Beta Timeline
New Home
The Underground
Spring 2020

It was well past bedtime in New Home. The vents in the mountain that occasionally let in natural light had long since gone dark, and in its place were the flickering magical lamps that dotted New Home's narrow streets. While there were some nighttime haunts that usually attracted a crowd, the cobblestone alleys of New Home often were silent and gray at this time of the night.

But not tonight. Tonight, the streets couldn't be more alive with activity if they tried.

This was Toriel's second day of being locked in her room. Theoretically, she could spend the rest of her life in here. It wasn't like she needed to eat. But with every passing day, she felt more and more like it didn't matter where she was; there was nowhere in the underground where she could be safe anymore. You see, two days ago, Asgore, in a fit of rage and indignation Toriel had never seen before, even in their one thousand years of existence together, declared war on all of humanity. Never mind how he planned to carry out this impossible endeavor, never mind how many people her husband had planned to kill to ensure his planetary dominance, Asgore was terrifyingly steadfast in his desire to ensure that a single monster would never die again.

His proclamation stirred the population up into a frenzy. The New Home Library, one of the largest collection of works on human culture, saw it's plaza in flames as New Home residents busied themselves burning anything that could shed humans in a positive light. And from her window she could see groups of people forming in the streets, signing up for citizen guards, swearing their allegiance to the Kingdom of Monsters, and promising to capture any human who tried to set foot in their domain. Asgore's anger had become the population's anger, and because of that, the underground now found itself in the midst of a cultural revolution.

That left Toriel increasingly isolated in a city succumbing to anti-human hysteria. Toriel figured that there might be some allies left out there, some monsters who still held on to the idea of monster-human equality. But they would be impossible to find from her room. Stepping outside now would be the same as suicide. After her and Asgore's very public fight and meltdown had gotten out to the public, it was now known to all that the Queen of All Monsters was an apparent enemy of the state. Even with her considerable power, making it out of new home would not come without considerable casualties, something she was not comfortable accepting.

So she curled up in her bed, covers pulled over her heads and hands on her ears to block out the cacophony below. She felt emotionally absent; a day of crying had left her only empty of tears and a sense of overwhelming physical exhaustion. And the true fear, the one that kept her from sleeping at night, is that every day, he would come home to her house, walk through her hallways, and fall asleep in a room only a wall away. The fact that she had to exist so closely to Asgore terrified her to the point of inaction, and her frustration at her circumstances were only tempered by her grief at losing her two children.

She was so caught up in her pain that it took her several seconds to notice knocking at her window. Worried that she was about to come face to face with some mob, she shot to the other side of her bed, letting her hands flare with whatever magic she had left in her. But instead of being a foe, it a was friend; Vice Captain Grillby was standing at her window.

"Vice Captain Grillby!? What are you doing here? Have you come to arrest me for sedition?" Toriel remained squished at the back of the room, her nose wet from the anxiety of having anyone associated with Asgore showing up at the window.

Grillby looked over his shoulder, ensuring that no one was watching his movements, and motioned for Toriel to open the window. Shocked at his suggestion, she instinctively nodded, but Grillby's soft eyes and worried experession was enough to make her reconsider. She checked that the door to the hallway was still locked and tiptoed over to the window. Once she unlatched it, she cracked it enough that she could hear what Grillby was saying. He wasted no time in starting his explanation.

"Your majesty, you're in danger here. You need to leave, now."

"Wha…? Wait, you're here to rescue me, not to capture me?"

"Precisely." The fire monster looked over his shoulder again before anxiously turning back to meet Toriel's worried gaze. "But we don't have much time. The guard will change soon. Also, Asgore's meeting with Captain Gerson is going to end soon. This is my only chance left to get you out of here."

Toriel's expression became awash with relief. "Oh Grillby, thank you so much! I was beginning to worry I would have to spend the rest of my existence in this room."

"Well, I hate to disappoint you, but the place I have in mind isn't much better. But regardless, this house isn't safe. The monsters know where you live, they – sooner or later, they'll be here. We have to make sure you're not when that happens."

Toriel opened the window all the way and began to climb over the sill. Her abruptness shocked Grillby, who backed up to make sure Toriel wouldn't smother him on her way out. He was grateful that she was immune to his flames. "Well, let us go. I don't want us to waste another second in this house if we can help it."

"Wait!" Grillby said worriedly. "Don't you want to gather your effects? Or anything you'll need?'

Toriel looked back but quickly nodded, dismissing the idea of spending another second in that house. The comforts of her previous home would only serve as a reminder to the pain she had to endure here. She wanted to carry none of that baggage with her as she left it all behind. She was about to tell Grillby when she remembered one thing she wanted to get.

"Actually Grillby, there is one thing I need to get before I leave. But I will need your help."

Despite all the odds, and Grillby's vehement protest, the two soon found themselves sneaking through New Castle, hiding behind hallway corners and ducking behind columns as the two made their way to the crypt where Chara's body was being held. The plan was simple: get in to the castle unannounced, make it past the guard to the catacomb, and then to use the express elevator stack in the castle to go straight to the bottom of New Home. Making it in had been easy enough. But getting out would no doubt prove to be much harder.

Eventually the two reached the corridor connecting the grand hallway to the throne room and the catacombs below. Grillby, still in his royal guard uniform, pretended to keep watch over the entrance to the crypt while Toriel made her way down the stars to Chara's coffin.

The crypt was designed to hold the dust of monsters that had performed service to the Kingdom of Monsters, and along the wall were rows of decorated bins that served as final resting places for many of the kingdom's greatest heroes. It was weird to see a full child-size coffin at the center of all, and even weirder to see her mummified baby wrapped up and laying inside.

The more Toriel looked at her dead child, the more a series of complicated emotions welled up inside her. She stroked the side of Chara's face as tears rolled down her cheek and onto the sheets covering Chara's head. A part of her shared in Asgore's anguish, and face to face with the reality of the world, it was easy to understand why his fury manifested the way it did. But to swear to kill any human who fell in the underground, to declare war on humanity meant that Asgore was perfectly content with replicating this kind of suffering in the families of both humans and monsters across the globe. And for the past two days, all she could think was 'If my child had fallen down in the underground right now, my husband would have killed him with delight." Remembering that thought alone made Toriel pick up Chara's body without any hesitation. Her child deserved to rest somewhere better than in this castle full of hate and malice.

Surprisingly bulky from decomposition, Toriel waddled at first as they tried to find a way to hold Chara's increasingly delicate body. She had finally found her stride when she realized that Grillby had been stopped at the top of the stairs.

"Oh Great." She muttered. "It's Doge."

"Vice Captain Grillby, it's a pleasure to see you tonight." The basset hound monster said. Looking as devoted to her work as ever, she gripped her spear with her right paw as she saluted Grillby with her left. "According to the guard schedules issues by Captain Gerson, I'm supposed to be taking over this guard spot for the night shift. Don't you usually work daytime, sir? You're free to go home."

"Ahh, yes, t-that's right!" Grillby said, faltering in his words as he stepped closer to the center of the door frame. Grillby was many things but a liar unfortunately wasn't one of them. He tried to maintain his composure as he continued. "Because of the unrest tonight, I received some extra orders to patrol around the castle. I have this spot covered for now, if you want to continue with your sweep for a while longer."

Doge's eyes tightened. "Really, Vice Captain? I haven't received any orders of the sort. When were they sent out?"

"Today! At the guard meeting. It was only for leaders though, so it makes sense why you wouldn't know it."

"But you just said that I should have heard about it already…"

"Right! So I'm here telling you. Right now. Here's your orders!"

Toriel would have facepalmed if she didn't have a body in her hands. Doge sniffed around and tried to peer down into the catacombs before Grillby just ever so slightly shifted his body. That, however, was enough to raise Doge's suspicions.

"Vice Captain Grillby, it smells like Toriel has descended into the catacombs you're guarding. Have you seen her? You know that area is off-limits, even to her."

"I can't say that I have, Doge. It's possible she may have passed by before I got here. Maybe you should look around?" Grillby subtly caused the reach of his flames to increase in the hopes that he could burn off Toriel's scent. However, Toriel knew that she didn't have much time left.

"No sir, with all due respect, it smells like she came down the Judegement Hall and then went straight into the catacombs. She may be down there. If she is, we need to stop her." Doge brought their spear down to suggest that she was serious about her suggestion. Grillby couldn't be stabbed, so she posed little of a threat to him, but if they were to fight in this hallway, getting tried for Treason would be the least of his worries. Toriel decided that she wasn't going to let that happen.

"That's…"

Before Grillby could implicate himself, Toriel dashed past them, pushing Grillby out of the way and firing a couple of fireballs towards the both of them, of which Grillby absorbed and Doge easily blocked. When they both saw her dashing towards the elevator bank with Chara's body in tow, Grillby's expression dropped while Doge's eyes widened at the sight she was seeing.

Doge was now excited and could no longer be settled down. "Toriel! Toriel! There she is! I have to go warn the king! She's looting the castle!"

"Shit!" Grillby stepped past Doge as he tried to catch up with Toriel, who was already jamming the buttons to the elevator by the time he got there. When it arrived, they rushed in and Grillby created a fire wall between them and the door. "Toriel, it's time for you to go. Just remember what we planned. Go to the Ruins, shut the door, and under no circumstances do you let anyone in."

Toriel's breathing was heavy. Overwhelmed by the situation but full of enough adrenaline to keep her going, she nodded towards Grillby and mentally tried to prepare herself for the fight ahead. Too exhausted to do so now, she made a mental note that if she were to ever see Grillby again, she *needed* to rib him for his awful lying.

When the elevator opened, the two of them dashed down the main street towards the elevator bank leading to Hotland. What was once a hallmark of good city planning had suddenly become their enemy; the wide street meant that monsters in restaurants and bars and monsters in their homes could watch as their Queen fled through the streets of New Home. Already, some of the more agitated monsters began to form up behind them and chase them down the street.

"So this…is what it means…to stand…against the people's hope!" Toriel said between breaths. Holding Chara tight against her chest made running even harder than it usually was for the mother, and it took nearly all she had to grit her teeth and to push forward step by step. Grillby was much more slim and toned for this kind of work, in comparison, and often looked over his shoulder to ensure they were a good distance away from the furious crowd.

"This war is giving them hope that one day this nightmare will end. To be against the destruction of humanity has now come to mean to be for the destruction of monsterkind, and I'm afraid a lot of people can't cope with that anymore. When you get to the ruins, you're going to find a lot of people like you who fled for their safety. Among them, you'll be safe, my queen."

The two reached the elevator bank to Hotland and Grillby fumbled around in his pocket to find the master set of elevator keys for the entire kingdom. Knowing the crowd would make it to them before the elevator did, Toriel surrounded the entire bank in a ring of intense fire, buying them some time to make their escape. Terrified by the indignant shouting of the monsters outside, Toriel shunted into the elevator and placed Chara's body down before coming outside to embrace Grillby for everything he's done.

Grillby, a fire monster, was not used to being touched by anyone, let alone a member of royalty. He fought his instinct to back up and tried to let him enjoy this brief moment of intimacy. Toriel was warm, not in a way that he or his fire was, but had a warmth that made his entire body feel at peace. He blushed a dark red flame before passing the elevator keys onto Toriel.

"Here. I've set it so that these elevators can only be operated by a royal guard's sets of keys. This way, no one will be able to follow you. You should be safe once you reach Waterfall."

Toriel looked genuinely thankful as her heart filled with her first taste of freedom. "Grillby, I can not thank you enough. Thank you so much for saving me and Chara. But, what about you? What will you do?"

Grillby offered Toriel his signature, reassuring smile that he was known for the underground over. She envied how easygoing he could be, especially now of all times. "I'll be okay. I'm going to cover for you and escape the capital myself. Maybe to Hotland. I know a guy there that will keep me company."

Toriel smiled her first genuine smile in days, before she was forced to retreat in to the elevator by her falling fire barrier. She jammed the keys into the elevator slot before taking one last look at Grillby between the closing doors. On the verge of tears, she said "Please be safe Grillby. I am sure we will meet again someday."

The last thing Toriel saw of New Home was Grillby's smiling face as the mob closed in on him. The elevator ride was long, and the four minutes or so that Toriel spent on it was enough time for Toriel to regain her composure and to prepare herself for the journey ahead. Walking through the fires of Hotland, the water of Waterfall, and the Ice of Snowdin felt like a retelling of the journey she had taken as a young woman a millenia ago, the journey of her broken people retreating into Mt. Ebott as far as they could possibly manage. It was ironic to her that instead of a fear of humans motivating her, it was a fear of monsters instead. And just like back then, in such a short amount of time, Toriel had lost her home, her family, and her people all over again.

When she reached the ornate purple doors that separated the ruins from the rest of the underground, she was greeted by two Froggits who were waiting on her arrival outside. As she passed with Chara in her hand, they bowed and proceeded to close the doors behind her, locking them from the inside with a magic seal and cutting them off from the outside world forever. It was in the moment that Toriel crossed the threshold that she finally made up her mind. Nothing would stop her anymore. She would remain with her child in the ruins forever.


A/N - Suprise! This won't be a regular occurrence. I try to keep my chapters to under 10,000 words, and the outro for the last chapter made everything too long. So here we are.

I've always been a huge fan of the "Toriel was forced out of the capital" theory because I think it adds a lot of interesting context to her story. She could have entirely made the escape alone, but Grillby is just too interesting of a character to not do anything with. This was a very self-indulgent chapter, but hopefully no one minds~

Thank you to semi-professional illustrator and musician Goomy ( irlgoomy on twitter!) for proofreading my work! Goomy is working on a MSPA-style adventure comic called Deltastuck ( deltastuck on twitter!) and if you enjoy this fanfic, you'll definitely enjoy it's work. Check it out!