Chapter 21: Monster by Skillet
Silence reined the area as Kia sobbed. She desperately rummaged through her bag and brought out a bottle of Sea Tea. She began to dribble it into her child's mouth, hoping against hope that it would revive them. Her shaking hands were spilling the drink on their face. She couldn't see past her tears anymore. The bottle just spilled until it was all gone on the ground and in Frisk's shirt. Frisk didn't move, didn't blink, didn't drink. They were gone.
Suddenly, another sound of shattering came into the ears of the watching Monsters for wind had stopped it's howling for but a moment. Sans focused his sight on Kia's SOUL as something peculiar happened. A sickly red film that covered Kia's SOUL for some time now slid off of the abused and battered SOUL of the older human. Kia went silent. Her SOUL finally shattered with the liquid DT spanning webbed strings between the pieces. Sans grimaced.
The barely fixed red SOUL formed from the sickly red film and took on the form of a child that looked similar to Frisk, only with open eyes, a paler complexion, and a green and yellow stripped sweater. Sans hadn't really seen Chara in all the reruns the kid had done, so he was actually surprised that Chara really was still with them. He heard a gasp behind him. He turned just in time to see a flash of yellow disappear into the ground. That flash of yellow was actually Flowey. He reappeared next to Kia, in front of Chara.
Kia didn't respond. Tears still streamed down her face onto Frisk. Her eye sockets dark. Her boney arms wrapped loosely around her dead child. No one could tell if she really was dead or simply mentally absent in a comatose state. Once Chara had let go of Kia's SOUL, it had started to fall apart towards the ground in thick and thin web strands stretching.
It hung in the air, and the dim shriveled SOUL slowly dripped pieces of itself onto the ground with the liquid DETERMINATION still oozing between the pieces, holding it forcefully together until the end. In the oozing garnet, if you squint real hard, you would be able to see the pieces of different colored SOULs sliding down along with Kia's SOUL, shriveled and dyeing along with Kia.
Chara ignored the happy chatty Aserial-turn-Flowey in favor of observing the two humans they had been leeching off of during their time in the Underground. Undyne looked on in confusion disgust, and horror, not knowing what to do until she noticed Sans popping up next her giving her adrenaline magic filled body a start and just barely avoiding hitting him at the last second. This was wearing down her nerves. Everything was so confusing and wrong now.
But one thing was for sure was that the human child was dead. Their SOUL ready to be picked up, put back together and given to King Asgore to free all of the Underground. She could just deal with the experiment-gone-wrong-being-thing once it submits and give it to Alphus to examine later. The only thing, or person, stopping her was Sans as he held tight to her arm. He refused to budge as she tried to move. His intense stare was on the group in front of them.
She was going to demand and shout at him to release her, when the ghost child spoke, chilling her to her core.
"You know, for one sooo strong, sooo far away, and sooo resilient you cry and feel a whole lot. Is this really what happens when you are DETERMINED enough to force yourself to feel the emotions you lost so willingly long ago? Hehe, it's kind of pathetic really. With all the power, you could have satisfied that craving you have hidden for so long. You know it too, don't you?"
Undyne tensed and shivered. Sans' grip turned to stone. It was hard to follow what the child was saying, but it got a reaction out of Kia. She tilted her head up to listen better. Chara smirked. Flowey caught on. While he was confident he wouldn't, couldn't get caught up in this, he had this ghost of a feeling like he will die in the end anyways. Doubt was seeded in his roots. He needed to be extra careful. The only person to really survive, well technically, this would be Chara.
"All you have to is let go"
All of sudden, the pair of Monsters understood what the adopted child of royalty was persuading Kia to do. Kia laid Frisk on their back and folded their tiny slim hand on top of their front; her hands were steady. She let go.
But only to pick up the pieces of Frisk's SOUL. Sans let go of Undyne to walk over to Kia, so as to not startle the broken woman. He needed to try and make her come back to her senses. He was close enough see now that she held all of Frisk's SOUL pieces cradled carefully in her hands like she did with the glass cup so long ago in his house. She placed the pieces under Frisk's hands and stilled. She breathed shakily. Her tears were tampering off.
Before Sans could get a foot nearer, Kia straightened and exhaled deeply. Chara seemed triumphant. Their face stretched wide in their dark smile and empty eyes. Flowey grinned maliciously towards Sans. Flowey decided to gloat in the moment.
"Bye-bye smiley trash-!"
Kia's hands shot out quicker than anyone could react. One hand grasped around Chara's SOUL like she could actually grasp it. The other clamped onto Flowey's stem and up rooted him roughly from the ground. Kia stood with the struggling duo. The ghost and weed struggled until Flowey shriveled up, having the DETERMINATION and magic sucked out of him. Chara then started to cackle in hysterical fear and realization of what exactly Kia was, until the outline of their SOUL within Kia's grasp shattered from the pressure. The poltergeist disappeared into the air. Kia began to turn towards the remainder of the people here.
Sans back tracked until he came to the intensifying Undyne about to shout her war cry and charge. He short cutted them both to his house. He needed to send word for evacuation immediately before Undyne is coordinated enough to shout at him for interfering and war marching off to face the even greater threat Kia had created herself out to be.
The population of the Underground is in danger. Maybe even the Surface too.
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Kia was left alone.
Kia breathed heavily as her emotions were started to overcome her. She caught a glance at the peacefully sleeping Frisk. Kia screamed in agony! Tears of darkness dripped sluggishly down her cheek bones as she covered her face with her hands. She wanted to hide from what she had become. She was a human SOUL experiment gone wrong. She was a monstrosity. She was a murder.
She wasn't a daughter. She wasn't a sister. She wasn't an Aunt. She wasn't a wife. She wasn't a mother. She wasn't even considered human anymore.
She was angry in every sense of the word. She was enraged at herself. Too many people have died because of her. Most of those murders were under the pretense of a weak excuse of self-defense and ending their suffering. Excuses!
It was all her fault.
She should have been stronger.
She should have looked for another way.
Kia was just about to run into the cave to destroy it and have it cave in on herself when an out of breathe Undyne came back. Both Females stared at each other before Kia remembered. It was Undyne's javelin that killed Frisk. It was her who killed her child. It wasn't all her fault. It was that Fish Faced Monster's fault too!
Kia simmered and boiled in her rage. Kia's hands dug into her bag harshly and one by one devoured every morsel of food and drank every drop of drink until her HP was completely full. Throwing the bag aside, Kia stood straighter in the skin of a human. What fat, muscle, and organs she had, was gone leaving her with just skin to cover her bones. She looked like shriveled up mummy without wrappings that was weakly preserved for centuries. Even her human heart had turned to dust.
Kia shook her head angrily and focused inwardly. Soon, magic from the barrier could be physically seen streaming towards Kia. Kia's SOUL having been roughly patched up started to flood a dark shimmering black as it rapidly turned right side up. The cracks and seams started to seal themselves shut with this menacing sludge as Kia's SOUL started to distance itself away from its host. The SOULs residing within it started panicking. If they stayed trapped in there, they would be unknowingly absorbed by Kia's own SOUL. Her despair and rage was repairing her SOUL using foreign magic tainted with harmful intentions. They needed to stop her from destroying herself.
Undyne couldn't move. What she was watching was horrific. This creature was stealing magic! She didn't know where the magic was being stolen from or how it was doing it, but she will stop the process! She just needs to overcome this pressure.
Kia's body was undergoing changes as well. Darkness oozed out from her insides dissolving her skin and darkening, strengthening her bones into carbon fiber. Her silver stained teeth have sharpened into a pin pointed grin. Her hair disappeared, but in its place was a haze of garnet magic, thick and curled and wavy as it used to be. Her eye sockets had their slit garnet eye lights from her Protective Mode. Her ragged, tattered, and barely hanging on clothes and shoes were sizzled off to be replaced with a stark white hospital gown. All her phalanges were sharpened.
Kia staggered when she was finished readjusting herself. She wasn't used to feeling so … free. Kia looked at her carbon phalange fingers, griping them and releasing. She felt sooo light. Kia laughed heartily, hopping foot to foot. Tensions rolled off her clavicles and shoulder blades.
A war cry screeched. Kia immediately remembered where she was. She grinned in pain and rage. She ran towards the fish faced monster who killed her child. Red SOUL magic whispered along her hand phalanges. A naginata formed within her hands. Like Undyne, Kia had trained with staffs before she went with the blade at the end.
Undyne was out of her element. The Battle area didn't form. This creature was attacking relentlessly without turns. She was on the defensive. Undyne growled in fury. She blocked another heavy blow she could sense more than see. She steeled through a wince as light grazes appeared on her armor and face, slowly trickling dust. Slowly, but surely, Undyne was gaining ground in learning. Undyne jumped back to gain some distance before the quick little menace streaks towards her again with that hauntingly painful grin and rage smoldering slit garnet eye lights,
She will adapt to this new fighting style! She will defeat this creature with justice. Passion! And DETER-!
The blade of a garnet misty blade had just nearly pierced through her SOUL and chest. Undyne choked on shock as her spear faded in utter disbelief! Papyrus had restrained her!
"NYEHEHEHE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS TO THE RESCUE! EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT NOW THAT I AM HERE!"
Undyne began to thrash in his grip. She yelled and shouted censored profanities since she had caught a glimpse of Sans near the dead smaller human. Then it processed that Sans was next to the fallen human. This made Undyne quiet down a moment to observe what had happened to her opponent. It had frozen, just before killing her. It just stood there in position to strike her down dead with her eye lights stuffed out and its weapon gone.
Undyne rolled off the relaxed grip of Papyrus as he NYEd in delight that she had calmed down to see the situation. Undyne focused her one eye on Sans. He just stood there next to smaller dead human, holding something. What was he holding?
And WHO the hell are the multiple ghostly figures in varying colors standing around him?!