Chapter 20: History in Art

A good portion of Snowdin's population were hanging around the library, there to support the O'Hares as they waited to hear about what was going on with their son. Knowing that they'd likely be shocked at the truth, Sans got them into a side room to discuss the matter with them. "I got a chance to watch the two of them around noon and the human isn't forcing Cinna to stick with him. He even made him lunch."

"But the human took Cinna off into Waterfall, I saw that," Latte insisted.

"That may be your fault," Sans told her.

"It can't be."

Choco put her hand on her shoulder. "Hold on, let's hear what he has to say."

That matched what Cinna had complained about, so Sans didn't mind telling them straight. "You remember noticing that his eyes were suddenly green this morning? Well don't let this news get too far, but the human souls the king has been keeping managed to escape. One of them has attached itself to Cinna, which has confused him. But it also brought out thoughts he usually hides, like how he resents that you dress him up how he doesn't want to look like and embarrass him into cooperating if he tries to refuse."

"That's not true," Latte said. "We have so much fun together."

"He doesn't," Sans said. While Choco and Jack were able to accept that, Latte stubbornly didn't want to. It took Sans saying that Cinna didn't want to come home while Latte was there for her to stop arguing. She didn't accept it fully, going to pout silently in the corner. But it let them move on with the conversation.

"If one of those souls is confusing him, how do we get it taken care of?" Jack asked.

"And how do we get him away from the human, even if it seems okay now?" Choco asked.

"I think getting your son away from the human will be the simple part," Sans said. "I've talked to the guy and he's reasonable. I'm sure I could convince him to let me take Cinna somewhere else. Thing is, where would you like me to take Cinna until things get sorted out? Bringing him back here might cause him to run off again; we might need those two siblings to talk over the phone before he'll agree to come home."

"I have some family in the capitol, but it's been dangerous there lately," Choco said. "I do have some friends in Waterfall, though."

"Those guys?" Jack asked. "Aren't they kind of flaky?"

She shook her head. "They might seem like it, but you can count on them when it matters. Plus, if Cinna really is having trouble expressing himself, they can help him."

"Possibly."

"Whatever it takes to get him help, I'm on your side," Sans said. Although he was on multiple sides, to tell the truth. But he wanted things to work out for the best, so the lines between sides had to be erased.

Not long after they took a break in the swamp, things started to go wrong. The map claimed to be up to date, but one of the walkways cut off short and there was no apparent way to get it extended so they could reach the path they needed to take. Frisk was able to see a couple of side routes that could get them to central Waterfall, but both of those were similarly blocked off. While he could think of ways to get himself across, that would mean leaving Cinna behind.

Frisk went to a set of stairs went upward into drier territory, mostly so he could let go of the child and not lose him. He got out his tablet to sent a message to Alphys. 'Our paths have been blocked out, anything you can do? One at least looks like it was just retracted.'

Unfortunately, she couldn't help that way. 'Sorry, Undyne did that. I want to help you, but I don't want to anger her. On the plus side, I've been chatting with her just now and she seems like she might listen. Sans has also gotten word from the O'hares about what to do with Cinna. Head on up those stairs and he'll meet you up there. That should help to convince Undyne to listen to you as well.'

'Thanks, that sounds like a good plan.' He put his tablet away, then went up a few steps to where Cinna had gone. "Okay, we should be able to make progress this way now," Frisk said.

"Good," Becca said.

"Yeah, good," Cinna added. Then he pointed up at a sign ahead. "Look, it's the Hall of History. My teacher told us about this place, but said it was hard to get here. But we got here."

After a long day of walking, Frisk was feeling worn down and wanted to stop for the day. Maybe he could ask Undyne if there was an inn somewhere around? She might be willing if he added that he wouldn't be able to battle her as well when he was tired, so it wouldn't be a dramatic showdown. He smiled at the thought, then said to Cinna, "That's interesting. Is this place important in your history?"

"Um, kind of," Cinna said, heading up the stairs. "I'm pretty good at history. When monsters first were locked underground, we wanted to get far away from the barrier and the possibility of humans passing through it. The caverns were natural then, full of uncontrolled magic and many dangers. There were some that wanted to stop here in Waterfall because there were some good areas like this one. They stayed, but most kept following King Asgore deeper in the caverns until they got to the farthest part, where the Ruins are now."

He remembered reading about that. "Then this is where some of them stayed?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said. "But, this place was actually made into a record of what happened in the war between humans and monsters a thousand years ago. The murals have been kept in good shape so the story always remains. I've wanted to see it."

"Well this is a good chance to," Frisk said. "Could you tell me about them?"

"I'll try."

The murals were much like the books he had read in Toriel's collection. The monsters had seen the war as a hopeless effort; they'd been crushed by the human forces. In his studies in surface libraries, humans recorded the war to have been hard fought for both sides. But they both agreed that at the end, monsters surrendered and seven of the greatest human wizards created the barrier which sealed the monsters underneath Mt. Ebott. This was told in the form of many murals, which thankfully let them take a slower pace as Cinna wanted to look over them.

On the other hand, there were sets of stairs that kept bringing them towards the highest level in Waterfall. Frisk's map showed that at the end of this series of murals, there would be a maze of wooden walkways on many levels that stretched out over the vast Abyssal Lake. If Undyne meant to trap him, that was a good place to do so. Or even this hallway, since there were a number of dead end tunnels attached. All this walking and climbing made his legs feel heavy.

"Is this about the prince?" Cinna asked, stopping at the start of a new mural.

"What about the prince?" Frisk asked, looking at the wall.

"It's a long story, sad too," he said. "But I learned the whole thing. Um, want to hear it?"

"Sure," he said. He'd heard bits about Asriel, but there's been nothing in Toriel's books that mentioned him, strangely enough.

Cinna turned to him and Becca managed to keep quiet. "So, um, royal monsters are different than regular monsters. They can live forever if they want, at least until they have a child. Then they age as their child grows up. Asgore was king when the war happened a thousand years ago, and he's been king the whole time. He wasn't married at first, but then he met a beautiful and kind lady named Toriel. When they got married, people said they were the most romantic couple ever

"But they didn't have a child for a long time. They said it was okay because they were happy together. But then, they did have a child, um, about a hundred years ago I think. It was a boy and they named him Asriel. Everybody in the kingdom was really happy for them; some even said it was the happiest time in the history of the underground. As he grew up, Asriel became really nice and friendly, just like his parents.

"One time, they took him all through the underground, even into the Ruins past Snowdin. While they were there, Asriel came across something no one ever expected to see. A human girl named Chara had gotten lost on Mount Ebott and fell down a hole in a cave, which dropped her past the barrier. She was hurt, but Asriel helped her get back to where he and his parents were staying. Since there wasn't a way to get her back across the barrier, they brought her back to the castle and adopted her as one of their own.

"And, Asriel and Chara quickly became the best of friends." By this point, Cinna was fully into telling the story, searching for parts in the murals. But only the one here seemed remotely connected. "They went everywhere together, and the king and queen loved them a lot. But a couple years later, something bad happened. Chara got really sick; she couldn't even leave her bed. And she must've been homesick for the surface too, because she said that she really wanted to see some golden flowers again. But, those flowers didn't grow underground and none of us could leave. Nobody could cure her sickness either, so one evening, she finally died.

"The news spread quickly and everyone was really upset, especially Asgore and Toriel. And Asriel, he was so upset that he didn't want to leave his sister's side. But then while their parents were away, he took her body and disappeared with it. it caused a panic and people searched for hours. But shortly before dawn, he came back with Chara's body.

"Only, he wasn't the same. He'd been a little kid, but when he got back, he was like a grown-up monster, only really really powerful, like this drawing here. But even though he must've been strong, he was hurt badly and barely alive. The king, queen, and a couple of their servants were in the throne room when Asriel had come back. He didn't say anything, but somehow he was able to share what had gone on by showing those memories in their minds.

"So after Chara had died, Asriel actually heard her voice. He saw her soul and touched it, absorbing it into his own soul. It's just like these old stories talk about. Humans were afraid of us because we could absorb their souls after death and become much more powerful than we can be on our own. And, if a monster manages to acquire seven humans souls somehow, they become so powerful that they are considered gods. That's why they started the war and sealed us away.

"But back to Asriel and Chara. Once he was really strong, he picked up her body and took it right through the barrier, in order to return her home. When he got into the human city nearest Mount Ebott, he came across a flowerbed that was full of those golden flowers, just like she asked for. He was going to leave her there, but then humans had seen him and got scared. They came out and attacked him, thinking that he'd killed her. As powerful as he'd become, Asriel could have just destroyed them all.

"But he didn't even try to fight back. He just kept Chara's body and tried to get back home. Only, the humans had done such nasty damage to him already that he only made it back through sheer determination. Once he was back home, saw his parents, and told them a bit of what happened, he turned to dust.

"Everybody all through the kingdom was distraught over the tragedy. The older monsters say that it was like all hope was stolen from them with their loss. When that happens, bad things happen. See, monsters souls are made of hope, compassion, and uh, something else, so if we lose a part of that, we lose ourselves. A monster who loses all hope can entirely fade away, or just go crazy and become bad monsters that the judge monsters have to get rid of. So it was a really bad time for everybody.

"Asgore even grew angry about it, and he's so nice that he wouldn't hurt anybody. After his two children were lost in one night, he swore that he'd take the souls of other humans so he could break down the barrier and take revenge on them. Lots of monsters agreed with him and started to have hope that we could become free doing that. But Toriel hated that idea so much that she left the castle and said that she'd never come back. And nobody's seen her since, so she really meant it.

"Asgore was upset about that, but he meant what he said too. And that's how it's been ever since, although not enough humans have come to the underground for us to escape yet."

Except that they would have enough if they could reclaim the six missing souls and kill him, Frisk thought. But he couldn't disappoint Toriel and let that happen. "I see. So the prince turned into something like this?" There was something familiar about the drawing. Unsettling too, it was more demonic than regular monsters. There was also text along the picture, something he recognized. "Hey wait, this form of writing, it's like what I've seen in some magical tomes."

"Doesn't it just say the same thing as the rest of it?" Cinna asked. "Though, there is more of the weird letters."

Checking just the first three words showed, "No, they don't. I don't read this often, but I can translate it..."

Then he heard someone walking towards them. Glancing back, he saw Sans there. He must have wanted them to know he was there. "Hey there," Sans said. "What are you talking about?"

"The history murals," Cinna said, turning to him. "Oh, Sans? What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you two," he said. "Something's going on with the paths getting cut off. Don't really want kids hanging around here until we have a better idea of what. Though, you should be okay Frisk."

"Is there somewhere we could take Cinna that's safer?" Frisk asked, hoping he didn't set off either him or Becca with that wording.

"Back home?" Cinna asked warily.

"Not if you don't want it," Sans said. "Your parents do want to talk with you, but they said it was okay if you went to see some friends of theirs here in Waterfall. I know a shortcut, we can get over there in a jiffy."

"I guess that works," he said, looking down.

"No scary monsters there?" Becca added.

"Some might say they're weird, but they're not scary," Sans said. "Few people are scary once you get to know them. Though, if you're curious to hear what Frisk can read off the wall, we could stick around for a couple minutes."

"Yeah, I never heard there was weird writing up here," Cinna said, looking back to the wall.

"Well I'm not up here often, but I don't recall it either," Sans said.

Frisk nodded and turned back to the text. "All right. This illustration they have is familiar, actually, though I can't recall it." He put his hand on the wall and read along. "'In times long past, such gods were awakened, like Baphomet.' Oh wait," he looked back at the drawing. It looked like a darker and more demonic version of Asgore, actually. "That is Baphomet."

"Who's that?" Cinna asked. "Like it says above, a monster who managed to absorb seven human souls?"

"I'm not sure, but Baphomet is recognized in demonology as a patron devil of dangerous magics like summoning and the arts of a warlock," Frisk said. And time magic as used by owners of a chronograph? Frisk put his hand to his chest, remembering that Baphomet was the name he'd gotten for the master who'd sent him down here. At the time, he hadn't studied much on demonology.

Oddly enough, Sans came over and picked out a word. "That the name?"

"Yes, why?"

"It's something to look into later. So this devil humans recognize was once a monster?"

"Maybe," Frisk said, glancing ahead through the arcane text. But as he did, it was worrisome things. Could he really talk about this in front of these two? Maybe Sans, but he didn't want the kid hearing this. He would have before this cycle, but now he didn't want to let Cinna in on something that might be considered disturbing to the monsters. "Hmm. I'd read more, but this is technical stuff. I spent a long time studying magic, so I can understand, but I'm not sure how to explain it to those who haven't studied like me."

"So it isn't more history?" Cinna asked, disappointed.

"No," Which was half-true, there was some ancient history written down, well before the war that sealed monsters down here. "This actually talks about how magic works. So are you ready to go?"

"Sure," he said.

But Becca had other ideas. "No more monsters, none."

"We're not going to hurt you," Sans said.

"No!" They then rushed away, up the stairs onto the walkways over the lake.

"Cinna!" Frisk got up and ran after him.

Alphys rubbed her head, waiting a moment for the headache medicine to kick in. She wasn't getting any of her actual work done due to the hectic work of trying to coordinate the situation in Waterfall. If this came to a battle soon, Frisk would be in a bad position. His paths had been narrowed down to some upper pathways that weren't considered safe and he was tired. But anything she could think to do to help him in more than messages would be noticed by Undyne.

She went ahead and sent another message to Undyne. 'I'm sure that's my friend Nevyn now. I don't know what to think about that.

Checking on the monitors, she could see Undyne trailing after Frisk and Cinna; the two of them were discussing the history murals there. 'He's been nice to the kid, but Cinna clearly isn't doing well and he shouldn't have took him from Snowdin!'

'Can't we give him a chance to explain himself? He wants to break the barrier.'

'But he's a human; we need his soul.'

'Maybe we don't? I know that's what the king said, but it's different now that I actually know one.'

'It'd be easier just to kill him. But I will give you that. I'm a bit uneasy fighting him when he's not done anything bad.' She soon sent another message to continue. 'And he looks tired. That's just not a good fight if I challenge him now.'

"Good, we're getting somewhere," Alphys muttered as she composed a response. 'Why don't we give him a chance to rest and then talk? If he means trouble, you could beat him up then.'

'I guess, but where would we keep a powerful human that he couldn't just break out of?'

Recalling something Frisk had said, she wrote back, 'You could bring him to the lab as I can lock down some rooms with an electrical forcefield. Electricity is more dangerous to humans than monsters.'

While she was waiting on a response, there was a knock at the door. Someone was visiting? She checked on the camera outside the lab and saw that it was Mettaton. That was a pleasant surprise. Pressing the intercom, she said, "Hey Mettaton, come on in."

"Thanks." He came in rather quietly compared to how he normally made an entrance. But he'd been like that lately, coming by to see her more often and being normal about it. If someone was around, though, he'd be more flashy. "Sorry for dropping in without warning, but I had some free time and wanted to get out of the city. It's been chaotic there, and not even of the good chaos."

"It's those ones that have been killing others, isn't it?" she asked. There were a lot of unexplained deaths and disappearances in the past few days. Rumor had it that an old killer, Catclaw, had come back to life. Or had come out of hiding like the judges had never taken care of him at all.

Mettaton nodded. "Dreadful business. I've been working to keep everyone's spirits up, and Blooky's even been helping although he wants to stay in the shadows unnoticed. Which is fine, a spotlight's best for one person."

That reminded her of the discussion earlier. "Oh right, I was hoping to talk to you or someone who could get in contact with Napstablook, if that's okay. Something's come up and they may be able to help out."

"Oh really? What's the occasion?" He leaned on the back of her chair. "We've been writing up a song to knock everyone's socks off, did you hear about that?"

"No," she said, although it sounded interesting. She turned back to the monitor and pointed out Cinna. "This rabbit here has been possessed by one of the human souls that the king had; they got lost, we're still investigating that. We have to separate the two souls and calm the human one down in order to help them. And, this human here, well it's complicated, but he's a friend and he says that the particular kind of soul needs to be calmed through magical song. Either them or you could do something, I'm sure."

"Hey that," Mettaton stepped aside to look closer. "I bet that's him."

"You know the human too?" Alphys asked, surprised. Maybe they talked on UnderNet? Or another site?

He shook his head. "Not myself. But you know that song I mentioned? Blooky said the inspiration came from an encounter with a nice human in a bad situation. They got possessed, but the human managed to trap the possessing soul within himself." Then Mettaton chuckled. "Has to be him, since there wouldn't be another human around. I'm sure Blooky with be thrilled for a chance to return the favor, I'll talk with them in a bit."

"Great, I'll have to let Frisk know once things get resolved here," she said. She also sent a message to Sans: 'Got Mettaton to talk to Napstablook, so we should be good there.'

"Is that Undyne following them?" Mettaton asked, noticing another screen.

"Yeah, it's been chaotic over there too," Alphys said. "I don't want to betray either of them, really, but I knew that if I didn't do something, one of them could end up dead. More likely Frisk since he doesn't want to hurt anybody else, then we've got Cinna to worry about as well. It's even got Sans to help out, and he doesn't like to do much."

"Sounds rough," he said. "How's she taking this?"

"I'm starting to get her to change her mind," she said.

Right as she said that, she got a message from Undyne. 'I guess that will work. I hope I do get to duel him; wouldn't be exciting without that.' Maybe for her, just as long as they agreed to nothing deadly.

"What's the writing they're looking at?" Mettaton asked.

"That's the explanation of how powerful monsters can become when they absorb human souls," she said, knowing what that section of the murals was about.

"But that doesn't look familiar," he said. "Like someone added stuff."

"Did they?" She looked at the screen herself. There was extra writing there, filling up an area near the illustration. When she focused in on it, even the kind of text was unfamiliar. "Huh. I don't remember that being there." She asked the lab computer to translate it; it might be in an older alphabet monsters used early in the imprisonment. Though, who would be writing with that now?

The kid then ran off, causing Frisk and Undyne to run after him. Meanwhile, Sans blinked out, reappearing on one of the deck off-shoots. It caused Cinna to take another path. "Hope they'll be okay," Mettaton said. "Last I heard, they were telling people not to use those walkways as being too dangerous."

"Right," Alphys said. She couldn't do a lot about that. The walkways here were shorter than some others they could have gotten to, so it didn't take long for Cinna to stop at the end. Frisk was close behind. And since Undyne didn't have her heavy armor today to sneak around better, she had been able to catch up.

"Hang on, it'll be okay," Frisk called, being closer to him.

"Hold it, you'd better come back..." Undyne started to order, probably expecting the kid at least to comply.

They looked back to her and Becca was terrified enough that she jumped out of Cinna's body briefly. She had a pale ragged dress and her brown hair hanging down in a messy way. Cinna collapsed under her. Before either Frisk or Undyne could react, she screamed so powerfully that the sound attack could be clearly detected on the computer screen. It radiated in all directions, damaging the walkway so severely that it disintegrated and dropped them straight onto the Abyssal Lake.

"Oh shit, at that height," Alphys said…

Time rewound.

She asked the lab computer to translate the unusual text, having an odd feeling that she'd just done so.

Cinna had just died, hitting the lake far too hard. Now Sans found himself standing in the mural hall with Cinna and Frisk nearby. Normally he just had a sense for when Frisk affected time, maybe an idea of why. Like at the bridge fight, he knew Papyrus was simply too strong for Frisk to survive more than one hit. But he couldn't remember the failed battles themselves. This time, he remembered it. He'd cut off the longer walkway so they could catch up to the kid sooner. Then the ghost managed to destroy the walkway, dropping them onto the lake. Undyne could survive the dive; Frisk could too as he reflexively cast a spell to slow his fall. Cinna couldn't and Frisk moved back time.

"So it isn't more history?" Cinna asked.

"No, it isn't," Frisk said, glancing back at them. "We have to be careful."

"Right," Sans said. "The walkways that way aren't very good. We're better off going back down to reach another way forward."

"That'd be good," he said. "You know?"

"More than usual," he said, winking like it was a joke.

"Don't want to go," Becca said, then ran off upwards.

This time, Sans tried to wait further down the shorter walkway, blocking the way. Cinna ran down the longer walkway, a shadowy trail coming off his ears. Probably part of the possession. Not wanting to see another rewind, he warped in the middle of the longer walkway, just far enough that the kid shouldn't be able to see him phase in. Cinna was still going fast, so he skidded to a stop on seeing him. Sans held his hands up, planning on saying something.

But Cinna closed his eyes and screamed powerfully. The pulses of magical energy were tightly packed with hardly any space to slip by safely. Too close; he got clipped and was defeated in seconds.

Time rewound.

"So it isn't more history?" Cinna asked, not noticing that he was asking it a third time.

"No, it's complicated," Frisk said, putting a hand to his chest. His movements were slow and weary. "Sans?"

"What's the matter?" he asked, though it was pretty clear what the problem was. Why didn't he just rewind back to the previous night and redo today? That could fix some problems.

But just as Sans thought that, Frisk gave a reason why not. "It's," he snapped his fingers, "it's a real struggle to go backwards at this point, not without pushing too hard and going back about six years to my usual wall. Maybe it's just that I'm too tired to be doing this right."

"Go backwards how?" Cinna asked, although his own posture was tense. Becca was going to bolt any time now, once again.

Frisk ignored that for a moment, waving down the hall. "She likes drama, right? I'm gonna take a risk and use a sleep enchantment. You take them off to the safe place, then hopefully she'll just capture me for now. Might have to break out of wherever I end up, but I'll be alert enough to work through that or just return here and now. That work?"

The main way those instructions made sense was if he meant to put Cinna and Becca to sleep so they could be whisked away without her panicking. "As long as you can manage the enchantment like this, sounds fine by me," Sans said.

After nodding, he then then called out his chronograph. Which, for some reason, had a piece of a golden one drifting by it. "Oh, and I just had a feeling, is this yours?" He called the fragment away and offered it.

It looked right. "Yeah, what're you doing with it?" Sans called his chronograph out and took the fragment. There was a clear edge where the cracks met. Bringing them close was enough to fuse it back. Although, there was a third chunk of it still missing with thin cracks all across the clock face in the middle.

"Found it in the Ruins, we'll talk more about it later," Frisk said. "Ready?"

"What's going on?" Becca asked warily. But Sans nodded.

Time rewound.

A/N: Things have been kind of crazy for me this summer, but I am still working on this. Not sure when I'll get back to a more regular update schedule since things won't slow down until October, and then I'll be prepping for NaNoWriMo. Hopefully I can build up enough of a buffer to get back to weekly updates by then.