A/N: Since I doubt anyone follows my Tumblr ( purewriting), I don't think anyone knows about the Undertale AU I made (yes, I'm jumping on that bandwagon, pugna mei). It's called "Skeleton Kids AU", basically it's a "what if" AU where humans that die in the Underground come back to life as skeleton monsters because magic *waves hands in an arch*. There is a theoritical reason, but that's explained in the actual story.
I'm posting it here on my FFN too so I can spread it around a bit more. There's art of some of the kids on my Tumblr (only two so far, but I'll draw the rest later), check it out if you want to look.
Enjoy :)
...
A shrill scream cut through the magic charged air, a small body sliding to the floor, slightly charred. Asgore tore his eyes away from the child's burned corpse. But the tired king couldn't unsee it. The horrid image was imprinted in his mind. The thick black char barely visible against the girl's deep brown hair, the decrepit state of her obviously hand-stitched poncho, and the angry burns that were already blistering her lifeless skin.
And worst of all, the small boy that the girl had died defending. His eyes were wide with terror and glossy with tears. Watery eyes were fixed on the Monster King, the boy's hands clutched with white knuckles around the handle of a medium-sized frying pan. The wounds on the boy were noticeable, but not as severe as the ones on the girl Asgore assumed was his sister.
"P-Please. S-Stop!" he sobbed, voice crackled with enough grief to make Asgore's heart ache, "I don't want to fight!"
Asgore flinched, but didn't waver and rose his red trident. "I'm sorry, human. I...don't want to fight either."
Another scream. Asgore's trident pierced through the human child's flesh, spilling sticky red blood across the polished stone floor. He retracted his trident and the child fell limply next to the girl. The frying pan slipped out of his hands and clattered mournfully to the floor.
Then there was silence. Though it only lasted for a few seconds. Gentle thrums pulsed through the room, each a bit off set from the other. Though overlapping each other, the sound reminded the Monster King of a human heartbeat. It made Asgore's stomach churn to do it, but he looked down at the children's bodies.
Emerging from their corpses, were two small Souls that hovered and trembled above their previous hosts. The one above the girl was as yellow as the buttercups in his throne room, the one above the boy, green as fresh grass. Asgore cradled both Souls carefully in his large hands before slipping them into individual jars before they shattered.
From within the magic containers, the children's Souls continued to pulse strongly. For a brief moment, they almost reminded Asgore of brilliant jewels. And then that moment faded. Asgore sat and stared at them in silence for an agonising minute.
A broken sigh escaped him. "I'm so sorry. Children."
"Is this a bad time? I can come back later." a cool voice asked from behind Asgore.
"No. It's fine Doctor Gaster." the king sighed, "You can take the Souls now. I...have a mess to clean."
That wasn't the only reason he wanted to Souls gone. He just couldn't bare to look at them.
"Of course."
Asgore turned away from the Souls as the skeleton scientist took them out of the room.
"If you need help, just ask." Gaster said over his shoulder.
A dry laugh. "This isn't the first time I've buried children. Thank you though."
Gaster hummed and then he was gone. Asgore wasn't sure how he did it, but he assumed it was some kind of skeleton magic. The monster king returned his attention to the task at hand and felt his Soul crack with a painful mix of guilt and grief as he looked down at the children's broken bodies. They were so small. So young. So much like the children he had lost not long ago. He didn't expect, no. He hoped with his entire Soul that it wouldn't be children he would have to harvest the Souls from.
He would have to do this five more times too.
Would the next five also be children?
He didn't think he could take that.
But Asgore couldn't let his people down. They needed hope and the promise of him gathering the Souls required to break the Barrier and free them from this prison gave that to them. If he backed down now, their hopes would shatter worse than they did when...when his son dusted. The memories from that day flashed through his mind. Asgore had been so grief stricken and blinded by rage that he not only lost his dear children that day, but his wife. Toriel was appalled by his new law.
The law was that any human that fell into the Underground would be killed and their Soul collected.
Asgore didn't blame her one bit. It was foolish, but he was blind with a father's pain. In that moment, he blamed the humans for the death of his only and precious son, and somewhere deep inside, maybe he even blamed Chara for Asriel's death too. But that moment long since passed, or he thinks it did. There was no way that dear, sweet Chara, no matter how strange they could act would have had anything to do with that terrible accident. Right?
Another heavy sigh came from the king. His attention returned from his painful memories to the broken bodies of the children he had brutally slain not long ago. A lump formed in his throat.
I don't want to do this, He thought mournfully, But I have to. I can't let these children's bodies rot out here by the Barrier. Not after what I did to them. They both deserve a proper burial.
Tentatively, Asgore picked up the limp bodies of the two children. They were so small that he could carry both of them in his arms. It was awkward to do so however. They were like ragdolls, unable to support themselves and at the mercy of gravity. Asgore wanted to carry the children's corpses with some care, but that task proved more difficult than initially thought.
With some shuffling, Asgore managed to settle the children into a more agreeable position. At a distance, they almost looked like they had simply fallen asleep in Asgore's arms. That is until you saw the blood that soaked their clothes and their glassy eyes staring up at the stone ceiling, glazed over and unresponsive.
They seemed focused on Asgore with a harsh judgement that made him uncomfortable. More so that this arrangement reminded him too much of how he carried his own children to their beds when they fell asleep in some odd place.
Asgore put the observation out of mind and carefully marched through the throne room to the basement. The room was cold, silent, and bleak, the only objects in the room being seven pre-made stone coffins. One of them had previously belonged to Chara before Toriel fled to the Ruins with their body. That coffin now laid with its lid slightly open in stark contrast to the wide open lids of the other six.
"I'm sorry children," Asgore repeated, "But...at least I can give you both some kind of burial."
The boss monster carefully placed the children's bodies inside two of the coffins. Though they barely took up half the space inside. These coffins were made for humans twice their size. Maybe in a final hope of Asgore's that he wouldn't have to lay children to rest in them. The king still couldn't grasp why it seems that only human children ever fell into the Underground.
He took care to place the two children in coffins side by side. He might not have known them for long, but he could sense their close bond. It only made the fact that he murdered one in the presence of the other so much more cruel.
What kind of king, what kind of father, have I become? He wondered.
Asgore hefted the lids on top and stood solemn vigil once the second lid was placed.
I should at least mark them, Asgore thought, But I don't know their names. I never asked.
Still, the king felt he needed to give the children's resting place some formal marker. Something to say who they were. That they weren't just some unfortunate human he killed. An idea occurred to him. Resting a large hand on the lid of each coffin, Asgore focused his power into a thought.
Magic pulsed through his arms and when Asgore removed his hands, a heart of the color of the Souls of the children resting inside was engraved on the lid.
With some feelings of satisfaction, Asgore retreated from the room, not capable of looking at the closed coffins a moment longer.
…
"Howdy Doctor. How is your research coming?" the king asked warmly.
A skeletal head emerged from the throng of wires and tubes with a screwdriver clutched between his teeth. Gaster plucked the tool from his mouth and stood above the innards of his latest machine.
"I have yet to get the machine online so no detailed tests have been run yet, but it shouldn't be long now," Gaster informed Asgore, "Though in the meantime, I've started examining the Souls that...were collected."
The Royal Scientist climbed out of the pits of his creation and picked his way across the tangled mess with relative and practiced ease before directing Asgore to the next room. This room was much neater than the one before, though noticeably darker. The far wall was lined with a mixture of filing cabinets and bookcases, both practically overflowing with papers. On the opposite wall hung a large screen that flickered with numbers and colors that Asgore could make no sense of. Below it was a table with neatly organized stacks of papers and pencils complete with a mug of long cold coffee and the two Souls, both floating in their respective containers.
Gaster had created these jars especially to house Souls. Human Souls, though they could persist after the death of the host, disappeared from this plain of existence within minutes of the human's death, making retrieval impossible. That's Gaster's theory at least and these jars were designed to prevent that from happening.
The skeleton waved his hand and a keyboard shot through the air from its hiding place somewhere on the desk before stopping before Gaster, cloaked in the glow of Blue Magic.
"I've run some basic composition tests on the Souls since you collected them two weeks ago," he explained as he began to type on the keyboard, "What I found is quite interesting."
The images on the screen stopped shifting and settled on two spectral graphs. One was dominantly yellow, but there was a fair amount of red and orange with it though not as much as the yellow. The one below it was largely green with a noticeable amount of cyan and purple, though once again the amount of green was greater than the other colors. Both graphs contained other colors of the rainbow, but for both the other colors were less prominent.
"This is the trait readings on the Souls," Gaster explained, "As expected, the yellow Soul is predominantly composed of the Justice Trait and the green of the Kindness Trait. However, they both have a significant amount of other traits, though not enough to classify them as any other trait."
"'Justice Trait'? 'Kindness Trait'? What exactly are those?" Asgore questioned, not taking his eyes off the diagrams.
"Human Souls are typically dominated by a singular trait, unlike Monster Souls which are equal mixes of all of them," the skeleton describes, "Though these traits don't necessarily define the human entirely, they highlight key points in their personalities and behaviours. They can, however, have secondary traits that aren't as explicit as their Dominant Trait, but are strongly present."
Gaster pointed at the diagram for the yellow Soul. "This Soul's secondary traits would be the Bravery Trait and the Determination Trait. There's also a notable lack of the Patience Trait, but the Perseverance and Integrity Traits are also prominent. Over all, this soul is fairly balanced, but dominated by the Justice Trait regardless."
The Royal Scientist typed a few commands into his keyboard and the image on the screen changed. It looked like a kind of x-ray of the souls. Both were outlined by their Dominant Trait but remained largely void in the boundaries of the Soul. At least until the middle. At the center of the Souls were small glowing spheres of pure white no bigger than a corn kernel.
"What is that?" Asgore asked, surprised.
"That is what I believe holds the Human Soul together," Gaster said, pride highlighting his voice, "I haven't identified it quite yet, but it is unlike anything else in the Soul!"
Asgore looked at Gaster. "Why do you believe that these white specks hold their Souls together?"
Gaster adjusted his glasses. "Well, for one, Human Souls are a chaotic mess of traits, radically unbalanced in comparison to Monster Souls. This attribute is likely why Human Souls persist after the host's death while Monster Souls disperse. It's simply a matter of the concentration of traits. However, it begs the question of how Human Souls stay stable while the host is alive," he gestured to the screen, "and I believe this is the key to that."
The skeleton set the keyboard down and began sifting through the papers. "I have yet to run the proper experiments due to the amount of time it's taking to get the Trait Extracter up and running, but it's looking promising. I'm planning on running an experiment to test the strength of the Determination Trait once I extract a proper sample."
Asgore nodded. "Alright then Doctor. I'll leave you to your work."
The skeleton nodded without looking up from his papers while the monster king approached the door. However, he stopped for a moment.
"By the way, how are your sons? Their names are...Sans and Papyrus, right?" Asgore asked.
A wide smile crept onto Gaster's face. He straightened his back, took off his glasses and rubbed his eye sockets.
"They're growing like wild Echo Flowers." he laughed, "Papyrus is so full of energy, I barely know what to do with him! Thank the Angel that Sans can somehow keep up with him. He's quite smart too. Last night he asked me about the Extractor. I'm thinking of bringing him to the Lab some time to show him around if that's alright."
"Of course!" Asgore beamed, "And if you ever need any help, I'd be more than happy to lend a hand. I know how busy you tend to keep yourself." Asgore's beaming grin sagged to a sad, sympathetic smile, "And it must be hard raising two children on your own."
Gaster sighed. "It is, but we'll get through it somehow. I just hope that their futures will be brighter than ours. Maybe they'll get to see the surface someday soon."
Asgore nodded. "Maybe. Well, I'll leave now. Goodbye Gaster."
"Goodbye, Asgore."
…
Asgore took a longer route back to the castle. He somewhat regretted it as dawdling in Hotland is ill advisable even when you aren't covered from head to toe in fur. But Asgore never was eager to return to that place. Although the actual living quarters themselves weren't large, it felt too empty and quiet being there by himself. Being there without the laughter of his children ringing down the halls or the smell of a baking pie wafting through the rooms was the same as being on an alien world to the king. It was, and always will be a family home to Asgore.
But he couldn't stall forever. He eventually stood in the doorway of his home. It had been built to look exactly like the home he and Toriel lived in while still in the Ruins. Asgore wondered what Toriel was doing now. She must have seen the children that eventually reached the castle and knowing her, she tried to stop them from leaving. She tried to protect them. Protect them from him.
"Maybe the flowers need tending to." Asgore wondered out loud.
His words bounced hollowly off the wooden walls. Asgore walked down the stairs and towards the larger area of the castle. He needed a distraction. But then again, his garden wasn't far from the room where the coffins were. Where the children's bodies were. Still as broken and bloodied as the day he put them there.
Asgore halted. What was worse for him to be around? Being in a painfully empty home or near the bodies of children he murdered. Asgore eventually chose the former and resumed his march towards the throne room. Since Asriel and Chara died a year ago, the room had become overtaken by brilliant golden buttercups. Asgore wasn't sure how that came to be, but he remembered his children loved the flowers and decided to keep and tend them in their memory.
When he entered the room, Asgore breathed in the sweet scent of the buttercups. He remembered that he had accidentally been poisoned by the very same flowers, but he loved them all the same.
BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Asgore was torn from his reminiscence by a loud banging. A loud banging from the basement.
What is the Underground…?
Curiosity getting the better of him, Asgore approached the stairs leading the the basement burial chamber and listened.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
The banging came again, louder, and more chaotic and frantic.
"LET ME OUT! IT'S DARK AND SCARY IN HERE!" a voice cried from below.
Asgore's Soul froze. He knew that voice. Without thinking, the Monster King charged down the stairs into the dimly lit chamber. The two coffins he had placed the children in were rattling. It was very slight, but noticeable.
How can that be? Can humans somehow live without Souls!?
"I DON'T LIKE THIS! I'M SCARED! SOMEONE HELP!" a second voice sobbed from inside the stone coffins.
Asgore stood before the coffins, hands trembling above the lid. The coffins stopped rattling but he could hear uneven sobbing coming from both of them. Finally, Asgore couldn't take it anymore and hefted the lids off both the coffins. The heavy coverings fell to the ground with deafening thuds, revealing the last thing Asgore expected to see.
Inside the two coffins were two tiny skeletons. They both were curled in on themselves, crying glowing tears of yellow and green. Around them was some sort of blackened ash that Asgore couldn't explain the presence of. Both tiny skeletons jumped at the massive thuds, their bony arms automatically uncurling from around their ribcages in startlement.
And then they looked up at Asgore, each one with eye sockets barring yellow or green pupils. And then Asgore screamed.