Mist and darkness surrounded Lara. She looked around with a nervous expression.
"Hello, is anyone there? Where am I?"
The fog became thicker. It swirled and a shape formed out of the gray mass. It was a humanoid creature, its face covered in shadow. All Lara could see was a maniacal grin, as if the figure was about to tell a hilarious joke.
"Who are you? And what is this? A dream?" asked Lara.
"Yes and no," the gray man replied cryptically. "And who I am... I forgot. The name has been lost. Only my goals remained."
The man's voice sounded lifeless and distant, as if his mind was elsewhere.
"Am I dead?" The figure shook its head slightly. "No. You are alive. Which is good because you matter. You are… important for my goals. Heh… heh… heh..." The gray man raised his hand. He was holding some sort of mask. And it moved! The mouth twitched, the eye sockets blinked. It was a living face! Lara looked at the face with a mixture of fascination and disgust.
"You will find the face, take it and keep it. When that happens, you'll learn something important. Listen!" said the gray man.
"I-I don't understand…"
"For now you don't need to understand. Or… remember. All will… all can fall into place if everything works. I have to go. I'm fading and I still need energy for later… yes yes yes."
"No wait!"
Lara ran towards the gray man. She wanted to know what the hell was going on. And furthermore she didn't want to be alone in this weird place.
Before she could reach him, the figure raised his other hand and tapped Lara's forehead with his index finger. Her body froze, her face went slack, and her eyes became dull.
"Just forget... you were alone in the dark."
Suddenly the smile on the creatures darkened face disappeared. It grasped Lara by the head, pulled the lifeless human close to him and hissed to her hear: "If you see the button… PUSH!"
Groaning Lara woke up. Her had was pounding, like a Mini-Klyde was hammering his magic fist against her brain.
What happened? Did she hit her head in her sleep? Did she have a bad dream? Sometimes when she had nightmares, especially bad ones, Lara woke up with a migraine. But this time it felt somehow different.
She shivered. Although she was under a blanket, her body shook as if she had yesterday fallen into the ice lake. Lara huddled herself into the blanket to get some form of warmth.
It worked. The cold slowly disappeared alongside the headache.
"Morning."
Lara looked up. Flowey greeted her with a smile.
"Slept well?"
"I… I'm not sure. I really don't remember."
"You don't remember?"
"…yes. I guess all the stuff that happened yesterday had a higher toll on me than I thought. But it´s alright, I feel already better." Lara gave Flowey a reassuring smile.
"If you say so. Anyway, you should have breakfast here before we go on and maybe pack some provisions as well. Because I'm not sure if we'll find any more food on the rest of the trip."
Lara listened to her floral friend and ate in silence. She couldn't help but ponder over her lack of… anything about her sleep. She felt like something had upset her. But there was nothing. Just the urge to get moving and do… something.
Maybe I have to vent some pent up energy or something like that, the human girl wondered.
After she was done, Klyde and Emma appeared, who had gone scouting to see if everything was safe. The spirits confirmed that the elements weren't raging in Waterfall like they were in Snowdin, and that Lara should have a safe travel. Also, they had already solved the few puzzles that existed here, allowing the group to travel without interruption.
So, without being threatened by any puzzles with spikes and piranhas and raging snowstorms, Lara was able to admire the beauty of the Underground for the first time. And Waterfall had a lot to offer. Subterranean lakes and bodies of water that gave the place its name. Glowing crystals of all kinds and bio luminescent plants.
Lara noticed one in particular: A flower that glowed turquoise and whose petals vibrated slightly.
"What kind of flower is that?" she asked, pointing to the plant. Flowey followed her finger.
"Oh those are Echo flowers. They're common around here."
"I remember during my trip to used them to prank some Monsters," Klyde said with a grin.
Flowey's mouth twitched up slightly as some memories flooded his mind.
"I remember Chara doing that too when she wasn't trying to disassemble the things to figure out how they worked."
"I remember you mentioning a friend who wanted to learn more about magic and souls. Did you mean Chara? I thought you were referring more to Asriel," Lara asked.
"No, it was Chara. She had always been extremely curious about magic and other things. Asriel, on the other hand, just took things as they were. Never realizing how good he had it."
The last part was muttered rather quietly, so only Flowey himself heard it. The ghosts gave him and Lara some odd looks but decided to remain silent. As the situation started to become awkwardly silent, Lara asked: "So… is there anything that makes the Echo flowery magical in some special kind of way?"
"Well, as the name suggests, they repeat the last thing that was said to them. Here, watch and learn."
Flowey regrows next to an Echo flower and said, "Howdy!"
"Howdy!" echoed his turquoise counterpart. Lara smiled. "Heh... can imagine how certain people could use this for pranks."
"Jokers, all of you", muttered Emma, but she was smiling. The group ventured on until they reached a tunnel where some plaques hung on the walls.
Flowey immediately felt uncomfortable when he saw them and hoped Lara wouldn't ask him or anyone else about it. His hope was not fulfilled.
"What are these?"
"They explain the reason why the monsters were banished to the Underground. Lara, do you remember the newspaper article describing Asriel absorbing Chara's soul in order to pass the barrier?"
"Yeah, I remember. I wasn't really thinking about it at the moment, I was too focused on the story. I thought it was just a Monster magic thing."
"It is. And that's exactly why people feared the Monsters back then."
"I... I don´t really understand." Lara looked around questioningly. "What exactly is so bad about this? What happens when a Monster absorbs a soul?"
Flowey remained silent, so Emma answered for him.
"Lara, remember how Monsters can easily be reduced to dust by a human? The main reason for this is that our souls are much stronger. Not just because of one dominant trait, but because human souls possess a substance called determination. This is what makes us so much stronger than the monsters. Now imagine a Monster killing a human, absorbing their soul and gaining all of their strengths and overcoming their own weaknesses. It would essentially be a demigod."
"A monster with seven souls would be a complete god," Klyde added, the subject of conversation making the orange spirit unusually serious and gloomy. "And there's no limit to how many souls a monster could absorb. In theory, it could just get more and more powerful."
„So..." Lara's mouth was dry, she hadn't expected the topic to be so dark. "The humans then sealed the Monsters to prevent them from gaining power?"
"Not quite," Flowey said. "I was doing some research once and stumbled upon some ancient, lost texts describing how a group of Monsters kidnapped people and ran experiments on them to unravel the secret of their strong souls. In the process, some members of this group discovered that they could absorb the souls and wanted more, they became intoxicated by the power. These Monsters would be stopped, but from then on the distrust between the two races was there. The great war broke out and the seven human mages sealed monsterkind with the Barrier. The Barrier that could only be lifted if an equal amount of power was used."
Lara was just silent. Emma, on the other hand, asked confused: "Is that really true? That part with the Monster group wasn't even on the plaques."
Flowey gave the humans a humorless laugh.
"Of course not. History is written by the winners. Or by the losers in this case. Monsters didn't want to make themselves look bad in any way, so they described themselves as the innocent victims. It was to make potential humans feel guilty, so they would show less resistance if their souls should be taken and used for the barrier. There was a reason the ancient texts I found were `lost´. But over time, the majority of Monsters forgot about this small change in the past and accepted the plaques as the truth."
"So these plaques are basically psychological warfare strategies?" Klyde asked.
"More or less," Flowey replied.
"Now I'm glad I just ignored them on my run. Not that it helped me in the end…"
Lara took a shaky breath. She regretted asking about the plaques. All the talk of manipulation and death made her imagine some… unpleasant things. Images of Frisk being hunted down for her soul and Lara never seeing her again.
The girl with the white soul shook her head. No, she had to stay positive. She didn't want to give up this one hope just like that. And so far no one had mentioned Frisk, so maybe she was fine wherever she was. Lara wanted to cling to this idea with all her strength, it was the only thing left to her.
"Lara?"
She looked up.
"Are you okay?"
She shook her head.
"The conversation...I...it just gave me some unpleasant ideas. Can we maybe change the subject?"
"Yes of course! Sorry, didn't plan to go into that much detail."
For the rest of the way, Klyde distracted everyone with some funny stories from his time in Snowdin. How he distracted the dogs of the royal guard with typical dog tricks. The orange ghost explained how he had had a pet dog on the surface and was surprised at how animal and Monster dogs were similar in many ways.
It did ease Lara a bit up, and she found herself laughing with Emma. Flowey just smirked to each story.
The human girl looked at her companions and noticed how comfortable she felt among them. Though she hadn't known these people for that long. But they helped her. And she helped them whenever she could. At first she had been suspicious and overwhelmed in the Underground, but Flowey, Emma and Klyde stayed by her side. Lara wasn't sure if she could call them friends. At least for now. But the idea warmed her heart.
Maybe the reunion with Frisk isn't the only thing I have left.
Maybe she should tell everyone about Frisk? Why she was here?
Everyone did tell a lot about themselves, even some more private parts. It would be fair if she shared some thing about herself.
They seemed to trust her. And Lara wanted to trust them.
She opened her mouth to speak, when Flowey said: "Hey Klyde, have you gathered enough strength to carry Lara over here?"
They were in a cave divided in half by a glowing body of water. Lara wasn't sure if she wanted to swim in the glowing liquid and fortunately she didn't have to. Klyde summoned one of his magic hands and gently carried her to the other side. The ghosts flew over the lake while Flowey popped up from the ground next to Lara.
They all continued moving forward. She tried again to open up, when Emma asked: "Wait! Do you hear that?"
Everyone was silent and listened. A tune echoed through the cave.
"That sounds like… music. Like someone is humming a song."
"Let's have a look," Klyde suggested and they went investigating. They entered a cave in which there were two houses: one blue and the other pink, and shaped like cartoon ghosts.
In front of these buildings was the source of the melody.
It was another blue ghost child. But unlike Emma, this ghost girl was as dark blue as the rocks around her. She was dressed like a ballerina, with a tutu and all the other stuff. The dark hair was tied in a bun.
She danced around in the air, doing pirouettes and humming these tunes to herself. The unknown spirit was completely lost in her own world and hadn't noticed that she had had a visitors. Lara was completely mesmerized by the other girl's graceful moves, and could have watched her for a while if not for Klyde exclaiming, "Oh hey, it's Emily. Should have guessed it was you."
The blue ghost, Emily, was clearly startled out from her dance, as she flinched and yelped in surprise and then disappeared into a wall.
"Klyde come on, you now how shy she can be", groaned Emma. "You shouldn't surprise her like that."
"Sorry. My mouth moved before I could really think." The orange spirit rubbed sheepishly his head. Emma rolled her eyes but then called out: "Its alright Emily, it´s just us. You can come out."
Emily reappeared hesitantly. She looked uncertainly at Klyde and Emma before her eyes fell on Lara and Flowey. The ghostly ballerina backed away in fear. Lara waved with her hand and tried to give a calming smile.
"Hello, my name is Lara. You don't need to be afraid of me, I won't hurt you."
Emily just shook her head.
"No, it's not... why are you with him?" She pointed shakily at Flowey.
"What do you mean?" Lara asked, but Emily ignored her and looked back at her fellow ghosts.
"Why are you traveling with Asriel? Aren't you afraid he might try something with our souls laying in the open?"
Emmas and Klydes flinched and Flowey began glaring at Emily. The flower's body was tense and its eyes held a dark expression in them. Lara had never seen him like this before. She looked wildly between Emily and Flowey before finally asking, "Flowey, what's wrong? Why is she calling you Asriel, like in, the late monster prince Asriel?"
"Wait, he didn't tell you? That he and Asriel..." Emily noticed too late that Emma and Klyde were gesturing for her to be quiet and constantly nodding at Flowey.
"He didn't say it." She clasped her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening. "Oh god and I just spilled it out like that! Um... was it Lara? Lara just forget everything I said." And to Flowey she yelled "I'm sorry, please don't do to me what you did to the others!"
Lara looked around confused, her mind racing trying to figure out what was going on.
And then, like a lightning bolt, it hit her.
Lara's eyes widened as the dots began to connect in her head.
Flowey, having a special connection with Asriel, who he evaded talking about, but being open about his friendship with Chara.
The article that described how close Chara and Ariels´ relationship was. How Asriel died in the royal garden. Monsters crumbling to dust upon death and, according to tradition, was scattered on things so that their essence could `live on´.
With an uncertain look, unsure whether her thesis, which was pretty crazy, was wrong or not, the human girl looked at Flowey and asked: "Flowey are you a reincarnation of Asriel?"
For a brief second, Flowey's eyes twitched, but then his expression went neutral, too neutral, and he said, "No, I think this ghost here is still too traumatized by her death to think straight."
The tone of his voice didn't sound very convincing.
And the one second that Flowey had shown a reaction, and the fact that Emily and the other ghosts still looked extremely uncomfortable, as if they'd revealed an important secret, made Lara realize:
"Oh my god, you really are the prince of Monsters!"