A small child peacefully sleeps on a soft bed of flowers, sunlight surrounding them with a warm glow from above. They stirred, slowly waking from their slumber. Smiling softly without opening their eyes, they lightly grasp the silky petals and smooth soil, basking in the sun. They thought that they must've fallen asleep in one of the beautiful flower fields outside of their hometown again.
'I better get home,' they thought. 'Mm, just a little longer.'
They moved their hands a bit further out, sliding across the dirt and flowers. But suddenly, their right hand bumped into something cold and metallic. It was enough for their eyes to shoot open and look at the unknown object. They stared at it for a while, confused. They brought their hand to their face and wiped the sleep out of their eyes.
It took a bit more confused staring for them to realize what it was they were looking at. It was a very strange and, at the time, terrifying looking robot. They jumped back with a yelp, fully expecting it to leap after them and rip them apart.
But it didn't.
In fact, it didn't do anything at all. It just lied there on the ground, silent and still. Though, something else had caught the child's eye.
It was the ground the robot was on… There weren't any flowers… There wasn't even any dirt, it was stone.
'Stone…? Why is there-'
It was then that the child started to look around. Apart from the small patch of dirt they were laying on, there was just stone on the ground. They let out a small, confused noise.
They looked up, hoping to see the blue horizon, but there were just stone walls. They stood up, hugging themself and whimpering a little.
They looked up, and saw what frightened them the most: a ceiling. The only rays of sunlight shone in from the top of a very deep looking hole.
They were suddenly terrified. They backed up until they bumped into a wall, still staring at the hole in the ceiling, eyes and mouth wide open, and slowly slid down until they were sitting, hugging their knees. Before they knew it, their vision blurred, tears starting to fill their eyes. The whimpers got louder, before turning to quiet crying; tears running down their cheeks. Crying turned to sobbing as they buried their face in their knees.
The thought of being left alone in a dark cave far underground horrified them enough that the robot had gone completely forgotten, but that didn't last long.
Their cries were silenced by a mechanical whirring. They looked up; face flushed red and covered in tears as they trembled, fearful of what monstrous way the robot was gonna eat them up somehow.
A small disk on the robot's chest started to glow a light blue before a pulse of energy surged through its body, emanating from the glow. The blue light dimmed a bit, and after a while, one of its fingers twitched.
The child tried to hide themself as best as they could, squeezing into a tight ball in the corner, and quietly whimpering.
The robot's eyes soon opened, revealing similarly blue eyes. It brought both hands to its face, rubbing its eyes. It slowly sat up and yawned, stretching its arms over its head. It seemed to take a quick glance around the room before nodding slightly, almost as if it was making sure it was in the right place.
It stood up to full height and cracked its neck and knuckles – which only helped to make it look more threatening. It looked towards the flower patch, and, with a confused expression, wandered over to it before scratching the back of its head.
The lights in its eyes slowly grew brighter until they cast a bright blue light into the shadows. It scanned across the shadows until it reached the corner where the child hid.
As soon as the light reached them, they yelped and cowered even more, hiding their face behind their arms.
They were caught. There was nothing they could do to escape its-
"Are you alright?"
Wrath…?
That was unexpected.
Very slowly, the child moved their arms out of the way of their face and carefully looked at the robot. It was still in the middle of the room, crouched down and with a very concerned look on its face, and the blue lights in its eyes turned to a darker blue.
"… P-please don't k-kill me…" They quietly said before bursting into tears again.
"Kill you? Why would I do that? Are you okay?" Its voice was deep and sounded more human than a robot should.
But they didn't respond, and just kept crying. So it kept his distance and sat down on the flower patch, waiting for them to calm down.
Soon enough, they had worn themself out, and just sat in the corner, still hugging their knees and staring at the floor.
"Are you okay?" It repeated.
After a few seconds, they gave a small nod.
"Good," he paused, "I'm called The Guardian. What's your name?"
"… F-Frisk…" They mumbled.
"Frisk, huh? That's a nice name," he said with a smile.
Frisk slowly peeked up at him with slightly pink cheeks. "… Th-thanks…" they almost whispered.
After a little while longer, Frisk sat up a bit and looked at The Guardian. There was still a bit of fear in their eyes.
"S-so… You're n-not gonna… A-attack me…?" They hid their face a bit. His smile vanished.
He stared at them for a moment, "No, of course not," he answered, giving them a soft smile.
"Do you know where you are?" He asked.
"N-no… Where?"
"Well, unfortunately, I don't know either. This is a bit disconcerting." He sat in thought for a minute before very slowly standing up. When Frisk cowered slightly, he raised his hands placatingly and carefully approached. When he reached them, he smiled and offered them his hand to help them up.
Reluctantly, they slowly placed their hand in his, and he gently tightened his grip before carefully helping them up.
"There you go. See? I'm not gonna hurt you." He smiled at them as they stood next to him, nervously wringing their hands and staring at the floor. Noticing their discomfort, he gently placed a hand on their back. They flinched slightly before relaxing.
They hadn't noticed when he helped them up, but he got surprisingly warm. It was kinda nice.
"Come on. Let's get out of here."
They start walking towards the large doorway in the far corner of the room, something Frisk hadn't even noticed before. When they reached it, they instinctively slowed down, cautious of the darkness that lies ahead. Soon after they had ventured into the dark, a small patch of grass came into view. Upon it sat a large golden flower, bobbing to the beat of nothing.
The Guardian's metallic footsteps echoed through the room, and after a moment, the flower stopped moving entirely before slowly turning around, facing them. A look of shock briefly flashed across its… Face? Before being quickly replaced by a creepy grin.
"What the hell?" The Guardian says quietly, giving the flower a confused stare, his eyes turning a light purple. Frisk stood next to him, equally confused.
"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!" It said, surprising the two. Frisk stared at it in awe and started to walk towards it, but they were quickly stopped by The Guardian, his hand on their shoulder. When they turned back to question it, he shook his head and shot Flowey a suspicious look, and his eyes turned yellow in response.
"Hmm… You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha?" Flowey asked.
"Golly, you must be so confused… Someone oughta teach you how things work around here!" It seemed to be trying to feign friendliness, but The Guardian wasn't fooled.
'That thing better not try anything,' The Guardian thought, 'I'll tear it to pieces.' He didn't really know why he felt so protective of this child, but he wasn't going to question it.
"I guess little old me will have to do." Flowey's grin seemed to get a bit wider as he stared at Frisk.
"Ready? Here we go!" As soon as he finished, a large white square appeared on the ground, surrounding the three of them.
Frisk gasped as they suddenly felt an intense tightness in their chest, and they looked down to see their chest glowing a dim red. The red quickly grew brighter and brighter until Frisk tensed up, and a large, bright red, pulsating heart popped out of their chest, floating in front of them and illuminating them and the surroundings, while making them feel slightly numb. Frisk and The Guardian stared at it, shocked, until Flowey spoke once more.
"See that heart? That is your Soul, the very culmination of your being!" As he speaks, he watches the Soul. "Your Soul starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."
"What's LV stand for? Why, Love, of course! You want some Love, don't you?"
Frisk raises their hands in front of them, palms outward. "I-I… N-"
"Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" Flowey cuts them off and winks as five rotating pellets appear around him. "Down here, Love is shared through… Little white… 'Friendliness Pellets'."
The Guardian clenches his fists, preparing for a fight.
"Are you ready? Move around! Get as many as you can!" Suddenly, the pellets start moving directly towards where Frisk is, who looks completely torn on whether or not to listen as they stammer and slowly back up.
They don't get to decide though.
As soon as the pellets get near, The Guardian steps over and picks them up, moving them out of the way of the pellets that continue past and slam into the far wall.
"Hey, buddy. What do you think you're doing?" Flowey frowns at him.
The Guardian doesn't answer and looks at Frisk, who looks completely confused, and shifts them so that he's holding them with one arm – something he could do very easily, despite them being at least ten, if he were to guess – and used his other hand to very gently move their Soul back into their chest, causing them to shudder a bit. The red glow still remained from inside. He carefully set them back down, staring back at Flowey with a blank expression.
Flowey glanced at the robot before returning his attention to Frisk. "Let's try again, okay?" He says as more pellets appear and start moving towards where Frisk is again.
This time, The Guardian lightly pushes them to the side a bit and, again, the pellets just fly past. Flowey seems to get visibly angered by this.
"Is this a joke? Are you brain-dead? Run. Into. The. BULLETS!" He pauses for a second before realizing what he said. "… E-er… Friendliness Pellets…"
Frisk seems to understand what he was doing and, when the pellets flew towards them for a third time, they moved out of the way on their own.
Flowey's face morphs into a furious glare, and Frisk takes a couple steps back, instinctively hiding behind The Guardian.
"You know what's going on here, don't you? You just wanted to see me suffer." Flowey ignores Frisk as they vehemently shake their head. A large ring of pellets appears, surrounding the two, and the yellow in The Guardian's eyes intensifies.
"DIE!"
The ring immediately begins to shrink around them. Quickly, the robot turns around, picking up Frisk and holding them high above him and the ring, but the ring moves up with them. He growls in frustration as Frisk whimpers and, after a brief pause, he brings them back down and crouches over them, protecting them from every direction.
Frisk stares at him in shock, worried about what might happen to their new friend. He can see the pellets closing in from the corner of his eye. He closes his eyes, preparing for whatever kind of damage he may receive.
After a moment, he hears the sound of a small fire crackling. He opens his eyes and looks over in time to see a large fireball fling across the room, slamming into Flowey, launching him into the shadows. The Guardian stands back up, looking at where the fireball came from.
A large, humanoid, goat-like creature walks into the room, glaring at where Flowey had been. "What a terrible creature, torturing such poor, innocent people…" She scolds the flower.
She turns to Frisk and The Guardian, giving them a friendly smile. "Ah, do not be afraid, children. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place everyday to see if anyone has fallen down." She speaks in a soft, motherly tone.
"Good to meet you, Toriel. I am known as The Guardian. And this here is Frisk." The Guardian says, motioning towards Frisk.
She looks over and immediately has a very brief look of shock on her face. "O-oh my. You are the first human to come here in a very long time… Come! I will guide you two through the catacombs." She smiles at the two, motioning towards the door she came in. "This way."
They follow her through into a large, open room with two curved staircases leading up to a higher platform.
But in between the stairs, there is a small golden star that continuously flickers.
Frisk seems entranced by it, and starts to walk towards it while Toriel walks right past it and up the stairs, excitedly. The Guardian follows Frisk, equally confused by this weird object.
When they reach it, they slowly reach their hand out towards it. The Guardian thinks he should stop them, just in case, but for some reason, he feels like that probably might not be the best idea.
They touch it, and it instantly gets much brighter as time seems to stutter, then stop completely, with Toriel frozen mid-step.
The Shadow of the Ruins Looms Above, Filling Frisk with Determination.
Author's Notes: Hey, everyone! This is the first chapter of the reboot of Undertale: The Guardian. I really hope you enjoy this story!
Just a warning for any new readers, I have a pretty slow update schedule, if you could even call it a schedule, haha.
If anyone has questions or criticism, please be sure to tell me and I will definitely respond at the top of the next chapter.
Have a nice day!