Chapter Text
Asriel collapsed to both knees in a bed of golden flowers. His body was pierced by dozens of cruel barbs that dug into his flesh. Horrible, angry screams assaulted him from every side. Each labored breath was agony; even lifting his head to look at the buildings around him was painful. Yet somehow his eyes found their way toward the mountain that loomed in the distance, as if drawn by an irresistible force.
Why was he here? Why hadn’t he just stayed in the mountain? It had always been safe there. No pain, no grief, just the people he loved, and who loved him back. Who were they, again? He only remembered Chara, and she was gone now; taken by the fate she carved for them both.
Mount Ebott, his home, shifted and changed before his eyes. Stone warped into flesh and perverse organs. Foothills and roads became veins that pulsed in rhythm with a maddening, beating heart.
The weight of the ancient’s will crashed against his soul like a tidal wave against weak, crumbling rock. Asriel cried out in agony as an unknowable pain tore through him, again and again and again. The torment was ceaseless; it shifted like the tides, offering tantalizing moments of relief only to snatch them away when he let down his guard. He couldn’t remember anything. Family, friends… all seemed like hazey daydreams in that realm of madness. That life was someone else’s. He had always been here, with it; and to it, he would return.
Asriel Dreemur was dead. If he accepted that fact, it would end. The pain would stop. He would be free. He could have Chara back again.
A loud, distant voice cut through the torture that drowned his senses. It urged him to go on, promising in an angry, sorrowful cry that he’d be sore for weeks if he dared to give in.
He cracked open his maw, gasping for breath as the thorns dug ever deeper into his flesh. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he grit his teeth and forced himself up on one knee.
She wouldn’t have bowed before this thing. Asriel was certain that somewhere, somehow, She was watching him. He couldn’t give in. Wouldn’t give in. Not after all he’d been through.
He rose to his feet; a simple but powerful act of defiance against the being that ruled this place. The thing assaulted him again with a fury born of indignation at his obstinacy, forcing him back to his knees. It bellowed in a thousand loud whispers, trying to drown out her voice. Over and over again it hissed its maddening mantra.
Return to us!
Asriel lifted his head. A jet black vine erupted out of the ground before him, covered in golden flowers and tipped with a thorn shaped like an arrowhead. It coiled back and then sprung towards him like a viper. He shut his eyes and raised his arms to shield his face, bracing himself for the imminent feeling of...
...A tiny fist bonking him on the head, right in between the nubs where his horns were growing in. Asriel’s eyes shot open.
“Owwww!” He whined, rubbing his head with one paw. It hadn't really hurt, but he wanted maximum sympathy from his sisters.
“Sorry, Azzy!”
Asriel looked up from the living room rug and over at Frisk, who was sitting beside him. She was six years old, one younger than him, but the way she “bullied” him made her seem older sometimes.
“I just needed to know if you were still paying attention.” She said. “I’m all ready to start.”
He really was excited to watch his little sister’s story play out, but the white floral pattern on the velvet rug had entranced him while waiting for her to set it up.
“I was trying to guess what’s gonna happen next.” Asriel explained. “I’ve been waiting for a week to see what happens to the knight and I really hope she gets a happy ending…”
“Then pay attention if you’re so interested, silly!”
Clack!
The clashing of two plastic swords heralded the beginning of the duel between Frisk’s two action figures, “Dame Knight” and “Samurai San”. Asriel lay on his belly and watched the performance with his head propped in both paws, his blue eyes wide and enraptured. The little adventures Frisk made up never failed to capture his imagination.
His eyes grew wider when Frisk made the samurai strike the knight’s leg with his foot. The “blow” nearly brought the knight down, but Frisk kept it upright and had it parry the samurai’s katana with its sword.
Chara, meanwhile, had her nose in a voluminous tome titled “The Princess” that was too complicated for Asriel and not enough of a page turner for Frisk. Despite her apparent lack of interest, the occasional snarky riff from Chara assured Frisk and Asriel that she was still listening and she even paid the toys a brief glance at times.
Frisk made the blades of the two action figures clash at speeds that dizzied Asriel, complete with grunting noises for each combatant. He was desperately rooting for the knight now, and prayed that Frisk wouldn’t let him down.
Most would not assume that Asriel’s playmates were also family. For starters, they were both humans. Each was fair-skinned with a mop of short brown hair atop their heads. Chara, the smaller and fairer of the two, had distinct rosy cheeks accentuating her near perpetual smile, while Frisk had an inscrutable squint that belied her friendly disposition. Asriel, on the other hand, was a four foot tall boss monster with white fur covering his body, a short snout, large goat-like ears, a fluffy stub of a tail, and a pair of tiny nubs on the top of his head where his horns were growing in.
In a stunning move, Frisk slammed the broadsword of her knight figure into the samurai figure’s katana, sending it flying out of the toy’s hand and into the thick living room rug blade-first.
“Impossible!” Frisk yelled in her vaguely-accented Samurai impression. “You beat me again!”
She made the samurai kneel down before the knight as best she could with its stiff plastic joints.
“...and now you must strike me down.” She continued in the same exaggerated tone.
It was the knight’s turn to speak. Asriel waited with bated breath.
Frisk put on a regal, feminine voice like that of a queen. “No, I will not. You were strong and brave and we both fight demons, so let’s be friends instead.”
“Seriously?” Chara interrupted, looking up from her book. “They were just trying to kill each other a minute ago and now the knight’s trying to be his friend? That’s silly.”
“Nuh uh!” Frisk objected, sounding like herself at last. “The samurai’s not a bad guy, he just wanted to be the best. The knight doesn’t have to kill him, so why should she?”
“Right, sure.” Sighed Chara. “And then as they’re walking off into the sunset he stabs her in the back!”
Frisk groaned in exasperation. “No, Charaaaa... This isn’t one of your stories....”
Hoping to distract his sisters from arguing, Asriel voiced one of the random, unrelated questions that had popped into his head during Frisk’s story:
“I agree, Frisk, but how do you know the knight’s a girl?” He tapped the helmeted action figure with one fluffy finger. “I don’t remember any girl knights in the old storybooks…”
“You don’t know she isn’t!” Frisk replied, the indignation clear in her voice. “And besides, there was that one story about a girl who pretended to be a boy so she could join the army.”
“Children!” Called their mother from an adjacent room. “I know you all are having fun but I need to talk to you.”
Their mother’s voice, kind but firm, made the three siblings focus on the doorway behind them.
Suffice it to say, Chara and Frisk were not relatives by blood. Toriel, Asriel’s mother and queen of the underground, stood at an imposing seven feet tall and had the same sort of fur as her son. Her horns were barely any longer than his, essentially nubs compared to the fully grown horns that a male of her species would possess, but they complemented her comforting and maternal figure. She was as loving as any of the children could want from a mother, even if her concern for their well being was stifling during their more adventurous moods.
“What is it, mom?” Asriel asked, fixing his bright blue eyes on her with a burning curiosity. Her tone made it clear that something important was going on but that nobody was in trouble, which was good because it meant she hadn't yet noticed the missing chocolates he had helped Chara stash under her bed.
“We are going to have a visitor soon. She… might be staying with us for a while.”
“Are we adopting another human?” Frisk asked with a smile. “Poor Azzy’s going to have more siblings than he can count on his paws.”
“She will just be our guest for a while. Of course, if she asks to stay with us your father and I are hardly going to say no. And she isn’t a human, she’s a monster like your brother.”
Asriel was just about jumping in his seat. Meeting new people was always fun, despite how difficult or awkward introductions could be for him.
“What’s her name? And what’s she like?”
“Slow down, Azzy,” Said Chara with her ever-present stoicness. “You’ll get hiccups.”
“You shall find all of that out by talking to her, my child. But she has been through difficult times recently and might be a bit shy. Just do not pry and try to give her space if she wants to be alone, understood?”
“When’s she getting here?” Asked Chara.
“I do not know for sure. Your father is still working some things out but he will bring her home as soon as he is able. It might be after you have all gone to bed but I thought I should let you all know nonetheless.”
“Thanks, mom! I can’t wait to meet her!” Asriel’s tail wagged in excitement as their mother returned to the kitchen to finish dinner preparations.
“She might not even be staying here longer than a day.” Chara remarked once their mother was out of hearing range. “I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”
“No harm in a little hope.” Frisk replied with cheer. “Azzy’s gonna be excited no matter what you say.”
She wasn’t wrong. Asriel wasn’t bored of his sisters, but he already found himself interested in this new person, especially with the mystery behind her reasons for staying with them.
“I mean… It’s all really neat sounding.” He murmured.
“I’m curious too.” Said Chara. “Just feel like we might not get answers.”
“What answers are those?” Asked Frisk.
Being the one with the most questions on his mind, Asriel answered first. “Why she’s coming to live with us I guess. That and all the other stuff you gotta know about a friend.”
The three siblings went on to discuss the newcomer at length. They speculated about who she was, what she’d be like, as well as idle chatter about menial things such as how it would be nice to have a use for that fourth controller on the game console. Chara seemed the least curious about their new roommate but was far from disinterested, even if her concerns were more about whether a fourth kid in the household would cut into her share of desserts.
Dinner and the hours after it passed, and their father still hadn’t returned. Baths were being drawn before they knew it, marking the beginning of their bedtime routine. It seemed as if they would have to wait until the next day to meet the mysterious stranger.
Soon, Asriel forgot his anxiety about making a good first impression as it came to the time for his nightly duties as a brother. Both Frisk and Chara possessed an acute fear of the dark that, while not totally out of the ordinary at their ages, made it impossible for them to sleep without third-party assistance. Their mother was weary at this hour, so Asriel took it upon himself to ensure his siblings got a good night’s rest by staying in their room and reading to them until they fell asleep.
According to his sisters, Asriel’s voice had a soothing quality to it which distracted them from their fears with fictional worlds and peoples from their books. Every day he sought, with all the vim and vigor a child his age could, new stories to entertain his beloved sisters with; from tales of brave knights vanquishing evil monsters to witty detectives outsmarting vicious crooks, Asriel read them all. Incidentally, this made him rather good at reading for someone his age.
When their eyes drifted shut, Asriel would turn off the lamp he used to read by and return to his room to get some sleep himself. All the reading he did for his sisters tired him out, and that night was no different. His eyes shut moments after his head hit the pillow.
It would have been a peaceful sleep, but mere hours later he returned to the waking world, called by Chara’s voice.
“Azzy, wake up!”
The loud whisper was accompanied by a pair of small human hands shaking Asriel awake. He opened his eyes and, after a few moments spent adjusting to the dark, saw Frisk and Chara standing by his bedside.
“W-what is it?” He grumbled as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time they had woken him up like this, so he figured it must be important.
“The new girl’s here.” Whispered Frisk. “In the spare room next to ours.”
“Then shouldn’t she be sleeping?”
“She’s not.” Said Chara. “She’s making a lot of noise.”
“Oookayyy… Should we go get mom and dad?”
“Are you kidding?” Frisk scoffed. “Remember what happened last time we woke mom up at this hour? You gotta quiet her down!”
Asriel got out of bed with no small amount of trepidation. If he had rehearsed what he was going to say to the new person he didn’t remember.
“B-but I-”
“No buts.” Chara interrupted. “You’ll do fine, Azzy. Now come along.”
With a heavy sigh, Asriel followed his sisters out of his bedroom and over to the door adjacent to his sisters’ room. Loud footsteps and the sound of something heavy crashing to the floor came from inside, making Asriel wonder how their parents hadn't woken up yet.
“You hear our problem.” Mused Chara. “Go in there and quiet her down.”
“How?”
Chara shrugged. “I dunno. Talk, beg, read to her like you read to us if you need to. Whatever gets her to go to bed.”
“If you need help, just give me a call once it’s safe.” Frisk said.
“That doesn’t make me feel any better…”
“Oh, just do it, Azzy!” Chara hissed. She opened the door just enough to shove Asriel inside and before he knew what was happening, Chara had shut it behind him.
The room’s lights were on, allowing Asriel a clear view of his surroundings. A bureau sat against the left wall with all its drawers lying scattered about the floor. Next to the bureau was a wide open door leading to a small empty closet. The large, floral patterned rug in the center of the room was rolled up, revealing that some of the floorboards had been pulled up before being clumsily replaced.
More striking than the room’s chaotic state was the monster who stood in front of the bed, holding one end up with a single hand and peering beneath. The stranger stood at an impressive height for a young monster, four feet and eight inches compared to Asriel’s four foot one. She wore a simple black t-shirt and blue jeans and had a head of fiery red hair tied in a ponytail. In lieu of skin or fur the young girl possessed blue scales like those of a fish and had a pair of gills on her neck as well as fins where her ears would be.
After a few moments of standing there with a stunned expression, Asriel mustered up the nerve to speak.
“Howdy!” Asriel squeaked, sounding more nervous than he intended to.
The girl’s head snapped towards him, fixing her intense yellow eyes on his blue ones. Her appraising stare gave him a look at the crooked, tiny twin fangs that were visible even with her mouth closed.
“I-I’m Asriel.” He stammered. “What’s your name?”
She stared at him in silence for a few moments, which was more than enough to make him lose his nerve and break eye contact before she spoke. Her voice was surprisingly deep and scratchy for a girl.
“Undyne.” She released the bed and let it drop back to the floor with a loud crash. “My name’s Undyne.”
Asriel was heartened by the fact that she was willing to share her name with him. It was a good first start and, he hoped, a sign that things would only get better from there.
“Nice to meet you, Undyne!” He said, putting on his best smile. “Is there something wrong with your room? I’m sure I could get my dad to find you a new one or get rid of any problems. He’s the king, so he can fix anything!”
“It’s fine. I was just checking it.”
“Checking it for what?”
“Nothing.”
Asriel’s smile dropped despite his best efforts.
“Oh. Well, as long as you like the room I guess it’s okay. Mom will probably want you to clean it up though. I can help with that-”
“Don’t. I can clean up my own messes.”
“But what if I want to?”
“I can do it myself! I don’t need help.”
“Well, If you change your mind-”
“I won’t.”
Her insistent tone made Asriel struggle to find more words. She seemed like a good person but he could tell something was bothering her, probably the stuff his mother had told him not to pry about. Nevertheless, he wanted to know. Chara was bothered by an awful lot of things when she had first arrived. Frisk too. In the end they had both just needed his support and love. Maybe it would work here too.
“So… how old are you?” He asked.
“Ten.” Undyne answered.
“Years or months?”
Undyne sighed in exasperation. “Days, obviously.”
“Golly, you’re really tall for being a baby.”
The only thing Asriel’s comment earned from Undyne was an annoyed groan.
“I’m sorry for the noise. I’ll go to bed now.”
“Are you gonna be able to? You seem kind of worried about something.”
“Sleeping isn’t hard, dummy!” Undyne growled, sounding indignant at his suggestion. “I’ll just close my eyes and stop being awake.”
“It’s not that easy for my sisters. Maybe I could help with that though! They say it’s a lot easier to sleep when I read to them, so-”
“I said I was going to bed!” Undyne snapped, the intensity of her voice making Asriel flinch. “Just leave me alone already, will you?”
“Sorry, sorry!” He yelped. “I’ll go now. H-have a good night!”
Undyne regarded him with a cold stare as he backed towards the door. Clearly she wanted to be left alone, but Asriel couldn’t for the life of him understand why. Most people had a reason for wanting to be by themselves. With Chara it was usually because she was sad, and even then Asriel’s presence had always helped. Whatever Undyne’s problem was, he’d have to find out later.
He made a hasty exit, breathing a sigh of relief as the door closed behind him.
“Well, that sounded fun.” Chara quipped.
“She’s probably tired.” Frisk mused. “Don’t take it too hard, Azzy. We'll see how she is in the morning.”
“R-right…” Asriel mumbled, still trying to figure out if he had said something wrong or offensive during his brief exchange with Undyne. “So, will you two need my help again or…”
“We’ll be fine.” Frisk said with a smile. “You should get back to bed. Chara and I can manage.”
Chara nodded. “Yeah. We woke you up so it’s only fair we let you get back to sleep now.”
Asriel bade his siblings goodnight and retreated to the comfort of his room. There he found himself replaying his brief chat with Undyne over and over again in his mind as he tried to sleep. For the life of him, he could not figure out what he might have been able to do better, or what he would do in the morning. Nevertheless, his curiosity remained along with his desire to ease whatever pain she was going through. For now though, all he could do was sleep.
He awoke once more, almost before he knew it. Getting out from his comfortable nest of blankets was hard; being roused in the middle of the night had left him groggy and disoriented. Still, he had important things to do today, so he dragged himself out of bed and swapped his pajamas out for a green striped shirt and comfortable sweatpants before heading out into the hall.
The door to his sister’s room was wide open; not unusual considering they always woke up before he did. The tantalizing smell of breakfast drew him to the stairs and as he descended he began to hear unintelligible snippets of conversation from the kitchen. It sounded like Frisk was blathering to someone with their parents chiming in at times. It wasn’t until he was nearly at the bottom that Asriel could tell Frisk was talking to Undyne.
He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but judging by the tones of their voices they were getting along quite well. This was unsurprising; Frisk could be friends with anyone in the whole world if she put her mind to it. Hopefully she could smooth out whatever mistake Asriel had made when speaking with Undyne last night, and then he could be her friend too. She seemed like she needed one or two, maybe even three or four.
The idle chatter ceased when Asriel strode into the kitchen with a yawn. His parents and sisters were seated at the round table that took up a portion of the spacious kitchen, already well into breakfast. Undyne was standing by the door to the living room with a backpack slung over her shoulder and an impatient look on her face.
Asriel’s parents and Frisk gave him a warm good morning, while Chara gave him a nod of acknowledgement that Asriel had come to understand was her version of a greeting.
“Good morning!” Asriel replied with gusto as he waved to Undyne.
Much to his dismay, she only replied with a gruff, “Morning.”
He decided not to let this dissuade him from trying to talk to her. She was probably just sleepy.
“W-What’s the backpack for?”
Immediately, she looked at the floor and shuffled awkwardly in place. A moment of silence passed before Toriel spoke up.
“She will not be staying here, my child. Sir Gerson is on his way to come pick her up even as we speak.”
The news stung, and Asriel started to wonder just how badly he had messed up during their first conversation.
“But why?” He bleated.
“Her reasons are her own.” Asgore stated in a stern but comforting manner. “We shall respect them and wish her the best.”
“Besides,” Frisk interjected. “It’s not as if we won't see her again. She’ll still be living in the underground, just not with us. She and I already figured how we’ll be keeping in touch and where and when we’ll meet to play, so everything’s fine!”
Asriel was still confused by her departure, but Frisk’s words put him somewhat at ease. “O-Okay… Well, it was great to meet you, Undyne! I hope we’ll see each other again soon!”
Still Undyne couldn’t seem to look him in the eyes, nor could she muster a response. Thankfully, before the silence became awkward, there was a loud knocking at the door in the living room.
“I’ll get it!” Asriel offered, running past Undyne and getting his paw on the doorknob before anyone else could rise from the table.
Gerson, the strongest monster in the underground, stood behind the door. He was a two-legged, turtle-like creature who was only half as tall as Asriel’s father. His height did nothing to diminish his stature though, and everyone knew him as a brave and noble hero: “The Hammer of Justice.” Though, now that Asriel thought about it, he really wasn’t sure exactly what sort of adventures had earned Gerson his title.
“Heya, sonny!” Gerson exclaimed with a smile upon seeing Asriel. “Your sisters haven’t given you any grey fur yet, I see!”
“Nope! They’re still just as great as ever, Mister Gerson!”
“Welp, you aren’t gettin’ another from the sounds of it. Now where’s my young charge?”
Undyne walked over to the door with Asgore and Frisk close behind her. The king’s ever-present smile widened upon seeing Gerson, an old friend of his.
“Howdy, old boy.” Asgore said with a friendly wave. “Got yourself a good night’s rest before dropping by, I hope.”
“Enough to handle the little tyke there.” Gerson cocked his head in Undyne’s direction. “‘Aven’t had a wee lad or lass of my own, so this’ll be an adventure of a new kind for me.”
Undyne comically straightened her posture as if standing at attention and cleared her throat.
“I’m not getting adopted! I’m going to be your squire.”
Her words were spoken with startling certainty for one her age. Even Gerson seemed taken aback.
“Ah… well hows about we talk about that once I’ve got ye all settled in, eh? I don’t think ye know what yer askin’ for, lassie.”
“Believe me, sir. I know EXACTLY what I’m asking for.”
Asriel looked between his father, Undyne, Frisk, and Gerson. The two adults seemed rather uncomfortable but Frisk was as cheery-looking as ever.
“She can do it, Mister Gerson!” Chirped Frisk. “I might only have gotten to talk with her for a few hours this morning, but I think that someday she’ll be a great hero like you!”
Asriel caught Undyne giving Frisk a faint but appreciative smile, one which vanished when she noticed him looking.
“Gerson will do as he thinks is best.” Said Asgore. “For both her and the realm.”
“Aye, but I need to get to know the lass first. Are ya ready to go?”
Undyne nodded and walked past Asriel to Gerson’s side as Toriel left the kitchen to join the group.
“Thank you.” Undyne said to the Dreemurr family. “If there’s ever anything I can do to pay you back…”
“Don’t worry about it.” Frisk replied. “You’re our friend now!”
Asriel smiled despite how disappointed he was by Undyne’s departure.
“And we’re still here for you if you need us!” He told Undyne. “Like good friends should be!”
Again she tried and failed to look him in the eye.
“T-Thanks. I… guess I’ll see you around.”
“We will see you again.” Asgore assured her. “It was a pleasure for all of us to make your acquaintance, and we all look forward to being your friends in the years to come.”
Undyne nodded and departed with Gerson, respectfully closing the door behind her. The conversation had put hundreds of questions in Asriel’s young mind, and he chose to voice the biggest of them all as he sat down for breakfast.
“Dad, what does being Gerson’s squire actually mean?”
Immediately, his parents looked troubled, more so than Asriel had ever seen them.
“Well…” His mother began hesitantly. “That is a very complicated question, my child. Perhaps we will speak of it when you are older.”
Asgore nodded in assent. “She’s right, son. You will come to understand in time.”