What's it Called? Chap 3
Chapter 3
I was standing back in front of Toriel's home.
I breathed in, then collapsed. I was shaking. I barely felt the sting of falling.
I had been dead. Everything had gone black. For a second, I saw a glimmer of the Beyond. Why was I not still dead?
I felt a yank after seeing the glimmer and the words File Loaded, appeared before me a moment before I opened my eyes.
I stood, still shaking. I began making my way forward. My seabag fell to the ground behind me. It would only slow me down.
If this was some other force's way of giving me a second chance, I wasn't going to waste it. My muscles burned as I ran-no, tore my way to where Ben was.
Would be.
He had to be there. I just had to get there. Frog Monsters quickly got out of my way as I went past and nothing had time to challenge me.
"Flower freak!" I screamed, rounding the corner of the tunnel I had found Ben in.
Two faces, one of them Ben's, turned towards me. Vines were reaching for him.
"Don't touch him, flower," I slashed at the vines that headed my way and Ben was shook from his shock. He followed my lead, slashing at the vines.
We kept doing this, making our way back towards the other room. Away from the demon flower. Avoiding his vines. Getting cut.
It worked, until it didn't.
"David!" I suppose it was only likely that I would overswing and let a vine wrap around my arm. The spikes dug into my flesh, eliciting a scream from yours truest.
I was questioning why my Soul hadn't come out, granting my body the usual intangibility, but the vines quickly wrapped around me and cut out all other thought.
Squish.
Back in front of Toriel's home.
A deep, shuddering breath. Then I was off.
Stabbed. Blood loss. Crushed. Bashing. I died in so many ways.
Sometimes I died. Other times, Ben died. Sometimes the bastard killed us at the same time.
We kept dying dying and dying. Until I had enough.
"Flowey," I growled, having learned the prick's name at one point. "I've had enough of this. You've already killed me so many freaking times that I've lost count.
The vines, poised to kill Ben, paused.
"You know about the Loads? Flowey asked, seemingly surprised." His jagged mouth had vanished for his more 'civilized' face.
"I know that you've killed the two of us plenty of different way and that I keep coming back each time. So if that's what you mean, then yeah."
The vines smashed Ben and I frowned. Yes, it still hurt to see my friend die like that. Terribly. But that had been at least the fiftieth time seeing it, so the sting had died down a little.
Flowey watched my reactions and grinned.
"You are telling the truth. How, interesting. I think I would like to see what happens next." Then Flowey and the vines all sunk beneath the ground.
My world froze.
Had I just screwed up big time? Ben's Soul came out and I gathered it in my hand.
"Oi, Flowey! Come and kill me already!"
Nothing.
"Flowey!" I shouted into the darkness before running out of the room, searching for the flower. My heart rate rose as I realized that the flower really had left.
I began shaking. Ben's death seemed a lot more permanent without my own impending doom hanging over me. I considered my machete for a moment and immediately sheathed it.
I was too cowardly for something like that.
So, seeing nothing I could do, I made my way to Toriel's home. I brushed against the gleaming speck and chased my exhaustion away. It did nothing to banish the numbness I felt, but my energy returned and what little damage had been done to my Soul vanished. I didn't consider the words File Saved with more than a passing thought.
The door opened after a knock and I extended Ben's Soul towards Toriel with a single word: "Help."
Toriel's face seemed to lose all color, despite already being white.
"What happened?" She carefully pulled me in and sat me down next to the fire. The chair was comfy, and the fire was pleasantly warm, but neither really registered.
"Monsters have magic, right?" I asked Sans, who was sitting where I had sat at the table before. Toriel had stepped out of the room for some reason. I think she mentioned something about getting some pie.
Sans nodded, his normal grin obviously not showing amusement. I guess it was just stuck like that 24/7.
"Then you have healing magic, yeah? You can shove this back in Ben and-"
"Stop, pal," Sans interrupted me. "Monsters have tried messing with Souls before. We've never succeeded in bringing someone back. Not really."
My hand, which gripped the armrest, tightened. My left, holding his Soul, didn't dare squeeze. I had seen his, and my own, Soul shatter far too many times to not know how fragile it was.
"Then go ahead and kill me so I can Load or whatever it is," I said, standing and tossing him my machete. I didn't see any weapons on him, so I guess he would just-
"Did you just say, 'Load?'" Sans asked letting the machete fall to the ground. The pinpricks of white that served as his eyes. We're gone. Was that his version of closing his eyes? Or was it something else?
"Yes, I said Load. Or maybe the term is Reset. I don't know! The Flower didn't explain things to me before killing Ben," I held up his Soul once again. "So just hurry up and kill me. If things don't go so well, then you can just use my Soul to help get yourself out of the underground or whatever."
"I'm not about to kill you, pal," Sans said, his lights reappearing.
"Fine, I'll go find another Monster to do it for me!"
I ran past a protesting Toriel on my way down to the door. I ran out into the snow and found Icecap again. I insulted him some and he stabbed my Soul to pieces when I ran at him barehanded.
I was in front of Toriel's home. Ben's Soul was in my hand.
"It's too late," Sans stood next to me, looking at Ben's Soul. I hadn't heard him come outside.
"What? But you were inside?" I protested weakly. Why was I holding Ben's Soul? This wasn't supposed to happen-
Then it clicked. File Saved. File Loaded. This obeyed the rules of a videogame.
"I overwrote the saved file," I whispered, realization making my heart crumble.
"I'm not sure what that means, but yeah. You Saved. Now this is where you will go until you Save again."
I shook my head, then began sprinting.
I found Ben's body. He had been crushed. The blood hadn't had time to even begin to dry.
Phalanges closed around my shoulder.
"Sorry, kid. You said that the flower did this?"
I nodded. I was numb, but a painful feeling was beginning to well up. My face was wet. I licked my lips.
Tasted salty.
Sans helped me dig a hole. Bones shot up from the ground and separated the earth. His eye glowed blue and Ben-Ben's body was lowered into the ground. I asked him to put Ben under the flowers, right where the sunlight hit. I remembered that Ben never likes buttercups.
They made him sneeze.
I made a cross motion with my hand and began walking away.
"You okay?"
"Not at all," I said, honestly. My throat had loosened. Now all I felt was determination. That, mixed with anger.
"I guess you want answers."
"Not really." I said, somewhat honestly. "Right now, I just want a fucking drink."
I had never drank before. But I had seen people drink. I knew it would knock them out. Make them forget. Something.
I needed that.
Phalanges wrapped around my arm and the world went black. Moments after, the world returned and Sans let go of me.
"Shortcut," Sans said simply, walking into Grillby's.
The bar was just about empty. Only a few guard dogs, outfitted in weaponry and armor, sat around playing some sort of card game.
I sat in front of Grillby, ordered a glass of something, then downed it in one go.
I began coughing violently and the small amount of regret that came was drowned by the artificial warm feeling the alcohol brought on.
I hated it. I needed more.
Grillby left the bottle in front of me with a shot glass and moved away to give me space. I carefully kept Ben's Soul in my left hand while I poured with my right.
"It's never an easy thing to lose a friend," Sans spoke up from my right, pouring some of the bottle into a glass of his own. I thought about protesting, but I really couldn't dredge up the power to do so.
"I've actually felt what you're feeling. Hundreds of times. I've seen my own brother cut down."
"But he's not dead," I pointed out, rather obviously.
"He was. This little brat, one with the same ability as you, comes down here and killed him. She does that sometimes. I make sure to make her die painfully every time."
I blinked, his words still able to make sense to my shock and alcohol addled brain.
"Someone has the same ability as me? You mean that you can't Load or Reset or any of that crap?"
Sans shook his head and tipped the glass back. His mouth opened just a little from the bottom to allow the liquid to enter.
"Most Monsters don't have a clue about all that. I'm one of the few, maybe one of the only. I remember past timelines that have been Reset. The timeline was really erratic when I made my way to Tori's house. I assume that was you?"
I nodded, swallowing the next shot.
"What do you mean when you said sometimes?"
"I she doesn't come down to the underground, sometimes. Or at least I never see her. Sometimes the timeline Resets before I see her or hear about her."
"How do you know when the timeline has been Reset?"
"You usually get a sense of deja-vu. You'll look around and think, 'I've been here before. I did something something here.' At least, that's how it is with me. I'll look around and go with the flow until the memories come flooding back."
"That must get irritating. How long has she been doing this?"
I nearly did a spit-take when he answered with, "I stopped bothering to count after the second century or so."
"Centuries!" I whisper-shouted.
"Not in real time, though. Just collectively."
I sat back and let this sink in, along with some more of the drink. I was feeling a pleasant buzz in the bottom of my stomach and the knot in my heart wasn't so constricting.
We began talking about other things at that point. I was the one mainly talking. I spoke of how Ben was an outdoorsy nut. How I enjoyed drawing. Our plans for college. Why we had climbed Mt. Ebott. I spoke of everything and nothing, taking a shot now and again.
"Human!" Until I was interrupted by the azure spear slamming into the bar to the left of my stool. I took a look at the spear. It glowed a pretty blue color and small waves of energy ran along it. I then looked at the thrower.
A tall figure in black armor stood in the doorway of Grillby's. Their armor covered just about everything and I couldn't tell anything about them.
They had another glowing spear in their hands, held in such a way that told me it could be thrown in an instant.
"You're letting the heat out," I pointed at the snowflakes beginning to fall in the restaurant and the figure took a moment to look down.
There was a pause where everything was silent. Then the figure stepped forward and let the door swing shut behind them.
"I have come for your Soul!"
I turned around and patted the stool to my left.
"Let's drink first. We can always kill each other later. Grillby, another glass, please?"
The flaming Monster sat a glass in the spot next to me and I poured the alcohol in. I filled the glass that Sans held up and my own before hearing the figure move forward. I half expected a spear in my back, and was pleasantly surprised to find the figure sit down.
They were about six and a half feet tall with their armor on. I saw that she was actually about six and a quarter feet when she set the helmet on the floor next to her.
"Heh, maybe one drink, Human. Hey, Sans."
"Sup, Dyne."
"Undyne, I presume?"
"Yup. Huh, guess you've already heard of me!" She shot her glass back and I took a moment to study her. Blue skinned, smell of fish, long red ponytail, and an eyepatch. Shark teeth as well. Definitely not someone I wanted to piss off. Her voice oozed confidence and her smirk told me she knew it did.
"Yeah. Papyrus speaks highly of you," I said, off-handedly.
"You've met him?"
"He tried to capture me with a puzzle." I had mostly relaxed around Undyne by that point. We talked for a bit.
Then the bottle ran out.
"I did say one drink, Human. Now let's go." The spear made a reappearance and I held up a waiting hand.
"How many Souls did you say you needed to get out?" She had spoken on the topic passionately and often as we drank, but the details were blurry.
"Seven. Seven Human Souls."
"How many do you need?"
"Just one more. Yours! Now-"
I held my hand up again.
"Here," I opened my fist and revealed Ben's Soul.
"He's dead. I'm sure he wouldn't mind it if you used it to escape. He was always stupidly charitable like that," I said, staring at the glowing heart.
There was a moment and the faint of hum that came from her spears silenced.
"Thanks, k-" I yanked his Soul out of the way when she reached for it.
"I only have one condition. I want to present it to your King." My voice was resolute and I looked her right in her remaining eye. "I want to look him in the eyes when I hand this over. Until then, this does not leave my grasp. Understand?"
Undyne's face scrunched up in anger.
"Either accept this offer, or we'll fight and I can't guarantee that you'll get either of our Soul's." I removed the machete from its sheath and pointed it towards Ben's Soul. I wasn't sure if I could actually do it, but I wasn't about to let her know that.
The tension racked up in that moment and every Monster in armor stood and drew weaponry.
Sans broke the tension with a burp and said, "I just have to point out that he's giving you a good deal. You might want to take it to heart."
Undyne relaxed her posture and she barked out, "Fine!"
"Good. Let's go. How much do I owe you, Grillby?"
Grillby waved his hand and he said, "Consider this one on the house."
I nodded my thanks and moved towards the exit.
Sans made sure I didn't stumble over anything as we went along.
"Sorry about this. Never had alcohol before," I apologized.
"Nah, it's fine. It'll pass. How are you feeling?"
"A little woozy. Kind of numb. Mission accomplished. Tell me about the flower," I said, moving to avoid a puddle. Rain fell and hit the umbrella I held above me with faint plip plops. They told me that it rained constantly in Waterfall.
They also told me that the glowing fungus and flowers were not illusions. I'm never eating one of those glowing mushrooms.
I think one of them spoke.
Behind us walked Papyrus and Undyne while a dog in gigantic armor, Greater Dog as Sans said, led us while panting excitedly.
"The flower has the same ability as you and the brat," Sans said quietly. Not that he had to. Papyrus was speaking loudly to Undyne, who grinned and bore it. Undyne was watching me like a shark that had scented blood, hardly looking away while she spoke with Papyrus.
"What's Flowey's issue? Did he not get enough hugs as a seed?"
"He's a psychopathic and Soulless being that is playing an eternal game with the brat. Sometimes the brat goes against him, sometimes they play together. They both are crazy, though. You can never tell what kind of move they're in until after they're about to kill you."
"How many times have they killed you?"
"The flower? Not very many times. I'm too lazy to get in his way, most times. I only step in when the brat kills Papyrus or looks like she's having too much fun."
"Is that all she does? Kills everything?"
"Not all the time. When she first came down here, she was very nice. She didn't hurt a single Monster. Befriended everyone. Everything was fine for awhile. Then she got not so nice." Sans' eyes disappeared and his voice dropped into a dangerous tone. "She began to injure. Then kill. Then she wouldn't stop. No one could really stop her. Even I only managed to kill her for several centuries until she figured out how to avoid me entirely."
"Ever killed Flowey?"
My grip on my machete, which was held in my right hand, tightened. I had never really felt the urge to end something's life as intensely as much as I did then. Especially when I knew he would probably just come back after I killed him, much like I did any time I died.
"Once or twice. I sometimes got the chance to help the brat, back when she was still good-"
"Hold up for a minute!"
We slowed to a stop and I glanced behind us. Undyne was shedding her armor and setting it neatly on the side of the path. I felt a sting in my eye and hissed as I wiped at it. Some sweat had rolled down my face.
"Did it get really warm all of a sudden?" I asked, the air having heated up at some point recently.
"Sorry bud, I don't think she's your type," Sans said.
It took me a moment. Then I sputtered, "Not that! I'm not insinuating 'that!'"
"Insinuating what, Human?" The fishy lady in question, now without armor, marched over to us. She wore a grey tank top and black military pants, completed with black combat boots.
"Nothing important. Are you done?"
Undyne scoweled at me, growled an affirmative, and we were off again.
I'm not sure if it was because it was Monster alcohol, or if alcohol just didn't hit me as hard as most, but my mind was mostly clear by the time we passed into Hotland.
"Please let someone else choose the names when you get to the surface," I told the group after learning the name of the place filled with pools of magma. (I was quick to correct Sans, who made a pun about lava, that they were actually pools of magma because they hadn't reached the surface yet. Sans then made a pun about how we were like magma that made the group as a whole groan.)
"Who are those fellas?" I asked Sans, indicating two large figures in black armor ahead.
"Royal Guards 01 and 02. That's Alphys' lab that they're guarding. She's the royal scientist. A dinosaur of a woman."
Sans grinned expectedly, but I just stared. Was she old?
"Right, never mind."
Greater Dog stayed at the bottom when we arrived at an elevator because he was just too big. Undyne looked horrible by the time we entered the elevator, sweating and panting from the heat. Her skin looked like it was drying out terribly.
"Looking at you is starting to make me feel like I'm about to die," I quipped to the fish lady before throwing her my water canteen. "Take it," I cut her protests off before they could come out.
Undyne twisted the cap off of the canteen and gulped it down greedily. Her drinking was the only sound in the elevator.
I glanced over to Papyrus, who was shifting nervously. What was his deal?
We were standing on a ledge overlooking a large city.
"I was beginning to think the only place with actual buildings was Snowdin."
"This is the Capital," Undyne told me, looking better after her drink.
"What's it called?"
"The Capital."
I blinked.
"I have one more condition to handing over Ben's Soul. Someone else gets to name stuff from now on."
"Deal," Undyne agreed after an eye roll.
We walked along the edge and I saw the roaming crowds of Monsters down in the Capital. I was busy taking in the details of a church-like building when Sans directed me to the right. I entered a large hallway.
"THIS IS JUDGEMENT HALL," Papyrus spoke, finally. I spent a moment brushing against a gleaming speck before following Sans once more. Undyne glared at me for the seemingly unnecessary movement, but didn't comment.
"Who named this place?" I asked because I seriously doubted that their King had a hand in this place.
"Queen Dreemurr. She named this place long before she disappeared."
"Oh? Too bad. She should have been put in charge of naming stuff," I quirked, beginning to feel nervousness. I was on my way to meeting royalty.
"So what is this Asgore guy like?" I questioned Sans.
"HE'S A BIG OLE SWEETHEART," Papyrus answered, apparently overhearing me. "I'M SURE HE'LL BE DELIGHTED TO MEET YOU!"
I nodded to Papyrus and hoped that it wasn't his naivety talking. This was the same guy that was waiting for a seventh Human Soul. Human Souls came from, who would've guessed it, dead Humans. How those Humans came to the state of being dead, I could give a half decent guess.
"He's a pacifist at heart, kid," Sans added.
"Alright." Papyrus was naive, but Sans was down to earth. More so than I would ever understand. He, unless he was making a pun, would probably not screw around with me.
We continued through the castle and stopped outside of these tall doors adorned with the same symbols I first saw in the Ruins.
Wait...the Ruins...
"Did we ever tell Toriel that we were leaving?" I asked, hands inches from pushing open the door.
Undyne let out a screech of rage at my pause and Papyrus held he back when she began to leap forward.
We, Sans and myself, ignored them.
"I let her know earlier."
"When?"
"I took a shortcut to let her know. Also set your friend's stuff in her house."
I didn't bother asking when he had done it. I didn't understand those mysterious 'shortcuts.' I doubted I ever would.
"Keep your panties on," I drawled back to Undyne, who was practically frothing at the mouth by that point. "I'm going in."
With that, I pushed.
The doors swung open to reveal what could only have been the throne room.
The throne in the middle, as well as the sign outside, was a good indicator. The room let out the sweet scent that only flowers could give off and the extra scent of earth.
"Hmm?" My attention was drawn to the large Monster standing to the side. He was watering a small patch of the buttercups that dominated the middle of the room entirely. The floor was dedicated to the flowers and fluffy grass.
Ben would have hated the middle.
Undyne strode past me and addressed the King. I knew he was the King because he had a fine purple cape with yellow pauldrons adorning his broad shoulders and back as well as a golden crown sitting in between his two curving horns. His face was much like Toriel's and he had the fang-like things at the end of his snout, just like Toriel. The beard he sported reminded me of a Monster version of Santa Clause.
All in all, he was intimidating as hell.
"King Asgore, I have brought you the Human-"
"Who came willingly," I added, interrupting her.
"Who has brought a Soul he is going to give you-"
"There are-"
"I'm about to tell him that!" she barked over her shoulder at me, who merely let out a puff of breath.
She cleared her throat once again.
"He has a couple conditions before giving it over to you."
Asgore spoke in a deep tone and a small smile.
"Very well. Papyrus, would you please get our guest a chair?"
Papyrus saluted and exclaimed, "OF COURSE, KING ASGORE!" He immediately sprinted out of the room, searching for a chair.
There were a few chairs sitting in the corner along with another throne with a white sheet covering it.
A pause ensued before Undyne finally grabbed one and slammed it down in front of the throne.
I moved to the chair with a nod to Undyne and sat as Asgore sat. My chair was elegant, but the throne was leagues more so.
"Your conditions, ah?"
"David," I provided. "I have two. One: you are not allowed to name locations when you go up on the surface. Let someone else have that job."
The room paused, awaiting Asgore's reaction.
He began laughing. He laughed hard and pounded the armrest of his throne, where it shook with each impact. It was infectious and most of the room was grinning along with him.
"Very well, David," Asgore agreed around his chuckles. "What is the other condition?"
The grin I had from his infectious laughter left my face and I leaned closer to Asgore.
"My second condition is that you look me in the eyes and listen to what I have to say as I put this in your hand."
Asgore's chuckles petered off and his smile went away.
I held Ben's Soul up and opened my palm a little to show it. I then looked Asgore straight in his eyes and began talking.
"His name was Benny. He preferred being called Ben. He loved going outside. He wanted to go to college and become a robotics engineer. We were friends for most of our lives. He went to get help for me when I fell, but no one would dare come up the mountain because they were all too scared." Ben had shared that tidbit with me one of the times before we had died. I think we died when Flowey collapsed the tunnel on us in that run.
"He did not like buttercups because they made him sneeze. He died because a flower killed him. And the reason I am giving his Soul to you is because he was stupidly charitable when he was alive. Now hold out your hand."
Asgore reached forward and I placed Ben's Soul into his fluffy hands. The Soul stayed just a little ways away from ever touching his hands, so he covered it with both. He stood and began walking to the door behind the throne.
"Come on. Let's blow this hot dog stand," Sans said, following Asgore. Undyne also came close behind.
I waited a moment, taking my time standing up. I looked at my left hand, opening and closing it a few times. I had kept Ben's Soul in it for the last few hours and my hand missed the comforting pulsating warmth.
"That is what has been keeping us down here for all these centuries," Undyne muttered to me once I stopped next to her and Sans. I looked up and tried to study the Barrier.
It looked like a hallway that washed black and white alternatively and had energy pulses traveling from the middle to the outside simultaneously.
"That is the Barrier?"
"It's about to be the way out," Sans said nonchalantly. Actually, he seemed tense. He was looking around instead of at Asgore, who was approaching six other trapped Souls. I moved to the other side of him and spoke quietly.
"What's up?"
"The surface."
It was weak for Sans, and I knew it.
"Worried about the brat?"
Sans stiffened and made a 'so-so' gesture.
"Flowey?"
Another 'so-so' gesture.
"What could possibly go wrong aside from those two? Anyone else have those abilities?"
Sans gave a nod and, before I began gawking at him for leaving out this very important detail, he lifted his phalanges and pointed a single digit at myself.
"Me? You're worried about me?"
"Very."
"I get that I swing a good machete, but I don't think that's cause for much worry."
"The brat has a toy knife that she's sharpened and has managed to kill me thousands of times after she learned my patterns. But that's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about you dying and ruining everything."
It took a moment, I'm sad to say, to get what he meant.
"Even if I did die and went back, chances are that I'll do exactly as I've done."
"For how long?"
"You've lost me."
Sans turned to me, his sockets an inky blackness.
"How long can you continue to do exactly as you're doing now? How many times can you come back and hand over your best friend's Soul to free all Monsters?"
I took a step back, his voice having taken on a malevolent rumbling tone after the first few words.
"What makes you think I'll come back after all of this? I only started Resetting after coming down here."
"The Save Points allowed you to continue coming back. If you hasn't touched one, then you wouldn't have to deal with all of this. You would have died once and that would have been that. That is, until you did touch a Save Point or never come down here."
"That's what those gleaming specks are? And you can see them?"
"Yeah, but no. I can't see them. The brat boasted about them, once."
I rubbed my face and said, "I'm not sure, alright? Let's just figure that out when it comes."
Sans grunted and we both turned to the flashing light show that had begun a few moments prior. All of the containers that held the Souls were open and in a circle around Asgore. As one, they floated out and flew towards Asgore. They stopped inches away from his body before slowly sinking into his flesh in the same rippling way that my Soul did when it returned to my body. It was discerning to see it happen all over someone.
Asgore pushed Ben's Soul into his chest last. Eyes closed, Asgore's held his arms to the side and faced the Barrier. His body shined brighter than anything I had seen underground before that point.
An arm extended.
The air thinned, then cracked. Wait, that was the Barrier. After the first crack formed on the surface of the suddenly black surface, the entire thing began being covered in cracks and soon fell to pieces and went out of existence.
It didn't take a full minute for the Barrier, the thing holding-that held-Monsterkind for centuries, to shatter into nothingness. Beyond the Barrier was an inky darkness. Made sense, considering it was actually about 2:00 in the morning outside.
There was silence for a moment after Asgore lowered his arms and stopped glowing so brightly. He had a little glow to him, but it was heavily diminished from before.
I began walking forward and went straight past Asgore.
"Where do you think you're going, Human?" Undyne barked behind me.
"Out," is all I said as I flipped on a flashlight and began walking.
I didn't need to turn around to hear the sound of slippers and combat boots to follow me. I did have to glance back to see if Asgore, who had no footwear, was following. It was a straight shot through the tunnel to the outside. Not even thirty yards long and I was outside.
I stood on a ledge that extended another fifteen yards out and wrapped around the summit of Mt. Ebott. The Monsters stood all around me, looking around in various levels of wonder. I clicked off my flashlight since the full moon lit the area well enough.
"THIS IS THE SURFACE? WOWIE!" The group as a whole turned to see Papyrus standing there, absurdly holding a chair.
"Yup. This is the surface, Paps," Sans said, grinning to his brother.
Papyrus copied Asgore in looking up and exclaimed, "SO MANY LIGHTS!"
"That there are," Undyne said, her face actually somewhat relaxed for once. It looked kind of weird.
"OH, HERE'S THE CHAIR YOU ASKED FOR, KING ASGORE."
Asgore smiled and I quickly said, "Thank you, Papyrus. I'll take that."
I nodded thankfully to the skeleton before sitting down and looking at Sans.
"I have a favor to ask."
"Whatchya got?"
"Could you grab my bag from Toriel's place? And bring Toriel if she wants to come?"
Sans didn't take too long before saying, "Sure, kid. I'll take a shortcut."
"BUT DON'T YOU WANT TO STARE AT THE STARS A LITTLE LONGER?"
"Don't worry, Paps. We'll have plenty of opportunities to see the stars now that the Barrier is gone."
Sans went back into the tunnel and was probably back at the Ruins before he arrived at the end of it.
"How do you know Tori?" Asgore inquired.
"Met her in the Ruins. Are you two married?"
"We were married, but not any more," Asgore said, his face showing some sadness.
"Sorry about that," I nodded to him. "Now please done wake me up until those two get back. I've been up for sixteen or so hours and I need to rest some."
I leaned forward and rested my head on top of my arms that were positioned on my legs. Closing my eyes and setting my machete across my lap, I rested.
What comes next will be as interesting as all those lovely reviews I'm sure y'all will leave me.