Ruintale
Chapter 1.
Yes, yes, another AU, judge all you want, I don't care, I can't help myself and I have no regrets.
The Premise Of This AU: The monsters were still sealed underground by the humans, the first human to fall down was still Chara, who was adopted by the Dreemurrs. But, instead of killing himself and making Asriel absorb his soul, Chara, after finding out about soul power, convinced Asgore to absorb his soul while he was still alive, as it is explained in one of Alphys's notes that it takes incredible power to absorb the soul of a living monster (I can only assume it would be the same the other around). Asgore went to the surface to get the human souls, but, was killed before he could get all that was needed, the still living Chara took off back to the surface with Asgore's soul, where he put his new power to use. A vengeful Toriel took the soul that Asgore brought back and went to the surface, and attacked the humans that killed Asgore, but, returned without any souls. Seeing what she did, a traumatized Asriel fled the castle and ran away to the ruins. Then, Frisk falls down into the underground, having run away from his village to escape Chara's torment, he meets and befriends Asriel, who grudgingly guides Frisk through the underground, along with some other monster friends, worried about his new friend's safety and reluctant to face his mother again.
Note: Frisk, Asriel, and Chara are all teenagers in this AU, Frisk and Asriel are 16 years old, Chara is 17 years old, and, of course, Frisk and Chara are male. Kinda like in Tyrantale, everyone in the underground is rather jaded, though, since they are still pretty loyal to Toriel, they retain some of their original personalities. Flowey does not exist in this AU, he was going to, but, in order for things to make sense, I had to leave him out. Gaster is still alive and is still the royal scientist, while Alphys is his loyal assistant/adoptive daughter figure (therefore Sans and Papyrus's adoptive sister). Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne, along with many others, serve mostly as supportive guardian/family figures to Asriel and eventually Frisk, while also faithfully doing Toriel's bidding whenever asked, though they respect the wishes of Asriel as well. Chara is a violent, power-hungry oppressor who rules the surface with an iron fist, kinda like how he was in Tyrantale, though, as a teenager and with ever so slightly altered goals.
Long ago two races ruled over the land: Humans and Monsters, until tensions arose and war broke out; following a long, bloody, dusty battle, the monsters surrendered and the victorious humans sealed them underground, behind a powerful barrier.
Years later, a human child fell into the underground, where he was found by Asriel, the son of the Monster King, Asgore and his wife, Queen Toriel, who eventually adopted the human boy. They treated him as their own child, the prince treating him as a sibling.
One day, the king's royal scientist, Dr. Gaster made a revelation while looking into the barrier that trapped them under ground. Apparently, it was created with "soul power" and that was the only thing that could destroy it. It seemed that breaking it would require a total of seven human souls, however, the scientist also found that with ONE human soul, a monster would have enough power to cross through the barrier. With this news arose a moral dilemma, as the only human soul they had on hand was...the adopted human prince, however, Gaster was quick to offer a solution, which was, that, if enough power was mustered, a soul could be absorbed without having to kill the soul's host.
Over hearing the discussion of soul power, the human child saw an opportunity and offered to let Asgore absorb his soul, using his own "determination" with Asgore's magic, as well as some scientific assistance from Gaster, the king was able to absorb the child without harming him. With the borrowed soul, the king crossed through the barrier and made his way to the human village, which at that moment was quiet; moving slowly, Asgore came across a young human woman, who was unaware of his present. Asgore approached her from behind, intending only to safely subdue her and absorb her soul without hurting her, however, at that very moment, the human child combined with his soul took control and he was unable to do anything. It was then that the young woman noticed Asgore, terrified, she screamed, alerting the rest of the village, however, the human child forced Asgore to attack her, killing her instantly, much to Asgore's horror.
The human boy then gave control back to Asgore, who noticed the woman's soul rising out of her body; shaken and in shock, Asgore reluctantly grabbed the new human soul, unfortunately, by now, the rest of the village had come running, having heard the young woman call before being killed. Fearful and outraged, the villagers attacked Asgore with everything they had, when Asgore felt the human child trying to take control again, it took every ounce of his will to resist and hold him back. Clutching the new human soul he had acquired, the king ran from the village and returned to the underground; horribly wounded, Asgore staggered into the castle, where he presented the single new human soul, before collapsing in the throne room, where he turned to dust. While Queen Toriel and Prince Asriel were distracted by their grief, the human child, having survived the incident and absorbed Asgore's soul, fled the castle and crossed back through the barrier, never to be seen again.
After the death of their king and the betrayal of the adopted human prince, the monsters fell into despair, in her grief the heartbroken queen declared war on humanity and made a fateful move, taking the one human soul Asgore had managed to get, she went to the surface herself, to the very village her husband had acquired the soul, and laid waste to it. However, Toriel returned to the underground empty-handed, for in her blind hysteria, she neglected to collect any human souls; when he saw what his mother had done, a horrified Asriel ran from the castle, disappearing into the underground without a trace.
Despite her losses, the queen did not waver from her decision: that humanity must pay for everything that they had done to them.
(Years later, on the surface)
In the dead of night, a group of armed guard were running across an overgrown field, they were chasing a teenage boy who was trying to leave the kingdom. All of humanity lived under the rule of King Chara, a dangerous, oppressive boy with fearsome, unholy power. Despite being a teenager, Chara was the most feared being on the planet, because of his atrocious power to absorb people's souls, which he had mysteriously acquired as a child.
Chara had many rules, the most important one being that anyone who defies him must be brought to him, at which point he would kill them and absorb their soul to add to his power. Because of this, most people were quick to obey Chara's every whim, though, every once in a while, a brave soul would dare to defy him.
Frisk was the latest of those brave souls, a gutsy, destitute teenager with absolutely nothing to his name, thanks to Chara, who decided that he had had enough. So, that night, he made a break for it, he was going to escape Chara's dystopian hellhole or die trying, anything was better than living another day pretending to respect that monstrous overlord.
Chara had eyes all over the kingdom, so, making a covert get away was not possible, Frisk simply took a casual walk to the edge of town and bolted, it did not take long for guards to come after him, not that he cared. He already made it to the woods, just at the base of Mount Ebott, the mountain where legend said that anyone who climbed it never came back down, as far as Frisk was concerned, it was perfect.
The teenager guessed that the guards had been ordered to take him alive, they would have started shooting if they had not; surprisingly, Frisk had managed to outrun the guards as reaching the mountain top. Although, he could already hear the guards catching up, seeing their flashlight beams flailing wildly in the darkness, and he had nowhere else to run.
Frisk looked around, behind him was the group of approaching guards, ahead of him was the mountain's sloping edge, down below was nothing but more mountain and rock, the only thing that stood out was a dark chasm, which was only just visible because of the moonlight. It was a straight drop from the top of the mountain to the crevice below, which gave Frisk an idea, after taking one last look at the guards creeping up on him, the bold teenager took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and lunged forward, letting himself fall over the mountain ledge.
The boy opened his eyes as he fell, seeing himself be swallowed up by the darkness, death was certain, he was sure, there was no way that human could possibly survive such a fall. He did not care what happened to him, whether he survived the fall or not, he had only one thing on his mind: "Freedom".
The fall seemed to last an eternity, until finally, it was over; Frisk crash landed onto a pile of...something, it was not the softest landing, but, it was enough to cushion his fall. Between the force of the landing and the shock of actually surviving the fall, the overwhelmed teenager blacked out.
After several minutes of darkness, Frisk was slowly coming to and, as he did, he could hear noises, footsteps, animal-like sounds, and what sounded like people whispering. He then heard voices.
"You said it's over here?" a young, male voice asked.
"Huh," Frisk thought, "what's happening?"
"Yeah," another, garbled, voice seemed to answered the first one, "it landed moments ago and it's still alive!"
Frisk was both scared and confused, where was he? He just fell off of a mountain, how could there be people down here?
"That doesn't sound like the guards that were chasing me," Frisk thought warily, "did they send others? No, it couldn't be, people who come up here are said to disappear, if anything, they should think that I'm dead. Or is Chara just that desperate to collect any soul he can?"
He closed his eyes tightly, unsure of what was going to happen next.
"See, look," Frisk heard the garbled voice again, he also felt someone poke the side of his face, "it is alive."
Whoever it was poked him a couple more times, before he heard the other voice.
"Stop that," the male scolded the first, "he could be seriously hurt."
"Yeah, but, at least he's alive," the first voice replied, "thanks to the landing pile."
There was a moment of silence, before Frisk felt a hand touch his face, a surprisingly fuzzy hand, which made him guess that the person looking at him was wearing gloves.
"Hey," the young-sounding male spoke softly, lightly patting Frisk's face, "you wanna wake up?"
It was then Frisk felt an arm sliding under his shoulders, which sent him into panic mode.
"No!" he shouted, his eyes snapping open, "I won't go back!"
Frisk flung himself over, rolling off whatever his was lying on and ending up on solid ground, it was then he finally felt the pain inflicted by the fall. It did not feel like anything was actually broken, but, he was awfully sore, to sore to move much. He rubbed his eyes as he moaned quietly in pain.
The teenager then felt a pair of arms envelop his upper body and once again he started struggling.
"No," he whimpered, "no, please, I'm not going back, just kill me, please, kill me, I don't wanna-"
"Ssshhhhhhh..." the male who had found him soothed, "it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you, just hold still."
Frisk went limp as he felt a strange sensation wash over him, a warm, semi-tingly feeling, that lasted for a moment, when it was over, he found that he was no longer in pain.
"There," the voice asked, "better."
Finally, the boy opened his eyes to see what was going on, the first thing he saw was white, as his vision focused, he wondered if what he was looking at was real. The person who was holding him seemed to have long, white...hair? No, what he was looking at was actually ears, long, white, fluffy ears, the person himself was in in fact covered in white fur. This person was clearly not human.
"Oh shit..." Frisk voiced, "I'm dead, aren't I?"
"Uh, nah," the fuzzy figure replied, "you're not dead."
Frisk look up curiously, he could just barely see moonlight shining through the opening he had fallen through.
"Can you stand?" the horned male wondered.
The human teenager made to stand up, with the fuzzy person's assistance, once on his feet he found that he no longer felt any pain.
"Wow, nothing hurts anymore," Frisk mused, "how'd that happen?"
"Healing magic," the white-furred male replied, "you're welcome."
Finally, Frisk took a closer look at the young male, covered in white fur, he was ever so slightly taller than the human teen, on his head he had a pair of white horns, his eyes were light blue and, surprisingly, looked like an average human's eyes. He was wearing a black leather jacket over a dark green shirt with a peculiar image on it with tattered dark gray jeans. Around his neck, he was wearing a black, spiked choker, with spiked wristbands on his wrists to match.
"I have no idea how to ask this without sounding rude," the human teenager inquired, "but...what in God's name are you?"
"I am, in fact, a monster," the young creature affirmed, "you fell into the underground, home of the monsters."
Dumbfounded, Frisk reached his hand out and repeatedly poked the fuzzy male's nose, at a loss for words. The furry monster looked unamused as he waited for the human teenager to stop.
"You done?" he asked flatly as the human pulled his hand away.
"You're a...goat...monster?" Frisk mused.
"Yes, yes, a goat monster," the monster sighed, "anyway, what's your name?"
"Frisk." the human teenager stated.
There was a moment of silence.
"Oh, really?" the monster voiced, "Okay, well, I'm Asriel Dreemurr, caretaker of the ruins."
"Asriel...Dreemurr," an impressed Frisk responded, "holy shit, your parents must love you!"
Asriel then got a strange look on his face.
"Ah, ha ha," he laughed awkwardly, "yeah."
"So, how exactly-" Frisk started to ask, before his attention got diverted, "what the hell is that!?"
He pointed to the strange creature that had apparently led Asriel to him, short, round, one-eyed creature with sharp teeth.
"That is a Loox," Asriel explained, then got in close and whispered, "try to watch what you say, they're very self-conscious."
Frisk nodded in return.
"All right then," the goat boy said, "follow me, I'll show you around."
The human teenager shrugged and followed the monster teen as he led him to the doorway of a brick building that was clearly very old, obvious, since it was referred to as "ruins". As they walked through the first hallway, they came across some other strange looking monster, all small, some had wings and antennas, some looked like living jello, some looked like giant frogs. Whenever one of the other monsters looked at them, Asriel would cast them threatening looks and demanding gestures, obviously telling them all to not say a word about the human newcomer.
"What were these ruins?" Frisk wondered.
"Home once," Asriel said, "like, literally, the name of this place was 'Home'."
Frisk looked around oddly.
"My dad was great and all," the goat teen attested, "but, he sucked at naming stuff, hell, my name is just a portmanteau of his name and my m...mom's name."
"A badass portmanteau." Frisk retorted.
Asriel rolled his eyes in responded.
"So, you live here with your parents?" the human boy inquired.
"No..." Asriel said solemnly, "I don't live with them."
"Oh," Frisk replied, "well, where do they-"
"Just..." the goat boy groaned, clearly trying to retain himself, "not here, okay...they're not here."
Sensing that it was an unsavory topic for the monster teen, Frisk decided not to ask any further on the subject.
"Sorry," Asriel sighed, "I know you're just curious, I don't blame you."
He looked up at the ceiling.
"You know," the goat teenager said, "you're the first human to come here in a very long time."
"So, I'm not the first?" Frisk responded.
"Oh ho...no...no..." Asriel affirmed gravely, "you're not the first."
They soon came across what appeared to be a small house.
"Here we are," the goat boy informed, "this is my place."
They walked through the doorway and to Frisk surprised, the inside looked very much like somebody's house, with hardwood floors and simple walls, Frisk followed Asriel as he led him to another room that looked like a living room with gray shag carpeting. The room had wooden consoles against both walls, a large bookshelf, and a dining table in the corner. There was a green lounge chair near a the fireplace and also a brown, beaten down couch in the middle of the room, with a wooden coffee table in front of it and side tables at both sides.
However, they both noticed that someone was actually laying on the couch, it looked like a short skeleton wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and black pants.
"Sans," Asriel voiced, trying to get the sleeping skeleton's attentions, "Sans, come on, wake up!"
The skeleton, apparently names "Sans", opened one eye and looked at Asriel.
"Oh, hey, kiddo," he voiced, "ya look into that thing we heard about."
Asriel responded by pointing at Frisk, who waved awkwardly at the skeleton.
"Holy shit," Sans uttered, both of his eyes going wide open, "it's true."
"Uh huh," Asriel said, "this is Frisk."
Sans sat up and got off the couch, then looked Frisk up and down.
"Well, now," he inquired, "how old are you, kid?"
"I'm sixteen." Frisk answered.
"Oh, hey, look at that," the skeleton replied, "you two are the same age, what a surprise."
"Anyway," Asriel said, "Frisk, this is Sans, he's a friend, he...stays over sometime"
Frisk looked on strangely as he let the fact that he was looking at a living skeleton sink in.
"Yeah," Sans said, "gotta make sure the kid eats...and sleeps...and bathes...and-"
"He gets it." Asriel sighed.
He then got an idea.
"Oh yeah," he offered Frisk, "are you hungry?"
Frisk thought about it and realized that he could not actually remember the last time he ate, most of the food he got was whatever he could find in the trash, in order to actually eat something decent, one had to do King Chara's bidding, which Frisk was not about to do.
"Honestly, yeah," the human teenager admitted, "I am starving like a bitch."
"Hey, so am I," Asriel replied, "why don't we bitches see if there's something for us in the fridge."
The goat boy led the human to his kitchen, where he promptly opened his fridge to see what was inside.
"It is safe for me to eat monster food, right?" Frisk wondered.
"Is it safe for-" a baffled Asriel responded, "of course it's safe for humans to eat monster food, why would I offer you any if it wasn't?"
Frisk shrugged.
"Well, we have only just met." he simply said.
"Fair enough." Asriel stated.
The goat teenager then pulled away from the fridge, holding a few wrapped thing in his hand, it appeared to be instant noodles, the sight of which caused Frisk's mouth to start watering.
"You like noodles?" Asriel asked playfully.
Frisk nodded eagerly.
"These won't take long to make," the goat boy said, "you can wait in the living room if you want."
After a couple minutes of waiting, Frisk, Asriel, and Sans were sitting at the dining table, eating their instant noodles, which Frisk finished in only a few bites. He barely wasted any time chewing he was so hungry.
"Wow," Asriel voiced, "you really were starving."
Frisk nodded as practically liked his bowl clean.
"Actually," the goat boy noted, "now that I've seen you in the light, you look like you don't eat much at all."
The human boy put his bowl down, having gotten all that he was going to get out of it.
"I would if I could," he sighed, "but, where I come from, food is a luxury that only certain people are lucky enough to get."
"Things not good up on the surface?" Sans inquired.
"Not good is putting it lightly," Frisk groaned, "I can only describe our leader as a...well...hellbeast, among other things."
"I don't know, Frisk," Asriel replied, "I think that's more actually our leader."
A shocked Sans looked at Asriel.
"Geez, kiddo," the skeleton voiced awkwardly, "that's kinda...you don't...really..."
Asriel looked at Sans with a dubious look.
"Seriously," Frisk explained, "that's why I climbed up and threw myself off the mountain, I defied our asshole king and he sent some of his loyal bitches after me, I decided that I would rather die than go back to the kingdom and...well, here we are."
"So," Asriel replied, "I take it that means you don't want to get back to the surface?"
"I'm not itching to go back." the human boy said.
It was then Frisk yawned deeply, after being settled down for so long, it seemed that fatigue was finally catching up with him.
"Tired, kid?" Sans asked.
"Yep." was Frisk's response.
Unable to fight it any long, the human teenager let his head flop onto the table as he passed out.
In his slumber, Frisk saw mostly darkness, like he usually did, but, every once in a while, his mind would drift to distant memories, as in, the surface world before Chara's takeover. Things were not always perfect, but, it was decent, his life was comfortable and peaceful, his parents did the best they could, just like any good parents, they made sure he had what he needed most. But, thanks to Chara, those days were over and now he had nobody and virtually nothing to call his own.
Despite the unpleasant thoughts, Frisk slept like a log, as he rolled around, he realized that he was lying somewhere soft, comfortable, and warm, he felt like he could lie there forever, it had been that long since he had such a peaceful rest. Normally, he had to resort to sleeping on the ground, anywhere that could provide overnight shelter, and, of course, he usually had to find it himself. This was the first time in a long time somebody had actually provided him with food and shelter, as ever since Chara had risen to power, humanity had regressed to an "every man for himself" mentality.
Eventually, after sleeping for so long, Frisk opened his eyes to see where he was and found that he was actually lying snugly in a big, cushy bed, in a room that looked like somebody's, he guessed Asriel's, bedroom. It was dark right now, but, he was able to make out a black, wooden dresser, a bureau, a desk, and a side table with a lamp on it.
The human teenager sat up in bed feeling moderately refreshed, save for feeling rather hungry again, and decided to see what Asriel was doing. As he got out of bed he noticed some folded up clothes lying on top of the dressed, along with a small, folded piece of paper that had his name on it. He picked up the paper to look at it and found that it was a note that read:
"Hey, I thought you'd probably like to change out of those grungy clothes and, since it's universally frowned upon to undress people in their sleep, I figured you could do that yourself when you woke up. These might be a little big for you, but, it's better than nothing.
-Asriel"
Frisk looked down at his clothes, he had definitely been wanting to change them for a while, but, he had not gotten the chance, until now. Without a second thought, Frisk stripped himself of his disgusting clothes and put on the ones Asriel laid out for him, a purple shirt with the same image he saw on Asriel's shirt before and pair of black jeans. Just as the note said, the clothing was a bit big on him, though it was no surprise, given how scrawny he was and the fact that the clothes were fitted for the goat teenager's toned physique.
After changing into his borrowed clothes, Frisk left the room and walked down the hallway to the living room, where he saw Sans sleeping in the green lounge chair and Asriel sleeping on the couch. Looking up at the clock on the wall, he saw that it was only 6:30 a.m., it was hard to tell without any windows letting in sunlight.
While all was quiet, Frisk decided to look around a little more, as he had not gotten much of a chance to do so before he had fallen asleep. Frisk walked over to the bookshelf in the corner, which held many books, all of which looked quite old. Seeing a book labelled "Monster History", a curious Frisk grabbed it and took it over to the dining table, where he started reading it. The book explained in great detail the past of the monsters, back when they still lived on the surface, the increasing friction between the humans and monsters that would lead to their war, and lastly about the monsters' eventual defeat and imprisonment in the underground.
Soon, Asriel awoke and sat up on his couch, acknowledging the human teenager reading at his table.
"Ah, hey," the goat boy voiced, "you finally woke up."
As he spoke, Sans woke from his sleep as well, looking around to see what was going on.
"Finally?" a puzzled Frisk responded, "I woke up at 6:30."
"Yeah," Asriel revealed, "after sleeping for three days."
The claim came as a surprise to him, he knew he had probably slept for a while, but, he did not think it had been that long.
"Seriously," an astounded Frisk uttered, "I slept for three days?"
"Yeah," Sans said, "like a damn champ, Asriel even stayed up the entire first night and most of the second to make sure you weren't dying. I had to literally drag him out to make him go to sleep."
"Well, I...I couldn't help it," Asriel interjected, "I didn't know if it was normal for a human to sleep that long."
The news stunned Frisk, the last people to ever be so watchful of him were his parents all those years ago.
"It's no big deal," the human boy voiced, "I was just exhausted, I'm sorry I took your bed for so long."
"It's okay," the goat teen said, "as long as you slept comfortably, my couch is plenty good for sleeping on anyway."
The human boy nodded as he stretched his arms.
"Yeah, that bed of yours is heavenly," he said, "I haven't slept in a real bed in years."
"Oh?" Asriel replied, "where do you normally sleep?"
"The ground, usually in alleys, under overpasses, parking garages, abandoned buildings," Frisk explained, "anywhere that can provide adequate shelter for the night."
His claim brought him stunned looks from Asriel and Sans.
"So, I take it your homeless." Sans responded.
"Why else would he sleep outside every night?" Asriel retorted.
Sans shrugged in response.
"Yeah, I lost...everything when our king took over," Frisk expressed, "my parents, my house, my friends, everything is gone, nothing is like it used to be."
"God, is the surface really in such bad shape?" the goat teenager inquired, "How long has it been like that?"
"Eight, almost nine, years now." the human boy sighed.
"Oh man," Sans replied, "that's about how long we've been dealing with our craziness as well."
Just then, there was a strange noise, Sans reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone, which was going off.
"And that would be Papyrus." the short skeleton stated.
He then answered his phone.
"Papyrus is his brother." Asriel informed Frisk.
"Oh, bro, really," Sans spoke into his phone, "again?"
There was a pause.
"All right," the skeleton sighed, "I'll help you track it down."
He then hung up his phone.
"Sorry guys, I gotta go," Sans said, "Papyrus needs me, apparently that dog ran off with one of his attacks."
"Again?" Asriel responded.
Sans nodded and got up from the chair.
"Well, you know where to find me," he said, "call me if you need anything."
He then vanished before their eyes, much to the shock of Frisk.
"Sans has some crazy, incredible powers," Asriel said, "that's how he gets around."
Frisk nodded in response.
"Let's get something to eat," the goat teenager offered, "I'm hungry and I'm sure you're starving again after being out cold for three days."
After the two teenagers had their fill from the kitchen, Frisk was hanging around Asriel's living room, while the goat boy was apparently running some errands. The human teenager went down the hall to Asriel's room, deciding to get a better look at it with the lights on.
He was surprised by how clean the room was, Frisk could not recall ever seeing a teenager's room so clean, despite his looks, Asriel certainly was no slob. Frisk also found that his clothes from before were gone, he guessed that Asriel must have put them up somewhere.
Frisk then glance at Asriel's desk and notice a very dusty picture frame, curious, the human boy picked up the picture frame and wiped off as much dust as he could. The picture inside seemed to be a very old, worn-out family photo; in the picture, the first thing Frisk notice was a small, goat-looking child, presumably Asriel as a child, standing in front of two grown figures. One was clearly an adult goat man, but, there were so many scratches of the other adult in the picture, he could not make out their appearance, other than they appeared to also be covered in white fur. Surprisingly, the bottom right corner of the picture was completely torn out and based on young Asriel's position in the photo, he was clearly looking at something or someone. Frisk could not help but wonder about the story behind it.
"Frisk?" he heard Asriel call from the other room.
Setting the picture frame down, Frisk quickly left the room and went out to the living room, where Asriel was standing, holding a bag.
"Oh, there you are," the goat teenager voiced as he noticed him, "I thought you might want these back."
He handed the bag to the human boy, who looked inside it and found the clothes that he had first arrived in.
"We cleaned them up as best we could for you," Asriel said, "in case you wanted to put them back on."
"Maybe later." Frisk said.
He set the bag down.
"Is that all you were doing?" the human teenager asked.
"Nah, I was mostly just checking on some other stuff," Asriel answered, "as caretaker of the ruins, that's my job."
Frisk thought about it.
"So it's mostly just you here?" he mused.
"Well, not just me," Asriel replied, "you saw those other monsters, the Loox, Moldsmal, Froggit, Whimsun, all those guys."
"Yeah, out there," Frisk expressed, "but, I mean, it's clear that you're the only one actually living here, so, I'm kinda curious as to what the story is there."
The goat teenager looked down and shrugged.
"Not...not really much of a story," he said, "I came here a long time ago, I decided that I liked it here, and I decided to stay."
Frisk could tell that there was more too it, but, before he could question further, Asriel asked a question.
"What's your story?" he wondered, "I mean, I know you told us that you're homeless and that things aren't good on the surface, but, is that really all?"
"Okay, okay," the human boy sighed, "if you really want to know, when our king rose to power, my parents refused to submit to him, because, who'd wanna be ruled by a fucking kid, right?"
Asriel listened closely.
"When my parents continued to resist," Frisk continued, "they were killed and I ran away, because I decided that I would rather starve and die on my own time than listen that asshole."
"Shit, I hate to interrupt you," Asriel interjected, "but, I have to ask about something, you said that your king, the person who took over, was a kid?"
"Yeah," the human teenager affirmed, "almost nine years ago, some psychotic kid came out of nowhere with this crazy power and, just, bent all of humanity to his will."
The goat boy seemed to be thinking about something.
"Frisk," Asriel queried warily, "what's your king's name?"
"His name is Chara," Frisk revealed, "King Chara."
Asriel's eyes widened.
"K-King...Chara?" he responded intently, "Crazy powers? Does this king happen to talk about 'soul power'?"
Frisk was surprised, he did not expect to "soul power" to actually be brought up.
"Yeah, that's how Chara gets his power," he said, "anyone who disobeys him gets killed and gets their soul absorbed by him."
Asriel was at a loss for words as he started breathing heavily, he anxiously walked over to the dining table.
"It can't be...he really..." the goat teen muttered softly, "that...that fucking..."
"Asriel?" Frisk spoke carefully.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Asriel growled aloud, emitting a beastly roar, as he slammed his fist down on the table, sending a wave of fire magic across it, turning it to ash.
Frisk recoiled in shock, as the goat boy shook with anger.
"A-Asriel, what's going on?" he questioned, "How do you know about soul power?"
Asriel inhaled deeply and exhaled to recompose himself.
"I know about," he informed the human, "because this is where Chara learned about!"
Frisk was taken aback by the information.
"Wait, Chara was here before?" he responded.
"Almost nine years ago," Asriel told him, "Chara fell down here, he lived down here for a while, until we started talking about how to break the barrier holding us down here. When Chara heard about it, he offered to let his soul be absorbed, which they found a way to do without killing him, but...as soon as his soul was put to use...he betrayed us!"
Frisk looked on in shock.
"He got our...our king killed!" Asriel continued emotionally, "After that, the queen lost her fucking mind and decided that the humans should be punished! She never leaves the castle anymore, she hardly talks to anyone, people need her, yet she spends all her time wallowing in her sorrows and hoping for a taste of human blood!"
He rubbed his face vigorously, probably trying to keep himself together.
"How did Chara kill your king?" Frisk asked softly.
"He let our...our king, Asgore, absorb him alive, with his soul, the king was able to go up to the surface," Asriel explained, "Asgore's intention was to absorb six other human souls, without killing the humans themselves, to break the barrier and let us go back to the surface. But, Chara took control of his body and killed a human, when the other humans saw, they attacked D...Asgore, he managed to make it back with one human soul...before turning to dust right in front of us. When no one was paying attention, Chara ran off with the king's soul, back to the surface."
Frisk let all the information sink in, before responding.
"Good fucking God," he voiced, "so that's how he got that power, that's so horrible, Chara fucked over both our races."
"Yeah," the goat teenager huffed, "and now the queen is still trying to pick up where Asgore left off, trying to break the barrier."
"Any progress?" Frisk replied.
Asriel said nothing, he was clearly lost in thought; Frisk look past the goat teenager, at the stairway leading down to another area in the hallway.
"Where does that staircase lead?" Frisk asked.
"The exit to the ruins." Asriel stated.
After hearing that Frisk started walking towards the staircase.
"What are you doing?" the goat boy questioned.
"That leads to the rest of the underground, right?" the human teenager replied, "Now that I know the truth, I need to talk to your queen."
As soon as he said that, Asriel snatched him by the arm.
"Frisk, no," he said tensely, "you can't!"
"I have to try," Frisk argued, "the surface is barely inhabitable for mankind, monsters won't be any better off if they get up there." He pulled his arm away and continued walking towards the stairs, but, just as he reached the top step, Asriel spoke again.
"Wait, I...I have to go do something!" he uttered.
The monster teenager ran passed him, disappearing down the stairs; leery of Asriel's intentions, Frisk quickly went down the stairs and ran through the long corridor until he caught up with Asriel at the end. The goat teen was standing in front of a large door, which, Frisk could only guess was the exit.
"Asriel..." Frisk spoke warily.
"This door leads to the rest of the underground, I'm the only one who can open it from both sides," Asriel voiced soberly, "I'm going to destroy it"
His claim made Frisk flinch.
"Nobody will ever be able to leave again!" the goat boy asserted, his hands coursing with power.
"Wait, Asriel," an alarmed Frisk responded, "you can't-"
The goat teenager spun around, his eyes having lost their color.
"Don't try and stop me," he expressed, "you naive bastard, if you go out there, she'll kill you, Toriel will kill you and take your soul, don't you get it, I'm trying to protect you, I'm trying to keep you alive!"
The goat boy started flinging fireballs in Frisk direction, which the human teenager struggled to dodge.
"If you wanna leave here so badly," Asriel went on, "you'll have to go through me, so, either fight me or go back!"
He sent more fireballs at the human boy, who managed to dodge most of them, only getting hit with a couple of them.
"No, Asriel," Frisk said anxiously, "not like this."
"Fight or go back, you can't go out there," the goat boy yelled, "why can't you understand?"
He flung another volley of fireballs at Frisk, who either dodged them or took them head on, the only thing he was not going to do was fight.
"I won't fight you, Asriel," he said calmly, "but, I'm not turning back."
"Stupid, stupid!" Asriel huffed frantically, "Are you really that eager to die!?"
Frisk flinched as a fireball grazed his face.
"Asriel, please," he voiced coolly, "I need to do this, imminent death or not, I have to try!"
Asriel sent out more fireballs, however, Frisk noticed that they were more scattered and that they moved away when he moved towards them, noticing the display, it dawned on Frisk that the goat teenager had no intentions of actually harming him. The understanding relieved Frisk, but, at the same time broke his heart.
"Please, Frisk," Asriel said dismally, "just...go back upstairs."
Frisk did not say anything, he simply took a step forward, no more fireballs were conjured, but, Asriel still remained firmly against the door.
"I promise you'll be safe here." the goat teenager offered desperately.
Frisk walked forward some more.
"Why are you making this so difficult?" Asriel groaned.
The human teenager inched closer.
"I know you're just trying to do the right things, but..." the goat boy trailed off sadly.
Frisk was now standing right in front of him with the most patient of smiles on his face.
"I...I just don't want you to die!" Asriel cried, "I don't want anyone else to die!"
"I don't want anyone else to die either," Frisk replied, "that's why I want to talk to your queen, if she heard for herself what's happening on the surface, then maybe I can dissuade her from trying to get to the surface."
"But, if Chara really wanted our souls that badly," Asriel voiced, "he could just come back down here, he has the power to cross the barrier going in and going out."
"Which is why we should suggest that instead of breaking the barrier, she should reinforce it." Frisk said.
The goat boy looked at Frisk curiously.
"We suggest?" he responded quizzically.
"That's right," Frisk offered, "I want you to come with me."
Asriel glanced at the door tensely.
"You mean," he replied meekly, "I should leave the ruins?"
"Yeah," the human boy prompted, "let's go together, Asriel."
The goat boy turned to the side and leaned against the door.
"But...I...I've lived here for nine years and haven't set foot outside since I got here all those years ago," he expressed solemnly, "and I haven't seen...Queen Toriel in a long time either, I'd really rather not."
"Look, I know bad things happened down here," Frisk proclaimed, "Chara messed things up, and it clearly had a profound, negative effect on you, but, you made it clear that you just want to help everyone, you want to protect everyone, if that's the case, which it most clearly is, then why not take this chance?"
Asriel looked at him uncertainly.
"Let's go, Asriel," Frisk urged encouragingly, "let's get out of here and go see the queen together, I'll be right beside you every step of the way."
The goat teenager sighed deeply and nodded.
"Okay, Frisk, you win," the goat teenager relented, "we'll go see Toriel, I guess I've avoided this long enough and, honestly, it'll probably be better this way, if I go, then, I can personally make sure that she doesn't kill you."
Finally Asriel pressed his hands against the door, as he did, Frisk heard what sounded like a lock turning, it was then the door began to slowly open, revealing a snowy wood beyond the doorway.
"I'll tell you right now," Asriel said, "it's quite a long ways to the castle, so, stay close."
Frisk nodded as he stepped through the doorway, onto the snow-covered pathway leading away from the ruins, the cool air hitting him instantly. After a moment of hesitation, Asriel stepped outside the door as well, letting his bare feet sink into the snow, thanks to his white fur, it did not bother him at all. He walked up to Frisk, who was standing, staring into the underground.
"So...you ready?" the goat teenager asked.
The human teenager nodded.
"All right, then," Asriel sighed feebly, "let's go...to Queen Toriel."
Holy shit, this is officially the longest fanfic chapter I have ever written, honestly, there were so many points I could have and probably should have stopped this, but, I just figured that I would get all the Ruins stuff done in one chapter, just get it over with so I could get on to the rest of the story.
I will be honest, I am just super excited to finally be doing a fic with a teenage Frisk and Asriel, I know this shares some similarities with Tyrantale, which will get finished, but, it will be different, it is just that, as soon as I got this idea, I just could not resist doing it.