Chapter Two
(Frisk is our narrator!)

Where was I?

I didn't recognize this room. It wasn't a hospital room. It looked more like a guest room, or maybe a child's bedroom. A child's drawing of a flower hung on the wall behind my head.

I squeezed my eyes shut, concentrating. The last thing I remembered was the doctor, I think it was the doctor, telling me I was going into surgery, which means I survived the fall and someone had found me in time to get help. I rolled from my side to my back and sat up with a jolt, pressing my fists against my eyes. Oh God... It felt like someone had jabbed a million needles into the back of my head!

A voice wrapped around the inside of my ear. "Woah there! Don't move around so much. You're still healing."

My hands dropped to my lap, still fisted, eyes squeezed shut, and breathing slowly to get the pain under control. "Where am I? What hospital is this?"

"You are currently several hundred feet under Mt. Ebott and this isn't a hospital. It's Prince Asriel Dreemurr's home."

I blinked and looked around for the person talking to me. I saw no one, and looked for a camera or a speaker. Nothing. "Where are you? Who are you?"

"Ah yeah. I need to explain that part. I'm C, an artificial intelligence based on the personality of Chara Dreemurr, Asriel's late brother. And I'm talking to you from inside your head."

"Impossible."

"Yeah. Remember that pain from sitting up? That was because you rolled back onto my implant. You know what? Let's short cut this. Have a look at the cabin in your head. I'm sitting on the deck off the front."

The cabin in my...? My safe place? I closed my eyes and thought of the cabin I'd constructed with the help of the unit psychologist before I'd first been sent into combat. A brown haired, teen boy wearing a green striped shirt and long, dark pants sat on the edge of the deck, swinging his legs a little. His eyes were blood red.

He waved. "Hey."

I shook my head for a moment and looked in a mirror hanging on the wall. There were strange blue lines under my skin coming up to cup the edges of my cheeks in the back. Turning my head, I saw that my hair had been cut away and a chip of some sort was attached to my neck. I reached up to touch it.

"Wait! Don't!"

I hissed in pain, pulling my hand away.

"Yeah. It's going to hurt for a bit."

I grimaced, eyes squeezed shut in pain. "Why do I have you attached to my head?"

"To keep you from killing people."

I hissed again. "I didn't realize that was an issue."

"Well, you have killed a lot of people."

I blinked and sat there, staring at myself. I didn't really have anything to say to that.

No. Wait. This didn't add up.

"You said I was under the mountain and I'm not in a hospital. If that's true, how would you know anything about my military record?"

The teen shrugged. "I don't. I just know that you have a lot of LOVE and you keep it in the basement of the cabin."

"Love? Love isn't the word I would use to describe what I keep down there."

"Not love. LOVE. It means Level Of ViolencE. Your level is... well... yeah, I didn't think anyone could have one like that and be something other than a high functioning sociopath. But, uh, you seem pretty well adjusted."

I grimaced. "Thanks. So how long have you been conscious?"

"What?"

"You're an AI, but you talk like an actual human being."

The teen shrugged. "Nope. Just a well programmed piece of machinery."

Riiiiiiiight. I sighed and looked at myself in the mirror. To say I looked like hell, didn't even begin to cover it. My long braid was gone, cut off at some point during surgery. My back had a long scar from a gash and...

"How long has it been since I fell?"

"A little more than 48 hours."

"Impossible. There is absolutely no way the gash on my back would have healed that fast." I pulled the blanket up and around my shoulders, shivering despite the hospital gown.

The teen nodded. "Under normal circumstances, I'd agree, but we're talking about my brother, and he's a miracle worker."

Brother, huh? Yeah. He was just an AI. Years of course work in logistical data said otherwise. And my bullshit meter agreed.

I looked at the IV my arm was attached too. One of the bags was clearly fluid to keep my hydrated, but I didn't know what was in the other one. It was marked with a code, but no explanation of contents. It wasn't blood. Maybe the gash on my back hadn't been that deep? Maybe the hole itself wasn't as deep as I'd originally thought when I first saw it? Or maybe I was found so quickly, I hadn't bled much. I moved my legs, wiggling my toes a little. Despite it being extremely ill advised to do so, I gingerly got out of bed.

"Uh... You should wait for Asriel to come back. Both of your legs were broken."

'Were' being the key word. I stood easily. I pulled the gown around me a bit tighter, tying the strings in the back. Pulling the IV stand along, I walked to the door and opened it to a large, bug like creature flying just outside. It cried mournfully and flew away quickly, the very definition of more scared of me than I could ever be of it. It hid in the open doorway to the left, its head peeking just enough to watch me.

C said nothing, but looked nervous, like he wasn't sure what to do. Yeah. He's totally just a program.

"What was that?"

C frowned. "It's a kind of monster called a 'Whinsum.' They're skittish and afraid of their own shadows."

In the direction opposite of where it flew, a mouthwatering smell floated toward me. I headed for the smell and the sound of someone working in a kitchen somewhere. What I took to be a bunch of very large frogs slept in the hallway along the walls, leaving a carpeted path down the middle. Only one stirred as I passed, but only enough to yawn sleepily and turn over.

"What are these?"

C's voice wrapped around the inside of my ears again. "Froggits. I believe they are the ones that found you first."

I walked into a large living room with a four seat dining table off to one side and a large, comfy chair in front of a crackling, fire place. A very large, comfy chair. I'd feel like a child sitting in it. I stood next to the fire for a moment, warming myself against the general chill in the air and wishing I'd grabbed a blanket from the bed. Several spiders crawled along the wall. They were bigger than your average spider, but also a little cartoonish in look. Like large balls with eight legs protruding out the sides.

The sound of utensils hitting a plate grabbed my attention and I crept to the kitchen. Taking a peek inside, I found myself staring at the back of a towering man in a purple hoodie and black jeans with long white hair trailing down his back, the tips of which appeared to have been 'dip dyed' a dark indigo. He was at least seven foot tall. He cut a slice from a massive pie and carefully rested it on a plate.

"Asriel?" I called.

He paused and turned, but what greeted me wasn't a man's face. It was the short snout of a goat with fur as white as snow. Two lines of black fur came up on either side of his face, ending in sharp points under the eyes. Two horns protruded from his head. The front of his hoodie was faded from years of wear, but the cracked, white lettering still read 'New Home School of Medicine.' He smiled warmly, a little embarrassed.

"I don't remember telling you my name." His voice was warm and inviting, his presence exuding an overwhelming feeling of both power and safety.

I shifted a little, feeling suddenly very small and vulnerable. "C told me."

He sighed in relief, violet eyes closing for a moment. "Then it's working properly." He came toward me, reaching out with both hands to touch either side of my face.

I stiffened for a moment and relaxed into the warmth of his hands. Reaching up, I touched his hair, running my fingers through it. How strange that such a creature looked so beautiful. He didn't pull away from my touch, letting my fingers trace the black lines on his face.

Careful not to touch the implants, he gave me an apologetic smile. "I could have done a much better job when I cut off your hair."

I dropped my hands to my side. "You aren't surprised that I'm walking. C said both of my legs had broken in the fall."

Asriel touched the unknown IV bag. "This would be why. It's a concoction I developed a few years ago with the help of the last human who fell down here."

Without even thinking about it, I switched gears. "How many humans have fallen down here?"

He looked a little surprised at the question. "You would be the eighth."

"Can you confirm their names?"

"Yes..."

"Where are my things?" I turned my head too quickly to look to the hallway and the pain buckled my knees.

Asriel caught me, easily lifting me and the IV stand, and carrying me to the table while I clutched at my head. "Sit." He placed a blanket over my legs before disappearing into the kitchen and coming back with the pie. It smelled heavily of butterscotch and was topped with whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon. "Eat this. It's butterscotch-cinnamon pie. My mother's recipe and monster food. It will heal the last of the damage from the fall and cure the pain."

I wasn't sure I believed the healing part, but I was hungry enough that it didn't matter. I dug in and the first bite melted like buttery, cinnamon-y heaven on my tongue. I finished the pie a little too fast. Not that Asriel noticed. He'd left the room and come back with my things. Or rather, my things minus my clothing. Which wasn't that surprising. He'd likely had to cut them off of me which would have left them in tatters. All that he had was my phone and my wallet.

"My backpack?"

Asriel shook his head. "You didn't have one on you, but I also didn't take the time to look around and see if you had anything else. It may have landed elsewhere. Once I'm sure that you're able to be about, we'll go look for it." He set a steaming cup of tea in front of me. "Why are you interested in how many have fallen?"

I reached back and gingerly touched the chip on the implant. It didn't hurt at all. "It's why I was on the mountain. I'm investigating the disappearances of several people." I looked at the tea. And then back at him. "What are you?"

He sat down across from me with his own cup of tea. "Goat monster. Specifically speaking, I'm what's referred to as a 'boss monster,' making me one of the more powerful monsters of my kind."

Powerful was right, but not the kind I associated with a threat. It was rather comforting to be here.

"Az has that effect on people," C supplied.

Speaking from experience?

"That and watching every other human who's fallen down here do the same thing."

I frowned at that. I wasn't exactly comfortable with someone being privy to all of my thoughts let alone commenting on them. C didn't respond to that one.

Asriel regarded me for a moment. "You aren't upset enough with your situation. Even the other humans who've fallen down here where shocked by their predicament."

I looked him in the eyes. "Do you know what someone burned to death by white phosphorus looks like?"

"No..."

"I do. This is not particularly upsetting."

His jaw dropped, revealing sharp canines, before blinking rapidly. "What have you done?!"

I shook my head, not particularly interested in really remembering that moment. "Not me. It's what was left of two friends when they refused to reveal information under torture." I stared down into my tea. "There's this legend my father liked to tell me before bed. The story goes that hundreds of years ago, humans and monsters lived together until a war broke out. The monsters left, hiding away in secret place. The legend says that monsters will return after a time of great strife to bolster us and make us strong in the eyes of the world." I sipped the tea.

Asriel frowned. "We didn't leave. We were trapped down here, locked inside the mountain."

"Is there no way out?"

He nodded. "There is. If you go to the other end of the cavern, you will reach New Home, the capitol city. If you go through my father's house you will reach his throne room. Behind that room is the barrier that traps monsters Underground. To pass through requires a human and a monster soul. You would have to take a monster's soul to leave."

I sighed. "If what C said about me is true, then I'm sure that you can see it too. That thing you call LOVE. I've long had my fill of taking lives." I cocked my head to the side. "You said I would need a monster soul in order to pass through. What does it take to break it?"

"Seven human souls."

"But I'm the eighth person to fall."

C sighed heavily from where he sat on the deck.

Asriel set down his tea. "When my brother died, our mother absorbed his soul to take his body across the barrier and bury him in the freedom we all longed for. She was attacked on the way home and died on the floor of the throne room. After that, my father declared war on humanity and I left." He sighed. "Five of the other six died as they traveled to New Home. Though some of them remained with me for a while, I can't cure homesickness. The sixth one lived out her life in the city just beyond this house."

"How did they die?"

"Age, the royal guard, the general danger of the wilder places in the Underground, encounters with monsters who didn't understand the person they interacted with weren't so hardy."

"So that makes me the seventh."

He cocked his head to the side, looking at me in a very interested way. "You aren't afraid that I'll turn you over?"

I rolled my eyes and counted off on my fingers. "You lost your human brother to death. You left your father over a declaration of war on humans. You obviously helped the humans who fell. And you saved my life." I put my hands down. "I'm not all that worried."

Asriel smiled as he sipped his tea. "You wanted their names."

I nodded. "When I find my backpack. My notes are in there and I'm looking for far more than seven people." I tapped at my phone. The front was shattered, but it still turned on. Thank God for gorilla glass. I punched in my password and hoping for a signal. I found one, but it wasn't on a connection my phone was familiar with. Did monsters have a cellphone system down here? If so, how did it work in a cavern? I turned the phone off to conserve the battery. "How soon can we go?"

"As soon as I give you a checkup." He smiled a little. "And find you some clothes."

I followed him back down the hallway filled with sleeping Froggits to the room the Whinsum had hidden in. Inside was a laboratory of stainless steel cabinets, refrigerators, incubators, and shiny counter tops. The white tile floor gleamed under my feet. My clothing, or what was left of it, was piled in a bag on one of the counters. I dug around and found my shoes were still in pretty good condition so I pulled them out. Asriel directed me to sit on the table in the middle of the room. After checking my vitals, he removed the IVs, flushed the stent, and removed it, bandaging my hand.

He gently tapped the chip. "Can you hear me, C?"

This time the voice came from the chip itself. "Yeah." A red hologram appeared on my shoulder of the same teen who'd been sitting on the deck. "Her rib cage is back in place. Her legs are, if walking around wasn't proof enough, fully healed. Her brain function is normal even with the implant in place, so besides some bruising, she's okay to be up and about."

Asriel nodded and lead me back into the hall. He asked the Froggits to move and they did, revealing a door I hadn't noticed when I first came down the hall. He led me into what was clearly his bedroom by the size of the bed alone, and opened the closet. Digging around, he pulled out a blue and purple striped sweater and a pair of blue jeans, handing them to me.

"These belonged to Chara. They should fit."

I pulled on the jeans and found them snug, but not too snug. I untied the strings on the gown, letting it drop to pull on the sweater. Asriel flushed, looking away quickly.

I snorted. "You operated on me. You don't get to be embarrassed about seeing me in any state of undress."

"Not the point."

I smiled, patting his arm when finished. "I am dressed again, Sir Knight."

He turned, head held to the side, questioningly. "Ready? It's a bit of a trek."

I nodded once.

We left the house by the front door, walking past a strange black tree. Red leaves, freshly fallen, gathered around its base. Several monsters followed along with us, none seeming particularly threatened by my presence. Or at least, were comforted at Asriel's. After walking through a maze of rooms we came to a portcullis and a small patch of grass. The spiders crawled ahead of us and came back with my backpack. I hadn't put anything particularly delicate inside, so while my notebook was a bit beaten up, it'd survived the fall. I looked to the area ahead, just making out a patch of golden flowers.

"I want to see where I fell."

Asriel nodded and motioned me forward. "That patch of flowers is my mother's final resting place. That's where you landed."

I nodded and walked through the portcullis, coming to stand at the edge of the flowers, and froze. I stared at the too large puddle of congealed blood for several long moments before looking up at the insane height from which I fell. I started shaking.

"How...? How am l still alive?"

Mom. Oh God. Mom! How could I have done this to her? To have been so reckless? Hadn't she suffered enough losing Dad? She'd been proud that I'd been chosen for the Project during the war, but devastated at the knowledge that I, her only child, would likely never come home. How could I have come through war simply to disappear on her like this?

The tears came unbidden and I covered my face with my hands, shoulders heaving. Asriel's arms wrapped around me and I turned, weeping against his chest.

I wasn't sure how I got back to the house, only that when I'd stopped crying, I was sitting at the table with a meal in front of me.

C watched me from his perch on my shoulder. "You okay?"

I pushed the food around the plate listlessly. "I don't know."

"So what did you mean by 'never coming home?'" When I didn't respond, the hologram moved to float in front of my face. "Well?"

"Sorry. Just trying to think of a way to talk about it without revealing classified information." I took a bite of the red lentil chili in front of me just to have something to occupy me.

"Liar. It's about the basement in your head."

Asriel sat down opposite me with a cup of tea. "What is C talking about?"

I sighed, staring at the chili. "Does monster medicine have a concept of a 'memory palace' or a 'safe place' in your head?"

He nodded.

"In mine is a basement and that's where I keep all of my memories from the war. I suppose, the most basic answer to the question is that the Project I was chosen for during wartime doesn't have a great survival rate. Of the fifteen chosen, only six of us came home, and that was only because the war didn't last too long."

"Does the country I'm living under go to war often?"

I shook my head. "No. We're just a nice cache of natural resources with a stable population, and surrounded on all sides by enemies who'd like to take advantage of that." I frowned and changed the topic, pulling my notebook from my pack. "What were the names of the fallen?"

"Chara never revealed a last name. After him was Cecilia Indigo, Sabri Vinil, Euridice Boyd, Leo Cam, Heidi Jaydon, and Hector Iola."

I frowned. "Leo Cam and Heidi Jaydon are on my list, but the rest of the names you gave aren't."

"I didn't ask to see their IDs when they fell. They may have lied about their names."

I thought about that for a moment. "Their ages?"

Asriel shook his head. "On that, I have little memory. With the exception of Cecilia and Hector, they were all young adults by human reckoning. Both Cecilia and Hector were adolescents."

"By human reckoning?"

"I was a hundred and fifty years old when Chara died. That made me just barely old enough to be considered an adult among monsters."

"And you went to med school?"

He shrugged. "Schooling is different from what I understand happens above ground. Down here, you go directly from primary school to a school designed for your chosen career path. Even before I met Chara, I was already in my residency."

"Best big brother ever," C added.

Yeah. He's totally just an AI. "What happened to the children?"

"Cecilia lived here until she felt old enough to live on her on and moved into the city. She lived there until her death." Asriel smiled. "Ah, but she made a feisty old lady!" He frowned then. "Hector snuck out one night. I don't know what happened to him after that, but the royal guard reported that a new human soul had been obtained a little while later."

I looked down at my notes and the information my employer had given me. "And the adults?"

Asriel shook his head. "Each left of their own accord and I had no right to stop them." He cocked his head to the side. "It's interesting that Heidi and Leo are on your list."

I looked up at him. "Why?"

"They both fell over a hundred years ago."

I blinked at him for a moment. "That does not add up with my information."

Asriel raised an eyebrow. "People who walk up the mountain disappear forever, right? Who asked you to investigate?"

I looked down at my list. Each of the people listed had been an existing missing persons' case, but I'd not checked the dates on them. The phone call I'd received had come on a secured number, and I'd been asked to look into the cases for a substantial sum of money... but also as a favor to my former command. I did not like the implications of that thought. I closed the notebook and finished the chili.

"What will you do now?"

"I was asked to investigate the disappearances, and I at least have a lead on two, so I'll follow their trail to the end."

Asriel looked up at the clock on the wall. "You may want to wait till tomorrow. It's getting rather late. I'm sure you'd like a shower."

I grimaced and reached back to touch the chip attached to the back of my neck. "Will the implant take water hitting it?"

He nodded.

"Was it really necessary to put that kind of leash on me?"

The goat monster sighed. "While I will not easily take the life of another, I have a duty to keep my people safe. So unless there's something you can say to convince me that you aren't a threat to my charges, the implant stays."

I stared at my empty bowl. Despite the ongoing therapy before, during, and after the war to prepare me for and then help me deal with the horrors I'd both see and be expected to take part in, I couldn't say that I could just 'turn off' years of training when defending myself. In the cabin in my head, C already appeared to be asleep on the couch, the rhythmic nature of his breathing lulling me to sleep.

"I'll take the shower."

The next morning, Asriel gave me a wrapped up piece of the pie and a bag full of candy as several of the spiders worked on cutting my hair a bit more evenly over breakfast, in return for me taking them past what they assured me was a snowy walk. Checking me one last time to make sure that I was well enough to travel, the goat prince led me through the corridor in the basement of his house to the massive stone doors to the rest of the cavern. He hugged me tightly and I melted against him for a moment.

"Whenever you want, you are welcome to return. If the door is locked, it just means I'm asleep. Knock and I'll come."

"Thank you."

He stepped back to open the door as I shouldered my bag. "Good luck."

Several spiders suddenly crawled up my leg, nestling in the old sweater for their trip. I pushed on the stone door and stepped out onto a snow covered path surrounded by a dark forest.