Chapter 6: Searching - Losing
Disclaimers: See chapter one, or just assume you have been disclaimed, either way
Real life got in the way a bit these last few weeks, what with the last two weeks being short trips to visit in-laws. That being said, I actually have most of chapter 7 written already, so we should be back to a regular schedule starting next week. Expect shorter chapters for the next few, as we wrap up a few loose ends, and we'll be done with what I sort of consider part 1 of this story, the underground.
==oo00**00oo==
Harry walked alone along what he assumed was probably the north side of the huge entrance cavern, based on how the small bit of sunlight was streaming in from the opening a better part of a kilometer above his head. He was walking along close to the edge of the walls, his eyes sweeping up and down the rock formations up the cavern wall, while his new walking staff swept back and forth across the ground when he wasn't using it to move forward. He had been working on this slow search pattern for the last two hours along the outside wall of the cavern, and had nearly gone around back to the starting point, with no luck in his search. Setting down his staff, he moved a few paces forward, sweeping his eyes along the cliff face carefully, along the base of the wall, and down to the grass where he found... a goat boy holding a basket and wearing a rather smug grin. Harry narrowed his eyes and the two stood a few feet apart from each other silently for a moment, one looking surly and the other looking amused, if a bit apologetic. After a moment of this standstill, Asriel held up the basket towards Harry.
"I brought lunch. Figured you'd be hungry." Harry narrowed his eyes a bit more, but the rumble in his stomach betrayed him, stupid body and it's stupid needs. He took two steps forward towards Asriel, let out his breath in a quiet huff, but nodded his head over towards the cavern wall a few paces away, and they walked over and settled down in the grass, Harry setting his staff down beside him and taking a sandwich from Asriel. He settled down a bit more as he took a bite. He wasn't entirely sure what was on the sandwiches Asriel made, but it was good enough that he didn't mind so much.
"Thanks." Asriel grinned in response, and Harry got the feeling he was going to need his staff again in a moment. His thought was indeed proven right at Asriel's grin widened with his response.
"Oh, your welcome... sunshine."
With a growl, Harry reached around and swung his staff at his insufferable companion. Hitting him once across the shoulder before he could dance out of the way with a giggle.
"Oh, come on, Harry. You know it was funny. "
Though Harry simply scowled at his friend while eating his sandwich, he had to admit to himself that it really was kind of funny. After the incident with the staff that morning, Harry had been rather excited after all. He had been rather concerned that his lack of wand would mean that he wouldn't have to spend the rest of his recovery sans magic, and admittedly he did kind of want to show Asriel some of the things they had been discussing over the last few days. When they had gotten to a darker portion of the cavern Harry had attempted to cast a simple lumos using his new staff, only to find the staff didn't want to cooperate. Harry would never admit it out loud, but he confessed to himself his reaction was a bit silly, as he started waving the staff about trying to get it to do anything, rather embarrassed at the lackluster reaction after the lightshow when he first took the staff.. When he got frustrated with the staff, he had actually pounded the staff end on the ground, and apparently this caused it to react rather strongly to his magic, causing the end of the staff to light up blindingly for just a moment. As he was blinking the light out of his eyes, he heard Asriel snicker, then giggle, then full on laugh. It took Harry a moment to realize that apparently the magical backlash from his spell had apparently caused his entire body to softly glow. Asriel, of course, teased him for the entire rest of the slow walk from the house to the entrance cavern, and Harry went from embarrassed to simply grumpy, as neither his gentle glow, nor Asriel's ribbing seemed to be coming to an end anytime soon. Snapping his thoughts back to the present, he shook his head with a smile.
"I am sorry, by the way, I shouldn't have snapped at you." Harry said, but Asriel waved it off.
"Don't worry about it. I probably would have done the same really. I'm just glad you at least got something to work. It'll probably just take time, which we've got plenty of while we're looking through this place" Asriel waved his arm to indicate the vast cavern in front of them. Harry could only agree, the cavern was enormous, and considering his current ailment, it would take that much more time to search thoroughly. Noting that his sandwich was done, and that Asriel was done as well, he struggled a bit to stand, but was able to on his own, much to his own satisfaction.
"Well, in that case, might as well begin. I already did the outside once, so do we want to start searching together now?" Harry asked Asriel, who shrugged and smiled.
"Works for me. I did a pattern starting at the far side..."
==oo00**00oo==
And so it went. Asriel found himself establishing a new routine, something he found somewhat more comforting when he had a companion to share the routine with. Harry and Asriel would get up, have breakfast, and go out to the cavern to search. They would spend the time talking about innocuous things, exchange stories about mundane things both above the surface and the underground. After a quick lunch, usually wherever they would stop, they would continue their search until the early afternoon, then head back towards the ruins and Asriel's home. Once there, they would often turn to slightly deeper conversation, Asriel talking about the ruins themselves, and about what monsters they might encounter when the eventually headed towards the exit of the ruins. Harry would often try to teach Asriel about the magical world as well, and at the same time practice his magic with Asgore's trident staff. Harry had actually improved there in the days since his initial accident with the lumos charm. It appeared, through trial and error, and some amount of combination of lore between the two boys, that Harry couldn't necessarily treat the staff like his old wand. Surprisingly enough, Asriel was even able to learn a bit of human magic as well. Though he couldn't perform magic that required wand movements, and therefore by extension a wand, he was able to take some pieces of magic, such as the point me spell from Harry's second year textbook and was able to actually feel his arm guided, as if by his own SOUL, to point to whatever he was thinking of at the time. It was unfortunate that the spell didn't end up working to help find Harry's cloak, but it was still extremely useful regardless. With work, it even appeared that Harry could create some approximation of more wanded spells, as long has he understood the magic beneath them, so the scorched theory books became very useful as Harry went through his old curriculum with Asriel's help
As time progressed, Harry seemed to be less and less reserved around Asriel, which he could appreciate, as he did find himself concerned that he would take the loss of his possessions a bit harder than he did. Perhaps that was because Harry, or both of them really, had things to focus their minds on. It ended up being a catharsis for both of them, and both of them had grown as friends as time passed in the underground.
It was a shock, then, on the way back to the house, to find all of the good experiences of the week come crashing down around him so quickly. He found himself frozen, looking towards everything and nothing in front of him. When Harry, clearly concerned, touched his shoulder, he nearly jumped out of his skin, and turned to Harry eyes wide in shock.
"What is it? Is something wrong?" Harry looked concerned at Asriel's mood, but Asriel barely noticed. Shaking his head for a moment, he tried to give Harry a smile, and probably failed, he wasn't quite sure.
"It's just... I just remembered something I need to do, something I had forgotten till just now. I am going to have to go out into the ruins for a while tonight. You'll be okay on your own for a few hours right?" Harry immediately frowned, but nodded.
"Sure, but... you don't want me to come with? I might be able to help-" Asriel interrupted him, not unkindly.
"It's fine, I just need to check up on a few things, nothing difficult, but it will require me going through most of the underground on foot. Not to offend, but if you came with, we probably would be out all night" Asriel gave a small laugh. "You never have to worry about stuff like that until you need it, right?"
Harry nodded, still a little concerned, and not entirely willing to let him go on his own, but mollified. "if you're sure. Take care of yourself, alright?" Asriel nodded, put a hand on Harry's shoulder for a moment. Then turned and left, walking quickly through the entrance door and out of sight.
==oo00**00oo==
Harry had found the last week quite invigorating, considering the circumstances. Though he was somewhat concerned that his leg seemed to have halted in its healing process, he found that the rest of him felt more healthy and active than he had since... well than he had since ever really. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but since awakening from his fall, he really felt like a new person. He had read before that people who go through traumatic events would often come out of them with a new outlook on life, though he was uncertain that this reaction was something like that, as he had certainly gone through more dangerous situations than most people, and had actually probably been in worse shape after those situations when he thought about it. He wondered if it was something with this place, or with his new friend. And he certainly considered Asriel a friend at this point, and not merely because of the whole saving his life thing.
He found in Asriel someone he could really interact with in a way he wasn't able to, even with Ron or Hermione. Ron, he would find, would often get bored talking about deeper subjects (or really most things that weren't quidditch or chess) after a fairly short period of time, and Hermione would often take conversations into depths that he didn't believe he would ever be able to understand. Asriel, however, was fantastic to talk with, engaging in conversations about mundane things as well as deep discussions with a sort of energy he couldn't help but get caught up in. He hated to admit it to himself, but though he really appreciated Hermione trying to help with things like homework, he would find himself learning more talking to Asriel about magic than he ever did in one of Hermione's study sessions. He felt bad in a way, to admit to himself that he was finding spending time with Asriel to be... in some ways... better than time he spent with his first two friends. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something about Asriel that Harry found familiar, though he wasn't sure what or why. But at that point, details like that didn't matter. What did matter at the time to Harry was finding some food, all that searching makes a growing boy hungry.
Later on that evening, as they were walking back home Asriel suddenly paused, looking over at the flowers that grew around the entrance of his home. Harry looked himself, trying to see what made him stop, but couldn't find anything, looking over to Asriel to ask what he was looking at, he was surprised to find that, somehow, he could tell that Asriel had gone pale. Over the last few weeks, he had found that there were some subtle differences in how the goat-person would express emotions, and had gotten better at detecting them, but this was a new one for him. The closest thing he could come up with was that it looked like he had just seen a ghost for the first time. Reaching out gently with his good arm to see if he could stir him from his stupor, Harry nearly panicked when Asriel jumped out of his skin on the contact. When Harry asked what was going on, Asriel seemed to just wave off his concerns, and then went on ahead to check on something. As he left, Harry frowned. this seemed rather off for his friend, though he guessed it could just be that there was something Asriel forgot while going through all of this, and he really hadn't known Asriel very long at this point. He turned to look at the pile of leaves alongside the house. He wondered what exactly Asriel was looking at.
==oo00**00oo==
Asriel slowly trod through the mostly empty buildings of Underground, heading to the the Lab. His quick journey through most of the ruins had indeed confirmed his worst fears, and his greatest wishes (in a way). Each and every SAVE point had either crumbled completely into dust, or was nearly there. It was only the point in the judgement hall that still remained in any way, though he feared to even approach it, as it looked to be wavering on the brink of collapse itself. His first thought after confirming the inevitable was whether or not the entire Underground might be affected by the end of Determination, but confirming with a few checks of the many systems in Alphys' lab seemed to confirm that the underground itself was at least safe from collapse or self destruction. He made a few notes in a notebook he planned to leave there in the lab, he knew Alphys would appreciate any data of this caliber, even if it did come from Flowey. He scribbled out some personal notes and observations from the scanners that didn't keep a through history, and was starting to write out some conclusions, when he felt something hit the back of his writing paw. He ignored it at first, until another one fell, and another. The soft pat on paper, and he knew what was happening. He paused over the notebook, tears slowly running down his face. Why cry now, he asked himself? Why cry, when this ending was really inevitable, when it was what he wanted when he asked Frisk to leave him here. He set the pen down and looked up at the white ceiling of the lab. For a moment he just sat there, then laughed to himself.
"Heh... I was right. I really don't want to let go." He took a deep breath, finishing the notes, and after a moment's thought, flipped to the next blank page of the journal and scrawled a short note. He stood up and flipped off the lights, leaving the open notebook under a single task light. He walked through the lab, picking up a few things that he thought could help Harry make his now likely solo trip through the ruins. He knew he would end up making it back later than he anticipated, but he didn't know at this point if he would be able to make another trip out, so it was best to prepare as much as he could ahead of time.
==oo00**0oo==
Dr. Alphys
For what it's worth,
thank you
and I am sorry.
-Asriel 'Flowey' Dreemurr
