Chapter 1: Dreemurrs Lost
Asgore paced in the throne room, needing some form of movement to keep his sanity. First Chara and now...what had Asriel done? He'd been through the barrier with Chara's body before they could blink. It was so dangerous, even with a human soul...he could only pace helplessly as their child lay beyond his reach.
Toriel was seated in her own throne, wringing her hands. "Oh Asgore, what could he have been thinking?" Toriel fretted. "I...Our little Asriel he-"
"I...I'm sure he'll return soon, Tori..." he said. He had to... As distressed as he was he saw that Toriel was distraught, and he knelt down at her side, grasping her hand in both of his own. "All we can do is wait and hope, love..." he said gently. "And trust that our son will come back to us."
Toriel leaned into him, sobbing against his shoulder as he wrapped his massive, strong arms around her gently, surrounding her completely in his embrace. He closed his eyes, tears threatening to come.
"M..Momma...Papa...?"
Asgore's eyes snapped open and both he and Toriel turned sharply. Their temporary relief was quickly destroyed when they saw the state of their child. His form had changed, he looked older now and bore dark markings on his white fur, and already they could see...
"No..." Asgore breathed. They rushed to him, both trying to comfort and soothe him, both praying for the miracle they knew would not happen. Asriel slumped in their hold, Chara's body still in his arms.
"They attacked me...the humans...I didn't do anything...I just...wanted to take Chara to the flowers they loved...I...I can't...feel...anything." Asriel said weakly, and in an instant, he reduced to dust among the flowers.
Toriel gave a strangled cry. Asgore stared down at his large hands, now powdered with the remains of their son. His shoulders shook and he clutched Toriel to him as they both wept over the remains of their children. They remained that way for a long time, and word spread of what had happened. Asgore had to force himself to pull away, to tend to Chara's remains, which were still corporeal unlike Asriel's.
It was a hard day for them as they went through the motions of the monster funeral the next day. Asgore looked over his people. The somber expressions, the deadened eyes. The little prince and Chara were gone...dead...and so were their hopes of ever being free. The humans had murdered Asriel within minutes of his arrival in the human world. He had barely made it back in time to die. The hopelessness of their imprisonment had only been deeper ingrained in the people's minds now after such a small, peaceful creature like Asriel had been so cruelly stamped out.
Something unfamiliar boiled up inside Asgore as he mourned his children, as he gazed upon his people and their deadened, hopeless expressions. The humans did this. His clawed fist clenched and he slammed his fist down on the podium, shattering it and sending a gasp through the crowd. "THIS IS THE END OF IT!" he roared. "I WILL DESTROY ANY HUMAN THAT FALLS! OUR PEOPLE WILL BE FREE! WE WILL LIVE ON THE SURFACE IN PEACE SOMEDAY AND I WILL DESTROY EVERY SINGLE HUMAN TO SEE THAT WE DO!"
There were gasps from the crowd, whispers, shock at the proclamation. Asgore was breathing heavily, he'd never felt such consuming anger and hatred than in that moment, and Toriel was staring at him wide eyed, horrified at his words. She had just lost her two children, killing innocents just for falling down here? It was...unspeakable. He couldn't mean it...but for all appearances it looked like he did and she could never abide such an atrocity.
"Asgore!" she said sharply once the crowd had been cleared. "You can't truly think that's the answer! Killing innocent humans to free our kind?"
"Innocent?! They attacked our race in the first place because they feared us and our abilities, they trapped us down here like rodents, despite being the ones that started the war in the first place. THEY MURDERED OUR SON!" He roared. "HOW CAN YOU CALL THEM INNOCENT?!"
Toriel felt anger welling in with her pain. Asgore had never raised his voice to her like that before. She'd never seen him this way, and she didn't like what she saw. "Chara was human! We were raising them as if they were our own."
"AND LOOK WHAT IT GOT US! ASRIEL IS DEAD BECAUSE OF THEM!" he snapped, his sharp canines bared in a rather bestial manner.
Toriel slapped him, tears in her eyes. "How dare you blame...how could you?"
Asgore had never raised his hand to Toriel before and he didn't now, but the look in his eyes didn't show repentance for the statement.
"I will not be part of this." said Toriel in a harsh tone, turning on her heel and leaving Asgore in the throne room.
Asgore watched Toriel leave silently, slumping heavily into his throne and burying his face in his hand. They had never fought like this before. In an instant their hopes and dreams, their beautiful children...were gone...and neither of them knew how to cope. The entire underground felt the shattering effect, and despite his grief...it was his duty to do something about it. For now he would leave Toriel be unless she approached him. They both needed time to think, and as much as he wanted to comfort her, he knew that he could not give her the comfort that she needed.
The two didn't speak to each other for a few days afterwards. Asgore brooded, the grief heavy on his normally gentle heart. He did regret his words, but now he was hearing reports of raised morale among the monsters. They all believed he would collect the human souls required to become godlike, break the barrier and rout the world of humans so that they didn't need to fear their threat any longer. Asgore gripped the arms of his throne, his eyes overcast by his thick blond fur. Could he really take hope away from them again so soon? Could their people cope with another such disappointment?
He and Gerson had agreed long ago that they were better off down here away from the humans...that if they returned to the surface the humans would just kill them. He didn't know what had come over him in that moment of despair...but everyone knew about it, and would expect him to follow through.
He rubbed faintly at his temples. It was true...if they returned to the surface the safest way for his people would likely be if there were no longer humans...but was that a cost he was willing to make the humans pay? He hadn't meant what he'd said about Chara...Asriel had been so close with them. He and Toriel had loved them as their own...losing them to that illness...feeling so helpless, that alone had broken their hearts. Asriel in particular had been fretting something terrible. Asgore had almost thought perhaps he'd known something he and Toriel had not. Asriel had always been a sensitive child and Chara had once said they missed some special golden flowers that grew where they had come from. It had been their dying wish and Asriel had taken it on himself to take Chara to them. Neither he nor Toriel had suspected until he had already absorbed Chara's soul and was too far for them to intervene.
He closed his eyes, resting his chin on his fuzzy knuckles, his elbows rested on the armrests as he pondered their situation sadly. He knew that Toriel would want him to take back what he had said. Hope or not, she'd never condone the killing of humans that came below, and certainly not the murder of all human kind. He...didn't want that either. How he wished there was another way to return to the world above without harming anyone... to be accepted by humanity peacefully and just being allowed to live...but perhaps that was a fantasy...a dangerous lie that would lead to their destruction if they ever did attempt to peacefully rejoin the surface.. He pinched the bridge of his snout.
Tears glistened in the corner of his eyes. What had been done to Asriel had shown just how little the humans had changed in the time that they had been below. One look at a monster and that was how they responded...no questions asked. His sweet, innocent child had turned into dust in his arms all because he had tried to fulfill a human's dying wish.
Toriel approached him on the third day of their silence. "Asgore, you have to reverse that edict. Even if you went through with it who knows how long that would take? You can't really mean to sink to a common murderer?"
"I cannot do that, Toriel." said Asgore quietly. "Our people need to believe in hope, and my words have given that to them again. It will take time to gather the souls.."
Toriel's face hardened. "If you go through with this I will not be there to help you. With anything."
"Toriel please listen..."
"I've heard enough." she said waspishly. "I'm taking Chara with me." she said and turned on her heel. "They won't be the first of your body count."
Asgore extended a hand after her wanting to stop her to say something, anything to make her stay, but he knew his Toriel all too well. She wasn't making an idle threat, and he could not go back on his word. His head was a bit clearer than it had been when he had spoken, and he had thought over the options, but none of them were guaranteed, and none of them were a fast answer.
That evening he watched from the window as Toriel disappeared from the castle, taking the body of their human child with her to bury elsewhere. She had refused to speak to him since he had told her he would not overturn his edict. With any fortune humans wouldn't just come falling in like Chara had. As much as he realized their souls were needed, he dreaded the thought of harming anyone. However, maintaining he would follow through would buy him time, perhaps there were other answers he could pursue, but for now...he saw the morale of his people rising. Doubtlessly it disgusted Toriel just as much as he did, that they were eager for all this to happen. He did not know where she had gone, but he heard nothing more from her after that day.
He sat silently on his throne, Toriel's throne had been set back toward the back of the room a day or so back, a white sheet placed over it to keep it preserved. Perhaps one day she would sit at his side again. Perhaps one day she would see the truth of what it was he was really hoping to do.
He'd made a pot of tea to try to soothe his aching heart, but the full cup was now cooled in his hands without him having swallowed a single drop. He was staring down at his reflection in the amber liquid. His eyes were so worn and weary, his thick mane rather disheveled. He hadn't looked this rough since the day that Asriel had been born and he hadn't slept for a few days.
Just a week before all had been right inside their little world. He had been raising two adorable children with the love of his life. Hopes of humans learning that Monsters were not to be feared had been growing, but now...Chara was gone, Asriel was gone...and Tori...his Toriel had turned on him. He couldn't fault her. He knew exactly where she was coming from, to his own ears it sounded nothing short of murder, but what could he do? Pretend he didn't see what his people truly desired? What they deserved to have? Most Monsters had never even seen the sun before it had been so long ago. Even to him it was a faded memory.
He rose to his feet, setting the tea down on the cushion. He couldn't just sit there feeling sorry for himself. He watered his precious flowerbed, then decided it was time to go out. He composed himself and decided to take a visit to the royal scientist. Perhaps Gaster would be able to open up new avenues to them, some alternative that was better than murdering humans to take their souls. It would at least be a start. His own heart shattered in as many pieces as his child, he knew he had to continue on. Too many people relied on him to falter.
Author's note: Good heavens it's been a long time since I've felt moved to write a fanfiction. I have a general idea of where I want this to go and approximately how long, but I'll be continuing to study the lore of the game and try to keep it in respectful parameters of the events of the game, as I have always tried to do in my fan works. I welcome feedback, and suggestions. Just remember, this is still my baby, and don't be offended if I don't add something in you were wanting to see. I'm not all together certain how I'm going to handle the humans that came down yet, something I want to do further research on particularly since there's debate on whether Asgore did actually kill all of the humans himself. Still, this is the beginning and as you can see, will be mainly Asgore-centric. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter and please feel free to send me feedback. Thank you!