Author's Notes: Now, I know what you are thinking. Oh great, another story that will take forever to be finished, if it ever will. And, well, yes, it's another story before I finish the others. But I need to do something to get my muse working again and posting something is better than nothing, right? If I keep my muse working, it will periodically go back to those others I have in progress as well. Much of that progress has been halted because of my work on rewriting Your War, Our Battle and because Across the Galaxy is connected to it, I've been waiting to update it until I reach a certain point in Your War, Our Battle... I might try to return to my old schedule, but we'll see if it will work.

A/N 2: This is a prologue. Depending on how things go between now and when I have the first actual chapter done, it may even be a prologue to the prologue. We'll see how what I am writing now fits in. I recently have entered the Undertale fandom and fallen in love with various comics. Endertale by TC-69 is what brought me into the fandom. I have also recently found Shattered Realities by Ink-Mug, Handplates by zarla and the Dadster comics by TheBombDiggity66. I have to say, I have fallen in love with all of these verses, though Diggity's version of Gaster is thus far my favorite. Ink-Mug's version is quite good as well. Zarla's version is a great villain take on the man, a good example of "the way to war is paved with good intentions." Unless I missed something, though, TC hasn't done anything with Gaster, but I love their story all the same and Endertale will forever have a special place in my heart for being what broke my stubbornness and allowed me to get into the fandom I once turned from, because...well, honestly I don't know why I kept ignoring everything to do with it. I just held no interest. I found myself growing to love Sans as I saw the fanart of him, just because the fanart I saw spawn from his character always made me smile as I saw it in passing, and one day I came across page 1 of TC's Consequences and that was that. I went and read their Endertale and the rest is history, as they say. XD

Sans, Papyrus and Gaster are all my favorite characters for sure. I loathe to see the day when Toby comes out with concrete stuff about Gaster and all the headcannon I am slowly developing about him is shown to be false. I will be so sad. But that is neither here nor there as of this time, so without further adu, let us dive into this tale of Underground craziness.

Actually, no, I have one more thing to say...This is a self-insert type story, so be warned. No, my OC does not replace Frisk, not at all. Yes, there might be some cases where there is a Mary-sue trait, but every character has those traits, what is important is that you provide proper, realistic explanations for those traits and that they are not just piled on your character. I have plans that I don't know for sure whether they will work, so be aware some chapters may take a longer time than others to be completed for reasons more than just my muse not working or business(the later actually being the culprit more often than not anymore), as I tweek and play with scenarios until they work with what I have and cover anything that needs to be addressed. Some things may not be addressed fully immediately either, such as the reason why what was done to my OC was done. This prologue does start a year prior to the events of the game, so keep that in mind(though how important that actually is, I don't know, just feel the need to mention it). Also I usually have a romance sub-plot in my stories, but I don't know if I will have one in this story. I may sometime later down the line, I may not. We will see if anything just flows out of it naturally. I am a big stickler for keeping cannon couples together, though, so Alphys and Undyne will remain a couple... do monsters work the same way as humans do when it comes to such things? I don't know. XD I will do my best not to make it come out as awkward!

And NOW let's get to it!

Prologue: The Great Escape

Away. I gotta get away.

The words repeated themselves in my mind as I ran clumsily through the forest. I tripped over my own paws, unused to them, but each time I stumbled or fell, I righted myself and kept going. The rustling of the leaves and heavy footsteps behind me urged me to keep going lest those who had done this to me catch up.

"Get back here!" a voice cried out.

"We have to catch her! If anyone finds out what we've done before…" another voice trailed off.

"I know!" the first voice cut them off.

Run, run, gotta run. Gotta get away.

I couldn't even stop to think about where I was going or what I would do when I escaped. I wouldn't stop until I was free. Until I was no longer just someone's experiment. I just ran. No matter how many times I stumbled or fell down, I kept running. Even when the sounds of pursuit eventually faded into distance, my new canine legs carrying me further faster than my human legs had ever carried me before.

And then I was falling. Tumbling through the air in a fall started by another one of my many stumbles. Tripped by a loose vine on the ground, I fell and I tumbled until at last I landed. I landed hard on the ground, fall cushioned to some decree by a thick bed of yellow flowers, whose petals flew into the air with the impact. I felt, and heard, the bone in one of my front legs crack from the force of the fall. One of my hind paws, the opposing one to the front leg, hurt as well. I yelped at the pain, despite my best attempts to be quiet.

Painfully, I lifted my head to look up at the light filtering in from above, searching for a way back out and seeing none. But those who chased me would be able to descend just fine if they were careful. And then carry me back out. I had to move before they realized what had happened. And so, I forced myself to my feet. I couldn't put even a mediocre amount of weight on my broken leg, so I was forced to hold it in the air and place more pressure on my hurt hind paw than I would've liked.

I could've turned to my humanoid form, but in my panicked state, I didn't see how that might've helped. Besides, doing so would've risked further damage to my front leg, what would be my arm, so who knows if it even would have been prudent. It could've rendered the limb irreparable. So I limped on, making very slow progress away from the bed of disturbed flowers and into the darkness of this underground cavern.

"Oh! Someone's there!" I heard a voice coming from the direction I was headed as I collapsed, panting.

I couldn't bring myself to move again, even as I heard them approaching. I looked up at them weakly as they hovered over me.

"A monster? But how did you get here?" they asked as I looked at them blurily.

My ear that still had the tracker attached to it twitched, bringing their attention to it.

"W-what's this?" her, I was pretty sure they were female, voice seemed to waver as they gently took hold of my ear, inspecting the device.

"P-please….r-remove i-it…" I managed to get out. "I-I'll e-explain l-later…"

"Oh dear, you poor wolf," she sounded like she was struggling as she continued to inspect it. "Are you sure? It doesn't look like I can remove it without hurting you further…"

"T-this...is n-nothing...c-compared…" I trailed off as my vision darkened with each passing moment and I fell into unconsciousness.

Toriel frowned, heart going out to the monster, it was a monster right?, she had found as she scooped it up into her arms. After it had fallen into unconsciousness, she had removed the device as carefully as she could, destroying it—she didn't know why, but she felt it was the best course of action—and pocketing the remains to examine at a later time. She had then examined the wolf, taking note of her injuries and markings.

She was a wolf, though the fur around her neck, end of muzzle, lower jaw and paws was purple while there were black markings under her eyes along with black dots above her eyes and black at the end of her ears and tail. It was these markings that had her originally assuming the beast to be a monster, though she had no idea what a monster would be doing falling into the Underground just now. The fact the wolf could speak was another piece of evidence pointing to this assumption being correct, though did nothing to change the strangeness of this discovery.

As for injuries, things didn't look all that great for the poor wolf. Her front left leg was broken, fractured almost all the way through, while her hind right paw was sprained. A couple ribs were also slightly cracked and, of course, the freshly bleeding ear where she had cut out the device. These physical ailments, however, were not what worried Toriel. What worried her was the possible mental damage whatever the wolf had gone through could've left behind.

"T-this...is n-nothing...c-compared…"

Her words, spoken so brokenly, hinted at what she had gone through before arriving here. It was those words, coupled with the injuries, that had Toriel hurrying to her home where she could safely heal the wolf. When she reached her home, she laid the wolf down on the bed in the spare bedroom she used to house any humans that fell down. Then she gently laid her hands on the wolf and they began glowing as she focused on healing the wolf. She closed her eyes, focusing on healing her.

Toriel looked around the white landscape she always found herself in while healing someone. Something felt a little different about this one though. There was the usual feeling, where she could sense the patient's emotions, but there was a slightly different feel to the identifying magic. It wasn't quite what she would expect from a wolf monster. There was an undercurrent of wolf magic, but it was mute, as if shoved down so as not to affect anything. She heard a sniff and turned around, only for her eyes to widen at the sight in front of her. It wasn't the image of a wolf, as she would've expected from a wolf monster, but of a human woman.

The woman sat there, tears falling from their eyes as they curled in on themselves, looking at her in fear and heartbreak. She was also surrounded by what appeared to be the remains of walls that had shattered apart. The signs pointed to them being forcefully destroyed rather than gently worked past, a process that would've damaged the emotional state. The sight broke Toriel's heart as she approached slowly, sending reassurance over the healing bond and doing everything she could to show that she meant no harm. Despite tensing with each step forward, the woman allowed Toriel to get close enough to sink to her knees and pull the woman into a hug.

"I-I don't u-unders-stand…" the woman cried into her shoulder. "W-why t-they d-did t-this…"

"Shhh," Toriel hushed her, placing a hand on the back of her head. "You can tell me when you are ready. For now, focus on getting healed."

The woman nodded, wrapping her arms around her and holding on as if afraid she was going to disappear. As if she was the first friendly face she had seen in a long time.

"What's your name?" Toriel asked gently.

"K-Karda…" she answered.

"Where do you come from?" Toriel asked.

"Doesn't matter…" Karda replied, emotional state evening out, but not in a good place yet. "Can't go back…."

She broke into sobs again, heartbroken and Toriel's heart broke for her once again. She held her tighter as she continued healing her. She whispered encouraging words to her and gave her as much support as she could. Eventually she learned what had happened to her. A group of humans had plucked her from her home and took her to some facility where they ran experiments on her, turning her into some kind of monster-human hybrid for unknown purposes.

"W-what they hadn't counted on," Karda was saying as the healing was coming to an end. "Was my stubbornness to hold to the values I was taught and hold dear. T-they kept trying to make me do bad things….l-like kill people...but I wouldn't, I refused. I-I escaped and ran and ran and ran a-and then I fell and then you found me."

"And that thing you asked me to remove from your ear?"

"A tracker," she replied. "If left in working order, it would lead them here. They...they would've taken me back….they may have even…" She trailed off, swallowing back another sob.

Toriel pulled her back into a hug. "Don't worry, the device is destroyed. You don't have to worry."

I shivered as Toriel massaged the shampoo into my fur as I stood in her bathtub. She was using warm enough water, so it wasn't that I was cold, just that my legs were still a little weak. Toriel's healing had mended the broken bones and healed the sprained ankle, but it hadn't restored my strength. It would be a few days, at least, before I was back to full health. In the meantime, I needed to get clean of the mud and dirt that I had gotten covered in during my escaped. I was still hesitant to turn to my human form, worried about it harming the healing process.

"Now I know why most of my dogs never particularly cared for baths," I said, tone light and humorous. "Wet fur is heavy."

Toriel chuckled as she shampooed/scratched behind my ears. "You'll get used to it," she smiled.

I was silent for a moment as Toriel began rinsing the soap off. I waited until she was done and then got out of the bathtub. I planted my paws and shook the excess water off my fur as I had seen many dogs do in my lifetime. My action made Toriel laugh as she held her arms up to shield herself from the onslaught of water. She stopped me, though, by throwing a towel over me and drying me most of the way off.

Toriel let me stay with her as I recovered and life living in the Ruins with her was nice and relaxing. I spent much of my time in my new wolf form, getting used to it and enjoying the new abilities it gave me. Part of the reason for that, a big reason in fact, was that it was hard looking at myself in the mirror in my humanoid form. I looked mostly the same, but my wolf ears and tail remained from my wolf form. I wasn't sure whether it was cause it reminded me of what I lost, what had been done to me, or just that it was so weird. I had never liked looking at myself in the mirror to begin with. I often found it hard to look in the mirror and feel like I was looking at myself. I had just been getting to a place where I was reversing that when this happened and now, I couldn't see myself in the mirror at all. It felt as if what was done to me had changed who I was. I knew my friends would rebuke me for such thoughts, but it was hard to keep them at bay.

Especially with that odd presence in the back of my mind. Constantly reinforcing any negative thought I had of myself as it was, it made those thoughts at least twice as hard to combat. I had always had problems with self-esteem, ever since my parents divorced, so it wasn't anything new, just a little more intense. It was frustrating, in a way, since all my previous progress at mending my mental and emotional scars had been practically erased. In some ways, those scars even grew wider. I longed to be that always-happy-no-matter-what person my mom had told me I once was again. I was sure it probably hurt her more than it did myself when she saw my emotional state and self esteem crumbling. Just as it broke my heart seeing those I care about struggling. After all, I inherited most of my traits from her.

I was pretty sure Toriel knew I was struggling emotionally. I often caught her looking at me with a saddened expression and when she wrote in her journal, she looked very pensive. I did my best to move past what had happened, for her sake as much as my own, but it was not easy. At night I was plagued by nightmares that Toriel often woke me from and during the day I was haunted by memories, emotions and loss. Every now and then I could find genuine joy when I acted goofy and played around with Toriel.

As time waned on, it became easier to find joy and happiness and eventually I was able to spend more time in my humanoid form, feeling more comfortable in my old form. Seeing me spend more and more time enjoying my life and in both forms seemed to give Toriel happiness, so I kept pushing myself to become a better me, to get back some semblance of who I had once been. I even began joining her and our mysterious visitor on the other side of the door in jokes. While they told puns, I told stories from my previous life. I was never good at puns, at the delivery of them, so I stuck with what I was good at. Storytelling. It wasn't too hard to find funny stories to tell, the number of them had grown exponentially since I had met my friends.

Life with Toriel was good, though I missed my old family and friends. Sometimes, when I missed them the most, a thought would enter my head to leave, but something always stopped me. I could tell Toriel had been lonely before I arrived and it made me sad to think she'd be alone again when I left. Also… And I would never admit this to Toriel… But sometimes...When I lay awake at night, trying to fall asleep to no avail… Some voice in my head would try to convince me that I needed to kill Toriel and any other monster who got in my way… And then kill any humans I saw…

I never agreed, of course. I won't pretend I am a perfect person, that I never hurt anyone, but one thing I had never done was kill someone. And that was something I never wanted to change. I prayed nothing ever happened where I wouldn't have a choice. The phrase I lived by was "Keep it real and spread the love" after all. At least, that is what I told people, as it was what I endeavored to do. Was I perfect? No. But I wouldn't let this voice convince me to go on a killing spree.

I mean, who would even think of doing that? Only a terrible person… Wait… Does that mean I am terrible? Some part of me clearly hates the world… No, no, I don't….That's not me… It can't be… I feel too much empathy to truly want such a thing…

But do you, really?

I startled and sat half-way up from where I had been trying to sleep, whole body shaking from the shock. I quickly scanned the room for the presence, but I could see nothing, despite feeling it. I flinched, growling as I realized it must've come from inside again. I sighed in frustration.

Will it ever end?...

You'd like that, would you? It would end if you just...

Shut. Up.

I turned somewhat violently to my side as I laid back down and shut my eyes, blocking out the thoughts and willing myself to sleep. These nights were the worst.

Someday, you won't be able to stop me.