Hell's Eyes: The Hand That Feeds

⸢ ⸣

He opened his eyes one last time to see the light shining down from the surface. Frisk sighed and blew loose hair out of his face before he sat up, trying to ignore the pain. He was going to have so many back problems later on in life. So many. He stood up and began searching the room, even though he knew by now that there was nothing of worth that would help him in his mission. Never hurt to check, though, right?

Oh, who am I kidding? he thought, pressing his palm to his forehead. I'd have better luck bashing my head into a wall. He grunted in displeasure and turned around and walked under the archway. Let's get this over with. He walked up to the patch of grass in the circle of light and stopped in perfect sync with Flowey popping out of the ground.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower!" she introduced herself. "Hmm. You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused."

Frisk resisted the urge to snort in disdain. "Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! Guess little old me will have to do." She leaned forward. "Ready? Here we go!"

He felt himself confined to the same area again. She did her whole introduction and sent some friendliness pellets his way. He wove around them all. Flowey's expression became somewhat amused. "Hey buddy, you missed them. Let's try again, okay?" Flowey conjured more pellets and Frisk dodged them all. Her expression slipped into frustration. "Is this a joke? Are you braindead?" she cried. "Run. Into. The. Bullets!"

"...'Friendliness pellets.'"

Frisk shook his head. He kind of wished he could grab his stick and smack her. Really hard. Right on top of the head. When the next volley came, he dodged them all, too. Flowey's grin became nightmarish; Frisk didn't even so much as flinch. "You know what's going on here, don't you?" she hissed. "You just wanted to see me suffer." The ring of bullets appeared around him. Frisk refrained from blinking. "Die."

Before they could close in, a warm glow appeared behind Flowey, and she froze for a moment before the fireball hit her, yelped in pain, and ducked back into the ground. Toriel was right behind her, where she always was. She approached and said, "What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth." She turned to look down at Frisk and continued, "Ah...do not be afraid, my child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to come here in a long time. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs."

She must not have noticed his blank stare.

Toriel turned and left the room and this time, Frisk delayed moving for half a second before he sighed nonchalantly and followed to the steps that led deeper into the Ruins. He didn't even stop at the SAVE point. In the next room was, as he expected, the same pressure plate puzzle, all in the same places. As expected.

"Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins," Toriel said as she gestured to the pressure plates beside her, and walked over four of them before throwing the switch on the back wall. The closed door behind her slid open. "The Ruins are full of puzzles," she continued, "ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them."

When she disappeared through the door, Frisk sighed again. He could practically recite everything she said from memory by now, though he knew lapses may happen if he tried. To err was only human, after all. He trudged ahead and barely even took a sideways glance at the plaque on the wall.

Only the fearless may proceed.

Brave ones, foolish ones.

Both walk not the middle road.

Frisk entered the long hallway beyond and found Toriel waiting a few feet away from the south wall, like always. She explained, "To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches." She tilted her head slightly and smiled down on him. "Do not worry, I have labeled the ones that you need to flip." With that said, she turned and walked to the opposite end of the room as Frisk groaned to himself and dragged his feet over to the first switch. Reading signs was pointless by now. He had them all memorized. He flipped both switches and Toriel exclaimed, "Splendid! I am proud of you, little one. Let us move to the next room." With that said, she disappeared around the corner. Frisk only blinked once lethargically and followed in a fixed march.

It was like clockwork.

In the next room, he found Toriel standing a few paces in front of him, with the dummy behind her. He pursed his lips and shifted his weight to his left leg. "As a human living in the Underground," Toriel explained, "Monsters may attack you. You will need to be prepared for this situation."

Frisk snorted. It was too low for Toriel to hear. "However, worry not!" she continued. "The process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a FIGHT. While you are in a FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict." She walked over to the door on the north side and said, "Practice talking to the dummy."

Frisk watched her walk away and he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. Still, he wasn't one to admit what was wrong; it was virtually impossible to say, "Sorry I seem so depressed, I've just grown used to hearing you spout the same thing over and over and I'm killing myself on the inside by trying to rescue your long-dead daughter by forcing myself to loop time at will," without sounding utterly off his rocker. He glared at the dummy. The dummy did not glare back, because it had no eyes to see with, but all the same, Frisk felt constricted. He just…

He just wanted to give this thing a good, solid smacking.

Which he did, after taking out his stick and whacking the thing hard enough to tear the cloth and split it open. Needless to say, Toriel was quick to intervene. "Ahh, the dummies are not for fighting!" Frisk cast a quick aside glance at her. She was still smiling, weakly, and even her voice seemed to have trouble finding the firm tone to properly admonish him. All things considered, it was understandable...but no less annoying. "They are for talking! We do not want to hurt anybody, do we…?" The question lingered in the air until Frisk sighed deeply and let his shoulders relax. That seemed to be good enough for her. "Come now."

Frisk followed her into the next room, ignoring her query of if he knew how to solve its puzzle. Given the time he had been down here, he probably could have constructed a puzzle of his own that outmatched the spike bridge in sheer complexity.

...Admittedly, that wasn't saying much.

Before he could dwell on the matter any longer, he felt the world constrict and he found himself rolling his eyes in exasperation.

Froggit attacks you!

Frisk made an aside glance to the left and saw a Froggit hop towards him. He'd done this dozens...no, hundreds of times. Every time it was the same: he wasted a turn and Toriel scared the thing away. But that wasn't what made his chest flare up so suddenly, or at least, that might have only been a small part of it. No, something else stirred in him.

He really didn't like the way that dumb patch of sod was looking at him.

With the flick of his wrist, he took out his stick, wound up, and swung before he even knew what he was doing. And what's more, his backhand actually hit. The force alone sent the Monster reeling and knocked it to the ground, and before Frisk could properly process it, he saw the Monster's form waste away to dust that sank into a miserable pile.

You Won! You earned 10 EXP and 20 gold.

Your LOVE increased.

He wasn't surprised that he'd killed a Monster; he'd done it before, but only did so strategically, and more often than not, it was the major players he'd ended up killing. It never changed the fact he felt terrible after doing it, though. But he realized he'd just lashed out without thinking, and that had never happened once before. And now…

Well, he couldn't really say he felt bad. The sucker had it coming.

He rounded the corner to join Toriel, leaving the dust where it lay and stopped just in front of her and she explained, "This is the puzzle, but…" She quickly glanced behind her and then back down at Frisk. "Here, take my hand for a moment."

Frisk held up his left hand, like he'd always done before, and she led him over troubled waters. Just like always. He could probably walk the path of spikes with his eyes closed. When they reached the end, she told him that puzzles seemed a little too dangerous for now, and promptly exited through the door. Frisk followed on, and when he stopped in front of her, she said, "You have done excellently thus far, my child." She had a rather subdued, rueful expression on her face. "However...I have a difficult request to ask of you…" She turned away from him and bit her lip. "I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this." Without hesitation, she took off down the corridor, and disappeared from sight.

Frisk didn't even blink. He followed her instructions and walked to the end of the room, and right on cue, she popped out from behind the marble pillar on his left. "Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you." She gestured to the stone column. "I was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me." He subconsciously rolled his eyes again. "However, there was an important reason for this exercise," she continued, "...to test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for awhile. Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourself." She obviously didn't want to do that, if the tone of her voice was any indication, but after she thought for a minute, she seemed to have found a solution. "I have an idea. I will give you a Cell Phone." Toriel reached into one of the pockets of her robe and produced a small flip-phone, and handed it out to Frisk. He held out his hand and took it, almost robotically. "If you have a need for anything, just call," Toriel said. "Be good, alright?"

She left without another word, and Frisk was finally alone. And it let him ask himself...how long had he been at this? How long had he been retracing his old steps, just to be spit back out in the same place with no forward progress made? He groaned. It was deep, guttural, and tired. No matter what he did, it was always one of two options: no one is happy, or one person isn't happy. Both were, in his opinion, equally terrible. Frisk raised his arms and slapped them over his face and slowly dragged them down, massaging to help ease the tension in his muscles. After a few more minutes of this, he finally sat up. He'd been so engrossed in his moping, he hadn't answered the calls Toriel left for him, certainly not because he didn't want to, but because he just couldn't be asked. Not like anything was going to change, anyway.

Oh, my God. He groaned as he massaged his eyes again and thought, Maybe it'll finally end. Maybe this'll be the one where I can leave all this behind and hang up my adventuring coat.

But, see, that was a lie, and he knew it. He'd exhausted almost every possibility he could think of and then some. Frisk rubbed his neck and he stood up and left the room. He got the same call from Toriel he always got when he decided to leave, and promptly hung up after she was done talking and grunted in displeasure. There was a Froggit, a SAVE point, and a bunch of leaves. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

Frisk sighed and began to walk over to the SAVE point, until he was unceremoniously interrupted by the feeling of the world growing narrow and stopped by a pair of Froggits. They croaked as they approached him.

Froggit hopped close.

For a moment, Frisk was quiet, and then he sighed defeatedly. I can't even get to my SAVE point without being interrupted, he thought. In all honesty, he was just glad he had the first turn; it gave him time to think, mostly about how he was going to make this interesting. He'd memorized attack patterns, memorized the sequence of ACTs he needed to Spare them. He'd memorized everything about them. And not just Froggits, he'd done that for almost every Monster in the Underground. Frisk pursed his lips and pinched the bridge of his nose. There was literally nothing he could do to make this more interesting.

...Unless...

Then he felt a new idea strike him and almost as suddenly, his eyes flickered over to the Monsters. Then he cautiously eyed the Froggits he was facing...and then looked down at his stick. Then he looked back up. Frisk licked his lips, took a deep breath...and then stepped forward and swung as hard as he could.

He heard the stick crack as it collided with one of the Froggits and he saw it stumbled back. Both Froggits croaked and sent some flies after him, which he managed to dodge with deft grace. Frisk swore to himself he would not be deterred and raised the stick again and swung. Another crack. The Froggit froze and began to shudder for a split-second before its form crumbled to dust.

Frisk dodged the next round of attacks with no trouble. When it was time, he repeated the same thing he had done twice before; he swung his stick, one turn after another. After the second swing, he watched the Froggit weakly croak and fall over before dissolving into dust.

You Won! You earned 6 XP and 4 gold.

He sighed deeply and shook his head. It was pitiable, really, if this was what he'd been reduced to. Mostly the pitiable part was him wasting time on useless mooks like this. Frisk slowly looked up at the ceiling of the Ruins, and he thought, and really thought. And soon, he reached an interesting conclusion:

If he couldn't find the correct way to save Asriel, then what really mattered anymore?

He snapped himself back to reality after a couple minutes of pondering this new development in his thinking, and then reached out to SAVE his progress.

⭐Determination⭐

Frisk closed is eyes and breathed in deeply. When he opened them again, he felt new, renewed purpose coursing through his veins. He squinted and turned around; there was work to be done, and now that he knew things would change he swore to himself that nothing would get in his way. What was he, a superhuman if not a god? He held the Underground in the palm of his hand, and come what may, he could irrevocably change it. It wasn't like he couldn't rewind and work on fixing things again after this.

No doubt about it.

Frisk looked up. The Ruins loomed large over him; foremost was Toriel's house. He blinked once, slowly, before he lowered his head and pressed onward, right up until he heard Toriel's voice. "Oh, dear, that took longer than I thought it would." He saw her walk around the tree and was in the process of taking out her cell phone before she realized Frisk was standing there. She gasped and ran up to him. "How did you get here, my child? Are you hurt?" She pressed her palm up to his cheek and soothed, "There, there. I will heal you."

He felt the wounds he'd suffered go away. Normally, he'd feel a bit happier to be at Toriel's house, but that euphoric sensation began to fade away bit by bit after his three-hundredth try.

The tension hung in the air for a moment before her eyes softened and she admitted, "I should not have left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible to try and surprise you like this." She paused and continued, "Err...Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come, small one!" With that, she turned around and walked back toward the towering structure beyond the old black tree. Frisk followed on, but not before stopping at the SAVE point in front of her house.

⭐Determination⭐

Toriel was waiting there, a big smile on her face. "Do you smell that?" Toriel asked. "Surprise! It is butterscotch-cinnamon pie!" Frisk remained unmoved. "I thought we might celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time living here," she continued, "so I will hold off on snail pie for tonight. Here, I have another surprise for you." Toriel walked away, toward the rooms, and Frisk followed in lockstep. She stopped after she stood in front of an old door in the hallway to the right and said, "This is it…" Toriel then took his hand and led him the last few steps up to the first door down the hall. "A room of your own. I hope you like it!"

Frisk breathed in and tried to smile. Emphasis on "tried"; he looked more like he was trying to keep his composure after being subjugated to torturing for information, and he didn't meet Toriel's gaze. She didn't seem to notice as she raised her head and asked, "Is something burning…?" A second later, she turned and hurried away, calling back, "Um, make yourself at home!" Frisk only shot an aside glance at her without so much as moving his head an inch, and he pushed the door open. The room looked the same as it always had, and Frisk stepped inside, turned, and leaned into the door as he slowly closed it again.

He didn't jump into bed immediately, instead opting to stand in the center of the room and look around and wonder how many times he'd been in this exact spot before. He shrugged and let it go. After awhile and climbed into the bed and slept; it was a cold and dreamless sleep. When he woke up, he immediately tossed the covers off and rolled over to see a slice of pie on the floor. Frisk picked it up and placed it securely into his inventory. He wasn't going to eat it, at least for awhile. He exited and turned toward the living room at first...but he stopped himself and slowly glanced back toward Toriel's room. Frisk remained there for another few seconds before he walked to the back of the hall and looked in the mirror. He expected to look like a mess, with dust in his hair and on his sleeves. Surprisingly, he saw none, but as he gazed into the mirror he heard a voice, soft, almost indiscernible in the back of his head.

It's me, Chara.

Frisk blinked in surprise a few times before he focused on the mirror again; there was nothing staring back at him but his own reflection. He looked around carefully before he scurried back down the hall to get on with his work. He knew already that he had a little voice in his head that obviously didn't belong to him, but…

It couldn't be the first human, could it? Determined soul or no, humans stayed dead. They were supposed to, anyway.

He entered the kitchen and immediately walked up to Toriel. She raised her head and glanced over her book at him. "Up already, I see?" she asked. "Um, I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here. There are so many books I want to share! I want to show my favorite bug-hunting spot." Toriel broke eye contact with him for a moment, as if she was sharing the most closely-guarded secret in the whole of the Underground. "I've also prepared a curriculum for your education. This may come as a surprise to you...but I have always wanted to be a teacher." Frisk said nothing. "...Actually, perhaps that isn't very surprising," Toriel continued. "Still," she stated harshly, "I am glad to have you living here."

Frisk only lowered his head. "...I want to go home," he whispered.

"What? This...this is your home now," Toriel stated. She might have noticed he didn't meet her gaze, if she hadn't been starting to fret herself. "Um...would you like to hear about this book I am reading? It is called '72 Uses for Snails.' How about it?"

Frisk shook his head. "...I have to do something," she deadpanned. "Stay here."

Toriel got up and walked out of the room. Frisk did not. He stayed there for what felt like hours, but eventually worked up the strength to move again. To test himself, he entered the kitchen and looked around. The pie was still on the counter, and probably still warm. He approached a drawer, and heard a voice whisper:

Where are the knives.

He didn't run, but he did squint and left the kitchen soon after, walked to the stairs, and descended. Toriel was waiting for him, where she usually was. She didn't look at him as she said, "You wish to know how to return 'home,' do you not? Ahead of us lies the end of the Ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the Underground." Frisk deigned not to say anything. "I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again," she continued. "Now be a good child and go upstairs."

Toriel walked away without speaking any more again. Frisk waited, patiently, for another couple seconds before he followed. After a few more feet, he saw her again, still facing away from him. "Every human that falls down here meets the same fate." Her voice sounded much more dour than before "I have seen it again and again. They come...They leave…" The next pause was longer than normal. "They die." She glanced over her shoulder ever so slightly to reveal her disdainful frown. "You naive child...If you leave the Ruins…" She trailed off and faced forward again before she said, "They...Asgore...Will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand?"

When Frisk didn't answer, all she said was, "...Go to your room."

Toriel walked away again, down the hall, and disappeared into the shadows. Frisk followed her at length, and subconsciously adjusted the Toy Knife in his pocket. The blade was dull, but it still cut well...and Frisk knew by now that even dull plastic hurt as much as cold steel if swung hard enough. Despite knowing what would come next, he felt more...inconvenienced than anything else. Besides, she was under the impression that she knew what was best for him, and even if she didn't remember, he'd proved her wrong over a hundred times. Who did she think she was?

The answer was nothing.

Nothing but a cog in a cosmic machine.

Frisk caught up with Toriel, and she curtly addressed him. "Do not try and stop me. This is your final warning," she said as she walked away again, her chin held up and her eyes stone cold and focused ahead of her. Admittedly, Frisk didn't know how this was going to turn out; he was walking a whole new path, a path covered in dust, and his knowledge of the Underground might fail him at some point. It was unlikely, but still possible, and some part of him was doubtful because of it.

...The other part of him didn't come this far just to turn back.

Frisk marched ahead until he found Toriel standing in front of a large door, carved of purple stone and emblazoned with the Delta Rune. "You want to leave so badly? Hmph. You are just like the others. There is only one solution to this." She spun around, her dress flowing outward from the motion, and she pushed her hand outward as she did so. "Prove yourself…" She half-murmured. "Prove to me you are strong enough to survive."

Toriel blocks the way!

The world grew dark and his SOUL shuddered. Frisk opened his eyes and stared dead ahead and before the lilting music in his head had struck its eleventh note, he pulled out his knife, stepped forward, and swung.

It left a blurry streak in the air and Frisk sunk the knife into Toriel's side and pushed it all the way through. It left a gash in her robe from her left all the way across the center, and he saw her eyes go wide and her jaw hung open. All he did in response was step back and return his knife to his pocket and let his shoulders relax. Toriel was shuddering from the shock, and in a low, hoarse voice, she said, "Y...You...really hate me that much?" Her head dropped, as if she was trying to force herself to not fall over. "Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you here. Not you…" A manic grin spread across her face. Death was clawing at her neck. "But them!"

She finally collapsed to one knee, her smile now gone, but laughing bitterly all the same. In a span of seconds, her body began to dissolve and fade away until it was nothing more than dust, leaving only a small off-white, upside-down heart behind. It was shaking violently, and did so for another couple seconds before it cracked and shattered completely.

You Won! You earned 150 XP and 0 gold.

You LOVE increased.

Frisk had done nothing but watch it all unfold. He listened to the words she spoke to him and he heard nothing. He blinked a couple times and almost thought he felt a tear leaking out, but he knew that not even that could take center stage; he didn't have time to grieve. Frisk stepped forward and over the pile of dust and placed both hands on the exit. He pushed the doors open and the air that flowed through scattered Toriel's remains. Frisk didn't look back and focused on moving forward until he saw Flowey's familiar face pop out of the ground.

"Hahaha...you're not really human, are you?" Flowey chortled. "No. You're empty inside. Just like me. In fact…" She leaned forward again to get a good look at Frisk before her grin came back and she said, "You're Chara, right?" Frisk did nothing, but he saw Flowey smile. Not grin. Smile. "We're still inseparable, after all these years…" she sighed. After another moment, Flowey straightened up and continued, "Listen. I have a plan to become all-powerful. Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul."

Frisk's eyes widened, but he made no other moves.

"Let's destroy everything in the wretched world." Flowey's face melted into a horrid mockery of Toriel. "Everyone, everything in these worthless memories…" Her face quickly snapped back to her wide, malicious grin. "Let's turn'em all to dust."

Hm...That's a wonderful idea!

Frisk blinked a couple times and shook his head, and Flowey ducked down into the grass and disappeared, leaving Frisk to march forward and open the door to Snowdin. And amazingly, despite the fact he'd committed what equated to manslaughter and possibly matricide, he found a small smile crossing his face.

He'd finally found the answer to his question.