Archive of Our Own ^beta

A long, long time ago, a human fell down. The prince of the underground found them, and brought them to his parents, who gladly accepted the child.

They were happy for a long while, but eventually, the human hatched a plot. Growing ill from flowers they purposefully ate, they gave their soul to their brother, in hopes he could cross the barrier and let them see the flowers from their village one last time.

And he did. But through a mixture of fear, misunderstanding, and bullet fire, the prince returned to the underground, promptly collapsing in the royal garden, dying. Both the futures of the underground died that day. Turned to dust and scattered through their fathers garden.

In a mix of sorrow and rage, the king declared war against the humans. Disgusted with his actions, his wife left him, returning to their old home so she could attempt to save any humans who could fall in the future.

---------------------------

"Please..." Toriel whispered.

The old, frail human chuckled. "C'mon, mom. We both knew it was gonna happen eventually. I'm glad I met you. You protected me, raised me, and gave me something I always wanted."

She pulled the monster she had lived with for almost her entire life in for a hug. "Remember to check the flowers for me, okay?"

Tears fell down Toriel's face as she nodded and watched the human, who she had grown to call her daughter, extract herself from the hug and grip her cane. She turned and hobbled through the door to the Ruins, leaving her home behind and entering the white expanse of snowdin. The door slammed shut behind her, and Toriel left the basement with tears still dripping down her face.

-

"Uh, sir?" A monster asked.

Asgore turned around, away from his flowers. "Yes? What you like to- oh."

The monster nodded and held out a light blue soul. "Yeah... We found it outside the door to the ruins. The human looked really old, and it seemed she died of either the cold or just old age."

"Where is the body?" Asgore asked as he reached out and grabbed the soul.

"We, uh, just got the soul," the monster said. "Should we have grabbed the body?"

Asgore nodded. "Yes. Please retrieve it, and call someone in New Home. We will need coffins for the humans."

-

Asgore sat down at his table, staring at the container in front of him. The soul was within it, floating peacefully. His finger ran across the page of the book, finally landing on the line he needed.

"Ah. Patience," he said. He looked intensely at the soul and took a sip of tea. "I do wonder what your story was. Your body was very old. Did you stay in the Ruins for your entire life?"

He softly closed the book. "Did Toriel raise you?"

He stared down at his cup of tea and faintly smiled. "You must have had the greatest childhood."

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The human punched the sky with her glove. "I'll make it! I promise you!" She said with a smile.

The rabbit monster smiled and crouched down, wrapping the girl in a hug. "I'm sure you will. This bandana will keep you safe, won't it?"

The girl hugged the monster back, as fiercely as she could. "I'll come back one day when I'm older, I promise!"

She let go of the monster and ran away, into Waterfall, the crunchy snow leaving footprints behind her.

-

Asgore stood above the human.

"I know it means nothing to you, but... I'm sorry," he said as he raised his trident.

The girl gripped the bandana in her hand and stared at the trident as tears dripped down her face. "I- I give up. P-please give my glove to the rabbit lady," she begged.

"...I promise," Asgore said before driving the trident down. It hit the girl, and this time, she didn't come back. Like she said, she gave up. No resets, no more tries. Just peace.

-

"Oh," the rabbit monster said simply, grasping the bandana and glove in her hands.

Gerson nodded. "I'm sorry, and the king is too. The human's last wish was for the glove to be returned to you. We don't know why."

The rabbit reached into her pocket and pulled out a matching glove. "She must have wanted me to have the whole set," she said quietly.

"Ah," Gerson said. "I see."

The rabbit lady stared at the items in her hand. "Please leave," she said without looking up.

Gerson nodded and left silently, leaving the rabbit monster to mourn.

-

Asgore sighed and set the container containing the orange soul next to patience.

"Bravery," he said, staring at it. "Your glove was returned to the rabbit, as you wished. We gave her the bandana as well."

He walked out of the room, leaving the containers behind him. ---------------------------

A small boy walked through the heated rocks of hotland, his apron and pan clutched tightly. It had officially happened. He had run out of food.

"How will I help them now?" He said to himself. Every monster up to this point he had cooked something for, and usually he would manage to restock at a shop, but he hadn't seen one in a while, and the path out of Hotland was blocked by the scientist's lasers.

He continued to walk forward, encountering a Pyrope. It hopped forward, and he weakly held up his pan.

"I- I really don't want to hurt you," he said. "Can't we just be friends? I can make you something to eat once I get supplies."

The Pyrope's smile grew. "Will it be h-h-hot food?"

The boy nodded and lowered his pan. "If you want, yeah."

The Pyrope bounded away, and the boy smiled, walking forward. Maybe the promise of food was good enough to make friends?

Distracted and lost in thought, he didn't see the flickering of multicolored lights. The lasers shot on, and his scream was silenced in an instant.

-

"King Asgore?" A monster asked.

Asgore looked up from his flowers. "Yes?"

The monster in question, one of the royal guards, held up the body of a small boy. A green soul floated gently on the boy's chest.

"The scientist's lasers got him," the guard said.

Asgore nodded and took the body from the guards outstretched hands. "Thank you for following protocol."

The guard nodded and left, leaving Asgore to take the body into the basement. He gently walked down the stairs and passed by the other labeled coffins. Slowly, he laid the boy to rest in a blank coffin.

He reached out and grasped the green soul, softly pulling it away from its body. He slid the lid over the coffin and walked back up the stairs before walking into the room with the rest of the souls. The soul containers slid up from the ground.

He carefully placed the kindness soul in the container next to next to bravery's. He walked out of the room, heading to his house to pick up some painting supplies.

A coffin needed to be labeled.

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The child smiled nervously at the flower in front of him. "You echo what I say?"

"You echo what I say?" the flower said back.

The boy laughed and opened his notebook and wrote something down while the flower copied his laugh.

"I think I'll call you an... echo flower!" He said.

"I think I'll call you an... echo flower!" The flower responded back.

The child smiled and re-adjusted his glasses.

-

"You saw a human?" A monster asked.

"Yeah," their friend whispered. "He was kind of nice, though, so I may have... let him pass?"

They both laughed at the absurdity, while Gerson just sighed. He might not have liked the decree his king- no, his friend made, but he still had a duty. Gripping his hammer, he left the pond he was relaxing in and walked away.

-

The boy laughed. "Then what happened?"

"Then, he- get this- he goes up to the podium, and says, 'I am King Fluffybuns to all!' Wah-hah-hah!"

The boy giggled. "No way, really? He just outed himself like that?"

"Hah. Yeah, well," Gerson said, swinging his legs in the water. "Our King is loved by all- almost all of us here, so most of us already called him something like that in private."

The boy smiled and wrote in his notebook. Gerson looked at it, and then up at the boy while his smile slowly melted. The child noticed and looked up from his notebook, lightly touching the arm of his friend.

"Hey, are you... are you okay?" He asked.

Gerson sighed. "Nah, kid, I'm not. Once you leave Waterfall, you'll be only one biome away from New Home, which is where Asgore lives."

The boy smiled. "I know. But I made it here, despite the challenges. I'll make it up to the surface, just you wait! Besides, my notebook has everything on Waterfall. It's time for me to gather other data!"

Gerson looked at the kid with a sad smile. "Yeah. Okay, kid. You do that."

-

The boy lifted his notebook in front of his face. "P-please," he said.

Asgore swallowed with difficulty, guilt in his eyes. "Please what?"

The boy glanced over his notepad, surprised the King had stopped. "Please..."

He was going to beg to not die, but he remembered everything he had learned throughout his journey. The war, what caused it, how the monsters lived, how they died, and how Asgore made the decision he did.

"P... please give my notebook to Gerson," he said. "And make it quick."

Asgore nodded and drove the trident forward. The notebook fell to the ground with a thump, and the glasses followed, cracking.

-

Asgore walked into Gerson's shop.

"Ah, King Fluffybuns!" Gerson said. "What brings you here?"

Asgore approached the counter and gently placed the notebook and glasses on it.

"The boy wished for me to deliver these," he said quietly.

Gerson's smile dropped as he looked at the items. "I- I can't take these, Asgore, they-"

"He wished for you to have them," Asgore said sternly. "So you shall take them. It was his final wish."

"Right," Gerson said quietly. "That- that I will."

He stared at the notebook before slowly opening it, softly setting the glasses to the side.

"Go on out," Gerson said softly. "And switch the sign to closed when you leave. I... have a book to memorize."

-

Asgore stared at the coffins. Each labeled coffin had a heart with the soul's color painted on the top, displaying which was which. Each heart was handpainted by Asgore himself, who had painstakingly mixed and swirled to make sure he had the exact color.

He sighed and looked at the only coffin that was both labeled and empty. Chara's. As he stared at it, his eyes grew teary. He walked out of the basement, holding back a torrent of tears out of respect.

-

Now out of the room, he cried as he set the soul container next to kindness. He stared at it, as if waiting for it to do something, but it simply floated there, peacefully, like the others.

"Perseverance," he said. "I think we could all learn something from you."

"I'm sorry."

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A small girl ran through Waterfall, screaming. The bot slowly got closer and closer, never slowing down. As she ran, her screams fell onto- well, not deaf ears. The dust littering the area signified that there were no ears for the screams to fall on.

She turned a corner and tripped, falling face forward into a bush. She scrambled up too late, and the robot grabbed her leg. Her screams didn't stop until the robot drove its hand into her chest and ripped out her soul. But the attack didn't stop there. Of course it didn't.

-

The creator of the robot looked at the blood filled scene.

"Dear god..." he whispered, eyes wide behind his glasses. The robot looked at him, and then down at its bloody hands.

"What... did I do?" it asked.

The creator shook his head. "I- I don't even know. This is so much to process, I- nevermind. L- let's clean up."

-

The soul wasn't delivered until far after the human had died, which spawned a few ghost stories, but it eventually was. The only body part given for the coffin was an arm. After having a somewhat extensive talk with the deliverer, Asgore put the soul into its container and set it next to perseverance.

"Integrity," he said. "Despite everything that I was informed of, I like that word. It's unfortunate that a child like you committed such crimes."

The soul floated peacefully in its container, like the others did. He sighed and turned around, leaving the room.

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Clover pulled the soul out of their body, gently placing it in the container. Ceroba looked at them, clearly trying to hold tears in.

"I love you," Clover said.

"I- I love you too, Clover," Ceroba said.

"Go," Clover said.

Hesitantly, she walked away, leaving Clover on the rampart, alone. They began to shake, and they slowly stumbled to the wall. They lowered themselves down and sat on the ground. Leaning back, they looked up at the mountainous roof of the underground.

They smiled, knowing they had made the correct choice.

-

The three of them walked into the throne room. Ceroba had collapsed the moment she left the ramparts, and now had no more tears to cry.

"Uh, sir," Martlet said.

"Hold on," The king said, turning to look at them. "Let me- ah."

He gently placed down his watering can and walked towards them. "I see."

Ceroba held out the container. "I believe this is yours," She said with no emotion.

Starlo placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. She stayed silent. Asgore gently took the container from her. "I know there is much you probably wish to discuss, but first, where is this human's body?"

"The rampart with the blossom tree," Starlo answered.

Asgore nodded. "Thank you. Stay here for a moment, I must retrieve it."

-

Asgore breathed a sigh of relief and stared at the body. It was pristine, almost as if it wasn't dead at all. Strange, considering the destruction that the rampart had seemed to go through. He had thankfully found it before any monster who thought they were funny desecrated it. He lifted it gingerly and walked towards the elevator.

He rode it up in silence, until it stopped. He made his way to the room of coffins, carefully placing the child within. They looked peaceful. With a resigned sigh, he shut the coffin lid and walked up the stairs to his throne room. The coming talk would be difficult, he could tell.

-

He stared at the yellow soul, placing it next to Integrity. He frowned as it seemed to try and move away from the dark blue soul, as if it had some kind of disdain for her. Maybe he would rearrange the souls. But for now, it worked just fine.

He walked out of the room and headed toward his home. He needed some yellow paint. And as he walked, he stared at the ceiling of the underground cavern.

"Justice," he said, rolling the word around in his mouth and thinking back to what the trio of deliverers had told him.

"I think that's my favorite so far."

---------------------------

Asgore sighed as he watered the flowers, his thoughts wrapped in memories. He had recently re-arranged the souls so that Justice and Integrity were apart from each other and had spent a long time staring at the barrier. He could go through. He could simply take a soul and walk through. But he knew what would happen. He would leave his kingdom alone, and he would likely suffer the same fate as his children. So he didn't.

He heard someone enter his throne room, sending him out of his thoughts.

"Hold on for a moment," he said. "Let me finish watering these flowers."

He let the final drops of water drip from the watering can before putting it inside his cloak and turning around to face the visitor. But instead of a monster, as he expected, he found himself staring at a human.

The seventh.