Chapter Text
It all happened, Asgore thought, exactly as Carol predicted it would.
All he’d had to do--all he’d maybe ever had to do--was leave his doors unlocked. Within hours, a Dark World bloomed in his shop like an invasive kudzu, crawling up the walls and staining the world in saturated blacklight.
Just as he’d hoped.
God, why hadn’t he told Carol about his findings sooner? He’d been so preoccupied with proving himself to Toriel, with patching up what they’d had... but of course Carol, of all people, would be most interested in the Dark Worlds returning.
Of course, as soon as he’d brought his notes and research and that single, glittering black shard to her, she’d locked the door and ordered him to share everything he’d discovered. And when he’d finished outlining his updates, her cold blue eyes had gone colder still--before, all at once, she’d demanded they work together from now on.
All his overdue rent would be forgiven, she’d said. She’d pay every bill he owed. She’d even give him work decorating the festival.
In return, he'd loop her in on everything.
How could he say no? To Toriel, the Dark Worlds were a nightmare little Kris had all but forgotten. To Carol, they were what cost her a daughter.
More than anyone, she understood what he’d suffered through.
So if Dark Worlds were cropping up all over again... like they had all those years ago...
Maybe this time, they could stop it. Together.
...No, that wasn’t what a chief officer would say, was it? Ha ha.
This time, they would stop it.
No one else’s child would be lost. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever again.
They had the advantage, now. Between them both, they’d outlined a painstaking map of each Dark World’s traces--from the shard on the floor of the library computer lab, to the stolen goods and shattered benches at the church, to even the faint stink of oil and deep earth still lingering in the humid air where both fountains had been.
Two fountains... enough to recognize a trend, but not enough to form a pattern with.
So it was Carol who suggested Asgore use his shop as bait.
“Whoever is making these does not want to be seen,” she’d said, tapping her heels against the bleached tile of her dining room. “Which means they’ll have very limited options during the festival day. If we space out the booths enough... blocking off buildings and keeping eyes everywhere... then leave your shop unlocked and empty... we can reduce those options down to one.”
The concept was more than agreeable, to Asgore.
In fact, it sounded... perfect.
After over seven years of grief, the culprit behind December’s vanishing and Kris’s nightmares would not only be caught at last--they’d be lured by their own paranoia straight into Asgore and Carol’s trap.
Ha! Wasn’t that a fine bit of frontier justice? The coward’s attempt to hide, turned into the very noose around their neck. And as they strangled, the last thing they’d see would be none other than the same sheriff they’d thought they’d outfoxed years ago.
And then December would at last be found.
And then Toriel would see Asgore’s work was never in vain.
And then Asriel would come home from college.
And then little Kris would smile and play and sleep as easily as they used to.
And then everything, finally, would be as it used to be.
All perfect, all beautiful, all according to plan...
Until the Dark World actually opened up, and Kris fell in.
#