"We begin tonight with a developing story. The tranquility and quiet of the small down erupted in violence earlier today, as several monsters entered the city, engaging with local law enforcement. While tensions were high between the monsters and the locals after King Asgore Dreemurr was found guilty on six counts of murder and sentenced to over two hundred years in prison, witnesses say they never expected the monsters to act. Some are even calling it an invasion, and an act of war. Reports say that nearly two dozen monsters entered the town, violating a term of the Ebott Treaty, which stated that monsters were not to enter the city until further negotiations had been conducted. They had one demand, the immediate release of King Asgore. Local authorities called in assistance from SWAT teams in the nearby city of Kamloops, and they were on the scene within 30 minutes. Attempts claim to have been made to get the monsters to leave peacefully, but it was a monster that is claimed to have struck first. Several witnesses, including other officers claim that the monster summoned an apparent fireball, and threw it at authorities. The police were granted authority to use deadly force. Reports say that each monster present was killed on site. The sudden turn in events has locals alarmed, and fearing that they might find themselves in the middle of a war. There are also residents of Ebott that are no longer welcoming to the monsters, several of them crying out for action from Prime Minister Hemmingway, demanding that the monsters be driven back where they came from, or even wiped out entirely. While it is only in speculation, it is believed that Prime Minister Hemmingway will be conducting emergency meetings with Lady Toriel Dreemurr, acting in King Asgore's place to try and resolve the matter. On the other hand, the Canadian Armed Forces detachment in Chilliwack has been appearing to be making preparations to mobilize. It appears that a war against our new neighbors, is seemingly inevitable."
Toriel pushed the doors of the meeting hall aside, walking in anxiously. Matthias was already inside, flanked by two officers as he was when he had originally met Asgore in the same room. Toriel sat down, a worried look telling him all he needed to know.
"Let's get straight to the point Lady Toriel…you're no doubt aware of the incident that took place yesterday…" Toriel shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
"Yes...yes, I am more than aware Prime Minister…you must believe me when I say that I did not order the protest, or even condone it. I didn't even know it was happening until we heard the shots from the camp!" Matthias looked up coldly.
"Why should I believe you?" Toriel stiffened at the question, looking somewhat offended. Before she could snap back, Matthias continued to speak.
"Before you say anything, I want to mention that I haven't exactly been given much reason to trust you in the past weeks. Here I thought we would be able to work to peace with the United Nations, but then of course the attempted assassination led to the investigations being reopened. After being told you harbored no grudge, we find that King Asgore murdered six children, and now monsters walk into the town and attack authorities! Not to mention they used apparent magic, something I was not told about when we originally met. You're lucky I haven't sent the military in here yet!" Toriel had no words. When he put it that way, he did have a very fair point. She tried to calm herself down, being careful in her response.
"I understand where you are coming from. I want to make something very clear to you. The protest I suspect, was not out of anger to the humans…but out of fear for themselves." Matthias's expression didn't even waver.
"Explain."
Toriel tried to explain as best as she could. "King Asgore had been leading these people for centuries. They have come to really depend on him. He is the one that gave us hope when we were in our darkest hours. After I left following the death of our son, he was all they had to look to. Now their dream has finally been seen come true. We are on the surface, which is the only thing we've wanted ever since day one. Now that the secrets have been uncovered and he is in prison, they are scared. They do not know what to do without a leader. They are like sheep without a shepherd. Do you see where I am coming from here?" Matthias took a deep breath.
"Indeed…at the same time though you must understand my problem as well. The locals are terrified of you now. They don't know what to think. All they want, is action against you…while I don't want to force you back under the mountain, I also can't just overlook the incident either. So, until things are more stable, I'll be delaying my promise to grant monsters sovereign territory surrounding the mountain. I hope you can see why." Toriel struggled to hold back her anger at hearing the news. Again, he had a point. Something she deeply hated to think about.
"Very well." She noticed Matthias starting to get up, having said what he wanted to. "Wait! There's, something else I need to talk to you about." Matthias looked up at her and slowly sat back down. Toriel breathed deeply before continuing.
"I want to talk to you about Asgore. I…would like to see his sentence reduced."
"No. Absolutely not." Toriel was stunned by the quick response. She tried again.
"Please, you don't understand! If you could at least allow me to explain to you…" Matthias felt a headache coming on and he pressed two fingers to his forehead.
"…Fine. But please, try to make it brief, I still have other matters I need to tend to." Toriel glanced reluctantly at the two officers.
"I would rather discuss this with you alone." Wanting to get this over with, Matthias waved the two officers away, and they left the room. Only then did Toriel start.
"I need to explain, well why he did what he did. It had to do with the death of our son." She paused, before continuing. "A long, long time ago, there was a human that fell into the ruins at the edge of the Underground. This was the first human that ever fell. My son, Asriel, had been wandering around, exploring the ruins and found the human. Her name was Chara. She had been hurt badly in the fall, and Asriel helped her back home to Asgore and myself. We let her heal, and then adopted her, since she claimed not to have had a family here on the surface. She was…quite reluctant to speak much at first, but she opened up to Asriel on several occasions. They became practically inseparable." Matthias looked at her intently. This was of course news to him, yet he found it oddly fascinating.
"One day though…Chara got very, very, sick. And…she died." Toriel fought back the lump rising in her throat. "Before she died, she asked Asriel something. She wanted to see the bed of flowers from the village she had come from. After she died, Asriel absorbed her soul and took her body to the surface. As he was laying her down though, humans attacked. Asriel never fought back. He could have killed all of them. But he did nothing. We found him just before he turned to dust, just inside the barrier." Matthias looked down to the table. Though he was trying hard to keep a stern face, he couldn't help but let his emotions start to slip. He could only imagine how awful that most have felt.
"Asgore declared war not in anger, but in grief. He wasn't able to think clearly. Please, understand that he had lost two children in just a few hours. One of them had been murdered trying to honor the dying wish of his sibling. I've seen the way he acted after it came out investigations into the missing children began again. The guilt has been crushing him. Everything has been crushing him. He had lost his kingdom…he was driven from his home…trapped underground for centuries…had to watch his two children die, with nothing he could do about it…and on top of it all, he's had a kingdom filled with despair and grief that he had to try and give hope to. To be honest…I am sometimes surprised that he managed to survive for so long." Matthias closed his eyes, deep in thought. It was a moving story, and he knew very well he wouldn't have been much different if he were in Asgore's position. After what seemed like an eternity, he opened his eyes.
"An appeal will need to be filed to the United Nations to shorten his sentence. I will assist in writing the appeal." Toriel almost wanted to cry in relief that the Prime Minister was understanding of their situation. "However." She looked up at Matthias's face.
"I can not just excuse what Asgore has done. I will help you in shortening King Asgore's sentence. But…I want him to abdicate the throne." Toriel immediately felt a wave of concern flooding her. If King Asgore was to abdicate, that would mean that the monsters would be losing their leader that had guided them for centuries of darkness. But, then again, Asgore could be able to help in other ways. She finally nodded.
"Very well." Matthias stood and nodded.
"This has been a rather…enlightening discussion Lady Toriel. I hope that we will move towards more stable, peaceful times in the near future." Toriel only nodded, waiting for Matthias to leave. She nearly collapsed back into the chair from the dizziness that overcame her. The crisis had just barely been avoided, and she had convinced Matthias to get back on her side. But what would happen when she went to the United Nations? Would they be as understanding as him? She groaned as she put her head in one hand, standing a few moments later, leaving the meeting hall.
FOUR DAYS LATER…
Toriel walked into the massive auditorium, that was now much emptier than when Asgore had attended. Matthias was already seated in his seat, along with fourteen other members, and the Security General, making up the United Nations Security Council, the people who would be addressing Asgore's case. Next to no communications hadn't been made about the emergency meeting that weren't in person to avoid the press from catching on. Even so, Undyne had ordered two members of the guard to accompany Toriel, since she was still unable to be present herself, even though she was moving around again. With the help of the CSIS, Toriel had been smuggled in through the back to avoid attention. She took her seat behind the desk holding the plaque with her name on it, replacing that of Asgore's. She watched as Philip Reagan, the Security General rose from his seat.
"Thank you all for coming to this emergency meeting. Let us skip the formalities and go into our first subject of the day. It was raised that there was an incident regarding several monsters being killed by armed authorities in the city of Ebott. Prime Minister Matthias Hemmingway of Canada, would you give us the details please." Matthias leaned into the microphone, looking at his notes before starting to speak.
"Thank you Security General. The incident in question started from a protest that nearly two dozen monsters staged, by walking down the streets of Ebott. These monsters had one intention, to get King Asgore Dreemurr released from prison. For those who do not know, King Asgore was tried and convicted for the murder of six children that disappeared around Mount Ebott, some ranging back as far as nearly one hundred and fifty years. The protest started peacefully, and armed police formed a block in the road. The police tried to get the monsters to leave peacefully, and one of these monsters lashed out, using magic to attack an officer. The officer sustained only minor injuries, but in response the armed police shot and killed all monsters present." Matthias sat back, signalling he was done. Philip motioned to Toriel.
"Lady Toriel Dreemurr, thank you for joining us in King Asgore's place today, what is your response been to this individual matter?" Toriel nodded a small thank you before speaking.
"I have no intentions of retaliating to the matter in a militaristic form, as this will only lead to needless bloodshed. However, I want to see a more thorough investigation launched into the matter, including having the officers involved removed from their positions. The protest was not out of anger, but of fear. These monsters have been led by King Asgore for centuries, through dark times that humans like yourselves can only imagine. To see him being taken away from them, it creates a sense of fear in the kingdom, and a few volatile monsters were pushed over the edge. A lot of those monsters have families that are grieving for them right now. I would also like for the dust of these monsters to be returned to us so we can give them proper funerals. The families deserve to at the very least say their proper goodbye's."
Philip nodded. "You have also filed an appeal to this Security Council requesting that King Asgore's prison sentence be drastically reduced, if not removed. Can you give us reasons as to why we should do this?"
Toriel sighed, pausing to collect her thoughts before beginning the story she had told Matthias. She opened up to everything. About Chara, her son's death, everything. She saw several members of the council look lower when she mentioned that it had been humans that had killed Asriel. She almost smiled, knowing she had touched nerves for each of them. However even when she finished her story, she was not finished.
"This is a monster that has lost quite literally everything. He has lost his home, he has lost what was once his proud kingdom, he has lost close friends in the war, or as a result of it, he's lost his son, and on top of that he has had to guide a broken, grieving kingdom through all of it. I think it is safe to say that there are a lot of humans in this world, maybe even in this room who would have done the same thing. We need to also remember that King Asgore did not want to kill those children. He did so because at the time, there was no other option for him. This was a broken King we're talking about, who is turning to the last resort to save what he had left. He has had to carry the guilt of killing that first child for over a hundred years. That guilt has increased every time he struck down another. He's had to live with the shame of his actions. He will have to continue to live with his guilt, that shame, that pain, for the rest of his life. With everything that has happened…I believe that he has suffered enough. Would you not think so as well?" With the question, Toriel sat back in the seat. She looked around at the delegates gathered. Almost all of them looked deep in thought, and it was several moments before Philip rose.
"Thank you, Lady Toriel. Would you please step outside so the Security Council can discuss the matters." Toriel had been warned by Matthias this was likely to him, as she was not on the Security Council herself, merely making a case in front of them. She nodded and stood, giving the smallest of bows before walking up the stairs and out. Here she waited, pacing anxiously back and forth as she waited. Eventually she got too tired to pace and sat in a couch near a window. The sun slowly dragged across the sky, and the sky began to turn from a blue, to a more orange and purple colour before one of the Untied Nations security guards appeared.
"Lady Toriel, the Security Council is ready for you." She nodded to the guard, standing and walking back into the auditorium. Matthias smiled promisingly at her as she took her seat. Philip took a new piece of paper and read it out.
"Thank you for waiting Lady Toriel. The Security Council has decided to allow investigations into the incident regarding the deaths of the monsters, as well as arrange for the dust to be returned to the families of the monsters that lost loved ones. As for the matter regarding King Asgore Dreemurr's sentence…" Philip paused and Toriel found herself holding her breath.
"We can not dismiss his sentence entirely. But, with new information given to us about the circumstances that gave him his motive, it pushed the case into new light, and is agreeable that there has been enough suffering. His sentence is going to be reduced to only fifteen years, with the condition that he will abdicate the throne the day of his release." Toriel nodded, exhaling.
"Understood. Thank you." Philip looked around at the delegates. "If there are no further matters that are required…" There was silence. "This emergency meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for attending." Toriel slumped forward in her chair, trying to hold back the waves of emotion. Matthias walked over and put a hand on her shoulder as a sign of comfort. She choked out.
"Thank you…it must have been a hard decision…"
Matthias sounded tired from the recent developments as well. "It's the least I could do." Toriel pushed herself to her feet, following Matthias to the back door. Peace had been secured at last. Now all she would have to do is keep it.
