FRISK

LV 1

HP 32/40

G 10

This is unbelievable.

How long was I gone?

...Unbelievable.

I need a cigarette but apparently they didn't reconstitute with the rest of me.

...

Not all of my memories are here. There are times when I'm sure pieces are missing. But for those two... ... Those memories are the clearest.

What I did... What they were... All of it, I can remember.

In spite of everything, I hadn't thought about what happened to them since my coming here. I didn't have the presence of mind to. Or maybe I simply didn't wish to. Now that I've seen them, I have the spottiest of feelings that I encountered them before, on occasion, when I was still in pieces. But if I did, I'm sure that they didn't see me.

So they are still together, still "brothers." They seem to have made friends. Even if one of them was, apparently, a human.

Friends, names, tasks to complete, a home to return to. Normal lives, such as it is.

They seem so... Carefree. That's, naturally, how they are in a world without me in it.

-There's no point to carrying on like this. There's no way to change a single part of it.

But seeing them doesn't just bring back those memories. I've realized, I don't know anything anymore. Not what happened to them, or this kingdom, or even how long I've been gone. I don't know if anything I did was actually worth it in the end. After all, I never completed the project, and there would be no way for me to complete it now.

There are too many questions that I can't answer. Why was that human looking for me? How did they even know to look for me? What are they doing with my-

I can't very well ask them.

Where are they, anyway?

They were upset, learning the nature of their disappearance. I didn't stay to watch what they would do, it wasn't my concern.

Instead I sought more familiar ground. I moved down the walkways to my old laboratory, at the bottom floor of Hotland near the river. When I got here, I saw that it too was gone. The spot on which it once stood has tiles and pieces of steel left behind to show that something was here, but all my equipment and the building itself is missing. Without any of the chairs left, I had nothing to sit on but a rock.

It's possible that if I move the debris a bit, I can find the entrance to True Lab in these ruins. I'm not in the mood to try it and find that even that is gone. I'm not in the mood to try it and see that it's still here.

Since seeing actual monsters, such as-those two, I have the feeling that these colorless surroundings are reflections of reality, and not just empty because this world is one of anomalies. If that's the case, how much more of the underground is like this? Are all the towns and the capital city all gone as well? If so, why? What caused a depopulation of this magnitude?

...Could it be-

Wait. What is that noise?

It's coming from above. It sounds familiar; the human? What are they getting up to? Are they still carrying on about their friends ignoring them?

...Pathetic. Everyone in this place has experienced the same.

We wouldn't be in this mess, and none of any of this would have happened, if we weren't trapped underground in the first place.

Still, I have to find them sooner or later. I might as well do it while they're making a racket.

After finally spotting them on the second level...

They're in another fight.

Once again, it's with one of my "followers", although this one isn't using my attack on them. The faceless being is instead stretching out their arms to impossible lengths, attempting to box them in. I've seen them use that attack before, although of course in a very different context. Once again, however, the human is proving impressively agile. And like before, the entire time I can hear them making pointless entreaties and nonsensical statements. I don't think the phrase "you look nice today" means anything to somebody who doesn't have a face anymore anyway. I can see that the human's words are only giving him clues to where they are, sightless as he is now.

As his arms fill up the area it gets harder for the human to move around the monster, but they still manage to avoid those grasping hands and arms even to the very last moment, where it all has to snap back into place on his body.

That said, the human wobbles and falls backwards right after the snap-back.

And immediately afterwards, they've seen me. They give a warning. I'm not intimidated by the monster turning around to face me, however; like before, even if I can't avoid the attacks as easily as they can, it won't do me significant damage if he lands a blow.

However, it seems that I've made a mistake. A miscalculation.

Those arms were not his only attack.

Another piece of me was in his hands, and the next thing I see is a magic emitter forming right in front of me. My emitter. I have only a second to register that before the dog's head expels a blast of energy.

But I'm not getting killed by my own attack.

Although just barely, I've avoided the first blast. And I'm not waiting for him to make a second one.

Again, it only takes one hit to turn this one to dust.

- 100 HP

+ 10 EXP

From that dust rises the piece of me, in the shape of a skull. I have my head already, of course, but the cracks in my face are mended as the piece is absorbed. It's the feeling of becoming whole.

Well, I'm not quite whole. Maybe I'll never be "whole". But I also have something more important: my blasting attack.

I'm not amused by the look on this human's face.

Yes, I'm scary. You should have figured that out already. It's only lucky for you that I don't have my telekinesis yet.

The human seems to be attracting these other monsters to them; this attraction may be responsible for my collision with them in the first place. If that's the case, and if it's the case that more of the monsters trapped by the Core are holding pieces of me, then refraining from taking their SOUL is practical for becoming whole again. To that end, I'll hold off unless they attack first.

Just for now, that is.

Author's Note: In this fic I'm assuming that the pieces of Gaster are not literally pieces of his body, since one of his followers supposedly was holding his head and yet we see Gaster's sprite with his head in-game. (Unless of course that was some random head...) They are, however, helping with restabilizing his physical form as well as giving him his attacks back. So yes, there it is.

Next Chapter: Howdy!