Work Text:
It hurts.
His lungs are so cold it feels as if he's the one dying in this frigid snow.
The car behind him runs warm as the engine prattles on. The drivers door left wide open as Asgore remains kneeled in the snow. HIs weapon having been tossed to the ground minutes ago.
His icey breaths come out in fast puffs and he swears he feels the pooling moisture in his eye sockets freeze.
There's a pale body splayed on the ground in front of him.
Why... how did this even come to be?
__
"Mr. Dreemur glad to see you awake. Your wife and children had been extremely worried that you wouldn't these past few days." The room is alive with the small whirs and beeps of the various machinery filling the room.
"Well you know I always tend to bounce back detective *hack*. Heh excuse me, my throat is a bit dry." The three of them had come to visit here an hour or so ago. Asriel the poor boy could just not stop crying.
"No need to apologize Chief. I'll get someone in here to help with that."
"Well golly where are my manners! This is no way to greet a fellow member of law enforcement!" A bandaged, but still very much fuzzy hand offers itself to the detective.
"Also my pleasure sir. I'm here because I wanted to ask you a couple questions about what happened at the midpoint on Mount Ebott three nights ago?"
"Ah, I've been wondering when the moment would come."
"Do I have permission to record this session sir?"
"Wouldn't have it any other way." Asgore hears the click of the device in the detective's hand as they sit down.
"In reference of course I'd like you to start at the beginning of the night you were attacked. And the ongoing disappearance of December Holiday."
__
"Of course Tori, I'll pick it up right after I get back to the station. Apparently Migsop thought a few teens walking past his house was worth a call!". He hears his wife give a small chuckle as his vehicle pushes through the snow beginning to pile up. "It's really starting to snow out here, Asriel and Kris might get school off tomorrow at this rate!"
Yes, that's how the night started.
With a few more words exchanged, Toriel was the one to end the call as she went to attend to their two arguing children. He had lightly tossed his phone onto the passenger seat as his windshield wipers worked hard in clearing the snow continuing to pour down.
His drive back had been normal until a blurry figure had jumped out onto the road in front of him. The ice and snow on the road had caused his car to slide into a small snowy ditch when he was forced to slam on the breaks.
He had quickly exited the car when it came to a stop, unharmed and car still intact. Just a bit stuck at the moment.
__
"This figure was December, correct? Your trainee Undyne told me you relayed that fact to her when I stopped by the police station."
"That is indeed correct."
"What did you notice upon first seeing her?"
"Well, at first I didn't know it was her because of the snow blowing around. I had to trudge forward before I was able to tell. She didn't seem all too bothered with the car that had almost run her over ha."
"She didn't notice it or you?"
"Not at first no. She was just kind of... staring back into the forest that she had just jumped out of."
__
"You ok over there? Golly you startled me, seems your mother must have forgotten to teach you to look both ways before crossing the street." He had given a small chuckle in attempt to ease the situation.
The figure had not stirred at his voice, eyes continuing to flicker between the snow covered road and the dark forest they just jumped out of. Uncaring of anything outside of it.
"Do you need any assista-?" The monster had finally perceived his words and their head swivels towards him. Asgore remembers the lump in his throat disappearing almost instantaneously at the reveal. "December! Phew, I won't lie I was starting to get a bit nervous. What are you doing out here so late?"
December's full attention is now on Asgore, but she makes no intention to speak, just continuing to breath heavily.
__
"She was breathing pretty hard. Like she had been running. She was a bit disheveled. She had twigs and leaves clinging to her hair and coat."
Asgore hears the detective's pencil scribbling on their notepad.
"I asked her if she was ok, if someone was chasing her, or if she and her mother had gotten into a fight again-"
"Fight with her mother again? Do they fight often? And if so, how do they usually end?"
"Dess and her mother Carol are very strongheaded in their own regard. With December being a teenager now they tend to rear their heads at each other more often. Mayor Carol is a pretty strict woman and holds her children to high standards."
"Hmm I see. Was there any reason you had for believing she was a cause for December leaving her house that late in the night?"
"Why yes actually! A day or so before December had led her younger sister Noelle and my own children Asriel and Kris into the southern weather bunker. Those four are always so adventurous when together! Carol had been absolutely furious at the four for going behind her back to do it and had called me to retrieve the group."
Asgore gives a small laugh.
"Luckily they were all unharmed. But their sneaky little adventure turned to embarrassment real quick when they had to be lectured by December's mother."
"Did you notice anything off with December at the time?"
"Not at the time. The four of them seemed normal. Well as normal as they can be while having the Mayor of the town lecture to them about safety and tetanus! If not just a bit upset at having been caught. December's punishment for it was enrolling her into a few more volunteer works at the church by her mother and father."
"I see. The bunker has been unused for quite some time, right?"
"Yeparoo. Mount Ebott and the surrounding area hasn't had severe enough weather to warrant its' use in over a decade."
"Back to that night at the midpoint, what happened after you questioned her about her absense from home?"
"Ah yes of course, I had promised her if she needed a break from it all, she could spend the night over at my house with my son. The two are very close you see. Promised to let Rudy, that's her father by the way, know so they wouldn't worry about her not being in her bed when they woke up..... but...."
"But what?"
"Something.... abnormal, coming from her happened."
__
December's ears were twitching when he realized she was holding her whiffle bat tightly in hand. Uneasy feeling building in his stomach, he had turned his own gaze to stare in the direction of the forest, hand hovering against his weapon.
"Is someone chasing yo-?" Asgore didn't even get to finish that sentence as he feels the bat crack abruptly against his face. Momentarily stunned in horror at the unbridled, erratic fear marking her face.
"Stop talking! Stop acting like that- you're not... we're not-!" Dess continued to breathe heavy as Asgore stumbles back in surprise. Feeling a small patch of something wet growing near his forehead.
Rearing up, she charged again. Luckily that time Asgore had managed to duck out of the way. The bat instead making contact with his police car and denting the hood.
__
"She.. attacked you??"
Asgore takes a deep breathe in, "Yes."
"This is quite the twist sir, not to be unprofessional. Since your momentary comatose state, the rumors of Hometown have been that a mysterious someone else had attacked you and possibly December."
"It's partially correct. I still believe somebody else was in the woods that night. Because uh, it's hard to describe but December was talking.. rather strangely."
"You don't see, If you take me out I'll just come back, but you'll never remember no one will!" She kicks at the snow on the ground. It clings to her oaky fur. "Maybe not this time though.. maybe, maybe you'll finally break out of it and see..."
"How so?"
"It's all wrong Mr. Dreemur, YOU look wrong!"
"It's hard to describe. Her words were rather cryptic, especially for someone of her age."
"Do your best please, to explain it then. Help me get a clearer picture of what state of mind the girl was in at the time."
"She kept talking about a variety of things. Codes, ones and zeroes, strings... very odd. She was mumbling them aloud to herself, picking at her fur. But the winter wind didn't make them any easier to hear."
"It sounds like some sort of mental break. Does she have a history of this kind of behavior or violence?"
"No! Not at all. She's a wonderful and caring girl. She always takes care of her little sister and those around her. Heck she's the one that dissuades bullies!"
Turning his head, Asgore can see a bouquet of golden flowers perched neatly on the side table. Tori had told him, that Asriel and Kris had spent all day picking the flowers from behind their house to make it for him. The thoughts of his family are able to keep him calm.
"Ahem, eventually I was able to wrestle the bat out of her hooves. Unfortunately not soon enough to save my police talkie from being crushed under it, but small mercies I suppose. But her tone took an interesting turn."
A contemplative look, a short scribble. An encouraging look to continue.
"I guess you could call it, religious?
__
"It's not fair, it's not fair. I-i wasn't supposed to know, I don't want to disappear!!" The shaking teen sobs.
Flashes of every sort of terrible scenario that could have brought her to this point had flashed through his head. "I might not know what's happening, but if you're in any danger you can come down to the station with me. We can calm down and you can explain everything to me and the rest of the guys down there."
"I wasn't talking to you."
The silence between us at the moment felt deafening. I felt a twinge of fear in that moment.
"Who..... who are you talking to?"
With a shaking finger she pointed to above Asgore's head. Past the trees, past the houses, past the dark night sky filled with the shrill whistling of the oncoming snowstorm.
"The Angel?"
"They're a liar Mr. Asgore. It's all a lie. Father Alvin, the church... they don't get any of it. They don't know what it really wants. What HE wants...." Dess pulls numbly at her fur.
"Well, why don't you hop in my car and we can um, let him know about it?"
"No. It won't matter. I'll still be taken away and that choice won't matter. I'm trying to save you Mr. Dreemur! From what's coming!" Her gaze returns to determined steel as she digs into her pants.
__
"This is where the bulk of my injuries unfortunately came into play. Apparently she had a knife in her pocket! I think it actually was the one my kid Kris had gifted her for Christmas last year. Slashed my stomach up real good."
"And this is very much unlike December, I have gathered?"
"Yes. I-. I don't know if these next few parts of my memories are real.."
"Ah yes. Traumatic head injury can affect one's ability to recall events."
"It's not just that. The memories themselves seem so far out of the realm of possibility."
__
Clutching at his stomach he head December shriek again. She was pawing and scratching at her arm. Even from their distance, Asgore could see what she was shrieking at.
The fur on her arm had been turning grey. The oaky brown fur was quickly becoming consumed by the dreary color as is slunk further up her body.
"No no no no noononononono! It's happening already Mr. Asgore!"
"December w-what's happening? Is.. this necrosis? Are you injured??" Even through the pain of his injury, he knows this young teen is his main priority.
"I saw too much.. down in the weather bunker." She sniffles, still keeping the blade held up. "I've seen beyond this place just like they did... so I'm changing and becoming just like them."
__
"Then she just froze in her spot, mid charge."
"No, why!? It won't let me move, why won't it let me move?!"
"Saying IT wouldn't let her move. When I tried to go to her she told me to step back. Just to not come any closer. That something was coming. So I took my gun out of my holster in preparation to defend."
Scribble.
"I remember..." His voice goes soft.
The storm seemed to pick up when his weapon was drawn. Snow whipped across his face and hands. Vision becomes blurred, but something is definitely wrong. The trees..... why do they feel so much taller? Their shadows casted on the snow felt like a threat.
"A lone tree, I could see it behind her. Growing right in the middle of the road where it shouldn't be. She was afraid of it."
"Grey fur.. could be a weird reflection of the snow on her fur..." The detective mumbles quietly to themself.
"You know what the worst part of it all is though?"
Looking up from their notepad the detective nods their head for Asgore to continue.
"She asked me to shoot her."
The room goes silent again. It's like the machinery even stopped.
"She said she didn't want to it to get to me. That she was the only one who needed to go. That nothing mattered and at most all this would do was buy us a little more time."
"Time for what?"
"I'm going somewhere, where i might be able to change things. Even if none of this is real.. even if we're just in a g-"
"I don't know. She said she was trying to change our fate basically... and that moment it truly felt like something was creeping up behind her, ready to snatch her away" Tears well in Asgore's eyes. "And oh Angel I did shoot her detective. In the state I was in. Rapidly losing blood, head banged up in the freezing snow... I fulfilled her request."
The police chief clenches his eyes with his hands as the tears fall down. The detectives eyes going wide at the confession.
"Her greying fur, shrieking at me to do it.. it's like it wasn't even December standing in front of me anymore. Oh my Angel I shot at Rudy's kid!" He let's out a strangled sob before reeling it in. "I held onto her after it happened, she asked me to say goodbye to Asriel and Noelle for her. Then she was gone."
"Chief Dreemur, I assume you know the repercussions that could befall you when this gets out? Even it was delirium or self defense, I'm not sure the mayor will let you off easily"
"I understand them fully and am ready to accept them.
"Now that still leaves the question of the body. Where is she sir? We've had teams search that area for days. We have blood in labs for testing. You said you shot her, and that she died in your arms. You said you believed what she was saying about someone coming for her was true?"
"I do, but she wasn't quite taken by a physical presence. This I believe I know."
"Then how do you explain it?"
"Because... when I turned back she had just disappeared."
__
In a panic at realizing what he had done, Asgore had sprung up and limped towards his opened car. Sifting his hands around to find his police radio and clicking it on.
"This is Officer Asgore, I have a code 10-52. I need dispatch immediately. I have an severely injured persons on Waterfall Road!" In his own weakened state he lets the mouthpiece fall to the floor as a voice he can't understand speaks on the other side.
Grabbing his own phone he steps back out of the car and had paused when he felt his phone vibrating. Pulling it out to read the bright display of "Tori" flashing against his eyes.
Clicking on the screen he answers.
"T-tori oh my Angel I'm so glad you called, I have dispatch coming but I need to hear your voice of reason right now-"
"Where... Where am I?"
Why was this happening I may never know.
"Hello..? Anyone...?" Why does it sound like..
"Dess it's me!! It's Asgore I'm here! I'm coming I thought you were-" He feels the moisture drip down his furry cheeks.
He doesn't hear a reply. Instead a stream of ear bleeding garbage noise and static ring through his ears as the call ended itself.
Making it to the spot he had set the girl down in, he sees a small pool of blood sprayed in the snow... but no body. No dripping trail or hoofsteps in any direction engraved in the snow.
He swore he felt the blizzard pick up. The winds swirling around him making it sound like the mountain itself was sobbing.
__
Asgore's eyes drift shut and open again sleepily as he hears the click of the detective's device turning off.
"Thank you for your time today Mr. Dreemur, I can assure you that we will keep looking for her. I cannot say with the same certainty for what will become of your future and career though."
"Anything that'll help the case. You'll keep me updated I presume?"
The detective nods their head.
"One more thing. I don't know if it's the truth, but I think.... December saw something that frightened her in the bunker. Something that could be related to what happened during the attack. So when my officers finish searching it, tell the Mayor to lock it up."
"I'll see what I can do." They give a tilt of their hat and make their way out the hospital room.
"Thank you Clover."
"Angel bless Mr. Dreemur."
Once again Asgore is left alone to ponder his thoughts.