Deep Secrets
(Set immediately after Roadside Attractions)
The next few days in Gravity Falls were quite eventful. While the town was fixing up damages from the "earthquake" Dipper and Mabel told the others about the long history of Stan and Ford. At one point Asriel even got to look at the Journal Number Two's entries on the Fae, this steeled his resolve to convince the Magical Community of Gravity Falls to allow the barrier to come down. Asriel was so absorbed in his task that he wasn't around to play when Dipper found a game of Dungeons, Dungeons and more Dungeons, but considering the wizard that showed up he was slightly grateful when he apologized to his friend.
When the old mayor died and Stan ran for his office against Bud Gleeful, Frisk and Asriel helped a bit during the campaign but their families weren't convinced at first. Once Stan nailed the Stump Speech, not only were Frisk's parents convinced his dad got the Stan the Fire department's endorsement. As for the Shepards Stan saving the Twins from Gideon's trap had put moved them to cast their vote for him helping to put him over the top. But still after Stan was disqualified making Tyler Cutebiker mayor the kids realized it was probably for the best.
Since then however Asriel had spent almost every spare moment he could convincing the magical community, it took some doing but they agreed to have a summit to discuss the matter. Some of them were easy to convince to hear him out, the unicorns for example just had to hear Mabel's name and they were so afraid of her coming back that they agreed be there, on the other hand it was hard enough to have the Fairies and the Manotaur to even meet at the same part of the forest. Asriel wore himself so ragged Stan insisted that he come along on a road trip to relax so he could finish working off the damages Chara caused to the Shack weeks back. The fact that it was also a prank war with other tourist traps in Oregon wasn't made clear until he and Frisk had shown up to leave.
None of them realized the truths waiting for them when they returned from that road trip.
Stanford "Ford" Pines was reading a "A Brief History of Time" in the living room of the Mystery Shack. Dipper came in. "Hey Great Uncle Ford."
"Oh, hey Dipper," Ford said looking up from the book. "This Hawking fellow's theories on wormholes is pretty accurate. He got a few details wrong, but he couldn't have known them without traveling to another dimension himself." Ford then looked around. "So, where's Stanley? Shouldn't he back with you from your road trip?"
"We, kind of forgot Soos so he's going back for him."
Mabel, Candy, Grenda, Frisk and Asriel came in the shack talking. "After a trip like that it is good to be home," said Mabel.
"Yeah you guys and Mr. Pines was right," said Asriel. "It was just the thing to get me reenergized."
"Even with the spider lady?" asked Candy.
"Well I've dealt with one while I was in the Underground with the Fae. But yeah Muffet is a nice girl who happens to be pushy about bake sales, not a man-eating fiend like Darlene."
"Wait a minute," Ford said bolting up. "Did you say Fae?"
"Oh yeah," said Dipper. "These are my friends, Frisk and Asriel."
"Nice to meet you Mr. Ford," said Frisk.
"Dipper's always going on about how amazing you are," said Asriel.
Ford took a closer look at Asriel as if inspecting a specimen. "Prince Asriel?"
Asriel had a look of surprise on his face for a second then one of realization. "Oh, yeah you've been to Underground before and after that you were looking for a Fae child. I guess that means you were looking for me all those years when I didn't even show up yet…"
Ford examined Asriel's eye. "I suspected but… a glamour charm, right?"
"Well, yes."
"Would you mind?"
Asriel got a reassuring nod from Dipper and Frisk. He then took off his pendant dispelling the Glamour. "So, what do you think?"
Ford slumped in Stan's recliner with a sigh of relief. "I finally did it Toriel. It took me thirty years and a long multi-dimensional detour but I finally kept my promise."
"A promise, to my mother?"
"Now that you mention it, the stuff about the Fae and the Underground in Journal Number Two was very detailed," said Dipper. "But it didn't say a lot about what you actually did down there or how you managed to escape."
Ford got up and gathered the kids to Stan's poker table. "That was intentional, Toriel asked that I not put in anything that could accidently lead people to the Underground. Though now that I think about it was probably because I got her to begin to be suspicious about our mutual 'friend' Bill Cipher."
"Bill?!" the kids said.
"But how would my mother even know Bill?" asked Asriel.
"That is a long story," said Ford.
"Well I'd like to hear it," said Grenda. "Does it involve danger or cute boys?"
Ford looked at Journal Number Two, now opened to the first pages describing the Underground. "Very well. Although Toriel told me about her part in it for me it all started about a month before I started making entries in Journal Number Three…"
About thirty years earlier…
Stanford Pines looked up to the peak of Mount Ebott. Tucking the Journal 2 into his coat he got ready to search the caves for whatever they may hold, creature, anomaly or as he had most hoped the very discovery that would lead him to complete his Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness.
Ford took out a handheld tape recorder and pressed the record button. "Stanford Pines, audio log number one. Due to the unknown factors that may make my usual written entries impractical I am recording my findings for this expedition on tape to write down later…or in the event of my untimely gruesome death. Today I begin my examination of the geographical feature known as Mount Ebott by the townsfolk, the tallest formation in the valley. Though I have noted a bear with an unusual number of heads and limbs in the area my current investigation is on local folklore dating back to the 1860's about an impenetrable barrier within the caves inside the mountain. Legend states that it was created by a witch for outlaw Jericho Blackburn to hide his treasure known as the Blackburn Bonanza. Though I doubt the bonanza exists the purpose of the barrier is intriguing. Was it created to keep people out, or something in? Commencing investigation."
After turning off the recorder Ford stepped into one of the caves, a bat buzzed his head but then flew into an invisible wall. The bat then shook off the impact a turned around going down another tunnel.
"Audio log two, confirmation of the phenomenon," From reached his hand to touch the barrier only to meet nothing but thin air. "No effect on my own contact, if this spell was created just to keep out bats then whoever made it was an idiot."
Ford pressed forward only to drop a bag of jelly beans back through the barrier. Turning around he ran straight into the wall that let him pass a second before. "Log two supplemental, I am unable to proceed through the barrier in the reverse direction. Examining the tunnels ahead for an alternate route."
The tunnels ahead twisted and turned but a light appeared as the path took another dip, the heat was beginning to make Ford sweat under his coat. Turning a corner Ford found himself in a massive cavern with rivers of lava nearby and a vast number of landscapes within.
"Audio log three, the tunnels past the barrier have led to a vast subterranean ecosystem. The implications of an entire sealed off underground world are staggering…"
"Come on, you said it was right over here!" said a distant childlike voice.
Ford began moving towards the direction of the voice. "Potential rescue or anomalous contact. Standby."
Ford peeked over a ridge and saw two decidedly unhuman like girls.
"Keep up Alphys!" said a blue skinned, red haired fish girl with yellow eyes dressed in blue overalls and a blue and white striped shirt. "You know I'll dry out if I stay in a place this hot for too long!"
"And you know I can't run as fast as you Undyne!" said a yellow dragon-like girl in a pink blouse, skirt and a pair of glasses. "And I found it first!"
Ford followed until the two girls came upon what looked like a crashed older model Cessna hanging part way over a ledge. "So, this is the human 'flying machine' huh?" said Undyne.
"Isn't it amazing?!" said Alphys. "Doesn't look like any humans were in it when it fell down here, but just think about what this could mean."
"The king will send his scientist here to check it out and the royal guard will be coming with him. Those helmets they wear are so cool, I'm gonna be one of them someday!"
"And I'll get to meet my hero Dr. Gaster, maybe he'll ask about my grades in school and make me his research assistant!"
"Leave it to you take something cool and make it nerdy. Still it's a shame, once the grown-ups get their hands on it, the machine won't be our secret anymore."
"Yeah, I kinda wish that we could fix it up and fly it right out of the underground. We'd be the first Fae to see the surface in over a hundred years and we'd find a way to get everybody back to the light of the sun."
As Ford looked on for a few moments he didn't see two strange little girls and a ruined Cessna. Instead he saw a dilapidated sailboat and a pair of twin boys, almost indistinguishable for except one having six fingers on each hand.
Undyne took a long drink from a canteen she had in the front pocket of her overalls and then started to approach the plane.
"What are you doing?" said Alphys.
"Getting a closer look obviously," said Undyne. "We won't be able to when the guards haul this away so we may as well have some fun with this thing."
"I don't know, cliffs are a little unstable around here and there might be something dangerous inside."
"Don't be such a weenie Alphys! You want to look around inside as much as I do."
"Well…ok, if we're careful."
The two entered the cockpit of the plane. "These must be the controls," Undyne said playing around with the flight stick.
"Look at all gauges," said Alphys. "Humans may be scary but they sure have made a lot of cool stuff."
Suddenly the ledge started to crumble under the combined weight of the plane and the girls. The Cessna began to lean forward and started to fall to an even smaller ledge, the only thing past that was a river of molten lava. As Ford ran to the plane it fell nose first into the ledge as he heard both girls shriek. Then just one of them continued.
"Undyne, wake up! Please wake up! Somebody help us!"
His instincts taking over fully Ford took his magnet gun out of his pocket as he ran and leapt towards the wreck. Ford landed in the cockpit and picked up the unconscious Undyne.
"You climb up on my back!" he said to Alphys.
"Uh, ok. But how…"
"I just need to reverse the polarity and…" Ford leapt out of the plane with both girls just it started to tip into the lava. He turned the magnet gun to the plane and fired.
"HA!"
The beam propelled them from the plane sending them flying back to the safety of the ledge. Ford's tape recorder had fallen in the lava river but as they landed with a thud it was a small price to pay.
Undyne started to groan.
"Ok, let's see how you are," Ford said as he examined Undyne. "You don't look too bad, still we have to get her medical attention."
Alphys looked on her friend with worry but also stared at her savior. "You… you're a human, aren't you?"
"Yes I am."
"Thank you for saving us. It's too bad that everybody is going to kill you and take your soul to the King."
"You're welcome…wait what?!"
"Well that is the rule," said Undyne. "We'd ask you run away but I lost my canteen in the machine and I don't think I can make it to the doctors before I dry out."
Ford sighed. "Ok, I'll bring you both over and talk to your elders. You seem like reasonable people, I'm sure we can come to terms."
Sometime later Ford was strapped onto a table in a laboratory. "Or maybe not."
"Sorry if you are uncomfortable," said a male voice from out of Ford's vision. "Our last encounter with humanity didn't end so well, so you'll understand if I take precautions."
"Ok so we all got off on the wrong foot. From this set up I can tell we are obviously both men of science so how about you answer my questions and I'll answer yours?"
A skeleton in a long black coat came into the lab. He had cracks in his skull going up from his right eye socket and down from his left and what looked like holes in the palms of his hands. "Very well, I am W.D. Gaster, Royal Scientist. Why don't we make your little proposal a game? It would be a better way for you to pass the time while I go about my business here. We will take turns asking questions. I'll go first, how did you get past the barrier?"
Ford sighed as it seemed he had little choice. "I don't know, I'm just as confused about it as you are. Are those children you found me with safe?"
"They are shaken but otherwise unharmed. Now for my second question, who sent you?"
"No one, I was investigating the properties of the valley above and that led me here. Now why are you keeping me restrained here?"
"When we were first sealed down here a few thousand years ago, a long-standing order was given that all humans are to be killed and their souls brought to the king. However, Humans are in short supply down here, in fact we had thought that your kind had been barred from the Underground a hundred and fifty years ago, when the barrier changed. But we know so little about human souls and their capabilities that I thought it wise to run a few tests first before our king uses your soul and the others he'll collect outside with it to break the barrier. What was that saying your Sun-tsu had? 'Know your enemy, know yourself and you need not fear a hundred defeats'? It's been so long since I read that in a book that fell with your garbage."
"That counts as a question and you're close enough. My turn, what do you plan on doing to me?"
Gaster snapped his bony fingers in frustration. "I should be more careful about what I say." He pulled a few controls and a machine shaped like a deer skull descended from the ceiling. "The souls of the Fae are made of three energies that correspond to the traits of Love, Hope and Compassion."
"Funny, you're not showing a lot of that last one."
"I'm afraid in these trying times compassion for my own people have to come first. Humans can have those energies but don't require them, instead ancient texts we have describe seven similar energies that could be in dominance in a human soul at various levels. Patience, Courage, Integrity, Perseverance, Kindness, Justice and Determination. Determination is the focus of this little experiment. It is almost unknown to the Fae yet from what the texts tell us it can allow a human soul to persist in this world past death. That is not possible for our souls, except for the Boss Fae and then only for a very limited time, and could be a potential advantage in the upcoming war. This device will extract enough Determination to experiment with, but it probably won't kill you. Now for my next question. Those girls, why did you save them?"
"It was the right thing to do, what kind of question is that?"
Gaster began fiddling with some controls. "Humans are still ignorant about the distant past I see. Your kind declared war on us a long, long time ago, we lost and had been trapped down here ever since. I just assumed you wouldn't risk yourself to help an enemy. I see now that you are a man of reason, but your people on the other hand tend to fear and revile what is different."
Ford looked at his six-fingered hand. "Yeah, I know how that feels."
"You see when we are finally able to leave here we must expect hostility. What we can learn about your kind now could help us when we must fight since our magical bodies are vulnerable to attack by those who mean us physical harm. Now, when we get to the surface what can we expect if the humans try to attack us?"
Ford struggled to free himself. "Listen if you really care about your people and life on the planet in general you will not go to war with humanity. Weapons development has advanced considerably since you were trapped down here. If you attack people my country or our greatest rival may decide to launch a nuclear attack to stop you, not knowing how big of advantage they have against you. Once one side launches their nukes the other will assume it is an all-out attack on them and respond in kind, these weapons are so powerful that the resulting fallout could mean the end of life as we know it! So please stay here for your sake as well as ours."
Gaster sighed. "If only that were possible, you see the crystals we depend on to provide enough magical energy to feed and clothe us began losing their power around the same time the barrier changed. Now they're losing their power faster than we can replenish them. Not even the Core facility I designed can provide enough power to prevent the upcoming starvation and extinction of the Fae. Our only hope is to escape the Underground and find a new food source on the surface." Gaster fiddled with some knobs on a panel. "Now I need you to hold still, this may sting a bit."
"What do you…ARRRRRGGGGH!"
The machine above Ford seemed started to extract some sort of energy from his body and began distilling it into a nearby beaker as a red liquid.
Just then a human sized goat like creature wearing a crown and robes stepped into the lab. "Gaster, stop this at once!" he said.
Gaster grumbled as he shut off the machine, the prepared beaker wasn't even half full. "As you wish my king."
"You can have his soul to experiment on AFTER I use it to capture those we need to break the barrier."
"I hope so, the Determination I have extracted so far will only be enough for cellular experiments."
The king turned to Ford. "I am truly sorry for all of this and for what I still have to do. I am Asgore, king of the Fae and I am sorry to say your executioner."
"If you heard anything I said to him attacking humans will just make them afraid of you and your people, you must find another way!"
"We've spent millennia trying to find 'another way' but what Gaster said is true, returning to the surface is no longer just a shared dream, it is a matter of survival. Guards." Two Fae in armor came into the room. "Secure him in dungeon, we'll give him until morning to make peace with himself before the execution. Again, I wish it never had to come to this."
The guards unstrapped Ford jerking him to his feet. "Hey!"
"I bear you no ill will either," said Gaster. "It is obvious you possess a brilliant mind, if things were different I would have loved to collaborate with you on our research. But alas your soul is worth more than your mind I'm afraid."
The guards began toting Ford off. "I am begging you, if you attack humanity you'll only destroy yourselves! If we put our heads together we can come up with a plan! Listen to me!"
Ford sat in a dungeon cell putting all his efforts into coming up with an escape plan. A single guard was watching him like a hawk, appropriate since he shared several features with a bird of prey.
The dark staircase leading back to the rest of the palace lit up with a warm glow and a feminine goat like creature came into the dungeon holding up a fireball for light.
"You must be tired," she said to the guard. "I'll keep an eye on him until the next shift."
"As you wish Queen Toriel," the guard replied before going upstairs.
"Come to see the freak?" Ford asked. "I've heard it isn't every day you to see a human down here."
"None of us view humans as freaks, more like legends these days."
"I also meant me personally, my six fingers had always set me apart from everyone else."
The clanking of metal sounded through the dungeon and a squeak of the cell door being opened.
"What are you doing?" asked Stanford. "I thought the king was going to be the one to execute me?"
"Which is why you best leave now. I was asked to release you by our mutual friend, our 'muse'."
Stanford's eyes widened. "He sent you?"
"And he told me that you getting out of the Underground alive is the best chance the Fae have left to come to the surface in peace. May I have your name?"
"Stanford Pines, PhD."
"Pleased to meet you Stanford. We must hurry, if we want to get out of the palace." With a wave of her hand an image of Stanford appeared laying down in the cell and another of the last guard moving as if preparing to leave. Toriel locked the cell door. "That should fool them for a while, and should last long enough for them to have no idea what really happened. It will be pitch black out on the mountain, once we're near the barrier we'll have to wait until morning."
Sometime later Toriel had set a fire in the tunnel. Ford used the light of the campfire to update Journal number two.
"Could you hold still for a moment?" asked Ford. "I'm still trying to get your muzzle just right."
Toriel locked herself into place. "Like this?"
"Yes, annnnnd…done. You've now been preserved for scientific posterity."
"You are quite the strange one, but then again so is our mutual friend."
"I'm still not sure how you got to know Bill. He told me he chooses one special mind a century."
"Well, we may not look it but it has been over a century since Asgore and I both met him. My how the time has flown, how did you learn about him?"
"I found some inscriptions in a cave elsewhere in the area while investigating the strange properties of the town above. I take it was similar for you?"
Toriel gazed into the fire as if trying to see something elusive. "Yes, very near here in fact. But while you were trying to find answers for me…"
"It all started with two dumb kids on a stupid dare."
"Come on Gorey!" said the small goat like girl. "Let's get this over with."
A male goat child with blonde hair on his head came around the corner. "Be careful Tori. The stories say some Fae eating humans live in this tunnel."
"I don't believe it," the girl said. "But I still don't like you taking that dare from Maxi and Anti."
"Well, we're going to get married someday and rule the Fae. If we don't do this everyone will think their king and queen are a couple of cowards."
The two turned another corner. "I don't know about all that," said the girl. "Don't get me wrong I like you as a friend, but I'm not sure about us getting married just because our parents say we have to."
The boy put his hand on the girl's shoulder. "I know, I'm not sure either. I don't want to grow up to be some boring king and I don't want to learn how to fight like father insists I do. Why can't a king be a gardener too?"
"Yeah, I want to learn jokes and the fun stuff in books, not how to balance them on my head while walking. The last thing I want to be is some snooty queen who turns her nose up at everything."
"I don't want the same thing happening to you too. So how about we make a secret pact right here?"
The boy knelt and raised his hand. "I, Asgore, do solemnly swear to always be fun and happy even when I grow up and if I don't then may I be shaved of all fur and have to kiss a slimy snail!"
The girl giggled and knelt rising her hand. "I, Toriel, do solemnly swear to always be fun and happy even when I grow up and if I don't then may I shaved of all fur and have to kiss a slimy snail!"
The two kids laughed. "Come on, Tori," said Asgore. "We should be close to the end."
"Right behind you Gorey!" said Toriel.
Running ahead Asgore tripped on a rock and into a pile of stones next to a wall. The stones fell away exposing a hidden chamber.
Toriel lit up a fire ball as Asgore got up and looked around. All over the walls were various murals and drawings. "Whoa," Asgore said as he looked around. "We could be the first Fae to have seen this place since we were banished underground."
Toriel skipped over to one drawing. "Hey Gory, look at this funny guy!" The two gazed over a large drawing of a triangle with one eye and wearing what appeared to be a hat. "There's even some sort writing here, some kind of spell. Hey how about we say it together?"
"Are you sure? How do we know what kind of spell this is?"
"Only way to find out is to try, come on it'll be our own secret spell."
"I like that idea, ok let's do it."
"We read the inscription aloud, but nothing happened. Until that night when I had the strangest dream of my life."
Toriel opened her eyes. She was still in bed but looking around it floated in an odd void. Her favorite dolls and her tea set floated around her along with some other toys. Looking in another direction she saw where those came from. "Gorey? What are doing in my dream?"
Asgore was sitting in his own bed floating in the void looking back at her. "No, you're in my dream, aren't you?"
"If anything, you're both in my dream," came an unfamiliar voice.
The two turned to the direction it came from and saw the same figure on that was on the cave wall. "But then again you both called me. I'm Bill Cipher, but you can call me Uncle Bill."
"He told us we'd do great things for the Fae, that we would be the ones lead them back to the surface and be remembered as the greatest rulers they ever had. But we needed to learn a few things from him including how to keep the wonder and imagination that was often lost with childhood. After that he talked to us often, giving lessons on things even our teachers didn't know, planned pranks that we made everyone laugh with and gave us ideas that made all the children want to be our friends. It was wonderful, until the day our parents found out. They wiped away the drawing and inscription, sealed up the chamber again and forbade us from ever speaking to him again with no reason or explanation.
"Then for good measure we Asgore and I were punished," Toriel rubbed her behind reflexively. "We both got so many spankings neither of us could sit down comfortably for a month. Bill stopped coming after that, probably didn't want to get us into trouble. The whole time Asgore and I started to gain true feelings for each other, feelings that made our wedding day truly blissful. But even after we grew up and made life for our people better some of my favorite memories are still of Asgore and me having fun with our Uncle Bill." Toriel looked to the floor. "I hope they're still some of my husband's favorites too."
"I only learned about Bill two years ago, he's been inspiring me, helping me inch ever closer to the Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness that will let me enter the pantheon of great scientific minds."
"Sounds like the sort of person who could get others to listen to him. Maybe that's what Bill meant, if you finish your research and become famous you could convince the Humans that the Fae mean them no harm. Then you can get your people to help you collapse the barrier and we can all exist in harmony."
"I'll bring it up when I accept my Nobel Prize," Ford looked at his watch. "The sun should be up by now. I better get moving so I can make the discovery of a lifetime, convince the world to collapse the barrier and start you all on your new lives."
"Before you go I have one last request. Years after Bill stopped coming and Asgore and I married we had son. Asriel was a kind boy but around a hundred and fifty years ago, he got himself hurt," Toriel started to tear up. "No one else knows but he would have died if wasn't for Bill. Bill helped me keep Asriel alive, but had to send him to the valley on the surface, to another time. I wonder whatever happened to him, did he find a way to live? He could be grown up or an old man? Did he live out his life decades ago or was he sent to a more distant future?
Toriel turned to face Ford again. "If you can, keep an eye out for Asriel? If you ever meet him can you tell him his mother still loves him?"
"I swear on Sir Isaac Newton's apple, I'll find him."
"Thank you, Stanford. Take my hand and you can pass the barrier.
Toriel led him to the barrier as rays of sun light were coming through the other end of the tunnel. "You can pass through if you're holding my hand, but I'll have to stay behind. Asgore…I still have to try to convince him."
"Thank you Toriel," Ford said as he passed through the barrier. "Still talk about bad coincidences. Losing your son, having humans sealed out of the underground and starting to lose the crystals all around the same time? I mean it's good for humans but for your people, what are the odds?"
Toriel looked doubtful for just a second but then turned back towards New Home. "Coincidences happen every day."
The two new friends then each left back towards their own worlds.
"And that was my adventure in the Underground. It wasn't until later I realized how dangerous Bill was but looking back those last moments we had together hopefully have made Toriel suspicious of him ever since."
Asriel cradled his pendant in his palm looking at his own reflection in it. "I owe my life to Bill?"
"Remember that whatever the he promises Bill only makes deals that benefit him in the long run. Given the timing of the two events I'd say he was responsible for altering the barrier so he could control which humans could get in and out of the Underground. That would need a lot of power so guess where the barrier had to draw it from."
"The magicite crystals," Dipper said.
Ford nodded. "I'm sorry Asriel but what Bill did for you ended up causing a lot of suffering for the Fae."
Asriel slumped over the table.
Frisk looked at his dejected friend. "But Asriel's been working to make it right, by getting the creatures of Gravity Falls to agree to let the Barrier go down."
Ford gave a wry smile. "Quite right, the best way to make it up to the Fae is to keep doing what you have been doing. Whatever Bill's reasons for the barrier once it collapses his plans for it and the Fae will be thwarted."
Asriel basked in the warmth of his friends. "Thank you, I don't think it will be long now and when the time comes to take down the barrier, if you can I'd like you guys to be the ones to do it. You, Soos, Wendy, Stan, you've already done so much for me but if you destroy the barrier I'm sure the Fae will remember you all forever."
Toriel sat alone in her room, the fire place provided enough light for reading but instead of a book she regarded the old picture of Asriel and Chara. "Why did you do it Bill?" she said not expecting an answer. "What did you have to gain by sending him away? Why keep humans away? When that silly little prince and his princess first met you all those years ago, did you already have a plan in mind?"
Toriel cringed but she willed herself to think back to the worst day of her life, to see if she could recall something, anything that would give her an answer.
Asgore tended the royal garden as Toriel read one of Chara's favorite books, it had been just over a full day since the human they had took in as their own daughter had died. They were grieving of course but for the sake of the kingdom also tried to carry on some semblance of normal. If anything, Toriel was more worried about Asriel than anything else. Since Chara died He'd been very secretive, she was sure that he'd needed a little time alone to sort through his feelings.
"Mom…Dad…" came a familiar if raspy voice.
Looking up from her book Toriel saw her son carrying Chara's body while covered in egregious wounds.
"ASRIEL!" she found herself yelling at the same time as Asgore who let his watering can fall to the ground. Toriel set the book aside as they rushed to this son.
"Asriel, what happened?!" Asgore said cradling his son in his arms. "Guards, get a doctor now!"
"Chara wanted to…see the flowers on the surface…one last time. I took her…I carried her body… and her soul is…in me."
"Asriel no!" Toriel cried. "That was forbidden!"
"The villagers…misunderstood…didn't want…to hurt…"
"No. My sweet prince…my baby. NOOOOOOOO!"
Just then everything around seemed to grey out and slow down except for the flowers. The yellow from the flowers was drawn away to a point nearby her that built up into a triangle than became her childhood secret, Bill Cipher.
"Uncle Bill, you're back!? Please you must help us, Asriel was attacked!"
"I'm afraid it's a lot worse than that Tori," said Bill.
"He's dying! How can it possibly be worse?!"
"I can see other realities and parallel timelines and I've seen this same thing happen in a few of them. Trust me, you won't like how this ends. If he dies here and now he'll come back…wrong."
"What do you mean wrong?"
"He'd have his mind and a body but would lack a soul. Your souls are made from Love, Hope, Compassion, so he wouldn't have any of them. He'd be an unfeeling terror, one that would wipe away everything you and your ancestors built, including the Fae."
"No, Asriel is too sweet, too shy to do anything that horrible!"
"Without a soul, the sweet and shy parts of him will be gone forever."
"I…I don't believe you, it must be some mistake!"
"I'm sorry Tori, but I guess in this case seeing is believing."
Bill touched Toriel's forehead with his finger, at that moment a flood of nightmarish images flooded her mind. The queen sank to her knees, she felt like her heart was ripping apart from the inside out.
"No, not my sweet prince!"
"I'm afraid not even the Fae's magic can save him now."
"But you can save him right!? Please tell me you can save my baby!"
"I can, but to do so I'll need to have more influence in your world than I actually have and for that I'll need to enter your mind for a little bit. I would do it just because you're my friend and I like you but the rules say you must give me something in return. Don't worry it's a little thing. I'll take care of it once I'm in there and I'll be gone once I'm done, no one will even notice."
"My mind? I don't know why but I'm…not sure."
"Oh, did I mention that I can only slow things down temporarily, so that makes this is a limited time offer. Let me into your mind and Asriel will be safe and happy. So, can you trust old Uncle Bill one more time and accept my offer? For your sweet prince?"
"Mom…Dad...I…lo…ve…y…ou." Asriel groaned. His body began to turn to dust.
"Going once…" Bill said. Toriel began to feel something sinister about her and Asgore's secret playmate.
"My son," Asgore choked through the sobs. "I'll…I'll never forgive them for taking you away from us!"
Asriel's body had now become dust, all that was left was a white object shaped like an upside-down heart and a red right side up heart.
"Going twice…"
The white soul began to shake as a crack started to form right down the middle and began spreading throughout.
"Going, GOING…"
In an instant Toriel's doubts were pushed away by her motherly instincts. "DEAL!"
Toriel took Bill's hand in hers and both became wreathed in blue flame. But despite her hand catching fire she felt an unearthly chill instead. The next thing Toriel saw was Bill's eye encompassing her entire field of vision, then only darkness.
Toriel moved at almost lightning speed and scooped up the pieces of the soul which had just broken apart. Time seemed to stop as Toriel's hands emitted a yellow light and the pieces came back together also drawing in the red soul. The dust which had spread all over the golden flowers of the garden began to fly into Toriel's cupped hands swirling around the two souls.
But if anyone could see the face of the queen they wouldn't see a mother who was being torn apart by grief or one who'd found the resolve to perform a miracle. All they would see was that her eyes became catlike and glowing yellow and with a face like that of a madman.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"ASRIEL!" Toriel screamed as she bolted upright. She didn't know how or when she got into her bed, but it wasn't long until she got a response.
"Toriel!" Asgore said as he wrapped his arms around her tears streaming from his eyes. "Thank goodness, for while there I was afraid I lost you too!"
Toriel returned the hug as she began to tear up as well. "What do mean?"
"You fainted after what happened to our son, you've been unconscious for three days."
"Days? Wait, you said lost me too, does that mean Asriel is…"
"Even that would better. His soul, Chara's soul, even the dust that was left behind all vanished. Nothing like this has ever happened before. I had everyone in the Underground search for him and nothing, the only place I can think he'd be if he's still alive somehow is on the surface. We're already preparing to take the souls of any human that comes down here. Once we get to the surface we'll make the humans pay, then we'll scour every inch of it until we find our son!"
"You mustn't!" Toriel recoiled but then took a deep breath. "I mean that is the last thing Asriel would want, for Chara's sake."
"But Asriel…"
Toriel didn't want Asgore to dismiss her so easily, not if death and war on his mind. "I had a dream, I saw Asriel and Uncle Bill. Bill told me that, he'd be safe. Just please no more of this talk about killing humans, that's not the man I fell in love with."
Asgore's eyes relaxed and looked like the same kind ones she knew from childhood. "For you…anything. I'm sorry I…didn't want to hurt anyone but when Asriel was gone I just felt so angry. Still The people need something, anything to give them hope. Just stay with me. The kingdom, and I, need you now more than ever."
Toriel pulled Asgore back into a fierce hug. "I just realized I need you now more than ever too."
It felt odd, like she was both a mother comforting a child and girl being comforted by her father. But she could tell that at the same time Asgore was feeling like a father with his child and a boy with his mother.
Toriel put the picture back on the stand where she kept it, those good feelings back then didn't last long. In a month, they found more of the magicite crystals had been used up than usual, in time it became a crisis and the talks about retaking the surface started again. She managed to at least get Asgore to carry out his proposed plan more effectively, agreeing to send one out of the barrier with a single soul rather than wait for all seven, she hoped that that one soul would be the only sacrifice.
But also, soon found that the barrier had started to not only keeping the Fae in but Humans out so they seemingly couldn't get the one soul they needed. When they finally had the agreed upon soul she had resigned herself to the fact that there was nothing she could do, until Bill told her that not only was saving the human right but the best thing to do. She was so sure in her old friend that she'd finally get to see her son again, until her new friend made that offhand observation.
"Losing your son, having humans sealed out of the underground and starting to lose the crystals all around the same time?"
It was only then that she began thinking that her parents had a point when they forbade them from speaking to Bill, even if they and the last king and queen never told them why. Considering Gaster's research on the Barrier on how it drew some of its energy from the earth to perpetuate itself and finding that the drain on the crystals came from the ground she had her theory. Once she searched those old tunnels again and found an etching like the hidden prophecy depicting Bill her fears became confirmed.
"But why?" She thought to herself. "If only our parents weren't so afraid of Bill that they tried to wipe all traces of him from the underground or trust us enough to tell why he was dangerous. Why does he pose a threat to us? What does he want?" Toriel shook her head. "Now I'm just thinking in circles. Maybe it doesn't matter now, all I can do is trust in my son and his friends to get the surface to accept us before Asgore goes through with this dangerous plan."
A knock came at the door, and a guard peered in. "Your majesty, Sans is requesting an audience with you. Something about some new jokes he wants to share."
Toriel let a smile come across her face. "Tell him I'll be there in a minute." After thinking about this doom and gloom she needed a laugh.
Congrats to Crazytraveler4 and AmazingAnimeAumlet for solving the last code: After thirty years, a promise was delayed, but never forgotten.
Happy Thanksgiving!
15-4 8-23-25-5 4-9 12-19-23-6-10 18-6-9-11 4-16-19 8-23-5-4, 19-5-8-19-21-15-23-12-12-25 1-16-19-10 15-4 12-9-9-13-5 12-15-13-19 25-9-3 16-23-2-19 10-9 18-3-4-3-6-19.
