Underground Spirits

Chapter 17: No Decision in Haste

Asgore's Point of View:

"Undyne… are you sure of this?" I struggled to say the words ever so carefully to the only remaining family I had left. Yet, my second adoptive daughter near glared at me with an unwavering edge in the scowl she gave me. What a look! I didn't think it could get worse!

"Why are ya so surprised by what I'm suggesting?" It honestly looked like I had irritated her in those moments. Her arms crossed, an evident sign that she wasn't pleased with the situation.

Though, I could hardly blame her. Undyne had come to me with a radical ideal in the midst of the murders, the drug trafficking trouble, and the two humans that lived among us in the underground. How could she suggest something so… drastic?

I suppose there were many reasons for why she had mentioned this to me… but in its own way it still felt wrong…

I was still just coming to terms with the fact that humans, were in fact, in the underground. Normally… in previous decades where either my father or grandfather had been the ruler, they had a supposed 'witch hunt' to find them. I had… been much less likely to do such a feature compared to them. I wasn't sure if it was due to my softer nature to them, or perhaps raising my own daughter that had been a human herself that I couldn't bring myself to do anything when I first heard the news.

Especially since one of them was the same age as when Chara had… passed…

I had seen a picture of the two of them that Undyne had been kind enough to supply me when she thought I was ready. The two humans looked kind in the picture they participated in along with the town of Snowdin. They looked… like one of the town…

It left many mixed feelings dwelling inside my soul.

Even more so when Undyne presented me with an idea in an attempt to discover the culprit who drugged young Wilbur that led to so many murders… A plan to use the younger of the two humans in order to infiltrate our high school in Waterfall to expose the entire case!

There were many things that crossed my mind. What should have crossed it was taking advantage of a situation that was presented to me. The human girl was not one of my people. She would have been an easy sacrifice to assist with the case. If she was lost, it was not one of the monster people. And even if she was lost, it would have been the final soul needed to break the barrier.

But that was not the thoughts that crossed my mind. Emotions so powerful that hated the decision before me. I had no choice but to agree due to my standing against humans… but my soul ached so terribly when I thought of the girl who looked like my Chara doing something so dangerous…

And then my chest felt as if it bled for the older sister. How would she feel about this? It must be haunting her so terribly at the decision made. I knew they were humans, I knew they shouldn't have mattered… but…

They were innocent…

They had not done a single thing wrong. In fact, they tried to better themselves and prove their worth. I heard of their accomplishments. They were helpful, earned their own money, studied, assisted with community events and their neighbors quite often. They were even in the heart of helping the very family affected by the murders the most… They protected others…

They were the picture-perfect people… they were nothing like the humans I'd heard of in stories my father and mother used to tell me when I was but a young lad… How… just…. How?

How could I force them to do something so terrible? Or take away their lives for the sake of the very people who loved them? Almost every day I heard from the many monsters I passed by and heard of their opinions about those very same girls. Many begged me not to hurt them… others seemed irritated at my lack of a decision when it came to them.

What was the right thing to do? Did I follow the path that was set before me by those prior to my royal decree? Did I stray from it and try to work with them?

"Fluffybuns! Are you even listening to me?!"

"O-oh?!" My attention was gathered quickly by Undyne who near hissed at me during her time with me. "M-my apologies Undyne… My mind was elsewhere."

"Yeah, wasn't hard to notice that."

"I am sorry…" With a deep sigh, I attempted to rub the stress from my eyes. Just out of the corner of my vision, I saw my adoptive daughter scowl at that.

"Are you not taking care of yourself again?!" That animalistic growl that came from her almost startled me while her hands slammed onto the table. Her eye seemed to burn like that of a thousand suns while she stood there, quite angry with myself.

I couldn't help but glance at the eye she lost all those years ago… Undyne loved to disguise that she lost it in the heat of an epic training episode, but that was hardly the case. No… that eye had been lost to the same illness her father had died from. Urvin was the one who first got sick, and she also became ill when trying to save him. She had been lucky to only lose her eye…

But that had been a haunting feature for many years for the young woman…

"Get up!" Undyne's forceful voice echoed in the room we were in before she put her smaller arms around mine to yank me up. "I know you'll listen to me if you're forced to move! Come on!"

"Alright… alright… I'm coming…"

I was pulled to my feet then before Undyne began yanking me down a hallway away from where we were having tea. It was one of the more forceful times she was being with me. I knew that what she had been talking about was serious… though just my own feelings made it hard to listen in at the time.

"So, let's try this again." Undyne glanced back at me for just a moment before she continued moving forward. "Did you hear me telling you Angel wanted to help us break free?"

"W-what?!"

"I knew ya were just responding!" Her bellow carried out over the next few hallways as I faced the brunt force of it. "Asgore!"

"Alright, alright." With a deep sigh, I controlled my breathing a bit better and straitened up my bent over back. "I'm listening to you with my full attention Undyne. You said the older of the two humans wish to help free us?"

"Yeah, she's been wanting to do that a lot." Undyne paused for a moment to watch me under a narrowed eye. Whatever she wished to find, I supposed she had when she continued with a sigh. "Angel's been like that since I met her. Wasn't even her fault that we're down here and yet she's taking the blame. She wants to help. But can only do that if you allow her and her sister to live here."

I pondered the thought for a moment with a finger raised to my chin. "But Undyne, how could she help? I doubt she or anyone else would be okay with her giving up her soul?"

"Yeah, no one would." I was a bit surprised at the look even my own adoptive daughter gave me when she responded so soundly at that comment. "But there's other ways I bet she could help. Al and I had talked and she's got some new research she's pulling out and working on. Ya remember that case a while ago where we were trying to clone souls of those monster's breeds who were dying out?"

I felt an unease fall over me then of the heartache that came from the time where we were losing our numbers left and right from being unable to reproduce and the toxic waste incident that near wiped us out. Wingdings Gaster had been the first to come up with the idea to try and clone souls in order to assist in our numbers or help with healing purposes. Although… it hardly worked. Perhaps only five monsters were born from that, some of the last of their kinds…

Mostly it only resulted in heartache…

"I do."

"She wants to use that same science mojo to see if a clone soul could be made of hers to help break the barrier."

I was honestly surprised at the comment that Undyne had left out for me. A clone of a human soul? How in the world would that work? And if by some miracle it did work… would it be enough to set us all free?

"Al's been looking into it and the girls go over a lot. She gets a chance to check on their souls and what not all the time while doing like… health exams or whatever. Frisk is still young, but Angel's soul is insane from what Al tells me. She's like… twenty-one? So, she's young and her magic is powerful. I've seen it, and her soul doesn't look like any of the others you have from the past. Its red."

"Red?!" I could only stare wide eyed at the woman. "A determination soul?! What a rare thing to come across!"

"Yeah, and her magic is always pulsing around her. She has so much that I bet she's be more then willing to donate it to the cause. But you!" She jabbed a finger into the center of my un-armor covered chest. "Need to let them be one of us!"

"Undyne… it is not so simple!"

"Why not?!" She snarled before she struggled not to slam her fist into the castle wall beside her. "Angel's been so good to the community! I don't even think she's capable of doing anything bad! The entire town of Snowdin watched her for months! They don't even bat an eye anymore when they see her! And neither do Waterfall and Hotland! Even people in the capitol are flocking to those areas to try and meet her! They want to meet the kind human and see what they're really like since we only know about them in the horrible sense that they locked us down here! She's nothing like them!"

"I understand your feelings on this… but I must be sure…"

"Sure, about what? That no one's going to be hurt? We're losing people left and right because of our own kind, not the two humans who seem to be some of the only good factors for those who survived their fallen family!"

"Undyne… the people look to me as their beacon of hope that I won't succumb to humans and will make sure I get us out of here."

"What if those people don't even want to continue with the way things have gone?" She growled, and that time she hit the wall beside her, leaving a small crater in her wake of frustration. "Why aren't you listening to me?! No one in the underground wants either of them dead and its only you holding onto the past! You don't have to stop being a fucking' 'beacon of the people' or whatever! But you can still work together with them! That's not fucking giving up! Angel wants to work for you! She knows you're the king and there's no issue with her working under you! It doesn't phase her at all! Why are you being such a pain in the ass about it!"

"Undyne, none of this makes sense!" It was the first time I'd raised my voice at her in such a long time, but the woman only was surprised for a single second before she squared her shoulders and faced me head on. I was happy that we were alone in the castle hallways. "Humans who want to help us? Humans that are kind? I can't even begin to tell you how confused I feel of the entire situation! And that young girl, Frisk? Is that the name she goes by? She…. She…."

I had to stop walking. The words just wouldn't come out of my mouth that I wanted to say. I simply saw the face of my daughter who died so many years ago. My Chara… my little girl…

Such heartache came to me when I saw the picture that brought back so many painful memories.

"She looks like her, right?" Undyne sighed, taming herself for a moment and laying a calm hand on my arm. "I get that, I had a lot of mixed feelings about them too when I first met them. Don't ya think I put them through hell and back? But then I saw how many people fought for them… and I had to think real damn hard when so many people saw me as the threat instead of them…"

She paused for a second to let her thoughts move of their own accord. I watched them through her eye. It glowed and dimmed with each passing thought that came to the front of her memory before diving back down in the depths of her mind.

I needed those few moments to calm myself and compose as well.

"Look, having them help us, both with the drug ring and breaking the barrier doesn't mean you or anyone of us has given up. I think it makes us stronger, and learning for the future, or whatever." It was strange to see Undyne so mature in those moments as she watched her words a bit more carefully before me. A softer look, something more at peace, or serene looking while still standing up for what she believed in. Seeing such a face, it was rare, a treasurable moment when I had the time to calm myself and not be so focused on what I should not be. "Just think about it, won't ya? They may be the key we've always needed to get the hell out of here and start a new life."

Her words rang in that little hallway as she stood there only a moment longer before claiming she had other duties to attend to. Leaving me behind before a single spot she wished to bring me to, I was staring at the small room by my lovely courtyard that the six previously harvested souls had been stored.

I could not bare to have them locked away in some tiny little room in the base of the castle. I felt so pained by what they must have gone through before their death by monster hands led them here. Putting them by a pretty little garden, was that cruel? Was that kind? Oh, how my soul ached at what was the right decision.

But Undyne had raised a quite valid point. I could not put off a decision on those two humans much longer. My people would never let me take them away to free ourselves. If Undyne was as determined to protect them, I could only imagine the followers they had gathered.

With a heavy soul, I walked past the other souls before standing before an empty container that had once… belonged to my daughter. It was where her soul was kept for so long until Wingdings tried to bring her and my son back…

"Oh Chara… Asriel… what do you think I should do?"

Witch's Note:

And there we go, another chapter has passed with only five more to go! Another look into the mind of Asgore one final time, but also Undyne is included here where she was actually advocating for the girls to stay! What a lovely chapter!

This chapter was given by Aqwillabee! Their final idea while only a few are left to go through. One last sad/negative one to do and then we have nothing but happy ones left! I'm very excited to see what you all think of those few coming up soon!

Mystic Girl: I can't wait to get to them and get through them! I wanna post book two so badly!

Me: Trust me, you're not the only one!

Now, we have reviews to do!

MysticBoywastaken: Hey Mystic Boy! Hope you're doing well. Not a fan of Harry Potter? Didn't quite understand your review. But happy to see you regardless!

Shadow8Phantom: Shadow, you always give such lovely words and incredible insight! I couldn't have said it better myself and I'm so glad you picked up on the differences I pointed out in this version I've written of the Undertale story compared to others.

I guess the question to you is... do you think either of them are worthy of redemption? Or is that only for one or the other? Or neither? I'd love to hear your opinion of that.

Thechoasmaster: You lovely, kind soul you... such a long review! It means so much to us that you send us such a long review! But we certainly don't expect you to do something so long all the time!

But your take, opinion, and explanation of every character in the Undertale world... It was amazing to hear, because every one of them are flawed just like you said. They've suffered, but sometimes they don't manage to see those flaws/struggles and grow from them. I'd like to think that for a fair-sized handful of them, I've given them the ability, a reason, or a push in the right direction that they have/will or can change within the future. We've seen many changes in all of them. Of course, most of them I think were from Sans, Papy, Undyne and Alphys. The others... I suppose that's up to you to tell me if you think I've done my due diligence as an author to allow them those changes.

Some perhaps not... but I don't want to reveal anything so I'll stop on that note since more will be revealed in the next chapter!

Not A Shady Guy: Hey Shady, yeah... that's probably about the best way to put it. I try to write Toriel in a good light when it's deemed necessary, but for all intents and purposes, I'm not the biggest fan of her by a long shot. I just feel like so many things would have been different if she would have done her literal duty as not only a queen, but a wife. It honestly hurts me as a person to basically give up on people without trying, let alone someone you care for.

For example, my boyfriend and I have mixed opinions on certain things, and we've come to understand that we won't always agree with each other on certain things and respect that about one another. Some more serious conversations where either of us would have to make a choice... we've talked about those things. We understand where each other came from. It's so FRIGGIN SIMPLE but Toriel didn't do it!

That's why my opinion is so strong. That's why I'm on the verge of literally hating her. But... I have to give her a chance, which is why I try to write in so many different styles and opinions to give everyone a chance to make their own choice.

RoseCentury: There you go Rose! You got this! Well, that's great you got to do that kind of stuff! And most certainly you don't have to tell us anything you don't feel comfortable with. Trust me, me and Mystic Girl are always debating on what we should or should not put online, and sometimes we just don't say certain things, when events of things happen to either us or someone we know, we write about it and sometimes exaggerate it!

Dasansi: You and me both! I feel the same way when it comes to her! Literally everything I just wrote in Shady's reply is in relation to how I feel about that woman.

Anyway, moving on before I blow out my brain or heart at a not so smart place... but I'm glad to hear that you were safe.

But you were trying to find other stories? Nice! I saw the options you posted in your review. If I get a chance, I'll look at them. Always love a good read! Sorry it's taken so long for us to put out book two, but just trying to stretch it out as I type so I don't stress myself out, you know?

But book two is nothing short of awesome!

Jahbraz: Well, hello there! It's so lovely to meet you! Seeing a new reviewer come in always just tickles me pink! I know Mystic Girl feels the same way. And you've read the first book already?! Oh, that's so great to hear! Thank you so much! And don't worry, that new sequel won't be much longer! In fact, we'll be posting the last chapter for the side story on February eighteen, do a final thoughts chapter on the twenty-fifth, and then one month later on March twenty-five is when we'll post the second book! It won't be long!

Alright! Now with reviews all set, I've got only a few more things to settle before this story is over! I hope everyone is excited! A few more amazing things will be taking place before we finish this side story!

Who's excited? I know we are! Right Mystic?

(My best friend eagerly shoots her hand in the air and begins cheering loudly.)

I think that answers that question! Hang in there people! It won't be much longer!

Love you all and see you next week!

Halloween Witch and Mystic Girl