A/N Why is it that when I look at my old stories, I always have to remake them before they finish!? It drives me mad sometimes :( But hey, what I was giving you made me feel horrible, it just...felt wrong. So yeah, I'm getting help for this story. A friend of mine is helping out named Pokemonfan67, CHECK HER STUFF OUT! Like, my god, she is miles ahead of me in terms of how she writes/types up stories and I admit, I envy her sometimes. But you didn't click this to hear me rant so let's, Begin anew (Bad pun is very bad.)
"W-Where am I..." Arthur groaned as he got up. His head was ringing as he adjusted his eyes to the sudden brightness. He looked down, seeing that he was hurt by something and his chest hurt. He figured that it was bleeding or at least bruised, so he took his shirt off to check it out. He sighed at the sight of a large gash in his chest. Arthur wrapped his shirt around himself, much like a backpack strap, in order to keep pressure on the wound. He watched far too much T.V. as a kid, and knew at least basic first aid.
A yellow shape appeared in the middle of the walkway. He smiled chipperly and shouted a friendly greeting at Arthur. "Howdy!" Although the flower tried to get his attention, Arthur ignored him. He began to check the environment out in order to see where he was. He wasn't the best listener, and always seemed to have something on his mind. That and something within him, perhaps some kind of instinct, told him not to talk to flowers and that they were weird as hell. He sighed and looked at the flower with a bored look on his face.
The flower regained his composure, as he seemed slightly annoyed that Arthur blew him off. "Someone sure was observant. I understand completely! You must've just fallen down haven't you? Well anyway, my name is Flowey, Flowey the Flower. You sure are lucky that you met my friendly face before anyone else's! Here, I'll even teach you the basics for this world," Flowey introduced happily. He took Arthur's SOUL out of his body, and set it in front of Arthur. White words appeared near the ground. The SOUL glowed a bright Yellow, showing that his DETERMINATION revolved around his sense of justice.
"Arthur LV 1 15/15 HP," it read.
Flowey looked a bit confused, but continued like he saw nothing. "That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being! It starts off kinda weak but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV." Arthur frowned. He narrowed his eyes at the flower as if to ask what it meant, something told him not to earn LV though or something bad would happen. "What does LV stand for? Why, LOVE of course," Flowey answered.
Arthur rolled his eyes. "How cheesy," he muttered under his breath. The flower didn't seem to hear it, or if he did, the flower didn't care.
"How do you gain LOVE, you might ask? Don't worry! I'll share some with you"
"I don't want any of your love you freaky plant," Arthur once again muttered. The flower was ignoring him.
Flowey winked as white petals surrounded him. "Down here, LOVE is shared through little white..." Flowey squinted. "'Friendliness pellets. Are you ready? Collect as many as you can," He chimed as he sent out the pellets.
Arthur said nothing, his inner instincts kicking in. He dodged each one, making his way towards Flowey and running from the fight with no effort wasted. Heck, even Flowey was shocked that he even got a turn in! But Arthur didn't care, and only continued to make his way inside before blinking in confusion.
"Okay, what the hell was I before I came here? A FBI agent!?" Arthur said to no one in particular. He was so lost by his sudden skill that it confused him on what his body was capable of.
It wasn't until he calmed himself down that he saw where he was. Purple tiles were in rubble, but laid out a convenient path. It seemed used, as if someone used this path so much that they swept enough of the rubble away to make this path without even a halfway sized rock. At the most, only tiny pebbles remained. Was it that talking flower that attacked him who made this path? He wasn't sure, but took a deep breath before starting to move forward.
And immediately getting picked up by a vine. That Flower looked pissed, and raised a second vine, ready to kill him with pure rage in his eyes. "I don't know WHAT you were thinking but-"
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" A female voice cried as a fireball attacked the flower, Flowey was singed a bit but his vines prevented the blunt of the damage. Arthur closed his eyes and his body did the work. He grabbed something in his mind, and sliced the vines away.
The goat woman blinked at Arthur. He blinked as well. "Well...looked like that worked out well, um, what happened?" Arthur asked as the goat woman stared at him. She had no clue on what happened in the fight.
Arthur had what looked to be two weapons before, but they disappeared. On top of all that, he had no idea what happened in the past fifteen seconds. "What is up with this child," Toriel thought. She regained her composure. "Are you hurt my child?" She went for the nice attitude instead, unsure of his personality. Toriel wanted to show him love. Asgore would kill him outright if he went out, that is a certain fact, but perhaps the goat woman could convince Arthur to stay with her in her in the ruins and away from almost-certain death. She desperately hoped for the latter option, but wasn't sure. She was brought out of her thoughts when Arthur sighed.
"No, not really, just got caught off guard. Er... and judging by your look, you were shocked about the fact that I can not only do that," he said while gesturing at the place Flowey attacked," but that I completely forgot about what I did."
Toriel chuckled and gave a nod. "Er... why yes."
Arthur sighed. "Let's just say science stuff and leave it there. We should get out of this place before that Flowey character goes after us again." Toriel looked like she was remembering something sad, but nodded, saying nothing from that.
"So, what is this place?" Arthur asked as they walked around. He glanced at the simple puzzle switches as they walked along the path.
"Well, it was called Home, and was the castle for the Monsters before New Home was established. Although about the only thing of note about this place in recent times is that the door closed when the queen left the king." Toriel decided to keep the fact that she was the queen hidden. "Sadly, years passed and the castle began to crumble, slowly but surely. It is called the Ruins now, to represent what was," she explained as she saw Arthur slow down from thinking.
"Hey, um, could you be the queen by any chance? I mean, you wear robes and you said the door closed. I haven't seen anyone else and I doubt the Flower is the queen." Toriel ignored the question completely and gave Arthur a phone. Arthur wondered if he struck a nerve.
"Use this if you need me, I need to do something real quick okay," Toriel stated abruptly. She quickly left.
Arthur sighed as he was left alone. "Great, me and my big mouth...,"Arthur mumbled to himself.
He looked around the room, glancing at the puzzle. The tiles on the floor were laid out strangely, The pattern would started out by going straight, but it soon made turns. He continued ahead as he studied the path. Once he looked up, he saw Toriel standing in front of a spiked floor puzzle.
"T-Toriel? Are you still mad at me? I don't care if you were the queen, are the queen, or not the queen at all. I'd rather you not to be mad at me," Arthur insisted. He felt incredibly guilty for hurting Toriel with his question.
Toriel sighed and smiled at Arthur. "You were right my child. I was the queen of all monsters, but after Asgore..." Toriel looked to the side with anger and a hint of sadness for a brief moment before looking back towards Arthur. "...Well this is not the place to talk about that. How about we walk home, together," Toriel suggested. She smiled at Arthur warmly.
Arthur smiled back. "Yeah. Okay Mom." Arthur's eyes widened as he realized his mistake, tears falling out of his eyes. Toriel looked shocked for a brief moment, but smiled and kept walking. It was then that he remembered a small memory. It was faded, but still there.
*Flashback*
"Mom! Please, don't die on me," Arthur screamed as his mother smiled. Her worn out hands rested tiredly on his face.
"Be good…my son….rescue...your brother…," she stated in between shallow breaths of air. Tears uncontrollably poured from Arthur's eyes as his mother's eyes vanished and her breath diminished. His mother was no more.
Arthur took a week to mourn for the loss before burying her. He never was one for religion, but he prayed to everything he could think of whether it was God, Arceus, aliens, and even a generalized statement. It was all to make sure his mother was being taken care of, wherever she went. He packed a black jacket, blue polo shirt with blue and white stripes, and black jeans. It took getting used to the jeans as he preferred slacks, but he know that where he was heading would get messy as hell.
He started walking towards the well where his brother was last seen. He was going to get water for the family but never came back, and now he knew why. Glitches, which were an uncommon sight, plagued the well. Whenever someone saw the glitches, it would almost certainly point to death or capture. The creature from the caves was ruthless it seemed.
He walked around to try and avoid the glitches, but something caught his eye.
"Richard M-," The piece of clothing read. Arthur grabbed it and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. He knew where to go from there. Arthur, now filled with a purpose, started making his way to the cave.
He couldn't remember any more. His memory told him of a time where he marched towards a goal with a trait he never thought was strong in him. In that moment, he was determined, yet he never was that determined about anything unless it concerned his older brother. Why was he missing? What happened at the well? Who was the monster that lived in the cave? Thoughts and questions plagued his mind until he looked at his surroundings. Arthur was suddenly in a small room. He looked around in confusion as he didn't expect that.
"Toriel," he called. He was shocked by the echo that it received. Arthur sighed and looked around. His eye caught a piece of pie sitting on the ground. It smelled strongly of cinnamon. His stomach growled as Arthur noticed the dish. He grinned at the plate. His mouth was salivating at the sight of the pie. "I hope it's pumpkin or apple!" He chuckled. "It could even be chocolate for all I care!" Not waiting a moment longer, Arthur grabbed a fork and dug into the warm pie and brought the bite to his mouth. He chewed and focused on the flavor of the pie. He smiled and closed his eyes as tried to pinpoint the flavor. "New taste, but good all the same! Wonder what it is," he thought aloud. There was a soft knock on the old door.
"Arthur? Are you awake my dear," Toriel asked nicely.
"Yeah," Arthur exclaimed. His shout was muffled by the door.
Toriel chuckled softly and looked at the door warmly. "Well, when you finish, head towards the living room. I have something I want to tell you," Toriel insisted. She walked back to the living room and sat in her chair. She put on her glasses and began to read.
"Okay," Arthur exclaimed. The pie was already gone. Arthur smiled and sighed with delight. "God that was good," he said to himself. "Well she said to head over to the living room, but…what's this room anyways?" Arthur smiled mischievously. "Only one way to find out."
He explored the room and saw pictures of Toriel and another goat monster. "This guy must be the King Asgore," Arthur inferred. Toriel told him that they were married at one point. Arthur shrugged and and turned to head out, but something caught his eye. He walked back to the pictures to get a closer look of another picture he saw. Arthur gulped and inched towards the picture, afraid of what he might discover. His mind warning him that he would regret looking at the picture, but he pressed on. Arthur had to look at it.
This time it was a picture of Toriel, Asgore, and two children. One was a human, one was another goat. The goat child caused his heart grief as he remembered horrible actions the child did. The human child caused Arthur to throw the painting entirely. He was having a panic attack.
"Child," Toriel yelled as she heard the painting hit the floor and screams ring out in the building. She ran to the room as fast as she could. Pieces of glass were scattered on the floor. Broken pieces of wood covered a picture. Toriel looked to Arthur and saw his face twist with rage and fear. She acted immediately and grabbed the child in a warm embrace. He calmed down slightly. "Are you alright my child," Toriel asked. Arthur looked like he was about to cry in fear and she had no clue why. Toriel took a closer look at the picture and she froze. The boy was terrified of the picture for some unknown reason. "Are you alright my child," Toriel repeated.
"F-Frisk," Arthur stuttered. Toriel's eyes widened. He knew and was terrified of Frisk, yet he was looking at a picture of had similar tastes in clothes, sure, but she was unable to see why he would confuse the two children.
"What about Frisk my child," Toriel questioned. This was a very confusing child.
"He...murdered so many...using a husk...of a friend..." Arthur muttered. His lost memory was trying to resurface, but to no avail. He only had a gut feeling. "He was the first to fall down, and fell right for Asriel's plan. Asriel in that world, he was just wanting to play a game. Not a normal game, but one of life and death." Arthur explained in a quivering voice.
"In that world?" Toriel was even more confused that before.
"In that world, Asgore left you because he was fed up of you killing humans for their SOULs, even when you thought you had a good purpose. I don't remember anything, but my intuition is helping me remember the basics at least. From what I'm feeling, ...Asriel wasn't the nicest person in my world, but Frisk tried to be a good person," Arthur looked down at the ground. "...But after Asriel forced Frisk into his plan by eating buttercups, Frisk went mad with power. He felt like the most powerful being in the universe, and after putting Asriel's body on the flowers in this place, he would have started murdering everyone if someone hadn't have stopped him. I know it was someone close to me, but I don't know who.I noticed that as soon as I saw that picture, their fashion sense is the exact same, but the face are completely different. Frisk always had a cocky grin on his face." Arthur explained. He managed to tell the story without trouble, but just remembering the events caused Arthur to sob.
Toriel gave him a pat on the back in attempt to sooth Arthur. She smiled at Arthur and began to hum a simple melody. After three hours of sobbing, Arthur wore himself out and fell asleep. Toriel smiled and placed him in bed. She a blanket and draped it over Arthur. "Sweet dreams, my child."
"Well done partner," a voice giddily announced. It seemed to be coming from inside his head.
"W-Who are you," Arthur stuttered. He began to try and search for an exit.
The voice playfully scoffed. "You know who silly! I'm the demon that comes when beckoned by their name." The voice seemed to come closer and closer, echoing everywhere.
"I don't know you! G-Get away from me," Arthur yelled.
A body started to come into vision, grinning.
"Sorry, but you made a deal. Time to pay up. One SOUL please." The person said with their hand stretched out.
Another Arthur came out and pulled the original away.
"RUN! YOU CAN'T LET HIM TOUCH YOU," the new Arthur shouted. He swiveled towards the unknown being. "As for you. I never keep my deals!"
"Let's change that," the being stated calmly. There was a hint of arrogance in their voice.
Arthur ran for his life as he dodged the strange figure's tricks. The figure continued to laugh as he fought to keep running. He found his escape route and bolted towards it. Arthur dodged the figure's tricks as he ran. After what seemed like hours of running, Arthur made it to the exit without being touched by the being.
"Drat! He got away." The figure snapped his fingers and sighed."Oh well, there's always tomorrow. No need to rush." The being grinned. "And as for you." He turned to the now tied-up replica Arthur."I do believe you owe me something." He smiled at the clone.
The replica spit towards him. "Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about," He growled with venom in his voice.
"Then I guess I should fill you in." The being grinned, as screaming began.
Arthur awoke with a jolt. Sweat fell from him as he gasped for the air he so needed. Arthur quickly began to concentrate to bring his SOUL out. He expected some sort of damage but to his surprise, it looked exactly the same as before. He had the same name, same stats, and same HP. Arthur sighed in relief. He stayed there for a few more minutes as he tried to search for any traces of the mysterious copy of himself, but to no avail. The copy, whom he dubbed 'Zack', helped him with his reflexes and his memories. Now he was suddenly gone. Arthur felt like crying yet again, but he held them in.
He tried to get up, but his legs were tired for some reason. 'Was that real!?' He didn't feel that way before. He began to panic, but remembered something. "Toriel, maybe she can help?" Arthur shrugged. It was worth a shot.
He tried to get up once more. He had to grip the bed as he tried to find something to lean on. Luckily, he found a tiny log. He grimaced as he noticed the size, but he didn't find anything else even remotely usable. He sighed and took a step. Arthur leaned against the wall as a support and walked to the living room.
"M-Toriel," he stuttered, still not used to calling her mom yet.
Toriel blinked her eyes open slowly "Hmm...," she asked sleepily. Toriel blinked a bit before rushing over to help Arthur up. "My child, are you okay," Toriel questioned in a rush.
"I-I don't know, there was this nightmare that might have been real..." Arthur insisted. He proceeded to tell Toriel about his nightmare.
"Do not be afraid. It was just a dream," Toriel insisted. She attempted to try and calm Arthur down, but he shook his head..
"No. I don't think it was a nightmare. Maybe it's a war going on inside my head." Arthur frowned. "That gut feeling I had, my intuition, isn't there anymore. It was most likely taken captive," Arthur explained, not knowing what to call it.
"Who?" Toriel stared quizzically at him.
"Frisk," Arthur answered."It was Frisk that did it. He had the same arrogant grin like he had before."
"Arthur, Frisk is a girl in this world," Toriel stated,
"You were a male in my world. Some of the genders from my world and your world were obviously swapped," Arthur deadpanned, annoyed by the unneeded question. "There's something I have to do, something that I thought I could wait for. My brother was kidnapped by a person named Ga-... something. I need to save him but to do that, I need to head towards the barrier." Arthur explained. .
Toriel looked shocked. She shook her head and pointed to Arthur's new room. "Go to your room,"Toriel commanded.
"But," Arthur protested. Toriel pointed to the door again. Arthur sighed in defeat and shuffled back to the room. "What am I going to do now?"
A/N And I think that's where I'm going to end this first chapter! And if you're asking me, DAMN I LOVE IT! Pokemonfan65 helped me so MUCH with the character and dialog with this chapter. I'm not a incredible writer myself, but I have decent/good ideas, the fact that she helped edit this to be of THIS quality. Well let's just say I have a huge smile on my face of pure and utter delight. The next chapter, it will take a bit longer than my usual updates. I don't want to burn out the story so fast because this is LONG. Sure some arcs are small, but there is going to be more added, this may head to 30's and 40's chapter length. So we're in for the BIG one here folks, but yeah. Most of the credit goes to Pokemonfan67 for editing the heck out of this story! And go check her out! If you want more of this story, favorite it. If I did good or wrong, tell me.