Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"So, this is it huh?" Clover said to himself.

He stood at the foot of Mount Ebott, the fabled mountain where 5 human children had gone missing. Seeing it up close was nerve-wracking, but he was determined to fulfil this mission his parents had sent him on.

However, something was gnawing at him in the back of his mind... 5 children had gone up this mountain, right? Never to be seen again...

Would that... happen to him? Would he go missing like the others? Would he ever see his family again after they...

...

He slapped his face gently, composing himself. "No time for that..." He muttered. He needed to get a move on, otherwise They  would catch up...
He took a deep breath and started his ascent upwards, heading towards the cave where the children were last spotted...

...

The air was cool, the trees were swaying in the breeze, with the moon glistening in the sky. Night-time was always so relaxing to walk through.
Clover, however, was running. He could feel his lungs tensing, a stitch beginning to form as he trod higher and higher. After a few minutes, he stopped for a brief moment, gasping for air.

‘Jeez, how tall IS this mountain?’

It never really occurred to him, but there was a reason that only 5 children had ever gone missing: this mountain was ginormous. Not as big as others, but still a considerable size for something with a legend tied to its name. It took truly determined people to actually climb it, and he was learning that the hard way...

'Just... keep moving...' The thought echoed in his mind. He wanted to, desperately. But his body ached, hurting too much to move.

He lay down on a nearby rock, looking over his shoulder for a brief moment to gauge how much of a climb was left. After a few moments, he spotted the opening to the cave.

Calculating in his head that it would likely take around 5 more minutes (and roughly 2 more stitches) to reach the opening, Clover weighed his options out.

'I can probably rest for now… Those guys probably don't even know I'm here...'

Clover lay still, taking a few seconds to breathe and rush off the adrenaline he was feeling. His curly brown hair swayed slowly under his hat.
The rest of his gear was slightly tattered, but it did its job.

His dark brown vest was comfortable enough to relax in while also durable enough to withstand most things thrown at it. His yellow and navy chequered bandana was tied comfortably around his neck, acting as a small cushion to most things. His navy blue jeans had a few small rips at the legs, but they held together. His maroon boots were worn but sturdy. And his hat was made with true craftsmanship by his parents, tailor-made to fit him perfectly. He truly felt like a cowboy while he wore them, like a true deputy. (His father had always been the Sheriff for him)

Not to mention his toy gun, which, for a toy, was a decent build with enough force to stun others with small rubber pellets.
(Though in his mind, it was VERY real)

Clover was almost nodding off thinking about it when something caught his attention; It was a white light, very faint, but it was there. It came from within a small burrow of trees to his left and shone just barely in the darkness.

He squinted to get a better look, but without warning, it suddenly erupted and burst into a bright beam of white light, blinding him for a moment before instantly vanishing.

Adjusting his eyes, Clover got up promptly and quickly decided to rush to the source of the light.

'A quick detour couldn't hurt...' He thought.

He rushed through the forest towards the source, weaving through some bushes and ducking under some low branches before being brought to some sort of small, closed off grove. At it's centre, was a random, out of place door...

It was just standing there, looking like it had been placed, and then, forgotten...

Clover was in awe for a second, but focused himself and made his way to the door; It was a dull monochrome grey, like it was sapped of all its colour…

He moved in closer and began to inspect the door, knocking, touching and gripping it before eventually turning the doorknob and opening it.
Pitch black was all that could be seen as it creaked open, seeming like an endless void…

"That's... not normal..." Clover said as he peered his head through the door. No matter where he looked, it went on forever, nothing visible in its expanse…

It honestly puzzled him. He had seen strange things before, mostly accidents due to stuff that apparently he caused due to- what was it? His SOUL? He didn't really understand how it even did that. It was different from other people's souls, but what did it mean? The couple of times he had seen his SOUL, it shone a bright yellow; his parents said it was a "Trait" of sorts, whatever that truly meant…

‘This door must be some sort of relic from ages ago…’ He thought.

After a very thorough 10 second inspection, Clover was about to leave when he heard something, a noise.
He stood still, listening closely to his surroundings as the gentle breeze blew by...

It sounded like... Rustling?

'Wait... that could be-'

Before he could even finish that thought, dozens of agents in dark military gear rolled out of the bushes; each of them pointing weapons at him in unison. Clover quickly raised his gun, only to realise that he was surrounded with no escape... Processing this as much as he could, he suddenly heard a voice coming from in front of him.

"STCU Command, we've cornered the target in the Ebott forests near some weird gray door, permission to engage," said some slender man in a white suit. He was using some sort of radio communicator…

"Negative, keep them cornered until containment arrives, we want that thing alive..." a voice in the communicator responded.

"Copy that," the slender man replied, turning it off.

Clover knew all too well who these people were. The 'SOUL Trait Containment Unit'. They'd been after him and his family ever since the incident in the town several months back. They were the reason he and his family had been hiding; They were the reason his Parents were telling him to "head up the mountain to find the others".

They wanted one thing and one thing only: His SOUL.

"Looks like you're surrounded kid!" the slender man said almost mockingly. "Make this easy and don't resist..."

Clover didn't like this man at all. His attitude was snarky, like he thought he was above everyone else...

"Why do you need my SOUL so badly? And what did you do with my parents?" Clover yelled. He needed to stall them, but he also wanted answers...

"Your SOUL is needed for a classified reason. One you couldn't wrap your little brain around even if you were alive to eventually see it..."

Clover clenched his gun harder, his brown eyes set directly upon the man. His patience was waning.

"And as for your parents? They've been... how should I put it... Neutralized."

...

...what?

'No... No, they wouldn't have...'

Clover's thoughts raced. His Mom, his Dad. Surely they didn't-

Rage was boiling up inside him, his hand trembling in fury. His eyes were slowly gaining a yellowish tint. These people had taken the two humans on the planet who actually cared for him, showed him love, taught him everything he knew-

And now, he had nothing... 

His eyes faded back to brown. All hope he had being drained in an instant...

He laughed, not fully, but in an almost broken cry. To be honest, he almost expected himself to give up right there. He had no purpose now, no real reason to keep going. This plan was all to see his parents again, but now...

...

Now... He only had the burning desire to bring each one of these people to JUSTICE.

His eyes began to glow golden.

'All it would take was one of them to be stunned and I could grab their weapon and mow through all of these evil pieces of-'

...

No... his Mother had taught him to never take someone's life, no matter how much they deserved it.
It would make him no better than they were; it'd only be a stain on his SOUL for as long as he lived...

He took a deep breath and lowered his weapon, his eyes dulling to brown once more; he was thinking of another plan of action...

What else could he use? They were surrounding him at every angle... If he charged towards any of them, he would surely get shot.
The only other object was-

Then it hit him.

'The door...'

Clover glanced back. The door stood open, its black confines beckoning him. It was very risky; he had no idea what would be waiting for him in the void...

But what other option did he have?

"I know you must be feeling very upset that Mommy and Daddy aren't gonna be there for you now... But it's either you come with us now, or we fill you with lead. Your choice."

'My choice, huh?' Clover thought. He didn't need one; he had already made his own choice. He didn't need a second thought about it.

"You guys threaten me, thinking I'll listen because I'm a kid, right?" Clover said, a grin widening on his face. "But I'd wager none of you guys have any idea what my escape plan is, do ya?"

"Now now kid, don't try to do anything foolish..." the slender man said, a show of concern scrawled all over his face.

"I'm not trying to," said Clover, stepping backwards to move towards the door.

"Hey, don't move!" Guns were now aiming lasers at him. The slender man was nervous; his face was starting to sweat.

Clover stopped at the foot of the door, his body still directly facing away from it. He then spoke with a devious smile.

"I'm just gonna do it instead."

He raised his hand, giving a small finger salute before leaning back into the open door.

"Oh shit, he's-"

Clover fell through before he could hear more. His body started spinning uncontrollably as he fell into the void; the white glow of the door slowly shrank as he plummeted.

"Wha- Where did that gray door just go?"

"Dammit! The little bastard got away!"

"Why did he do that? WHAT EVEN WAS HIS PLAN THERE???"

"Shit, I'm so gonna get fired..."

Even though he was now falling further and further away, Clover could somehow still hear echoes of the agents that were just surrounding him.
The last of it being from the same voice he had heard earlier on the communicator.

"All Units stand down, the target cannot be followed. Report this under section 66: W.D ANOMALIES. We've lost a valuable target thanks to someone's incompetence, but for now, there's nothing we can do to engage further."

From what he could make out of these echoes, it seemed like he was safe. At least, from the agents. The more pressing matter was now the fact that he was free-falling into some random black void that he had no idea about roughly 2 minutes ago.

"I may have not thought this through..." Clover said nauseously; he was still violently spinning around, it honestly made him feel sick...

He quickly spread his arms out to stop himself spinning, entering a sort of skydiving pose. That was at least enough to stop him from throwing up.

'Great, now what?'

He was always able to think of quick solutions to most problems, but given that he had quite literally nothing to use in this void, all he could do was keep falling, hoping he would eventually find something...

...

'This place is empty, huh?'

...

It took a while, but Clover eventually spotted a faint speck of white light below him, similar to the one made by the door above as he fell. Hoping it was an escape of some sort, he smoothed himself out and dove down quicker to the light.

'This has to be something! ANYTHING!' Desperation clawed at his thoughts as he got closer and closer...

But just before he got to the light, he stopped. His velocity had abruptly halted; he just hung there, floating right above the white light.

"What is even GOING ON right now!?" Clover's voice was now a mix of concern and confusion. His words quietly bounced around the void like an echo.

These events made no sense in his head, and yet they were his only path forward... (or in this case, downward...)

Then, in the blink of an eye, he painfully heard an ear-piercing, garbled noise echoing through the void.

“❄︎︎☟︎︎☜︎︎💧︎︎☜︎︎ ☜︎︎✞︎︎☜︎︎☠︎︎❄︎︎💧︎︎ ❄︎︎☟︎︎✌︎︎❄︎︎ ✌︎︎☼︎︎☜︎︎ ✌︎︎👌︎︎⚐︎︎🕆︎︎❄︎︎ ❄︎︎⚐︎︎ 🕆︎︎☠︎︎☞︎︎⚐︎︎☹︎︎👎︎︎ 💧︎︎☟︎︎⚐︎︎🕆︎︎☹︎︎👎︎︎ 👌︎︎☜︎︎ ✞︎︎☜︎︎☼︎︎✡︎︎📪︎︎ ✞︎︎☜︎︎☼︎︎✡︎︎ ✋︎︎☠︎︎❄︎︎☜︎︎☼︎︎☜︎︎💧︎︎❄︎︎✋︎︎☠︎︎☝︎︎📬︎︎
☝︎︎⚐︎︎⚐︎︎👎︎︎ ☹︎︎🕆︎︎👍︎︎😐︎︎ 🕯︎👍︎︎☹︎︎⚐︎︎✞︎︎☜︎︎☼︎︎🕯︎”

(*Cough* An oh-so-ever helpful wing-dings translator: You're welcome :) *Cough*)

It was an unbearable noise that made his ears bleed, like someone was drilling right into his ears harder and harder with each passing second. It felt like agony until it stopped, with Clover being forcefully flung into the white light below him with zero time to react.

His senses were suddenly bombarded all at once. His heart started racing as he was being sent through some sort of portal he couldn't fathom. Colours were flashing all over the place, shapes were changing and warping, making his eyes go fuzzy. And then, he heard voices. They were voices he didn't recognize at all, each one speaking out:

"Don't leave me, not now..."

"You clearly mean a lot to her, you know. You may just be the only one who can't see it..."

"Please, Stay Determined! All three of you are the future of Humans and Monsters!"

"My child, I hope you and her get along well..."

"You possess the Trait of Justice kiddo, you'd better use it well!"

"You are both plagues to the Underground, we are merely curing it..."

"Clover, please..."

Clover was spiralling; these voices weren't recognisable to him at all, and the portal only made things worse. He could feel his heart pumping faster and faster; he thought his brain would implode. There was then one last ear-piercing noise:

"☹︎☜︎❄︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☜︎✠︎🏱︎☜︎☼︎✋︎💣︎☜︎☠︎❄︎ 👍︎⚐︎💣︎💣︎☜︎☠︎👍︎☜︎"

Clover then slipped through another white light and instantly felt the impact of the ground; the portal of light above closing right behind him.
His body was still shaking from the experience the door had led him through. His ears were still ringing, his eyes still blurry. It felt like a stream of pain attacking all at once.

It took him a full minute to stop shaking...

It didn't matter to her; they didn't care. They just wanted to escape that torturous hellhole before they could endure any more of it.

They were running up the mountain at full pace. It was only after a while that they felt something warm running down their face... Tears? They couldn't understand it... no matter how much they tried to...

It almost made her laugh. They had endured so much, not showing any ounce of emotion after constant pain. But the second they ran away, out of distance from all of those cruel people, they just... broke.

To her, it was a sign of weakness.

Nobody had ever shown her compassion, kindness, love... They assumed people just didn't show it to her, that they deserved all the things that those people had said to her.

After all this time, all the agony they had gone through...

they had just had enough.

Running up this mountain was her ticket to peace, to silence. The thought of it scared her, but they didn't care at this point; it all meant nothing to her...

All they knew was that the hole in the cave was deep enough not to leave any chance of...

...

'Why... why is it still so terrifying...?' Her thoughts betrayed her actions, but her body was still running forward. They had a goal, and nothing would get in her way...

Clover eventually got up, trying to steady himself after what he had just gone through. However, it did take one fall to the floor for him to realise that the grey door was no longer there for him to lean on.

He lay down on the grassy floor of a grove, almost identical to where he was earlier, before he went through that door. It was only then that he fully realised something he was told mere minutes ago.

His parents were gone...

...

He always told himself that he wouldn't cry as a cowboy, it ruined the persona he created. But for now, just this once, he couldn't help but quietly break down, tears welling up in his eyes as he lay on the ground, sobbing quietly.

'What... What do I do now?' He thought. His mind and body felt like they would never work again.

He closed his eyes, faintly recalling the last thing he could remember about his Parents...

It was nightfall, the Cabin was being pelted. Wood was splintered all over; Bullets were shattering through walls as he and his Mother ducked down into the cellar.

"Honey, promise me this, ok?" She said with a smile, gripping him by the shoulders.

"Should anything happen to us, anything that means we can't be there for you anymore, then I want you to read this letter..."

She tucked a folded piece of paper in a small pocket sewn on the inside of his hat. The stitches were shoddy, rushed, but they held together and weren't too noticeable.

"But Mom, what about the plan? You guys will be alrig-"

"Just... promise me, ok...?" The smile was wavering, being overturned by tears flooding down her face.

Clover took a moment to accept what he was being told.

"Ok, I promise..." he answered, his lip trembling just enough for his Mom to notice.

"But you'll be alright, won't you? Both of you?" he said anxiously.

"I'll be ok, Honey. We both will. Just do what we discussed, ok? That mountain is what holds the answer for us-"

A sudden slam interrupted her; the cellar door was being locked by the surly figure Clover knew as his Dad.

"We haven't got much time, darling. Make it quick..." he said sternly.

"Right dear... Clover, listen to me..." His mother's voice was now serious in tone.

"Whatever you do, don't kill anyone. It's never right to; you'll end up no better than these people after us."

"You're gonna do great things, kid. Don't you forget that," said his Dad, quiet, yet loud enough to be heard.

They both embraced him warmly, but quickly let go.

"Clover, quick, leave now! Take the cave exit behind the cellars." His Mother was urging him on.

"We'll see you on the other side, Deputy, just hold on tight for us..." His Father was starting to tear up.

Clover did as he was told, heading to the hole in the wall normally covered by wine barrels. He stopped as he got there though, looking back at both of them. They both smiled at him, telling him to hurry off. He could feel tears slowly forming in his eyes...

He then ran off down the tunnel, hearing the door contraption built into the wall slowly closing. And with it, he could faintly hear the breaking of the cellar door and the cocking of guns as the exit door slid shut, locking in place.

...

They would be ok.

They had to be.

If they weren't, then he...

Clover opened his eyes, the realisation kicking in.

'My hat...'

Without delay, he took off his hat and looked inside it. Sure enough, the poorly sewn pocket was there with the folded paper in it. He took it out, reading its contents to himself. This letter was to give him the plans and answers he-

...

'That's it...? THAT was their plan!?'

He couldn't believe what he was reading. He loved his parents, he truly did. But this plan he was reading in rushed handwriting was...

"After all that running, all the schemes you hatched, THIS is what you came up with!?" Clover yelled; his voice was breaking.

He considered crumpling the letter right there, tossing it away out of pure frustration...

...

But he couldn't; it was almost all he had left of them besides something else he held close to himself, a reminder of a happier time...

He pocketed the letter, making sure he wouldn't lose it, then wiped away his tears and began walking away from the grove...

...

Wait a second... The grove?

He hadn't really thought about it due to his thinking about his Parents, but he was in the exact same grove he was in earlier before going through that door. It looked almost identical, but the door was gone, and the agents were no longer surrounding him... It was like all of the things he had just experienced had never happened...

"Where exactly am I...?" Clover whispered to himself.

It took a moment for him to retrace his steps, ducking and weaving through the same low branches and bushes he had trailed through in the forests, but as he got out, he was faced with the exact same mountain he had ascended earlier, Mt Ebott. The only difference being that it was now sunset instead of nightfall, which, in all honesty, made no sense to him at all.

"This is all so confusing..." Clover sighed. He had already had a rough day, but this was making it feel worse. In his mind, it was always ideal that you had some idea of what was going on before-

*THUD*

Clover fell forward, the force of something crashing into him from behind making him fall flat onto the soft grass surface. It almost felt like...
a person...? He whipped around to see someone next to him on the floor, struggling to get up.

They looked his age. Dark straight brown hair hung down to the bottom of their head, with rosy pink cheeks on both sides of their face. They wore a pear green coloured jumper with a large beige strip across the middle, as well as dark brown shorts with black coloured leggings, topped off with brown hiking boots.

Clover was about to ask what they were doing when he noticed their face. Tears were streaking down it as they wiped them away with their sleeve...

Without warning, they got up, looking directly at him, their crimson red eyes staring straight into his. "don't follow me..." They said through their breath. Running off up the mountain forests towards the cave opening.

Clover was shocked. He hadn't seen many people his age before, let alone one on his own. He didn't really know how to reac-

'Wait, what are they doing!? Are they heading... TOWARDS THE CAVE!?'

Clover promptly shot up and ran after them. He knew the legends about this mountain all too well; he wasn't going to let it happen again with another kid. This was his mission... well, not anymore... But he couldn't let them vanish like the others.

This other child, however, was fast. Dipping further into the forest on the right side of the mountain, trying to throw him off. They were weaving through the thick trees quicker than Clover could react. He was lucky that they were wearing a bright green jumper, otherwise he would've lost them immediately...

Both of them ran through bushes and trees until they came upon a reasonably big rock formation with a long, narrow gap through the middle. Clover saw this as his chance to catch up as he ran at the other child at full pace, only for them to almost effortlessly jump and climb to the top of the formation, quickly running over as they reached it.

"How in the..." Clover was starstruck. He quickly tried following through the gap to keep up with them. Pointed rocks dug into his sides as he scurried along, jabbing at him before falling to the ground as he forced his way through. By the time he got out, the other child had only just left the forest through the clearing in front of him, the cave opening was just beyond it.

'I need to catch up, NOW!'

Clover sprinted through the remaining plants in the forest, his feet were almost moving too quickly for him to control, but he needed to stop the other child from making a mistake... He wouldn't let history repeat itself... He wouldn't let another one disappear... Their parents would be heartbroken... unlike his...

Sprinting out of the clearing, he made his way into the cave, the temperature dropping rapidly as he entered. Water was dripping from the pointed stalactites on the ceiling. Noises of animals and rocks were echoing throughout the cavern. Clover wandered through at a quick pace until he came across both the other child and the site.

It was enormous, almost impossible to miss. The hole spanned across the whole cave chamber, its jagged corners and cracks crumbling into small pieces that fell every few seconds when someone was near it. Vines were wrapped all around it as if people hadn't visited this place in centuries...

This was the place that led to the other kingdom, the realm of the monsters banished underground. Clover had only briefly learnt about it in history books he read at a library, but his parents had told him all about the events leading to what was there now, and most importantly, how the monsters couldn't escape up to the surface without the power of 7 human SOULS. These were the consequences of a war that had happened long ago, though he couldn't remember exactly when it was stated to have happened, the books he had read about it hadn't been thorough about it...
(It was written by some weird white dog...)

Clover didn't really care about monsters breaking free, that didn't really bother him. He was more worried about the child in front of him making the same mistake as the others, about to trap themselves down there with almost no way out.

The other child was breathing heavily, turning around instantly as they heard him approaching. They were clearly scared, not of him, but of something else...

"get away from me... please..." They said, their voice was almost cracking...

Clover paused for a second, contemplating what to do. He didn't want to provoke them, but he also needed to get them away from that hole as quickly as possible. The condition of the cracks all around it looked unstable... The only thing he could do was try and reason with them.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but I need ya to listen to me..." Clover took a step forward, his hands raised to show he had nothing on him.

They took one back, only several more away from falling off.

"I don't want to hurt you, I just want to stop ya from making a mistake..." Another step forward.

Another one back, but they looked different, almost frustrated.

"Just let me help you, you don't want to do thi-"

"shut up..." They whispered. It was a brief response, with not a hint of hesitation.

Clover halted, looking them up and down. This clearly wasn't working...

"Please, I'm trying to stop ya from being trapped down ther-"

"i said SHUT UP!!!" Their voice bounced across the cave walls.

Clover instinctively reached for his gun and pointed it at them in response to their sudden outburst, but quickly lowered it and put it back.

The other child looked away and quickly bit their hand before turning back around to face the hole once more. Their hand dripped with a few drops of blood from a thorough bite mark.

Clover was running out of chances to reason with them; he needed to stop them, now.

"I know that I may not seem trustworthy to you, but I'm here for the same reason you are." He said calmly.

This wasn't technically a lie, but it wasn't really the truth either... Clover had originally come here for a mission. But now he had no reason to be up here. He no longer had a mission anymore…

He was just… there...

This other child, on the other hand, was different. Clover couldn't fully tell what reason they had for coming up here. But given the tears and the overall attitude they were exerting, he could tell it wasn't a happy one...

He took a deep breath...

"I'm sure that whatever has happened to you can be solved, I just need you to liste-"

"WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW!?" They screamed.

Clover jumped back, his eyes now staring directly into theirs.

They were... not crying. Their expression showed that of pure venom, their eyes widening as far as they could go. Clover felt like his entire mind was being pierced with a single glare...

"every person i've ever met has treated me the same... like i'm some sort of freak..." Their voice had quietened down again. They were now speaking with pure anguish laced in their words.

"they didn't even give me a chance to show them who i could've been, all because of this wretched trait of mine..."

Clover winced, he had a feeling that this was the case... Normal children had no reason to come up here...

But children with Traits?

Of course they had a reason.

It was like they were drawn here…

"this mountain holds the solution i've been looking for... i can finally leave this cursed life and disappear for good..."

That confirmed it, their reason was much worse than he had originally thought...

'Who the hell even made them want to do this?'

"Please, just... think about all the nice people you've met in life... Your parents are surely worried about ya..."

The other child paused, looking straight at him with an eye-widened expression. Then it turned to anger.

Without warning, they unsheathed a dagger from under their jumper and pointed it directly at him. They were now breathing at an uneven pace, gripping their chest so hard that the jumper began to crumple.

"I've had enough of this. Leave now.” They had suddenly started talking at a normal volume, and yet, Clover could tell they were still hesitating on certain actions: their hand was trembling slightly as they pointed the dagger towards him.

"I can't do that" He said, taking one step forward.

"Stay back!" They replied, taking one more backwards.

"Just listen to me! I'm not letting you fall like the others!" Clover shouted, his voice now weighed down with guilt.

"Others? What are you talking about!? I said sta-"

Clover only saw it for a brief second; he was too focused on their dagger to realise. The other child had caught the back of their boots on one of the vines and hadn’t noticed it until it was too late...

"woa- aaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHhhh-" Came their scream as they fell backwards into the abyss.

Clover didn't hesitate, he charged forward, jumping headfirst into the hole and dove after them...

...

'Dear God... What am I doing!?'

There was no going back now. Clover was risking everything he had to save this one child he had only just met. It was almost poetic for him...

It took a moment, but he spotted the other child mere moments after falling. He instinctively stretched out his hand...

'come on... COME ON!' Clover's thoughts were screaming at him as he desperately reached for them.

The other child was relatively still as they fell, their arms and legs dragging upwards as their body plummeted.

They were looking directly at him, shaking their head with tears...

"I'm not letting you die like this! Please! Just grab my hand!" Clover's voice was now at its breaking point; it felt slightly hoarse from yelling at them...

The other child looked at him with tears in their eyes, but quickly turned around and faced away from him, clearly trying not to listen.

Clover knew the other child still had a dagger in their hand; they were very much a threat. But at this point, he had no choice. He streamlined himself and dove further down after them. Agonising seconds went by as he closed the gap. He didn't know how much of a fall there was left, but he knew that it didn't last forever...

After several more gut-wrenching seconds of diving and reaching desperately, he eventually caught up and wrapped his arms around their body. A split-second decision in his mind suddenly took over as he turned them around and made his back face towards the fall.

"What the- WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" They screamed, their voice laden with terror.

If Clover no longer had any purpose to fulfil anymore, then the least he could do was give them a chance, no matter how small...

Even if it meant he...

"LET GO, YOU MORON! YOU'LL GET YOURSELF KILLED!!!" The other child was now yelling at him: their voice was shrill, almost visceral...

Clover took a glance behind him and saw a speck of light emerging from below.

'One more fall couldn't hurt, right?'

He gripped the other child tighter and braced for impact. A sudden sharp pain dug into his body as he felt something slice him. He grit his teeth in pain...

"HEY, I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T-"

The other child turned their head, seeing the hole of bright light creeping closer...

"JUST LET GOOOOOO-!"

They both hit the solid, rocky ground with a hard *THUD*; lying sprawled out on the floor, unconscious...

...

They were both so similar, yet so different…

Clover was lying broken on the ground, his body contorted in a way it shouldn't have been, as blood was slowly bleeding out from a small wound made by the other child’s dagger as they were both falling.

And Chara was about to have their history changed forever, by one lonesome Cowboy they were about to wake up and inspect…

…

Where were they?

Chara was confused; whatever had just happened was not in her mind as they tried to slowly stand up. Her knees buckled and quickly gave way, making her fall to the ground once more.

Her vision was clouded, only able to see a few feet in front of her. They could faintly make out the small circular patch of grass that had acted as a cushion to her fall-

...

'The fall...'

It took her a moment to realise, but the fact that they were still alive could only mean one thing...

Her plan had failed.

...

They sat down on the small patch, trying to remember what exactly had gone wrong...

"What is it I'm forgetting..." They groaned, the fall had clearly knocked her brain around...

Feeling the aches in her body take more of a toll, Chara lay down against a solid object behind her, its shape almost humanlike...

"Wait, what's-"

Chara turned her head around to see exactly what the object was, only to be instantly reminded when the Cowboy came into view. A small amount of blood was slowly seeping into the grass as they just lay there, clearly unconscious due to what had just happened.

After closer inspection, it seemed this idiot had taken most of the impact of the fall, while also getting accidentally sliced across the right side of their torso with Chara's dagger. It was almost impressive that they were still alive, though given the boyish mannerisms they had shown, Chara assumed that these types of accidents must be a regular occurrence for this Cowboy...

...

Chara didn't know exactly what to feel as they saw them; a sense of anger was certainly protruding in her face, but there was also a sense of concern for the injuries this Cowboy had sustained. They didn't know fully what it was, but they could narrow it down to a feeling of guilt. Her eyes drifted down to her dagger; it was slightly coated in a red liquid.

Putting all of her emotions aside, Chara put her dagger down and knelt beside them, then held her hand just above the Cowboy's wound. It wasn't an enjoyable process that they were about to do, especially with the memories they had attached to it, but Chara couldn't let them die like this, especially when it was technically her fault...

They focused all the energy they could muster into one green coloured energy sphere, before quickly pressing it against the Cowboy's wound.

+2HP

It took a second to happen, but as soon as the energy had touched the wound, it had healed itself to the point where blood was no longer pouring out in small, excessive amounts, though the scar was still heavily visible.

Chara stumbled back; that process took a lot of her own energy to use, but was considerably better than when they had first tried using it...

...

'The first time? that was when...'

Her thoughts about it were interrupted by the gasping breaths of the Cowboy as they abruptly awakened and looked around, before quickly putting their head back on the ground.

"wh-what just happened?" Their voice was shaken; they were breathing rapidly. "Oh god... where's-" They began to say, panic clearly evident in their tone.

"I'm right here..." Chara responded with a seething tone.

The Cowboy tilted their head round and looked at her, their gaze lingering for a moment before smiling intensely.

"Oh, phew... Glad to see you're alright!" They said with unbridled optimism. "Just give me a minute, my body still hurts..."

Chara was perplexed by this unique specimen lying before her. They, or in this case, potentially he, had a more masculine look to him. (though Chara didn't want to instantly assume that, they were familiar with this type of experience...) Their face had rough grazing on it with small amounts of freckles dotted under their eyes. Curly medium-long hair was messy and unkempt underneath their hat, and their brown eyes had a certain youthful look to them, though this Cowboy looked around her age.

This Cowboy... they had a certain charm in the way they acted, they were clearly the type of person to put others before themselves. They had...

They...

...

They had ruined her plan...

Anger began to seep back into Chara's emotions as they glared at the Cowboy, hatred emanating through her face...

The Cowboy began to speak: "Wow, that fall sure was big, huh? Glad you're alright thou-"

"Why..." Chara interrupted.

The Cowboy quickly looked at her, all optimism disappearing from their face as Chara continued.

"Why did you do that...?" Chara's voice did not even hide the resentful tone.

The Cowboy stared at her for a moment, their gaze remaining soft and unshaken.

"Because it was the right thing to do." They replied.

Chara furrowed her eyebrows, her eyes widened. An immense sense of fury fuelled her mind.

"I don't know what type of world you live in, but not everything can be solved like you think it can be!" Chara's tone was now snappy, her words were almost pelting the Cowboy into the ground. 

"I had a reason to go up that mountain; there was something I HAD to accomplish, without fail..."

The Cowboy winced, looking down at the floor as they tried to move, but couldn't...

"But because of YOU, I'm still stuck here, clinging on..." Her voice was now strident...
(Jeez, I'm pulling out the Thesaurus with these...)

There was a pause between them, neither one spoke for a few seconds as they stared directly at each other. Chara's attention remained fixed on their face, noticing the slight nervousness that showed as they continued to glare at the Cowboy. But instead of being angry, her mind wandered to a different approach; one that would do nicely as compensation for this set back...

"Hey..." Chara said calmly

The Cowboy flinched slightly, clearly they had zoned out while they were both staring...

"Remember what I said I'd do to you if you didn't let go of me?" Chara's voice now projected a sense of malice...

The Cowboy remained silent...

"I said... I would KILL you..." Her hand reached for her dagger on the ground.

The Cowboy's eyes widened in fear. They tried once more to move, but to no avail...

"And I'll let you know something about me for free..." Chara slowly raised herself off the ground, standing tall over the Cowboy, her arms were raising over her head...

"I ALWAYS keep my word..."

Without hesitation, Chara plunged her hands down towards the Cowboy's face...

...

But...

For some reason, her hands had stopped. Her dagger mere inches away from the Cowboy's eyes.

The Cowboy lay there, not reacting at all, just staring at her, eyes half open. It was as if... they were accepting it?

Chara's hands began to shake, her breathing became heavy.

"Wh- why aren't you afraid...?" They were now speaking through small amounts of tears, each one falling on the Cowboy's face.

Chara had never seen a human who was not afraid of death... They themselves had never killed anyone; the only person closest to that was... herself.

And yet, this Cowboy was just looking straight at her, acting as if what was happening in front of them didn't matter...

The Cowboy sighed, then spoke with a drained voice.

"If it's what I deserve, then so be it..."

...

What?

Chara was shocked, her red eyes staring deep into the maroon brown eyes of the Cowboy they were looking down at. They couldn't understand what they were hearing...

"I'll die knowing I at least saved someone from taking their own life. That I'm giving them a second chance." The Cowboy said, their voice sounded tired and weary...

"That's the JUST thing to do."

Chara lowered her dagger, her arms falling down to her sides, which was then followed by the clatter noise of her dagger hitting the floor as they dropped it.

"I-I don't understand..." Her voice was cracking as they fell to their knees. The exhaustion of the spell taking full effect.

Humans were all cruel creatures. Unforgivable vermin who had never shown her any compassion whatsoever. Time and time again, focusing on their own goals, their own twisted motivations. Chara had been directly affected by them, losing all normality her life could've had at a young age when those people in the black suits came to the orp-

...

Her life was forever altered when they produced results of her health, and more importantly, what her SOUL was like...

They had taken everything from her, leaving her alone, confused, afraid...

Nobody ever helped her since then...

...

But this Human mere inches away... They were...

The Cowboy looked at her, glancing away out of guilt, before eventually saying:

"I'm sorry for causing this..." Their voice slowly drifted off as they collapsed to the ground.

Chara was also exhausted. The spell had taken a big toll on her; her vision started waning as they cried. Then, something else from a distance was barely audible...

Chara directed her eyes in the direction the noise was coming from and saw a large stone-pillared opening further in the cavern, with the shadow of a head popping out as her gaze caught sight of it.

Chara felt her muscles give way, slowly collapsing to the floor as the figure began to approach. All Chara could make out was a neon green coloured jumper with two stripes across it, before eventually passing out...

As they lay there, Chara heard words faintly as her mind drifted off...

"Wh- HUMANS!? What happened here???"

Chapter Text

Clover awoke to a bright fluorescent purple room; his eyes half open as the vibrance of the colours put him off momentarily.

"Ugh... my head..." He put his hands over his face, acting as a shield against the light.

He was laid out over a pile of bright red leaves, with a white, marble staircase standing just behind him. He swore he could faintly hear water far off in the distance, just out of the corners of his ears...

Whatever this room was, it seemed like it was a relatively peaceful one. Nobody was chasing him, and there were no noticeable threats around.

He could finally breathe...

After a few more seconds of pulling himself together, Clover sat up, his body feeling much more... unbroken... than it was earlier after taking most of the impact from the fall.

'The fall...' He thought. How... was he still alive? He can't have just magically healed himself while he was asleep...

It was only then that Clover noticed another person who was lying out on the same leaf pile just to his left. It was the other child, the one he'd been trying to stop from falling into the Monster realm...

That... hadn't worked out, had it?

All of that running, trying to save them, and they both ended up down here, most likely trapped for eternity...

...

It bothered him... Even though he was stuck down here for the foreseeable future, part of him wanted to try and escape back up to the surface...

Though... he guessed there wouldn't be much waiting for him up there anymore, would there?

...

"Well, at least they're safe..." He said, standing up and stretching his body to test his injuries.

As he examined the room more, Clover became even more confused... It had the look of an old temple or shrine, but it was all bright purple... 

'Gee, magenta must've been on sale, huh?'

But before he could quip about it anymore... he heard a ruffling of leaves behind him.

He spun around in a flash, only to be met with the other human holding their red-stained dagger across his neck, their other arm restraining his hand reaching for his gun.

"You..." they said; their voice dripping with fury.

"Morning to you too..." Clover replied.

He had expected a hostile reaction from them. He had kinda 'saved' them, when they clearly didn't want that...

But at this point, he didn't feel threatened...

He couldn't care less about anything...

What's there left to care about when you lose those who mean the most to you?

...

"I want answers, proper ones too." They continued.

"Go ahead, drill them out of me..." Clover's voice gave a detached tone. "Just don't get angry at me when you aren't satisfied..."

He couldn't even fake happiness... His normal façade of a cheery person was too much for him to try and act at the moment. He had no reason to hide his current mood...

The other human paused, their eyebrows furrowed, almost as if they weren't expecting this sudden change from him... They then backed off, removing their dagger and letting go of his wrist.

"Why... did you decide to save me...?" Their voice wasn't angry anymore, it was perplexed...

Clover was already losing the will to continue the conversation; his mind thinking desperately about other things.

"I already told you, didn't I? It was the JUST thing to do..." His voice was drained, barely above a mumble.

"That's not true... there's no way Humans would do that for me, especially not me..."

"I must not be 'Human' then..." Clover replied. He meant it as a witty remark, but looked back to see the other human on the verge of tears.

"I... I just don't understand..." Their eyes widened. "Why did you decide to save ME!?"

"i already TOLD YOU!" Clover shouted. His voice bouncing around the walls as it echoed.

The other child took a step back, slightly shaken by his sudden outburst. They quickly wiped their tears away from their eyes and put their dagger back in their hidden sheath.

"I... apologise. I just... don't understand things at the moment..." They muttered.

Clover was breathing heavily. He didn't normally snap like this; it wasn't how he normally acted... But given the things he had gone through today, he was losing control more and more as he went on; His mind was racing with thoughts and memories of his parents...

It took him a moment, but he eventually calmed himself down and tried to act cheerier.

"It's alright! I understand..." He looked away as he finished.

The other child stared at him with a concerned look, slowly raising one of their hands out before hastily retracting it.

They both stood there in silence, neither one wanting to speak to the other...

It was like... they were polar opposites...

...

"I-I'm-"

"OH!" came a sudden youthful voice. "You guys are finally awake!"

Clover & the other human immediately stiffened, and went on guard, looking around for the source of the voice...

"You two were out cold, I'm surprised you got up this quickly!"

They both turned around to see a mysterious figure on top of the marble staircase behind them, obstructed by the light from above. Their outline looked like that of a child, potentially not much older than them, with long dog-like ears drooping down to their neck.
Their fur seemed to be poking out in small jagged patches, making them seem almost... fluffy?

This figure swiftly jumped from the top of the stairs and landed on the other side of the leaf pile, lifting itself up to reveal a white coloured monster wearing a bright lime green jumper with two yellow stripes across the middle. The monster then stretched its arms up to the ceiling, which showcased the light brown trousers that stopped at the ankles of its bare feet.

"Jeez, remind me to not do that again..." They said, wincing as they stretched their legs.

Clover couldn't help his baffled expression; he didn't know how to react to the being in front of him... Most of his life, he had been told not to let his guard down to anybody he didn't know, but this... Monster didn't give any vibe or appearance of a threat... They instead looked more formal; like they'd been raised to speak properly in front of others.

"Howdy!" They said as they waved at both of them.

'...that's not what I was expecting...' 

Clover figured that he was the only one confused by this charade, but to his surprise, the other human was making a similar expression to his own...

"Both of you are humans, aren't you?" said the Monster, beaming with optimism. 

Clover was hesitant to answer, but ultimately gave in, realising that they most likely knew already.

"Yes, we are... what do you want?"

"Oh, I don't want anything. I just wanted to make sure you two were alright! Given that you'd fallen from the surface and all..."

The other human took a small step back, holding their arm in discomfort.

"Oh, sorry! I haven't introduced myself, have I?" said the Monster, seeing the hesitation from both of them.

"My name's Asriel! The Underground's local Boy-Scout, Charmer, Role Model, and Mascot!" They finished by striking a 'stylish' pose...

...

For once, Clover was at a loss for words...

"*Ahem* Anyway... It's nice to meet you both! What are your names?"

After a few seconds of silence, Clover eventually responded:

"Name's Clover, nice to meet ya." He said, doing a small finger gun as he winked.

"Whoa! That's a cool name!" Asriel replied, clearly excited to be striking up a conversation.

He then turned to the other human...

Clover looked on in anticipation; he still didn't know their name yet...

"What about you?"

...

The other human remained silent, gripping their arm even tighter...

"Oh... uh... don't worry! You don't have to tell me right now..." said Asriel, raising his hands to try and reassure them.

He began to poke his head, seemingly not knowing what to do now that he'd reached this point... It took him a moment, but he finally came up with an idea, snapping his fingers as he did.

"I know! I'll take you guys to my parents!" He said. "They'll be able to help you guys out!"

...

Clover didn't like the sound of that...

...

But he also didn't fare his chances of survival in an unknown place either...

...

"Alright, I'll come along," he said; his voice beginning to sound alive again. "Lead the way!"

"R-Really!? Y-You got it! I'll be your Tour Guide!" Asriel was now gleaming with passion. "Follow me!"

He ran up the marble stairs and beckoned them to follow through the hallway, shouting: "I'll race you there!" as he ran off.

'Wow... he's certainly excited about this...' Clover thought.

He made his way up the steps, walking towards the hallway opening. However, he didn't hear any footsteps follow behind him...

He swivelled round, seeing that the other human was looking straight at the floor, lost in thought. Their hand was crunching their arm even tighter than before...

Clover sighed, his voice draining to a neutral tone once more.

"It may not be ideal, but this is the only option we have. We can't just stay around here waiting for some sort of miracle..."

The other child looked up at him, their cold glare piercing through his skull like it had before...

"Please, just come along already... uh..." Clover paused, the name of this other human was still a mystery...

"What... exactly IS your name, anyway?"

It was weird...

Chara had never had to tell a human her name before... everyone on the surface around Mt Ebott knew about her...

Yet, this one Cowboy who had ruined her plan and caused them both to be stuck down here in this unknown realm filled with Humanity's most sworn enemy-

Didn't know her name...

Who even was this human? 

...

Chara hesitated for a while, staring directly at this enigma of a human asking for her name.

'Clover...' 

The name certainly matched the face... This Cowboy seemed to be a more boyish, carefree type of person, unbelievably vivacious...

...

So why did he act like that earlier?

It still lingered in her mind... Her first proper impression of this Cowboy had been him acting relieved that they were safe... something nobody else had ever done...

But as soon as both of them had awoken again, he had changed his entire persona in an instant... Like he was an entirely different person...

And now he was back to acting cheerful in front of this 'Asriel' monster they'd both just met!?

...

This human made no sense to her at all...

...

"Hey, are you alright?"

Oh, right. He had asked for her name... They'd been so lost in thought that they had just been standing there...

Chara slowly walked up the right side of the stairs, walking past Clover at the top and stopping before the opening, turning her head to face him.

"Chara. My name is Chara."

With her name being told, Chara followed the path forward, trying to catch up with Asriel; her new 'Tour Guide'...

Though... maybe it was her imagination, but they swore that Clover said something as they left...

"Chara, huh?" He echoed the name softly... "cute name..."

'wh- such insolence!' 

Chara turned around to glare at Clover, but his face was blank; no expression whatsoever as he stared back...

"What? Something wrong?" He asked, clearly oblivious to what he had just said.

Chara's eye twitched, her unknown mood towards Clover morphing into irritation... but they moved onwards, trying to ignore him entirely...

...

'...stupid cowboy...'

Clover couldn't help but feel anxious as the group of three walked along the Iris-coloured hallways of the area, supposedly called 'Home', Which apparently got its name from the King of the Underground, who Asriel explained, as... not entirely great with names... Clover didn't exactly know what that meant, but surely he couldn't be that unimaginative...

The current situation around him just felt too... relaxed. The past year of his life had been so hectic due to his family being hunted down...

He hadn't really had a chance to take things slow...

...

It still hurt to think about them...

...

The three stopped as a door blocked the way forward, with a yellow switch to the right of it. Asriel, now the designated 'Tour Guide', promptly piped up and began explaining the roadblock:

"Now! I'm sure you are both wondering how we are possibly meant to get through this do-"

"-I'm assuming we have to step on those tiles, right?"

Chara interrupted Asriel's explanation, pointing at the floor in front of the yellow switch on the wall; 6 stone grey tiles were poking out of it.

"Oh! Good spot!- um..."

Asriel stopped, likely suffering due to the lack of a name like he had been earlier. Clover, almost instinctively, tried to help the poor soul in his moment of need:

"Chara"

"Wha- You know her name?"

Clover, now being drowned with questions from Asriel, was slightly regretting his decision to mention it. Looking over at the other human, all he saw was a menacing glare staring back at him as Asriel kept talking...

"How do you know her name? Do you two know each other?" He asked, eagerly awaiting an answer.

Chara quickly interjected, moving in front of Asriel to try and steer his attention elsewhere.

"Let's not come to any sudden conclu-"

"We lived in the same village on the surface," Clover said without thinking.

"What" Chara's neck snapped directly towards him, a deathly expression on their face.

"Wait, really?" said Asriel. "Oh, ok. That explains things."

He turned away and walked towards the tiles on the floor, stepping on four of them, then walked over to the switch, reaching his arm up to pull it down.

While this was happening, Chara stared at Clover with a confused expression, which then morphed into frustration as they covered their face with one hand, groaning in annoyance. Clover smiled nervously and shrugged, thinking desperately of a believable story...

'I probably should've thought a bit more before saying tha-'

*WHAM*

Both of them jumped as the door violently slammed open, Asriel standing proudly before it.

"Door's open!"

He rushed back over to both of them, continuing his train of thought from earlier:

"So! uh... Chara, right? You kinda figured it out already, but that was a puzzle built into Home."

"Puzzle?" Clover replied.

He didn't mind doing that type of thing; he'd done a few before in books. But he always found them... well, not difficult, but... a hindrance...

"Y'know, like, mental exercises. This place is full of them."

"...why...?"

"Uh... well, some monsters made puzzles to express themselves, others did it to prevent people from... wandering off...-"

Asriel's voice quietly trailed off. He seemed to be reluctant to continue talking...

"Any other reasons...?" Clover asked, scepticism slightly breaking through his face.

"-some children wanted to play around with them- BUT THAT'S... not important..."

Asriel seemed to be nervous for some reason, but Clover decided not to push any further...

"Are you two done? We can move on now..." said Chara. Their arms crossed as they stood in front of the open door.

"Right! Let's move on!" 

Asriel immediately jumped ahead, swiftly returning to his role as "Tour Guide" as the two of them went through the door.

...

Clover, however, took a moment...

...

He was still trying his best not to think about them, but his mind kept wandering to his parents...

He reached inside a pocket in his vest and gently pulled out a silver locket in the shape of a four-leafed clover. His parents had bought it to amuse themselves with its shape, constantly teasing him about the similarities between the two of them whenever he looked at it. But even so... he always treasured it...

He opened it, wincing as the contents came into view. Inside, it contained four pictures of him and his parents; one photo on each leaf.
Each one was from a different age, ranging from when he was a baby, to about roughly 1 month ago...

Clover looked at it for what felt like hours, tears forming as he felt an overwhelming sense of guilt come over him for running off instead of staying with them...

He knew that was the plan...

He knew they had told him to do that...

But he regretted going through with it...

...

"Clover!? Are you coming or not?"

Asriel's voice broke Clover from his trance. He quickly shut the locket, putting it back into his vest pocket. He then wiped his face before rushing onwards to catch up with the others...

...

The three of them wandered through long, narrow hallways to the next room. Coming into a much larger open space full to the brim with greenery. Vines grew from the ceiling to the floor, and flowers were hung from the walls in baskets as well as along the path in various pots. It was almost surreal seeing the change from the rooms the three of them were just in as the group walked across some small wooden platforms that were built over thin streams of flowing water.

Clover looked around, spotting other monsters in the area: Some were families with their children playing in the water. Others were simply groups of friends walking and talking, with some sitting on old movable wooden benches, playing what seemed to be some sort of card game...

Looking around more and squinting his eyes, he also made out small, mouse-shaped holes in the walls with bright yellow lights glowing from inside. Small monsters the size of his foot were running around playing tag, with some other larger monsters (though, not by much) stringing up lines of clothes and sitting in rocking chairs.

Up in the corners of the room were multiple large spider webs, some having been woven into more cocoon-shaped buildings. Small gaps in the structures produced their own set of more purplish glowing lights, coming from inside. 

...

Monsters were just... living normal lives...?

It hadn't occurred to Clover yet, but he hadn't really thought about what the lives of the Monsters trapped underground were like...

Part of him was worried he would encounter battle-ready soldiers at every turn, trained over the years to be ready to hunt him down because of what Humanity had done to Monsters so long ago...
(Seriously though... what WAS that date? Pages from that book were ripped and scribbled out...)

It was certainly a weird form of whiplash for Clover to get his head around, but he was quickly faced with a different problem...

"So both of you knew each other before you fell down right?" Asriel asked, stopping in the middle of the room.

"Uh... yep! that's right..." Clover said through his teeth. He was quickly realising that this was shaping up to be a test for his story-making skills...

Chara was leaning against a wall, eyeing him as they listened to the conversation.

"Then... how did you both fall down here then? We haven't really had any Humans down here before..."

Clover began to think of a reply, but noticed the sudden silence in the room. Many of the Monsters in the room were staring around at the merry flock of goobers currently standing still in the middle of the open space. It was mostly gazes of surprise, but others were of dread...

"Asriel... be careful how loud you say things..." Clover whispered, signalling him to be quieter with his finger.

"OH! Right... sorry..." Asriel seemed to take a moment, adjusting his volume to a whisper. But it seemed to be somewhat of a struggle for him, almost like he hadn't really had to do it before...

"But, really... How did you both fall down here?"

Crap, guess it was make or break time...

...

'Come on... think of something...!'

...

It took him a second, but Clover eventually blurted out:

"It was an accident."

He could already feel the disapproving stare from Chara digging into the back of his mind as Asriel began to press for details...

"Ok... but how do you 'accidentally' fall into this place? I doubt it's easy to do..." Asriel was becoming less convinced...

"Well... we were both exploring a cave and we... uh... just stumbled over and fell in!" Clover felt like he was being held at gunpoint with the way he delivered that...

There was no way that Asriel was believing tha-

"Oh, ok!"

'I've got to stop expecting things at this point...'

"Makes sense! I guess it can't really be helped now, can it?" Asriel was an extremely optimistic person, maybe even to the point where he was actually quite gullible...

Chara brought themselves off the wall and butted in on the conversation.

"Is that all? If so, then let's go..." Their voice was dull, almost weary. They clearly wanted to move on...

"Understood! Onwards!" Asriel said as he skipped forwards, greeting other Monsters as they did some weird gestures at him...

Clover was about to move on, but he felt a hard tug at the back of his bandana, pulling him back as he heard Chara's voice in his ear.
They had snuck behind him unknowingly...

"Let's see how long you can keep this up, Cowboy..." Their tone had suddenly turned hostile...

Clover was initially on edge, but composed himself and replied, matching with a scathing tone:

"It's better than explaining what you were actually doing up there, isn't it?" Those last words came off in an aggressive fashion, prompting the other human to glare at him before letting go of him, walking onwards.

"Don't fall behind now, it'd be a shame to lose you in an accident."

Clover looked towards this other human, not knowing what to even think. They were clearly different, but also somewhat troubled... He had learnt that the hard way when he accidentally provoked them before, which in turn led to them both being down here...

But, at the moment, all he could feel was an apathetic resentment towards them. Given that they clearly didn't like him, nor want him around...

He was only trying to help them... And yet, they hated him for doing so...

"Fine, you want to act that way? Then don't expect me to act all nice out of the blue..." He muttered.

After a small amount of time, he kept walking, feeling the gazes of Monsters around him as he tried his best not to draw any further attention...

...

The group kept on walking, eventually making it to a room containing what looked like a training dummy. It was beaten, cut, and at the very least, on its last straws. How exactly it had gotten this worn up, was for Clover's imagination to fill later...

"Hmmm... Right! This'll work!" said Asriel, seemingly up to something.

"Urgh... what now!?" Chara moaned, turning around on their heel. Their patience was running thin...

"I just want to test out your skills! It's dangerous to be caught alone here, especially as a Human! No need to be all moany about it..."

"*Sigh* Can you just hurry it up?"

"Alright, jeez..." Asriel looked over at the dummy, then back at both of them.

"I'll do a demonstration, then you guys will follow... how about that?"

"Ok... but what exactly are we doing?" Clover asked.

"You'll see, just watch."

Asriel slowly breathed in and out a couple of times, then pointed his right hand at the dummy and closed his eyes.

...

The room stood still, with only the slight, distant noise of chatter from the previous room being heard. Clover looked around at Chara, trying to gauge their expression, but they stood there blank-faced, traces of boredom laced in their eyes. Clover shifted his gaze back to Asriel, anticipation rising as he waited for something to happen...

...

Then, faintly, Asriel's ears slowly began to move about... then his clothes...

'There's no wind here, how is he...'

An orange glow came into view at the tip of his index finger, growing larger as Asriel concentrated harder. Clover and Chara watched on with curiosity. The glow grew larger as he closed up his other fingers, his face scrunching up as he tried to contain the glow. The room around them slowly grew darker, focusing on the light emitted from Asriel's hand...

He slowly raised his finger to the ceiling, holding it there for a few seconds before releasing a deep breath once more...

...

Then, he opened his eyes, quickly clenching the glow into the palm of his hand before throwing it, baseball-style, straight towards the dummy. The glow began to patch into bits as its shape distorted, revealing a fiery aura encompassing it.

It hurtled towards the dummy. Connecting with it, then creating a dusty explosion which made the air around the group suddenly taste of sawdust.

When the cloud cleared, the dummy had a small chunk of its right shoulder missing, with black scorch marks burnt into the area surrounding it...

"Right! Now, let's see what you can do!" Asriel said, relaxing his body once more.

"Whoa... How'd you do that?!" said Clover. He'd never seen anything like that before...

"What, that? That's my Magic!" Asriel answered, his face confused at the reaction.

"Don't you guys have that too?"

...

Clover hesitated, pondering about an answer. He didn't really know if he did...

There had been times before were he had felt... odd. But many of those feelings followed memories that he couldn't remember...

Whenever he did, it was all just a blur...

...

The only one he could partially remember was at that festival where he-

"Heeeeey! Clover!"

Asriel was right in front of his face, waving his hand before his eyes and blinking in time with his waves. Clover blinked in return, shaking his head as he zoned back into what was happening around him.

"You alright?" Asriel asked.

Clover gently slapped himself across the face, snapping himself away from his thoughts.

"Yeah... sorry, I just-" He paused. "-remembered something..."

Asriel looked at him, contemplating for a second, before ultimately asking both of them a question.

"Do you guys... even have Magic?"

...

Clover didn't hesitate this time.

"No, I don't..."

...

Chara was initially reluctant to answer, but eventually did.

"I do, but... It's finicky at best..."

...

Asriel stood there in silence, a blank expression crossing his face, as if he had no idea how to process this information...

...

Clover felt the awkwardness as the silence pierced the air, quickly coming up with a solution to the issue as he whipped out his toy gun and twirled it around his finger.

"What about this?"

"Huh?" Asriel's face slowly lit up again. "Oh! I've seen those before! They were in some films we found recently!"

"Found...?"

"Doesn't matter, you can use that instead! We'll touch upon Magic another time..."

Clover nodded, walking over to a far enough distance away from the dummy. He looked over at the scorch marks on it as they still singed with small waves of smoke seeping out of it...

'Gonna be hard to top that...'

He got into a comfortable stance, gripping the gun on his belt tightly.

...

His heartbeat slowed alongside his steady breathing as his eyelids closed...

...

Clover decided he would fire three shots of his rubber pellets, enough to stun any normal person who could be considered dangerous. All he needed to do was aim for the right leg area, then the left shoulder, then finish with the forehead to knock the target to the ground. They would most likely end up completely dazed if he hit all three... though, this was only a training dummy he was firing at... (did it even have legs?)

...

'Just three shots... that's it...' 

Clover took one last deep breath, blocking out all the noise he could hear to let his mind focus.

...

'Showtime'

Clover pulled the gun out of the left side of his belt, swiftly drawing it to his hip to fire the first shot. It hit the dummy with enough impact to turn it round slightly to the right.

He then rolled to his left and bent down on his right knee as he used both his hands to quickly steady the second shot. The impact caused the dummy to swivel round back to a similar position it started in.

With one shot left, he pointed his left hand holding the gun directly at the dummy as he hastily stood up straight, his index finger lightly tugging at the trigger.

He was about to pull it...

...

But then... he saw it...

A glimpse of them flashed in his eyes... his Mom and Dad, holding him tightly in a hug inside his room... they were tucking him in...

Clover closed his eyes as he fired the final shot, opening them to see the pellet ricocheting all over the room as it hit the walls at weird angles.

Before he could realise it, the pellet had bounced off the bottom right corner of the room and was heading straight towards his face, hitting him square in the forehead as it knocked him over.

-1HP

"Aargh!- son of a-"

He put his hands over the spot where he'd been hit, hissing in pain as he groaned. For rubber pellets, they could sting quite hard...

Asriel looked over in bewilderment, reacting in excitement before realising Clover was on the ground.

"WOAH! That happened so quickl-" He then saw Clover. "Wha- are you alright, Clover!?"

Both he and Chara came over to where he was sitting on the floor, looking over at the dummy, which had fallen over due to the pellets' bouncy nature. Asriel was ecstatic with how the first two shots had gone, ignoring how Clover had missed the final one. Both his hands clenched as he blabbed on about how cool it was, shaking them up and down in a giddy fashion.

Chara, however, reached their hand out to Clover. Adding a monotone: "Get up" as they did.

Clover paused for a moment, looking directly at them, before reaching his hand out. Chara pulled him up off the floor, then quickly let go of his hand. Dusting both of their own on each other before looking at Asriel, who was still incessantly talking about what he'd just witnessed.

"THAT WAS SICK! It happened so fast- and by the time I'd noticed Clover was on the ground I-"

"Hey! Tour Guide!" Chara snapped their fingers in front of his face, breaking him out of his rambling.

"Wuh? Oh, right..." Asriel scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, avoiding eye contact until he recomposed himself.

"Well uh... That was pretty good, Clover!" He said. "You should be alright in case anything happens out of nowhere..."

Asriel then turned to Chara.

"Umm... D-do you wanna go as well?

Chara stared at Asriel, their tired eyes showing no emotion whatsoever. They then turned their head towards Clover, looking at him for a moment, before producing an aggressive smirk.

They reached behind their back and stylishly pulled out their remarkably clean dagger, twirling it before swiftly tossing it at the dummy. It hit the forehead of it directly, even though it was on the ground...

They paused for a moment before making their way over to the dummy, retrieving their weapon.

"I think I'll be fine, no need for concern..."

'show-off...'

Clover looked at the dagger Chara was holding as they walked back over...

It was wet...

"With that test out of the way... What say we move on?" Chara suggested, tucking their dagger back into the hidden sheath under their jumper.

"Uh... Sure! We probably do need to hurry up if we wanna get to the City before it gets late..." Asriel responded.

With that, the two of them headed through the open passage.

Clover went to go pick up the pellets near the dummy, tucking them back into the plastic pellet case in the bottom of his gun. When he heard the final *Click*, he put the gun back on his belt and began to head after the others.

Still, he was a bit disappointed with how he handled that final shot...

...

He really needed to stop thinking about them...

Chara was still slightly proud of her little exhibition of skills as they kept wandering through the next Fuchsia-tinted hallway, remarking at how well it'd gone compared to the performance of the other Human.

For a Cowboy, he didn't really have any fancy showman skills... It was almost ironic...

They looked down at the floor as they walked, only to spot a weirdly coloured shape that stood out from the rest of the bright purple stone. It seemed to be making an outline of a path... but it went nowhere, ending up at the left corner of the room, even though the way forward was in the middle...

'Odd...'

They kept a mental note of it as the group kept on moving. 

...

"Hey, uh... Asriel." Clover said, puzzled beyond belief.

"Yes, Clover?" Asriel replied.

"How on EARTH are we meant to get across this?!"

Before the group stood a solid metal pathway, surrounded by a small-sized moat of water, and covered entirely in sharp metal spikes.
Calling it a 'bridge' would be quite a stretch, as this seemed to disregard any safety features...

"Oh, don't worry, it's really easy. Only complete idiots don't know how to cross this..." Asriel looked over at Clover with a smug look.
Clover glared back with an annoyed look as he looked over the spike-fest once more.

"Go on then, Tour Guide. Show us how it's done..." came Clover's response, bowing with one hand on his chest.

"Uh... well it's uh..." Asriel began stuttering.

"I-It's much more fun w-when others try to do it, y'know? Getting to see them try and fail, I-it's hilarious!"

Chara could smell the lies from Asriel a mile away. Inspecting him further seemed to prove that fact, quite literally, as the Monster's attire seemed to be damp, along with his fur being wet yet seemingly fluffy. The only natural conclusion would be that Asriel fell into the moat.
And given Clover's sudden grin, Chara assumed that he'd pieced it together as well...

"You swam around it because you didn't know, didn't you...?" said Clover in a mocking tone. His grin was wide enough to fit an entire chocolate bar into...

...

Chara's hunger was getting worse...

"Wh- how'd you- *Cough* -I mean... I have no idea what you're talking about..."

Clover couldn't help but laugh at Asriel's response, chuckling gently before full-on laughing as Asriel began to pout.

...

Seeing him laugh like this... felt strange...

It was like... witnessing a completely different person to the one they'd been acting hostile towards this entire time...

...

Chara shook off these thoughts, pushing herself back into the cynical mindset they had of him.

'Don't forget what he's caused... You're stuck down here because of him...'

...

Though... they caught themselves peering at him once more...

His eyes were young, yet his demeanour was much more mature...

What exactly had this Human gone through to be like this...? And how does he act like this for someone around her age...?

...

The more Chara thought about this Cowboy, the less they understood him...

...

After clearing her thoughts, Chara gazed over the spike-infested path. Any conceivable way someone was meant to cross it was beyond her... However, they realised that its length seemed somewhat similar to that pattern on the floor from earlier...

'There's no way it's that simple...'

Chara always enjoyed puzzles, especially the ones that were a good challenge. So part of her was hoping that the solution to this one wasn't as easy as looking at the floor... After recalling the path in her mind, Chara warily took a step forward... The spikes beneath her foot quickly retracted as they moved forward, showcasing that there was indeed a path forward, just not for those without a keen eye.

Chara turned around to inform the other two, only to be met with Clover lying on the floor, laughing hysterically as Asriel shook him violently, clearly irritated.

Whatever conversation they'd missed must've been incredibly fatuous...

Chara went ahead and followed the path that was laid out on the floor earlier in her mind as they stepped over the spikes, surprisingly coming out on the other end completely unscathed. (Though, they were also disappointed...)

'It really was that simple...'

Looking over at the others, they yelled out in impatience:

"Are you two fools done bickering yet? I've solved it..."

The other two stopped and gazed across the room, quickly standing up to get a better look.

"Wha- HOW?!" came Asriel's voice, jaw dropped wide open.

Chara's gaze shifted to Clover, who simply stared at her with a shocked expression.

Chara paused, staring back for a moment...

...

'What is this-'

"Wait... How DID you solve that?!"

Clover had now also joined onto Asriel's reaction. Changing his shocked look to one of disbelief.

Chara gently shook her head from that earlier thought, coming up with a reply:

"It's really simple, honestly..." They said, a large smirk beginning to form across her face. "Though... I guess Asriel was right when he said only idiots couldn't figure it out..."

"WHAT?!" Came the other two's voices. Both were equally offended.

"Clover, I don't know about you, but I'm not just accepting that! Come on!" said Asriel, face brimming red with anger.

"Right!" Clover replied. "YOU READY CHARA!?"

Chara's smirk changed to a more worried look, feeling slightly concerned about what was going to happen...

"HERE! WE! COME!"

...

Chara walked at the front of the group as two soggy pairs of footsteps squelched behind her. They looked around to view the aftermath of the 'attempt' they'd just witnessed:

Clover was wringing his hat. An irritated look plastered over his face as the water fell to the floor... Asriel, however, was wringing out his ears...

'As much as I'm enjoying this... That can't be nice to do...'

"Hey, can we stop for a minute?" said Asriel, tapping his ear as he tipped his head over to one side. "I've already fallen in twi- I mean, once today, and I'm beat..."

"Fine by me..." said Clover, putting his hat back on as he gently wrung out a wet, folded piece of paper.

...

'I wonder what that could be...'

"Fine... but not for too long." Chara said. Her hunger was starting to become unbearable...

The group began to relax in a medium-sized room with three separate red leaf piles scattered around on the floor. Asriel was sitting against the wall on the left as one entered the room. Clover was not too far away, sitting just to his right. Chara distanced herself from the group, leaning against the wall on the other side of the room, just past the opening to a smaller space at the room's top.

Clover & Asriel started talking, most likely continuing their conversation from earlier, as Asriel was probably still not satisfied with the answers he'd been given.

Chara took this opportunity to go through her own thoughts, without any interruptions from those two simpletons...

...

And yet, her mind began to drift to things they'd rather not think about...

Monsters were living here, enjoying life, even though they'd been trapped underground by Humanity...
There were children having fun, friends playing games, families spending time with each other...

...

Why couldn't they have this?

They'd never had friends to talk and play with... There were none her age that would be willing to even speak to her...

...

And then there were those laughable excuses for 'caretakers' on the surface... They were cruel, unforgiving creatures. Going several days without feeding her and often neglecting her to the point where running away seemed like a better option... But the thought of what was out there always scared her... so they never did...

...

But, then there was today... That old skank was in a worse mood than normal. She'd apparently lost funding for something, and had taken it out...

o n   h e r . . .

...

Chara rolled up her left sleeve out of view, staring at the belt scar that stretched across the whole of her arm... Touching it caused a stinging sensation that burnt her skin... They wanted to scream, but bit their hand to numb the pain. Chara quickly rolled her sleeve back down, biting her lip as the stinging slowly eased away...

...

There was a reason they'd run away... They knew what would happen if they fell down the hole...

Her plan was perfect, with almost no way to fail...

...

So why did that Cowboy have to mess it up?

...

"So lemme get this straight..." Asriel's voice pierced her mind like butter, grabbing her attention towards his conversation with Clover.

"You two knew each other on the surface, wandered around this mountain, tripped near the entrance, and fell down into the Underground?"

"Uh... yep! That's the gist of it..." Clover answered.

'God, he's terrible at lying...'

"Well, if that's the case, then you must know what she's like then, right? Can you tell me more about her?"

...

No...

Not again...

Chara's vision began to swirl, memories rapidly flooding back into her mind as her hand gripped her chest...

It was those memories of the others that had done this to her, disregarding her for who they were...

Chara tried desperately to block them out, but they couldn't...

There were those children from the alley... The adults from all over the village... That cruel, sorry excuse of a woman...

They had all viewed her as something wrong, even when they had told them what they went by...

...

And then, there were those people in the suits...

They had conducted strange tests... They had published the results and gendered her the way they believed...

They had classified her with a "trait" in her soul... They had stripped away any chance of normality her life could've had...

...

They were the ones that made everyone call her... a demon.

...

The memories kept coming, horrid reminders of the ways they'd been labelled on the surface. All of them were attacking her endlessly...

Chara's hand began to vibrate uncontrollably as her pulse became faster; it felt like they couldn't breathe...

'Someone... PLEASE...'

...

"They"

...

What...?

Chara's vision slowly came back, her lungs freeing up again alongside her breathing. Looking over in the direction the response came from, Clover sat with his arms over his legs as he leaned forward, looking past Asriel...

He was looking at her.

'How... did he...'

"Oh, really!?" said Asriel, whipping around with downcast eyes. "I-I'm sorry about that, Chara, I... didn't know, or even think to ask..."

Chara stood silently, staring at both of them... This feeling, this... apology from Asriel for unknowingly getting it wrong...

It felt... mitigating...

...

"Um... so do you go by 'They' then?" Asriel asked, his face full of remorse.

Chara remained silent. They felt like a huge weight was being lifted as this question was finally asked to her, after all this time...

"I... I do prefer They." They answered. "It feels... fitting..."

'It feels... like me'

"What about 'Her', is that all right with you?" Clover asked.

Chara eased into a more comfortable stance. They had never really had a problem with 'Her', it had never bothered her as much as the other one had. And 'Him' didn't really feel as right either...

Though... one question came to her mind...

"Why do you ask about that specifically?"

"Oh, uh..." Clover paused for a moment before looking away. "You sorta looked more feminine when I first saw you... I kinda just guessed based on assumptions, sorry..."

Chara gazed over at the Cowboy, not knowing how to respond. Part of her was slightly angry that he had assumed about it without asking... But they had also assumed about him as well, so they dismissed it.

"Her is also fine." They answered. "It feels like... it fits..."

"Great! I'm glad to get on the right page with you, Chara!" said Asriel, enthusiasm radiating from his face.

"I hope we can be great friends!"

...

'Friends...' 

...

"Right, I feel better now!" Asriel had now jumped up, shaking off droplets from his fur. "Come on, you two, we've got quite a bit of Home to get through before getting to the city, so let's move!"

Asriel charged forward, running down into the next room while calling for both of them behind his back. Clover slowly stood up too, shaking off the last drops of water from his clothes as he walked after Asriel, leaving the room without a word.

Chara, however, just felt... happy...?

Asriel was proving himself to be a big-hearted goofball that genuinely cared for her, even though they'd only met around 15 minutes ago...
He was someone they didn't mind being around...

Maybe... maybe he could potentially be a 'friend' one day...

...

But... Chara still didn't know what to think of the other...

Clover was hard to unravel. He was quiet, yet emphatic. Sometimes positive, yet sometimes stern. And even though he'd retaliated against her hostility with his own, he still corrected Asriel on something that was bothering her...

They despised him for causing everything, and for making up lies about both of them... But he was also proving himself to be considerate and thoughtful; someone who looked out for others... 

Chara didn't know exactly what to make of him; her emotions were mixed...

...

'I need to confront him about this, alone...'

'God... this place goes on for ages...'

Clover and the gang had been traversing through this so-called 'Home' area for roughly 40 minutes by this point, similar hallways of purple continuing on and on for what felt like forever... It didn't even look that purple anymore, probably because he'd been looking at the walls for so long...

The group walked into a room with two split ways, one directly onwards, and one heading left. In the corner of the intersection stood a metallic sign, bolted to the ground. Clover squinted at it, deciphering the handwriting...

It read:

____________________________

≋ 𝐿𝑒𝒻𝓉: 𝑅𝑜𝓎𝒶𝓁'𝓈 𝑅𝑒𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 ≋ 

≋ 𝓡𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽: 𝓒𝓲𝓽𝔂 𝓟𝓪𝓼𝓼𝓪𝓰𝓮 ≋
____________________________

"Royal's Residence?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, that's where the current Rulers of the Underground used to live," said Asriel. "They occasionally stay in it, but not for very long..."

"You mentioned the King earlier, but you haven't really told us a whole lot about these Royals..." said Chara, arms crossed in intrigue.

"Well... that's kinda just because it never properly came up..." Asriel replied.

"Ok then... I'd like to know a little more, if you wouldn't mind..."

Asriel winced slightly as the question was asked.

"You ARE our Tour Guide, are you not?" Chara's curiosity was now taking hold.

Asriel paused for a moment, whispering something to himself quietly, then turned round to face them both.

"Alright, I can tell you." He said. "But these descriptions are gonna be rushed, we haven't got all day... You two alright with that?"

Clover nodded, his own curiosity rising as well as his nerves. Chara pondered for a second about this before eventually nodding as well.

"Very well, explain away..."

Asriel accepted this, beginning to walk around a small portion of the room, hand over his face.

"Huh, where to start..." 

...

"First, there's the King, the Ruler of all Monsterkind. A big, strong warrior who's beaten by nobody! He's well-versed in fire magic, as well as in normal combat with his long red trident that can pierce even the toughest of armour! He's been the Ruler ever since his father fell down during the war- but I can't remember when that was... He refuses to tell me when I ask him..."

'Damn, unlucky again...' Clover thought.

Chara was listening intently to Asriel's description, a single eyebrow raised as he finished that last sentence. It seemed like they were thinking about something...

"But he's a true leader of his people!" Asriel continued. "Someone who goes out of his way to give his kingdom hope, even when it seems like there is little. He works all around the clock on issues all over the Underground, which means not too many people see him when he's not doing his business... But for those who do see him, they are greeted with the greatest King that Monsterkind has ever seen!"

This description of the King only worried Clover as it went on. Whoever else he would face down here could be extremely similar monsters that could wipe him out in an instant if the King was described in such a way... The thought of it made him even more nervous...

"Then there's the Queen! She's the more social side of the Royals, engaging with many of the community councils across the Underground, as well as setting up major events and competitions in various locations to keep everyone excited... But that can only work for so long, and I worry that the people are beginning to get tired of them..."

"Um... Are there any others? Or is it just those two?" Clover asked, anxiously hoping there wasn't...

"There's only one other, their son." Asriel puffed his chest out as he began this description. "He's a constant big hit with everyone he meets, Everyone seems to love him right away! I also heard he's extremely cool... Though not many people have survived his presence for too long... probably because of his natural charisma, which is staggeringly high!"

...

"Uh... ok..." Clover was now doubtful...

"Those descriptions of him are quite generous..." said Chara, seemingly unamused. "Just who exactly is this 'wonder boy' you're describing?"

"Ha! Well..." Asriel smirked. "Would you be surprised if I said... you're both looking directly at him?" He held his hands behind his head as a wild grin formed on his face.

...

"WHAT?!"  [ ]  "I knew it..."

Chara's head turned round at Clover's reaction, baffled at how he hadn't figured it out yet like they had. Clover paused as he felt the confused stare dig into him, immense awkwardness rushing into his mind as he waited for Asriel to hopefully begin talking again...

"Yep! It's me!" he said. "I'm surprised you hadn't figured it out yet, Clover... people have been bowing towards me as we've walked past..."

"Well, I-uh... I was focusing on other things like the uh... Like the puzzles!" Clover replied, his mind scrambling to make an answer,
which he immediately regretted saying as it clearly wasn't true in the slightest...

...

Wait...

'Hadn't Asriel said he was taking them both to see his Parents?' He thought.

Clover's mind slowly dawned on this realisation, dread suddenly emerging in his eyes as he looked towards Asriel...

'He's taking us to see... the King...'

His eyes started to shake as his mind raced with thoughts about what would happen... This was the King of Monsterkind, the one who had fought against Humans in the war long ago while apparently losing his own father because of them...

There was no way he didn't hold immense hatred for Humans...

...

So that means that the 5 missing kids...

'That must be... why they never came back...'

...

"Well then! Now that you guys know who I ACTUALLY am, let's move! We've seriously wasted so much time..." Asriel said as he walked onwards down the straight path, rubbing his nose with his finger, his other hand still held behind his head.

Clover looked at him as he walked down the hallway, eyes widened as his hands trembled at his waist. His whole body felt like it was about to collapse...

"Hey!" came Chara's voice as they hit his shoulder. Clover recoiled slightly as the pain tensed his arm. He stared straight into Chara's eyes;
his back hunched over slightly.

"What are you standing around for?" They said, her tone sounding sceptical. "You... seem to be worried about something... what is it?"

...

Clover was going to answer her... but then he remembered the hostile nature they'd shown earlier...

Why would they be worried now...?

They wouldn't care....

They hated him....

They were probably just mocking him out of spite...

...

"It's none of your business..." He said, straightening his body upright. "I don't tell nutcases what's going on with me until they've proven that they aren't one..."

Chara's face turned to shock, taking a step back as her eyes gently shook. But then her face twisted into anger, words lashing out as her temper rose.

"I'm just showing concern for you! What's wrong with trying to reassure someone!? You did it to me earlier..." Her voice was a mix of emotions, switching between venom and dejection.

Clover's mind screamed at him, begging him to stop. But he didn't listen...

They had shown how they felt about him. So he would do the same...

"Well then, if you want to reassure me, then instead of acting hostile and nearly stabbing me for saving your life... You could maybe try and get along with me!"

Chara's face started forming tears, they were stutter-breathing as her eyes were set directly on his.

"Until then, you'll be alone! Lost by yourself with nobody to care about you! Just like I am!" Clover was yelling as he finished, his emotions finally cracking open the mask he'd been wearing until this moment... He no longer cared about what others felt; he had already gone through and lost so much...

How was it fair to let him suffer on his own!?

...

He stood there in silence, his eyes glaring over in vexation as he breathed steadily...

Chara glared back at him, the anger in her eyes dissipating as her face slowly welled up with tears...

"Guys! Come on! The City is right over here!" came Asriel's voice, yelling from a few rooms away.

Clover shook his head, composing himself once more as he quickly stormed off down the hallway, refusing to look back...

His anger disappeared along with his adrenaline as he walked, the emotional mask he'd been wearing slowly repairing itself as it did...

Once the mask reformed, he stopped dead in his tracks, realising what he'd just done... He swung his head back around, only to see Chara standing motionless in the middle of the room, staring at the floor...

'God... what have I done...'

The guilt he was feeling slowly flooded his mind; he desperately wanted to apologize, but his body moved on into the next room before he could say a word...

The only thing he could hear was the slight sobbing from behind him as he left...

...

Clover swiftly walked through the small opening, shutting out the voice in his head as he was suddenly blinded by bright light as the view before him appeared...

"Clover! There you are!" said Asriel, spinning round from the balcony he was leaning on. "It's taken a while, but welcome to the City!"

Behind Asriel stood an incredible view of multiple buildings, almost like it was a painting. The dark purple colours of the architecture were contrasted by bright orange and yellow lights that glowed from streetlights below. Noises of crowds moving and bustling around were extremely audible, even from the platform they were standing on, which was far above the main streets. 

Clover eyes expanded as he tried to take the scenery all in, he hadn't seen a place like this in a while... ever since-

"Hey uh... what exactly took you so long?" Asriel asked, placing himself in front of Clover's eyes to block out the view.

"And... where's Chara? Were they right behind you?"

...

Clover looked to the side as he recalled what had just happened. He didn't want Asriel to find out about it, though, so he quickly blurted out a response:

"They dropped something in a previous room."

"Oh, ok! Let's wait for her then! I can't wait to show you both the city here!"

Clover averted his gaze even further, guilt dragging all over his body. Asriel's optimism was almost too much for him to given how he was feeling; it was radiant...

Then came the footsteps, plodding slowly as Asriel's face lit up once more. Clover refused to turn around...

"Howdy, Chara! You find what you were looking for?"

"let's go..." came Chara's response, her voice sounding toneless, like it couldn't be asked to pick a mood...

"Wha? But you went to go find something, didn't yo-"

"I said, let's go."

Chara's footsteps promptly strutted off to the right, heading down the long walkway that stretched into the distance.

"Oh, uh..." Asriel faltered, trying his best not to let his spirits down. "Looks like they're uh... eager to see the City...?"

He sped off after them. Clover faintly heard him yell: "Wait up, Chara!" as he ran along.

...

'This is my fault...'

...

The city streets were packed as Asriel led both of them through, monsters of all different shapes and sizes moving in different directions as they all went along with their own tasks. Some were heading towards various market stalls that were open, while others were simply carrying bags of food and other amenities, most likely taking them to their homes to finish the day.

Asriel himself was having difficulty navigating through the town while making sure he didn't lose them both, to the point where a patrol officer noticed his struggle.

"MAKE WAY, EVERYONE!" The monster's voice boomed. "THE PRINCE IS WALKING THROUGH HERE!"

With that, the crowds split in two as a path in the middle formed with little delay. Many monsters looked around at the new path to greet the young Prince, bowing lowly as he walked past with both of them in tow.

"Don't mind me, everyone!" Asriel announced, his voice causing the crowds to lower their own. "I'm just escorting these two to meet the King!"

...

Silence followed his announcement as the crowd's gazes shifted to the two tag-alongs behind the Prince, many hushed whispers muttering through the crowd as they became aware of what was going on.

'This can't be good...' 

Clover kept his head low and covered it with his hat as he nudged Asriel forward.

"Asriel, move! We don't need more attention right now!"

"Yeah, I know! But you do realise that my own presence can't simply be ignored by the people, right? This is the best you're going to get without getting swarmed..."

Asriel's response stunned Clover for a moment, but proved itself to be true, as not a single monster in the crowds surrounding them dared to move or raise their voice. They just watched, eyes either burrowed with seriousness or slowly broadening in fear as the group began to move forward once more...

'This feels... wrong...'

...

It took Asriel a few looks at the city map to figure out where their destination was inside the large Capital City, but after a few more corner turns and slight directions from the city folk walking around, the group finally made it to their 'destination'. 

Standing before them was a building built into a large purple wall that scaled high above the city. Two guards in a faint light blue coloured armour stood at its entrance, holding spears in their respective dominant hands, which just so happened to make a symmetrical layout.
Above the brightly lit doors behind the guards was a neon-tainted sign made out of glass, which read:

______________________

 𝓡𝓸𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓶 𝓖𝓪𝓽𝓮𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼
______________________

Clover had no idea what was awaiting inside, but given that Asriel said this is where they were ending up, he immediately tried to divert from it, hoping he could prolong his interactions with the King for long enough while he figured out some form of plan...

His eyes caught the wall the building was built into, and in turn, the large hallway-like structure to the right of the wall that was hovering over a large portion of the City, held up by the wall itself, and a different wall way off in the distance, too dark to properly see.

'That'll make a good enough diversion for now...'

"Hey Asriel, what exactly is all of that up there?" he asked, looking up at the structures.

"Hm? Oh! You mean the wall and hallway bridge?" Asriel replied, pointing at them.

"The large wall is what supports the Castle that my Family and I used to live in! The building is pretty high above the rest of the city, so the wall acts as a structure beneath it, with certain other buildings like this one built into it, mainly for Royal use."

Asriel then turned his attention towards the bridge-like structure.

"As for the hallway bridge... it's more complicated..." he rubbed the back of his head, scratching it slightly.

"It's a more sealed off path that links directly to the Castle basement, which leads to the next area past Home. It's really only used by those in the Royal Guard, who are the Underground's own sort of Law enforcement group. They mainly used it to traverse quickly from here to there whenever there's an emergency, given the vast numbers of them and how they would need to-"

...

'There's... a Royal Guard...?!'

Clover's nerves skyrocketed as Asriel kept talking; his mind zoning out as a newer, much scarier situation was hitting him alongside many others...

There was an entire FORCE of monsters that acted pretty much like the Police would on the surface... AND he was now being told that they were apparently trained, by other STRONGER monsters, to hunt down any person that was considered a threat...

'This... is so much worse than I thought...'

"And that's pretty much it! Any other questions?" Asriel finished, the rest of his spiel being drowned out by Clover's own thoughts...

"Wha? Uh... no..." Clover couldn't even think straight. Any sort of plan he was now envisioning was being demolished by the thought of being hunted by an elite patrol force...

"Great! Now, let's head inside! My Parents will hopefully be able to help you guys out soon!"

Asriel walked up to the guards and raised his hand towards the one on the right in... what looked like a fist bump shape?

"Heya Dugar!"

The abnormally tall guard on the right of the door bent down to Asriel's level and slowly returned the fist bump before standing back up and removing his spear from in front of the door.

"WE... TALK SOON... LITTLE PRINCE." The monster in armour spoke gradually, taking his time to pick out the right words as his head tilted down to look at Asriel.

"Whoa! You're slowly getting better at that, Dugar! Our next lesson will be soon, so keep practicing!" 

"THANK.... YOU"

Asriel proceeded through the door, waving at the other guard as he went through. The small, slightly thin other guard merely stayed still, removing his own spear before looking at Clover.

"Move along now, you wouldn't want other monsters to look around at you, right?" They ended his message with a firmer tone, seemingly angry at the very presence of both Clover and-

Chara moved forward, bumping into Clover's shoulder as they walked past before heading inside the building. Clover looked onwards, remaining silent.

'Guess that figures...'

Not wanting to wait around any longer, Clover made his way inside, the look from the smaller guard digging into the back of his head as both of the guards returned their spears to where they had been before...

...

The room inside the building was cosy. Wooden floors were covered by knitted carpets spread across the floor, with tables and chairs in the back corners of the room near a fireplace. Mirrors covered the walls all around the room, all with multiple different shapes and sizes. In the opposite corner of the room from the fireplace was a reception desk with a... Mirror? Wearing glasses? While sitting in a chair?

Clover was partially confused, but dismissed his thoughts as Asriel made his way over to the desk.

"Hello, Madam Tcelfer!"

"Oh! Sweet little Azzy! How wonderful to see you here!" The evidently now alive Mirror got out of her chair and leaned over the desk, adjusting her glasses with her hands.

"What brings you here today?" She asked, taking a glance at both humans standing behind Asriel.

"Could you let my Parents know about an urgent matter? I need them here to meet these two." Asriel moved out of the way to reveal both of them more clearly.

"A- Oh... I see..." The Mirror, 'Madam Tcelfer', had a slight pause between her words as she properly looked at both Humans, but she remained friendly.

"I'll get them on the direct line, come with me, Asriel."

Madam Tcelfer hovered around her desk and guided Asriel towards a door on the other side of the room, opening it to reveal a small room with a large unanimated mirror hanging on the wall.

"I'll be back in a moment guys, just wait patiently!" Asriel said, closing the door behind him.

...

It was now just the two of them...

Clover looked at the wall, or rather, quite literally anywhere else but at Chara. The less he interacted with her, the more likely he would make it out unscathed...

He instead began to think about the name of this place, which had puzzled him since the group had arrived...

'Rorrim Gateways, huh?' An odd name for a place... All it had was a bunch of mirrors on the wall...

...

'Oh my god... "Rorrim" is "Mirror" backwards...'

Clover contemplated this for several seconds...

'Wait, then what does Madam "Tcelfer" mea-'

Clover suddenly spotted the looming shadow behind him on the wall ahead. Chara was no longer to his left...

Instinctively, he turned round, reaching his gun from the left side of his belt and pulling it out as he did.

Time seemed to slow in his mind as he saw the blade of the dagger swinging down on him. Clover raised his toy gun upwards to connect with the blade, holding it in place right above his face with both hands as time sped up once more.

Chara was aggressively pushing the dagger down harder, her eyes shooting daggers at him as they glared into his own. Clover was pushing back, his knees partially bent as the full force of the other human was weighing down on him during the clash.

'Do something, Genius!'

"Chara, I'm sorry about what I said earlier, I wasn't thinking straig-"

"You don't get to be sorry..."

Her voice was distorting, an octave below accompanying her words as they spoke.

"I'll make you pay for all you've done, CLOVER..."

Suddenly, her eyes expanded into large open circles, black ooze starting to slide down her face as they put more and more strength into the dagger.

Clover shoved the clash to one side, pushing both weapons to the right and making them both fall on the floor with a loud *CLANK*. Chara lunged forward at him, pinning him against the wall with one hand, tightly gripping his neck.

Clover reached to the floor, trying to reach his gun, but was gripped tighter by her hand, causing him to gasp for air as he felt his lungs giving way...

A strong, kinetic jolt in the floor caused the room to shake, knocking them both off balance, allowing Clover to free himself and dash to the other side of the room. Chara grabbed his wrist as he dashed, holding him in place as her face grew more melted...

"Hey, guys!" Asriel said as he opened the door. "How's it goi-"

Asriel stopped as he saw the scene before him. Madam Tcelfer, coming from behind him, as she too paused to bear her eyes on what she saw.

Chara looked over, her face quickly shifting back to normal as her face swung round.

"What's going on here?" Asriel asked, squinting his eyes as he walked forward.

Chara quickly let go of Clover's wrist, dusting herself off as a reflex to make it seem natural. Clover grabbed his wrist out of slight pain, the area in which it was gripped being more red than the rest of his skin.

"Nothing" They both said at once, looking at the other with untrustworthy glares.

"Uh... Ok...?" Asriel walked over to both of them, grabbing one of their shoulders each. "Ready to meet the King?"

'Wait... WHAT?! NOW?!' 

Clover had been too distracted to realise what was happening these past few minutes. He looked behind him, only to see the two guards now standing behind him, blocking the exit.

'Damnit, there's gotta be another way ou-'

A loud thud through the floor shattered his thoughts, as his attention shifted towards the door.

From it emerged a large, bulky figure, wrapped in a flowing purple cloak on top of sturdy-looking, dark grey coloured armour that covered his whole body, with two pieces of shoulder armour on top of his cloak on each of his shoulders. A small gold crown was planted in the middle of his head between his two large white horns, and his face was covered in a gold-yellow coloured beard along with his hair. His eyes gleamed deep brown.

Clover froze, his body tensing up as the figure moved slowly towards him across the room. Chara was also visibly tense, with her right hand gripping her left arm.

This figure, the King, slightly shook the room as he walked towards both of them, his face unreadable but extremely serious.

To the right of him walked a slightly smaller, yet still incredibly tall figure, most likely the Queen. She wore a light blue coloured robe with a large symbol across the middle. Similar to the king, she wore a small golden crown, along with smaller-sized shoulder armour.
Her eyes stared intently at Clover with a dark red tint.

Both of them came to a halt right in front of them, staring down as their tall character loomed over them both.

The King began to speak...

"Humans, hm? Curious..." His voice was gentle, yet overwhelming as he spoke, loud enough to still make the room gently shake while he was standing still.

"It seems... we have a new future ahead of us..." said the Queen, looking to face the king with a sense of calmness protruding from her stance.

Clover felt his heart rate quicken, small jagged breaths quietly escaping from him as he continued to look upwards at both of them.

'They need two souls to break the barrier... So a new future must mean...'

The King's voice boomed once more...

"I just have one question for beings like you..." he said, walking a few steps forward and bending down on one knee.

He stared down at them both for a moment before reaching inside his cloak...

Clover braced himself for the worst...

The King... then pulled out two teacups along with a teapot?

"Would either of you care for a cup of tea...?"

...

What