As Frisk ran through the tunnel after Toriel, Simon in tow behind her, the path became brighter with each step. At the end of the tunnel was the source, a massive cavern lit up by a magical fire above. The cavern they had arrived in housed a giant purple castle surrounded by purple brick towers and buildings. Frisk and Simon stood in the courtyard of the royal structure before them, surrounded by red flowers, and faced the split stairway to the entrance. The structure, in its majesty and size, was an awesome sight to behold. Even though Simon began to notice the plants growing along its walls, as well as the broken and crumbling pieces of the walls they covered, he could not discount the beauty it still held and the strength to keep on this way.
"With the shadow of this ruined structure looming above us, Simon," Frisk said wonderingly, turning towards the awestruck Simon, "Aren't you just filled with…" Frisk scrunched up her face, going deep into thought. Simon blinked his eyes and snapped himself back to reality, turning towards Frisk to respond. Just as Simon opened his mouth, Frisk lifted her head and shouted, "DETERMINATION!", seemingly pushing Simon back with her voice, "It fills you with determination, doesn't it Simon?" Catching himself, Simon stood back upright, looking at Frisk confused.
"Determination?" he quietly answered, puzzled by her word choice.
"Well," she started, turning towards the structure, "Even though it is crumbling and falling apart, the castle still stands at full strength. It just makes you feel like you can push through anything life throws at you!" Frisk turned back to Simon, her face beaming. "I feel determined! I want to stand tall like those ruins." Simon stared at the ruins, forlorn. He wanted to be like them, to stay strong through what he had experienced. Instead, he had run away from what hurt him like a coward.
"Right inside this door, children," Toriel shouted from the top of the stairs, pointing towards a doorless opening surrounded by vines. Frisk, with her arm firmly clasped on Simon's arm, pulled her sullen companion up the stairs. Once Toriel was sure that the children were still following, she walked through the doorway. Still convinced that this goat creature was leading them into a trap, Simon planted his feet to stop and save Frisk. For a second, Simon's strength won, keeping the small girl from budging him another inch. Then, with a tremendous pull, Frisk yanked Simon in front of her. His apathy was nothing compared to her boundless energy.
"Don't be afraid," Frisk said teasingly, "Just be determined!" Frisk, placing both hands on Simon, shoved him through the doorway. Simon stumbled backwards through the opening, running right into the large, fluffy robed guide. Simon heard a giggle above him as Frisk walked to meet him.
"Welcome to your new home, innocent ones." Toriel proclaimed as she placed her hand on Simon's shoulder. "Allow me to educate you in the operation of the RUINS." Simon shuddered at the beast's touch, readying himself for what was to come. To his surprise, Toriel walked away from him. Frisk, standing in front of Simon, sidestepped around him to watch the goat creature. He heard five clicks, and then nothing. Scared, Simon slowly turned around to see Frisk bring her hands upto applaud an opened door, six tiles on the floor (four of which were depressed), and a switch residing on the opposite wall.
"The RUINS are full of puzzles." Toriel explained, "Ancient fusions between diversions and door keys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them."
"See? I told you she'd show us the way," Frisk whispered to Simon very matter of factly. Seeing Frisk so carefree and trusting put Simon at ease. He relaxed his muscles, no longer ready to spring into action at any moment. Feeling satisfied with simply calming Simon, Frisk ran over to the buttons and examined them closely. Simon walked over to a button left unpressed, checking over it as well. Leaving the children to their own devices, Toriel left through the opened doorway to wait for the children.
"Why do they have a door locked with a puzzle facing the tunnels?" Simon thought out loud, his ponderings falling upon the Frisk's ears.
"So Toriel can show the new people about puzzles," Frisk answered, "Weren't you paying attention? You dummy." Like the child she was, she playfully stuck her tongue out at Simon. He didn't notice, being lost in thought as he fearfully imagined the implications of the situation. "Hey Simon!" Frisk said, bringing Simon back to the Underground. "We should go follow Toriel so we can get out of here." She turned and jogged out of the room, leaving him alone. Simon turned to follow when he saw a small, yellow flower out of the corner of his eye. He hurriedly turned towards the door from which they entered. His eyes frantically searched the area to no avail, as the flower seemingly disappeared. Not wanting to be alone to the shadows which taunted him, Simon ran in a panic to the next room.
" -labelled the ones that you need to flip," Toriel finished explaining to an attentive Frisk. Simon burst into the room, panting heavily, as Toriel turned to walk towards the other end of the room. Frisk, not noticing Simon, excitedly ran towards the nearest switch as indicated by bright, yellow arrows. Simon, not caring for the beastman's puzzles, instead looked for a way out. Over a couple of wooden bridges and past Toriel standing guard on the farther one, there was a closed door with the same symbols that were found all throughout the RUINS. With his eyes set on the destination, Simon crossed the streams of water, rather than taking the bridges, in order to avoid falling into the creature's clutches.
"What are you doing?" shouted Toriel, perplexed by Simon's rash action. Simon, ignoring the beastman's inquiries, stopped right before the door. The large door seemed sturdy, refusing to budge as Simon shoved himself against it. As he pushed his entire body against the door, he noticed a small hole in the middle that became illuminated as his Core Drill began flashing green light. Slowly, Simon took his hands off the door and grabbed his Core Drill. For a moment he hesitated, but all doubt left him once the hole started the glow in the same fashion. Undaunted by the heavy steps behind him, Simon shoved the Core Drill into the door and turned it like a key.
The door became consumed with green light, and then promptly disappeared. From behind him, SImon heard soft footsteps as Frisk walked around Toriel to stand next to Simon.
"That was cool!" Frisk exclaimed, her face beaming with excitement. "Looks like you're really getting the hang of the puzzles aren't you?" Frisk complimented, causing Simon to blush again. The girl kept finding ways to lighten his spirits, but his countenance reverted once he heard the heavy footsteps of the beastman behind him.
"Let us move to the next room," Toriel commanded quickly and nervously. Simon could see sweat building upon her forehead and a shaky look in her eyes.
"You can solve the next puzzle too, can't you Simon?" Frisk asked Simon, "I believe in you." Frisk flashed Simon an encouraging smile, reminding him of his inspiring older brother. Before Simon could reminisce further, Toriel placed her hands on the children's backs, pushing them into the next room.
Once in the adjacent room, Toriel stepped in front of them and stopped next to a stuffed training dummy. Still in a daze, Simon only caught bits and pieces of the beastman's explanation. He heard a few important snippets, such as "monsters may attack you" and "you will enter a FIGHT." Other than that, Simon could not keep Kamina's memory from repeating inside of his head. Frisk had brought it back, digging up the feelings he had stowed away. Simon brought his hands to his ears as his mind kept repeating the scene to him, his body trembling. He saw Gurren's cockpit shattering as the spear entered from below, heard the conjoined crunch of shattering bones and metal, replayed to the harrowing scream of Kamina over and over and over and over and
SNAP.
As he came back to reality, Simon saw his hand lodged within the training dummy's head, with stuffing and fabric surrounding his hand as well as the adjacent area. He had severed the wooden spine that had connected the head to the deflated body that lay on the floor. He didn't remember swinging his arm, his fist wielding the Core Drill, towards the dummy in the first place. He had gone from barely listening to Toriel to having the metallic necklace lodged in the dummy's spine. He turned towards the others to see Frisk cowering behind the fur of Toriel's legs. Frisk stared at Simon with neither wonder, sadness, nor anger. It was an expression of pure fear. Her eyes pierced to his soul, as if she saw him as the monster rather than the beastman she clung to. Simon swelled with disappointment, sadness, and confusion, muddling his consciousness. Almost reactively , Simon ran into the next room.
"Child, wait!"
Simon heard Toriel's concerned shouts slowly fade away as he ran through the next room. The walls of purple brick blurred together as he ran. They became coherent again once he skidded to a halt in front of a spiked bridge covering an expanse of shallow water. Hearing loud booming footsteps behind him, as well as the small pitter-patter alongside it, he leapt into the water. He ran as fast as he could, sloshing through the pool to the exit as Toriel followed quickly behind through the spike puzzle. The water was slowing him, splashing onto his jacket and shorts, yet he still kept ahead of the beastman. Simon reached the other side and climbed up into the doorway.
"It's dangerous past there! Please wait!" Toriel shouted frantically. Toriel was still a few meters away holding Frisk's hand as she gave chase, so Simon took the opportunity to keep running. Running was what he was good at. He wasn't strong like Kamina or these ruins, so he ran from his problems. They couldn't hurt him if they couldn't catch him. So Simon kept running, and running, and running. He passed through a long hall, past frogs and flowers, until he heard the crackling of floor tiles. He fell in what seemed like slow motion into a bed of red rose petals as the world went dark.
Simon awoke to a frog licking his face. The cold, thin, slimy appendage streaked itself along Simon's arm, sending cold shivers up his spine. He shot up onto his feet, ready for action. Without a weapon other than his Core Drill, Simon searched through the petals for a weapon. At the bottom he found a stick which he then raised high above his head to bring down upon the monstrous frog-creature. It shattered upon contact with the monster's skull, but the force was enough to knock the creature unconscious. Terrified, Simon dropped his shattered weapon and ran towards the stairs he found in front of him. He climbed back to the top, finding the hallway and hole he had fallen down behind him. In the air were moans of pain propagated by wispy spirits, floating around on butterfly wings with a sullen expression. The creatures seemed to ignore him, so he paid them no heed and simply took off along his original route to escape.
His run went mostly unhindered, as the puzzles in front of him had been solved. He inferred that Toriel and Frisk had gone ahead to… somewhere. He did not know where the goat beastman had been leading them, but he did not have any good premonitions about their destination. Simon picked up his speed to catch up. Even if Frisk was fearful of him, he had to save her. He didn't know if he could, but he still had to try. His legs carried him farther and farther into the ruins, until he came to a fork in the road. Keeping his momentum, he carried on straight through a doorway and out onto a balcony. He stood on the edge of the platform when he finally came to a stop, looking out upon an old city, ruined like the castle. It was a breathtaking sight, colored all in purple bricks and covered in green vines. To his left, he saw a small lonely house in the ruins active with smoke billowing out of the chimney. He inferred that the separate path at the fork lead to there, and that Frisk had been taken to it. Turning around, Simon tripped on a small box laying haphazardly on the floor. Like the door he had seen before, a Core Drill sized hole began to glow. Unlocking the box revealed to Simon his prize: a weapon. A small toy knife lay within the box, though its metal gleamed and its edges seemed sharp. Without Lagann he had no way to defend himself or Frisk, so he lifted the knife out of the box. It seemed to have the weight of a real knife as well, but its oversized and cartoonish nature gave it the feeling of a replica.
"Against the beastmen, any weapon is better than no weapon," he muttered to himself, stuffing the knife into his shorts. Simon, calmed and comforted by his new means of self-defence, walked slowly back to the path's fork, turned right, and advanced to the small house. As he came closer to the purple dwelling, the scent of butterscotch and cinnamon became more powerful. Simon could have sworn that he smelled butterscotch cinnamon pie being made. At the door of the house, the scent was so strong that he had became engrossed in it, remembering the familiar scent of home-baked goods. His tense shoulders relaxed until he stiffened at the sound of the fast, loud footsteps of Toriel.
"I want to go home!" was Frisk's desperate cry towards the rampaging creature. Both sets of footsteps, loud and quiet, decrescendoed into low vibrations as they descended what sounded to be stairs. Simon ran inside the small house to follow, immediately hopping down steps. As he lowered himself towards a long tunnel underneath the house, he could hear Toriel's dissatisfied and angry words echoing through the cavern.
"Ahead of us lies the end of the RUINS. A one-way exit to the rest of the underground. I'm going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again" Toriel growled, with the end of her statements being punctuated by Frisk's anguished cry.
"Please," Frisk pleaded, "I just want to go home. My parents…" Frisk broke into sobs, her teardrops echoing loudly towards Simon, who had finished his descent. Farther down the long hallway, he heard Toriel's loud hush overpower Frisk's cries.
"Every human that falls down here meets the same fate." Toriel sighed, sounding solemn. "I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave." Toriel paused, choking on her own words.
"They die." The words resounded throughout the tunnel, stunning Simon and freezing him in place. Frisk's sobs suddenly stopped, shocked by the sheer audacity of the goat creature's statement. "You naive child…" Toriel groaned, "If you leave the RUINS… They…" Toriel's voice turned into a low growl as she continued, "ASGORE… will kill you."
Simon seethed with rage. The beastmen had taken many humans, and he had now found the source. He could end it all, exiting the RUINS would surely lead to ASGORE. Simon reached for the knife in his pocket, gripping the handle tightly, as he sprinted towards Toriel's voice. He followed quickly behind, ignoring all of Toriel's explanations and excuses to Frisk. He kept moving forward until he met the child and beastman at a large door, adorned with the symbol upon her chest and the one on the first door.
"You want to leave so badly?" Toriel growled, turning back towards the children.
"Yes." snapped Simon. His baggy, soulless eyes burned with anger and a desire to kill. Frisk turned towards her savior but seemed to lose hope in her eyes once she recognized him.
"You are just like the others," Toriel snarled, "There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself. Prove to me you are strong enough to survive." Simon slowly slipped the knife out of his pants and Frisk gasped, seeing her own reflection on the shiny surface of the blade.
"Please," Frisk whimpered quietly, "Please don't do this Simon… Toriel... " Frisk curled into a fetal position, whispering "I just want to go home" in between sobs.
Like when Flowey had attacked, the chalk square surrounded them as darkness descended and Toriel stood tall, readying herself for battle. Simon gripped the knife harder as his Core Drill glowed in a fierce green ambience. The toy knife transformed itself in his hand into a familiar tool: a drill. Wielding his weapon of choice, Simon charged Toriel as she raised her hand to hurl flames that were seemingly conjured from the air itself. The sharp point pierced right through her soft body, poking out of the other side onto the door. Toriel's eyes widened and her breathing became heavy as she felt her life force draining.
"Y… You... really hate me that much?" Toriel stammered, her body shaking as she stared at her killer. Frisk screamed as she looked up to see Toriel's fading body. "Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you here…" she weakly hissed, "Not you… but them!" Toriel's face turned into a crooked smile as she slowly laughed. Simon pulled the drill out of her chest, and she faded away into dust. Frisk let out a final, ear shattering shriek before falling unconscious, her mind struggling to handle the shock of the events. A familiar hole shined in the door, beckoning Simon towards it.
Picking up the unconscious Frisk, Simon slowly proceeded through the doorway, unlocking it with his Core Drill. Before him was a long hallway that slowly became brighter. As he walked down the path, he stared at the unconscious Frisk and pondered on his actions. He wondered if Toriel had really needed to die, as the voices inside his mind argued if she was a beastman intending them harm or if she was a nice, gentle creature sincerely wanting their safety. He was in distress, feeling guilty over his rash decision in the heat of the moment. Frisk seemed to hold Toriel dear, yet he had still killed her. This quiet introspection lasted until he passed into a mundane dark room inhabited by a familiar yellow flower. Simon seized up in horror, clenching Frisk tight to him, as the flower cackled with insane laughter.
"You're not really human, are you? No. You're empty inside. Just like me. In fact…" Flowey rambled, his face turning to a devilish grin that bared his teeth. "You're Simon, right? Listen, I have a plan to become all powerful. Even more powerful than you and your determination, using Spiral Power. You seem to have a bit of it yourself."
Simon, keeping tight hold on Frisk, ran, terror stricken, away from Flowey. He quickly fled out of the door into the Underground.
"Let's turn them all to dust." the flower whispered sliding back down into the ground.
Thanks to all those who have followed and favorited the story! The chapters will be posted on a weekly basis, coming out on either Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully schoolwork and procrastination don't push it from those days.
Special thanks to Tmanmaniac122 for being an editor for the story to make sure it grammatically makes sense and I don't look like an idiot.