Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The ruins had never lived up to its name more than now, a dreadful silence filled the air. Air so full of dust that one could hardly breathe. 

A figure sauntered through the caverns, undaunted by the carnage surrounding her. If she was seen anywhere else one might have mistaken her for a little girl taking a leisurely stroll, a little girl in a rather fancy ballet outfit, the glitter on her tutu is…

That’s not glitter.

Every movement she made felt stiff and unnatural, almost as if she were a robot following a program and not caring about anything else, this was not too far from the truth. There was nothing in her mind except a mission.

Save humanity.

Save humanity from these wretched monsters

Monsters who wanted to kill children, children, to achieve their freedom, to wipe out humanity. They don’t care about anything else, they are a danger, it’s why they’re called monsters.

When you don’t see others capable of having morals, it becomes so much easier to do anything to them, to distance yourself, after all, they won’t spare you if you did to them. They are below you, it didn’t matter if they screamed, or begged, they are terrible and it was better if they were just gone. Don’t listen to them or think about them. Don’t waver

These thoughts echoed around her mind for a long time, and persisted when she entered snowdin, it was quite a change of pace, more colourful and bright, buildings lit up like giant lanterns, and the cold. The most noticeable thing was the cold. It’s so cold. Maybe she should’ve brought something more than a ballet costume here.

But it was okay, it didn’t matter, just don’t think about it. And the worries would go away.

However, snowdin was not as bright as she thought, the buildings were lit up, sure, but no one was in them, like someone rushed out in a hurry and didn’t bother turning them off. Snowdin was lonely, but it was not silent, she could hear it, there was noise, talking to be exact.

Someone is here.

It was as if a switch was turned on, the girl’s slow walking turned into a sprint in a flash, bolting towards the sound like a moth to a flame. Wind whistling in her ears, she kept running and running until she saw someone and-

WHAM!

 The monster was slammed against the ground in one kick, before it could respond, the girl delivered a stomp, crushing it to dust immediately.

Silence.

Sweet silence.

But only for a moment.

The next thing was shrill screams and shrieks. The monsters evacuating started to run off in all directions like a stench diffusing to the rest of the room, shoving each other out of the way, chaos began.

The disarray didn’t affect the girl, sure the scattering is a nuisance, but she could hunt every monster down, dust trailing behind her with each step, bit by bit the screaming died off, now replaced with a familiar silence from the ruins.

Now just continue forward.

She started to walk slowly again, a moment of solace.

crackle

Or…she thought so

Crackle

Why is the hair on her head starting to stand up?

CRACKLE

She turns around but-

BOOM!

Her face was blasted by lightning!

She almost wavers and trips, but she quickly recovered and stood firm, who was it? What coward tried to attack her from behind? The figure who struck her walked forward, trembling, not from the cold…it was fear? 

“…”

“So you’re the human…I apologize for striking from behind but…then I wouldn’t have been able to get a hit in.”

The figure was more clear now, it looked humanoid, but it had horns, and fangs, it looked quite similar to dracula.

“I do not know why you are doing this”

“But the look in your eyes…it isn’t fear, or malice…but indignation”

She steadies herself

“Is this the reason? Do you believe monsters have wronged you?”

The wind is howling

“Did you want justice? punishment? retribution? Is this…”

“…is this about the 4 children?”

…

The gentle snow started to turn into a blizzard almost as if it could tell what would ensue.

The girl’s soul began to fill with rage, the audacity of this monster to strike her unexpected, and the reminder of the crimes they have done, all the more the reason to get rid of them.

She sprints forward. Every step brought her a little into the air as if she was flying towards her assailant. And she lands a kick right at his heart. The vampire rolls over in pain, groaning while clutching his chest. The girl prepares to land another strike, but has to quickly jump out of the way to avoid more lightning shooting off from his body.

She could’ve sworn she heard snow crunching somewhere else.

“Ah…that hurt…but I can’t go down like this, I need to stay alive for as long as possible.”

The monster mumbled as it got up, brushing the snow off of its cape before lifting it up, the girl charged towards the monster again. Light forms inside its cloak and forms an enormous lightning bolt that is sent hurtling towards her. She maneuvers around the lightning bolt and starts circling the vampire like a hawk eyeing its prey.

The vampire was having quite a hard time keeping track of the girl, she kept running everywhere, in an attempt to disorient it. The monster maintains a fighting stance, trying to predict her move.

The girl jumps on a building and ricochets towards the vampire, trying to hone in for another strike, the vampire tries to move out of the way, but the blow still landed, thankfully this time hitting his arm instead. Though now the monster is down to one hand to cast its magic.

The blizzard rages on

The girl can see the monster starting to lose composure, it’s hand was shaking whilst trying to aim lightning at her, she just danced around them, each bolt just out of reach, so close yet would never touch her. She tries to land another kick at the vampire but it has become a lot more frenzied, now jumping out of the way and running around as well, trying to find an opening. It was starting to turn into a dance, a performance, and it was like the girl had memorized every move, every step. Try as it might, the monster couldn’t seem to land another hit on her. It was becoming aware of this.

The monster starts to slow down a bit, every step the girl took it tried to copy, to get a hold of the rhythm and tempo. It seems like it has experience with something like this. Now both dancers are in sync, in tandem, both are waiting for another to make a move.

However, luck was not kind to the monster, the falling snow and rushing winds made his movements falter ever so slightly, that little mistake was all the girl needed. She immediately throws herself towards the vampire, now aiming for the legs, she cannot let it move around like an annoying fly anymore. She sweeps its legs, sending the vampire tumbling over, but the monster grabs her arm while falling, and in that moment, that little moment. It focused all the magic in its body into that arm, sending a horrible shock through the girl’s entire body, throwing her backwards.

 Both dancers, now fallen over,  both are writhing in pain. The girl’s body was surging with electricity, strange markings were starting to form on her afflicted arm that resembled lighting. She slowly gets up, twitching. The vampire tries to follow suit, but falls over again, its legs refusing to cooperate after that blow. The monster quickly fired lighting at the girl to create distance, it could not move now so it had to ensure the girl couldn’t get near her. The girl returns to circling the vampire again.

Movement was now the girl’s upper hand, she could still dodge the lightning the monster threw at her, while it could only lie down in the snow. It seems like the monster knows this, in order to turn the tide around it had to limit her movement somehow…

The girl was stopped in her tracks, balls of electricity formed around her, they closed in to form an electrical cage. The monster and the girl were locked in a stalemate, neither could move, but the monster didn’t need to move to attack, it could finish her off right now.

But it didn’t 

The girl tilted her head, like she was trying to show confusion. 

“I…I can’t do it.”

“I know you’ve killed many monsters, but…I can’t kill you.”

“You’re so small…you look around her age.”

“Just…please give up.”

…

Give up.

This thing wants me to give up. It thinks it’s above murder. It thinks it has morals.

It wants to stop at me, but not the four children. Your kind is in a war, it’s either us or you.

Thoughts raced through the girl’s head, her soul pulsating more than ever. Rage bubbled in her being, boiling and then rising up, she clenched her fists.

“Why are you just standing there?”

“I know you aren’t here to kill just for the sake of it, I think I know what you’re thinking, but despite your beliefs…monsters aren’t evil.”

“Ever since humans sealed us in here, we lost our homes, our lives, all we had left was hope. We held onto it like a little warm ember in the relentless cold.”

“Everyone here is only trying to find a little joy… so please…just give up.”

“Let us live.”

…

Monsters think they aren’t evil.

It has a lot of audacity to say that

Since it started this first.

The rage had reached a boiling point, the girl couldn’t care for whether she got hurt, or died, she had to kill, to get rid of this filth, a hypocritical and dangerous race.

She lunged through the electrical cage, the shocks surging through her body didn’t affect her at all, all she could feel was virtuous, white, hot, rage. Running towards the monster, she focused all the momentum, anger, and strength into her leg, which swung in for a final blow. The monster couldn’t react in time, and the kick connected,  propelling the monster forwards a few feet and landing it near the brink of death. 

It’s over, she just needed to land the final blow, that attack took quite a bit out of her, but there was no need to rush anyway. The girl made her way towards the vampire, snow crunching beneath her feet, she ambled over, her slow movements dragged on the horrible feeling in the monster, death was approaching but it couldn’t move a muscle. 

Its eyes darted everywhere, hoping to find something that could help it, maybe even another monster….someone…anyone…

Well, its wish came true.

“Is that…no…” a few words escaped its mouth, it didn’t want to believe it.

“Dalv! Dalv!”

A little monster hopped out of a trash can and ran towards the vampire, with the pointy ears and snout it looked like a fox.

The girl stopped at the sheer confusion of the moment. The vampire opens its mouth to speak, each word was strained and soft, after the damage it sustained it could barely talk”

“Kanako…I told you to leave snowdin…I was going to do something here…”

Her name is kanako

“You told me you were going to do something! But I knew you were going to fight that human! Everyone else was already leaving! There’s nothing else you could’ve done here!”

“I wanted to p-protect you…”

A monster wanted to protect another

A monster stayed behind and risked its life for another

“And I’m going to protect you too! I stayed behind because no one else did, we need to go!”

“Kanako, please run…run away from this place and never look back…”

“But-”

“The human spotted you too…it’s going to kill you, it’s right behind you…please just run…”

The realization just hit the little monster, it turned its head towards the girl, eyes locked onto hers. 

They were going to die

“Kanako! Please run!”

The vampire cried out, but the little monster was frozen in fear, even if it wanted to, its legs would not move.

The girl was frozen too, not by the blizzard, but a force coming from within her. She wanted to end it now, get these two monsters out of the way, but her entire body refused to cooperate.

The monster may have risked its life to protect another, but it doesn’t concern you, it wasn’t defending another human, they only care about themselves.

The girl tried to reason with herself

They all started it first, this war, including this monster who attacked me from behind.

The girl’s mind reaches for anything to bring her senses back, and she remembers the monster refusing to kill her

They are going to kill me to take my soul, bringing humanity one step closer to destruction, I need to get rid of them

Her eyes are still looking into the little monster’s, it doesn’t look any older than her

They lack morals, principles, they only care about their freedom, they would go as far as killing children for it. The helpless children. Monsters are evil

So why…

…

Why does this feel so terrible?

I can’t do it

Why can’t I do it?

Why am I questioning myself? This mission? I have no doubts!

…

Without warning, the girl started sprinting towards the two monsters, the little one hugs the vampire, both bracing for impact.

But nothing happened

The little monster looks up and sees the girl running away, far away. Until she was a little dot.

They were spared

Chapter Text

On the other side of snowdin, it was pandemonium, monsters running in a single direction, trampling each other, royal guards stationed everywhere trying to evacuate the monsters. However, there was a small group of monsters going in the opposite direction of the crowd, swimming against the waves of chaos to search for any stragglers who had not yet evacuated. The group was being led by a very distressed fox monster.

This monster went by the name Chujin, he insisted he couldn’t leave until he found his daughter.

“Did the human get to her already?” “What if we can’t find her?” These thoughts plagued his head. Accompanying him was a robot silently following behind, a strange thing to see, but nobody questioned it due to the more pressing matters at hand. Chujin had brought Axis over to Snowdin to take care of some matters, and Kanako ran off without him to play with someone. 

Suddenly, one of the monsters shushed the rest of the group, there was the sound of crying 

Could this be…?

Chujin ran up ahead, and found a horrible sight, Kanako leaned over, crying over a monster lying down, clutching his stomach and crying and coughing up dust.

“…Kanako…?”

Hearing her name made the little fox come to her senses, her ears perked up.

“D-Daddy? Daddy!”

She ran over to Chujin and embraced him.

“Daddy! My friend-” she let out a sob “he’s hurt- he got hurt trying to save me-” she couldn’t finish the rest of the sentence before breaking down into sobs again, clutching her father like a support pole as she continued sobbing into his arms.

“Hurt? Did the human hurt him?”

Kanako said nothing and only nodded her head.

…

He couldn’t understand, any of it. What was happening right now. Haven’t the humans done enough? Trapped them down here? After murdering half of their population? Life in the underground was hard, everyone had to make do with what little hope they had.

And they had to come here, just to stomp and drill what little we had into the ground. What have we done to deserve this?

The other monsters had already rushed over to help the injured one, who refused to get up and kept murmuring and sobbing. This was what the human did to him, and the human is nowhere to be found, letting it run loose would cause even more pain and despair. It has to stop.

I will make it stop.

This was his chance, to prove to everyone that he could help, the situation couldn’t be more dire. He had the means, this was what he was made for. 

“Kanako, where did the human go?”

Still weeping, the girl briefly sputtered out “I-I don’t know! They ran off into the woods!” 

The woods, what lies on the other side is Waterfall, so the human could only have gone there. The monster turned to face the robot, who only stared silently at his daughter, the robot’s expression was unreadable, but he stared so intently that it looked like he was considering to do something

The fox got onto one knee, meeting his creation eye-to-eye, which caught his attention immediately

“Axis.”

Chujin spoke, with a kind of seriousness and determination that Axis had never seen before, not even during the pep-talks before his presentation (that he would inevitably fail). But now it seemed like whatever he had to do, he had to succeed, more than ever.

“The human who did this ran off to Waterfall, track it down and apprehend it by any means necessary. You have to stop this, only you can stop this.”

It usually takes a moment for Axis to register things fully, he was usually on a different wavelength from everyone else, but not now. He heard his creator’s words loud and clear, it has never been more serious

>command received

“UNDERSTOOD, I WILL HEAD TO WATERFALL RIGHT AWAY.”

Before Chujin could say anything else, the robot had torn himself away from the group and disappeared into the trees. Kanako had watched this all unfold and gripped her father’s clothes.

“Daddy, is Axis going after the human?”

Those words snapped him back to reality, that’s right, he sent Axis to apprehend the human, the human who had injured a monster and probably worse. It probably was not the best idea. He had to follow him, make sure the job was done right and maybe even collect some data on the human too. 

Chujin took a step forward, before being stopped in his tracks by another tug on his sleeve. 

“Daddy, you’re not following the human too are you?”

“…”

Don’t make her worry

“I-I’m not, I just need to go off and do something very important-”

“But that’s what Dalv said! That’s what he said before he went to fight the human! I’m not stupid!”

“…Kanako-”

“Don’t go! You’ll be hurt too! Please stay-” Kanako choked between her sobs.

Chujin was faced with a dilemma, like he was staring at a sign on a crossroad. His daughter was crying, the monster was injured, he should help, it’s the right thing to do.

But…who knows what more harm the human would do? What if it destroyed Axis? What if it went on to wipe out everyone in Waterfall? What if it had reached the King? The entire Underground would be in disarray, it would still harm Kanako regardless.

Besides…there were already monsters helping the injured one, Chujin reassured himself.

And…he was curious on what would happen, he never saw a human before. This could be an opportunity

Chujin then covered up that thought, it sounded selfish, selfish and insensitive, no no no you’re going to Waterfall to make sure the human is apprehended, nothing else. This isn’t just some sick experiment. 

Chujin made his decision, and turned to Kanako one. Last. Time.

“You’re right, but I promise, I’ll be okay.”

The girl stopped crying and looked at him, suspicious but more hopeful

“You promise?”

“Yeah, I’ll even pinky swear on that. Don’t worry about me.”

Before Kanako could respond, Chujin had finally let go of her, and headed towards Waterfall. And in that moment he may not have realised, but he had chosen his path, he chose the human over Kanako, and his mission over his family.

Kanako stood there, no longer with the comfort of her father, the only thing she could focus on now was the sound of crying, and many monsters’ panicked chattering, not having noticed Chujin’s disappearance. Her mind racing, full of thoughts and emotions that overloaded her brain and made it unable to function.

The human continued running, running somewhere, anywhere, as long as it was away from the snowy arena. Her thoughts were a mess. Why did you spare it? Why didn’t you continue? Why did you waver?

Why did you show that moment of weakness when you were supposed to be dead set on saving humanity? They are the demons that will wipe out your race.

What would your parents think of you after all of this?

Soon, the howling of the blizzard was slowly drowned out, replaced by running water. The human’s thoughts also quietened down.

As if her senses had just returned to her, she finally noticed the change of scenery. The place was damp, almost shrouded entirely in darkness, and there were rivers, stretching out in impossible ways forming a maze, along with strange blue coloured flora. It made the place feel almost ethereal.

The human began to wander,, the place was completely empty, no sign of any monsters, thank god. The human began to wonder…

At first, it was just a weird frog attacking her, so she attacked back in self defence, she didn’t mean to kill it, but this outcome was earned, was it not? 

Then a large towering goat monster had brought her to its house, it was warm, she was even prepared a room to sleep in! But everything felt suspicious,  a room was already prepared before she even fell down, As if the monster was expecting the human. It even cooked food for her, for free! It’s all too good to be true. It sounds like that witch from one of the fairy tales, first it’s the pie, what if the human was the one in the oven next? 

The human was awoken by the monster, asking her to join it for a story. The human agreed, just go along with it first. As the monster was reading a story, she took notice of a curious book, titled about humans, what do monsters have to say about humans? She asked the monster about it, it looked nervous for a moment, but decided to take it out and read it.

As she listened, her face grew more pale

A monster with a human SOUL... A horrible beast with unfathomable power.

She didn’t remember too much, but a few lines struck a note in her

One day, the king declared war

Any human who fell down here must die

He would use the souls of the fallen humans to become god

And shatter the barrier forever

And destroy humanity

The monster closed the book and warned her to stay in its home, or she would die like the 4 children before her. She could not take on the king.

That night, the human lay in her bed, thinking of what she had just heard, the king is willing to kill children for this war it declared, and not only that, destroy humanity. It was so twisted, all of it, the churches and adults were right about them, demons who would bring despair to humanity. And she was supposed to just sit here and let this continue? No, that night, the girl made a promise to herself, that this must have been a trial from god, or how else would she be here? She had to be the one to save humanity.

But now…what does she even do anymore? Her drive that burned hot like a shooting star seemed to have finally fizzled out, she could not find the will in her to continue her mission, no matter how hard she tried to remind herself. Monsters will be after her now right? How will she even get home? She did not gather enough strength to fight the king, she is going to die here all alone. The lives she took aren’t just going to come back now that she’s stopped. Maybe she deserved it? What could she do?

The human was brought back to reality as she stepped into a dark room, the ceiling decorated with glittering lights, almost resembling stars. 

Stars…it’s impossible to have any deep down here, but they are close enough, as the human was entranced by the glimmering jewels in the ceiling, she found her hands clasping like instinct.

If you wish upon a star, it will come true, of all the hopeless wishes she had made, just this once, please let her have it.

I wish…I could go home.

She pictured her house and opened her eyes, hoping to find the picture there too, but it was the same ceiling.

Maybe she was wishing for too much?

She clasped her hands together again and thought harder.

I wish I can be leave this place

She slowly opened her eyes, but she was still underground, her breath grew quicker.

She frantically prayed to the ceiling above, a false sky for a false hope.

I wish I could be free from it all!

As she wished that she could still feel her emotions wrapping around her heart like a vice, her heart pounding and breaths becoming shorter as she gripped her hands even harder-

Please

Please just let this all end!

The girl, now on her knees, breathed heavily as hot tears spilled from her eyes. Her wish didn’t come true, she’s still stuck in the underworld with no one, to help her. No one to guide her.

As the human wept, she suddenly heard a rustle in the grass. Her head shot up as she scanned the area

“Who are you? Show yourself! If not, I’ll…”

She couldn’t bring herself to finish that threat, even when fearful.

From the grass, a figure slowly rolled out, bathing the area in a foreign pink glow.