A weight had been lifted off Frisk's heart when Toriel learned about the resets and still accepted her anyway. It had been a fear at the back of her mind plaguing her for as long as she could remember. Unfortunately, she still couldn't feel relief, not when Chara was out running loose and Sans had been pushed to the point of going on the offensive against her. She could still feel the judgemental gaze of the skeleton crawling up her back, even without Sans physically present.
There was no doubt in Frisk's mind that Chara was responsible, and that setting Sans after her was intentional. Whether it was to distract Frisk - or Sans himself - was still up for debate, but there was no doubt that the fallen human had some motive for ensuring that the skeleton would be less than receptive to her.
Flowey had often warned her during her numerous visits to the vast void where he popped out of the nothingness to greet her after nearly every reset.
"Say," Flowey said, with his usual false cheer. "If I have one piece of advice for you…" In an instant, the flower's face turned more demonic, twisted and frightening. "Don't. Let his brother. Find out anything about you." His expression grew sheepish as he chuckled with embarrassment. "He'll… well… Let's just say." In an instant, the embarrassment was gone and his face warped into something sinister once more. "He's caused me more than my fair share of resets."
It was a warning that Frisk had taken to heart, particularly after she experienced what Sans was capable of when he rose up to fight her - or rather, Chara - when the end of the world was nigh. It had only happened once, but it had been enough. The fight, and Sans' determination, had been enough to make Frisk find her own and finally begin to take a stand against the fallen child.
However, Frisk never could figure out what quite caused it. While Chara had only made it that far once, she still fought Frisk to wreak havoc on the underground during their countless loop of a journey through the underground. Chara had even gone so far as to kill Papyrus multiple times, specifically because of what Sans had done during her one and only nearly successful attempt at complete genocide of the underground - and more than likely humanity as well.
No matter what happened, Sans never stepped forward to fight again, though he would always judge her in the end. Whatever Chara had done the first time, it had rattled Sans to his core and made him act. Since then, the fallen child had been unable to duplicate the experience. It didn't matter how many times she killed Papyrus, it never did more than send Sans spiraling into a pit of depression and loathing. Apathy settled in, and Sans seemed to just wait in the shadows - for what, she didn't know. But it never roused him far enough to fight Frisk - or Chara - ever again.
"You can't understand how this feels," Sans said, with sigh and a shrug. "Knowing that one day, without any warning... it's all going to be reset."
His apathy and resignation had been palpable, so potent that not even the thought of justice for his beloved brother was able to make him act. And yet it couldn't be denied that he had, in fact, acted on at least one occasion - and on several occasions, if Flowey was to be believed. Something had riled Sans from his self-professed laziness. It had been enough to motivate the skeleton, where even Papyrus' death hadn't been enough. It made Frisk more than a little curious what the difference had been.
Perhaps it was Flowey who had pushed Sans into such deep depression.
In spite of the prickling curiosity, Frisk never asked Sans or Flowey for details and had no intention of letting Chara push Sans to the brink ever again. She still vividly remembered that period of genocide, how the horrors piled on top of one another to awaken a little girl who gave up on living. The deaths piled up with words that brought more pain than even magical attacks that tore her body to pieces countless time. Even in that hopeless pit of despair and death, Sans had been utterly terrifying to behold.
The feeling of San's judgmental stare reminded her of how many times bones pierced her body and pure energy from the maw of animalistic skulls seared her flesh. His magic wasn't the piercing blow of a spear or searing of flame, but acid that took its time to eat away at her and refused to let her nerves deaden to the pain.
"On days like these, kids like you… should be burning in Hell."
Out of all the monsters' attacks, the ones Sans inflicted was a true hell only matched by the one Chara created for Frisk.
Of course, Chara had barely reacted to the attacks. It was as if she was completely immune to pain, or at the very least had a high tolerance for it. It could even be said that her determination kept her moving, even when her - Frisk's - body begged for release from the torment. It wasn't until the body itself had completely given up that it was finally over.
Well, as 'over' as anything could be when dealing with someone who could simply reset time. And reset they did - over and over and over. At first, it was to keep trying. Chara refused to accept defeat, refused to stop no matter how badly Sans beat her - killed them.
But Sans noticed. He somehow knew how many times she had died, so it only stood to reason that he would have noticed how much harder it had been to eke out victory with each pass. It may have took hundreds of tries, but Chara was learning his moves, his behaviors, his strengths, his weaknesses, everything. It didn't matter how many times or how badly he broke Frisk's body, let alone the pain she suffered - Chara's determination would not let her lose.
And that determination eventually rewarded her for her efforts. Chara finally managed to kill Sans.
Again. And again. And again, again, again, and again.
Even though Chara had succeeded in finally achieving victory, it wasn't enough. Just as Sans limped off to die, turning to dust as he spoke to his long dead brother, Chara would reset and they'd be back at the hall of judgement.
And she would kill him all over again.
Frisk didn't know if Chara would ever have gotten tired of it, if she would have become satisfied. She was clearly punishing Sans for the fight he had put up, and took great pleasure in the fact that Sans seemed somewhat aware of it. That fact alone suggested that Chara might not have lost interest, at least not for a good long while.
"That expression that you're wearing... well, I won't grace it with a description." San said, with a shrug that was far too nonchalant for the conversation.
The grin Chara made Frisk's body wear was far too big for her face. Even Frisk's eyes, having long since gone red, no longer seemed to be her own as they expressed the sheer sadistic glee that consumed every inch of Chara's being.
"That's fine," Chara said, her voice like honey. It was only during that time that she could actually speak freely, because Frisk wasn't fighting back. "Instead, how about you tell me about Papyrus."
The look on Sans face had been awful, absolutely terrible. It was as if Chara had already stabbed him, even though her knife hadn't yet found its inevitable mark. And Chara loved every second of it. It was like killing Sans twice over.
It was too much for Frisk. Everything Chara had done, every atrocity the fallen child had used her body to commit piled up until she couldn't bear it any longer. It was during that fight, when Sans pleaded with her for the untold time to stop fighting and offered to spare her, she finally found her own determination.
Chara never forgave Frisk for taking back control even for a moment, or for the 'humiliating' death that followed. When Frisk's wish not to come back reset all of her progress, it was nothing less than the start of war between them.
But Frisk refused to yield ever again.
"She must be trying to see if she can get him going, so she can fight him again," Frisk thought, her brow creased with worry. "And she's using me as the guinea pig."
"Frisk?"
Frisk snapped her head up at the sound of Toriel's voice and saw her mother's worried red eyes upon her.
"Do you need a moment to rest, my child?" Toriel asked. "It's awfully cold here, and that sweater you're wearing looks as though it has seen better days. Perhaps I could use some of my fire magic to warm you up."
Frisk shook her head and squeezed Toriel's hand that completely engulfed her own before leaning into her mother. "I'm okay." She had gotten used to bearing the extreme temperatures of the underground a long time ago. She had gotten used to bearing a lot of things. "You're warm…"
Toriel smiled gently and used her free hand to stroke Frisk's unruly brown hair. "It's alright to ask for help when you need it, my child. There's no need to push yourself."
Frisk couldn't help but smile back at Toriel, if only to reassure her mother. "It's fine, I-"
"Is that a human!?"
Three teenage monsters had stumbled upon the queen and child. Even with the gaming prompts missing, Frisk could tell from their instantly defensive positions that the trio were ready to fight. Snowdrake and Ice Cap postured themselves, trying to look intimidating, but the effect was spoiled by Jerry tagging along behind them, picking his nose. The two sighed heavily.
"Macaroni and freeze!" Snowdrake shouted, smirking at his clever catchphrase.
"...Excuse me," Toriel said, her tone light and yet hard as steel as she stared down at the monsters with an air of regalness that only served to remind Frisk of who she had been before - queen of monsters. "What, precisely, do you think you are doing?"
"Being cool with my amazing new hat," Ice Cap said with a sly grin, or at least as sly as a walking snowball with a carrot nose could manage "Don't be jealous now, I know my hat is awesome."
Jerry snorted as he sucked on his fingers. "No one cares about your dumb hat."
A quiver of embarrassment ran through Snowdrake. "C-come on, you guys," he whispered hurriedly to his friend and Jerry. "There's a deadly human over there! We need to be cool!"
Frisk looked at the trio of teens and let out a soft sigh as she thought back to the best way to deal with all of them at once. She didn't want to make a joke at Snowdrake's expense, so she pointedly turned away from Ice Cap when he struck a flaunting pose.
"Hey!" Ice Cap noticed Frisk's disinterest the same as if she had just called him a four-lettered word. "Hello? My hat's up here."
Toriel tightened her grip on Frisk's hand, prompting the human child to look up at her and see her face was still hard and unyielding. "I believe I asked you children a question."
"That's a human!" Snowdrake shouted as he pointed a wing at Frisk. "An evil monster slaying human! And we're going to freeze it in its tracks!"
"No," Toriel said, with great authority that made Snowdrake and Ice Cap cringe. "You will not."
Ice Cap lost his composure. "H-hey, don't wreck the mood we've got going here, lady. Can't you see this awesome style we've got going?"
Toriel's eyes narrowed as she silently stared down at Ice Cap. Even though she spoke no words, her eyes spoke volumes - the motherly judgment that bore down into his very soul.
Jerry let out an overly drawn out snort that ended in a moan as he tapped his phone with sticky fingers. "You guuyyysss, just kill the human and take its soul already. I need that money to buy more diamonds so I can crush this guy's town while he's AFK. Remember? Ugh! It's like no one cares about what's really important here."
"Since when did we promise to share the reward money with you?" Ice Cap asked, agitated.
Snowdrake flapped his wings. "The reward money doesn't matter right now!" He paused for a moment. "Okay, well, yeah, it'll help me with my comedy act and maybe get me on MTT's show, but the important thing right now is stopping the human while looking cool!"
"Ugh, that joke sucks," Jerry snorted. "You're so predictable."
At seeing the teens caught in their own internal argument, Frisk lightly tugged on Toriel's hand and silently gestured down the road beyond them. The queen, though annoyed at the teen trio, was more than willing to leave them behind.
Unfortunately for Frisk, Jerry hadn't been as inattentive as she had thought, and with a yowl, she suddenly found the incredibly unpleasant monster clinging to her with sticky fingers.
"Come on, human," Jerry said as he tried pulling Frisk away from Toriel. "Just die already."
A flicker of heat was all the warning Jerry got before flames lunged forward to strike his arms. While Frisk didn't feel the heat in the slightest, the fire burned Jerry's arms mercilessly and forced him to release the human with a scream.
Toriel's expression was nothing less than barely restrained rage, her left hand extended outward and engulfed in flames that promised a repeat performance - and then some. Her right hand was still firmly clamped around Frisk's own, firm and unyielding. "You will not touch my child again."
Jerry rolled around in the snow, making awful noises that were more annoying than pathetic. "Like, what was that for, old lady?"
"You know precisely what you did, young man," Toriel said, her voice cold. "Do it again, and you will be punished."
Snowdrake and Ice Cap, being far more susceptible to flames than Jerry due to their icy natures, backed away very quickly.
"If you wanted to kill the human first, you could've said so," Jerry said. "But I'm not sharing my part of the reward with you."
Toriel's cheek twitched, her eyes narrowing into slits. She raised her left hand, causing the fire to surge violently about her, before she brought her hand down roughly. "Begone!"
The flame lunged at Jerry, and before the disgusting waste of flesh could react, he was blasted backwards with a fireball and sent spiralling through the air like a smoking meteor. His whining squeal marked his trail through the sky before it petered out, just in time for him to land back down in the woods a sizeable distance away.
Snowdrake and Ice Cap stared after their self-described 'friend' with wide eyes. Even as far away as he landed, they could still hear his whiny voice faintly complaining on the breeze about tree limbs lodged in various burned orifices.
"I-I think I hear my mom calling me," Snowdrake muttered before he turned and ran like his tail was on fire, with Ice Cap right at his heels.
Toriel stared hard after the fleeing teenagers before she let out a snort. She flicked the fire off her left hand, as if shaking away water, before she reached into her robe and pulled out a handkerchief. She turned to Frisk, her stone expression melting to the more motherly one that Frisk knew so well. "Here, my child. Use this to… wipe that off."
"Thanks, Mom," Frisk said as she accepted the handkerchief and began scrubbing vigorously. She felt so much better with Toriel by her side, even when she was covered in Jerry slime.
"Let us continue, shall we?" Toriel asked, gently. "Snowdin isn't much further from here. Do not worry, I will keep you safe."
Frisk smiled brightly at Toriel and nodded even though she was more concerned about her mother's well being than her own.
Snowdin was the same as always - cheerful snowy atmosphere smothered in a thinly veiled blanket of despair. There was nothing for Sans to worry about just yet. Hopefully it would stay that way while he spent some time in the hidden workshop of his house that Papyrus rarely visited, and Sans practically lived in more than his own bedroom.
The machine he normally kept under a thick gray tarp whined and shook with a terrible clatter as Sans forced it into operation. The thing should have been scrapped for good some time ago and looked like a broken piece of junk, but he needed it too badly to let it die.
Data streamed across the cracked screen, written in a language that only Sans and his brother understood, though neither knew why. Still, it suited the purposes of keeping things discreet. Even Papyrus had long since lost interest in its secrets, leaving Sans as the only one to use it with any regularity.
The data seemed… different to Sans somehow, but he couldn't place his finger on why. Unlocking drawers to read his notes, past details matched up with what he expected. Perhaps it was his paranoia searching for something wrong. It wouldn't be the first time, and it was one of the reasons why Papyrus kept trying to get him to stop using the machine every time he got caught in the workshop.
Leaning back his squeaking old chair, Sans sighed through his teeth. Between the data readouts and the notes written in his own hand, there were no discrepancies. Everything was still the same as it ever was - the timeline was broken and some anomaly was resetting it over and over again at varying times. The bits of data that represented the lives of monsters either remained or disappeared at key points.
There was still only one human. Sans expected it, but part of him was hoping that Frisk had been telling the truth that there were two humans in the underground. But in the end, it gave him a small sense of relief that he hadn't beat up an innocent child - just a dirty murdering liar.
"You sure can pick 'em, lady," Sans sighed.
Propping his arms behind his head, Sans considered the endless stream of data that he had burned into his brain, his eyes growing heavy from immense weariness. Everything was as it ever was, with a glitchy time-space continuum that reset whenever the anomaly pleased. It was almost a relief if it wasn't so terrifying.
"Guess another reset is in our future," Sans muttered. "Or two… thousand."
Disturbingly, the sight had long since become 'normal' in its abnormalness. While its initial discovery been a shock, Sans had grown numb a long time ago. As inevitable as snow in Snowdin, the future was never going to proceed beyond a certain point and would loop back around to the very start. There was no future, only the endless present.
"Heh," Sans chuckled, with a humorless smile as he closed his eyes. "I don't even know what I'd do if I ever didn't see a reset coming at us." His smile widened only a fraction. "Who knows, maybe I'd get these lazy bones moving and actually do something." He let out a derisive snort, amused at his own joke. "Hah! I'll crossbones that bridge when I never come to it."
The memory of Papyrus with his neck slashed and spilling dust made Sans snap his eyes open again, though they were now empty pits of black. The sight was burned into his brain and made him sick to his stomach. Even worse, it felt familiar - like he had seen it hundreds of times before. But in those cases, Papyrus hadn't been healed. Instead, his brother crumbled to dust, leaving nothing but his scarf behind.
Sans wasn't sure if it was his fear of what could have been, a premonition of what was to come, or a memory of what had already happened in a previous timeline. In the end, it didn't matter; it was enough to chill him to his very core.
Papyrus was the only thing keeping Sans sane. If he ever lost his brother… he didn't know if he could go on.
Of course, the data informed Sans that was a real possibility, a strong possibility. In so many iterations of the timeline, Papyrus died at the human's hands… and he never stopped it.
Sans' bony hands quivered in his lap. In those other time loops, was he just careless and not there when Papyrus needed him the most, or did he just give up? That human put him on the offensive with a direct attack, kicking in his instinct to live, and Papyrus' scream made him feel a fear far worse than possibly losing his life.
Sans couldn't have just let it happen, not even once, let alone so many times. He wouldn't. The human must have always waited until he and Papyrus were separated. He just proved it.
Hadn't he?
A laugh that was almost a sob escaped Sans as he covered his eyes and felt moisture at the edges of his eye sockets. "God… this is Hell."
It was pointless to save Papyrus, and Sans knew it. It was pointless to save anyone. Everyone would just die and come back to life forever and ever. At least he wouldn't remember all those times his brother died. He wouldn't remember all the times he had failed Papyrus.
And if he didn't remember it, that was the same as it having never happened. Right?
For all his nihilism, Sans couldn't just stand still when he heard Papyrus scream. That should have been enough to comfort him, but it wasn't. The readings from the machine taunted him with countless timelines where Papyrus surely had screamed as well, but nobody came to save him.
Sans wiped the tears away from his perpetually smiling face and struggled to get his breathing under control. He had to focus and look over the data one more time. Maybe there was something he missed, some variable he hadn't accounted for. He didn't recall anything indicating the lady behind the door would leave the ruins until a timeline that promised a happy ending. Maybe Toriel's presence was a sign of hope.
But he doubted it.
A familiar warning sign and sentry station reminded Frisk of their upcoming encounter. She paused to get Toriel's attention and pointed up ahead. "That's where one of the royal guards is stationed. He can't see movement, but he likes being petted, so we can get past him without a fight if we don't move when he uses his attacks."
Toriel's ear flicked as she glanced down curiously at Frisk, then made a thoughtful noise. "That sounds like Doggo… but how do you know him?"
Frisk tried to smile, but her eyes couldn't muster enough happiness to be convincing. "I try to make friends with every monster every time I go through the underground. I remember all their names, and how to convince them to stop wanting to take my soul so I won't have to fight them."
Toriel made another thoughtful noise. "Oh, yes. You mentioned that, didn't you. About those… resets?" Tilting her head, the queen seemed to consider something before she suddenly strode straight towards the sentry station, taking Frisk firmly with her - much to the human child's surprise. "Doggo! Doggo, are you there?"
Doggo rose from within the sentry station, narrowed eyes darting about as a smouldering doggy treat hung from his mouth. "Who's calling me? I sense movement…"
"Ah, good, it is you," Toriel said, with an approving nod. "It's Toriel, Doggo. It's been quite some time since I've last seen you. Have you been well?"
Doggo went rigid and tossed away his smoking doggy treat before he gave a crisp salute to the large moving figure. "Queen Toriel! You've left the ruins? I-I never thought that'd happen in my lifetime."
"Neither did I, but things have changed," Toriel said, with wry bemusement. She paused before she glanced over the sentry booth, then furrowed her brow. "What are you doing here, Doggo?"
"I'm on the lookout for dangerous humans, Your Majesty," Doggo said, his hand still firmly locked in salute. "If one moves past here, I'm to kill them without hesitation and take their soul to King Asgore right away."
Toriel's eyebrow shot up before her expression became disapproving. She immediately thought back to what Frisk had said, and the thought that Doggo had in the past - or future, different timeline, or whatever - had caused Frisk harm made her anger return. "No, absolutely not! That is unacceptable."
Doggo blinked, a small quiver running through his body as he could feel the queen's disapproval. "B-but it's a direct order from King Asgore himself. We're just one soul away from breaking the barrier."
"Well, I am giving you a new order," Toriel said, once again with great authority. "You will stop this nonsense immediately and escort us to Snowdin."
Doggo hesitated, perspiring as his ears drooped. "B-but, the Your Majesty, what about the barrier?"
"Doggo," Toriel said, her voice becoming sharp. "I do not recall your ears having any particular problems."
Doggo jerked his back rigid and reaffirmed his salute. "Of course not, Your Majesty! Please forgive my impertinence."
Frisk felt her heart go out to Doggo and all the monsters when it came to being trapped underground. Though she was limited by Toriel's hand holding hers, she still managed to climb onto the sentry station to pet Doggo on the head. "Don't worry, we can break the barrier without anymore killing."
Doggo jerked, his eyes popping open wide. "I've been pet! By a human?!"
Toriel blinked and watched Frisk as she continued to pat Doggo on the head, much to the sentry's bewilderment. "Yes, you have. And her name is Frisk, so do not be rude."
"This… this is very unexpected," Doggo said as he stared at the barely moving shape that must have been the human.
Frisk smiled, though she knew Doggo couldn't tell. "It's nice to meet you, Doggo. Thank you for not fighting with me."
Doggo's confusion only grew, and his conflicting feelings for being petted by the human he had been ordered to kill only left him even more dumbfounded. "The… the pleasure is all mine, human, er, Frisk?"
Toriel smiled in approval. "Good, good. Now, could you please escort us to Snowdin? It's getting quite late, and I would like to get Frisk out of this cold."
Doggo tried to salute again, but his paw bumped into Frisk's hand. Unsure of how to react, he just straightened up until even his tail was pointed like an iron rod. "As you command, Your Majesty!"
With Doggo acting as escort, no other citizens made any move to start a battle with Frisk. Their guard count only grew after they encountered Lesser Dog, who may not have spoke a word, but was only too happy to accompany them on Toriel's request after she recovered from the surprise of seeing how far Lesser Dog's neck could stretch from being petted by a small human child.
Dogamy and Dogaressa's arrival was far more intimidating as they sniffed the air and stalked close with their dark executioner robes and giant axes. However, once they caught the scent of their queen, their grim hunting turned into excited running.
"Queen Toriel! You've returned!" Dogamy shouted.
"We thought there was an unusual smell," Dogaressa said. "But we never expected it to be you."
Doggo turned to his comrades and briefly saluted. "Queen Toriel has called off our orders to hunt down the human intruder and harvest their soul. You two are dismissed for the rest of the day."
"What, really?" Dogamy asked, eyes wide.
"Yes, really," Toriel said, with a satisfied nod.
Dogaressa bent down to sniff at Frisk. "Are you sure, Your Majesty? This one smells a little… off."
Toriel paused at that before she smiled, though there was a razor edge to it. "My. It seems that the royal guards have become rather… argumentative while I've been gone."
In an instant, all the gathered guard dogs went rigid with a whimper as their ears folded back.
"I-I'm sorry, Queen Toriel," Dogaressa said quickly. "We just memorized past smells of other humans from the clothes they left behind, and whenever humans came through, they were always very dangerous and attacked monsters without mercy."
"It's quite alright, I'm sure that idiot is to blame," Toriel said, smiling despite her harsh words. "He gave you such foolish orders in the first place, after all."
Daringly, Frisk reached out on tiptoes to pet Dogamy and Dogaressa each in turn. "It's okay. Dad… Asgore won't be angry with you."
Toriel paused and turned to glance at Frisk out of the corners of her eyes. Her expression became unreadable as she stared at the human child. After several moments, she returned her attention back to the dog guards and made a small thoughtful sound in the back of her throat.
"W-well, they do seem friendlier than a human is supposed to be," Dogamy said reluctantly, cheeks tinted from the petting.
"Tell me about it," Doggo muttered under his breath. "Their petting is a shock to everyone."
"I liked it," Dogaressa said before pausing for a moment. "Even if you smell weird, that was nice."
Lesser Dog barked happily, tail wagging.
Toriel's guarded expression melted away, and was instead replaced with a smile. "Humanity is no different than us. They are just as much capable of kindness and goodness as we are."
"I… suppose," Dogamy said hesitantly. "If you're vouching for them, Queen Toriel, then they must not be a threat after all."
"We haven't heard anything yet about any monsters falling down today," Dogaressa admitted. "That's different than we expected if a human reached this far from the ruins."
Frisk let out a sigh of relief, though she couldn't relax her guard yet. Chara lived for the moments when she let her guard down. "There's still someone dangerous out there. You need to warn everyone once we get to Snowdin to hide someplace safe for a while. Anyone out hunting humans is in danger!"
As the dogs grew alarmed by the news, Toriel went quiet and considered Frisk's words, thinking back to the altercation with the two skeleton brothers. While she was still upset about the way Sans had assaulted Frisk, she also couldn't deny that someone had indeed attacked his brother. If someone was actively attempting to frame Frisk to instigate her murder, the queen would just have to be that much more vigilant.
Of course, that didn't address any of Toriel's other concerns. Frisk had spoken as if she had gone through the events before them many times, both fighting the dog squad and being attacked by the monsters that populated the underground. It meant that there had been countless times where the small child had been in danger, and only managed to survive due to her ability to pacify her attackers.
Frisk didn't even carry a weapon to defend herself.
It made Torielfeel that much more disgusted - with Asgore, but mostly herself. She knew the underground was dangerous for a human, let alone a child. It had been the main reason she had tried to keep Frisk and all the other children from leaving.
But, when they proved too determined to leave, Toriel gave up and turned her back on them. One by one they left, and if Doggo's comments about the human souls meant anything, one by one they died. All while this was going on, Toriel had been hiding; hiding behind the door, she had shut her eyes and ears to what was happening - to Frisk and to the other children.
Everything before Toriel only served as a reminder, physical proof that her fears had been well-founded. The danger had been, and always was, quite real. And she had turned her back on the children, allowing them to face the danger alone. She had allowed Frisk to face the danger alone.
Was Toriel really any different from Asgore? Asgore may have ordered the children murdered, but Toriel had been the one to allow it.
At that thought, Toriel bristled and gave a mental shake to dispel it. Straightening up, she glanced down at Frisk as she reached her hand out to offer it once again to the human child.
"If that's the case, then we shouldn't dally much longer, my child," Toriel said. "We should head to Snowdin quickly."