...She really said that about me? Ouch. I mean, I guess I can understand, but I figured she'd cut me at least some slack compared to Asgore.

Well, what can you do but try to rebuild burned bridges.

So, ready for the rest of the story?

I'm not.

Right, so we go ahead in time, far ahead in time, nearly nine-hundred years later to the passing of the new millennium.

Things had stabilized into an equilibrium, I would sneak out and grab technology, or the royal scientist would invent it himself before I got back. Running water, cell phones, soon enough the internet and human culture weren't far from us, and then we went even further by creating the Core so we could power everything.

One by one, things changed for the better.

I remember hearing cheering from Asgore and Toriel's wing of the palace as I walked by, I knocked on the door and Asgore answered it, he was beaming. "Wow, you're glowing like you just came from Hotland, what's the-" Asgore didn't even wait for me to finish before answering, "Toriel's pregnant!"

It was big news, Boss Monsters have a really hard time having kids, it might seem ludicrous that it took them nearly a millennium after they married, but by the standard of the species, that's normal.

Asriel's birth caused a party in the underground so fierce I swear the entire mountain shook, everyone was so excited and hopeful at the arrival of our new prince, myself included.

I remember it like it was yesterday, visiting their home and having little Asriel slam into my leg because he wasn't watching where he ran, teaching him about the world above from what I knew of it when I was given the chance to do so.

"Uncle Ral! Look, a girl in the upper grades lent me a history book she found floating down in waterfall!" Asriel said as he came to me in the library.

"Oh? Let me see." I took the book from him and stared it over, "Must be another thing from Japan, I guess the kid that found this was Alphys? She has a habit of digging this stuff up." He just nodded at that.

"I uh, wouldn't really trust her word this is a history book, Asriel."

I'd let a few of those slip through mistaking them for actual history, unfortunately when I do they tend to wind up in the schools, part of being the royal librarian is that you're usually the stopping point for people wondering if something's accurate or not, especially when you're old enough to have lived through most of it.

"Hey uncle Ral, dad mentioned something about you, but I don't think he knew I could hear him."

I perked up at that, "Oh?"

"He said you weren't always a monster, what did he mean by that?"

I just smiled, "That was so many years ago, I tend to forget if people don't specifically mention it. Well, I used to be human." His mouth dropped at that.

"Your grandfather, when he passed away he gave me one last blessing in letting me absorb his SOUL, it gave me power for a while, power enough to do this to myself."

"Wow, do you think I might be that strong one day?" I just smiled at that.

"Maybe, anything is possible in this life." I answered, smiling.

Asriel...

I...

...I'm not crying, I told myself I wasn't going to cry when I got to this part.

And then, Chara graced us with his presence some years later, 201X.

It was a blessing that monsters had finally moved past their grudge enough that they didn't have to hide themselves like I did when I arrived, the royal family embraced them as their own and I followed, he became a second nephew to me.

I still remember those conversations with them, Chara was... quirky, they weren't mean-spirited but they always talked about things far too mature and morbid for their age, combined with that unceasingly sunny disposition and the way they eyed weapons like a five-year old eyes candy, they had a tendency to creep me out.

"Hey uncle Ral!" "Greetings Ral." The two said as they came up to me in the library, "What are you reading?" Asriel asked me, "Oh, it's a book on surface plants, would you like to-" Before I knew it they were both sitting on the arms of my reading chair looking over me, "Yes." They both said at the same time.

"Hey look Chara, those are the flowers that broke your fall." Asriel said as we got to the page on sunflowers.

"Yeah, sunflowers, we were lucky that you landed in the patch of those, it would have been a lot worse if you'd hit the bare ground."

"Hey, what are those?" Chara said, pointing out another plant.

"Hm? Those are ranunculous, also known as buttercups." I said.

"They look familiar, hey Chara, isn't that what you accidentally fed dad?"

I grimaced at that, "Yeah, they're very poisonous if you eat them, it's no wonder Asgore got so sick, thankfully he's strong enough to have survived it."

… I don't want to recall this next part, Frisk, I really don't.

A few years passed, and then that night, everything went wrong. Chara suddenly fell ill and we weren't sure what had caused it, we tried to cure them, tried to keep them alive, but it failed, they died a slow death that I wouldn't have wished on any living creature.

Asgore's desperate plea to Chara to pull through still haunts my nightmares.

I feel responsible for what happened, I still do, they borrowed the book on surface plants from me, and when I got it back I noticed it had been tab-marked on the page for buttercups. I didn't realize until it was too late that the symptoms they were suffered were from ingesting them.

We thought Asriel was in his room mourning when he was actually going to Chara's hometown to fulfill their last request with their body, I was comforting Asgore and trying to not lose my composure myself when Toriel came in, "I can't find Asriel anywhere!" She all but screamed.

We turned the city upside down looking for him, eventually reconvening in the throne room. Then the door swung open, "Asriel!" we all called out. He walked forward a few steps and smiled at us...

Then he fell down...

When he turned to dust, before his SOUL moved on, I saw two of them hang in the air for just a second, I realized what had happened.

I...

I...

Damn it all! It was my fault!

Crash!

I told Asriel about the fact that I was what I was because I absorbed another creature's SOUL, it was common knowledge, but at the same time I showed him what the power let you be capable of doing. I'm the reason he knew that he could have done it with Chara's SOUL, the reason Chara would have known that Asriel would have been able to cross the barrier to take him to see his home one last time, the reason that he was killed... It was all...

Asriel... Chara... I'm sorry...

...

...Sorry, Frisk, that was... that was uncalled for...

I know, I know that it probably wasn't because of me, but I'll never stop wondering, what if it was? What if I was responsible for seeding that idea in their heads? And that's why, Frisk, I'm so thankful that-

Right, back on track.

I'll... have to pay Grillby for a new table before I leave. I didn't think I was physically strong enough to split wood like that.