Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale

A/n: Possibly my last earlyish night for a while ... so enjoy!

Integrity (Dark Blue)

You find the next one in the same place you found Dhriti. The moment he sees you, he jumps up and backs away, shouting, "M-M-M-MONSTER!"

Which isn't quite the reaction you were hoping for.

"Do not be alarmed, my child," you say over the noise. "I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins." You're shouting as well now. "I am here to help you!"

The human's eyes narrow in suspicion but he does, at least, stop yelling. You take a moment to examine him. He's older than Chara but younger than Rhisiart – you're not sure of his exact age though when he yelled, his voice cracked a little – with black hair, narrow eyes and a narrow face. His skin is darker than Dhriti's was, but his face has the same determined set that Rhisiart's did. In his hands, he holds a pair of ballet shoes and a pink tutu and you're glad that you can't find a comparison here to the other children.

"Where is she?"

"Where is who?"

"My sister." Seeing your confusion, he takes a step forwards, anger filling that narrow face to the point that his teeth are almost bared. "She was up there on the mountain so where is she?"

You hold your paws up. "My child, you are the first human to fall here for a few years. I check this location every day – she is not here. I would have seen her if she had fallen."

He looks at you, the anger barely contained in his eyes as his nostrils flare. You can almost feel the weight of your sins – both imagined and real – crawling on your back.

"Fine." He looks around, his expression almost calm but the tension in his muscles and twitch in his fingers giving him away. "How do I get out then?"

"Out?"

"Outside. I have to find Sabah." He glances down at the items in his hands, and you can't help noticing that they are muddy. "She ran up the mountain. So if she's not here, she's got to be out there."

"She ran up the mountain?" You frown. "Forgive me, my child. I had understood that the nearest human settlement to the mountain-"

"She ran from Mom's car. I know she was up here because I found her ballet stuff." Now desperation seeps into his eyes. "You have to tell me: how do I get out?"

You don't know how to tell him that if he is here and she is still up there, she will likely die before he makes his way out. If he makes his way out.

If.

You don't know if you can let another human child die. It's already hard enough to keep from thinking of-

"Follow me," you say. "I will take you to my home and we can talk there."

"I need to-"

"The only way out is through my home," you say firmly and he shuts up. That's the wrong way to think of it. He quietens down. You shouldn't be too harsh on him simply because he isn't acting as pleasantly as- "You are determined to go back?"

He nods. "Let no man go back on his word lest he be cast into shadow." As you stare at him, wondering where that came from, he says, "I said I'd get her back and I will."

You nearly say And nothing I can say will change your mind? but you doubt his reaction will be pleasant. Nonetheless, Dhriti couldn't have been outside for more than ten minutes before Asgore found her and killed her – you can't just let him go out there, unprepared. If you simply left the Ruins, you could…

But no. You made a promise. You will not be the one to divide the Underground. You will not be there for Asgore to convince, or even to provide him with justification. But there is something you could do, in case you can't keep him here.

You turn to him. "My child, I must go on ahead to fix something. Please stay here. If I have not returned in five minutes, you should start to make your way east." As his eyes widen, you add, "I should warn you that down here, you may encounter other monsters. You may need to defend yourself but … there is no need to resort to violence."

"Even if they attack me first?"

"Talk to them," you say, heart pounding at what you're starting here. "Just talk to them. They will not want to fight if they know you don't."

He considers this. "If they want to fight, I will fight them for he who strikes first knows he lays down his honour and his life. But if they do not want to fight at all then I won't. It is only fair."

You don't like the sound of that. "It is no small thing to take a life, my child."

"I…" His fingers are curled tightly into the muddy tutu he carries; you can see his knuckles whiten. "A … a man's integrity is his guide for without integrity, you are lost. And there is honour in killing, if killing is done in honour." He sounds as though he's trying to convince himself of something and you realise he's quoting someone. "I have to find my sister. That is the most important thing right now. If I have to k-kill then, then, then so be it. I'll do it. I'll do anything if it means I save her." He pauses and then, bizarrely, puts the tutu on. "I won't take this off until I can give it to Sabah," he declares in the bold way that only a child can do without it sounding embarrassing. "If my actions mean I lose my integrity then this will catch me – it'll remind me of what I'm doing and why." He smiles then, the first smile he's worn since you've met him. It lights up his face. "Thank you for warning me, Toriel. I will wait for you here."

You're suddenly not sure you should leave him but you can't exactly change your mind now. So you walk for about five minutes and wait anxiously, pretending to be collecting something or other. As you wait, your heart is pounding. He's just a child. He's just a child and you're making him fight his way through the Ruins. What kind of monster are you?

Your relief, when he emerges into the room, panting, is almost tangible. But when you turn, you see human blood on his face and dust on the ballet shoes which he has slotted over his hands and your heart sinks.

He looks at those shoes. "I tried," he says. "But some of them…" He trails off. "Sabah. I have to find Sabah."

You nod. "I am sorry, my child. I was-"

"It was a test, wasn't it?" he says. You blink. "You wanted to know if I'm a monster too."

You try not to be hurt by that. "It was a test," you say, "but I was testing something else."

He nods. "Did I pass?"

"Yes."

"What would have happened if I hadn't?"

"If I could not return to you quickly enough then … you would not have made it here," you say because he deserves honesty. As his eyes widen, you say, "To return to the surface, you would have to pass through the remainder of the Underground, where I have little sway over the inhabitants. Some will try to capture or kill you – and if you are caught, Asgore will kill you instead. You … you are the third human to pass through here since it was decreed that all humans would be killed. The other two … they did not … survive."

He's quiet for a few seconds. Then he says, "I'm sorry."

You frown. "Whatever for, my child?"

"Your loss." As you blink in surprise, he says, "You loved the other humans, didn't you? You don't need to act strong in front of me. The man who weeps for his loss is the man who knows true strength after all."

A lump fills your throat and, somehow, you can't speak. You can see, in your mind's eye, golden flowers, striped shirts, leaves and a toy knife, a picture of a monster and a boy, and a gentle voice teasing you about your excitement for your pregnancy. But you can't let yourself think of that now. It's over. They're gone.

He nods even though you haven't said anything. "I'm sorry for calling you a monster, Toriel. It was wrong of me."

You find your voice again. "That is what we are called," you say, keeping your voice even. And that is what some of us are, you think.

"A cruel name is no name at all," he says and now you really want to know who or what he's quoting. "Maybe I should call you Undergrounders. That seems more fitting for people like you." He suddenly grins a crooked grin, giving him an air of playfulness. "Though it also sounds stupid, doesn't it? I'll think about it."

You smile. You don't know what it is about humans. Whenever you think that maybe you're wrong and everyone else is right, they prove you right. You extend a paw and, after removing one ballet shoe to clutch in his other hand, he takes it and gives it a friendly squeeze. He might be younger than Rhisiart but you think, deep down, he may have an older soul.

You heal his wounds back at your house and he thanks you for it. After that, you let him have a nap while you make food and think about what he said, about how going back on your word casts you into shadow. You tell yourself that if he leaves, you aren't going back on your word: you only promised to protect the humans insofar as you could. Your soul is still white. Monster souls are always white. You tell yourself that all through cooking but at the back of your mind, you can't help feeling that your soul can't handle another death and you find yourself trying to think of something, anything, to say to the human that will convince him not to leave when you open the door to that room to call him to dinner. You don't even open your mouth – he jerks awake immediately, slots his feet into the ballet shoes rather than his normal shoes and follows you to the sitting room. You can't help noticing that he slept in the tutu.

He eats so quickly that you have to warn him about indigestion, which makes him laugh. You like that sound from him – it's warm and friendly and caring. You have the feeling he doesn't laugh a lot. But then, he stands, his plate completely empty.

"Thanks, Toriel. Let me know where I should put this and then I'll leave."

"You will not even stay the night?"

He shakes his head. "I have to get to Sabah as quickly as I can." He hesitates. "You could co-"

"No," you say, a little too harshly. "No," you say again. "Those of us down here … it would take too much for us to leave." You hesitate. "I cannot just let you leave. The dangers out there-"

His face screws up. "Please don't make me fight you or sneak around you," he says. "I will do it. I have to get my sister."

"My child…"

"I won't say you didn't warn me. I know it's dangerous. But I'm going, one way or the other." He smiles again. "I hope you don't mind, I've left my shoes here. Sabah and I learned ballet together. I think these will … they'll keep me focused: they're not too painful. I, uh, I didn't have much money but I left you some-"

"Do not be silly, young one," you say as your heart sinks at the realisation that you will not keep him here. He is far too determined. And something tells you that if you try, he will fight you and you don't want to know which one of you would win. "You don't need to give me anything."

"I have to repay you somehow. So please, take it." He looks around. "Anyway, how do I get out?"

You don't know what to do. You want to argue against him and stop him from leaving for his own good but you can still remember that barely contained anger on his face and his careful consideration of killing monsters. You don't know that you could keep him here – or even that you should, given the danger his sister is in. So, reluctantly, you take him downstairs, asking again if he's sure he doesn't want to stay a little longer even though you know he won't. At the door to the Ruins, he turns to you and says, "I forgot to give you my name, didn't I? It's Salaamat." He inclines his head slightly. "Anyway, I'll head out from here. Thank you for looking out for me and for letting me stay with you, Toriel, and may blessings be upon your home, always."

And then he's gone before you can so much as say goodbye, leaving only a pair of black shoes and six coins behind.

You hear a few days later that he made it as far as Waterfall before Asgore found him. Much like Rhisiart, Salaamat killed monsters on his way – more than Rhisiart because Rhisiart tried to befriend those he met whereas Salaamat had some kind of belief that the only ones who deserved peace were those who never fought, and you suspect that most, if not all, of the monsters he killed tried to fight him first.

But you hear other things too.

You hear that when Asgore found him, his soldiers surrounded him as well. He stumbled and fell, losing his shoes, before he picked himself up and faced the King.

You hear that, barefoot, he stood tall among the pebbles that littered the floor, small cuts peppering his face and said the Undergrounders weren't monsters and nor was he.

You hear that as the soldiers tightened their circle around him, he said he needed to find his sister and was met with silence.

You hear that when the King lunged for him, he fought back strong and hard and when he died, he called Asgore a murderer.

You hear that a couple of monsters quit the Royal Guard after he died, saying they couldn't deal with that sort of thing.

You hear that his soul was blue, deep blue, and you think that suits him somehow, in the same way that light blue suited Dhriti and orange suited Rhisiart.

But for all the things you hear and all the speculation you listen to, you never do find out what happened to his sister.