CHAPTER 10: Fight For Mercy
New Home was not really exciting. Unlike the Ruins and Hotland there were no puzzles. Unlike Snowdin and Waterfall the place was almost lifeless. Unlike the Core it had no good reason to be this way.
Nafi looked off the edges of bridges as she walked towards her destination, wherever that may be. What monsters she could see seemed to be content sitting down wherever they were. On sidewalks, in the street, on uncomfortable looking benches, none of them looking up from staring despondently at the floor.
She followed the signs for the throne room.
It was quiet too. You never really realize the small noises of running water or blowing wind are there until they aren't. Her own footsteps seemed to be quieter in the oppressive silence.
Yet, in the silence she had a moment to think. There was still the issue of the Undead right outside the Barrier and the lack of proper power to break it. What could be done about it though?
As she got closer to the end, the smell of dust became so strong she was almost tasting it. She tried not to think what the smell of dust ment for monsters. She failed and remembered that Alphys had said he was going to give dust back for funerals.
She hurried into the house at the end of the path.
Stepping inside, she almost thought she was back in Toriel's house. Then she saw the chains and locks on the stairs and the monsters sitting around the corners of the room and the still pervasive grey.
She started searching the house for the keys.
During her exploration of the house, the monsters in the corners of the rooms stopped her to tell part of a tale. Each one she met told part of a story.
"A long time ago, a human fell into the Ruins. Injured by his fall, the human, Chara, called out for help. Asriel, the king's son, heard Chara's call."
"He brought Chara back to the castle. Over time, Asriel and Chara became like siblings. The King and Queen treated Chara as their own. The underground was full of hope."
"Then... One day… He became very ill. The sick human had only one request. To see the flowers from his village. But there was nothing we could do. The next day..."
Nafi entered a bedroom as the monster finished his part, the mirror of the room in Toriel's house that she had stayed in. There were two beds on opposite sides of the room, a single dresser in between them. On top was a picture, an engraved locket, and a rusty dagger. She ignored the locket in favor of the dagger, picking it up, then turned to look at the photo.
It was the same picture Toriel had. One of the pictures in the room under renovations.
She picked up the photo to look at it more, now that she wasn't worried about being caught. Toriel didn't look like she aged a day since the photo was taken, and given that this photo was in both their houses the other goat was most likely Asgore. His face was soft, mostly due to his large beard and shaggy mane. The photo was in black and white so what color they were she didn't know, but they did look very kingly with his horns that came straight up out of the front of his head and swooped back in a nice curve.
Asriel and Chara sat in front of them, Asriel laughing at Chara who had buried his face in the bouquet of flowers he was holding. From the movement in the picture he had probably sneezed into them.
They were happy.
A happier family than Alex, Steve, and Nafriskenta.
"You are not my child if you refuse to even butcher a pig! Get out of my house and maybe just before you die out there you'll realize they, and you, are nothing but food!"
Nafi put the dagger and photo back and walked out.
The next monster continued the tale, "...The next day… Chara died. Asriel, wracked with grief, absorbed the human's Soul. "He transformed into a being with incredible power."
"With the human Soul, Asriel crossed through the barrier. He carried Chara's body into the sunset. Back to the village of the humans. Asriel reached the center of the village. There, he found a bed of golden flowers."
"He carried Chara onto it. Suddenly, screams rang out. The villagers saw Asriel holding Chara's body. They thought that he had killed the child. The humans attacked him with everything they had."
"He was struck with blow after blow. Asriel had the power to destroy them all. But… Asriel did not fight back. Clutching Chara… Asriel smiled, and walked away."
"Wounded, Asriel stumbled home. He entered the castle and collapsed. His dust spread across the garden. The kingdom fell into despair. The king and queen had lost two children in one night. The humans had once again taken everything from us."
"The king decided it was time to end our suffering. Every human who falls down here must die. With enough souls, we can shatter the barrier forever."
"It's not long now. King Asgore will let us go. King Asgore will give us hope. King Asgore will save us all."
"You should be smiling, too. Aren't you excited? Aren't you happy?"
"You're going to be free."
Nafi looked after the frog monster that finished the story as it hopped away.
Toriel, Asgore, Asriel and Chara.
Sans and Papyrus.
Undyne and Alphys.
Definitely much better families.
She unlocked the chains and headed down the stairs, following one last path into a new place.
This new corridor she found herself in and all of its shiny gold was a welcome change from the monochrome grey of the city.
Yet there was another monster here.
It was… Sans? Being serious?
"So you finally made it. The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments you will meet the king. Together… you will determine the future of this world. That's then. Now. You will be judged."
Nafi unconsciously straightened up. Sans, the pun filled jokester, the lazy bag of bones, kind to her at her lowest, was serious.
"You will be judged for your every action. You will be judged for every EXP you've earned. What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for 'execution points'. A way of quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others. When you kill someone, your EXP increases."
She looked down and to the side, feeling more exposed than she had in her entire time down here. As much as she ignored the fact, she had killed countless Undead and had the blood of 42 humans staining her hands.
"When you have enough EXP, your LOVE increases. LOVE, too, is an acronym. It stands for 'Level of Violence'. A way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt. The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others."
The memory of Flowey trying to give her LOVE with 'friendliness pellets' floated to the surface. Guess every lie does have a kernel of truth, it would have been so easy to strike down the flower had Toriel not intervened.
She closed her eyes and awaited judgement.
Then immediately opened them and whipped her head back to face Sans as he chuckled. He shrugged and, losing most of his serious voice, said "the one issue with that is although your EXP is really high, your LOVE is practically minimal."
Nafi opened her mouth to ask where her judgement was, but Sans winked and rolled right over her, "at first, i thought i was just misreading your Soul, but i've been keeping an eye Socket on you. i've seen you interact with people and you help everyone you can. when you do fight, it's never to kill. so, somehow, some way, you have both LOVE and love if that makes any sense."
Nafi looked at him for a second before sighing, "You can teleport, robots have Souls, death and destruction isn't commonplace, it makes as much sense as the rest of this place."
He smiled wider for a second before continuing, "now, you're about to face the greatest challenge of your entire journey. your actions here will determine the fate of the entire world. i would have thrown in the towel by now, but you're determined and you're kind and i know you'll do the right thing."
She laughed humorlessly, "I've never done the right thing in my entire life, I run on nothing but spite for the world that created me and all the other horrors in the night. You said it yourself, the numbers of those slain by my hands are high, both Undead and human. I never kept track of the Undead I killed and I lost count of the people I left to die at the hands of them, but I counted every human death by my hand. 42. I could make the excuse that I was defending myself or I didn't know any better, but I killed them!"
She bowed her head and closed her eyes to stop the tears and from looking at Sans, but she couldn't stop the flow of words, "At five I was kicked out of my own home for not killing a pig and not 3 months later a human was dead at my feet. To avoid killing the stupid pig I thought was my friend I have had so much blood stain my hands and the only thing that can stop the pain is by reminding myself that it would have been worse if I had. That I'd just be the emotionless killer that Mother and Father were and…"
She nearly fell to her knees as she felt Sans grab her hand and then opened her eyes to find herself staring right into his sockets.
"you wanna know what i see? i see someone who was given a bad Hand and dealt with it the best way she knew. i see someone who turned her back on that life the moment the option was available. look at yourself, do you think a murderer would be crying her heart out because she hates what she has to do? i don't know any murderers personally, but i'm pretty sure that wouldn't happen."
Nafi closed her eyes again and gave a watery chuckle, saying, "This place does turn things on their head doesn't it? My bow used in melee, my sword used in Defense, my machines used to help... Myself learning to hug a stupid, bowless, skeleton in clothes. Maybe I finally have done the right thing."
She opened her eyes to an empty hall and a pile of tissues in her hand.
She took a moment to compose herself, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose. By the time she was back to looking normal and felt ready to face the next challenge she was hearing her friend's voices echoing into her ears.
"We're here, finally!" shouted Undyne as she raced into the room, followed quickly by Papyrus, Toriel, Alphys, and Sans bringing up the rear.
Toriel immediately came over to heal Nafi, saying, "You have gotten yourself in so many dangerous situations, I can only hope this is the last time I have to heal you."
The others spread around the hall, Alphys laid down on the ground to catch his breath, followed soon by Sans who got a pair of raised eyebrows from Nafi who knew he didn't do half that run.
Undyne and Papyrus were excitedly yelling about her fight with Mettaton. Apparently, although Mettaton himself didn't broadcast the fight, they were able to watch it through Alphys' cameras.
20/20
Eventually Nafi was healed and needed to move on, but Alphys was nowhere near ready to move. She handed her last two veggie bars to Alphys, told them to come in when he wasn't trying to suffocate on air, and headed to confront Asgore.
She did not have to walk far before she was stepping into the throne room with him. The throne room itself was more like a garden filled with yellow flowers and Asgore was holding a watering can. Asgore's large frame was hidden by an equally as large purple cloak accented by gold that matched his crown and hair.
Health: 3500, Defense: 80, Attack: 80, truly a king for the monsters.
"Dum de dum…" he hummed, "Oh? Is someone there? Just a moment, I've almost finished watering these flowers."
Nafi stayed silent as he emptied the watering can and turned to face her properly.
"Howdy, how can I..." he said before he noticed her, "Oh..."
She tried to smile, although it looked more like a grimace, and said "I heard you wanted to see me?"
Asgore sighed, "Truly, no. I did not. I so badly want to say 'Would you like a cup of tea?' But…"
"We both know what's going to happen," Nafi interrupted.
He nodded and started to walk away past the throne, saying, "If you are ready, come into the next room."
Nafi followed right behind him.
Eventually, they came to a large doorway, and Asgore paused.
He looked back, and sadly smiled. "I see you are ready. You have one up on me, for I am not."
They entered the door, on the other side was a large hall with an odd white strobe running down the length. Asgore spoke up again, "This is the barrier. This is what keeps us all trapped underground. If… If by chance you have any unfinished business, go do what you must."
"You are my unfinished business," Nafi quietly said.
"I see… This is it then," he replied just as quietly
Nafi smirked as she heard the footsteps coming down the hall and, on a whim, said, "Because I brought my finished business with me.
"NOBODY FIGHT EACH OTHER," Papyrus yells as he comes bursting through the empty doorframe.
Undyne follows up and continues, "Everyone's going to make friends or I'll suplex you with friendship!"
Toriel stomps into the room just as the six other human souls rise up from the floor. Nafi spares one moment to wonder how that even worked, before Alphys was pulling her out of the path of a small fireball chucked Asgore's way. It did nothing, but Nafi then wondered if Toriel was actually hoping for a fight.
"Tori..." Asgore said, "You came back!"
Toriel was having none of it, "Do not 'Tori' me Dreemurr! You pathetic whelp. If you truly wanted to free our kind, you could have gone through the barrier after you got one soul, taken six souls from the humans, then freed everyone peacefully. But instead you made everyone live in despair, because you would rather wait here, meekly hoping another human never comes."
"Tori…" he started before sighing, "You are right, I am a miserable creature. But… can we still be friends somehow?"
Toriel glared at him harder, "No."
Undyne walked over and threw an arm over Asgore's shoulders, "I like your ex. You have good taste."
He choked in surprise.
Stepping forward, Nafi said, "Good news for you, I have a plan."
Then a voice she hoped to never hear again yelled out from around them, "So do I!"
Vines shot out of everywhere, wrapping the human souls up, followed shortly by the monsters in the room.
Nafi moved to try and save them but was tied up just as fast, the vines even surrounding her Soul as it appeared.
"You idiots," Flowey yelled, "You left the souls totally unguarded, and not just the human ones either! And you know what the best part is?"
Flowey grew his stem longer and leaned into Nafi's face, whispering, "It's all your fault. You made them love you."
Nafi took a bite in the direction of Flowey's face and said, "You know, you just showed up and I'm already getting tired of you."
He laughed, "But you did! They wouldn't have come here if you hadn't. I wouldn't be able to achieve my true form, and you wouldn't be stuck down here with me!"
Nafi was slapped across the face by one of his pellets, followed by more and more running into every part of her body.
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6/20
1/20
Just as she was about to pass out, Flowey stopped to yell, "Even if it means killing you one million times!"
A ring of pellets slowly closed on her, but a ring of fire repelled them.
"Don't be afraid… No matter what happens… We will always be there to protect you," Toriel grit out.
The next wave was stopped by bones and spears.
"THAT'S RIGHT! YOU CAN WIN! JUST DO WHAT I WOULD DO! BELIEVE IN YOU!"
Papyrus.
"If you got past me you can do anything! So don't worry, we're with you all the way!"
Undyne.
"you haven't beaten this guy yet? come on, you should have Pollened him off already, this weirdo has nothing on you."
Sans.
The next wave was stopped by small lighting bolts and more fire.
"Technically, it's impossible for you to beat him… B-but, somehow, I know you can do it!"
Alphys.
"Human, for the future of humans and monsters… You have to stay determined!"
Asgore.
Monsters came flooding in, those frogs, Monster Kid, royal guards, that spider lady, all of them. All of them shouting as much encouragement as possible.
Nafi managed to pull an arm out and punched Flowey right in the face, saying, "Yet the very thing you gloated about is your downfall."
He flopped onto the floor, and shakily said, "Unbelievable! This can't be happening! You… you…"
He laughed and everyone stopped. He picked himself up, his face a demonic visage.
"Idiots. I can't believe your all so stupid. How can something that's a part of me be my downfall?"
More vines came out and started grabbing at the rest of the monsters as Nafi desperately tried to reach Flowey to stop him.
"And you," he screamed as he pulled just out of reach.
She felt a searing pain in her back and saw as a vine came out her front, stabbing into her soul.
"Give Me Your DETERMINATION!"
Her soul cracked and everything went white.
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