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It started as an average day just like all other ones. It began simply. As simple as it was able to be.
The underground was just waking up from a long night. For some it felt like it was only five minutes. For others it felt more like an eternity.
Despite that, everyone had something in common. Everyone’s hopes and dreams played like a little movie inside their minds. It was always different for each monster. A monster’s hopes and dreams were always sacred to them. And they were things that individuals could call their own.
One little girl, Undyne, dreamt about things that not many other 4 year olds at that time would dream about.
Other kids her age would normally dream about uplifting things. Normally their dreams were comforting and pleasant. But not Undyne’s. At least not that night.
She spent a lot of it just tossing and turning in her sleep. It sure as hell was a long night. Her dreams were full of the real monsters of the world to her and everyone around her. She dreamt about everything that happened to her old family members.
Even though she wasn’t told exactly what happened, Undyne was still able to create vivid images in her mind about what she thought happened that day.
“Hey! Get up, it’s like ten!”
Undyne woke up to a hard punch in the gut. She grunted and sat up to see one of her brothers staring down at her. He was obviously annoyed, but also energetic.
Her entire family was always energetic.
She gripped her stomach, tightly.
“Why’d you hit me so hard!?”
She threw a fish mug at her brother that was next to her bed. It hit him in the chest and then it bounced to the floor.
“Hey, what the hell?” he picked the mug up and put it back where it was originally.
“We’re even!” Undyne crossed her arms and struck a confident facial expression.
“Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, jerk” he said, “Just get up, breakfast is ready. And you know that everyone else is gonna eat it all if you don’t get out here in less than one minute”
Undyne’s brother walked out of the room and slammed her door shut with a boom.
“Jeeze, punk..” she said, mostly to her brother, but also to herself.
Those were the last words she was ever going to say to him.
He left her just staring at the closed door.
Their bedrooms were very large. But also cramped at the same time. It had to hold half of her brothers and sisters. There were about 30 all together. And there were two rooms. Half in each room.
But now she was all alone, staring at just a wall.
Usually there’d be fights that’d break out over the smallest things. Even things like if one sibling went one step into the other’s “territory”. Some of the times the fights would get to the point where there’d be permanent damage. Sometimes there would even be small parts of fins or clumps of hair scattered about the floor. It was quite disturbing if you weren’t used to this kind of stuff. Undyne and her family were very used to this, it was in their nature to be overly aggressive to everyone around them. People tried to get used to them, but as soon as they’d see one of the family they’d be immediately intimidated.
If only the humans felt the same way.
After about 30 seconds, Undyne walked out of the room. She threw on a t-shirt and a pair of jean shorts. Right behind her fins she wore a headband to keep her hair under control, at least a little.
All of her siblings looked at her and then they looked back to wherever they were looking before. Some were the table, some were the wall, some were the food. Undyne was the last one to the kitchen.
As soon as she sat down everyone started fighting over the food on the table. Even though her siblings had their own plates they were all still attacking each other. Instead of what she’d normally do, Undyne just pushed her plate into the middle of the table. It’s not like she had an appetite today, anyway.
There was something oddly weird about that dream that she’d had. There was a weird feeling of dread in her gut. It was the kind of dread that you couldn’t just push down. She knew that that dread was gonna stay in her mind until she gave it a reason to leave.
“I’m not hungry” she spoke, softer than normal. Normally she would've just screamed something and then joined the fight with her siblings.
But this time she just pushed her chair in and walked away from the table.
A couple of her sisters and brothers were just staring at her in a weird way. It was a facial expression of just pure confusion. Others took this opportunity to snatch other sibling’s food off of their plates.
Undyne just sat down on the couch and watched her family get into another one of their daily fights. After a while, when most of the food was already gone, Undyne saw a couple of her brothers get up and start tackling each other. A couple of her sisters joined as well.
Today she just wasn’t feeling up to being as energetic as usual. Maybe it was the dream.. The dread.. The fear...?
Undyne gripped the sides of the couch and lifted her body up off of it. She left the living room and walked down the hall. She ignored the looks of her sisters and brothers as she walked away. Even though she still knew that they didn’t really care.
As Undyne entered her room she saw one of her other sisters just sitting on her bed. She was looking at her laptop and taking notes about god knows what.
Leusathia was like a cool friend or a cool older cousin to her. Even though she’s only four, she’s always felt a strange connection to her. Leusathia was a role-model to Undyne. She’s always been interested in trying to make the world a better place. Her goal was to try to help people. Her dreams were to try to bring justice to what she believed needed it.
She was the odd one out in the family. She was usually calm and collected. She was nice to everyone, but especially Undyne for some reason. Maybe she saw potential in her.
“Oh, Leusathia..” started Undyne, “What are you doing here?”
Leusathia looked down at the ground, then looked back up at her sister.
“I don’t know. I guess I just want to relax for a bit”
Undyne walked over to her sister and sat down next to her. There was a faint creek when she got on the bed.
She watched Leusathia as she took notes from a website that she had up on her laptop. Undyne stared at what Leusathia was doing. She couldn’t understand what was on the computer or what was on the paper in front of her sister. She watched as Leusathia was writing, looking at her screen, then writing some more. After a few minutes she asked,
“What are you doing? Is that for school or something?” she looked up at her sister.
Leusathia looked down at Undyne and smiled.
“No, actually” she looked back at her computer and continued writing, while reading the article she had up.
“Hey sis..” Leusathia spoke.
Undyne shifted her gaze from the laptop and the notes to up to her sister.
Leusathia pulled up a picture of the Human vs Monsters war someone drew. The art was just as intense as the actual war was said to be. Dust and blood covered the ground. There were the older and more experienced fighting on the foregrounds and the less experienced were further back. Behind each side there were people protesting or cheering their race on. And behind them were a few people that could be seen mourning.
Of course the fighting, itself, all the murder, all the blood and dust drawn, was disturbing. But what gave Undyne a chill down her spine were the people in the far back. Just crying. Helpless. Even though no one she’d known actually died she still found herself relating to them somehow. She wasn’t old enough to understand all of her feelings yet. She didn’t know why her stomach didn’t feel well. She just thought that she was sick or something.
“Do you think I could fight in this big of a war at some point?”
Undyne looked up, she didn’t know how to reply to that. She didn’t exactly understand war yet. Or why people actually killed other people. She understood fighting with her family, but that was more of just play fighting.
She looked back at the ground, then made eye contact with her sister.
“I don’t know...” she never felt this way.
Something was very off about this day. Something wasn’t right. It was probably the disturbing dream she had that night. But normally she wouldn’t feel very emotional. Today was different. She felt like she just wanted to lay down and not think about anything.
Undyne wanted to tell her sister that she really didn’t want her to fight in any kind of war. Especially if it was as big as the Humans vs Monsters war. But it was always her dream to fight for justice. She couldn’t just crush all of her sister’s dreams like that. She wanted to tell her sister that she didn’t want her to die. That she didn’t want her to get hurt.
“Yeah, I think that you’d be… be.. great…”
Leusathia looked down at her sister. She’d never seen her so emotional.
She wished that she hadn’t said anything. But at the same time she didn’t know why she was close to crying. Undyne sure had emotion, but it was usually just aggression or joy. Leusathia’s never seen her so close to tears. And especially if it was about something she had said.
“Hey, what is it?”
Leusathia pushed her laptop in front of her and put her notebook down. She scooted closer to Undyne, trying to comfort her.
Undyne didn’t care about her dignity at this point. She just wanted to feel better.
As soon as Leusathia wrapped her arms around her, Undyne gave up and just started crying.
It was really new to her. She hated these emotions and how they made her feel. She hated it. Hated it with a passion. Why can’t things just be normal? Why can’t her mind just stop thinking?
Why did things have to be hard?
Undyne spent a few moments leaning on her sister until she fell asleep on her shoulder. Leusathia patted her back, then slowly and gently laid her down next to her.
She continued taking notes. She was a lot less relaxed than she was before. She was more uptight. Why did her sister have a breakdown right in front of her? It was what she said, wasn’t it?
But why was she so affected?
She just turned her attention to the laptop.
A couple hours later Undyne woke up alone in that room. It was darker than it was when she entered. She rubbed her eyes then sat up in the bed. The laptop was closed and the notebook was open to a page that just said
Undyne,
Hey, if you’re taking the time to read this,
Just know that I love you. I’m gonna go fight for everyone. This is my chance to fulfill what I’ve always wanted and dreamt to do. I don’t care how bad the consequences are for me. All I know is that I’m doing what’s right. And that’s what a hero’s for, right?
I know you probably can’t understand this, but please keep it until you are old enough to know why I’m doing this
-Leusathia
Undyne just stared at the letter. She couldn’t read it, but she knew it must have been important. So she tore the page out and stuck it in her pocket.
She walked out of the bedroom. The entire house was silent. There wasn’t anyone there. Usually it’d be loud and full of life. But not now. Now it was dead, no one was present. Everyone was gone. Everyone had left her behind
The weird situation only started to make a little sense when she saw the live broadcast of a human’s journey through the underground on the living room TV. And the path of dust right behind them.