Gore warning in the second paragraph. After that it's mostly okay.
They say right before death, your entire life will flash before your eyes. When you're busy falling down a long and dark hole, images of dirt and roots whizzing by you, going much too fast for those eyes to concentrate on any one item in particular, it all seemed too true. Images of his mother conjured onto the screen, followed by pictures of his father, then his cousins (all of whom he missed dearly). Scenes that brought a smile to the teenager's face, scenarios that would have almost made him shed a tear would that tear have not fallen behind him as he plummeted further down this hole, all within a matter of seconds. He reached one dark-skinned hand up into his hair, running it through the black thickness that weaved over his eyes and letting out a small whimper when he had finally reached the end.
This is it, he would have thought, had his brains not splattered across the dark stone on the floor. As soon as the human's body had made contact with gravel and dirt, several rocks jutted into him- not deeply, no, but enough to cause damage to the organs in the front of him, which had been pushed back into farther-reaching ones from the pressure of smacking onto ground. A few stones had hit his skull and thus, causing it to fracture in several areas. Gravity dragged his brain- arguably the most important part of the body- along with it, smashing it against the front of the fractured skull and causing instant (but not very peaceful) death.
A small heart emerged from the body, a purple one, however this had not gone noticed by the carcass, whose eyes were faced toward the floor. The spirit inside, though their SOUL outside, continued to remain in the body for quite some time afterward, refusing to accept the pain that would come with their physical self should they had remained alive, refusing to accept the fact that they no longer remained alive. It may have been DETERMINATION that prevented their SOUL from shattering, but it was perseverance that kept them holding onto the only form they knew.
At some point, the human had lost consciousness. His spirit had stayed in full awareness of what was going on, until one point, they, too, had fallen under, and when they reawoke, they felt...alive again. Their body was...different than last time.
He looked down at his new self, running his metallic hands along the paint coating with an expression of quiet curiosity. Well, this was new… When his hands graced the area around his stomach, he let out a small gasp, feeling a slight heat emanate from it. His eyes would follow the direction of his hands and then widen, pupils dilating and mouth remaining agape as those hands would trail over the glass containing a glowing purple heart- his glowing purple heart.
"Am I...dreaming?" the former human muttered, bringing one hand up to his head and running it through his hair, finding at least that remained the same. "This...this feels so real…"
When the now-robot turned around, he gasped once more, this time in horror. If he had any stomach acid, he would have vomited, but thankfully, whoever created this new form did not supply him with such a corrosive substance. Instead, the metallic body was brought to its knees at the sight of its former self, said bloody carcass laying sprawled out on the floor. With a small sigh, the robot reached out for the notebook he had been carrying when he fell, which was now a foot or so away. Its cover was still mostly the same deep purple color it had always been with only a small splash of crimson staining the very bottom left corner.
"Even if this is a dream," he sighed, picking up the pencil that had (thankfully) hit the book sideways, allowing nothing more than a crack to form compared to if it had hit the hard ground as his body had, "I suppose it's best not to dwell on...this." With one last glance over at his newly deceased body, our protagonist sighed. He reached his hands wearily under the face to feel for his glasses, only to find that he was pressing shattered glass against his scarred face. This would cause him to wince and quickly draw his hands back, wiping it on the ground below him.
"I knew it was a good idea to bring a spare," he muttered. The robot then reached into the back pocket of his old body's jeans and pulled out a (thankfully unharmed) glasses case. It was then opened, revealing a pair of cloudy white glasses that looked almost identical to the pair he had been wearing when he fell.
Without another word, our protagonist slipped the case into one of the two long boots that now dawned his legs and, when he finally took a moment to observe them, he would extend the leg that now held his pair of spectacles, letting what little light seeped through the hole above him to reflect off their shiny pink material.
High heels, he thought to himself. Nice touch.
Once more the robot would run a metallic hand through his latex hair, breathing a sigh of relief upon feeling that it still felt like its human counterpart. When he had first touched his robot hair, there was just the slightest possibility it was an illusion, but now he was sure that softness had remained the same. He doubted it was the usual material, but...there was no harm in pretending the latex was human hair, right? It would at least provide some sort of comfort.
His eyes then trailed over to the opening that he had originally fallen through, slowly ascending until they had reached the top. It was no wonder he had died from that fall… There was certainly no way he was getting back up without a very long ladder.
He then directed his attention in the opposite direction, now facing a corridor that continued for a few yards before appearing to veer to the left. With a deep breath in, the former human stood, stumbled, and slowly made his way down the dark hall. It wasn't long before another opening appeared, this time in the shape of a door frame. The protagonist barely considered the consequences of continuing forward before stepping through it, quickly met by a near pitch-black room. The only source of light was a small hole in the ceiling, which descended down unto a very small puddle.
The robot peered over it, letting his latex hair fall overtop of one eye, though quickly took a step back when something splashed at him.
"Hey there!" exclaimed a small fish, which must have been no bigger than his forearm.
He curiously tilted his head to the side, an 8-bit version of his voice echoing through the speakers that served as a voice box when our protagonist spoke. "Hello…"
"My name's FISHY!" the creature continued, flopping around a small bit and splashing some water droplets to the side of the puddle. "FISHY THE FISH!"
The robot nodded slowly, a look of slight confusion sprawled onto his face. "You can...talk."
As if it hadn't heard him (or completely ignored him), the fish continued, its voice rugged and...slightly feminine, though very rough, like a fish on steroids. "You must be new to the Underground, huh, punk? Someone outta teach you how things work around here! Guess that's gonna have to be me! Ready? Too bad!"
It was at this point the robot squinted, now utterly lost in what was going on. The heart in his stomach had squeezed its way through his chest, now standing before him and glowing slightly. The robot would have outstretched a hand to grace it had his attention not immediately been redirected towards the smiling goldfish, which seemed to loom over him despite being stuck in a puddle.
"You see that heart?" it asked, taking a small leap. "That's your SOUL. It's everything you live for- everything you stand by! It starts off as a weak shrimp, but it can grow strong through LV!"
"Uh...right." Our protag then tilted slightly to the side, watching as his heart followed his hand, which would reach out to the side and then back towards the center. Well that's… interesting. "And...what is LV, exactly?"
"What's LV?" The fish chuckled (fish can chuckle?) and straightened itself out. "LOVE! LV stands for LOVE! And lucky for you, I got some right here."
It chuckled some more, a few small...were those pebbles?...drawing out of the surface of the puddle and forming a small circle around it. "Here's some… "happy blades." So how about you run into them?"
The purple heart shimmered for half a second as its owner nodded, sending it forth to collect the small stones until said objects had reached it, at which point he fell pack in pain. A small health bar, which had gone unseen to the owner until this point, quickly shot down from a full 20/20 HP to only 1/20 HP. He collapsed to the ground, tears beginning to stream down his cheeks as the fish's face contorted into a demonic expression that no fish should have the capability of making.
"You punk!" it exclaimed, letting out a distorted, feminine-sounding laughter as more pebbles began to encircle the purple heart. They slowly began to close in around our protagonist, who let out a small cry just as they were about to hit and closed his eyes.
When he opened them, however, the stones had been knocked to the ground, and Fishy simply stared at them in disbelief. "What the-!?"
It happened rather quickly, but what the former human could catch within the next few moments was another of his kind- this one dawned in a green robe with a single yellow stripe, holding red eyes that glinted in agitation- bringing their foot up to force contact with the fish and send it flying to...well, he didn't actually keep track of that part. His attention was more focused on the athletic human, roughly around the same age as him who had just punted the demon fish across the room like a soccer ball.
They then turned to the robot, a look sprawled across their face that read 'you're next' until they noticed the tears that had been spilling out of his eyes, and it allowed them to relax a small bit.
"Fucking fish..." they muttered. Their pale hand reached out for the protagonist's, cupping it gently but firmly enough so that it wouldn't slip out as they pulled him to his feet. However, upon noticing his hesitation, they sighed. "Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you, okay?"
They only shook their head when met with the lack of reply. Right. Can't force someone to talk. "Okay, whatever. My name's Chara. I kinda live here."
Chara paused, allowing this new person to nod slowly, taking deep breaths to calm himself. After a few moments of awkward staring and a whole lot of breathing, the robotic teen removed his hand, instead choosing to wrap his arms around his chest as his heart began to sink back into it.
A few more moments, and Chara was beginning to feel a bit strange, so they decided to break the tension in the air by scratching the back of their head. "Y'know, you're the first human to fall down here in awhile. ...you're human, right?"
"I was," the robot replied with a small roll of the eyes. He placed one foot a bit of ways away from the other in a confident fashion and settled a hand onto his hip, the other jutting out quite femininely. "Until I fell down that stupid hole."
Chara nodded, clearly unsure how a hole caused a human to turn into a creature of metal, but deciding not to question it and quickly snapped themself out of confusion. "Right. But you have a human SOUL. Close enough."
"I...suppose so?" Well, what other SOUL was he supposed to have? A demon's?
"C'mon, then," the human teen coaxed, waving a hand for the newer of the two to follow. "I'll lead you through this place."
There was a small moment of hesitation before our protagonist reached his hand out, crying, "Wait!" to the figure that was beginning ahead.
"Hm?" Chara turned back, hands going into a set of pockets that hung in their robe.
"...Chara?" he called, almost in question to make sure he got the name right. "Where...where am I?"
"The Ruins. I already told you that. But, uh...now that you mention it, you never told me your name."
Name? Oh, right. That was...probably a good thing to give out to the person that just saved your skin- er, metal- from a psycho fish. "Meckenzie," he replied simply, but quickly added in with a smug smile, "the fabulous Meckenzie!"
"Meckenzie?" Chara chuckled. "That's a human name. Nah, we gotta give you a robot name now. What about…"
Meckenzie...Meckenzie...Meck…Me...Metta...Metamorphosis means change; Meckenzie here changed from human to robot...
Chara snapped their fingers, a lightbulb going off above their head. "I got it! Mettaton."
"Mettaton?"
"Mettaton," Chara repeated, turning back around. "Y'know, like metamorphosis, metabolism…meta. Greek for 'after'. You after you're a robot."
"What?" Mettaton frowned. "I'm not a-"
He cut himself off when he felt his metal hand glide across his side, made of the same material. Oh, right...he was a robot now, somehow. He was still waiting for an explanation on that, mind you, but...well, he had been looking for a new name anyway. Meckenzie was just so...boy.
"Mettaton," the robot repeated with a smile, taking a peek ahead of them as the sensation of saying it rolled off his tongue. Another doorway, huh? Wonder where that leads to.
"I like it."