A/N: Boy, ideas spring from this particular song. A lot of them…
Do not worry, I haven't discarded my other work. Just, I think this has a potential to grow into an AU-ish sort of thing, where the Dreemurr king has to save Toriel from an unknown force. Plus, I got a little inspired seeing "Just a Stranger", so the idea of a timeline that feels wrong on multiple levels is needless to say…
…Plot-buliding! :)
Also...I can't believe just how plotbunnies like to knock on my door. I'm just like "Are you serious, Shock?"
Anyway, I do hope it's good enough for you.
Prologue
A Change in the Rift of Time
He was ready to fight the human before him, but his readiness was more of a façade than anything else. He tried to convince himself there was no other way than fighting, that only by killing the human, their victory is at hand. Well, after countless attempts at using monster SOULS to break the barrier, after countless nights that he spent crying after Toriel, letting out furious bleats as he couldn't understand why didn't she remain alongside him, victory right now seemed certain. But then, he knew that all that anger against her, all that resentment subsided, and he finally understood why she abandoned him.
"They were my children, Dreemurr! I failed to protect them; you don't understand what I feel!"
In reality, he could understand, but there was no way that any of his words would've calmed down the furious tempest that Toriel could be, when it came to defending the innocents. As he let out a sigh, holding his trident, taking in the sight of the human before him – who wore the same clothes as Chara, but the colors were slightly different – he started swinging.
Left.
Right.
"Stay still, small one! Your soul will help us be free!"
The child wasn't scared of monsters – no, they knew just what kindness lay behind the masks of monsters – and yet, they didn't want to give their SOUL that easily. Not when Toriel warned them that Asgore would kill them, something they understood, something that they realized as the large, furry goat king was swinging his trident at them.
Though there were slight moments when they could see tears in his eyes, and wondered if the king actually gave up on his killing intentions. But when the swings got faster and started to be accompanied by massive fireballs aimed for them, it became clear that he was trying to goad them into fighting – as if really convinced that death was his only liberation.
The child searched through their inventory, trying to heal up the wounds they got while fighting him – some Cinnamon Bunnies, some Spider Donuts – but with each new round of dangerous trident swipes aiming to pierce the SOUL out of them, with each new wave of fireballs that threatened to burn them to a crisp, they knew that he had to have a weakness, something he cares for, more than anything in the world.
And then they remembered the failed attempts – dozens, perhaps – at recreating the Butterscotch-Cinammon Pie that Toriel baked for them, back in the Ruins. It seemed that the king was really missing Toriel, as if knowing her for quite a long time, so they decided to eat the remaining thing in their inventory, hoping to God that it would work.
"What is that scent?" the king stopped in the middle of his attack, feeling a familiar scent invading his nostrils, and then saw the small child nibbling quite happily on a slice of pie. The more the scent relished in his nostrils, the more it became clear whose scent was, whose pie it was – and his paws started to shake. "Toriel…" he muttered quietly, and the human noticed that King Asgore stopped his attack, in the same time, his own attack and defense decreasing as the scent of butterscotch and cinnamon filled the field of battle.
"Now's my chance," the child thought as they reluctantly started fighting against the king, twirling the Knife in their right hand. "Although I really hate doing this, the only way I can get their best ending is if I fight him. What kind of Pacifist am I, if at the end I have to fight the last monster?" They sighed as they started swinging the small blade with a hint of reluctance in their eyes, and the kingly monster was parrying with his trident accordingly, the same hint of reluctance in his eyes. Blade and trident clashed against one another, until the last breath of one or the other, while a certain flower was watching the entire confrontation from the sidelines. "In one moment, the king will be quite weakened, and then—! They'll never know what hit them!"
More parries, waves of fire and expert dodging from the child were exchanged in the next minutes, minutes that, inadvertently, prolonged the final decision – if monsterkind lived or died – until Flowey decided enough was enough, and it was advantaged by the fact that the two fighters were looking exhausted. The human, after a lot of struggling, managed to land a critical blow to the monster king, forcing the latter to kneel before the child as he clutched his wound with a small smile and tears in his eyes. With that, the small child threw the blade far away, feeling sinister as he was forced to almost reduce the king to a pile of dust – but what hurt more was how the king actually regarded his defeat.
"Human…Y-you have proven yourself as the better fighter," Asgore said with a smile. "I assume you know the tragic story of o-our people," he continued, a light hack escaping his muzzle.
"K-King Asgore," they said as they rushed to the great king, who was now lying on the cold earth that formed the barrier's tunnel, "I-I'm not going to let you turn to dust!"
"W-What a kind c-child you are," he replied, "but the truth m-must be known." Another hack escaped his muzzle as he took the child's hand into one of his paws. "I didn't want to…hurt anyone. I…I did not w-want power. All I wanted…was to see my children once more. My wife…"
"You mean, Toriel?" the child's eyes widened as they realized that he was the one they saw in one of the photographs in Toriel's house. They bit their lip as the dark truth of the Dreemurrs' separation came to surface, and started crying, their entire body shacking…
"Ch-Child. We c-can be a family…y-you have decided to s-stay in the Underground…for our sake…" he said to them, with a comforting voice. But he had just one thought in his mind – a thought so dark that it almost seemed possible – "I cannot take this any longer," as tears were welling up in his eyes as well.
And then, it happened.
BOOM!
A pair of green, spiky vines erupted from the ground, attaching themselves to the large body of the king, but the small child tried their best as keeping them apart – as Flowey hissed at the resistance this puny human was trying to put up – but somehow, the king, as much as he wanted to take comfort in the thought he had, unexpectedly fought back.
Flowey did not appreciate the resistance at all, and decided to turn the goat monster to dust – he was merely another simple pawn in this game of chase that he and the human had – but somehow, his plan backfired.
The king could only remember the frightened screams of the child, the vines that entangled him…
…And then, darkness.
-X-
"…gore, …sgore…KING ASGORE!" A voice called out to him, a voice that made his eyes open to a strange white light, as he could discern a vague silhouette before him and nothing else. The light was still a little too strong for his liking, but with time, he could finally see where he was. It was a laboratory of sorts, very similar to what Alphys had, and yet, when his eyes dawned upon the one who called out his name, he had a small shock.
"I know you…" he said, with a gasp. "G-Gaster? H-How are you alive…?"
"Ah. I'm not real, King Asgore. None of this is real." the tall, skeleton scientist said, as he dusted his white robes.
"Th-then, why can I see you?" his eyes widened, as if trying to understand what was going on. "Why do I feel I'm cold, very cold?"
"Because you're still unconscious, my king," Gaster said, with a deadpan expression, "And I'm just a mere meddler in the matters of time and space…" he thought, keeping the words for himself. "I must warn you though, what you'll see when this ends…I'm afraid it will shock you even greater."
"Why?" Asgore asked, still unsure what to believe. When it came to this strange skeleton, he couldn't really tell what was on the latter's mind, nor what he did to keep the Underground a safe place.
"Because where you are…a force controls the entire realm. A force that has the Queen under its' grasp. You can expect her to want you dead."
At the last phrase, Asgore's expression was blank, as if fear itself wormed in his SOUL, and he knew that whatever happened, wherever he was, was a lot more dangerous than himself behind the wheel of monarchy. He then closed his eyes, as he exhaled heavily, wondering why this happened, and if whatever Gaster told him was really true.
"I expected that a long time ago," was all that the king could utter, before the figment of dream ended, as a bright light rendered him blind…
On the other hand, the meddler of time and space himself, W. D. Gaster, voiced out a thought in the depths of the Void, a Void that proved to be more than a prison to him, "Let us hope he can drive the force back where it came from…And most importantly, hope that he can save the Queen."
