this world, right? So you must have a place to return, do you not? What will you do now?"
Toriel spoke with a hint of sadness in her voice as we looked out into the sunset from Mt. Ebbot. It was just me and Goat Mom now. All the others had already set out to find their new homes. I looked up at her to be greeted with a half-hearted smile and the glistening of tears in her eyes. She sniffled a little bit and looked me with those kind, caring goat eyes. Even if I didn't want to go with her, I don't think I'd be able to say no, I thought to myself.
Toriel was only half-right. I did technically have a place to go back to. Whether I wanted to go back (and whether I was wanted back, for that matter) was an entirely different story.
"Well, if you don't mind… I was kind of wondering… can I… maybe… stay with you?" I replied.
She stared at me, astonished, then slowly grinned.
"Of course, my child. You may stay with me. Come along now, dear, we need to find a place to sleep!"
I told her that I was going to stay up on the mountain, and that she could call me when I came down. Toriel nodded and quickly walked down the long, winding trail to catch up with the others. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon, flashing brilliant shades of orange, red, and pink. I just kind of sat there, captivated by its beauty, and contemplated the series of events that led me up to this point. I recalled tripping on an exposed root at the summit of Mt. Ebbot, and falling, like an idiot, into the caverns below. By some miracle I was not dead from the impact of the fall. I slowly sifted through the memories like sand, thinking of all the adventures I had traveling the Underground. I smiled at all the trouble I got myself into; there was the date with Papyrus, my fight against Undyne (and her unfortunate collapse from dehydration), the Temmie village, traversing the Hotlands, and so much more. And then there was all the ways I helped the monsters; getting Alphys to come out of her shell and confess about the Amalgamates, comforting Asriel, and, of course, freeing the monsters.
But then… there were the other times. Times when I didn't get my happy ending. Times when the monsters weren't freed. Times that I think I lost control of my actions at some point. I shuddered, and suddenly my mind was filled with visions of monsters turning to dust at my hands, all the people that thought I was their friend perishing before me. Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Muffet, Mettaton, Sans… all of them, gone. Before I knew what was happening, tears welled up in my eyes and I was crying, alone, on top of the mountain. Why was I crying? I had literally just liberated an entire race of monsters. I got my happy ending. So what was wrong?
"Why are you crying, Frisk? You got what you wanted. You saved all of your little friends. You broke the barrier. What's wrong, baby? Scared you'll screw up again?"
Turns out I wasn't completely alone. A girl about my size and age, wearing a green and yellow sweater, materialized in front of me. She had a taunting smirk on her face, smiling a sadistic smile. I stopped crying and glared at her.
"What do you want?" I growled through gritted teeth. This was the person responsible for all of my genocide runs, responsible for the countless slaughters, and responsible for the guilt I was currently feeling. This was Chara, and I was not happy to see her.
"You ARE scared. You were always weak. So weak that you couldn't even stop yourself from murdering everyone. What a pathetic child," she sneered.
Her words cut into me. Every time I reset the world, I told myself that it would be different that time, that I wouldn't let myself be taken advantage of by Chara, that I would be strong. And every time, I failed. I had always subconsciously blamed her for the genocide, but… it was my own weak self that got all my friends killed. Why would this time be any different?
She started laughing. I wanted, with all my strength, to push her off the mountain. But I couldn't, because Ms. Demon-Child had been attached to my soul like a little hitchhiker at some point during my journey, and I was stuck with her until I figured out how to get her out of me.
"Shut up. I didn't give in this time, and I won't give in ever again," I said, though I don't know if I was trying to convince her or myself.
"Stop lying to yourself. Do you really think—" her mocking was cut short by my giving her the bird and turning my back to walk down Mt. Ebbot. She was right; I wasn't exactly a strong-willed or forceful person, but I had gotten desensitized to Chara's endless mocking after being stuck with her for so long, and I eventually ignored her once I was able to stand up to her.
"Get back here, weakling! You're just scared. Scared! Scared because you're a spineless loser who bends to the will of those stronger than you!" she shouted after me. Although the sunset was kind of ruined by her, it gave me some satisfaction to make her angry, and I allowed myself a small smile. God, did it feel good to have some backbone.
"Piss off, psycho-bitch," I called behind my shoulder, and continued walking until I reached the foot of Mt. Ebbot. Chara had disappeared by the time I got down from the mountain. I pulled out my cell phone, found Toriel's contact, and called her. The phone rang, once, twice, and she finally picked up.
"Hello, my child?" she said.
"Hi Toriel – er – mom. Where are you?" I responded. The sun had set by now, and it was growing darker by the minute. I decided I did not want to be here, alone, in a forest, at night. It was at that moment it hit me that I was going to spend a night in the forest, and so was everyone else. It didn't really occur to anyone, including me, that we didn't have anywhere to go after we left the Underground. In our ecstasy we had overlooked that minor detail. Whoops.
"Well, erm, we found a nice clearing a little ways into the forest. Just travel about half a mile into the woods and you should find it. Sorry it is not the best conditions to sleep in, my child. Perhaps we didn't think our actions out too well…"
I followed her directions, and after around ten minutes of walking, I found the clearing. Everyone was already there, talking or looking around at the surrounding trees.
"NYEH HEH HEH! THE HUMAN HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!" shouted a familiar, raucous voice. "TELL ME, HUMAN, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!"
"Oh, you know, just… enjoying the sunset." Papyrus and the others seemed satisfied with my answer; to be fair, I wasn't lying, just… omitting a few details.
"C'mon, kid, you can't be gone for so long. Tibia honest, I was starting to get a little worried," a certain short skeleton said, to which his brother shrieked in disgust. I chuckled.
That night we slept under the stars, staring up into the night sky. I could feel the combined hopes and dreams of everyone flowing throughout all of us, ready to begin a new life on the surface. Everyone was excited to rejoin the humans once again above the ground and rebuild their former lives before the war. I fell asleep with a content smile on my face.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of birds chirping and the sun's first rays hitting my face. Groggily, I opened my eyes and looked around. Now that it was day, I could see much better. The clearing was much bigger than I originally thought, and even with every single monster laying asleep in it, there was still much room to spare. Large bags of luggage were piled around their sleeping bodies. At least we didn't forget to bring all our possessions, I thought.
Toriel was cooking escargot on a flat rock using fire magic. How she managed to find that many snails, and how she was capable of cooking them on a rock over a fire, I did not know. I decided not to question it. Papyrus was animatedly talking to Undyne and Alphys about something to do with a variation of his famous (well, more like infamous) spaghetti. Asgore was looking at a small patch of flowers. Many of the other monsters were conversing among themselves; in fact, everyone was up, except for Sans, of course. By the time I had already said my good mornings to everyone, Toriel was already finished cooking an absolutely massive quantity of snails. I mean, I have nothing against eating snails (they're actually pretty good once you get past the texture), but my God was there an unholy amount of escargot.
That day I learned cooking on a rock made things taste much different than when they are cooked in a kitchen.
After breakfast, Asgore called all the monsters together.
"My people, the time has finally come to once again live in harmony with the humans. Today, we will travel into the human's land and renew the bond of friendship that once united us. Frisk," he said, looking at me, "are you prepared to take on the responsibility of the ambassador to humans?" I vigorously nodded.
"Then let us be on our way towards a new, brighter future on the surface!" Asgore said, and the monsters cheered.
We gathered our things, and just like that, we were off on our way to the nearest city.
We walked throughout the morning. It was a lot of work travelling through the forest, but made much less monotonous by Sans telling jokes (and Papyrus's reactions to said jokes). Normally, it would have been unbearable, especially in the summer heat; but, filled with determination, it became possible, even easy, and we made great progress. That being said, I had a different sort of problem. Stabby McSociopath decided to pay me a visit about three hours into our journey.
"Why are you even trying? Give up. You know you'll fail in the end," she said.
She continued to bother me with similar comments throughout the journey. And bother me they did. In the back of my mind, I felt a sort of clawing sense that she was right, that I would mess up again. Eventually, I began to lose that feeling; not because I convinced myself this time would be different, mind you, but because she wouldn't SHUT THE HELL UP. However, I couldn't just tell her to get bent on account of the fact that Chara was intangible and invisible to the other monsters. I shot her a few nasty looks now and then to compensate. Eventually, she gave up and dissipated.
At noon, we all sat down to have lunch. We all gathered whatever wild plants, berries, and nuts we could find, and drank from a clear stream running along the path we were travelling. I plopped down next to Sans and Papyrus and munched on some wild onion and strawberries. Sans drank from a bottle of ketchup he brought, and Papyrus had a plate of spaghetti. Apparently he had thought it important enough to pack it. I decided not to bring it up.
"So…do you think the humans and monsters will be able to live together again?" I asked.
Sans thought for a moment, then spoke. "Yeah, I think so. We've got an amazing ambassador to help us," he said with a grin.
"You really think I'm up for the job?"
"OF COURSE, HUMAN! I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU WILL BE A GREAT AMBASSADOR! ALMOST AS GREAT AS PAPYRUS HIMSELF!" Papyrus replied.
I smiled to both of them. The thought of rekindling the friendship of the two races filled me with determination!
After lunch, we continued our journey through the forest. My legs were getting tired, and I was starting to slow down a little bit.
"C'mon, kid, put a little backbone into it." Sans said. I heard a shriek of disgust from behind us and smiled.
By the time we reached the edge of the forest, the sun was almost touching the horizon. A paved road ran parallel to where the forest ended. Strangely, though, no cars drove by. Probably construction, I thought. Across the road we could see a long fence, and further back, neat little rows of houses lined up with one another. Again, there was no sign of humans around. This was a little bit more disconcerting, but still, we thought nothing of it. We cut across the empty street and walked along it until we found what appeared to be a large shopping center. Stores of every kind were arranged around an enormous parking lot; restaurants, department stores, electronics stores, and clothing stores of every kind could be found. Still, no humans.
At that point, we were beginning to become a little unnerved. Some monsters began whispering in confusion among themselves. Monster Kid, one of the monsters I met in the Underground and a friend of mine, ran up to me. He tripped and faceplanted into the ground. I helped him up, dusted him off, and asked him what he wanted to talk to me for.
"Where are all of the humans? My parents said there were waaaay more humans than monsters. What's the deal?" he said.
I shrugged my shoulders in reply. "There were. I'm just as confused as you are, MK."
Asgore once again gathered the monsters together. Some asked him where all the humans were.
"My people, I do not know where the humans are. However, we must not become distraught over their seeming disappearance. I'm sure that there is a logical explanation to all of our confusion. Let us rest here, and tomorrow we will search for the lost race."
Though it didn't exactly curb our worries, we listened to Asgore. We explored the shopping center and discovered food in the restaurants. We found comfortable looking spots in some of the stores to sleep in. I fell asleep somewhat apprehensive, but also sure that we would be able to find the humans and begin our new lives the next day.
Boy was I wrong.
So… first chapter of my first fanfiction, like, ever! I hope it turned out halfway decent. I'll try to update at least every week (maybe more frequently if I get lucky), but with football, baseball, 4-H, and high school, I don't know if I'll be able to update on a consistent schedule. I'll try to answer any questions or comments, either in an author's note or through PM. If you have any tips for how I can improve, feel free to tell me (I can take criticism, just please don't flame). See y'all in the next chapter!
-RandomGinger