Cole sat, staring at the table in the interrogation room. It had taken nearly two hours to transport him back to Home, and he had spent even longer waiting for his fate to be decided. He once more pulled on the handcuffs that had been attached by a small chain to the tabletop, and once more, there was no success. Sighing, he glanced back up at the analog clock hanging on the wall.
He looked up sharply as the door opened, and in came Asgore himself. Cole couldn't help but be surprised. He knew it would likely be someone high up that would tell him what was about to happen, but he did not expect that it would be the king himself. He quickly regained his thoughts, watching as Asgore slowly walked to the chair, sitting across from him. There, the two stared at each other for a few more moments, before Asgore spoke.
"Mr. Cole Nelson. As you should be aware by now, you have been charged for the murder of two monster soldiers, as well as collaborating with a known terrorist organization, and resisting arrest."
Cole held his gaze in defiance, refusing to allow Asgore the satisfaction of seeing how nervous he really was. Asgore continued to speak.
"Something strikes me as odd about you, Mr. Nelson. You have no violent background; you didn't even have a criminal record until the attack that saw you kill the two soldiers. You had a decent home for someone your age, a job that paid well, why would you go and throw all of that away?"
Cole thought about all the answers he could give, then decided to tell the truth.
"You know exactly why. You've taken away any freedom we had before you monsters came along. I want to see what it would be like to have those freedoms restored."
Asgore stared into his eyes, almost like he was searching for something. "I see...now Cole, understand that I want to try and give you another chance. I believe you can be a great man if you want to be. That can't happen though if you continue down this path. I however, will give you one chance to try and redeem yourself."
Cole was skeptical. "Try me."
Asgore furrowed his brow. "We haven't been able to capture many members of the Torin Republic alive, and those that do, are very strong willed in keeping quiet. You however, barely have any history with them. In fact, I'm almost certain you had no idea of their existence until the attack just under a week ago. So, I'm asking if there is any information, anything at all you can give us? If you tell us, I can make sure your sentence is drastically reduced."
Cole stiffened, and glared at Asgore. "Over my dead body."
Asgore was still for a few more seconds, then nodded. "Very well. Cole Nelson, you are to be transported at once to Mount Ebott, where you will remain indefinitely as punishment for your crimes against the kingdom."
As Asgore stood up to leave, Cole suddenly spoke, and Asgore noticed his voice wasn't nearly as angry as it last was.
"Wait! Can I...Can I at least call my sister, Julia? I...I just want to tell her not to worry about me. Maybe...Maybe I can write her a note?"
Asgore sighed, hunching his shoulders slightly. "I can do you one better." He then left the room, once more leaving Cole alone. A few minutes later, the door re-opened, and a guard walked in, placing a pen and paper down in front of Cole. As the guard left, he struggled to keep his jaw from dropping as Julia walked in. She quickly sat across from him, and placed her hand on his own. She looked like she had been crying. She spoke first.
"I-Is...I-Is it true? D-D-Did you really…?"
She trailed off, and Cole finished her thought. "It's...It's really complicated, alright? Yes...yes it's true. I won't hide it. What are you doing here anyway?"
Julia was about to tell him, but then decided it would be good to wait for another time to tell him the whole story.
"T-The monsters were looking f-f-for you...so, they b-brought me in to t-try and help find you! All I said was the truth, t-that I had no idea where you were!"
Cole shook his head, looking sympathetically into her eyes. "I'm so sorry Julia. You weren't supposed to get involved. I just wanted you not to worry about me, I didn't want for you to get caught up in all of this."
Julia sniffled, and rubbed at her eyes. "So...they're going to take you away?"
Cole slowly nodded solemnly. "Yeah. It looks that way. Just...don't be sad, alright? Have some hope. I promise you with my life, that I will see you again."
Julia stared deep into his eyes. "Promise?"
Cole nodded. "Promise. Here, I'll even write a note for you. That way, if you ever don't know what to do, you can read it, and see where you can find hope. If you ever find it hard to read it yourself, you can always do it with a friend. I don't mind."
Julia watched as Cole wrote out the note. He slid it across the table to her. When she read it once, she suddenly noticed a couple of the letters were ever so slightly bolder, or written at a slight angle than others.
"Although we may be separated for a while, I trust you to make the right decision. Do what is right for the world, even if the chances look bleak. Remember the past but live in the present and look towards the future, and don't forget - I'm with you in your heart."
It was a code they had made up when they were younger to hide secret messages from their parents. She looked up at Cole.
"You're absolutely sure I'll see you again?"
Cole nodded, sharing a knowing look with her. "On my life." She leaned across the table, giving him a tight hug, before standing up. Outside, one of the guards grabbed the note from Julia, glancing at it for only a couple seconds before handing it back, looking like he couldn't care less. As she left, two guards came in, and unhooked the handcuffs from the table.
"Time to go." As Cole was escorted out of the room, he could just barely see Julia already heading for the door. Once outside, Julia quickly walked. away and read the note out once more in her head. This time though, she took a spare pencil she carried around in her purse. The code was to do with the presentation of the leader. Every three letters could stand for one letter in a series of abbreviated instructions. She began to write out the code on the back of the note. Once complete, she looked it over again.
"DIR,HOME,N4R2L1,FSTALLEYLFT,GOBCKSTAIRSDWN,NOKTWOFSTONELNGFOURFST." To the ordinary civilian, it wouldn't have meant much. Though to her, she knew exactly what it meant, memories flooding back of when they used it a long time ago.
"Directions: Start at home; go north 4 blocks, take a right, go forward 2 blocks, take a left, go forward 1 block. First alley on left. Go to back stairs and go down. Knock twice fast, once long, four times fast." She nodded, then looked for the first bus going to Kester. She had a journey ahead of her.
LATER…
Julia turned left into the alley, glancing over her shoulder to make sure she hadn't been followed. Once more, she took out the note, reading through the special code of letters Cole had laid out for her. The directions had been easy to follow once she had made her way back to Cole's apartment. As she completed the final instruction - to go down a flight of stairs at the back of an unmarked alley, she found herself face-to-face with a metal door.
Reaching a hand out tenderly, she gave it a soft knock, in a bit of a messy pattern that had also been hastily explained. The door was opened a crack to reveal a human eye peering out at her. She spoke timidly.
"I'm...I'm here about Cole? He told me to come here and knock…" The door opened fully, revealing a man armed with a rifle standing in the door. He jerked his head.
"This way." After hesitating, she followed him inside as the door was quickly shut. Immediately in front of her was another large set of stairs, which she proceeded to descend. The soldier led her through several hallways, lit up by lights on the ceiling. She rubbed an arm as her presence quickly drew the eyes of others. Soon, she found herself approaching another girl that seemed to only be a year older than her. The soldier spoke quietly to her, and then turned to face her.
"Greetings, I am Chara, leader of the Torin Republic. And you are…?"
Julia responded quickly. "Julia. I'm, Cole Nelson's sister."
Chara had a sympathetic look. "I see. I'm deeply sorry about what happened to your brother. If he told you to come here though, then that's a very huge relief."
Julia was puzzled. "How?"
Chara spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "It means he's alive. When did you last speak to him?"
Julia held out the note. "A few hours ago at Home, in the palace. They took him away somewhere after I spoke to him, but I have no idea. He gave me this note, and it says to come right here."
Chara accepted the note, looking it over curiously. She quickly noticed another unusual piece of writing. Several dots and dashes faintly written beneath the letters, so small that Chara thought at first that she was seeing things. It took her mere seconds to figure out what it was.
"Son of a gun."
Julia was instantly on edge. "What? What is it?"
Chara beckoned with her hand for Julia to follow her as she walked into a side room. "It's morse code. Crudely written, but legible. He's sending us a message as well as you." Chara put the note beneath a lamp, and on a second piece of paper, painstakingly combed over the note to pick out each letter. When she finally read out the finished product, she looked grim.
"He's being taken to Mount Ebott. It's a maximum security prison for political and military prisoners. Several of our members are being held there, who knows how many are actually there. Thing is, people that have been taken there, haven't been seen since. There aren't even any visiting rights."
Julia was slowly beginning to panic internally, and she just managed to keep herself composed.
"Isn't there anything you can do?! He doesn't deserve to be there! He'll die if that's where they're taking him!"
Chara put her head in one hand, racking her brain. With Julia sitting right there, she could hardly say no, but still it was such a huge risk. After minutes that felt like hours, she finally spoke.
"I have an idea…"
MEANWHILE…
Cole once more bounced in the hard seat of the armoured van that bumped along the poorly maintained dirt road leading through the woods and up the slope. They had been on the road for a little over an hour, but for the past forty minutes they had been making slow progress up the dirt road. Cole looked up again at the soldier glaring at him in the seat across, two more sitting on either side of him. Suddenly, the trees broke and gave way to see the rocky slope levelling off. Still, it wasn't hard to see that it was the monsters that had made this portion of the slope level.
The van came to an abrupt stop. The door was opened, and the butt of one of the monster's gun pressed against Cole's back, pushing him out of the van. As he stepped down, the gravel crunched beneath his feet and he had time to look around. The monsters quickly walked him toward the small mouth of a cave, leading into the heart of the mountain. As he was walked towards the darkness, he took a deep breath, and prepared to embrace his fate.
