A lone, golden flower sits on the flower bed, reflecting the choices that were made that day. He looked up the light that rained down upon him from a world above and beyond his reach. He couldn't go up there, not in the crippled state he was in.
What would his family say? Knowing what he's become, what he's done? Would they still accept him? He doubt they would, the only reason they'd put up with him is because Frisk would beg them to. He didn't want to force them to look after him.
So, he was stuck down here. And he was okay with that. If it meant his family could get a happy ending, he didn't care. But still...he longed to go up there and see them, or to see the sun, or the stars, or the moon, heck he wanted to see the sky in general.
He lowered his head and sighed, that would never happen though. The best possible ending required a sacrifice, and that was his eternal imprisonment...but still, a flower could hope right?
Hello Asriel.
His head darted up and he jolted his eyes around, but he couldn't see the source of the voice. It was to dark...wait, wasn't the sun shining on him a couple of moments ago? He looked around, it was getting dark, darker, yet darker.
The darkness kept growing, the shadows cut deeper into the light, the photons were dissolved from existence, the temperature dropped to negative 10 degrees, fear crept up on Flowey's stem petal, but there was also a sense of interest, he wondered what Frisk and Sans would make of his current situation.
I see you need help.
Two lights ignited themselves from with in the darkness, one purple and the other cyan. The casted a stream of light down upon the flower, who instinctively recoiled. He looked into those lights...and something struck him familiar about them, like he'd seen them before.
He looked closer and realized that the lights could be eyes, that would explain the sense of familiarity, but the only monster in the entire Underground with flashing eyes was Sans! And he only had one!
Allow me to assist.
Seven hearts appeared in the darkness, lighting the cave up with a familiar light. His eyes widened as he looked at them with disbelief. Human SOULS! But how?! And who do they belong to?! The souls raced at him and surrounded him.
Normally he'd take them with glee, but he was better than that. Though it didn't matter, they started glowing white, and so did he. He could feel their energy sweep into him, and overwhelming amount emotions rushed into him. Regret, love, kindness, bravery, patience, justice, integrity, perseverance.
He felt his own determination rise considerably, he felt himself leave his body and rise into the air. His world turned white as he immediately lost consciousness…
XX
"Hey, do you think he'll wake up anytime soon?"
"Gosh darn it! You've asked that question twenty times already! Can't you have some patience?!"
His eyes slowly opened, revealing large blobs of colors that were blurred out, just like everything else. He blinked his eyes, and his vision became more and more decipherable. His eyes widened in panic and he jolted up.
"What in the name of sweet cinnamon rolls!?" The spectres that were arguing stopped arguing, and looked at him. There were seven of them, spectres that were the colors of the seven human souls. He backed up against the wall.
"Good, you're awake." The purple one noted, her spectre had the form a girl with glasses and a notebook. "We can finally commence step two of 'discovering what is our current predicament'."
"Isn't it obvious? He took our souls!" The orange spectre, a boy that wore gloves pointed an accusing finger at him, he wilted as a response.
"W-wait! Look, I'm telling you I didn't steal your souls!" The orange one scoffed at his protest, much to his panic.
"We don't have much reason to believe you, considering your current track record." The purple one said, eyeing him with suspicion.
"Hey guys, maybe we should ease up on him a little. I mean he was on the floor unconscious!" The green one, a boy who wore an apron, suggested. The yellow one looked at him with disbelief.
"Are you out of your mind!? This thing, is a murderous, manipulating scum! And don't you throw the 'oh he didn't have a soul' talk at me! You don't need to have a soul to know killing is bad!" Asriel winced from the cow girl's unexpected temper. And so did the green one.
The blue ballerina stepped between them, "Now, now. I understand that this is a rather...interesting scenario we are in, but screaming will not help us in the slightest." The yellow spectre huffed and looked away, while green one nervously fiddled with his fingers.
"Personally I think it's worth hearing what he has to say," the cyan spectre commented, "making such a decision needs both sides of the story." The spectres started a discussion in between themselves, he watched, slightly curious and afraid.
"We've reached a decision," the purple one said, drawing his attention, "we will let you explain yourself to us and then decide what to do with you from then." He gave a grateful and quick nod to the ghost.
He started explaining, from the point in where he had nearly every single soul in the Underground, to the breaking of the barrier and his encounter with the mystery man, which seemed to spark their attention.
"Hold up there just a minute!" The yellow one exclaimed, "you're telling me some all-powerful mystery guy that you may have at one point known took our souls and gave them to you." He nodded quickly, she merely scoffed.
"Ha! That's a wet pile of lies if I've ever seen any!" His heart sank at the proclamation.
"I'm telling the truth! Plus where would I even find your souls!?" He retorted, hoping that it would cause a ruckus in between them.
"Hold up," the purple one said, "I want to clarify something, you said that the mystery man gave you seven souls?" He nodded rapidly. She put her hand on her chin in a thinking motion.
"Hmmm, that would explain the extra presence, I thought that it was just you, but it turns out it was someone else entirely." She took notes down on her notebook, scribbling away in concentration. After lots 'hmmm's' she looked at him again.
"Alright, say we do believe your story, what do you plan to do then?" Everybody looked at the purple one either in surprise or nervousness. Asriel sighed, he had a feeling she might be buying what he said.
"I honestly never thought of it, I mean a legit just woke up." The purple one nodded and began note taking again. A tense silence filled the room, everyone one looked around unsurely.
"Alright, I have come to the conclusion." The purple one said, "you appear to be as clueless and as lost as we are, and your mystery man story, while sounding absurd, makes a lot more sense once analyzed. So I believe that you are not to be blamed for our current predicament." Everyone looked at her in shock, the yellow one floated up to her and glared.
"You're trusting that psychopath!? I thought that you're the sensible one!" She calmly stared back at her.
"And you are letting emotions get the better of you." She replied, adding more fuel to the yellow ghost's flame of rage.
"Alright then! Let's do this in a fair democratic way! The people who are on your side stand with you and the people who are on my side stand with me! How does that sound!?" The purple one nodded.
"Fair enough." The other ghost's looked around unsurely at the two, feeling a massive pressure on them. Patience made the first move.
"I trust Clare's judgement on this, she wouldn't jump to such a conclusion without good reasons." She stood next to the purple ghost, wincing as she was glared at.
"I-I agree with Charlie on this." He floated next to patience, who blocked him from the yellow one's glare.
Bravery scoffed. "Look, I don't know about any mystery man, but I doubt it's a good idea to trust a killer like him." He said jabbing at the monster he was talking about. "I'm taking Lauren's side here." that left integrity who shrunk under the other's gazes.
"C-Clare, I want to trust you, I really do. But I can't bring my self to trust him, I'm sorry." So it was a stalemate then. Now what? Would a fight break out? Would they vote again? He found himself anxiously awaiting a response.
"...I think we should give him a chance." Everyone turned to see the red spectre, a small girl who appeared next to him. "He doesn't sound like he wants to hurt anybody, and I think he should be given a second chance to prove himself."
Silence filled the room, it was no longer a stalemate and nobody uttered a word. Expressions were all scattered throughout the spectrum of emotion. "You're making a mistake." the yellow one hissed through gritted teeth. "You have no idea what he can do, what he's capable of." The red spectre stood firm, "I'm not changing my mind."
The purple one cleared her throat, "well then, it looks like we've won." she faced him. "Well then, it's looks we will trust you for now, we should start planning our next course of action." He sighed and walked forward….wait a minute.
Were those his legs walking? He looked down to see a robe similar to the one he wore when he was The God Of Hyperdeath, he brought a paw to his hand, and realized that it wasn't a leafy part of a steam petal, but rather his furry paw. His widened and he took a step back, and let out a small gasp.
"Impossible," he breathed, the ghosts were starting to take notice of his odd behaviour.
"Hey, are you okay." the green soul asked him, Asriel locked eyes with boy.
"You're telling me you don't know what's weird about this!?" He said pointing at his own body, the ghost shook his own head in confusion. Asriel was about to say something, but then stopped himself.
"Ugh, sorry forgot you didn't know." The purple ghost floated to him, tilting her head.
"Didn't know what?" Asriel drew in a breath and started his explanation.
"Um you see, the only reason I was able to return to this form is that I absorbed the six human souls, plus all the monster souls." The purple one started taking notes again.
"I am aware, isn't the power of all monster souls equivalent to one human soul?" Asriel nodded.
"Yeah that's true, but the thing is, the only reason I became Asriel again is that I had accesses to every monster soul as well, the magic they produced turned me back into Asriel, but that thing only gave me seven human souls!" The purple started flipping pages in the notebook, scanning for info.
"Out of curiosity, what would happen if you just absorbed seven human souls?"
Asriel responded quickly, "I would become an upgraded version of Omega Flowey." Asriel noticed integrity shiver when the beast's name was uttered, everyone else looked uneasy. Perseverance just kept noting.
"Would it be possible to see our soul?" Asriel nodded and started to concentrate, he felt a large portion of his being converge in a single point, an upside-down heart manifested near Asriel's chest. The said monster gasped.
"B-but how?" Perseverance observed the soul, it was constantly switching colors between the spectrum of human souls, red to purple to blue to cyan to green, to yellow, to orange right back to red. The purple spectre hummed for a while.
"Are you sure the mystery man didn't give a monster soul as well?" Asriel nodded rapidly. An idea came to him, a way of seeing how much magic he had.
"Uh guys, I'm gonna try something real quick." A called upon all the mystical energy in his body and with an outstretch of his hand, unleashed it. A giant skull formed, causing the others to recoil in surprise. "What the heck is that!?" Justice asked. Asriel gave her a funny look.
"Um it's my Hyper Goner, I thought you already saw it in action when I fought Frisk." He was surprised when the ghost's shook their heads.
"We were only slightly conscious during the fight, we didn't really get to see anything, we just knew it happened." Patience spoke up, her voice was whisper, like she was in awe at his giant blaster.
"It looks awesome!" Bravery said, he looked at Asriel with excitement in his eyes. "What else can you do!?" Asriel summoned two Chaos Sabers and swung them around. Bravery's eyes sparkled in awe.
"So cool!" He punched the air in excitement. He looked at the kid and felt a swell of happiness and pride built within him. He liked making people happy, it felt nice. He looked at the other ghosts who were still marvelling at the skull.
From the corner of his eyes, he noticed something, a girl was out on the flower bed. His expression morphed into concern, "guys look over here!" he called, snapping them out of their stupor. They surrounded the girl.
"How did she get here?" Patience asked, Asriel shrugged, the swords in his hand dissipated as well as the giant skull. He knelt down and put a hand on her stomach. He felt and rise and fall, synchronized with her breathing.
"She's alive." every ghost let out a sigh of relief, Kindness floated next to him eyeing her in concern.
"What do we do with her now?" Asriel looked between her and the Ruins. He could take her up to the surface but… a memory flashed in his head, one of him being savagely beaten and kicked by an enraged mob.
Yeah, not a good idea in the slightest. He looked at the Ruins, there was only one option then. He picked her up and carried her to the Ruins. The other ghosts flowed with curiosity. "Where are you taking her?" Patience asked.
"To Mom's house. Or well old house." The other ghosts perked up suddenly, he could feel their excitement.
"You mean you're taking her to Toriel?" Kindness asked, Asriel sighed and shook his head.
"Sorry, but she's already moved into the surface with Frisk, there might be a chance we come across her, but it's unlikely." The ghosts let out a collective whine consisting of 'aww'.
The rest of the walk was quiet, save for random conversations that started up here and there, the arrived at Toriel's house pretty quickly, since Asriel by this stage has the map of the entire Underground memorized.
"Well, this is it then," Asriel said in a sombre voice as he entered his mother's old house, it hadn't changed that much, in fact, everything was still where she left it. He went to Frisk's old room and placed the girl on the bed.
He looked at her sleeping figure when suddenly the scene changed. He was looking at a familiar human as they groaned uncomfortably on the bed, they constantly turned around, tears leaked from their eyes. "It cannot end now! Chara, stay determined!"
His eyes widened, and he found himself back in Frisk's room. The ghosts crowded around the girl, watching over her. Asriel left the room without saying a word, he found the fridge, it still had all the food, everything was left there, neatly arranged. Mom must've been in a hurry. He grabbed a few things from the fridge, mainly the ingredients for butterscotch and cinnamon pie.
He put them out and was about to begin baking, but he remembered something, he didn't know how to bake. He was interested, but never asked. Flip. What was he supposed to do now?
"Need help?" The green spectre appeared next to him, Asriel jolted in surprise.
"When did you get here?" The spectre sheepishly rubbed his head.
"I saw you leave and wanted to follow you, it isn't easy being lonely." Asriel quietly nodded, he could agree with that, it's not easy being alone.
"So what are you making?" The spectre asked, Asriel pointed at his ingredients.
"Mom's pie." The kid's eyes lightened like a star.
"OhmygoshIloveMom'spie!" He squealed, Asriel felt his heart soar. It felt nice to have Mom's cooking complimented, his expression turned sheepish when he recalled his problem.
"Uh, but I kinda don't know how to cook so um..." He trailed off, too embarrassed to finish the sentence. The kid chuckled.
"Don't worry, I'll help!" The two started on a process of baking, with kindness giving instructions, and Asriel following. The prince of the underground couldn't recall a time he had this much fun with someone, laughing their problems away, chatting like friends, he realized his missed it, he missed talking to people, he missed having fun, he missed feeling something for someone.
Asriel and the green spectre were sitting of the dining table, laughing as they told each other jokes. Asriel hadn't had laughed so hard in ages! He was banging the table as he laughed. "And then Undyne was like 'hey Asgore, is that your ex? Jeez, that's rough buddy.' and I was like 'you meet the former Queen of the Underground chewing out the king and the first thing you say is that!?'" They erupted into pearls of laughter, Asriel banged the table and the ghost erratically flew all over the place, laughing his head off.
"My g-gosh! How does nobody in the Underground know who the queen is?!" The ghost questioned through his laughter. Asriel shrugged, panting from his own giggling fit. Asriel was about to say something else, but the world suddenly turned black…
XX
Bones rose up from the snow, charging towards the young boy, who desperately tried to move out of the way, however, another bone rose from the snow, impaling him in the heart. He let out a weak gasp, begging for the air to enter his lungs.
Sans walked forward, a giant skeleton skull that was colored white floated beside him, he locked eyes with the skeleton with empty sockets. He weakly glared at the skeleton, tears poured from his eyes. The skeleton let out a sad sigh. "I'm sorry kiddo...I really am, but I don't get paid to sit here and dawdle."
The jaws of the skeletal beast opened, a ball of blue energy shone from within, casting a light blue light across the area. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, you were really brave standing up for her like that."
The beast's lower jaw split in two and blast of light blue energy rushed at him, burning his skin off, disintegrating his bones, his world faded to black…
XX
Asriel gasped as he was brought back into reality, he slammed a paw onto the table, it landed with a bang, causing the table to shake. "Are you okay!?" the ghost asked floating up to him.
Asriel replied with a shaky nod, his breath was still heavier than a ton of bricks. "Aw jeez, that was weird..."
"You didn't by any chance….see one of us die did you?" Asriel jerked up and looked at the boy in shock.
"How did you know!?" The boy sighed and floated down into a chair.
"I think because of our weird soul, some of our thoughts are connected…? I dunno, back in that room, all of us had a vision of someone in a bed groaning uncomfortably." Asriel's heart dropped into his stomach, his breathing hitched. They saw Chara on her deathbed.
"Hmm," the boy continued, paying no mind to Asriel. "Maybe Clare might give us a better judgement on this." Asriel perked up on the name.
"Clare?" he asked, the boy gave him a funny look before dramatically gasping.
"Oh, dear! We haven't even introduced ourselves yet!" He proclaimed, "Uh, oh man I gotta fix this! Um well, I'm John, short for Johnathon, the girl with the knife on her belt is Charlie, short for Charlotte. The boy with the gloves is Ethan, the girl with the notebook is Clare, the girl that has a ballerina set up is Cassidy and the girl with cowgirl set up is Lauren." Asriel nodded along.
"What about the red spectre?" The boy shrugged.
"She's really quiet, in fact, the only time I've seen her is when you woke up. She doesn't talk much, maybe we could ask her!" Asriel nodded, seemed like a logical idea.
"So um, that vision, I think it was of Ethan's death?" The boy shrugged again.
"Was there a skeleton and giant laser skulls?"
"Yeah."
"Did he say a remark about being brave."
"Yeah."
"Then it's probably Ethan." The boy concluded, Asriel however, still major doubts he wanted to clear.
"W-wait, hang on a minute, I thought Asgore killed you all!?" The boy looked at him, surprised.
"No he didn't" he replied, "Well, he didn't kill all of us, he only killed two us, me and Lauren. The rest of us were murdered by others. Ethan and Cassidy were killed by Sans, and I and Lauren were murdered by Asgore, that's as much as I know." Asriel winced as his dad's name was uttered, another question made its way into his head, one had to know the answer for.
"Do you guys hate Asgore?" The boy gave a thoughtful 'hmmm'.
"Well, for most of us 'hate' is a strong word, the only one of us that hates him is Lauren, but you've already seen how her temper can be. Most of us are just...kinda mad at him, because our deaths can be tied back to his decision, but I personally don't hold anything against anyone." Asriel raised an eyebrow at that statement.
"Um, you don't?" The boy nodded.
"Yeah, I don't. They were desperate, they needed to be freed." He replied with nonchalance.
"But he killed you, you'd never see your loved ones again because of him." The boy sent at him a serious stare.
"Bold of you to assume I have loved ones, to begin with." Asriel stared at him, slack-jawed. The boy recoiled sheepishly.
"Okay, that could've probably been stated better but I'm an orphan." Asriel's eyes bulged out of their sockets.
"You're an orphan?" He asked, the boy nodded.
"Yup, do you honestly think any sane person would let their kids come up to this place," he inquired, Asriel shrugged.
"Besides, why were you so surprised that I'm orphan." Asriel rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Well in the Underground, child abuse abandonment and unadopted orphans are hard to come by. So the revelation surprised me." The boy nodded with an 'I see'.
"You have to understand that human's and monsters are not the same, monster souls are made of love and compassion, human souls don't need any of that." Asriel nodded with a sad sigh.
"I found that out the hard way." A silence fell over them, with the two just taking a moment to reel back and sit in their thoughts. Asriel still had one unanswered question, one he felt like needed to be answered.
"Why are you giving me a chance?" The boy perked up with a 'huh?' Asriel locked eyes with him. "Why are you even talking to me? After what I've done..." he looked down and closed his eyes, clenching his fists. "I wouldn't be surprised if none of you wanted to talk to me ever again."
The boy let out a sigh, "well, first off, yeah what you did isn't forgivable but," he looked at Asriel, with an expression of sympathy. "No one else knows what it's like to be soulless, to lose the ability to feel anything for anyone. If you could only feel negative emotions and curiosity, and with no positive emotions to help balance things out...It's hard to imagine an existence like that." Asriel looked up at the boy, tears welling in his eyes.
"N-no wonder your trait is kindness." He sniffled, the boy chuckled.
"Heh, crybaby." A noise came from the kitchen, an oven was done cooking. A butterscotch cinnamon pie was ready to be devoured.
Asriel took the pie out of the oven and sliced up two slices, serving it on plates. The green ghost nodded in approval. "Looks good for a first try."
"Thanks!"
Asriel headed into the room again, the ghosts were quietly watching over the little girl like protective guardians. He noticed Bravery-err, Ethan looked apprehensive, like he had a nightmare. Perhaps that was the vision he witnessed?
Clare looked at them, "I see your back," John nodded.
"We made butterscotch cinnamon pie!" The other ghosts perked up at hearing this.
"I love Toriel's pies! Can we have some?" Ethan asked, Clare gave him a look.
"Do ghosts eat?" She asked, Ethan, let out an 'aww'.
"Hold on," Asriel interjected, "If we share a soul, doesn't that mean were connected? By that logic, shouldn't you guys be able to taste what I eat?" The others looked at him in stunned silence.
"Oh my gosh..." Clare said, her voice a whisper, "how come I never thought of that?" John chuckled and shrugged.
"I dunno, maybe you're pushing your luck for discoveries." Clare gave him a look that would make the residents of Snowdin turn up the heater.
A faint groan came from the bed, all eyes were on the girl as her eyes fluttered open with success. She tilts her head towards them, "where am I?"
"In the Underground," Asriel responded, he looked into the girl's eyes, her pupils had an odd galaxy texture with a single white dot in the centre, it felt like he was looking at the stars. She started to become more awake, her eyes paced around in panic.
"Who are all of you!?" She jumped to her feet, only to wince in pain and fall back on the bed. Worry filled Asriel's head. Had she actually got hurt from the fall? But that's impossible! The barrier would nerf the fall. Wouldn't it?
...He resisted the urge to smack himself across the head, how can the barrier nerf a fall when it no longer exists? Putting his idiocies aside, he scanned the human for wounds, there were visible scars on her face and she was clutching one her arms.
"I'm Asriel Dreemurr," he introduced himself, the girl looked at the ghosts.
"What about the rest of you?" A stunned silence filled the room, the ghosts looked at her in disbelief, as did Asriel.
"….you can see them?" The girl curiously tilted her head.
"Yeah, I mean they are right there." She replied pointing towards them, the silence consumed the room again, until John spoke up.
"U-uh, well, I'm John, the girl with the glasses is Clare, the girl with the ballerina setup is Cassidy, the girl with the knife is Charlie, the girl with the cowgirl set up is Lauren. The boy with the gloves is Ethan, and the girl that's glowing red is…?"
"Lily," she replied with a smile, she floated up to the girl. "Are you okay, you seem hurt." The girl looked down at her leg with a frown.
"Well, my leg does hurt quite a bit..." She pulled up her right pant, revealing horrific burns that scarred her legs, Asriel gasped and the red ghost took a step back.
"How did THAT happen?" She asked, the girl frowned in concentration.
"I can't remember..."
Asriel frowned, had she taken any cranial trauma during the event? He hoped not, that would complicate things. "Uh, do you remember your name?"
She silently shook her head. "No, no I don't." Great. Just what they needed, an amnesiac girl who was thrown in here with them. Gosh darn it, just what the heck is wrong with the world!
Asriel sighed, "okay then, well first, you need a name." He let out a 'hmmm' while looking at the human, "I know, how about Star!?" The others looked at him.
"Stat?" She echoed.
"Yeah, Star, because your eyes have these glowing things in them that look like stars!" The girl blushed at the compliment, the others looked intensely into her eyes, making her even more uncomfortable.
"Interesting," Clare muttered whilst adjusting her glasses, "I can't say that's normal." She crawled back uncomfortably, Cassidy sighed and cleared her throat.
"Guys! we're making her uncomfortable!" The ghosts immediately recoiled.
"Oh! We're so sorry!" Lilly apologized. Star gave her a small smile.
"D-don't worry about it." Asriel cleared his throat.
"Star when you're ready, meet me outside in the dining table, I need to do something real quick." He left the room, leaving her alone with her ghostly allies…
XX
A tower stood in the root of the temporal tower's old resting place, a tower that was pitch black, save for the crimson circles that were spaced an equal length away from each other. On the top, a single figure sat atop her throne.
By her side was Primal Dialga, his once blue body was now pitch black, and his veins and gems were a glowing red. He let out a soft growl. She gently pats his head, "eager already?" He nodded, the once-mighty beast of time was now nothing more than a glorified dog.
She giggled whilst rubbing her new pet's head, "Master," a voice spoke, Mewtwo floated from above, bowing in total submission. "The guild is coming, what do we do?" She let out a grin, one devoid of humour, one consisting of a murderous glee.
"Let them come, I was getting bored of not harvesting exp." Mewtwo nodded and flew off, and that left her, giggling madly to herself…
XX
A short skeleton sat inside the mess he called his room, complete with a tornado of trash. He lied on the bed, waiting. He kept glancing back at the clock, waiting. He kept waiting, but it never came. The reset never came.
He stayed down in the Underground, denying himself a happy life on the surface. Why? Simple. He didn't want to be hurt. He didn't want to take a glimpse of his lifelong dream...only to end up back in that blasted cave.
So, if he were to stay down here, he wouldn't be upset. He'd be ready to replay the story Frisk liked seeing through so much. He sighed.
Why was he the one who had to remember time literally resetting? Just because he was in a time-altering accident, and had his left eye struck with a ridiculous amount of energy does not mean he signed up for any of this-!
Stay here and wait, it'll be worth it in the end.
"What the heck!?" Odd symbols floated around him, Sans's left eye turned cyan as he spectated them. They were familiar, very familiar. They dissipated into thin air, leaving a shocked, heavy breathing skeleton.
"So, you're still here, huh?" The skeleton let out a weak chuckle and stood up. One thing was certain, the surface would have to wait…