Chapter Text
Toriel sighed, wistfully. Standing here, on the surface, breathing in the fresh air in a way that hadn't been possible for centuries…
The light and warmth of the setting sun caused all her fears and all her concerns to melt away. Behind her, the cavern that housed the ornate stone archway connected to the Underground's palace garden seemed smaller and more insignificant than it had ever been. In this moment, she was filled with unconditional hope for the future.
The queen of all monsters knew, of course, that things wouldn't be quite so simple. Fifteen thousand monsters were no longer trapped, per se, but the last thing anyone wanted or needed was for the sum total of all monster kind to descend on the nearest human settlement. Something like that could only be seen as an act of aggression, even when all they'd want to do is find a permanent home amongst humanity.
They'd need to negotiate with whoever or whatever constituted the ruling powers of this nation to secure sovereign territory surrounding the mountain before they could even consider co-location – and before they could do that, they'd need to learn more about the state of the world. You couldn't negotiate with groups you didn't even know of, after all. Certainly, though, these processes would take time.
In spite of this, she couldn't rightly ask her subjects for 'patience.' Not when the vast majority of them had never even seen the sun in all their lives, not when the freedom they'd been long denied was finally attainable. No, they had just as much of a right to this as she did. Even if for now, they could only go so far as the mountain itself and the forest that seemed to surround it, she would make sure that each and every monster had the choice to come up to the surface. Whatever human government happened to be in charge had no right to claim any part of this mountain, in any case.
Yes, there was much work to be done, Toriel thought to herself. Many plans to be made. And yet…
As she watched the collection of monsters that had accompanied her to the surface scatter across the mountain, spurred on by Papyrus declaring that he was off to make 'a great first impression,' she decided that planning could wait for now. At least for today, they could all just bask in their accomplishment, bathed in the light of the setting sun. Forming a plan and executing on it could wait for at least a few more hours.
Unbidden, her gaze turned to the only human present for miles. A tiny child, who couldn't have been more than twelve years old, who had been shouldered with an impossible burden and had somehow gone on to nearly-singlehandedly save all of monsterkind.
Frisk. Her heart ached for this child, and for the memories of her two children that she had lost so long ago. She knew, and she was somehow certain that they knew as well, of the legend surrounding this mountain. She'd learned it from one of the other humans that had fallen down, that she had cared for for a time.
Those who climb Mount Ebott never return.
What could have possibly caused such an innocent, pure-hearted, selfless child as Frisk to feel compelled to climb a mountain like that?
Toriel wasn't sure she really wanted to know. If Frisk ever felt the need to tell her, she would be happy to listen – but she wouldn't ask them. No. All she really needed to know was…
“Frisk… You came from this world, right…? So you must have a place to return to, do you not? What will you do now?”
The way that they shook their head no, as the words “I want to stay with you” escaped their lips, threatened to break Toriel's heart in half.
But she couldn't let them see that, so she chose to smile instead.
“Frisk... you really are a funny child. If you had said that earlier, none of this would have happened. It is a good thing you took so long to change your mind. Hee hee hee. Well... I suppose. If you really do not have any other place to go... I will do my best to take care of you, for as long as you need. All right?”
She offered Frisk her paw, smiling once more as they took hold of it, and fighting back the urge to cry or curse whoever had damaged this child so as she pretended not to hear them when they whispered 'okay, Mom' under their breath. No child should have latched on to a member of an entirely different species so readily.
Still… the thought of being a mother again…
“Now, come along.” Slowly, she led Frisk away from the cavern, and down the path that Papyrus and the others had run off on. There was much to be done, for both the monster kingdom, and for this child that had quite literally fallen into her life and made themselves comfortably at home in it.
This was fine. Everything was going to be alright.
~ ~ ~
It was clear from the state of the mountain's surface that, eight fallen humans notwithstanding, the legends surrounding Mount Ebott had been an effective deterrent. The many and varied plants adorning the mountainside had been allowed to grow unchecked for centuries, and whatever path that might have once lead to the Underground's only exit had been long since worn away by time. In its place, natural ridges and cuts in the mountain's side formed a harsh, winding, and narrow path down the side of the mountain, overgrown with the trees and brush that seemed to be abundant in this part of the surface. To say nothing of the sort of challenge that Frisk must have faced scaling this mountain, simply getting down would've proven to have been a difficult trial…
...were it not for the fact that as monsters, magic came to them as easily as breathing. As it stood, Toriel idly noted the precise moment in their journey down that Asgore had apparently given up on trying to be subtle and had instead simply begun burning down anything that had been in his way, for that had been the point that Toriel was able to stop utilizing her own fire magic to blaze a trail for herself and Frisk, relying instead on simply following in Asgore's wake.
It hadn't taken long at all after that moment to catch up with the rest of the group of monsters, helped no doubt by how exhausted Asgore appeared to be when Toriel did finally catch up.
“Oh my. This mountain is certainly a treacherous climb. Perhaps it would be better if we came up with a plan, instead of simply rushing headlong down it and hoping for the best?”
“YOUR MAJESTY!” Papyrus called out in response. “ACTUALLY, THE KING HAD DECIDED MUCH THE SAME THING! MY GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION WILL JUST HAVE TO WAIT.”
Toriel smiled, in spite of herself. For a moment, she'd been worried that she might have had to actually convince the others to slow down and think things through.
“For now, let us return to the gateway. We can watch the rest of the sunset, and then determine our next moves. Does everyone agree?”
Everyone else was quick to agree with this. Fortunately, they hadn't gotten terribly far away from the cavern that they had emerged from, and it was a relatively short walk back. As it turned out, the sunset was every bit as beautiful no matter which angle you approached it from. She watched, silently, as the setting sun slowly fell beneath the horizon. How poetic. This would be the final time the sun set on the world as it was before. The long war was at last over, and tomorrow, the sun would rise on an era of peace and prosperity for both monsters and humanity.
The queen tore her eyes away from the picturesque scenery long enough to glance down at Frisk, who had yet to let go of her paw. She didn't mind. The child – her child, if they would have her – seemed to be radiating with happiness and contentment. As it should be. The only reason Toriel was here at all, the only reason any monster was breathing in surface air right now, was because of Frisk. All of monster kind now owed them a debt that could never be repaid. Ensuring that their life from this point forward was a good one, no matter what had befallen them before… it was the absolute least that she could do.
Finally, the last light from the setting sun faded beneath the horizon. It was time to get to work.
“Now, then. We have a lot to do, and very little time to do it in. The next few hours will be critical, and it is just as critical that we all have a clear understanding of our responsibilities.”
“Does this mean that you're…?” Asgore started, then trailed off abruptly. That old fool never could help himself, Toriel mused, but there was no sense in putting it off any longer. If they were to have any hope of doing this the right way, it would need to be official.
“It does,” Toriel sighed, more for show than anything else. “I am reclaiming my throne and title. But do not think that this means that I have forgiven you, Asgore. This is an official formality and nothing more.”
“I understand, Toriel.” The way that he had to practically choke out that final syllable suggested he didn't understand, but at least he'd stopped using her pet name.
With Queen Toriel Dreemurr now officially restored to her position, the first order of business was reversing an extremely poor decision that had been made in the heat of the moment.
“Undyne. I cannot accept your resignation; the Royal Guard will not be disbanding.”
“But the war's over, right?!” Undyne started, in protest. “Nobody needs to fight anymore, right?!”
“That's correct, and because the war is over, we no longer need a sword with which to cut down our enemies. However. If that had been the primary purpose of the Royal Guard, we would never have named it such.”
Toriel smiled slightly.
“The Royal Guard once stood as a great shield to defend the people with. With the war over, that will become the Guards' focus once again. Instead of hunting down stray humans, your new responsibilities are to ensure the safety of monsterkind, and to ensure that the laws of the land are respected. Do you understand?”
A moment of silence, and then… “I got it. Alright then! If you want a shield, I'll make sure that my crew is the best shield you've ever seen! You can count on me!”
“I'm pleased to hear it.” For a number of reasons, not the least of which being that she was not looking forward to having to explore Plan B. The Hammer of Justice had earned his retirement, after all. It would've been unpleasant for everyone to try and convince him to come back into service.
“Oh!” Undyne gasped, having apparently just realized something. “Uh, Toriel- Your Majesty? I still have appointment authority, yeah?”
“Toriel will be fine. And yes, you do, within reason. What were you thinking?”
Undyne whirled around to face Papyrus instead. “PAPYRUS! After everything we've been through, there's no more doubt in my mind! I had been worried, you know. Combat training only gets you so far!! I had to know how you would've handled yourself under real pressure, amongst enemies. And, guess what, punk? You passed the test!! With flying colors!!”
“THEN, UNDYNE??” Papyrus could barely keep the smile off of his face.
“THAT'S RIGHT! Welcome to the Royal Guard!!”
“WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! AFTER ALL THIS TIME… I'M FINALLY A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD! TRULY, THIS IS THE BEST POSSIBLE ENDING.”
It warmed Toriel's heart to see. Still, though, now that the darkness of night was falling on the mountain, they were running out of time if she'd hoped to get everyone a proper night's rest.
Moving on, then. It was time to properly deal with the most recent Royal Scientist.
“Alphys. You understand why I had to fire you. Regardless of the merits of your experiments, or the fact that the king saw fit to order such experimentation at all… the fact remains that you lied, covered up the results, and all but locked yourself away to avoid confronting the truth. I'm glad that you finally chose to come clean, but regardless, you can no longer be trusted to lead the kingdom's scientific endeavors. I will not be re-appointing you to the position of Royal Scientist.”
“I… I understand.” Alphys was quiet, her gaze firmly fixed on what must have been an extremely fascinating patch of dirt. And then, even quieter, “I wouldn't… trust me, either.”
“I am not finished. Alphys, look at me.”
Toriel waited for Alphys to meet her gaze before continuing, taking another moment to note how much the other woman looked like a convict about to be lead to the slaughter. Well. That wouldn't do at all. Prior indiscretions or no, Toriel still needed Alphys. The kingdom was too small and the talent too thin to waste anyone, and especially not someone with her mind for both technology and human culture.
“You are an exceptionally talented, intelligent, and capable young woman. Your previous sins are not nearly enough to outweigh that. We've been locked away for centuries – our only source of information about the outside world has been, prior to this point, whatever garbage ended up thrown into the Underground itself. That leaves us at a terrible disadvantage, one that needs to be corrected as soon as possible. From what I understand, you have a passion for human culture, and your abilities with modern technology are unparalleled.”
Toriel took another moment. Fear was still the predominant emotion that she saw in the dinosaur monster's eyes, but she also saw the faintest traces of hope.
“I'm appointing you to be the first ever Royal Anthropologist. As Royal Anthropologist, it falls to you to gather as much information as you can about the state of the world we find ourselves in, and our newfound neighbors in particular. I imagine humanity's internet will be of great assistance in that task, and I have no doubt that you will have our communications infrastructure connected to theirs in no time at all.”
“We're depending on you, Alphys.”
“R-right!! I won't let you down!! You can count on me!!” Alphys sounded more like she was trying to convince herself of that, rather than anyone else. Hopefully, she would be able to convince herself of that on her own, without any intervention needed.
Asgore… knew what his role was. She had no doubt that he'd fall right back into it easily enough. Back before she had left, she had always been the brains of the monarchy, and he had been the heart. Where she excelled at just what she was doing now – planning and organizing – it was always Asgore who was the approachable face, he who inspired the masses and connected to them. She wrote speeches, and she delivered parts of them when it was prudent to do so, but it was he who truly breathed life into her words, and brought crowds to life.
'King Fluffybuns,' indeed.
They'd made a good couple, before. And they should at least make for functional coworkers, again.
Toriel glanced down at Frisk, then, decided it would be better not to have them craning their neck upwards for this next conversation.
So she dropped to her knees, coming level with Frisk's eyes, and then began to speak softly.
“Frisk.” It was adorable and tragic how quickly they snapped to attention at her words.
“I want you to know that we already owe you more than all the kingdom could ever repay, for what you've done for us. We have no right to demand any more of you than what you've already given. So, please. Be assured that I will not be disappointed no matter how you answer this question. Do not feel pressured to answer one way or another, or even to answer at all right now. We have time enough to wait for you. Frisk… do you truly wish to act as our ambassador?”
She'd barely even finished her question before Frisk responded with a resounding 'yes.' She didn't quite know how, but she could feel a sense of sincerity backing their answer. In her heart, she felt that they truly wanted this responsibility, and she was pleased.
Truth be told, they hadn't any real backup options for ambassador, but if Frisk hadn't wanted the role… she would've come up with something. It was nice to know that she didn't have to come up with something. A curious sense of relief, tinged with deja vu, washed over her.
“Very well, then.” Toriel made no attempt to get up just get. Instead, her voice got even softer. She'd have shooed off the others if there had been an opportunity to do so. “I have one more thing to ask of you… Frisk. If you would have me, I would like to call you 'my child.' Will you allow me to adopt you into our family?”
Again, the way they so readily agreed threatened to break her heart. Thus, she chose to focus on happier things instead. Pulling her child – her child – into a tight hug, adding 'Royal Adoption Ceremony' to the list of upcoming events for the monster kingdom, savoring this connection that felt at once new and impossibly old. She'd been right. It felt good to be a mother, again.
The moment couldn't last forever, though. She still had responsibilities to see to. So, with a final “thank you,” she reluctantly let go of Frisk and stood up to face the other monsters again.
Well. There were a few more roles that needed filling, but those were positions she didn't have candidates for… or, in one case, her prime candidate had run away, as though not being in her immediate presence would save him from being assigned actual work.
She supposed now would be a good time to go track Mettaton down…
No. Putting this off any longer would only make it worse, she reminded herself. Steeling her resolve for a confrontation, she turned to Sans.
Alphys had disqualified herself, but the Royal Scientist position could not go unfilled.
And there was only one other monster alive or dead who was qualified for that role.
“Now then, before we adjourn for the night, there's one more thing we need to discuss.”
~ ~ ~
He really should've known that his luck would not hold out. This timeline had been proceeding a little too smoothly, so it was only a matter of time before something came along to remind him that there were no happy endings. Not for Sans, anyway. Perhaps for other people.
He'd expected another reset, or a confrontation with the darker elements of humanity, or perhaps some sort of natural disaster that apparently struck the surface every so often, flooding the Underground with more than its normal share of trash. 'Hurricanes,' he thought they were called. That's what some of the more legible newspapers had called them, anyway.
But of all the things or people he'd expected to steal this happy ending from him, never would he have guessed that Toriel – his friend behind the doorway turned out to be the long-lost Queen – would be the one.
The words she spoke struck him like ice. “There's one more thing we need to discuss. Sans?”
He knew. He'd known since the moment she'd chosen to assign Alphys to a role that wasn't even remotely science-like that this was coming.
And he was not going to look at Toriel, not even for a second.
There was an awful lot of foliage to admire, up here on the surface. The trees were done up in all kinds of beautiful colors. Like everything else on the surface, it wasn't stale with the accumulated deja vu of a thousand aborted timelines that he'd known-yet-not he'd been subjected to. It was much easier to focus on that than on his impending doom.
“someone's gotta keep morale up, right? nothing stops progress faster than a bunch of sad faces. well, it's a tougher crowd than i'm used to entertaining, but i kinda like the sound of royal jester. your majesty, i would be honored to-”
“I'd like you to assume the role and responsibilities of Royal Scientist, effective immediately.”
And there it was. Toriel wasn't stupid, and even with everything that had happened as a result of the Core Incident, she would've had enough information to connect the dots and figure out who he really was. Why she hadn't figured out exactly why tasking him with that cursed position was a bad idea – hell, why having a Royal Scientist at all was a bad idea – that he couldn't say.
“...they can't all be winners, but that was a pretty lousy joke, tori.”
“I wasn't joking, Sans.”
of course you weren't. “welp.”
“Past unpleasantness aside,” And wasn't that just the most politely-understated description for half of what the Royal Scientist position had ended up responsible for? It was a good thing that children were present. “The Royal Scientists have also contributed and will continue to contribute a great deal of value to our kingdom through the good work that they oversee.”
Yeah. Sure. Good work. Let's see, there was the Core, which played a part in killing someone so completely that nearly their entire past was nullified – that was sure worth saving some money on the cost of power generation – and then there was… Nope. Couldn't think of anything else. Wonder why that was.
“the 'good work' that is no longer necessary. we're out, tori. nothing that's been taken on by that office in the past eighty years is relevant anymore.” That was a bold-faced lie, but of the two people here in a position to know that, one of them was an entirely too innocent kid who hadn't even hit puberty yet and the other was desperately trying to find a way out from under this guillotine.
“You'd have us stagnate completely, then?”
“'course not. there's a whole world of scientists out there, they won't mind us piggy-backing on their research.” Hell, Sans would bet good money that it wouldn't take much more than a promise to cross-train some bright young human minds in (harmless) magical theories to have the humans' universities falling all over themselves to make room in their dorms for monsters on an exchange program.
“And how do you propose we do that with no Scientist to direct our end of any cooperatives? Just throw any monster with a sharper mind than most out into the world with no formal training, and hope for the best from humanity? We both know better than that.”
“sounds more like you need a royal teacher than a royal scientist.” Yeah, that was good. Toriel had confessed to him, during one of their many conversations, that she'd always wanted to teach. She'd make a great shepherd for all those bright young minds, so let her handle it. Problem solved, no more Royal Scientist necessary.
Too bad she clearly wasn't biting. “I understand that you're angry, that you're scared of what this could mean. But I was there too, Sans. I remember just as clearly as you what happened.”
no, you really don't. you don't have to live with all of this – not like I do.
“We can stop that from ever happening again, but it's going to take work. It's going to take steady leadership.”
“come on, tori. you know me well enough to know that 'steady' and 'leader' aren't really words that get used in descriptions of me.”
“I know you well enough to know that you put a great deal of effort into making sure that you can say that and mean it.”
Yeah, and right up until today, it had been working out really well, too.
“look, tori – your majesty. sorry, but the answer's no. you're just gonna have to find someone else.” Sans finally turned to face Toriel, and let the light fade from his eyes to complete the effect. He had no illusions that his spooky scary skeleton bit would actually work on the queen of all monsters, but it didn't need to. She just had to know he was serious.
“There is nobody else.” Toriel shot back, a fire in her voice that wasn't there before. Well. Guess he wasn't the only one with a scary affectation to put on. “We need you.”
Sans watched her gaze fall to the newly-adopted royal child, who seemed to be completely engrossed in their verbal tennis match, and he knew that it was all over.
don't say it, don't say it, please don't say it…
“Frisk needs you.”
damn. “heh heh. couldn't even tell it as a joke, eh?”
“Neither you nor I would ever joke about that child's safety.”
“welp, you got me. all right. i'll take the job. here's hoping neither of us comes to regret this.”
Toriel was grinning like the cat that had caught the canary. He would bet anything that behind him somewhere, his cool brother was grinning too. Yeah, Papyrus would love this. No more boondoggling, not for Sans. Gone were the simple days of a separate union-regulated break for each and every one of his sentry postings. His lazy bones only had one job now, and worse yet, it actually mattered. Well, that's what he loved the most about his brother. He'd be enthusiastic and happy enough for the both of them, no matter what.
Guess it was time to dig up those old lab coats, again.
~ ~ ~
By this time, night had completely fallen over the surface.
It was, in many ways, even more beautiful than the sunset had been. Above them the clear skies glittered with a million tiny points of starlight, and below them the nocturnal animals that lived on the mountain and in the forests surrounding it provided a pleasant background noise – the sounds of owls hooting and insects chirping. The sterile and artificial “night” that had been cultivated in Waterfall through careful manipulation of its magical climate simply couldn't compare to the real thing.
It almost made up for the fact that Toriel could barely even see her paw in front of her own face, and for the fact that the stars were only visible at all to her for how bright they were in the sky.
Sources of natural light were extremely hard to come by in the Underground. The Barrier, by its nature as a one-way portal, let light in just as easily as it let anything else in. The Royal Gardens had been planted so close to the gateway for just that reason – so that a collection of flowers from the surface could be allowed to grow, undistorted by the magic they'd needed to grow anything anywhere else in their kingdom. Asgore had always spoken fondly of those particular flowers – of the idea that the people could come and enjoy even a small taste of the surface whenever they liked. Those flowers were a reminder of what they'd had access to once before, and would one day have access to again.
Other than the gateway, however, entrances to the Underground were all but unheard of. There was the hole that had somehow opened up above the Ruins, into which eight humans had fallen, and under which a bed of golden flowers had eventually grown. It was in many ways the exception that proved a rule. Whatever other openings formed in the mountain's surface as a product of erosion from time or weather never got larger than the tips of Toriel's nails – hardly useful as a source of light, or anything else. Even the cleverly-named “Trash Zone” in Waterfall received humanity's waste through means that had never been clearly explained to Toriel, beyond not involving some other opening in the mountain. One of the previous Royal Scientists had explained that the trash wasn't actually falling into the Underground so much as it was somehow getting sucked in by the Barrier, but she hadn't been able to understand the precise mechanics of it and hadn't honestly cared beyond assurances that they'd cast their own magic to keep the phenomenon contained to the dump and nobody needed worry about a pleasant afternoon in the Capital becoming interrupted by a spontaneous rain of garbage.
Of course, nobody could actually stand to live in perpetual darkness without suffering ill effects. So, like with a great many things in the Underground, where they'd lost access to a natural resource once taken for granted, they'd had to devise replacement systems with which they could make do instead. That had come in the form of the artificial light cycle, a complicated network of physical light sources and a magical luminescence that had been integrated into the entire landscape of Underground. It could never hope to replace the light of the true sun, and so it didn't even try. Instead, every light source in the Underground itself naturally brightened or dimmed throughout the 'day,' becoming dark enough during the agreed-upon night time hours to encourage sleep, but never entirely 'off.' Certain magical climates had been made brighter or darker than the neutral level of light suffusing the Capital, so as to allow those who preferred differing levels of light to move into an environment that better suited them, but nowhere in the Underground could ever be said to experience true darkness.
It wasn't surprising, then, that centuries of living under such a system had taken what little night vision Toriel had had to begin with. They'd been lucky that there was not even a single cloud in the sky tonight, but not lucky enough that they'd have any light from the moon to guide them. Coming back to the gateway first had been the right decision.
She made a note to herself to figure out if there was any magic or technology they already had for night vision, and to have Sans work on coming up with something in the extremely likely event that there wasn't.
In the meantime, there was nothing left for them to do on the surface tonight. Nothing they really could do, even, were she not inclined to make sure that everyone got a good night's sleep before the hard work truly began. Making any progress would have been difficult to impossible in this complete natural darkness.
“Then, if everyone is clear on their responsibilities, let us return to the Underground. There will be much work to be done tomorrow, and it is important that we are all well rested for the challenges ahead.”
Fortunately, the artificial light cycle had at least ensured that the light of the Underground was visible through the gateway, and so Toriel was able to turn and focus on it.
“We shall open up the guest rooms in the palace so that nobody has to stray too far from the surface. I imagine they're all still in good working order, Asgore?”
“Of course.”
“Very well. Let us be off, then.”