Tyrantale

Chapter 11.

Moving on.

Break time for the Resisters.


Following the risky liberation of all of the monsters in the castle, the Resisters were taking a moment to relax.

Sans, Papyrus, and Toriel brought the disfigured Dr. Gaster to a different area of the ruins, where Toriel hoped to restore him to his proper condition without being interrupted.

"So...you think you can do it?" Papyrus wondered.

"It...will definitely be a challenge," Toriel voiced, "but, I will give it everything I have got, that is all any of us can do."

"Well," Sans said, "I'll leave you to it, we've still got a lot of work to do."

He then walked back to the next room over.

"Best of luck!" Papyrus called after him.

"All right," Toriel said, "here goes nothing."

She then went to work using her healing magic on the mangled skeleton scientist.


Meanwhile, in the living room, Asgore was resting in Toriel green lounge chair, holding a sleeping Asriel, who was feeling slightly better, but, still fatigued. Once everything had settled down, Frisk was brought to the rightful king's attention and the two took the opportunity to get to know each other.

"Frisk," Asgore voiced, "that is not a name I have heard."

"It's not a common name." Frisk stated shyly.

While Frisk could see without a doubt what kind and gentle soul the goat man was, his imposing appearance and formal manner of speaking made the child feel undeserving of his attention.

"You are so little," Asgore inquired, "how old are you, Frisk?"

"Eight," the human boy affirmed, "I'll be nine soon."

"And your parents just let you climb Mount Ebott all by yourself?" the king questioned in disbelief.

Frisk shrunk down, half-hiding beneath the arm of the chair.

"My parents took off over a month ago," he revealed meekly, "I haven't seen or heard from them since...not that I care, they hardly ever looked at me anyway."

After a moment of silence, Frisk continued, turning the conversation around.

"But, that doesn't matter," the human boy said, "I like it better down here, I mean, I know things are rather grim down here, but, I already care about everyone down here, more than I've ever cared about anyone."

Asgore smiled warmly at the child.

"I see," he replied softly, "that is nice, but, I wish we could have met under better circumstances, sorry you got dragged into this, little one."

"It's okay," Frisk assured him, "I wanted to help, I had to, after seeing and hearing for myself how bad things were down here, hearing about Chara...I don't understand how somebody could be so horrible, especially a kid my age."

"It is still beyond our understanding as well, Frisk," Asgore sighed, "we gave him with the very same love and affection we gave Asriel, yet...that did not seem to matter to him."

"I know," Frisk expressed, "Asriel told me the whole story and it upsets me, I can't let Chara get to the surface, I know that humanity hasn't always made the right choices, but, there are innocent people up there who haven't done anything wrong. We need to keep Chara from hurting them."

He gripped the arm of the chair contemplatively.

"Such a thoughtful child," the goat man replied solemnly, "I cannot fathom any justification for your parents to neglect, let alone abandon, you."

Frisk responded simply with a shrug.

"Should we look for them if we manage to get out of here?" Asgore asked.

The human boy shook his head vigorously in response, he had wasted enough time waiting for them to return, if they were not going to come back to him by their own accord, he was not going to waste any precious energy trying to track them down.

Suddenly, Asriel shot up on his father's lap.

"I say we keep Frisk!" the goat boy uttered.

He then promptly fell asleep again.

"Uh...well," Asgore spoke awkwardly, "what would you say to that, Frisk?"

Frisk looked on curiously.

"I mean...I would have to discuss it with Toriel," the goat father continued, "but, I believe that she would be more than happy to let you stay with us once this is all over."

"Stay with...you guys?" the human child responded contemplatively.

It was a surprising offer, especially since he and the rightful king had met only moments ago, but, he could not see any reason to turn it down. After all, his parents were gone and his new friends had already shown him more love and attention than anyone on the surface ever had. When he first came to the ruins after falling from Mount Ebott, Toriel fussed over him like he was her own child, healing his injuries, giving him food, which she had little of to spare, and even let him sleep in her bed while she slept in her chair. Everyone was concerned for his safety, but, they were also encouraging, teaching him how to defend himself in the event of an attack, which would likely happen soon.

While he was more than ready to accept the offer of staying with the family, he knew that they still had a lot of danger yet to face.

"We take down Chara first," Frisk said, "discuss arrangements later."

Asgore smiled understandingly ins response and pet the human boy on the head.


Meanwhile, in another part of the Ruins, Alphys was already working on the Soul Extractor, waiting for Sans to join her after he was done "catching up" with Muffet.

It was not long before he finally showed up.

"It's about time," Alphys voiced, "I was starting to think that I'd have to finish this thing all by myself."

"Ah, come on," the short skeleton replied, grabbing a tool, "I wouldn't do that to you."

They both then continued to work on the device.

"So...you guys are sure that we're all safe here?" the lizard woman asked warily.

"Well, in all the time we've hung out here since Chara did his thing we haven't had any problems," Sans answered, "it's probably the best place to hide such a large number of monsters."

"You...don't think Chara thought about that?" Alphys offered, "I mean...after all he does know that Toriel and Asriel have been living here."

"It doesn't matter," Sans said, "if anything happens, we're prepared."

Alphys did not respond, she simply continued to tinker with the Soul Extractor, keeping any lingering worries to herself.


New chapter down.

I think we are coming up on the end, not much left to do.