Alright, this chapter here is not as long as the last couple of chapters but is still quite meaty. By the way, this chapter has an optional theme to go along with it: "Heartache - Hellkite Drake Orchestra (extended)". When you see (1) that's where it plays and when you see (0) stop it. You don't have to play it as it's optional and won't affect the story at all. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

A Mother's Death

Skyler slowly descends the staircase leading to the basement of Toriel's house. She left him alone when he asked her for a way to get back home and told him to not follow her into the basement. Against her wishes, he's following her into the basement. The soft glow from the lights of the house die out, leaving a rather dark and oppressive long purple bricked hallway in front of him. Not far ahead is Toriel, being illuminated by a faintly glowing candle on a pedestal on the wall to her right. He can barely see her and slowly makes his way over to her. She can hear his echoing footsteps and addresses him before he gets close. "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. I am going to destroy it. You and anyone else will never ever be able to leave again. Now, be a good boy and go upstairs." She quickly walks down the hall, nearly disappearing into the shadows of the poorly lit hallway. He continues to follow her, being cautious in his step but firm in his progress. Again, she stops by another small candle and addresses him as he continues to slowly approach, her tone sounding much different than usual, much more serious. "Every human that's fallen down here meets the same fate, I have seen it again and again, 7 times to be exact. They come. They leave. They die. You naive boy… leaving the Ruins will bring you to the mercy of them… Asgore… All will kill you without a second thought. I am only protecting you, do you understand? ...go to your room." She walks away again, but a bit slower than before. He continues to follow, a strong feeling in his heart driving him forward against the powerful words she speaks. The hallway comes to a bend and she stops right in front of it. "Do not try to stop me, this is your final warning." Through her threats, he treks onward, coming to a room with a bunch of torches burning brightly. She stands in the center of it all, facing a large door with a symbol that perfectly resembles the one on her robe. In both of her paws, are bright, powerful balls of orange fire. She's about to destroy the door just like she threatened to moments ago. He knows that if she destroys the door, there might actually be no other way to leave, so he takes a step forward from the darkness of the hallway and into the light of the room. A small cloud of dust appears in front of his right foot, the sound of his footstep grabbing her attention. Her head tilts up to look straight ahead as she was looking down towards the ground. "You want to leave so badly?" she closes her paws and extinguishes the flames she was holding, causing the room to become darker. "Hmph. You are just like the others… just like Frisk…" She lets out an audible deep breath. "There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself… prove you are strong enough to survive by showing me that you can fight to protect your life."

(1) Toriel turns around, a strong, intimidating look on her face. Her eyes are intense and she has a profound frown to go along with it. Any normal person would've fled seeing the fire in her paws and the face she has now, but Skyler stands up to it, something powerful fueling his desire to leave. He knows he can get past her, but he doesn't want to fight her. He goes to speak, yet, words don't come out of his mouth. He can't think of anything to say besides thinking that she might not be worth talking to at all now which is surprising as he was able to talk to her fine before he came down here. She doesn't say anything to him and acts aloof, making a bunch of small fireballs in her left paw and throwing them at him. They dance through the dimly lit room slowly, allowing him to avoid it completely. His eyes open in shock, she's willing to hurt him just to stop him from leaving. This manages to jolt his mind and words come out of his mouth without a second thought. "Toriel! Stop!" What he says is useless as she stays silent yet again. She prepares another magical fire attack by putting her paws together in front of her chest, making a big flame appear between them, and launching it at him in a wave-like pattern. A bunch of flames come flying at him, flickering and casting a burnt orange glow on everything nearby. He barely gets by without being hurt this time if it wasn't for the fact that there were large breaks in the pattern. As the flames pass by him, they reveal little creases in his face, his expression is serious yet determined. A drop of sweat forms on the top of his forehead and he tenses up. He doesn't want another repeat of what happened earlier before he found her home, and if he did that to someone as kind and caring as her… He tries to put that thought out of his head and focus on convincing her to let him go. He strengthens his resolve but still keeping his kind, sweet tone. "Toriel… c'mon, you don't want this. I know this isn't something you want to do." His words mean nothing as she holds her paws out to her side with her palms facing the ceiling, making flames appear and uses another fire attack. This time, she swings her paws forward repeatedly to toss the flames at him. He can feel the intense heat of the flames as he barely avoids them once more, his iris reflecting the orange frustration of a sad mother with each one that passes by him. He's starting to worry that she isn't listening to him and his efforts might not surmount to anything and puts more strength behind his voice. "You don't have to be hurt just know that I'll be fine out there, I won't get hurt. I promise I'll be okay!" For a moment, her eyes soften and her frown drops, but it is momentary as she hardens her resolve as well and holds her paws up again, creating fire in her palms and throwing it at him. This time, they fly at him in a helix pattern and unlike the last few times, in his confusion to try and avoid the erratic movement pattern of the flames, one of the fireballs hits his left arm and he yelps in pain, grabbing it while trying not to cry from how much it burns. She notices this and again, her hard look softens up for a moment, only to re-harden as he stares right into her pupils and exclaims his stance with his voice being as steadfast as he can manage. "I WON'T FIGHT YOU! I REFUSE!"

This confuses her. "What are you doing?" yet she keeps attacking, putting her paws together in front of her chest, making a big flame appear between them, and launching it at him in a wave-like pattern once again. He's still trying to recover from the pain of the last attack and doesn't completely avoid this one. Tears are forced out of his eyes as one of the flames burns part of his face, but he continues to stand by his last statement.

"That's right… I'm not going to fight you."

Her intense look becomes even more intense. "Attack or run away! What do you think you're proving this way!?" she creates little fireballs in the palms of both her paws and hurls them at him which he manages to avoid completely.

"I won't attack, I won't run. I'm proving to you that I can survive by using mercy!"

"Stop it. You won't survive against anyone like this." She knows better. She knows that the rest of the Underground is significantly more dangerous and won't hesitate to kill him. She retaliates by making a big flame in the palm of her right paw and swinging it forward, sending a stream of flames at him which he easily avoids.

"I can survive. I know I can." he looks at her with a strong resolve, trying to tell her through looks alone that he won't die and he'll be alright.

Her stance falters for a brief moment, but she shakes her head and reaffirms herself of her doubts. "No... you won't. Stop looking at me like that and go away!" She takes a deep breath and uses one of her stronger attacks. Instead of making small fireballs or flames, she makes a bunch of medium sized fireballs in the palm of her left paw and hurls them at him. These fireballs move fairly fast and he wasn't expecting it and all of them hit their mark, exploding with a bright orange flash and embers scattering all over. He actually falls on his butt from the force of the attack and clenches his stomach, a bit of ashes on his face and clothes as a result. Despite the fact that he's wearing clothes, he somehow felt the heat pass right through them and sting him hard in the stomach. "Stand up and fight! Nobody in the Underground is going to show you any kindness or mercy! You can't win this way!" Force in her voice echoing through the hallway, though her face eases up on the intensity as she realizes that she really hurt him bad with her last attack, despite that, she prepares another one by making flames in the palm of both her paws.

He pushes through the pain and ignores it, standing up. He's a bit wounded but isn't out for the count. "I won't… " The guilt of hurting him starts to nip at her and she averts her gaze. Instead of launching her attack, it falls from her paws and onto the ground, dissipating upon contact. Her entire body starts to loosen up and the tight look on her face slowly melts away, feeling bad and starting to realize that he's survived against her for this long, still standing even after taking a few of her attacks. "I won't fight…" her frown becomes profound, her eyes drop half open, and she falls silent. The two stand in the room silently with each other for a few minutes before she finally speaks up again, her voice much calmer and more serene this time around.

(0) "I know you want to leave, but please… go upstairs now. I promise I will take good care of you here. I know there isn't much, but we can have a good life here." he shakes his head 'no' because as much as he wishes he could, he can't stay in the Underground forever and has to get back home eventually even if he knows that there's not much to go back to there. She sighs, quite upset with his stubbornness and it shows on her face. "You do not understand… Do you know why the monsters in the Ruins are so aggressive and hostile? I will tell you. The reason is because they were promised by the last human that fell down here that they would find a way to break the barrier and free not just everyone here, but everyone in the Underground. Everyone has become sick of being stuck here and wants to leave. The rest of the Underground… they will do anything to get their hands on your soul so they can use it to break the barrier." Her paws tighten into fists. "That monster... he will take every opportunity he has to kill you if you meet him. That is why I do not want you leaving. Please go upstairs… because if you do not, then I will have no choice, and be forced to do something that I do not want to do." Once again, he shakes his head 'no' and his vivid green eyes hold a spark of hope. Again, she is reminded of the first human who fell into the Underground, having the same exact spark of hope in their eyes and this causes her eyes to tear up slightly, but this isn't seen as she closes them and quickly turns around. She can't bare to let someone like him die again, and using her magic, creates a giant fireball to destroy the exit of the Ruins over her head in between her paws. The whole room is bathed in a flickering orange glow from this and the heat from the flame is almost too much for her to handle, making a few drops of sweat form on her forehead in response.

Skyler's eyes widen and his heart skips a couple beats. He can't allow her to do this and without thinking of the potential consequences, he whips out the toy knife from his hoodie pocket and with it in his left hand, he runs at her while shouting "NO!", hoping to stop her. He runs right up to her back and his arm involuntarily slashes at her as she turns to look at him over her shoulder, only for a sharp pain to overcome her. Even though he barely put any force into the attack, he somehow cut her deep across the back, all the way through to her stomach. The giant fireball she held in both of her paws completely dissipates as they fall to her sides and she slowly turns around to look at him, her pupils as small as dots and the whites of her eyes open as far as they can go.

"Y… you… at my most vulnerable state... Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you here, thinking you wouldn't fit in out there... " Her pained look of shock turns into a wide smile. "M-my child..." She falls to her knees, letting out a pained cough, her voice becoming breathy and almost unintelligible yet she still manages to look at him, her eyes growing weak and her iris rapidly losing color. "Ha… ha… l-listen to me... y-you have a very... very powerful soul... p-perhaps you will survive after all... keep walking as far as you possibly can... eventually you'll reach... an exit... don't let anyone... don't let... Asgore... take your soul... " She gives him one last sweet smile. "B...be... good... will you?" Her eyes close and her body starts to glow a bright white before suddenly turning into dust, revealing a white heart that breaks apart and shatters itself almost a second later, leaving nothing behind except her dust. Skyler can only stand there in horror. He didn't mean to kill or even attack her at all, he simply was trying to give her a gentle nudge in the back to interrupt her attack. He doesn't know where the slash came from, nor does he know where the power of his attack came from either, but it was so strong that it killed her in one blow. He wants to cry, he wishes he could go back and stop himself, he wishes he never picked up the toy knife. He killed the only nice person he met in the Underground who didn't have some evil idea or desire to hurt someone. All she wanted to do was give him a nice home and protect him from whoever THEY are that she was talking about, and he killed her in cold blood. He sits there, staring at the pile of dust where she once stood for what feels like hours on end. Could've, would've, should've… he knows he has to move on but the guilt of what he's done will never leave him. He takes some time to tend to the few wounds he obtained while fighting her and to his surprise, he doesn't appear to have anything that needs medical attention. He wipes the ashes off his face and body, and knows that the few burns he has will heal naturally as they aren't that bad. He knows that he must continue onward and with his left hand, he grabs the slightly dust covered toy knife and puts it back in his front left hoodie pocket, stands up, and walks around the dust pile and through the exit door.

It's a long, straight walk to the end of this hallway, but when he reaches the end, he sees a familiar face in a golden flower he met not too long ago. His eyes close upon seeing him and his blank expression returns again as he walks towards Flowey. He stops in front of him and the little flower starts laughing. " Hahaha…." he stops laughing and talks. "I know what you did, and you're not really human, are you? No, you only LOOK and ACT like you're human, but you're an empty husk inside with no emotions or feelings, just like me." he smiles in a wicked manner. "In fact, Chara, there's something I wanna tell you. I have a plan that will make me all-powerful." Skyler gives him a slightly curious look as he wants to know what it could be on the off-chance he might be able to stop him. He raises himself out of the ground slightly and gives him a smug look. "That's right, even stronger than you and your stolen human soul." He smiles wickedly again. "Let's destroy everything in this disgusting, horrific world." His face contorts into a deformed looking version of Toriel's face. "Everyone and everything in these worthless memories…" He gives him an extremely evil look. "let's turn 'em all to ashes and dust together. Hmm… THAT'S A MAGNIFICENT PLAN!" He disappears into the ground and Skyler continues through the door leading to the rest of the Underground.

Angel or demon? Prophet of hope or a harbinger of doom? What exactly will Skyler do now that he killed all the monsters in the ruins and knows of Flowey's plan to become all powerful? If you want, let me know what you think will happen in a review, otherwise, find out in the next chapter! Seeya then!