Chapter Text
“...Don’t you have anything better to do?” Asriel asks.
The barrier was broken. At long last, after so much time in the dark, monsters were going free. Even the monsters without phones or televisions or eyes knew the news. They’d felt it in their souls, all beating as one. They were free.
* You tell him that you aren’t leaving his side.
“Frisk…” Asriel says. He stares past you, and eventually, falls down, kneeling. “Can I tell you something?”
* You sit down next to him.
“I’m scared.” Asriel lets out a stiff laugh. “I guess I already said that, though… I don’t know how long I have left, and… I don’t want to be alone, but… I want to hurt you even less. So, after it happens, you know it’s not going to be me anymore, right? If I say something you don’t like…”
Comfort
him Do not
* You tell him that it’s going to be okay.
“...It will, won’t it?” Asriel laughs. It’s more even this time. “You’ve made lots of friends down here. I bet you’ll make lots of friends on the surface, too.”
* You tell him that that’s not what you mean.
“...Frisk? I… I really like having you here, now, but it’s not going to change anything. I can still feel it. It’s… bad.”
* You hold him close. He’s soft.
“...I’m glad I could still be your friend after everything,” and Asriel gasps tightly. It’s starting to unwind, now. His body, and the empty place where a soul should be.
Only determination animates him; the same essence that kept him alive as a flower. A flower, the only thing he can be anymore. Cracks form and spread, and then his body starts to smear. He pushes you away.
* You fall amidst the flowers again.
* You tell him to hold on.
“Frisk… don’t make me drag it out. It… hurts, and you know it won’t work.”
* You think about why you’re still here with him, telling him to push forward.
* You feel your inventory lighten.
Tiny stars drift forwards, upwards and outwards. Motes of light like fireflies, dancing against the black underground. Lights that take on color; once, they were white. Now they shined with colors.
* (They weren’t your dreams alone.)
The dreams of monsterkind, of king and queen, of prince lost.
“What…? What?” Asriel manages to stammer. He forces himself to stand, even through legs that only extend to the knees.
The dreams of now seven fallen humans, scared and alone, who only wanted things to be better. Six human souls, re-emerging from the Last Dreams, drifting around the falling prince. Petals and vines sprout from his arms and shoulders.
Asriel has time for little more than a gasp before the souls, on their last embers of determination, willingly plunge into his body. Light begins to shine.
* The light glows fantastically, filling you with determination.
Six souls writhe within Asriel, even as he rejects them vehemently. No longer preserved, crumbling into pieces, leaving behind only crumbs of their justice, molecules of their kindness.
Six souls was never enough to make Asriel whole again.
* With the power of seven human souls, any miracle was within reach.
* You reach out, and call Asriel’s name. Within the depths of your own soul, something’s resonating.
SAVE
* …
* And finally, it rested in its rightful place. Shining with hope, a light inside Asriel’s chest. It wasn’t a human soul, it wasn’t a monster soul.
* It was made out of the leftovers. Perseverance here, patience there. Your own determination, sealing the cracks.
* It was Asriel’s soul.
The light subsides, and golden flowers return to view. A human and a boss monster upon those flowers, both still shaken.
He finds himself stretching, again, testing each joint, cracking every knuckle. Then he finds himself looking towards you, with wet eyes. Nearly the same form he wore when he wielded the stolen souls; how he’d imagined himself, had he the chance to grow up. Left behind was the childishness—the strange colors to his eyes, and the lines marking his body.
“You… really do try to save everyone,” Asriel says quietly.