Chapter Text
Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: HUMANS, and MONSTERS.
One day, war broke out between the two races.
After a long battle, the humans were victorious.
They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.
Many years later, legends say that those who climb Mt. Ebott never return.
Many children climbed up the mountain, all of them never being seen again.
All, except one…
In the year 201X, one child ascended the mountain and braved the mysteries that lied within.
Encountering the monsters of legend and forming bonds of friendship with them.
After only a couple of days later, something marvelous happened.
A powerful quake shook the land surrounding the mountain, and shortly after…
The monsters were led down the mountain with the child leading the way.
At first, panic was initially had by the humans living nearby…
But negotiations were quickly set up by the ruler of the monsters and the mayor of the city.
After some time, with the human child providing their own testimony…
It was ultimately deduced that the monsters meant no harm. With them merely wanting to enjoy their newfound freedom on the surface.
It was decided that the monsters would live alongside humans once again.
With both sides seeing how the other could benefit each other’s societies.
For the first few weeks, relations between monsters and humans were tense…
Some humans were wary of the monsters…
While others actively welcomed them.
Eventually, a little over a year had passed since the monsters had been freed.
Monsters were now almost fully welcomed in society, with them being treated like normal citizens.
All thanks to the efforts of seven human children, all of monster kind, and others willing to help.
It was a happy ending.
However…
Not even the happiest of endings can stay around for long.
An ancient dark force has begun to infest this world, and it isn’t long before it drags it into darkness.
Only the strength and bonds made by one human can save this world.
A human, unaware that fate has so much more in store for them.
It’s a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and there are only a couple of clouds dotted across the sky as the sun shines down upon the legendary Mount Ebott. Nearby said mountain is a large city situated near the ocean, known simply as Ebott City, named after the mountain close to it. Away from the towering skyscrapers and hustle and bustle of traffic lied a quaint little neighborhood towards the outskirts of the city. Within this neighborhood was a simple single-story house made with yellow walls and a black-tiled roof with windows dotted about here and there. The sunlight shined into one of these windows, directly into one of the bedrooms of the house.
The bedroom itself was quite quaint, pastel blue walls with a white ceiling where a ceiling fan lazily spun around keeping the air nice and cool. A wardrobe set up against the wall containing who knew what manner of clothing. A desk with a chair sat up right against the wall and under the window, where a simple white mug held a variety of pens and pencils as a stack of blank paper rested in one of the corners as a tall lamp was situated right next to the desk. A large bookcase filled with a variety of books from light novels, joke books, and various other works of fiction and non-fiction lined the shelves. Dotted across the walls of the room were a variety of shelves, some holding small bits of memorabilia while others held framed pictures. Finally was a bed sitting up against the wall opposite of the door into the room with a nightstand right next to it holding a lamp, a plugged-in phone, and two framed pictures.
Laying under the sheets with only a small mess of brown hair peeking out from under the covers was the one living in this bedroom. The rays of sunlight peeking through the window and beaming directly onto the bed would normally wake the occupant up, but because said occupant’s face was under the blanket, they were able to savor some more rest as they kept dreaming. However, dreams aren’t meant to last long, no matter how good they might be. A knock could be heard coming from the door as a slightly muffled voice called out.
“Frisk dear? Are you awake?” Called out the voice, soft and motherly in tone. Another knock sounded from the door before the voice called out again. “Frisk, I’m coming in.”
The door opened, revealing a tall anthropomorphic goat with white fur, floppy ears, small horns, a pair of fangs poking out from a muzzle, dark red eyes, and paws wearing a long purple robe with white sleeves and a blue triangular crest on the front bearing a symbol made up of white triangles and wings attached to a circle. This was Toriel, the former queen of the monsters as well as being the former caretaker of the Ruins, the first place one would find themselves in after falling down into the depths of the Underground and the original capital of the Underground as well. Ever since coming to the surface, her dream has been to become a teacher and eventually open her own school. While the former has been accomplished, she is still working on achieving the latter.
“Frisk, while I understand it is not a school day and it is nice to sleep in, that doesn’t mean we still don’t have something important today. Come on now, it’s time to get up.” Toriel said as she walked over to the bed and pulled the covers down, revealing the occupant of the bed.
Within the bed was Frisk, the eight human child to have fallen into the Underground and was the one who helped free the monsters trapped under Mount Ebott over a year ago. Other than their dark brown hair that was currently showing signs of becoming a bedhead, they had lightly tan skin and were wearing a white t-shirt and black shorts. After Toriel had moved the covers exposing Frisk to the rays of sun beaming into their room, they let out a small groan before they rubbed their eyes and slowly opened them, revealing their irises to be a soft shade of brown.
“Mhm, morning mom.” Frisk said as they began to wake up.
“Morning sweetie. Now then, we need to get ready for later. You remember what we planned today, right?” Toriel asked.
“Plan, planned…” Frisk groggily said as they were still waking up before they suddenly shot awake. “Oh my gosh, right! I need to get ready for the picnic!”
“That’s right dear. We’ll be leaving in a few minutes to head over to the park to meet up with the others. So make sure to start getting ready for the day.” Toriel said.
“I will.” Frisk said as they sat upright on their bed as Toriel began heading towards the door.
“I’m sure you do. I will be waiting by the car when you are ready.” Toriel said as she closed the door behind her.
Frisk took a bit to stretch out their arms before they began looking around their room as their mind began to drift off. After leaving the Underground and doing their best to help convince the people of Ebott that monster-kind were peaceful and didn’t seek to overthrow the government or anything silly like that, Frisk was eventually adopted by Toriel. Towards the first few months of monsters being free from the Underground they had deigned to set up a camp outside of the limits of the city. As Frisk acted as the ambassador to the monsters and did their best to get the proper rights that monster-kind deserved alongside some help from other humans who were willing to help, monsters eventually started receiving similar rights that humans had. After enough progress was made and with permission from the mayor, construction was allowed for monsters to be able to start living in homes of their own. Of course, a lot of monsters pitched in alongside the ones constructing their homes, and eventually the small neighborhood they lived in today was built in only a couple of months. Even some humans that weren’t too uncomfortable around monsters decided to move into the neighborhood, mostly because of how cheap housing was around here, but also because of genuine curiosity.
“Didn’t Toriel say you should probably get ready?”
Frisk was brought out of their reminiscing by a slightly snarky voice coming from near the door. The owner of said voice was another human that looked slightly similar to Frisk, albeit with a few differences. Their skin was slightly pale but still had a healthy tone to it with slightly rosy cheeks, their brown hair was lighter than Frisk’s and was a lot better than Frisk’s bedhead, and they had red eyes like Toriel though the color was a brighter red. They were wearing a green sweater with a large yellow stripe running around the middle of the torso with a white shirt underneath with the collar poking out from the top, with a pair of simple black pants and black shoes completing the look.
Oh, and they were slightly intangible too.
“Sorry Chara. I was just thinking about some stuff.” Frisk said as they looked at the ghost.
Chara was the first human to have ever fallen into the Underground and was also adopted by Toriel and Asgore, the former king of monsters. They were treated as though they were their biological child, and got along greatly with Asriel, Toriel and Asgore’s biological son. However, due to a series of events that they didn’t really like talking about, both Chara and Asriel died within the same night. It was only after Frisk fell into the Underground that Chara had found that they had become a ghost of sorts. With nothing else to really do, they began following Frisk and helping them out with their guidance every now and then through their journey alongside another ghost as well. After their adventures in the Underground, Chara decided to stay with Frisk and keep an eye on them, also mostly because they really didn’t have anything else to do. Even though Chara died when they were still a kid, they had tried making it so that their appearance matched their age, or at least Frisk’s.
When Frisk turned 14 roughly 2 weeks ago, Frisk joked how Chara would be a sort of younger sibling to them as they looked younger. Chara proceeded to disappear for the next couple of days, only to reappear and look slightly older. Turns out Chara spent that time trying to figure out if they could change their looks as a ghost, and they somehow did.
“Still, you should probably get ready. Everyone else might be waiting for you and Toriel at the park.” Chara replied.
“True, though I can also think of a few people that might be waiting for you.” Frisk said as they got out of bed.
“Heh. Well, I guess you might be right there.” Chara said as they walked out of the room to give Frisk some privacy. Quite literally as they walked through the door.
Frisk walked over to the wardrobe and started going through what they could wear today. The picnic today was sort of a get-together that involved a lot of the monsters Frisk had become friends with in addition to some others as well. After looking through some of the various articles of clothing, Frisk eventually decided to go with something slightly nostalgic and began pulling out some clothes before getting dressed.
After which, they walked over to the nightstand and grabbed the phone resting on it before taking a look at the photos resting on it. The first was a picture that was taken almost a month ago, as Frisk and almost every single monster from the Underground alongside six other humans were standing in a field with Mt. Ebott in the background with the words “First anniversary of monsters being freed.” written in the corner of the photo. This photo was taken one year exactly after monsters had been freed from the Underground, and there were plans to make the date into a celebration of sorts where monsters could celebrate their freedom. The other photo, however, wasn’t as recent, but still held some significance to Frisk nonetheless. In the photo, a slightly younger-looking Frisk was smiling while reaching towards the machine that took the photo, with a younger-looking Chara hovering over Frisk’s shoulder and looking slightly bored. However, hovering over Frisk’s left shoulder was someone else whose arm was laying right on top of Frisk’s head while they were winking and waving at the camera. They were also a human, though looked different than Frisk and Chara. Their skin was light in tone as their hair was just brown in color and was slightly messy with their eyes being bright yellow in color. In addition, their outfit could only be described as something that a cowboy would wear. A brown cowboy hat rested on their head as they wore a light brown shirt with the cuffs slightly rolled up with a black pin holding the cuffs in position with a dark brown vest over it, a short yellow and dark blue checkered scarf wrapped around their neck, and a pair of blue jeans and brown boots completing the look. Like Chara, they were also slightly intangible. Frisk still didn’t know how that camera in New Home managed to also catch the image of both of the ghosts that helped them on their journey, but they supposed it was another one of the Underground’s many mysteries.
Walking away from the nightstand, they then exited their room as they were now in a hallway with doors on one side and some windows on the other. Approaching one of the doors and opening it, Frisk entered one of the bathrooms of the house which had white tiled floors and gray walls, a sink right next to the door with cabinets underneath it, a toilet right beside it, and a shower at the end of the room. Within said shower were some normal bottles of shampoo and body wash, in addition to a large container of pet shampoo. Products for monsters weren’t really being made yet on the surface, so some monsters had to improvise. Still made for a funny trip to the pet store.
After cleaning themselves up with brushing their hair and teeth, Frisk took a look in the mirror to see how they looked. Gone was the bedhead and in its place was a hair style similar to Chara’s, though there were some strands of hair that poked out here and there no matter how hard Frisk tried to keep the hair well kept. They wore a blue sweater similar to Chara’s, though this one had two smaller pink stripes running around the torso, a pair of black shorts and black tennis shoes with some white socks sticking out from the shoes. Satisfied with their look, Frisk left the bathroom and continued down the hallway before entering the living room where there was a tv sitting on a stand towards the wall that was right next to a small fireplace with a pair of couches resting against opposite sides of the wall. An entryway opposite of where Frisk entered led to the dining room and kitchen, where Frisk could see a table surrounded by chairs. A door opposite of the wall that had the fireplace and tv was the front door which Frisk went through and onto the front porch which overlooked the front yard. Looking to their left, Frisk saw Toriel packing a couple of things into a red minivan with Chara leaning up against one of the doors.
“You sure took your time. I see you decided to go with that getup.” Chara said with a small smirk as they began floating over to Frisk and began hovering slightly above their right shoulder.
“Just wanted to make sure I look nice for today. That’s all.” Frisk said and began walking towards Toriel.
After packing the last of the things into the van, Toriel looked over and saw Frisk walking towards her as a smile grew on her face. “Oh my, I haven’t seen you wear that in ages.” Toriel said.
“I just felt that it would be nice to wear something like this again.” Frisk said.
“Well you look nice dear. Shall we get going?” Toriel asked as she opened the door to the van.
Frisk gave a nod as they hopped into the passenger side of the vehicle while Toriel got into the driver’s seat and Chara simply sat in the seat behind Frisk. One big thing that Frisk needed to make sure could be possible when discussions began concerning what monsters should have access to were being able to drive. Mostly because Frisk fully believed that monsters could be safe while driving, and also because they wanted to help fulfill a certain skeleton’s dream. Toriel did actually quite well on her driving test, though she did need to borrow a vehicle from one of the people who were in full support of monsters in order to properly get used to driving a vehicle. The same was true for all other monsters that wanted to be able to drive a car of their own.
Toriel started the car and slowly began to pull out of the driveway before driving down the road. Frisk simply gazed out the window watching the scenery pass by. Some monsters were out and about doing what they usually did in the morning alongside a few humans just going about their day. The sight of which brought a smile to Frisk’s face. It didn’t take long before Toriel turned down a road that led down the more business centered street of the outskirts of the city. A few monster owned shops and restaurants ran up and down the street including a bar owned by Grillby, a bakery owned by Muffet advertising some sort of sale that was going on, a pawn shop owned by Bratty and Catty, and much more. It didn’t take long before Toriel turned down another road that eventually led to a massive park. Frisk remembered that this was one of the first big projects they suggested that they claimed would help build unity between monsters and humans, and they were somewhat right. While there were a few bumps in the construction process, everything ended up turning out quite well with some humans and their families even moving to the outskirts as well.
Toriel eventually began slowing down before parking the minivan in a nearby parking lot next to the park. Nearby were a couple of other vehicles that Frisk recognized including a red convertible, a green moped was parked right in front of the convertible in a designated spot for bikes, a black sedan with a fish hood decoration and a dangling rearview mirror decoration that had pictures on the ends featuring a familiar cat girl, a dark green pickup truck that had a couple of dirt stains on the edges of the bed, another sedan though this one was white and had a few bumper stickers that were just pictures of corn, another pickup truck that was blue and had a couple of wooden boards sticking out of the bed, and a yellow station wagon were there were a few window stickers on the back window that included a cherry blossom tree and some tumbleweeds.
Frisk, Toriel, and Chara exited the car with Frisk and Toriel going to the trunk and grabbing a couple of things including a picnic basket and two large blankets. Frisk carried the basket with both hands while Toriel easily carried the two blankets.
“Are you sure that isn’t too heavy for you?” Toriel asked Frisk as they began to make their way into the park.
“Not at all. Besides, hopefully it shouldn’t take too long to find the others.” Frisk said with Chara once again hovering over their shoulder.
“I hope so.” Toriel said.
It did in fact not take but only a couple of minutes of walking before they eventually found a familiar group of monsters and humans hanging around a large gazebo. All of them were talking to one another, though a group of 6 humans close to Frisk’s age, a pair of monsters, and a familiar talking flower were all sticking close to each other a little bit away from the group of monsters and seemed to be deep in conversation.
“Hey guys, we made it!” Frisk called out as they began rushing over to the group.
The first monster to notice Frisk’s call was what could only be described as a tall skeleton that was wearing a very peculiar outfit. Said outfit was a large white chest piece that covered their upper body that had puffy sleeves that ended just after the shoulders and featured a strange design on the left breast, a pair of blue very short shorts, a pair of red boots with the underside being white, a pair of red gloves with yellow cuffs, and a red scarf that was tied around the neck. The skeletal limbs that were exposed were covered up with a black skin-tight material. This was Papyrus, a somewhat eccentric monster who was great at making puzzles and aspired to become a member of the royal guard back when the monsters still lived below Mt. Ebott. After coming to the surface, Papyrus eventually managed to put his puzzle making skills to use as he managed to get hired at the same construction company that helped with creating the park they were currently in.
“Ah! Frisk! Toriel! It is so good to see you!” Papyrus exclaimed as Frisk made it over to the group with Toriel close behind.
“good to see ya, kid.” A monster besides Papyrus said. This monster was also a skeleton like Papyrus, though was a lot shorter, roughly around Frisk’s height. Compared to the outfit Papyrus was wearing, the one this skeleton was wearing was a lot more casual. Said outfit was a white t-shirt underneath a blue jacket with a gray hood, a pair of black shorts with two vertical stripes on each leg, and for some reason the skeleton was wearing socks with a pair of pink slippers. This was Sans, Papyrus’ older brother and was a lot more laid-back as well. While not sharing his brother’s enthusiastic love for puzzles, Sans was a lover of jokes and often times pranked Frisk a few times throughout their journey. He also helped out Frisk a couple of times in their journey, albeit in slightly subtle ways. Though he was also not to be underestimated for a few reasons. One was that he possessed a special “judge” ability that allowed him to look deeply into another person soul, whether they were human or monster. And for another reason as well… Either way, after moving to the surface, Sans surprisingly ended up getting a job as a lawyer of all things. He took to studying law and was easily able to wrap his head around a lot of the more confusing parts that Frisk couldn’t get. To the point where Frisk considered Sans their go to when it came to dealing with legal matters.
“Finally showed up huh? We were starting to get bored waiting here!” Another monster said. This monster was human-like in appearance, though that was where the similarities ended. They sported blue scales all over their body with long red hair that was tied into a ponytail with two blue and red fins sprouting from the sides of their head. They had a single yellow eye as their left eye was covered by an eyepatch and sharp yellow teeth poking out from their mouth. Their outfit was actually pretty simple as it was a black tank-top with blue jeans and red boots. This was Undyne, former captain of the royal guard and among the strongest monsters in the Underground, for good reason too. It took a bit before Frisk and Undyne eventually became friends, but one hang out (and house fire) later, and they count on each other if push came to shove. After coming to the surface, Undyne eventually got a job working in the city’s police force, and she quickly started climbing the ranks with how skilled she was. However, she was mostly assigned to deal with stuff that happened in the outskirts of Ebott as the force wasn’t familiar with how they should properly deal with some of the more “dangerous” monsters. Undyne was miffed about it, but she couldn’t really do anything about it. That is until she manages to become chief of the police department, a goal that was looking to become a reality with every passing day.
“W-well, it is good to see that you two m-made it on time.” A monster right beside Undyne said. This monster was a slightly chubby yellow anthropomorphic lizard with beady eyes behind a pair of glasses that made them look bigger and a couple of buck teeth sticking out from their upper lip. Their outfit was a unique mix of professional and casual, a black shirt with the words “Mew Mew Kissy Cutie” in large pink font with a white lab coat on top and a pair of blue sweatpants. This was Alphys, the former royal scientist and quite the genius in robotics. The reason she even became a royal scientist was because she created a robotic body for a monster without a physical form that actually worked out quite well. In addition, she was an expert when it came to the study of souls, both human and monster souls. It was thanks to Frisk that she was finally able to face a mistake she had made in regards to an experiment regarding using the souls of monsters to try and free everyone, an experiment that ended horribly. Thankfully the families of those involved forgave her overtime, and she was a lot more confident as well. Nowadays she works at a small hospital set up in the outskirts that treats both monsters and humans, alongside both living with and dating Undyne.
“It is good to see the both of you. How have things been?” Another monster said. This monster looked to be the same kind of monster as Toriel, though with a few differences. They were taller and bulkier than Toriel, with bigger horns growing out of the top of their head along side having blonde hair and a beard, in addition to having the same eyes as Toriel. Their outfit was quite casual, a pink floral print shirt and a pair of blue jeans. This was Asgore, the former king of monsters and Toriel’s ex-husband. He fought in the war between monsters and humans all those years ago and still served as the ruler of monsters afterwards, doing his best to guide everyone over the years. It was after Chara and Asriel’s death that Asgore decided to wage war on humans, declaring any human that fell into the Underground would have their soul taken. It was thanks to Frisk that Asgore, alongside being scolded by Toriel, that he eventually saw how futile his decisions were. After all the monsters were freed from the Underground, Asgore acted as a representative of the monsters alongside Frisk, in addition to helping Frisk with ambassador duties if the need arose. After everything started calming down, Asgore eventually opened his own gardening shop that was actually doing quite well in terms of business. Even though Asgore has slightly let himself go as he did gain some weight compared to when he served as king, that didn’t mean he let his strength and skills go to waste. Often times one could see him practicing with his trident and magic in the early hours of the morning right before his shop opened.
“Oh, it is nice to see you again, Frisk.” A monster with a calm voice said. This monster actually almost looked like a human, albeit with a few things that showed that they were a monster. Their skin was light purple in tone matched by darker purple hair that seemed freshly combed with a pair of horns sticking out of their head, deep purple eyes, and a pair of small fangs poking out of their mouth. Their outfit was almost something out of a medieval play, as they were wearing a white ruffled shirt, a pair of dark purple pants held up by a black belt, a pair of black dress shoes that seemed to be polished, and a dark brown cloak around their neck that reached almost all the way to the bottom of their shoes. This was Dalv, a monster Frisk was introduced to by a friend who also originally lived in the Ruins, though in a deeper and darker part that Frisk didn’t explore before eventually moving to Snowdin. They were somewhat of a recluse and apparently had a love for corn like no other. In the Underground Dalv was apparently well known for his skills with an organ and actually played it a lot at events across the Underground, something he has also been doing ever since he came up to the surface. Though he has also tried writing and illustrating some children’s books, something that is coming along quite well as he is trying to get a couple of them published.
“Oh, hello Frisk! Good to see you! The others are over there if you want to talk to them as well.” A monster with a happy expression said as they gestured over to the nearby group of humans and monsters. This monster was an anthropomorphic bird with blue feathers and eyes, a somewhat messy head of blue hair with some strands of hair slightly sticking up towards the back, a simple yellow beak, and their wings were being used as their arms as they pointed to the group of humans and monsters nearby. Their outfit was somewhat simple as it was a blueish gray tank top, a pair of blue jeans held up by some sort of brown utility belt with a couple of tools hanging from it, and a pair of yellow snow boots that had white fluff towards the top. This was Martlet, another monster that Frisk was introduced to by a friend. She was originally a member of the royal guard, but eventually decided to resign and took up construction work as she helped build homes and other things. Something she also decided to continue to do on the surface as she was also hired by the same construction company Papyrus worked at.
“Well hey there Frisk, miss Toriel, pleasure seein’ the both of ya.” A monster with a slightly southern accent said. This monster was mostly humanoid, though had a few distinguishing features. Their skin was yellow in color and they sported appendages on their head that formed the shape of a star with the end of said appendages having a teal pattern and they had a tail that ended in three points with the end of the tail and points also being teal, finally they had green eyes that were behind a pair of glasses. Their outfit was something akin to what a farmer would wear as they were sporting a gray collard long-sleeve shirt with a pair dark teal overalls over it, a pair of dark brown cowboy boots and dark brown leather gloves, and a dark brown ten-gallon hat that was dangling on their back but was hanging around the neck due to a cord. This was Starlo, once again another monster that Frisk knew through introduction from a friend. Starlo and his family originally lived on a farm located in a place called the Dunes, a location that Frisk didn’t really visit on their journey but was told it was a hot and sandy region. Starlo was a major fan of anything relating to cowboys and western movies, so much so that he established a group known as the Feisty Five that helped to put together a town known as the Wild East just south of the farm, a western style town where everyone could enjoy themselves and have fun as cowboys. After coming to the surface, Starlo and his family began to set up a new place for their farm a couple of miles away from the outskirts of Ebott. Frisk still remembered the legal hurdles they and Sans had to jump through to allow monsters to own land and set up their own farms. After a couple of months of construction and getting the land ready, their farm was ready to be lived in and to have crops grown. They haven’t grown anything yet, so they decided to sell some of the produce grown from the original farm.
“It’s wonderful to see you both made it, Frisk, Toriel. I see you are both doing quite well.” The final monster in the group said who was right beside Starlo. This monster was an anthropomorphic fox with beige fur, wavy orange hair that was tied into a ponytail with a red ribbon that had a small golden bell attached to it, a tail that also had a red ribbon wrapped around it that also had a small gold bell on it as well, and deep brown eyes with her outfit being quite simple yet elegant. A long kimono with red trimmings with a red obi sash tied around their waist and white boots with red trimmings on the top as well. This was Ceroba, a monster Frisk had actually encountered towards the end of their journey when they were walking around New Home and happened to have a chance encounter with her next to a large cherry tree overlooking a large majority of the Underground’s capital. Ceroba originally lived with her husband Chujin and daughter Kanako in another town called Oasis Valley located in the Dunes. Unfortunately, Chujin eventually passed away as he tried to perform experiments regarding a human soul, using himself for experimentation. Leaving his notes behind and asking Ceroba to finish what he started and urging her not to try the experiment on their daughter, Ceroba eventually believed that she had somehow managed to perfect Chujin’s experiment. Unfortunately, Kanako eventually found out what her mother and father were up to and insisted that the experiment be used on her. After some reluctance, Ceroba eventually agreed and injected Kanako with the serum she perfected, only for Kanako’s soul to become unstable as she began the process of falling down, a condition that precedes a monster’s death. After receiving the call for monsters that had fallen down for testing form Asgore, Ceroba ended up sending Kanako to the royal lab in Hotland in hopes of her being healed, only to not hear about her daughter for years. It was only after Frisk helped Alphys face her struggles that Kanako eventually reunited with her mother, an act that Ceroba is deeply grateful to Frisk for. After all of the monsters were freed, Ceroba eventually got a job working at the same school that Toriel teaches at with her and Kanako living in a house that was built with Martlet’s help. In addition, she has also been dating Starlo for the past couple of weeks.
“It’s great to see you all! How has everyone been?” Frisk asked.
“Eh, not too shabby. I just finished telling everyone about how I managed to bag this guy who tried running off after stealing a couple of things from Bratty and Catty’s. You should have seen the dude’s face after I caught up to him. It was priceless!” Undyne said while flashing a large smile.
“Oh goodness! Were the two of them ok? I can’t imagine someone stealing from their store.” Toriel asked.
“T-they were actually ok. Surprisingly they were e-excited that their store was being stolen f-from.” Alphys said.
“Well I suppose that’s good to hear.” Toriel said.
“Indeed! By the way, if you two want to set your stuff down, we have everything over there. Afterwards, we can get this party started!” Papyrus said as he gestured over to where a few blankets were laid out on the grass near some picnic tables alongside some coolers and other baskets.
“While that does sound nice, I’m sure Frisk would like to say hi to the others before we start celebrating?” Ceroba said.
“Yes. I suppose that would be best to do first.” Papyrus responded.
“Yep!” Frisk said as they quickly ran over to the tables and blankets and set the basket they were holding down, after which they then began making their way over to the other group that was currently talking with one another, so engrossed with their conversation that they didn’t notice Frisk.
The group was comprised of six other humans, two monsters, and a talking flower. All of whom Frisk was familiar with and knew quite well. All of them, sans the flower, did go to the same school Frisk went to after all and also knew each other for a different reason.
The flower in question had yellow petals and bore a somewhat simple face of two eyes and a mouth. This was Flowey, and everyone had their own personal opinions about him. In the Underground there was a unique phenomenon that Frisk eventually chalked up to possibly being caused by the powerful magic that created the barrier. This phenomenon was the SAVE and LOAD system, as by accessing SAVE points which had the appearance of glowing yellow stars, one was able to perform a SAVE. If said person were to die, they would be able to rewind time through using a LOAD, allowing them to return back to the point in time where they performed their SAVE as though their death didn’t happen. They didn’t also have to die either, as they could also use LOAD to go back to a specific point in time as well. For the longest time, only the being with the most determination could access this system, in this case Flowey. They constantly used it to explore as many possibilities as they could, from becoming friends with everyone to even killing everyone. This continued on until Frisk eventually fell into the Underground and ended up taking away access to the SAVE and LOAD system away from Flowey as they were now the person with the most determination in the Underground.
Frisk eventually faced off against Flowey who used the power of the six human souls already collected by Asgore to regain access to the SAVE and LOAD system and become extremely powerful in the process. He was eventually defeated however, and after being spared, eventually came back to Frisk with an offer. One Frisk decided to indulge as they reloaded their save and did what Flowey asked, which helped to bring all of the monsters together, allowing Flowey to absorb the human souls and the souls of every single monster in the Underground, allowing him to regain his true form. His true form being that of Asriel, though he quickly began using his newfound power to try and erase the timeline. It was only after reaching out to their friends and the human souls that Frisk was able to calm down Asriel enough to talk it out as Asriel, due to losing their soul and being stuck as Flowey, lost his ability to feel emotions. In the end, Asriel decided to do a couple of things so that everyone could have their happy ending. The first was destroying the barrier using the power of the souls he had absorbed, giving the monsters the freedom they deserved. The second was that he released his hold on the souls he had absorbed, returning everyone back to normal. Finally, was reviving the six human souls, giving them their bodies again to right before they had their souls taken. Afterwards, Asriel eventually reverted back to Flowey, who acted pretty much the same as before, though not following his personal motto as much anymore. Nowadays he hung around, though tended to stick close to the revived humans and Frisk, said humans being the same ones in this small group.
The first human was a girl that was slightly younger than Frisk, not even hitting her teens yet but still pretty close. She had light skin with long blonde hair that had a braid that was held together with a red ribbon and blue eyes that sparkled with curiosity. She wore a simple light blue t-shirt with a white polka dot pattern, a pair of jean shorts, and bright red tennis shoes with pink socks sticking out of the top. This was Alice, the second human child that had fallen into the Underground and whose soul trait was patience. Every human had a trait that they greatly resonated with, and this was reflected in the color of their soul, with said souls taking the shape of a heart. In Alice’s case, her soul was light blue in color. Before falling into the Underground a couple of decades ago, she lived with a family of butchers who had gone to Mt. Ebott for a fun day of family fun, only for Alice to fall into the Underground with nothing but a toy knife that her parents had gifted her so she could pretend to help them without actually using anything dangerous. She was eventually found by Toriel and was taken in by her, only for a member of the royal guard to eventually find her and take her away to Asgore. It was after this event that Toriel decided to seal off the Ruins from the rest of the Underground. After being revived and coming up to the surface, she found out that her parents eventually passed away due to old age. As such, Asgore was the one who offered to take care of her, an offer Alice took up as she now lived with Asgore with him treating her like a daughter.
The second human was a boy that seemed to be around Frisk’s age, maybe a month or two younger at most. He had medium tone skin with a mess of brown hair that was slightly held back by an orange bandanna tied around his forehead and amber eyes. He wore an orange tank top with a pair of black shorts that had white trimmings around the pockets and end of each pant leg, sweatbands around his wrists that were the same color as his bandanna, and a pair of blue running shoes. This was Jack, the third human to have fallen down Mt. Ebott and whose soul trait was bravery, resulting in his soul being orange in color. He fell roughly a decade after Alice did and managed to convince Toriel that he would be able to make it to the barrier and get out, only for him to die in Snowdin after encountering the former captain of the royal guard. He still went out putting up a good fight against the captain as even though he knew he was going to die, he wanted to go out having a fun brawl. After being revived, he also learned that his parents had also died a long time ago, but was offered the chance to stay with Undyne. A chance Jack took without hesitation as he now was being taken care of by a former captain of the royal guard who he sort of looked up to.
Next was a human boy that was possibly the oldest of the group, even though he was 16. He had light skin with medium length blonde hair that seemed to have a hint of ginger in it as well and light green eyes. His outfit consisted of a light green long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of short black boots. This was Cody, the fourth child who fell into the Ruins a decade after Jack with their soul trait being kindness, in turn resulting in their soul being green. Before falling down Mt. Ebott, Cody had aspired to become a chief and tended to always wear an apron that he had gotten as a birthday gift from his mother alongside having a frying pan that was also gifted to him by his father. He had gone up Mt. Ebott to try and fins some unique and exotic ingredients that he could use before eventually falling into the Ruins. Cody actually stayed with Toriel for quite a bit before he desired to see his family again and only barely managed to convince Toriel to let him try and cross the barrier. He actually made it quite far, but he eventually ended up dying in Hotland as the heat eventually began to get to him and he began to suffer from hyperthermia before being killed by a monster that believed they would gain a lot of fame by bringing in a human soul. After being resurrected, Cody found out that his parents had mourned his disappearance and stayed as long as they could in Ebott before moving away a year prior to the monsters being freed. Surprisingly, Dalv was the one who offered a place for Cody to stay, an offer Cody took. Now Cody is still doing his best to become a professional chef while also doing his best to get creative with dishes involving corn while also doing his best to steer Dalv away from his corn addiction.
Right next to Cody were a pair of human girls. The first was the second oldest human of the group who was roughly in the latter half of being 15. She had light skin, almost bordering it being pale, with long dark purple hair and gray eyes behind a pair of glasses. Her outfit was a green and light green striped shirt with a dark teal jacket over it, a pair of gray pants, a brown satchel hung over her shoulder with the bag resting right beside the left of her waist, and dark purple hiking boots. The second girl seemed not too older than Frisk, possibly just having turned 15 not too long ago. She had dark skin with black curly hair that was currently done up in a bun with a pink hair band and blue eyes. Her outfit was casual, but still looked like something a person would only really wear to a private school. She was wearing a blue collared shirt with two buttons towards the top, a pair of khaki shorts with a brown belt that ran through the loops, and a pair of white tennis shoes.
The first girl was Batty while the second girl was Melody, the sixth and fifth humans to fall down into Mt. Ebott, with Batty’s soul trait being perseverance while Melody’s was integrity, making their souls purple and blue respectively. Melody actually was the first of the two to fall down, where she was taken care of by Toriel for a few months before Batty fell down as well. The two of them ended up exploring a lot of the Ruins before Batty eventually decided to leave as she wanted to get back to the surface. Since Toriel was outright refusing to let them leave the Ruins, Batty used a secret exit that her and Melody found while exploring and managed to get into the greater part of the Underground. Unfortunately, she was eventually caught and killed by Undyne in Waterfall. Melody eventually learned of what happened to Batty and eventually decided to try and escape through the barrier with Batty’s soul. Exiting the same way Batty did, Melody held onto the belief that any monsters outside of the Ruins would attack her or report her to the royal guard, causing her to not trust anyone and attack any monster that got too close, though she didn’t kill anyone. This resulted in an incident where she encountered Dalv and Kanako towards the outskirts of Snowdin and ended up severely injuring Dalv before running off. However, she was hunted down by a creation of Chujin’s and was killed in Waterfall, her soul being taken by Chujin for experiments before eventually being given to Asgore. After being resurrected, Batty was given the chance to live with Sans and Papyrus while Melody was asked by Kanako herself to stay with her and Ceroba, an offer she was slightly reluctant to accept but eventually became comfortable with the arrangements.
The last human in the group was downright identical to the one in the photo Frisk had on their nightstand, except that they were no longer ethereal and now had a physical body of their own with him wearing an outfit similar to the one they were wearing in the photo. This was Clover, the seventh human to fall into Mt. Ebott only 5 years before Frisk did and was also around Frisk’s age as well, possibly only a couple of weeks older with his soul trait being justice, causing his soul to appear yellow in color. Clover, compared to the humans that fell in before him, willingly went down into the Underground as he had heard the stories of how children went missing after ascending Mt. Ebott and wanted to be the one to find out what happened. He started off exploring a little bit of the Ruins with Toriel before being separated from her due to a malfunction with one of the puzzles, causing him to enter the deeper parts of the Ruins. There he met Flowey who allowed Clover to access the SAVE and LOAD system through him and Dalv who he helped get over his fears and trauma of the day he was attacked in Snowdin who in turn allowed him to exit the Ruins. In Snowdin was where he met Martlet who originally wanted to turn him in but eventually decided against it where the two of them tried to take a raft to Hotland, only for it to crash during the trip and cause Clover to end up in the Dunes. There he met both Starlo and Ceroba and after helping Starlo with his troubles traveled through the Steamworks with Ceroba on a quest to find Kanako where they encountered Axis, a creation of Chujin’s, who tried to take them out only to be pacified in the end. However, right before making it to Hotland, Clover learned that Ceroba had ulterior motives as Starlo ordered Clover to stay away while he chased down Ceroba. It was only when he and Martlet explored the ragged Ketsukane estate that they learned the truth before heading to New Home to confront Ceroba. During the fight with her, Clover was eventually able to help calm her down and turn her away from her desire to use Clover’s soul to complete Chujin’s work. It was afterwards that Clover decided to give up his soul, so that monster kind could be one step closer to freedom, before passing away shortly after.
However, Clover had found themselves awakened from their rest some time later to find that he had turned into a ghost, with Chara right beside him. After some discussion, he decided to tag along with both Chara and Frisk to help them on their journey. After he was resurrected, he found out that his family still lived in Ebott, however they were among the humans that greatly distrusted monsters, even after Clover explained to them that monsters were ok. It was only after a big fight with his family that Clover asked Martlet if he could stay with her, an ask Martlet was overjoyed to answer, with her even help building Clover his own room when Martlet’s house was constructed.
The first monster in the group was a young monster humanoid in shape and appeared to be in their early teens. They had yellow scales, large brown eyes, spines on their head, and a short tail with spines on it as well. One major feature was that they lacked any arms, though this didn’t stop them from wearing a yellow and brown sleeveless stripped sweater and brown pants. This was Monster Kid, also referred to as MK for short by the others as he himself suggested the nickname. He was a monster Frisk originally met back in Snowdin but the two of them got into their fair share of escapades in Waterfall, with MK even standing up to Undyne after Frisk saved them from falling. He went to the same school Frisk and the others went to and he slightly changed a little bit as he grew a little bit older, mainly the ends of the spines on his head began to curve slightly upwards and him swapping out the baggy pants he once wore for less baggy ones so he wouldn’t trip as much.
The last monster in the group was a young, anthropomorphic fox monster with brown fur, a fluffy tail that almost reached their knees, reddish brown hair that was tied into a bun with a gold ribbon with two small golden bells attached to it, and soft brown eyes that became blue around the pupils. They wore a short blue kimono with red trimmings, a darker blue scarf with another gold bell attached to it, a gold obi sash tied around their waist, long gray pants, and a pair of red boots. However one major thing was that they appeared slightly, droopy. Certain parts of their fur and even their outfit appeared to have some drops that appeared every now and then that seemed to run across the fur or fabric before disappearing. This was Kanako, Ceroba’s daughter who lived with her mother and Melody and went to the same school the others went to. Originally after Kanako insisted that her father’s serum to be used on her by her mother and began the process of falling down, she was sent to Alphys’ lab where Alphys performed experiments involving determination on her and other fallen monsters. Eventually, her and the other monster eventually woke up and began to feel a lot better, only for their bodies to not handle the large concentrations of determination that were injected into them as they began to melt into one another. Except Kanako, as the serum she was injected with made of the extract from Melody’s soul mixing with the determination injected into and possibly with the assistance of her possessing the boss monster gene, a type of gene few monsters had that made them have slightly stronger souls, prevented her from melting into the others, though her form still greatly changed. Frisk, alongside Chara and Clover, encountered her during their visit to the True Lab where they eventually managed to calm her down and comfort her. She eventually reunited with her mother after Alphys released the amalgamates so that they could be with their families again, though it did take her some time before she was able to figure out how to look at least somewhat similar to how she looked originally. She’s able to keep up her original look passively thanks to some practice, though if she starts getting nervous or overwhelmed she will start losing control of her form, causing her to sort of melt. At its worst she really only ends up looking like a small blob covered in fur.
“So, what do you guys want to do today?” Jack asked as he held his hands behind his head while wearing a somewhat bored expression.
“Well, we are at a picnic, so I would suppose we would do something picnic related.” Batty said.
“Well I mean yeah, but what kind of thing?” Jack said.
“We could just try walking around the park. It is quite nice today.” Melody remarked.
“We could go to the pond and skip some stones?” Cody suggested.
“Maybe could find some geese and feed them bread?” Alice offered.
“Yeah, no. I’m not going anywhere near those crazy birds.” Flowey said. “One tried to bite me the other day. I made it regret it though.”
“Flowey, please tell me you didn’t randomly kill a goose?” Clover asked.
“Of course not! I just simply encouraged it to beat it with some friendliness pellets.” Flowey said.
“Poor goose…” Alice said.
“Well, maybe we could play a game?” MK suggested.
“What kind of game?” Cody asked.
“Tag?” MK asked.
“Maybe, but Jack can’t be it.” Melody said.
“What?! Why not?!” Jack exclaimed.
“Out of all of us you are the fastest and you also get extremely competitive with anything involving racing.” Batty said.
“I, um, mmm…” Jack said as he couldn’t argue against what Batty said.
“How about hide and seek?” Kanako said.
“I’d be down for hide and seek.” Frisk said as they finally decided to make themselves known.
“Frisk! When’d you get here? I also guess Chara is with you?” Clover asked as everyone finally noticed the new addition to the group.
“Yeah, I’m here.” Chara said even though no one else could hear them.
“Yep, we just got here not too long ago. Anyways, hide and seek sounds fun while we wait for everyone to set things up.” Frisk said.
“Well then, everyone else down for hide and seek?” Clover asked the others with everyone giving a simple nod or yes.
“If we are doing hide and seek, we need to set some ground rules.” Batty said. “First off, we can only hide within the park, stepping out of the park automatically means you’re considered to be caught. You are also caught if you are found, and no Jack this is not hide and seek tag.”
Jack proceeded to groan with annoyance.
“Moving on, once you are found you also become a seeker and must help the original seeker find the others. One last thing, Kanako you can’t melt down to fit into hard-to-reach spaces. Same goes for you Flowey.” Batty said.
“Ok…” Kanako said with disappointment, possibly because she was going to do what Batty forbid.
“Oh please, this will still be easy.” Flowey said.
“So… who’s going to be the seeker?” MK asked as everyone got quiet.
“Not it!”
“Not it- Shoot.” Alice said as she wasn’t quick enough.
“Alright Alice, close your eyes and count to 100. Got it?” Jack said.
“Ok! One, two, three…” Alice said as she covered her eyes and began counting, signaling the game had begun.
Everyone proceeded to leg it as fast as they could to find a decent hiding spot. Frisk watched as Jack immediately sprinted over to a tree and proceeded to climb it while MK proceeded to rush and duck into a group of bushes, Melody appeared to find a decent nook within a nearby tree while Batty hid nearby behind a large rock, Kanako, Cody, and Clover all got the idea to hide out within some of the various play structures scattered about the park, and Frisk could see Flowey decide to blend in with some nearby wildflowers. Meanwhile Frisk was still running around before finally setting their eyes on something that could work. They dashed over to another gazebo before ducking into it and sitting on the floor as they caught their breath.
“98, 99, 100! Ready or not, here I come!” Alice said as Frisk heard her in the distance as she began seeking.
“Hide and seek? Really?” Chara asked as they lazily floated above Frisk.
“Well, yeah. It sounded fun.” Frisk said.
“I guess. How long do you think until Alice finds you?” Chara asked.
“Got you Flowey!”
“Oh come on! You can’t be serious!”
“Maybe not too long.” Frisk said before they let a yawn escape their mouth as they began feeling tired, something Chara caught onto.
“Still didn’t get much sleep last night? You were up for a few hours after you woke up at 1 in the morning.” Chara asked
“Yeah. I know.” Frisk said as they rubbed their eyes trying to feel less tired to no avail.
“Who was it this time?” Chara asked.
“Papyrus…” Frisk said.
“Ah…” Chara said as they let the two of them sit in silence which was only broken by the occasional cheer from Alice as she kept finding the others.
“You know, it might take some time before any of the others find you. It wouldn’t hurt to get some extra sleep before then, wouldn’t it.” Chara suggested.
Frisk thought about it for a moment. The thought of getting a little more sleep was tempting, if just so that they could have a little more energy for later, but there was also a possibility that they might experience another one of “those” nightmares. “Alright. I guess a small nap could be ok. Whoever finds me might wake me up anyways.”
“I’ll wake you up if they get close.” Chara said as they kept an eye towards the entrance of the gazebo.
“Thank you.” Frisk said as they slowly brought their arms up to their chest and closed their eyes.
Eventually, they slowly began to drift into a light slumber as their breathing fell into a steady rhythm. They felt calm as they slowly drifted into a feeling of weightlessness, unaware of what exactly they were about to witness as that feeling of weightlessness soon faded away into a feeling of descension as Frisk began to feel as though they were slowly falling.
Notes:
Cody's design is from Migs' fangame Undertale Green. Link to the GameJolt page: https://gamejolt.com/games/undertalegreen/161268
Batty and Melody are from PurrSum's fangame Undertale: Kindred Spirits. Link to the GameJolt Page: https://gamejolt.com/games/undertale-kindred-spirits/145217
Starlo and Kanako's designs are inspired by DrSteph's au UTY: Golden Years. Link to their twitter and bluesky: https://x.com/StephsArtLab https://bsky.app/profile/stephsartlab.bsky.social
Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Strange Dream to a Waking Nightmare
Summary:
Where Frisk has a really bizarre dream while taking their nap before waking up as chaos slowly begins to unfold around them.
Notes:
Alright everyone, time to buckle up as things are starting to kick into high gear!
Chapter Text
Frisk honestly felt at ease as they had drifted into slumber, even if the possibility that they would wake up in a cold sweat could decide to make itself known. Even though they were reluctant, they did at least want to have the energy to be able to properly celebrate with the others later, so they decided to agree with Chara’s suggestion and take a nap. So far, everything was going good as they drifted to sleep as a weightless feeling settled over them.
That is, until that feeling slowly began to fade into one of a slow decent that became slightly faster as time went on. Frisk was somewhat used to this, they did often times have the occasional lucid dream every now and then, but they couldn’t help but become concerned as the sound of wind began to rush past the ears. Opening their eyes, Frisk was expecting a bright blue sky or them falling into the Underground again as that was a dream they often had. Instead, all around them was a pitch-black void with not a speck of light to be seen anywhere. Even though they were in this void, Frisk was able to see themselves just fine, but no matter where they looked as they turned their head and awkwardly tried to maneuver their body to turn around in mid-air, they still couldn’t see anything.
“OK… This is new.” Frisk said as they continued to fall before doing their best to try and orientate themselves so that they assumed they were facing downwards. At least they assumed by the way they felt the air rush past their face and blew up the hair.
Frisk continued to look around before a faint glow coming below them caught their eye. Looking down, they saw some sort of large circular platform below them, with the top of the platform glowing pure white. Frisk was quickly approaching the platform as they fell down to it and began to slightly panic as they couldn’t control their descent, flailing their arms to try and slow down before eventually deciding to just brace for impact as they put their arms in front of their face. Right before they hit the platform, Frisk’s descent began to greatly slow before ultimately stopping. Daring a peek, Frisk saw that they were a couple of feet above the platform and were simply hovering in midair before some unseen force began turning them right side up as they were gently lowered down onto the platform, their shoes not even making any sound from the soft impact with the platform.
“That was close.” Frisk said as they let out a breath they didn’t know they were holding. “Thought I was going to crash there.”
Frisk looked around at their new location, other than the platform they were currently on, there still wasn’t anything around them that they could see. Just the infinite expanse of the void.
“Alright, so what exactly is this?” Frisk said as they took a step forward, only for the platform to let off a bright flash of light. “What the? Woah…”
What followed was the white light at the point where Frisk stepped forward began to peel away as motes of light formed large white birds that began flying off into the distance. Frisk watched as the birds continued to fly off into the distance before completely disappearing as the light began to continuously disappear from the platform, eventually revealing a large stained-glass image taking up the entire platform. There was a small outer ring surrounding the image that was red in color, only for a slightly smaller ring that was a darker red to separate that ring from the rest of the image. Another inner ring was after the second one, though this one had a strange pattern with one part of the pattern being the same red as the outer ring while the second part was yellow. Another ring after this was red in color but had circles running all around the ring that were the same dark red as the second outer ring, but within each circle was an image of a monster that Frisk had become close with in their journey in the Underground with the circle in-between the ones with the image featuring a SAVE point. In the innermost part of the image were a couple of things. The first was a large circle towards the top that covered the top of the ring outside of the inner part with several circles within it featuring images of the other humans that fell into the Underground with Chara right in the middle, the third being a landscape featuring Ebott city and the sea to the left with Mt. Ebott to the right and the outskirts of Ebott right in the middle as the sun was rising in the distance, the last thing was a large image of Frisk with their eyes closed laying against the right side of the outer circle with their hands covered over their chest as a red heart floated in front of their hands.
This heart was Frisk’s soul, whose soul trait was determination. While all humans had determination within their soul, there were very rare instances where humans had an immense amount of determination to the point where it became their soul trait. As far as Frisk knew, only they and Chara both had souls whose trait was determination. Frisk had decided to ask Asgore one time if they ever encountered any humans before being sealed within the Underground that also had red souls. Asgore simply said that there was only one other human who he had encountered that had a red soul, but he wasn’t willing to elaborate on it.
“What is this? This is… weird.” Frisk said as they began walking around the stained-glass platform, taking in the small details of everything.
So much to do,
so little time…
“Whoa!” Frisk yelled as they were caught off guard by the strange voice and began to wildly look around. “Hello? Is someone there?”
Take your time.
Don’t be afraid.
And think carefully of your decisions.
“Decisions? What decisions?” Frisk asked, only for nothing to answer back.
After a few seconds, something happened that caught Frisk off guard. A multitude of panels with ornate looking crystal frames appeared around the platform and stretched high above, all of them circling the platforms. Frisk caught what was featured on the panels and saw that they all showed memories from points in Frisk’s life, from before falling into the Underground to even today. Frisk continued watching as a panel slowly separated from the others and floated down to the platform before floating in place as the memory on the panel began playing. This one featured the time when Frisk faced off against Undyne for the first time as they did their best to block a barrage of magical spears using a green ethereal heart-shaped shield as their soul was the same green as Cody’s. They had a couple of scrapes and bruises as they weren’t able to block some of the spears, but they held on regardless.
Vitality…
A rugged body that will endure even the toughest of challenges.
Frisk watched as another panel slowly floated down to the left of the first panel and floated there as the memory began to play. It showed Frisk solving one of the many shooter puzzles they had to do in Hotland in order to proceed to the next area. Chara and Clover watched as they were solving the puzzles and Chara had a proud look on their face as Frisk solved it.
Wisdom…
A sharp mind that will grant you mastery of wondrous power.
Frisk once again witnessed one final panel floating down and to the right of the first panel and floated there as its memory began playing. This one saw Frisk standing right next to a SAVE point outside of the throne room in New Home as Chara and Clover looked at them before all three of them nodded confidently and shared a quick three-person fist bump to accomplish how far they’ve come before heading into the throne room.
Balance…
A body and mind of equal merit and equal potential.
What do you desire?
Frisk looked at all three panels in front of them as they thought to themselves just what exactly the voice was talking about. They supposed this is what the voice meant when it said to think of their decisions. Maybe they had to choose one of these three, but then came the question of what exactly choosing one meant. They suppose vitality might be nice considering that being able to take hits better would help, but wisdom was also slightly tempting as it mentioned some sort of wondrous power of sorts? Frisk’s glance eventually landed on the third panel, and eventually decided. If they couldn’t pick one, why not go for the option that sort of gives them a little bit of the others. Frisk eventually walked up to the third panel before stopping right in front of it as Frisk heard the voice again.
Balance…
Is this what you desire?
“I guess so?” Frisk said with uncertainty.
The panel in front of Frisk was covered in a bright flash of light before it faded, leaving a glowing orb of golden light. Frisk reached out to the orb and lightly touched it as it began to sway back and forth. What happened surprised Frisk as their soul appeared right in front of their chest with a soft red glow before the orb quickly floated into Frisk’s soul, covering it in a golden glow as Frisk felt a warm sensation flow over their entire being. The golden glow eventually faded along with the weird sensation as their soul went back into their body, though Frisk now felt as though some sort of weight was lifted off their shoulders and their mind felt slightly clearer.
“What the heck? What… what even was that?!” Frisk said as the two panels returned to their places among the others spinning around the platform.
Frisk watched them fly back up before another panel floated down from the others and floated on the opposite side of the platform back where Frisk once stood, though the memory featured made Frisk’s blood run cold as it began to play. Frisk was in the Judgement Hall with Sans, and they were fighting. Sans summoned barrages of bones left and right and launched them at Frisk, only for Frisk to dodge them as they tried attacking Sans using a knife they were holding. Sans easily dodged the attack before seemingly blinking out of existence before appearing further down the hall, summoning what appeared to be floating dragon skulls that fired off beams of energy at Frisk who in turn did their best to dodge. While Sans had a weary look to him, Frisk bore a somber expression as though they were wondering why they were even fighting.
The power of the warrior…
Invincible courage.
“Why is… Why even… How do you know about that?” Frisk said as their voice was extremely shaky. They tried their best multiple times to forget about that run, but just when they thought they did they would wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night after seeing themself kill one of their friends and not be able to fall back asleep. They hated that they even did that run and they ensured that no one would remember it as they tried their best to allow those memories to fade away like a bad dream. So how did this voice know about it?
Frisk was briefly distracted as another panel floated down and rested to the left of the first one as the memory on it began to play. This memory featured Frisk facing off against Toriel as she prevented Frisk from leaving the Ruins. Fire danced around her hands and the hallway they were in as Frisk tried their best to talk to her.
The power of the mystic…
Inner strength.
Frisk immediately took the distraction to look away from the middle panel as they didn’t want to look at it anymore as they tried to calm their breathing. After what felt like minutes, Frisk was finally able to sort of calm down a little as their breathing became a little more steady, just in time for another panel to fly down and rest to the right of the first one as the memory began to play. This one showed Frisk standing in front of a crying Asriel right after fighting him before they eventually walked up to him and gave him a hug which he returned back. Chara and Clover also appeared as well and did their best to try and hug Asriel even without a physical form as they were both crying. The memory brought a small smile to their face.
The power of the guardian…
Kindness to aid friends.
What power do you seek?
Frisk looked over their options while doing their best to glance over the middle panel before yelling out. “Why?! Why do you even know about that?! I just want to forget it, please!”
Frisk was once again answered by nothing but silence. Huffing in defeat, Frisk looked over their options. They knew without a doubt they wanted nothing to do with that memory, and they weren’t really a fighter so that was out of the question. Whatever the power of the mystic was did intrigue Frisk, but they were more drawn towards the last memory and what the voice said.
“Kindness to aid friends, huh?” Frisk said as they walked over to the third panel, doing their best to not look at the one immediately to their left. When they stopped in front of it, the voice began speaking once more.
The power of the guardian…
Is this the power you seek?
“Yes. And can you please answer my question?” Frisk asked, though was met with silence once again. “Ok then…”
Like before, the panel was covered in a flash of light before revealing a golden orb once more. Reaching out to it, Frisk touched the orb as it began swaying in midair as their soul appeared once again with the orb floating into their soul as they felt a warm sensation wash over them. Once again when it faded and Frisk’s soul went back into their body, though this time they felt slightly lighter than usual and felt slightly more awake as the two panels joined back with the others.
Is this who you are?
Frisk thought about it for a moment before nodding their head. “Yes. I guess this is who I am.”
Nothing happened for a moment before all of the floating panels began flowing brightly before emitting a bright flash as they disappeared. Leaving behind motes of light that slowly fell down towards the platform before disappearing. After a couple of moments, nothing happened as Frisk continued to look around, only to notice something odd. In the middle of the platform was a strange looking shadow that appeared to squirm. Getting closer to it, Frisk watched as the shadow seem to rise up out of the ground, taking the appearance of a monster they had never seen before. It was small and humanoid in shape with a large bulbous head with two antennae sticking out of the top and featured a pair of sharp claws. In addition, its body was entirely jet black except for a pair of glowing yellow eyes.
“Oh, hello!” Frisk said as they watched two more of the strange looking monster rise out of the ground. “Oh, there’s more of you. I wonder what your name is?”
Frisk held out their hand as a black box appeared in front of it with an orange border to it. On the left side of the box appeared to be three waves of some kind right next to the word “ACT” in orange letters. Touching the box, a larger rectangular box with white borders appeared with three things of white text in it. However, Frisk was confused as all of the options were just “???”, but deciding to continue on they touched one of the options as there was one new option simply called “Check” that Frisk touched.
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| * ?????? – ATK ??? DEF ??? |
| * ????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ??????, ???? ?????? ??? ?? ??? ????. |
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“Ok, that’s not normal.” Frisk said as they started getting worried. Check was an ACT that Frisk was able to use that gave them basic details of whatever monster or person they were using it on and it hardly failed. The only time it did was back in the True Lab with the Memoryheads, but even then Frisk was able to reveal more through other ACTs that were available. These things didn’t have any other options for ACTing however, so they were extremely confused. Frisk continued watching the strange monsters before one of them suddenly jumped and lunged at Frisk with its claws.
“Woah, hey! I’m not gonna hurt you! Calm down” Frisk said as they quickly moved away from the attack. Only to have to move away from another that tried to scratch at them.
There will be times you have to fight.
Keep your light burning strong.
“Fight?! But I don’t want to fight!” Frisk exclaimed as they had to dodge yet another scratch.
These are not a type of foe that you have faced before.
They are not accepting of the concept of mercy.
“B-but…” Frisk said as their hands began to tremble a little bit. The monsters kept attacking them and they kept easily avoiding them, waiting to see if an opportunity would present itself so they could spare them, but they just kept attacking.
You have to fight.
There is no other way.
“I…. I….” Frisk said as they now stood at the edge of the platform. Their hands were trembling as they watched the monsters slowly creep up to them. Surely, there had to be a way to spare them, right?
But as Frisk went through their ACT menu again, they still saw that there was nothing to do other than use Check on the monsters. Frisk really didn’t want to, but they felt as though the voice was being truthful, that these things weren’t able to be spared. Gritting their teeth and clenching their hands, Frisk was left with no other option as one of the monster leapt at them.
“I’m… I’M SO SORRY!” Frisk yelled as they thrust their right hand to the side as another box appeared like the ACT button, though this one had an image of an orange sword on the left with the words “FIGHT” right next to it. Quickly pressing the box, it disappeared as a Stick appeared out of thin air in Frisk’s grip. As it did, Frisk swung with all of their might, hitting the monster right between the eyes and sent it flying to the middle of the platform.
The other monsters, seeing this, rushed towards Frisk with their claws stretched out trying to scratch at Frisk. Frisk dodged out of the way with practiced ease before swinging and hitting the closest monster a couple of times with their stick before swinging it like a bat and hitting the monster on the side of the head as it tumbled to the side. They did the same to the other monster as it too tumbled away before the last one got up and sunk into the ground. Frisk didn’t know what it was doing before the voice called out again.
Behind you!
Frisk got the memo as they felt a prickling sensation towards their back as they swung their Stick and nailed the monster as it fell down. Frisk watched as all of the monsters, instead of turning to dust, evaporated into black smoke. However, Frisk was on the verge of tears as they waited for a textbox to appear, congratulating them on winning the fight and showing how much exp they gained. After waiting a couple of seconds that turned into minutes, nothing showed up.
“What? But I killed those monsters… Where is? Maybe it added it without letting me know?” Frisk asked as they pulled up another box, this one was long and rectangular and had a white border with text. However, there were some new additions that Frisk saw but couldn’t access as they were all labeled “???”. Ignoring it, they touched the option labeled “Stats” as a new window popped up as Frisk was surprised at what they saw.
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| Frisk |
| LV: 1 EXP: 0 Next: 10 |
| ????: ? ???? ???????: ? |
| HP: 105/105 ??: ???/??? |
| Strength: 11 (0) ?????: ?? (??) Defense: 8 (0) |
| Weapon: Stick |
| Armor: None |
| Accessories: None |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I, didn’t gain any EXP? What’s with those new things? And why is my HP so high?!” Frisk asked as little bit of shock and relief flooded over them. They hadn’t gained a single point of exp from defeating those monsters. Even in “those” dreams they always gained exp, but not here. Even then, why did they have so much HP? This was the highest they have ever seen it be, and they were still at LV 1! Frisk wasn’t able to linger on those thoughts for too long as they saw more of the strange monsters begin appearing in the middle of the platform.
“More of them?!” Frisk exclaimed as there was at least triple the amount of monsters than before.
Keep going.
Do not let yourself falter.
Frisk grit their teeth as they held their Stick tightly. They hated how they were being forced to fight these things, but even then Frisk wasn’t gaining any exp, so it should’ve been fine. It was just that Frisk hated to fight if there was even a chance to talk or work things out with an enemy. Unfortunately for them, it was becoming clear that option was thrown out the window as soon as those things appeared.
Frisk steeled their nerves as the monsters began running towards them. One tried to directly run at them and scratch them, but was easily avoided as Frisk wacked it a couple of times before having to dodge out of the way of another that tried leaping at them. Frisk wasn’t used to taking on this many enemies at once, at most they took on three when having to face monsters in the Underground. Thankfully they were just running and trying to leap at or scratch them and not launching complex patterns of magic that they needed to dodge. Frisk kept it up however, dodging as best they could while getting in a couple of hits here and there as they slowly began taking down the monsters, each one disappearing in a puff of black smoke like before. However, Frisk was too distracted with dodging another one’s leap that one snuck up behind them and manage to scratch them.
“Agh!” Frisk cried out as they actually felt the monster scratch their back. When they were hit, their soul briefly appeared within their chest as Frisk could see in their mind’s eye a green bar with the letters “HP” in green text to the left while the numbers “98/105” rested within the green bar in white text while there was a small bit missing from the right side of the bar as it was completely clear.
“My HP bar changed too? Just what is going on?” Frisk asked their self while swinging at the monster that hit them. It didn’t take much longer before Frisk had whittled down the monsters to there just being one left. Frisk charged at it and finished it off with one more swing at the head, defeating it as it disappeared. Once again waiting for a textbox to appear to congratulate them, Frisk was once again greeted by nothing as they opened up their menu and checked their stats. Finding that they had still not gained any exp.
“At least I’m not getting any exp from this…” Frisk said as their attention was turned towards the middle of the platform where a light from above began illuminating it. Looking up, they couldn’t see anything that would be the source of said light before walking over to it and standing right under it.
The closer you get to the light,
the greater your shadow becomes.
Confused, Frisk looked behind them as they saw their shadow was stretched all the way to the end of the platform as they stood under the light. However, as the light slowly faded, their shadow did not. Instead, it slowly began to rise up out of the ground as Frisk began to back away from it as the shadow’s featured began to warp and twist until something new had replaced it. As it towered over them it had a large muscular body, the end of its feet thinned out and were slightly folded, a large heart shaped hole in the middle of its chest that passed all the way through, a pair of large bat-like wings on its back, a mass of shadowy tendrils wrapped around it head and face, and a pair of yellow eyes gleaming from between the tendrils.
But don’t be afraid.
And don’t forget…
You hold the mightiest weapon of all…
One that can save the hearts,
of those lost in darkness.
Frisk immediately started right away with trying to use Check, only to find a similar thing happening to when they tried to use it on the monsters before.
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| * ???????? – ATK ??? DEF ??? |
| * ???? ????? ????????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ?????????. |
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The giant monster held up a fist that began to glow with dark energy before it punched the ground, creating a giant dark puddle as Frisk watched as a couple of the smaller monsters appeared. Frisk braced their self as they ran forward and began attacking the smaller ones, though these ones seemed to be slightly weaker as they only went down in three good swings. Frisk turned their attention back to the giant one as it kneeled down as a dark orb began to appear in the middle of the hole in its chest. It then thrust its chest forwards as the orb fired three dark projectiles that all began to home in on Frisk who began to run to try and avoid the attacks while the monster kept firing more of them. Frisk managed to eventually dodged most of them but saw one quickly coming their way right in front of them as they held out their Stick to try and block it. The projectile hit the stick and even though Frisk felt the projectile push against them a bit, they were surprised to find the projectile had been successfully blocked with their Stick not showing any signs of damage.
“Huh, that actually worked. Nice!” Frisk said as the orb within the monster began to fade away. Taking the opportunity, Frisk ran up to its hand which was lying on the ground and began to attack it, watching as it actually seemed to hurt the monster quite a bit as it began standing back up. However, this time it plunged its hand into the ground before pulling out a swirling orb of purple and black shadows that suddenly changed to orange as it raised the orb in the air. The orb dispersed into pools of shadow that floated above the arena before dropping orbs of darkness that slowly began to float to the ground.
Not wanting to get hit, Frisk carefully weaved under them and continued attacking the monster, though they didn’t seem to be hurting it as much as when they were attacking the hand. The monster once again began charging up another orb of darkness in its chest as it began to fire more projectiles that Frisk easily dodged and blocked. When it stopped, Frisk took the advantage of once more hitting the monster on the hand before it stood back up to its full height.
It began to hold its fist in the air as it charged up once again as it brought it down with Frisk preemptively avoiding and rushing to where its hand would land, only for a shockwave to be sent out from where the monster punched the ground as Frisk was hit by it and sent tumbling a good distance as they took a lot of damage.
Getting back up, Frisk ran back towards the monster’s fist before suddenly getting an idea. Right as they reached the monster’s hand they quickly jumped onto it and began climbing up its arm towards its face with the monster watching them. Frisk eventually reached its shoulder and began to whack the monster as hard as they could on its head, which seemed to do a lot more damage than hitting the hands. Getting annoyed, the monster began reaching towards Frisk to try and grab them, only for them to let out one last yell as they swung their Stick as hard as they could, nailing a good hit right between the eyes.
The monster staggered as it began to kneel down as Frisk quickly hopped off of its shoulder and onto the ground. The monster then began to collapse as it landed face first onto the ground as it stopped moving before it disappeared in a large burst of black smoke. Frisk didn’t even wait to see if a textbox appeared as they quickly checked their stats as surely defeating a monster like that would grant them exp upon defeat. Only to once again find that they had not gained a single point, something that once again brought great confusion and relief to them.
“Ok, seriously. What is going on? None of this is making any sense at all.” Frisk said as the adrenaline they were feeling from fighting that monster began to wear off as they suddenly felt tired. They dropped their stick, watching as it disappeared into thin air as they no longer needed to use it to fight, as least they hoped they did.
You have done well.
“Can you please tell me what’s happening? What were those monsters and why couldn’t I Check them? Why are my stats the way they are even though my LOVE is at 1? And why do you know about that run?!” Frisk yelled out into the void. After hearing nothing but silence once again, they began to think their questions wouldn’t get answered, until the voice spoke up again.
Because you have not fully awakened to the power within you.
“What?” Frisk asked in bewilderment. “What power?”
Your world is currently on the precipice of darkness.
A dark force has set its eyes on this world,
and it intends to drag it into darkness.
The power that you now hold will not awaken in time,
for you to stop your world from being destroyed.
“D-destroyed? What do you mean destroyed?” Frisk ask as they began to feel nervous.
However,
the dormant power will ensure that you are taken to safety.
It should then properly awaken,
which will allow you to find those who wish to stop this force.
“But, what about mom? Chara? Everyone else?” Frisk asked.
Their hearts are strong.
I don’t know what will happen to them,
but if you hold onto those bonds closest to your heart…
Frisk continued to listen, however everything around them began to suddenly glow with a bright light that began to cover everything. Frisk shielded their eyes as everything around them turned white before the voice said one last thing.
Then you will be able to find them…
No matter how far you are separated from each other…
And bring this world back into the light.
“Frisk…”
“Frisk. Oh you’ve got to be kidding…”
“DAMMIT FRISK WAKE UP!”
“Ah!” Frisk yelled as they were startled awake by Chara who was floating right above them. Frisk simply looked up at them, annoyed they had woken them up in such a vulgar way. “Language.”
“Well excuse me for complying with your request to wake you up. Anyways, you’ve been found.” Chara said as they pointed beside Frisk where everyone else was looking at Frisk with slight concern.
“You good there bud?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, you were tossin’ and turnin’ like crazy there.” Clover said.
“You were also mumbling in your sleep. We couldn’t really make anything out though.” Batty said.
“Were you having a nightmare?” Alice asked with concern.
“I’m… fine.” Frisk said as the events of the weird dream were still quite vivid. “How long have I been napping?”
“Well Alice apparently found you not too long ago but saw you were sleeping so she decided to find the others. Once she did we all came back to wake you up five minutes ago. We did our best to wake you up, but you wouldn’t.” Kanako said.
“Yeah. I tried waking you up when Alice found you, but it felt like I was talking to a brick wall.” Chara said.
“Really?” Frisk said as they looked up at Chara.
“What did Chara say?” Clover asked. While everyone here knew that Chara existed and wasn’t some sort of hallucination thanks to Clover, Frisk still had to act as an intermediary for when Chara wanted to say something. It was only this small group that knew of course, Chara had asked to keep their existence a secret from Toriel and the others.
“Just that they tried waking me up earlier but couldn’t. They can usually wake me up pretty easy.” Frisk said.
“While I’m happy that their royal snoozieness is awake, Toriel wants us back. That storm is really starting to come in.” Flowey said.
“Storm?” Frisk said as they looked to the skies. Sure enough, dark clouds were beginning to cover the sky like a massive blanket of gray. “But today was supposed to be sunny.”
“Could be a cold front or something that was missed. Hopefully it doesn’t stick around too long.” Batty said.
“Yeah, but even then it’s going to get pretty muddy.” Melody said.
“Well, might as well be gettin’ back to the others.” Clover said as he began walking back towards the original gazebo. “Come on guys!”
“Wait for us!” MK said as they took off sprinting after Clover, with the others doing the same as Frisk began getting up.
“Seriously, you sure you’re ok? I’m guessing it must’ve been someone hard if you were moving around that much.” Chara asked.
“Well, that’s the thing.” Frisk said as they began to walk back to the gazebo at a slightly slower pace while talking. “It wasn’t one of “those” nightmares. This dream was… weird.”
“Weird? How so?” Chara asked. Frisk proceeded to give them a short version of their dream as they listened.
“And you weren’t gaining any exp from killing those weird monsters? That’s odd.” Chara said.
“It was. I’m hoping it was just some weird dream though.” Frisk said.
“Yeah. But could you imagine if your HP was that high with your LOVE still at 1? I’d be awesome.” Chara said as.
“Yeah. I guess it kind of would.” Frisk said. However, as they looked around the park while walking, they couldn’t help but notice that they felt slightly more, awake. They were able to more easily focus on things with ease and it felt as though their hearing was better as well. And that they felt, lighter?
“I must be imagining things.” Frisk said as doubt began to slowly creep into their mind. “Unless…”
“Unless… what? What are you imagining?” Chara asked.
Frisk decided a quick look at their stats wouldn’t hurt, so they did just that. They opened up their menu and opened their stats and…
“What are you looking at?” Chara said as they hovered behind Frisk as they watched them look at their menu as they could also see it, only for their jaw to drop. “I- ugh- guh- WHAT?!”
Like back in the dream, Frisk’s menu and stats had changed to match up exactly with how it was in the dream, though their HP was fully restored. Frisk and Chara just stared at in it awe and immense confusion as they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“Ok, this makes no sense at all!” Chara said as they looked over Frisk’s menu. “And what’s with all of these things with question marks? Also, did attack change to strength?”
“I… I don’t…” Frisk began to say before their train of thought was derailed.
“Hey Frisk! Come on or you’ll get soaked!” Clover called as he was waving over at the gazebo with everyone else who were unpacking what they brought. Frisk felt a drop of rain hit their nose, distracting them as they looked to see that it was starting to rain. Deciding to figure out whatever was happening to them later, their priorities switched to getting someplace dry as they ran over to the gazebo with Chara floating right behind them.
“There you are dear. I was afraid that you would get soaked if you stayed out there too long.” Toriel said as Frisk was now under the gazebo, though she noticed how Frisk seemed to be confused by something. “Is everything alright dear?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine. Just thought I saw something is all.” Frisk said.
“We aren’t going to tell anyone how your HP just skyrocketed and everything else changed?” Chara asked, with Frisk responding with a quick shake of their head.
“It is quite upsetting that this storm snuck up on us. I suppose we can just wait it out until it parts. There should be a sandwich for you in the basket dear.” Toriel said as she began walking over to the others who were already eating various things they had brought.
Frisk went over to the basket and found a toasted peanut butter sandwich inside, possibly made with Toriel’s fire magic, and got it out before going over to the others and sitting down as they began to munch on their sandwich. Their mind was still trying to process that their stats now matched to what they were in the dream as they began to think about what that weird voice said. Looking over at Chara, they also seemed to be deep in thought as they sat down next to Frisk with one leg over the other.
“Do you mind if I sit with you, Frisk?” A voice said as Frisk looked over to see Asgore with a burger on his plate.
“Sure, I don’t mind.” Frisk said as Chara also took notice of Asgore.
“Thank you.” Asgore said as he sat down next to Frisk. “I couldn’t help but notice you were thinking quite deeply of something. Is there anything I could do to help?”
“Um…” Frisk said as they thought to tell Asgore about what had happened to them, though decided against it. Instead, they thought of asking something that could still maybe help. “I was wondering about something. Is it possible for a human or monster’s stats to increase, even if their LV stays the same.”
“Oh. That is quite the interesting question. Well, I suppose training is one way. Either by training’s to be able to increase a person’s strength, stamina, or magic one can increase their stats that way?” Asgore said.
“Um… What if a person’s stats just, skyrocket? Without training, that is.” Frisk.
“Hmm. Well, I suppose that is possible, but it would most certainly not be under normal circumstances. I suppose one way would be a human tapping into the determination into their soul, or if a monster began to generate their own determination. Even then, those stats could drop back down to how they were before after some time? Why do you ask?” Asgore inquired.
“No reason. I was just thinking about it is all.” Frisk said.
“Well, I hope I was at least able to answer you question at the very least.” Asgore said as he bit into his burger.
‘I’m hoping so.’ Frisk thought as they continued to eat their sandwich and mulled over what Asgore said. ‘Maybe my soul just began acting up while I was dreaming. If so, everything should go back to normal afterwards. And besides, maybe it was just a weird dream. Afterall, there’s no way the end of the world is about to happen.’
“Oh hello there! I’ve never seen you before. Would you like to join us?”
Frisk turned over to see Papyrus looking over at the end of the gazebo as he appeared to be talking to someone. Looking over, Frisk felt as though their heart stopped as standing right towards the edge of the gazebo was one of the weird smaller monsters from the dream. It was twitching here and there as it gazed at the group.
“Frisk, isn’t that the weird monster you saw in your dream?” Chara asked.
“Don’t be shy! I, the Great Papyrus, welcome you to join our humble little picnic time!” Papyrus said as he began to move closer to the monster who finally noticed Papyrus.
“PAPAPYRUS GET AWAY FROM IT!” Frisk yelled as they dropped their sandwich and bolted upright.
“Hm? What’s wrong Frisk? There’s nothing bad about this little fella.” Papyrus said as he turned towards them. “I bet their just curious aren’t you little buddy?”
Papyrus turned back towards the strange monster, only for it to have leapt at him with its claw outstretched, ready to scratch Papyrus. Frisk panicked as they felt their self running towards Papyrus right as they saw the monster leap. Just as it was about to hit Papyrus, a bone smacked into the monster’s side and sent it tumbling away a little bit. Looking over, Frisk saw Sans as he had one hand pointed at the strange monster as another bone floated next to him.
“easy there pal. if i didn’t know any better, you were just trying to hurt my bro just now.” Sans said calmy, though Frisk could tell that Sans was slightly tense.
Looking back over, Frisk saw the monster had gotten back up and was once again charging at them, this time going for Alphys. Before it could scratch her, a spear made up of blue energy was swung right into it as it was knocked away.
“Hey! Get away from her you creep!” Undyne said as she stood beside Alphys.
“T-thank you U-Undyne.” Alphys said as she wasn’t expecting the monster to go after her.
“Who even is this?” Melody said as she brought up her own act menu as she tried to check it, only for her eyes to widen in confusion. “Wait, why can’t I Check this thing?”
“Wait, what?” Jack said as he too tried to Check it. “What gives? Is my thing broken?”
The monster eventually came running back, though this time it was heading straight for Alice who tried her best to back away from it. Asgore was immediately on his feet and rushed in front of her as his trident, a large three-forked weapon made up of some sort of red metal with a red flower at the base of the three points, appeared in his hands as he swung at the monster.
“You stay away from her!” Asgore yelled as his eyes flashed light blue with his trident also glowing light blue as well. He swung the trident through the monster, but since it was still moving, it took the full brunt of the blue attack as it was knocked into the side of the gazebo and left cracks where it hit the wall. It landed on the ground and after a couple of seconds, eventually disappeared into black smoke.
“Papa, did you kill them?” Alice said as she looked at where the monster once was.
“I don’t know if he did.” Frisk said as everyone turned to them.
“Frisk, you acted as though you saw that monster before. Who was that?” Starlo asked.
“I-“ Frisk was about to say before the sound of screaming cut them off.
“Who was-“ Dalv said as they looked in the direction of the scream before he brought his hands to his mouth as his eyes went wide. “Oh, my.”
Looking where he was looking, everyone was shocked to see so much more of the monster that had just disappeared running amok all over the park. They were running around left and right, and were attacking anyone in sight. Monsters shed dust as they were hit by the claws of the monsters while the few humans living around here could be seen dripping with blood.
“Holy shit…” Flowey said as Frisk was too focused on the scene before them to care.
“Where… How are there so…” Martlet said as she watched on in horror.
“Everyone, back to their cars now!” Ceroba shouted as another monster showed up, though this one looked to be like a giant ball with a large ball with three antennae, two on the top and one on the bottom that had purple tips, and a sharp mouth. This one went straight for Ceroba who summoned a long red staff with a bell at the end with two red ribbons attached to it. A bunch of cherry blossoms appeared around her before she pointed her staff at the new monster as the cherry blossoms raced forward, striking at the monster as it was pushed back.
“Kanako, Melody, Starlo, come on!” Ceroba shouted as she grabbed both Kanako and Melody’s arms before running off.
“I’m right behind ya’!” Starlo said as he took off after them.
“Jack come on, let’s hightail it out of here.” Undyne said as she swung Alphys over her shoulder who let out a surprised meep at being picked up as she began running back to their car with Jack close behind.
“Cody, quickly.” Dalv said as he and Cody soon began running to their car.
“I don’t know what’s happening Sans!” Papyrus said.
“i don’t either. let’s book it kid.” Sans said as he, Papyrus, and Batty began making their way over to their vehicles.
“Clover, let’s go!” Martlet said as she began racing off to her car with Clover hot on her heels, not before looking back at those remaining with worry with Flowey disappearing soon after to follow them.
“Papa, I’m scared.” Alice said as Asgore picked her up with his free hand and held her close.
“It will be ok Alice. I’m right here.” Asgore said as he began running to his truck.
“Frisk, we need to get back to the house!” Toriel yelled.
“I’m coming!” Frisk said.
The two of them began running back to their car with Chara following close behind with all of the picnic stuff left behind. They eventually made it to the car just as everyone else was leaving. Strapping in as fast as they could, Toriel hit the gas as she began driving out of the parking lot as they made their way home. Looking out the window, Frisk and Chara’s watched as more of the monsters were running around the neighborhood as there was a new kind that looked like the smaller ones but were slightly bigger and had longer limbs and antennae. They were all attacking whatever they could, both monsters and humans. Frisk watched with horror as one plunged it’s arm into the chest of a fleeing monster and seemed to pull something out. They didn’t get a good look as they turned around the street.
“This is just insane.” Chara said as they watched the carnage, only to notice something that caught. “What the hell is that?!”
Frisk didn’t even feel like calling Chara out for swearing as they also looked towards the sky, watching as a large shadowy orb was in the middle of the sky. The clouds around it could be seen pulling into it and vanishing without a trace, almost like a black hole. Frisk couldn’t help but think back to what the voice said and felt uneasy.
“Frisk, we’re almost home. Once we are we can-“ Toriel was cut off as something big dropped down in the middle of the road as Frisk’s heart caught in their chest. It was the same giant monster that appeared in their dream. Toriel immediately slammed on the brakes to try and avoid it, only to lose control and slam into another vehicle. Somehow, the airbags didn’t go off due to the impact as Frisk’s head swam.
“Frisk, are you alright?” Toriel asked as she glanced at the back in worry.
“I’m fine.” Frisk said as Toriel began to try and reverse the car, only to have no luck as the impact seemed to kill the car battery. Turning the key, Toriel tried to start the car again only to be met with failure as the car refused to start up again. This went on for a bit until Frisk looked out the window and saw the large monster looking right at them.
“Mom we need to get out!” Frisk said as they began to unbuckle as they saw the monster kneel down as a ball of darkness appeared in its chest.
“Frisk?! What are you-“ Toriel said as she saw the monster charging up the ball and began unbuckling herself. The two of them barely managed to get out of the car and run a decent way from it before the monster fired a barrage of projectiles at the car.
“Hit the deck!” Frisk and Chara both yelled.
Toriel and Frisk did just that, diving down as the car exploded from the impact. Thankfully none of the shrapnel hit either of them as Toriel looked at Frisk.
“You’re not hurt, are you?” Toriel asked Frisk.
“I’m fine.” Frisk said, only to turn towards the monster as it had gotten back up on its feet and turned towards the two of them and began to stomp its way over.
“You leave my child alone!” Toriel said as she got up in front of Frisk as she opened her palms as flames began to dance around them. She lobed a couple of fireballs at the monster, though it hardly seem to do much as it struck the body. Frisk remembered back to when they fought it in their dream, and remembered how they managed to deal with it.
“Mom! Aim for the hands and face! That’s where it’s weakest!” Frisk yelled.
“Its hands and face?” Toriel asked as the monster kept approaching. Deciding to heed Frisk’s advice, she began throwing fireballs at where she was instructed. As they hit their mark, they seemed to do a lot more damage as the monster was eventually staggered.
“Nice call on that!” Chara said as they congratulated Frisk.
“Frisk, we need to run!” Toriel said as she grabbed Frisk’s hand and began to run past the monster and down the street. “We just need to get home and barricade the house!”
Frisk listened as they turned back, only to their horror to see the monster getting back up as it charged up another ball in its chest before firing more projectiles.
“Mom!” Frisk yelled as Toriel turned to see the projectiles hurtling straight towards them. Thinking quickly, she pushed Frisk behind her as he tried to destroy the projectiles with her flames. She managed to get a few, but one managed to get through and hit Toriel as she fell to her knees.
“MOM!” Frisk yelled as they rushed to Toriel’s side. She didn’t appear to be too hurt, but that projectile still must have hit hard as she was clutching her chest and gasping hard. Looking back to the monster, Frisk began glaring at it before pressing their FIGHT button and summoning their Stick. “You stay away from her!”
“Frisk, no!” Toriel called out as Frisk ran towards the monster with Chara floating right beside them as they were shocked at how willing Frisk was to fight this thing.
“Dude, what are you doing?! That’s things massive and you’re using a stick! What are you gonna do, whack it a few times?”
“Yep!” Frisk said as they eventually reached the monster as it began to charge up its hand before bringing it down, though Frisk was ready for it as they jumped over the following shockwave. “Not this time!”
“This time? Wait a minute, was this thing in the dream you were talking about earlier?” Chara asked.
“Yeah! I had to fight against this thing.” Frisk said as they began to hit the monster’s fist with their stick. Compared to the dream, it didn’t seem to be doing as much damage as before, but it still seemed to do its job.
“So that’s how you knew to attack its head and hands? Well, I guess if you’re doing this, I’ll do like we did before.” Chara said.
“Got it!’ Frisk said as the monster pulled back its hand before charging an orb in its hand and charging it before doing like before as it summoned pools of shadow that began spewing dark orbs.
“Watch your head. You don’t want to get hit by those.” Chara said as Frisk began to hit the monster’s body as it began to charge up another punch. “Jump!”
Frisk jumped over the shockwave as the monster punched the ground and immediately hopped onto its hand and made their way up to its face where they began to smack it as hard as they could. After a bit, the monster pulled back its fist and tried to grab at Frisk as they quickly hopped down and began hitting its legs. The monster then kneeled down as it once again began firing off projectiles.
“Start running and keep moving!” Chara yelled as Frisk quickly began running while also still avoiding the raining orbs.
They were tempted to try and block one, but considering this wasn’t a dream, they didn’t want to risk it. Once the last of the projectiles disappeared, Frisk began hitting the monster’s hand again before it got back up and tried to punch at Frisk again, only for the attack to miss entirely with a heads up from Chara as they jumped over the shockwave. They once again climbed up its arm and made their way to its face where they began hitting it again before they had to once again jump down to avoid getting grabbed. This cycle continued on for a bit longer before the monster did something new.
Frisk landed back onto the ground after avoiding another grab as they watched the monster hold out another orb, though this one had a red glow to it as it slowly began to get bigger and bigger, easily reaching the size of the monster’s head.
“What’s it doing?” Chara asked.
“I don’t know. It didn’t do this before.” Frisk answered.
When it seemed that the orb could no longer get bigger, the monster let it go as the orb began to rapidly ascend before it was sucked in by the bigger orb in the sky. This immediately caused the orb in the sky to grow bigger as harsh winds began to kick up that continued to get worse. It got to the point where nearby trees and chunks of land were being pulled into the orb, soon followed by parts of buildings and cars on the side of the road. The monster itself simply let its arms stretch out to its sides as it too was pulled into the air and into the now growing vortex.
“Frisk!” Toriel shouted as she struggled to make her way over to a nearby lamp post to grab it, only for her to be pulled into the air.
“MOM!” Frisk and Chara shouted before Frisk was pulled into the air.
“Frisk! Hold on!” Chara said as they flew up after them. Not knowing what else to do, Chara simply disappeared as they attached their remaining essence to Frisk’s soul and did their best to stay close to it.
Frisk tried to make their way over to Toriel by swimming through the air as they managed to slowly get closer. Toriel reached out her arm as Frisk tried to grab it, only for the winds to pick up, pulling the two of them away from each other.
“Frisk!” Toriel yelled out as she was thrown around in the air, before being pulled into the vortex.
“NO!” Frisk yelled as tears streamed down their face.
However, they were helpless as they too began to be pulled closer into the vortex, getting closer and closer before their world turned black as they were pulled in. The vortex kept pulling in more and more chunks of the land as it began to descend down to the ground. All around the world, other vortexes also appeared, swallowing up everything close to them until eventually there was nothing left.
Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Traversing Radiance
Summary:
Frisk wakes up in an unfamiliar place and awakens to a newfound power.
Notes:
Sorry this took a bit, but it's finally time to truly start delving into more Kingdom Hearts stuff. And things are certainly getting exciting as the story is beginning to pick up as well.
Chapter Text
My child, you cannot give up! You need to keep going!
c’mon kid, don’t give up now. you gotta get up.
Keep going Frisk! I know you can do it!
You better get up you little punk! I don’t want you dying on me!
F-Frisk! You have to keep going!
Don’t lose hope! Frisk! Stay determined!
C’mon pardner! You got this! Just keep going!
Frisk, please! You have to wake up!
Wake up…
Frisk’s mind was groggy as they slowly felt their self wake up, however they struggled to open their eyes. Their entire body felt extremely sore, as though they had been thrown around constantly within a hurricane. Their eyes felt heavy as though they were telling Frisk to go back to sleep and not wake up for a long time. Their limbs felt extremely heavy, as though someone had put giant sandbags over them as Frisk struggled to move them. All in all, Frisk hadn’t felt this way since they had fallen into the Underground for the first time, though somehow this was slightly worse. They were tempted to try and go back to sleep, but the voices of their friends faintly echoed in their mind, as though encouraging Frisk to get up.
After some time, Frisk managed to eventually fight back the tired feeling as they finally opened their eyes, albeit slowly. There was a faint light to their left, but Frisk had to squint a little bit before their eyes adjusted as the light had been blinding for a short bit. When their eyes had adjusted, they found that they were staring up at a beige roof with wooden crossbeams running along it. After managing to open their eyes, Frisk eventually registered that they were lying down before slowly moving their arms and managing to move their self into a sitting position. Frisk’s mind was still hazy as they slowly looked around, noticing that they were possibly in some sort of outdoor café as there were a few wooden tables and seats with candles on all of them giving a faint glow. Looking further to their left, they saw what appeared to be some sort of small plaza as the ground was made up of bricks with a pair of grass circles with lampposts in the middle of them with a pathway leading off to the right, a large gate directly across from where they were looking, and what appeared to be steps leading up to somewhere.
“Where… am I? I don’t recognize this part of Ebott… And where is every-“ Frisk began to say before the memories of what had happened hit them like a truck, quickly clearing their mind as they now felt fully awake. “Those monsters… the same ones as in my dream! They began attacking everyone and we tried getting away… mom crashed and she got hit by the bigger one and I tried fighting it. It then did something weird and then that vortex began sucking everything up and… Mom!”
Frisk’s body no longer felt weighed down as they were immediately up on their feet as they began running to the middle of the plaza. Quickly looking around, they saw that the stairs led up to a few buildings on a higher elevation and the path to their right led to a giant door. Frisk wasn’t paying attention much as they began calling out.
“Mom?! Mom where are you?!” Frisk yelled, though no one answered.
“Sans?! Papyrus?! Batty?!”
No one answered.
“Undyne?! Alphys?! Jack?! MK?!”
No one responded.
“Asgore?! Alice?!”
Not a voice to be heard.
“Dalv?! Cody?!”
Frisk’s voice was starting to get hoarse as they kept calling out.
“Martlet?! Clover?! Flowey?!”
Not a person in sight.
“Starlo?! Ceroba?! Melody?! Kanako?!”
No one was here.
“Chara?” Frisk said as they could no longer yell anymore as tears streamed down their face.
… Yet nobody came.
Frisk slowly fell to their knees as they began to cry. They didn’t know what had just happened as one moment they were enjoying a picnic with their friends to celebrate everything they had managed to accomplish, only in the next for everything to go wrong as those strange monsters began to appear and attack anyone in sight. They thought back to how that big monster had managed to land a hit on Toriel before Frisk began running towards it with aggression. It wasn’t like them to get that angry and aggressive, but seeing Toriel in pain after being hit and the stress and confusion of everything that happened beforehand caused Frisk to lash out to defend their adoptive mother.
Frisk just knelt there, face down as they continued to cry, their breath hitching as they sobbed. They were all alone, they didn’t know what had happened to their friends as they were someplace they didn’t even recognize. All Frisk could do was keep crying as they feared for the worst of those close to them, scared of what was going to happen. At least, until they heard a familiar voice.
“Ow… Everything hurts. And I don’t even know how that’s possible.”
Frisk’s head immediately shot up as floating right in front of them was Chara who was currently holding their head with their hand as they were wincing.
“Chara?” Frisk said as they tried to wipe the tears out of their eyes to make sure they weren’t hearing or seeing things.
“Yeah… It’s me. What do you need?” Chara said as they looked at Frisk.
“Chara!” Frisk yelled as they shot to their feet and tried to hug them, only to forget that Chara was incorporeal as they phased right through them and landed on the ground.
“Dude? Really?” Chara asked as they looked at Frisk who was getting back up on their feet.
“I’m sorry… It’s just that… that…” Frisk began to say as tears started to form again.
Chara simply rolled their eyes as they looked at Frisk. “Yeah I get it, you were excited to see me and forgot about me being a ghost. Anyways, where even are we?”
“I, I don’t know.” Frisk said as they began looking around more and finally taking in some of the bigger details of wherever they were. “I don’t recognize this place from anywhere in Ebott. I don’t even know what happened after…”.
Both Frisk and Chara had a pensive look on their faces as they thought back to what had just occurred to them. The strange monsters attacking people, the giant vortex swallowing everything up, watching as Toriel…
“Ok, yeah. Let’s not think about that. Have you tried using your phone to see where we are? Or to even try and call the others?” Chara asked Frisk.
“My phone? Oh my god my phone!” Frisk exclaimed as they began to dig through their pockets before pulling out their cellphone.
After coming up to the surface and handling the nightmare of making sure monster and human currency was balanced out correctly, Alphys had managed to eventually make enough money to get her hands on a proper smartphone. The first thing she did after getting one was seeing exactly how it worked and upgrading hers as well as a bunch of other monsters’ phones so that they could properly connect with the surface’s internet. When Alphys asked Frisk for their phone to be upgraded Frisk happily obliged and a couple of hours later was presented with a smartphone with a proper touch screen and everything. Alphys had even went ahead and made sure that the upgraded version still retained a lot of the functions as it did before such as dimensional storage, though some functions such as the jetpack and ability to turn Frisk’s soul yellow had to be removed. In their places Alphys had at least managed to add a signal booster, making it easier for Frisk to make calls and text even in the middle of nowhere and a couple of features to the camera such as night vision and infrared which Frisk thought was cool.
As Frisk pulled out their phone and turned it on with the lock screen wallpaper being the same as the group photo on their nightstand, their excitement fizzled out as they saw the words “No Signal” in the top left corner of the screen. Continuing on, they unlocked the phone and went to their map app, only to see the words “Location Not Found” on the screen.
“Well, I guess that’s a bust.” Frisk said as they stared at the screen as their mood fell.
“Yeah.” Chara said as they looked around. “Maybe there is someone around here that can tell us where we are?”
“Maybe? I didn’t see anyone around when I first woke up though. Or when I was calling out to the others.” Frisk said.
“True, you were quite loud. Still, might as well start looking. We’re just wasting time standing around.” Chara said as they floated beside Frisk’s shoulder. “Lead the way.”
Frisk nodded as they put their phone back in their pocket as they looked around. They saw a small alleyway that quickly became a dead end right by the café they just exited, so that was a bust. They also looked towards both of the massive doors and seeing how there was a chance they could have been locked, those were also out. Which left the stairs leading up to the houses which Frisk began to walk up, briefly dragging their hand along a chain connected to a few poles that were halfway up the stairs. Making it to the top, there was a building to their left with the door facing them as an alley continued on to their left as there was a building right in front of them. A pathway continued on to the right of the building with more stairs leading up. Frisk walked up to the door of the building in front of them and began to knock.
“Hello? Is anyone in there?” Frisk asked, though no one responded even after waiting a couple of seconds.
“Guess no one’s home. Try the one to the left.” Chara said.
Frisk did just that, knocking on the door to the building on their left and calling out for anyone, though once again was met with no response. Frisk sighed as they looked up, finally noticing that it was night.
“Jeez, how long was I out?” Frisk said.
“Long enough that it’s dark out.” Chara responded.
“At least there’s all these lamps lighting the streets.” Frisk said as they looked around, taking note off all of the lamps on the walls of the buildings giving off a soft orange glow. “Though, maybe everyone’s asleep?”
“Maybe? But even then, someone would have come out to hear you crying your eyes out.” Chara said. “I certainly heard it.”
“Really? So where were you?” Frisk asked.
“I attached myself to your soul. It’s how me and Clover were able to easily follow you throughout the Underground as we attached our essences to you, making it so that we could just follow you without having to actually float around. After being sucked up by that… thing, I blacked out for who knows how long, only to be woken up by you crying and feeling as though my body had been run through a blender and having a splitting headache. Thankfully I’m feeling somewhat better.” Chara explained.
“Huh. That’s interesting to know. And I’m guessing you’re still attached to my soul?” Frisk asked.
“Yep. Neither of us know where the heck we are, so it’s probably for the best if we stick close. Anyways, let’s move on.” Chara said as they pointed towards the stairs to the right of the first building.
Going up the stairs led to a small landing where there was just a bunch of boxes to the right and more stairs leading up to the left which Frisk continued up. Upon reaching the top, there were doors to the left and right of Frisk, one attached to the same building as earlier and a big wooden one to their right that looked more like a gate. Right across from Frisk appeared to be some sort of market stall, though it was completely empty. Frisk immediately tried knocking on the door to their left, trying once more to see if anyone would answer, only to be met with silence.
“No one’s answering.” Frisk said as they looked disappointed.
“Yeah. Wait, give me a second.” Chara said. Before Frisk could ask what they meant, Chara floated and phased through the door as they entered the building. After a couple of seconds, Chara phased back through the door with an inquisitive look on their face.
“What did you see?” Frisk asked.
“Just some weird machinery in a big room and a latch that led to a room below it that looked like some sort of jewelry store. Nothing was in the display cases and the lights were out, but what’s weird is that there was a thick layer of dust over everything, at least from what I could see.” Chara said.
“Wait, so no one’s been in those rooms for a long time? But that doesn’t make much sense if the floor below was some sort of shop, the owner must have come back every now and then, right?” Frisk asked.
“I don’t know, but something tells me no one has been in there for a long time.” Chara said.
“Well, I guess we should keep looking.” Frisk said as they turned to the door behind them. Considering the size of it, Frisk decided to give it a few harder knocks, only to pause right after the first one as the door slightly opened from the force, revealing it to be a gate. Curious, Frisk looked to Chara who simply shrugged their shoulders before Frisk pushed the gate open and went to the other side.
Compared to where they were before, this new area looked pretty much entirely different. They were on an upper path of sorts that wrapped around a large open space below. Along the path against the sides were a multitude of buildings. On the left was a massive brick building that had two entrances to it with neon signs that were turned off right above each door that had the word “Hotel” on them. On the right side were a couple of buildings that appeared to be clothing stores, with windows allowing one to see what sort of wares they were selling, but any mannequins and shelves in said windows lacked any articles of clothing. Along the right side was also a set of stairs that led down into the open space below. Towards the far back of the area was a giant white building that had stained glass windows and a few spires on the roof, looking almost like some sort of church. The edges of the path were raised, almost acting like stone guardrails as lights ran along the rails that continuously glowed a soft yellow as they were the only sources of light as every single window of the buildings were dark, with no speck of light to be seen. Directly in front of Frisk was some sort of metal lattice design that seemed to be attached to something in the lower area.
“Wow…” Frisk said as they took everything in.
“This place is massive. But…” Chara said as they noticed the windows were dark. “Not a single sign of life to be seen. You would have thought someone who liked to stay up late would at least leave their lights on.”
“Agreed.” Frisk said as they took notice of the shops lacking any wares that were being displayed. “Everything feels abandoned.”
“But why would everything be abandoned? Everything looks to be in decent shape, and if those lights are being powered then something has to be providing power to this place.” Chara said as Frisk began walking along the right path, passing along the shops before making their way to the large area below.
There wasn’t much other than a few arches set into the walls of stone of the paths above and a couple of benches here and there, though Frisk was able to finally see what the metal lattice pattern they saw earlier was a part of. In the lower area right against the wall in front of where Frisk and Chara entered was some sort of fountain with raised stone acting as the rim of it, though there were three places where the stone was raised into a bell shape with a yellow bell design set within the stone. A shallow pool of water rested at the bottom of it as the main centerpiece of the fountain was a mural sat within it. The outside part of the mural was dark gray and had a pillar-like design to it, the second inner part of the mural was beige in color and featured a few pillar-like designs on it as well. The centerpiece of the mural however was the innermost part of it as it featured a tiled image of butterflies and a couple of other bugs all surrounding one flower with red petals, the background of the image was pale yellow and made the colors of the bugs stand out more while the edges of the image were orange. The lattice pattern from earlier was attached to two small poles that stuck out of the middle of the fountain and rose up, with the lattice becoming more detailed the higher it went. Frisk couldn’t help but feel drawn to the mural as they began walking up to it, taking in how beautiful it looked. They stood there for a few moments, looking at the mural before eventually talking.
“It’s really pretty.” Frisk said.
“I guess?” Chara said. “It’s not too bad, it’s just not really what I like.”
“I bet mom would try and take as many photos of it as she could.” Frisk said as they began thinking of Toriel, only for their mood to drop as they thought about her.
“Yeah.” Chara said.
They stayed like that for a while, just looking at the mural and standing, or in Chara’s case floating, in silence as they kept thinking to their selves. Frisk kept thinking about if everyone was ok and where they might be, as surely they must have been fine? Chara on the other hand was just enjoying the silence, but even their thoughts kept thinking back to before and the monsters that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They thought how Frisk talked about their dream as they thought of something.
“Hey, Frisk?” Chara said.
“Yeah?” Frisk answered as they were brought out of their thoughts.
“Didn’t that weird voice in your dream say something like ‘This world will be dragged into darkness and be destroyed.’ Or at least something along those lines?” Chara asked.
“Yeah, it did.” Frisk said.
“The thing is, the way it emphasized ‘this world’ as though it wasn’t from our world has got me thinking. As though whatever it was wasn’t from our world.” Chara said.
“Yeah, now that I’m thinking about it, it was weird as well. And it also mentioned how I had yet to awaken to some sort of power, and that said power would still bring me to safety.” Frisk said.
“If so, then that leaves two big questions. The first, if our world or something was destroyed, and everything that happened practically screamed ‘end of the world’ to me, then where the heck are we? The second, just what is this power that it is referring to?” Chara said.
Frisk thought about what Chara had said as they thought about it. If the world had been destroyed, something Frisk was hoping wasn’t true, then where exactly were the both of them right now? And the power that the voice was referring to, did it have something to do with how their stats changed as well. Nothing made sense. But before Frisk could dwell too much more on it, they immediately began to feel a familiar prickling sensation towards their back. Quickly turning around, they caught Chara’s attention as they began to frantically look around.
“Woah! Frisk, what’s wrong?” Chara said.
Frisk ignored Chara as they kept looking around, before their eyes settled near one of the benches. Looking closely, they saw that a certain part of the shadow of the bench looked darker than normal. They continued staring at it before they felt a cold grip on their heart as the shadow began to move away from the bench alongside four others from other benches before gathering right in front of Frisk. The shadows began to change shape as they rose up out of the ground, taking the shape of the smaller monsters Frisk had fought against in their dream.
“What the?! What are those things doing here?!” Chara yelled as they were caught off guard by the appearance of the strange monsters.
Frisk could only watch as all five of them twitched around as they began to slowly encroach towards them. Remembering what the voice from the dream said and witnessing what they did to other monsters and humans, Frisk hesitantly reached out their hand as they pressed the FIGHT button, summoning their Stick as they held it tightly.
“S-stay back! Don’t come any closer!” Frisk said as their voice shook.
“Are you seriously planning on fighting these things? After what we saw them do? I know you said you faced them in a dream, but this is real life! We honestly got lucky that you weren’t killed by that bigger one!” Chara said as they looked at Frisk.
“I know! It’s just that the voice said that these things don’t accept mercy at all.” Frisk said as they instinctively brought out their ACT menu, once again seeing that the same thing was happening as it did in the dream.
They kept their head on a swivel, doing their best to keep an eye on each one of the smaller monsters as they continued to approach. Noticing the one on the far-left tense up, Frisk quickly moved out of the way as the monster leapt at them, claws outstretched as it missed Frisk by a good bit as they swung their Stick at the monster. It was a direct hit to the monster’s head, but compared to the dream, it hardly seemed to do any damage to the monster as it simply staggered back a little bit.
“Wait, what? That hardly did as much as in the dream.” Frisk said as they backed away from the monster.
“Well it was a dream, like I told you. On your right!” Chara said as they warned Frisk.
Frisk heeded their warning as they quickly dodged to the left, right before the claws of one of the monsters hit them. Frisk retaliated by once again hitting the monster, though the results were the same as the first as the attack hardly seemed to do anything to it. This kept on for a while as Frisk and Chara were doing their best to see an opportunity to flee and possibly find somewhere where they could possibly hide. Unfortunately, a chance of fleeing was beginning to become a lot more improbable as the monsters still kept Frisk backed into a corner with the fountain behind them.
“Ok, these things are starting to get annoying.” Chara said as Frisk dodged another scratch.
“Why can’t these things just leave me alone!” Frisk said right before the monsters got lucky, as while Frisk dodged a scratch, they failed to notice another one leaping straight at them.
“Frisk look out!” Chara yelled.
Frisk only barely managed to look to their side as they saw one of the monsters just mere inches away from hitting them. Thinking quickly, Frisk held out their stick with both hands in an attempt to block the strike. It only barely worked, as Frisk was able to successfully block the scratch aimed at them, but the attack was enough to break Frisk’s Stick into multiple pieces.
Frisk only had one thing to say in response to their only means of fighting back being broken, as well as something they’ve held on to ever since their journey in the Underground. “Uh oh.”
Frisk dropped what was left of their former weapon as they slowly began to back up towards the fountain. Frisk felt their heart pounding in their ears as they watched the monsters slowly approach them, seemingly knowing that Frisk was now unable to defend their self.
“Chara… what do I do?” Frisk asked as their voice began to shake.
“I-I, um… Listen, Frisk. It will be ok, we just have to… um…” Chara stuttered as they were struggling to find a way out of this situation.
It was in that moment that all five of the monsters struck. All of them leapt straight for Frisk, claws outstretched as they intended to go for the kill. Time for Frisk seemed to slow greatly as their heartbeat sounded deafening within their ears as they raised their arms in front of them. For the first time in a long time, images of their life began to flash before their eyes. Memories of dealing with the many intricacies of ensuring monsters would be treated fairly under the law, times of when they would go to school and were happy seeing humans and monsters getting along, the time spent with their close friends after monsters were set free, their adventures through the Underground, their time at the orphanage. Each moment seemingly telling Frisk that everything they worked towards was for naught.
But then, they thought about a few words that the voice had told them in the dream, echoing within their mind as though it had just been spoken.
Their hearts are strong.
I don’t know what will happen to them,
but if you hold onto those bonds closest to your heart…
Then you will be able to find them…
No matter how far you are separated from each other…
And bring this world back into the light.
Even though the voice said that the world would be destroyed, and judging by what happened it did, they still told Frisk that there was a chance their friends were still ok somewhere, and that the world could be brought back. Those words continued to echo within their head as they began to feel a familiar feeling deep within their soul.
They couldn’t die here, they couldn’t just abandon everything they have worked so hard for just to give up now. They couldn't just pass on as there was a chance they could see their friends and family again, to see their smiling faces one more time as they enjoyed their freedom together under the sun. They were Frisk Dreemurr, who at the age of 12 went through the entire Underground multiple times, going up against powerful foes and coming out ok in the end. They fought something akin to a god and managed to calm it down. They helped in freeing the monsters from the Underground after thousands of years, and there was no way that they were just going to see all their effort go to waste! Compared to what they’ve faced before, these monsters may have destroyed the world, but there was no way they were going to get in the way of them reuniting with their friends!
Remembering all of the challenges you have overcome,
and the thought of seeing your friends and family again,
fills you with DETERMINATION.
As time began to speed back up, a bright light emanated from Frisk’s right hand before it became blinding, filling Frisk’s vision with nothing but white as the monsters were knocked back and Chara shut their eyes from the bright light. As the light began to slowly fade and coalesce in Frisk’s hand, the sound of a blade being unsheathed reached Frisk’s ears as they felt their right hand grasp something as the light took shape, transforming into some sort of strange looking sword in a burst of red light and sparkles.
The guard of the weapon was rectangular in shape and red in color while the handle of the blade itself was white in color. The blade of the weapon itself was more like a silver pole that stretched for a bit before ending in a rounded tip. Towards the top of the weapon, it was though some sort of wood was growing onto the blade as it wrapped around the upper half of the blade while leaving the tip exposed as the wood formed a frame that stuck out from the side of the blade, within said frame was a large glittering red heart that seemed to slightly sparkle even with the little amount of light around as the tip pointed downwards. Running up the blade on opposite sides of the blade were seven red hearts that were embedded within the blade itself with their tips pointing towards the guard of the blade, with even the some of the wood that covered the top half of the blade going around the hearts and leaving a little bit of silver around them. Finally was a silver keychain attached to the pommel of the sword, with a token of a red heart within a wooden frame similar to the one towards the top of the blade, said heart also sparkled like the one towards the top as well.
Frisk looked at the weapon that had mysteriously appeared in their hand in awe before a word began repeating in the back of their mind, said word being “Keyblade”. As Frisk continued to stare at the strange weapon in their hand however, something akin to a name appeared from the back of their mind, weirdly feeling as though it came from the recesses of their soul. This name was…
“Determined Resolve.”
“Frisk, what did you say? Hold on my eyes are still adjusting from that light.” Chara said as they blinked a few times as their vision returned to them as they looked at Frisk. “Much better. Also, what the hell is that?!”
“I-I don’t know! It just appeared in my hand!” Frisk said as they looked at Chara.
“Hold on, appeared in your hand? That doesn’t sound right. You can’t use magic, remember?!” Chara said as they looked at the weapon in Frisk’s hand. “Also, what’s up with it? It looks like some sort of sword, but it looks really weird.”
“Like I said, I don’t know!” Frisk said as movement caught their eye. They saw the monsters getting back up on their feet, however they noticed that as soon as their eyes set upon the weapon in Frisk’s hand, they became even more agitated as they began twitching a lot more and some of them even began hopping around.
“That doesn’t look good. Let’s get out of here while we can!” Chara said as they began floating towards the stairs.
“R-right!” Frisk answered as they began running after Chara with their new weapon in hand. Only for one of the monsters to immediately jump at Frisk, ready to scratch them. “Get away!”
On instinct, Frisk swung their new weapon at the monster and watched as this time, it actually looked like the attack actually did some damage to the monster as it was knocked back quite a bit. Frisk also noticed how when they hit the monster, red stars alongside yellow four-pointed stars similar to a SAVE point flew out from where Frisk hit the monster before disappearing into thin air. While Frisk did take notice at the fact that they actually seemed to do some damage to the monster, they continued following after Chara up the stairs as the rest of the monsters gave chase. Frisk barely got to the gate with Chara waving them on before they started shouting at them.
“Close the gate! Close the gate!” Chara shouted.
As soon as Frisk passed through the open gate, they quickly pivoted and turned around as fast as they could, slamming the gate close right as some of the monsters were approaching. Immediately after the door was closed, Frisk heard a couple of bangs as they assumed that the monsters had hit the door right after they closed it, with a few bangs continuing before they eventually died down. Frisk slowly backed away from the gate before letting out a sigh of relief.
“That… That was close.” Frisk said.
“You could say that again. At least those things can’t get through, right?” Chara said.
Frisk was about to agree, only for them to look at the gate and watch as a shadow passed under the gate to their side and watched as one of the monsters began to pull itself up.
“Oh come on!” Frisk yelled as they began running down the stairs to get away.
“Seriously! What is up with these things?!” Chara yelled as they floated alongside Frisk.
Frisk managed to get back to the lower area where they first woke up, only to screech to a halt as four more shadows appeared in front of them with monsters pulling themselves out. Turning around, they found that the monsters from earlier were running down the stairs and had blocked the way back where Frisk had come. Frisk kept their head on a swivel as they tried to constantly keep an eye on all of the monsters around them.
“Well, this isn’t good.” Chara said as they kept looking to wherever Frisk’s back was turned at any moment. “Just give me a second Frisk, I’ll try and think of something.”
Frisk simply kept looking around them at the monsters, trying to see if they were about to do something. Eventually, one decided to attack as Frisk noticed it tense up before it jumped at them. On instinct, Frisk simply held the weapon out in front of them holding their hand against the side of the blade that was facing them to help reinforce it. Surprisingly, as soon as the monster’s outstretched claw hit the blade, its attack was repelled as a ping sound rang out from the blade as a couple small waves of white light and sparkles were emitted from the sword as the monster hit it, with the monster staggering back from its attack being blocked with Frisk only receiving a little bit of recoil. Thinking quickly, Frisk smacked the monster and knocked it back towards the others.
“Woah! Nice job Frisk! Guess that new weapon of yours is pretty sturdy.” Chara said.
“Yeah.” Frisk said as they remembered back in their dream how they had to fight against the monster. They kept thinking for a bit, before Frisk reached a conclusion. “Hey Chara?”
“Yeah?” Chara responded.
“I… I think I’m going to have to fight these things.” Frisk said with slight uncertainty.
“You mean like how you did in your dream?” Chara asked.
“Yeah…” Frisk responded as they continued watching the monsters.
“You sure about this? Even though you didn’t gain any LV or exp in the dream from killing these things, whose to say you won’t gain any here?” Chara said.
“I know. It’s just that… I still remember what the voice told me.” Frisk said.
“You mean about how these things won’t accept Mercy?” Chara asked.
“Yeah.” Frisk said as they saw another monster try and go for them, only for Frisk to block the attack and knock it back with a swing like the first one.
“…Well. If you’re sure about this. Just promise me something.” Chara said.
“What?” Frisk asked.
“If you do end up gaining any exp or LV, don’t RESET. Please. We’ve come so far, and I don’t want to throw it all away.” Chara said.
Frisk had to pause for a moment as they thought about it, and after thinking about it they eventually sighed and looked up to Chara. “I won’t. Besides, I can’t even RESET without a SAVE point, and I haven’t seen any so far.”
“Thank you. And if anyone asks, we claim it was self-defense. Got it, partner?” Chara asked.
“Got it.” Frisk said with a determined nod.
“Good. Now, since I can’t actually hit these things and apparently they may have destroyed our world…” Chara began to say as an eerie smile formed on their face. “Hit them extra hard for me.”
Frisk felt a chill go up their spine as they saw Chara’s smile. “S-sure.”
Frisk tightened the grip on their weapon as they on instinct went into their ACT menu again, but just before Frisk closed it, they noticed something had changed. All of the options for the strange monsters were no longer just “???”, as instead there were nine options to pick from all named “Shadow”. Chara noticed this and their eyes widened.
“Shadow? Wait, is your menu now working properly?” Chara asked as Frisk selected one of the options, noticing the monster directly in front of them being highlighted. There was still no other option than checking which they selected, and this time they actually were seeing information about the monster this time.
======================================================================
| * Shadow – STR 16 DEF 8 |
| * These shifty shades skulk around, then strike out of the blue. |
======================================================================
“Huh. That’s good to know. Wait, attack changed to STR?” Frisk asked before one of the monsters, now known as a Shadow, tried to attack them by scratching at them, which Frisk blocked and knocked it away. “Ok I can think about that later!”
As the Shadow that attacked Frisk began to get back up, Frisk decided to go on the offensive as they charged at the Shadow and began whacking it a few times with their weapon. The Shadow itself obviously wasn’t expecting the sudden charge as it took the full brunt of Frisk’s attack. Right before Frisk could get another hit in, they saw another Shadow leap at them to attack which Frisk quickly moved out of the way of by moving past the Shadow they were attacking as they now were facing the stairs, no longer surrounded. A few of the closer Shadows began making their way towards Frisk and tried to attack them with Frisk barely avoiding some of the scratches before blocking the third one’s attack and proceeded to wail into it. After one last good hit, the Shadow evaporated into black smoke leaving eight others.
“Just like the one dad killed, it didn’t turn to dust but smoke. Just what is up with these things?” Chara said.
Frisk honestly didn’t know either, but they were currently doing their best to avoid some of the swings from the other Shadows to focus on that thought. After the first Shadow was taken out, the six others that were just watching immediately began going after Frisk. Some tried to jump at Frisk from above only to miss as Frisk saw the attack coming while others tried to scratch at them which Frisk easily blocked and wailed into them as they were stunned. A couple even tried to sink into the ground and attack Frisk from behind, though Frisk was prepared this time as they felt a tingling sensation along their spine and twirled around on instinct to block the attempted sneak attack.
As time went on, Frisk was actually managing to do a decent job fighting the Shadows off. Unfortunately, due to the large amount of them all attacking at once, Frisk did end up getting hit a couple of times. Mostly because Frisk was too focused on one Shadow to notice another one going for them. Chara did help to try and point out whenever a Shadow was about to attack them while Frisk was focused on another one, but Frisk still ended up getting hit. The Shadows thankfully didn’t draw any blood as all of the attacks that hit Frisk were the Shadows that tried to leap at them and managed to slam into Frisk. Frisk made sure to also keep an eye on their HP, with them also noticing that their HP bar had changed to be the exact same as in the dream.
After what felt like an hour but in reality was only a couple of minutes, Frisk had managed to whittle down the Shadows to there just being three left with Frisk’s HP bar reading 77/105. However, Frisk was starting to feel tired as they began to breathe heavily. They weren’t used to fights lasting this long, at least fights where they were actively swinging around a large weapon like the one they were wielding and dealing with over nine different enemies at once. However, Frisk needed to stay focused as the fight was almost over. At once, all three Shadows leapt up into the air, claws outstretched and ready to tear into Frisk who held their weapon up to block the attack. However, the Shadows would never reach them as something unexpected happened as Frisk heard a voice yell out from their right.
“Fire!”
A fireball quickly streaked from the right and struck the Shadow in the middle, exploding in a small burst of flame as the shadows were all launched in different directions. Once they hit the ground, all of them vanished into smoke as they were defeated. Frisk simply stood there and waited in anticipation for a message to congratulate them on winning the fight and telling them how much exp they earned and if they leveled up. However, that message never came.
“Frisk, we’ve got company.” Chara said as they pointed towards Frisk’s right. Looking to where Chara was pointing, Frisk was originally hopeful that Asgore was the one who launched the fireball and had managed to find Frisk, only for that not to be the case.
Standing right in front of the large door to the right of the stairs was a human male who seemed to be in his late 20s with tan skin, long brown hair, blue eyes, and a scar in the middle of his faced that trailed from above his right eye to below his left. His outfit on the other hand through Frisk and Chara for a loop though. He wore a short black jacket with short sleeves with white fur along the collar over a white shirt with a silver necklace around his neck with what appeared to be a silver cross with a lion’s head replacing the top point connected to it. The sleeves on the jacket sported the same symbol on the man’s necklace but were red instead. He wore black leather pants with zippers running down the sides with three buckles going over the zippers as well. He also wore black zip-up boots with said zippers going right down the middle of said boots.
The thing that really threw Frisk and Chara for a loop was the amount of belts this guy was wearing. There was a black leather belt with a silver buckle going through the loops of his pants, two brown leather belts crisscrossed right under the black belt and were held in place by two lower loops, and one more black belt under one of the brown ones also hooked through another low loop. It didn’t end there as his hands were covered by black gloves with black buckles on them and he had three brown leather belts wrapped around his left arm.
After getting over the fact that this man was wearing seven different belts, Frisk noticed that in his right hand the man was wielding a sword, but it partially looked like a firearm. The handle was completely black with a flat silver bottom where a silver keychain dangled from the bottom with the token being a silver lion head. Attached to the top of the handle looked like someone had taken the cylinder, trigger, and hammer of a revolver and had stuck it onto the top of the handle. Where the barrel of the revolver should have been was instead a large silver blade that extended a good bit, though there was a small divot towards where the cylinder and the blade met and towards the top edge of the blade was a small hole. Another thing Frisk noticed was that the man’s left arm was stretched outwards with his palm slightly open with small cinders dancing around his hand.
The man lowered his hand as the cinders began to die out before looking directly at Frisk and speaking. “Are you ok?”
“Y-yeah. I’m fine.” Frisk said. “Um, do you know where I am? I know this sounds weird, but I woke up over there and don’t know where this place is. You wouldn’t happen to know the way back to Ebott, would you?”
The man seemed to take this information in as his eyes settled on the weapon Frisk was holding. It was brief, but Frisk thought he saw the man’s eyes widen before going back to how they were before speaking again. “I’m not familiar with anyplace called Ebott. But this place is called Traverse Town, and the fact that you are here is definitely not a good sign.”
“Traverse Town? Never heard of a place called that.” Chara said.
“Hold on, what do you mean me being here isn’t good?” Frisk asked.
“What is the last thing you remember before waking up here?” The man asked.
“The last thing I remember? Well, me and my family and some friends were getting together for a picnic when those weird monsters showed up and began attacking anyone in sight. One tried to go after me and mom and I tried to fight it off before it shot something into this giant black vortex. Then everything started getting sucked up into and then I passed out shortly after, and then I woke up here.” Frisk said, trying not to think too hard about what had happened as to not get upset again.
“The fact that Merlin observed a star going out earlier as well… This isn’t good.” The man said to himself before looking at Frisk. “To put it simply, Traverse Town is a world where people tend to end up when their world is consumed by the darkness.”
“Consumed by darkness? Then you mean that…” Frisk began to say.
“Yes. Your world has been dragged into darkness. But something like that hasn’t happened in the last couple of years, and they’ve been diligent about keeping an eye on the darkness. So how could something like this happen?” The man said to himself as he held in chin deep in thought.
“Well, I guess our theory was correct, as much as I hate to say it.” Chara said as they looked at Frisk.
Frisk wasn’t looking too good as panic began to set in. Yes the possibility of everyone they cared about being alive and ok was still real, but being told that your world had been destroyed was something that would make you panic. Panic that Frisk was currently going through as they began to hyperventilate as their vision began to go dark.
“Frisk? Frisk are you ok?” Chara said as they began getting worried.
Frisk simply turned towards Chara with tears forming in their eyes and said “No.” before promptly falling to their knees and onto the ground as they passed out, their exhaustion and stress finally getting to them. As they hit the ground, they dropped the weapon they had been holding with said weapon disappearing in a flash of red light and sparkles like it had first appeared while making a sound akin to sheathing a blade.
“Frisk?! Frisk wake up?!” Chara yelled out as they got close to Frisk.
The man was brought out of his thoughts as he heard Frisk hitting the ground and the weapon disappearing. He simply sighed as he began walking over to Frisk with Chara keeping an eye on him as he got closer. Chara watched as the man simply let go of his weapon as it disappeared into nothing before leaning down and brushing aside Frisk’s face, noting how there were a couple of bruises on their face and arms. In one swift motion, the man picked up Frisk and held them over his shoulder and after making sure they were secure, began walking towards the large door opposite of the stairs.
“Hey! Where are you taking Frisk?” Chara said, though wasn’t heard by the man as he simply kept walking. “Ugh. What have we gotten ourselves into?” Chara continued before quickly floating after the man who simply pushed open the large door and shut it behind him, with Chara phasing through it as they followed him.
It had been possibly a good ten or so minutes since the three of them went through that large door with there simply being a large stretch of path cutting through trees on both sides on the other side. The man simply kept walking while carrying Frisk as Chara floated alongside him, deep in thought as they mulled over everything that has just happened. Did finding out that their world had essentially been destroyed shock them to their core? Yes, but they could let a meltdown over finding out their current situation happen later. At the moment they were more worried about Frisk as they apparently took the confirmation of the world being destroyed a lot harder than Chara did.
That and Frisk was definitely rusty with their fighting skills as even though Chara saw Frisk doing a good job taking down those Shadows, they noticed that Frisk began to get tired as the damage began to slowly pile up. From talking with Frisk Chara knew that they had experience with fighting because of reasons that Chara shouldn’t be thinking about at the moment. It was just that they haven’t had practice swinging around a weapon for a long time. Speaking of weapons, Chara was wondering where that weird weapon the Frisk had been wielding even showed up from or went to. They did see it disappear in a flash of light when Frisk passed out, so Chara knew that it was magical in some nature.
Chara was brought out of their thinking as they finally began seeing a large clearing up ahead that the man walked into before stopping in the middle of it. Before Chara could even question what the man was doing he pulled out some sort of device that was boxy in appearance and had something akin to a compass built into it. However it was only a single red arrow in it that was pointing directly in front of them with a red button underneath that the man pushed, with a blue button right beside it.
As soon as he did light seemed to twist and bend in front of them as something appeared out of thin air. As it fully appeared, Chara was left staring at a massive ship that had a design that looked to be made by something a little kid would have put together with building blocks or something. Starting from the top was a large bubble-like dome connected to a red square with a large diamond shape point extending from it with a yellow stripe running around the middle of said point. Connected to two orange cubes to the sides of the red square were white fins that stuck out alongside a yellow tube extending in the same direction as the point ending with some sort of red cap. Under each orange cube was an orange rectangular shape with a yellow diamond poking out of one side. Right between the orange cubes on the back side of the ship were massive thrusters and under both of them was a red rectangular shape that had two things attached to the front. The first was a orange square with some sort of gray cannon (at least Chara thought it was) on the front of it with a cyan square right next to it with two square shaped cannons on it, one on top of the other.
“What the hell am I looking at?” Chara said to their self before noticing the man moving again.
Following the man until they were right under the yellow stripe around the point, the man simply pressed the blue button on the device. The result was a section of the yellow portion of the point moving aside as a metallic blue platform descended and was attached to a silver pole. Stepping onto the platform, the man pushed the button again as the platform began to raise, taking him and Frisk up towards the inside of the ship with Chara floating after them.
As the platform rose up into the ship with Chara right beside the man and Frisk, Chara saw that they had been brought into a large hall with the walls and roof being white with lines of blue lights traveling across the ceiling and towards the bottom of the walls. The floor on the other hand seemed to be made of the same metal as the platform that had just been pulled back in, though Chara did notice what appeared to be doors lining the hallway. As soon as the platform had completely risen up and a sound that Chara assumed was the section of the ship that opened up sliding back into place, the man proceeded to walk down the hallway with Chara close behind him.
After passing a couple of doors the man stopped in front of one and slid the door open, revealing something akin to a cabin aboard a ship. The room itself was small, but contained a single bed that was pushed into the back-left corner and a small table in another corner. The man simply walked up to the bed and placed Frisk down on it and after checking their injuries one last time, simply left the room, closing the door behind him. Chara watched as the man continued to go down the hall before they decided to phase into the room and stick by Frisk as they sat on top of the small table and tried to collect their thoughts, but was interrupted by the sound of an engine starting as Chara saw the entire room begin to slightly shake.
“There’s no way this thing can actually fly. Can it?” Chara said as the room stopped shaking. They were tempted to go out and see if they could find anything, but at the moment they didn’t want to leave Frisk in case something happened to them while they were gone.
After agreeing to the insane possibility that this weird ship could fly, even though it was probably breaking so many laws of physics in doing so, Chara assumed that wherever this weird man who showed up out of nowhere was taking them, it was going to be a while. So Chara simply decided to do one simple thing to pass the time.
They got up from where they were sitting, lied down on the floor, and proceeded to try and feel like garbage.
Chara remembered how when Frisk visited Napstablook they decided to indulge in the Blook family tradition of lying on the ground and feeling like garbage. They did that for a solid half-hour before Frisk eventually got back up and they continued on their journey. Chara remembered Clover asking why Frisk decided to simply lie on the ground for that long, to which Frisk responded that it was surprisingly relaxing. When Chara needed to pass the time during the night as while they could sleep, it's just that it didn’t really have much of an effect on how they were, they decided to just lie on the ground and just space out until the sun rose. While they never experienced anything that could be described as “transcending into the stars above” as Frisk once put it, it did help Chara relax. And considering that they were doing their best not to freak out like Frisk had, it was slightly helping.
Chara didn’t know how much time had passed, a couple of minutes or maybe even a few hours, but their focus was brought back to attention as they heard the door to the cabin open and watched as the man entered the room once again and picked Frisk back up and slung them over his shoulder. Quickly rising from their position on the ground, Chara floated after him and watched as he approached the platform that had brought them into the ship. Taking out the same device as before and pressing the blue button again, Chara heard the section of the ship moving before the platform began to descend, with Chara following it down, finding that they were now in a completely different place.
The ship had landed in what appeared to be a large square that dipped down in the middle similar to the place with the mural Chara and Frisk had seen earlier, with stairs towards each cardinal direction leading up to the upper level and large flower beds being situated in between each set of stairs. Lining the upper part of the square and going around the lower part were large trees, lush with color and also resting in flower beds as well. All around the upper level and away from the square were houses whose architecture was slightly similar to the ones Chara saw earlier, but still were unique in design as a lot of them featured white walls with the color of the roofs leaning more towards browns and dark purples. But it was something to the north that caught Chara’s eye as behind a massive iron gate, a path flanked by trees on either side led up to a massive structure that Chara attributed to being some sort of castle. It definitely had a weird design to it as it featured pillars and towers with coloration ranging from dark pinks, purples, and blues. At the front of it, as though one had taken off the front of a grandfather clock to look at its internal mechanisms, were large golden and bronze gears that continuously turned.
As the platform finally reached the ground, Chara noticed that there were hardly any people around as everyone was probably asleep due to it being the middle of the night. After the man stepped off of the platform and sent it back up into the ship the same way he called it down, he began making his way north towards the castle with Chara close behind him. Upon reaching the gate, the man simply pushed them open with the hand that wasn’t holding onto Frisk before turning around, closing the gate back up, and continuing on the path behind him. Meanwhile Chara had simply phased through the gate while looking at everything around them, taking in everything while also looking up at the giant castle in awe.
They eventually made it to stairs that were light brown in color, possibly being made of some kind of clay, before the man went up them and reached a small platform where the stairs continued up in front of him while another set of stairs split off on either side of the platform and leading to their own paths. The man kept going as he walked up the stairs opposite the ones he just climbed before they all reached a massive door that was set into the giant castle, dark blue in color with gold decals running up and down it. Chara began to wonder if someone was supposed to open the doors to let the man inside before the man simply walked up to the door and pulled a lever that was to the right of it on the wall, watching as the sound of gears turning could be heard before a smaller section of the giant door opened, revealing a large hallway that the man began to enter. Shortly after, the section began to close behind him automatically with Chara quickening their pace to catch up with him.
The walls of the hallway were light gray in color with the ceiling following the same coloration while the floor itself was a checkerboard of white and gray tiles. The ceiling also had circular white lights set within them, even spaced out and keeping the hallway well lit as Chara continued following the strange man. Every now and again, the man would either go down a hallway that appeared or up a flight of stairs, carrying Frisk deeper and deeper into the castle with Chara right behind him. Some time later, they reached a hallway that was lined with gray doors with ornate designs on them and had plaques towards the middle of the top of the doors. Passing by a couple of them, Chara noticed a few of them didn’t have any names on them before passing by one of them that bared the name “Namine” on it. Chara didn’t have time to wonder who or what this Namine was before they noticed the man had stopped in front of a door on the opposite side of the wall a couple of doors down and opened it, walking into the room inside.
Following the man inside, Chara saw that the room was some sort of dorm or guest room. The walls were pale blue in color with the ceiling being a darker shade of blue while the floor itself was mainly white. A window on the opposite wall looked out into the night sky, and through it Chara also saw that they were quite high up in the castle as far below they saw more buildings that were similar in style to the ones they saw in the square. On both left and right sides of the room, almost mirroring each other, were a pair of beds with white puffy comforters on top of them set in the far back corners with the ends facing towards the door, a wooden nightstand right next to each one a foot or two away from the beds, and a large wooden chest at the end of each bed.
Chara finally watched as the man simply went up to the bed on the right and set Frisk down on top of it and backed away. The man then seemed to notice the bruises that Frisk still sported before he began to dig around in his pockets before pulling out a small glass bottle that had handles on the side that started out from the middle before curling upwards. Inside of the bottle was what appeared to be a glowing green star that looked like it was made up of gelatin. Wondering what the man was going to do with the bottle, Chara watched as the man simply lobbed it into the air above Frisk and watched as it exploded into a small shower of green sparkles that slowly floated down onto Frisk. Chara watched in awe as they witnessed the bruises Frisk was sporting slowly began to fade away and disappear, as though they were never there to begin with.
“I’m not as adept at healing as Aerith is, but hopefully that should be enough.” The man said, mentioning someone Chara didn’t know.
“Aerith? Who the hell is Aerith?” Chara asked their self as the man began to walk towards the door, opened it, and left the room. Chara was tempted to follow him, but they still decided that they should be close to Frisk when they woke up.
Chara simply floated over to the bed on the opposite side of the room and sat down on it, propping their arm on their knee as they stared out the window and let their mind wander. While Chara was slightly thankful for the whatever the man did, as whatever that bottle did seemed to have healed up Frisk, Chara couldn’t help but think to their self as to what exactly they have just gotten into.
As the man navigated through the maze of halls and stairs that made up the castle, he pulled out a device from his pocket that looked like a smart phone, though this one had a very bulky case with the top and bottom both being black while the middle was red. Golden decals adorned the top of the case, with one on the back that poked out towards the top looking like a crown while one that looked like a gear on the back surrounded a large camera lens.
The man simply pushed the home button on the front, silver in color and featuring a symbol that was a black circle with two black circles sticking out of the top, turning the phone on and was greeted with various apps in front of a wallpaper that was primarily black in color with flames rising up from the bottom with the symbol that adorned his necklace in the middle. He navigated to a specific app and opened it, pulling up a chat group as he began to type as he walked, with others joining in on the conversation.
Leon: I’ve made it back. However we might have an issue.
Yuffie: You’re back already? That was certainly quick. And what do you mean that we have an issue?
Leon: I found a kid at Traverse Town who talked about their world being destroyed.
Aerith: Their world was destroyed? But it’s been almost two years, and the others have been keeping a close eye on the Heartless after the war.
Leon: Indeed, however it seems as though the Heartless somehow managed to destroy one without us knowing. If Merlin hadn’t told me that he wanted me to investigate Traverse Town as he was talking about how he thought he saw a star disappear, I would have dismissed it. But that isn’t the only thing.
Yuffie: Seriously? What else would be as important as a world falling to darkness?
Leon: The kid was wielding a keyblade.
Yuffie: …
Aerith: …
Yuffie: You serious?
Leon: I am. They were fighting a group of Shadows by the time I found them.
Aerith: Should we tell the others right now?
Leon: Not at the moment. Riku is probably asleep if he isn’t focused on going through Organization XIII’s data, same goes for the ones over in Twilight Town and Disney Castle. Plus Aqua and her group have talked about how poor reception is in the World of Darkness.
Yuffie: So what? We wait until the morning to let everyone know?
Leon: Yes. I’ve taken the kid to one of the spare rooms in the castle where they are resting. My plan is to take them to Merlin’s and gather everyone else to see if we can learn anything else. I plan on heading home at the moment and getting some rest.
Yuffie: Alright then. I guess we’ll meet up tomorrow then.
Aerith: Ok. I’ll be there, and I’ll try and see if I can get Tifa to come along as well.
The man read the last of the messages that were sent before turning off and pocketing his phone, continuing on through the halls. If he was certain of one thing, it was that something big was about to happen, and that he needed to find out more about from the kid currently sleeping high in the castle.
Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Explanations with a Keyblade Master
Summary:
Frisk wakes up and is introduced to a group of people who have been dealing with the threat of darkness for a long time while also having some questions answered.
Notes:
Sorry this chapter took so long. The main thing I struggled with was the major introductions that happen in this chapter as I wanted to ensure that everything felts as good as it could. Thankfully, I think it turned out decent in the end.
Chapter Text
It was a pleasant morning as the sun began to rise over the large town surrounding the large castle in the middle. It wasn’t long before the inhabitants of the town began to wake up and go through their morning routines as they began their day. The people of this town were quite accustomed to anything odd or unusual that occurred, after all, they still remembered how over a decade ago their very home was taken over by those who could control the creatures of darkness, and how many of them were left stranded in another world. As such, when some of the townsfolk spotted the large spaceship whose design brought to mind building blocks that children would play with parked right in the middle of the central square beneath the large castle, hardly any of them batted an eye. As for the man who piloted the ship only last night walking up to the castle with a brown paper bag in his hand? The townsfolk simply greeted him kindly, assuming that he was currently on some sort of important business as he seemed to be deeply thinking to himself as he made his way up to the castle.
Meanwhile, up in the higher floors of the castle, the morning sun began to shine through the window of where Frisk had been laid to bed the night before. Chara was still looking out of the window, lost in their own thoughts as they were still attempting to make heads or tails of the events of yesterday. Meanwhile, as the rays of the sun began to finally shine upon Frisk’s face, they began to wake up. At least, trying to, as they still felt mentally exhausted as they began to grumble a bit as they began to rub their eyes. The action of which caught Chara’s attention as they looked over to Frisk.
“Good to see you can still wake up. How are you feeling?” Chara asked.
Frisk took a moment to properly wake before eventually responding. “Tired. How long was I out?”
“Enough time for the sun to rise.” Chara said as they jabbed their thumb to the window. “That guy also brought us somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else?” Frisk asked as they finally opened their eyes and noticed that they were laying on a soft bed. “Where are we?”
“Honestly, no clue. But do you want the abridged version of what happened while you were out cold?” Chara asked.
“Sure, I guess.” Frisk said.
“Ok, so after you gracefully passed out on me…” Chara began to say. They took some time to explain everything that had happened, how the man had simply taken Frisk and how Chara had followed him the entire time. How they flew in in some sort of ship and were taken to their new location, how the man proceeded to bring Frisk into the castle they were currently in and into this room before healing Frisk’s injuries with some sort of weird bottle before leaving the night before. “And that about sums it up. I’ve just been waiting for you to wake up while doing my best to think about everything.”
“He healed my injuries?” Frisk asked.
“Yeah. He just chucked some weird bottle above you and it burst into sparkles that seemed to heal you.” Chara said.
Curious as to how much Frisk was healed by, they decided to open their menu. It had also changed to how it was in the dream, but now a lot of the hidden additional options were now revealed, several of which caused Frisk’s eyes to widen as they didn’t know what to make of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Frisk |
| LV 1 CBLV 1 |
| HP: 105/105 MP: 110/110 |
| G 250 |
| Equipment |
| Abilities |
| Items |
| Stats |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Ok, even more weird stuff is happening with my menu. And what the heck does ‘CBLV’ mean? And now I have something called ‘MP’.” Frisk asked to no one in particular.
“CBLV? MP? What are you going on about?” Chara asked as they looked over to Frisk and looked at their menu and saw everything. “Ok, never mind. You’ve got like, 4 new things tacked onto your menu. Equipment sounds self-explanatory, but everything else is definitely new to me.”
Deciding to see if anything else had changed, Frisk decided to go into their Stat menu to check it out. Sure enough, a lot of the stuff that had been hidden before was now revealed, with a few small additions here and there as well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Frisk |
| LV: 1 EXP: 0 Next: 10 |
| CBLV: 1 Next Ability: 2 |
| HP: 105/105 MP: 110/110 |
| Strength: 11 (8) Magic: 12 (9) Defense: 8 (0) |
| Primary Weapon: Determined Resolve |
| Secondary Weapon: None |
| Armor: None |
| Accessories: None |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a lot to take in for Frisk, though a small part deep within them was slightly relieved as they glanced over their LV and EXP and found that they had not even increased at all. This hopefully meant that if push came to shove, they could still fight off Shadows and potentially the other weird monsters like them without worrying about their LV rising. As Frisk kept looking at their Stat menu, they noticed a few other changes as well. CBLV now had a spot underneath their LV, though the thing saying “Next Ability” certainly caught their attention, but they could worry about it later. MP was new and was a little bit higher than their HP, but what caught Frisk’s attention the most was their Attack stat and something new. Or rather, their Attack had changed to “Strength”, and they now had a “Magic” stat which was also higher than their Strength stat. Finally, they now had two slots for weapons, and in one of them was the name they remembered hearing when that weird weapon first appeared.
“Ok, so I’m gonna go ahead and say it. Why do you have a magic stat?! You can’t even use magic!” Chara exclaimed as they looked at Frisk’s menu with them.
“I don’t know. Maybe I can find out more if I just…” Frisk began to say as they began to reach out a hand towards their menu.
Frisk had accidentally discovered a while back that by touching certain things on the menu, similar to how Frisk could use items in their inventory by tapping on the text for them, a brief description would appear explaining what that stat meant. Frisk did just this as they reached out and tapped on their Magic stat with their finger, watching as a textbox appeared in front of them reading “Magic: A measure of one’s strength in regards to casting spells. The higher it is, the more powerful spells will be.”.
“Spells? But I don’t know any spells.” Frisk said as they read the description.
“Exactly. So why would you even have a Magic stat in the first place?” Chara asked. “Might as well check the others.”
“Good point.” Frisk said as they tapped MP. The resulting textbox read “MP (Mana Points): A measure of one’s own mana. MP is used up as spells are cast, with spells unable to be cast if MP reaches 0. MP recharges over time naturally.”
“So MP just measures how many spells you can toss out before you can’t and have to wait for it to charge back up? This is starting to sound more like a video game.” Chara said.
“Well-“ Frisk began to say before they were cut off.
“Don’t. I know what you’re going to say, and as much as you are right, just don’t.” Chara said with an unamused expression.
“Ok, ok, I won’t. Now just what is CBLV?” Frisk asked as they tapped on it. The description read “CBLV (Combat Level): A measure of one’s capabilities in combat. Increases as you become more skilled in battles, with your stats increasing as it does. At certain levels, you may also unlock new abilities.”.
Frisk took a bit to read over the description before talking. “That is… I don’t know how to feel about that.”
“Yeah. I mean, it says that it increases as you become more skilled in combat. But does it increasing revolve around you killing things?” Chara said with uncertainty.
“I don’t know.” Frisk said.
Before either of them could continue with checking out the rest of Frisk’s menu, a knocking sound began to come from the door, startling the both of them as they both looked towards the door and Frisk accidentally closed their menu.
“Hey. Are you awake?” A voice called out, which Frisk recognized as belonging to the man from yesterday.
“Y-yeah! I’m up!” Frisk said.
“Alright, I’m coming in then.” The man said as the door opened and the man from yesterday walked into the room. Frisk noticed that he was carrying a brown paper bag with something inside of it before the man spoke again. “It looks like you’re doing better.”
“Yeah, I am. I don’t even feel my injuries from yesterday. I guess you had something to do with it, mister…” Frisk said.
“Leon. And yes, I did. You had a few bruises from what I can only assume was when you fought the Heartless. A Potion was enough to fix those.” The man, now revealed as Leon, said. “Anyways, I need you to come with me. Also, I figured you might want something to eat.”
Leon tossed the paper bag onto Frisk’s lap who only barely managed to prevent it from falling onto the floor as they weren’t expecting the toss. Looking inside, they saw that there were a pair of bagels inside.
“We can walk while you eat. Where we need to go isn’t far from here.” Leon said as he began to walk out of the room.
Not wanting to be left behind, Frisk quickly got up and began walking after Leon with Chara floating beside them. Frisk absentmindedly took a bite out of one of the bagels in the bag, relishing in how they were still warm and tasted amazing. It was then they realized just how hungry they were, as they hadn’t eaten since the picnic and had been passed out for who knows how long since then. In seconds the bagel was devoured, with Frisk going at the second one with the same ferocity as the first, though being careful not to accidentally choke on the ring of bread.
“Talk about manners. Didn’t mom tell you take your time when eating?” Chara asked.
Frisk simply rolled their eyes at them, being careful not to talk to Chara as there was someone here who wasn’t aware of Frisk’s resident headghost. Leon seemed nice, after all, he healed Frisk and got them really tasty bagels, but Frisk didn’t want him to think that they were crazy or something, so at the moment they kept their mouth shut. After the second bagel had been polished off, Frisk simply held on to the paper bag to throw away when they found a trash can, which thankfully didn’t take long as there was a big trash can tucked into a corner when the hallway made a sharp turn. Frisk simply went up to the trash can and put the bag inside before rejoining up with Leon.
“I take it you were hungry? You ate both of those pretty quickly.” Leon asked.
“Yeah. I don’t really know how long it’s been since I last ate, so I was pretty hungry.” Frisk said in response.
Leon simply nodded in acknowledgment as he continued to lead the way down the halls. After enough time for Frisk to start to wonder if they were in a labyrinth of some sort, they eventually made it to the entrance of the castle. Leon simply went up to a lever built into the wall and pulled it, with Frisk and Chara watching as the doors opened with Leon beginning to head outside. Frisk began to ran to catch up to him, finally getting a good look at their new location.
“Wow. Chara wasn’t kidding when they said place was like some sort of modern village.” Frisk thought to their self as they got a look at some of the buildings.
As they passed through the entrance, Frisk spied two men on either side of the door they just came out of, both wearing what appeared to be some sort of guard uniform. Said uniform was made up of a dark gray, almost bordering black, collared jacket with a red heart with a curled white border right under the collar and gold buttons lining the front of it. A pair of white gloves that featured the same heart design on the jacket but the inside of the heart was the same white as the gloves but had a silver border instead. Lastly were a pair of baggy pants that were the same color as the jacket, black knee-high boots with white soles, and a black belt wrapped around the waist.
The first man had fair skin, black hair that was stylized in dreadlocks with some of it tied in a ponytail with a single strand dangling over his right eye, thick eyebrows, thick sideburns reaching the bottom of his cheeks, and violet eyes. In his right hand was a lance with a blue head and silver edges, with the same heart design featured on his uniform being right under the head but was blue, and the handling alternating between blue and silver.
The second man had the same build and skin as the first man, though there were still a few differences about him. His hair was ginger with it being slicked back into spikes at the back and his eyes were blue with him having small eyebrows. In the man’s right hand was an axe with a large silver blade and the same heart design as before being incorporated in the head with the inner portion being black while the outline was gold, while the handle was reddish in color with a black pommel.
“Dilan. Aeleus.” Leon said as he nodded at the two guards who nodded back at him.
“Dang. No offense to Undyne, but these guys look like they mean serious business.” Chara said as they looked at the two guards.
Frisk caught their self wondering if they could both suplex boulders like Undyne when they noticed that both of the guards were looking at them. Frisk quickly gave a friendly wave to the both of them before running after Leon who began making his way down a set of stairs.
“So, um, where exactly are we going?” Frisk asked as they caught up to Leon.
“Not too far. Considering your situation, it was imperative that I notify some of the others as soon as I could so that we could discuss some things.” Leon said as they finally made it to the bottom of the stairs and began walking along the path.
“Others? Who are you talking about?” Frisk asked.
“You’ll meet them when we get there.” Leon simply said as they eventually made it to a large gate that they passed through and into the central square where Frisk spied the massive ship in the middle of it, eyes wide with wonder.
“Trust me. I was surprised when that thing started flying. At least I think it did? There weren’t really any portholes or windows in the room where belt man over here laid you in.” Chara said.
Giving a quick nod to Chara, Frisk continued to follow after Leon who began making his way down a nearby street. Walking along the street, the idea that this place was some sort of modern medieval town was really starting to settle it, as Frisk began to spot things like streetlamps along the street to even what they assumed were air conditioning units set into the sides of the houses. It was nothing Frisk had ever seen before, including some of the towns they saw in some of the projects some of their classmates did in their geography class. It was just fascinating to just look around at everything, with that fascination only growing as Leon stopped in front of a house.
The house had almost a mystical feeling to it, even when it looked only slightly similar to some of the buildings around it. A small set of stairs led up to the house with white walls and a purple tiled roof. Wooden pillars could be seen in the corners of the house, almost looking like trees as some of the wood quite literally branched out from the pillars and onto the walls. Wooden windows with cobblestone frames were set into the walls, with a little bit of overgrowth from some potted plants resting below them creeping up to them. A large wooden door with a cobblestone frame was set into the right side of the house, with a bronze insignia in the shape of an owl right above the door. Two windows peeked out from the purple roof, while a small tower-like structure rose from the middle of the roof. Made up of bricks with a few wooden support beams holding up the roof of the tower, which curled up into the air almost like some sort of wizard hat. Funnily enough, there was a blue wizard hat perched right on top of the point of the tower’s roof, blue in color and having a curled tip. Weirdly enough, there were also two umbrellas, one yellow and one red, sticking out of the roof of the tower for some reason.
“Alright, we’re here.” Leon said.
“What is this place?” Frisk asked.
“This is the house of a good friend where we also hold meetings for our group.” Leon said as he turned to Frisk. “I need to go get the others. I need you to go inside and wait until I come back.”
“Um, are you sure.” Frisk asked as they looked at the house. They didn’t want to just barge into some stranger’s home.
“Yes. It shouldn’t take too long to get everyone. Just wait inside and I’ll be right back.” Leon said as he began to walk off.
Frisk simply looked at Chara who shrugged their shoulders with an expression that was asking Frisk what they expected them to do. Sighing, and hoping that they weren’t rudely intruding on someone, Frisk walked up to the door and gave it a couple of knocks. After waiting for a bit and seeing that no one was going to answer, Frisk simply pushed the door opened and entered the house, with the interior being just as fascinating as the outside. Various shelves, cabinets, and desks lined the walls of a simply massive room with a roof that extended quite high up. Said things lining the walls being filled to the brim with various books, bottles containing liquids, and other odd knickknacks. In the middle of the room was an elevated platform made of stone bricks with stairs leading up to it, a round table covered in a table cloth with a large comfy chair and a smaller chair sat beside it with a genuine oil lamp lighting up the middle of the room. Frisk did notice a bed sat in the back left corner of the room, but what really caught their attention was what was in the corner opposite of the entrance.
A large array of large devices sat in the back right corner of the room, with a chalkboard set off to the left of the massive set-up. Different colored light constantly blinked on and off while a gentle heat radiated off of the machines, warming the room quite nicely. What appeared to be a large monitor in the middle of it all was right above a very odd-looking keyboard. The phrase “Data Analysis Suspended: Continue Analysis?” was featured on the monitor’s screen and apparently awaiting some sort of input. While Frisk was curious, they figured they shouldn’t mess with the devices in the corner as who knew what they were responsible for. Deciding to follow Leon’s orders, Frisk went over to the platform and went up the small set of stairs leading up to it before sitting down in the smaller of the two chairs, finding it to be quite comfortable as Chara floated over to the other chair and sat down on it.
“So…” Chara began saying. “What’s the plan exactly?”
“I, honestly don’t know.” Frisk said. “I guess just wait here until Leon comes back with those people he’s talking about.”
“So I’m guessing you’re just going along with things like usual?” Chara asked.
“Pretty much. So far, my stats and menu have been acting weird, that weird weapon from before appeared out of nowhere and is somewhere even though I think I still have it equipped somehow, and we find out that apparently our world has been destroyed? I’m just doing my best to try and figure everything out.” Frisk said.
“Same here. It’s just, a lot to take in. Hey, at the very least your LV didn’t go up when you took down those Shadows. So that’s at least a positive.” Chara said.
“I guess. But even then, why didn’t Checking work on them until that weird weapon appeared? It just doesn’t make sense.” Frisk said.
“Maybe those things were interfering with your ability to Check them, and somehow that weapon appearing stopped them from interfering?” Chara suggested.
“Maybe. I did hear some stuff when that weapon first appeared though.” Frisk said.
“Really?” Chara asked.
“Yeah. The word ‘keyblade’ kept repeating inside my head as though someone was directly saying it. Plus when I first looked at it, the same thing that appeared in the ‘primary weapon’ slot of my menu popped into my head, like it was what that thing was called.” Frisk explained.
“Then maybe you can try and bring it out? Try hitting your FIGHT button.” Chara suggested.
Frisk did just that as the Fight button appeared right in front of them as they began reaching for it. However, when they pressed it, nothing appeared. Confused, Frisk tried it again, only for the same thing to happen. They tried this a couple of times, only to be met with the same result.
“That’s… Ok this is just getting even more confusing.” Chara said.
“Yeah. I just wish things started to make sense.” Frisk said, only to pause as they heard voices coming from outside.
“C’mon Squall! Tell me more about them!” A young female voice said.
“You’ll see them in a second. Just calm down Yuffie.” A voice Frisk realized belonged to Leon said.
“I sure do hope they are okay. Losing one’s home isn’t something that can be taken easily.” A woman’s voice with a caring tone said.
“They better’ve not messed with the computer since you’ve left them!” An older voice yelled out.
“Agreed, but it’s the fact you saw them wielding a keyblade is what’s on my mind.” A calm male voice said, immediately grabbing Frisk and Chara’s attention as they looked at each other with wide eyes. “And you said you found them fighting off Heartless?”
“Yes. Like I said, hopefully we can learn more about what happened from them directly.” Leon said as the door to the house opened with Leon stepping inside followed closely by four others.
The one closest behind Leon and who practically almost dashed into the house was a girl who appeared to be roughly seventeen with tan skin like Frisk’s, short black hair, and violet eyes. She wore an unzipped dark gray combat vest over a navy tank top with white floral designs on it, a white wristband around her right wrist while a long gray fingerless glove ran up her left arm, dark tan shorts with a large black strap dangling from the right side that had small pockets on it with a pouch on the left side held together with a black strap and silver buckle, and finally dark tan boots with white laces running up the front with black knee-high socks coming up from under them with two white stripes towards the top.
The second person was a young woman who seemed to be around her mid-twenties and had a calm and caring aura to her. Her skin was a slightly darker shade than Frisk’s, though not by much, with bright green eyes and long brown hair that was braided on both sides of her face with a longer braid tied up by a dark pink bow running down the back. Her outfit was that of dark pink and white top with buttons going down the front as a double flare skirt ran down from underneath the top and reached past her knees, the top layer being light pink with a white stripe running around it while the bottom layer poked out a little bit and was white, and completing the outfit was a pair of brown boots with the tips of the boots being a darker brown than the rest.
The third person was a man who appeared significantly older than the other three who entered the house as he seemed to be in his early forties. His skin was a similar tan to the woman’s with short yet spiky yellow hair and a small amount of stubble while his eyes were blue. His outfit simply consisted of a white t-shirt with two undone buttons towards the top, a light brown waistband with thin vertical stripes going around it over a pair of blue baggy pants, and a pair of long yet baggy gray socks that slightly drooped over a pair of nice-looking black shoes.
The last person was a boy who seemed to be a couple of years older than Frisk, also possibly being seventeen like the girl who ran in. He had slightly pale skin with eyes that were a mix between blue and green with silver hair that was slightly messy with bangs coming down both sides of his head. His outfit was that of a pale blue V-neck t-shirt with a short-sleeved black hooded jacket over it that was slightly opened up with gold buttons on it and a yellow stripe running down each sleeve, a checkered pattern on the hem of it, and two pouches on the side with two buttons on them. A pair of black fingerless gloves ran up his arms, stopping just below his elbows that appeared to be made of leather. He wore a pair of blue cropped trousers that were hemmed with the same checkered pattern on the hem of the jacket with a black belt with a silver buckle around the waist with six similar yet smaller belts going around loops on each leg of the jacket with a darker blue pouch on each side of the legs of the shorts. Finally were a pair of black boots with dark gray laces and a pair of buckles on the side connected to black straps.
However, one thing Frisk and Chara both noticed about the boy were the bags under his eyes, as though he hasn’t had a lot of sleep recently. While Frisk was no stranger to late nights and little sleep, they at least tried to make up for any sleep they missed on days when they weren’t busy with school or ambassador work, which often resulted in the bags under their eyes eventually fading. The bags under the boy’s eyes, however, were pretty dark, enough to show that he had not gotten enough sleep recently. For what reason, Frisk and Chara did not know, but the boy looked to be pretty awake regardless.
The young girl was the first to notice Frisk in the chair before turning and speaking to Leon. “Is that the kid, Squall?”.
“Yes, Yuffie. This is who I was talking about earlier.” Leon said, though Frisk couldn’t help but notice that he seemed to be a little annoyed at being called Squall.
“Really?” The girl now known as Yuffie said as she looked closely at Frisk who felt a little uncomfortable at the staring. “She doesn’t look all that tough.”
Frisk tilted their head at being called a girl and was about to speak up before the older man began to speak.
“What are ya talkin’ about? Kid’s clearly a lad.” The older man said.
Frisk was about to interject before Yuffie interrupted again.
“What are you talking about Cid? That hairstyle is feminine like mine!” Yuffie said as she turned to who Frisk assumed was Cid.
“Well the lad’s face is boyish, can’t you tell?” Cid shot back.
“Are they seriously arguing over whether you’re a boy or girl?” Chara asked with annoyance.
Frisk just sighed as they continued to watch Yuffie and Cid argue and point out what aspects made them believe that Frisk was a boy or girl before the woman walked over to Frisk.
“I apologize for that. Those two have recently been arguing over the simplest things. My name is Aerith. What’s yours?” Aerith asked as she introduced herself.
“Oh! My name is Frisk.” Frisk said as they introduced their self.
“That’s a nice name. It’s nice to meet you Frisk.” Aerith said as she held out her hand.
“Nice to meet you too!” Frisk said as they shook Aerith’s hand, already starting to feel a little happy.
It was at that moment that Yuffie and Cid came over and stood in front of Frisk.
“Hey, help me out here! You’re obviously a girl, right?” Yuffie said.
“Please, the lad’s obviously a boy! Just tell us so I can prove her right. What are you?” Cid said.
Frisk looked between the two of them a little awkwardly before they noticed Chara floating right between them. They had a mischievous glint in their eyes, one that appeared when similar situations like this had occurred in the past. Chara simply spoke two words, and that’s all Frisk needed to hear before they decided they should mess with the two of them.
“Do it.”
Frisk looked at both of them as the same glint as Chara’s also appeared in their eye as they began to speak.
“I’m a human.” Frisk said with complete confidence. Yuffie and Cid, obviously not expecting that answer, turned to look at each other in confusion before looking back at Frisk.
“No, we mean are you a boy or a girl?” Yuffie asked.
“I’m a kid.” Frisk said with unyielding confidence.
“No!” Cid exclaimed as he was starting to get a little frustrated. “What’s in your pants?”
Frisk simply got out of their seat, put their hands on their hips, and with somehow even more confidence, spoke one single word.
“Determination.”
Yuffie and Cid just stood there in utter confusion while trying to do their best to make something of that answer. Meanwhile, Chara was laughing as hard as they could as they continued to float between the two of them, with Frisk beginning to giggle as well alongside them. Something Frisk did note was that the boy seemed to have a small smirk as he watched everything happening. Eventually, the two of them began to calm down as Cid spoke up again.
“Seriously kid. All we’re askin’ is if you’re a boy or girl. Just give us a straight answer.” Cid asked, some of the annoyance from earlier still there but not as much.
“Well… The thing is.” Frisk said as they began to talk. “I just go by ‘they’.”
“They? What are you talking about?” Yuffie asked with confusion.
“I… I don’t want to talk about it.” Frisk said as they began to hold one of their arms with the other. While Frisk did like to joke about people guessing what gender they were, when it came to actually discussing about why they went by gender neutral terms, they didn’t like to talk about it for personal reasons. Same went with Chara, who refused to even tell Frisk why.
“Alright, knock it off you two.” Leon said as he approached Yuffie and Cid. “If Frisk doesn’t want to talk about it, then it’s a matter Frisk doesn’t want to discuss. So, you just want us to refer to you as ‘they’?”
“I also go by ‘them’ if that helps.” Frisk said.
Leon nodded before he began to speak again. “Alright, now that that has been settled, Frisk, we need to discuss a few things with you.”.
“First off…” The boy said as he finally joined in on what was happening. “Leon says that your world was consumed by darkness. Do you mind explaining exactly what happened?”
“Sure. But, who are you?” Frisk asked the boy.
“My name is Riku.” The boy said as he introduced himself. “All of us have dealt with our worlds being taken over by darkness.”
“Wait, what?” Frisk asked in confusion.
“We’ll explain later. Would you mind explaining what exactly you were doing before winding up in Traverse Town?” Leon asked.
“Oh, well the thing is…” Frisk began to say as they began to explain what had happened. How they and their family and friends were just enjoying a picnic before those weird monsters showed up out of nowhere and began attacking everyone, how they were sucked up into some giant vortex before waking up in Traverse Town, and how they then fought off the Shadows with that weird weapon that appeared out of nowhere. Frisk did leave out the weird dream part however, as they were still trying to make heads or tails of it. Everyone in the room waited until Frisk was completely done telling their experiences, making their thoughts and reactions known after Frisk had finished.
“That’s…” Yuffie said as she looked at Frisk with a slight sadness in their eyes.
“Oh Frisk. I’m so sorry.” Aerith said with her hands over her mouth.
“Losin’ one’s world to darkness ain’t easy kid.” Cid said while looking weary.
“Looks like Merlin was right. But why would a world have been consumed even after everything that’s been done?” Leon said to himself.
Riku looked at Frisk, realizing how similar of a situation they were in as he was a couple of years ago. However, the fact remained that Frisk summoned a keyblade and fought off the Heartless. Not only that, Frisk had specifically called the ones they fought Shadows as though they knew what they were, yet didn’t know they were Heartless. He could assume that it was simply Frisk calling them that because of how that type of Heartless behaved, but it was how they talked as though they knew for certain that it was what they were called that caught his attention. He could ask Frisk more about it later. At the moment, however…
“Do you mind if you could summon your keyblade?” Riku asked.
“Keyblade?” Frisk asked as they remembered back to when they first summoned the weird weapon and how they had heard who they assumed was Riku mention in before coming into the house. “What’s a keyblade?”
“That weapon you were using is what is known as a keyblade. A weapon of light that is able to fight off the darkness in people’s hearts.” Leon said.
“The darkness in people’s hearts?” Frisk asked.
“Yes. Within every person’s heart exists both light and darkness, and they can manifest naturally or from the darkness within someone. Most of the time, they manifest as creatures known as Heartless, which seek to take the hearts of others and in turn, make them into Heartless. Those Shadows you fought are a type of Pureblood Heartless, which are a type of Heartless that naturally come into existence.” Riku explained.
Frisk thought back to how they saw some of those monsters when they were going after people in the outskirts were going around and attacking anyone in sight. Frisk began to feel queasy as they remembered back to how they saw one pull something out of one of the people they saw while Toriel was driving away.
“You mean that they actually rip out people’s hearts?” Frisk asked.
“Nononono! Well, kinda.” Yuffie began to say as they saw Frisk looking disgusted. She would have continued, but felt Aerith put her hand on her shoulder.
“What Yuffie is trying to say, is that yes, Heartless do try and take the hearts of others, but the heart we are talking about isn’t an organ.” Aerith explained.
“It’s not?” Frisk and Chara both said as they were both slightly confused.
“If it isn’t the organ, then what are they talking about?” Chara asked further.
“The heart we are talking about isn’t an actual organ. Rather, it is what makes a person unique. What makes them different from everyone else deep down” Riku said as he began to explain. “The heart is made up of a person’s memories, their emotions, and their life’s experiences that make a person them. And within a person’s heart exists both light and darkness, with one not being able to exist without the other being present.”
“In addition, research done has shown that a person is made up of three things. The first being the heart. The second being the soul, which is the life energy of a person. Lastly is the body, which acts as a vessel for the other two.” Leon added.
“So, the heart is essentially just what makes me, me?” Frisk asked, earning a nod from everyone in the room. “And within every heart is light and darkness, with the darkness in people’s hearts manifesting as those monsters that I fought and attacked everyone back home, which can only be defeated by whatever a keyblade is?”
“Pretty much.” Cid said.
“As for what a keyblade is…” Riku said as he held is arm up and opened his hand as though he was about to grab something. “This is an example of one.”
In a flash of silver light, a weapon somewhat similar to the one that Frisk had used appeared in Riku’s hand, albeit this one had a completely different design, almost looking like a key to some sort of vehicle. The handle was gray, the guard was black and blocky in shape but was slightly rounded with two divots on each side and gray circular bits towards the top of the handle and the pommel, the actual blade part was silver where it jutted out a bit before cutting back in right above the guard before continuing on as an actual blade with two parallel grooves running down the middle and circular indents etched into the blade. Finally was the keychain attached to the pommel, with the chain being dark gray in color with the token being of a large dark gray circle with two smaller circles jutting out from the top.
“A massive car key?” Chara asked. “Wait, I am seeing some similarities to that weapon you had.”
Frisk had to agree. Sure the design was almost entirely different than the weapon Frisk used, but Frisk did notice a few similarities. Mainly the guard around the blade still completely protected both sides of Riku’s hand and the fact that there was a keychain dangling off of the pommel. It was then something that clicked that made Frisk realize something, as both the weapon that Frisk was using and the keyblade in Riku’s hand both appeared in a similar fashion, though an even brighter flash of light didn’t appear before he summoned his. And then Frisk latched on to another fact as well. The weapon was summoned out of nowhere, meaning that…
“Wait, you can use magic?!” Frisk said in shock.
Riku was obviously not expecting Frisk to ask that as he took a little bit to process what they had said before responding. “Umm… Yes?”
“Kid, pretty much everyone in this room can use magic. Hell, the man who owns this place is a wizard for cryin’ out loud!” Cid said.
“They can use magic? But humans using magic hasn’t been seen since the human-monster war over 1,000 years ago! Even then, I’m pretty sure the menu stuff you and the others can use doesn’t count as magic.” Chara said.
“It might just simply be that people from Frisk’s world can’t use magic.” Aerith said.
“Well, yeah but…” Frisk began to say before Leon cut them off.
“We’re getting off track. Riku?” Leon said as he turned towards Riku.
“Thanks Leon.” Riku said. “Yes, the keyblade is magical in nature, and does act as a focus that allows wielders like me to much more effectively cast spells. But, would you mind summoning yours, Frisk?”
“I tried to earlier, but it doesn’t appear to matter how many times I try using FIGHT.” Frisk explained.
“Using FIGHT? What are you talking about?” Yuffie asked.
“You know, like this?” Frisk asked as they summoned their FIGHT button in front of their hand, something no one was expecting as they all looked at Frisk with wide eyes as they pressed the button with it disappearing and nothing happening. “But no matter how many times I use it, nothing appears even though it says I have something equipped.”
Riku was tempted to ask how Frisk did that and what they meant when they mentioned having something “equipped”, but they could ask later. From what they described and the actions they were doing, it was as though Frisk was trying to force their keyblade to appear by pressing that button that appeared.
“I don’t know how you did that, but that’s not how you typically summon a keyblade.” Riku said before anyone else could fire off their own questions at what Frisk just did.
“It’s not?” Frisk asked.
“No. The way other wielders and myself summon our keyblades is to simply call out to it using our hearts. After which, it will simply appear.” Riku explained.
“Call out to it with my heart? How would I do that?” Frisk asked.
“Just try searching deep within yourself and call out to it. Not verbally, but rather with your own heart.” Riku explained.
Frisk tried to wrap their head around it for a few moments, and while they did maybe get the gist of it, they didn’t really know what Riku meant when he said to call out using Frisk’s heart. Thankfully, it was a suggestion Chara provided that might actually work.
“Call with your heart? Hm… Maybe like what you did when you fought Asriel when he absorbed the human souls or when he absorbed both the human souls and all the souls of monsters? When you called out to them for help or when you tried to help them remember who they were?” Chara said.
Frisk’s eyes widened at the suggestion. It could actually work, as Frisk would be calling out with their soul to something within them instead of something that someone else had absorbed. But, it would be with their soul, and not with their heart according to what they were just told? Well, it wasn’t like Frisk had any other ideas at the moment, so this idea was worth a shot.
Frisk held up their arm and opened their hand as they closed their eyes. They began by focusing on their soul and like they did back when fighting against Flowey and Asriel, they used their soul to call out to something. Not something outside, but rather within them.
You reached out with your soul and called out to anything that would answer.
…
…
…
Within the depths of your very being, you felt something answer in response to your call.
Frisk opened their eyes as they felt something respond deep within them. It was at that moment that, in a flash of red light and sparkles, the same weapon that had appeared before Frisk before appeared in their hand as they grasped the handle. Frisk was surprised as the weapon had not only answered their call, but was now actually here with Frisk holding it. Frisk couldn’t help but smile as they looked at their keyblade, with everyone looking at the weapon with bright smiles while Chara looked surprised.
“Huh. At least it didn’t blind me when it appeared. Also, YOU CAN USE MAGIC NOW?! WHAT?!” Chara exclaimed in excitement, with Frisk only barely being unable to hold back a wince at the sudden yell. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like anybody caught it.
“Nice job kiddo!” Cid said.
“It’s very pretty.” Aerith said.
“And sparkly.” Yuffie said while looking at the glittering hearts all over it.
“What’s its name?” Leon asked.
“Name?” Frisk asked as they looked at Leon. “Keyblades have names?”
“Yes. The name of mine is Braveheart. You should have heard its name when you first summoned it.” Riku said as he held his keyblade to his side.
Frisk thought about it as they brought their keyblade closer to them and turned it to where it was now facing them. They did remember the name they said out loud and the one they kept hearing when it first appeared, in addition to it also appearing in their menu. They figured that was its name as they began to speak. “Determined Resolve. That’s its name.”
“Ok, not a bad name.” Yuffie said.
“Thanks! What’s the name of yours?” Frisk asked curiously.
“Oh. Well, I don’t have one.” Yuffie said.
“Wait, what? But Cid said that you all can use magic.” Frisk said.
“Well, yeah. But here’s the thing. Out of everyone in this room, you two youngin’s are the only two who have access to wieldin’ keyblades.” Cid said as he pointed to Frisk and Riku. “The rest of us can use magic without em’.”
“Why can’t you?” Frisk asked.
“In order to wield a keyblade, there are a few things that a person must posses in order to be able to wield one. Primarily being that a person must have a strong enough heart and will in order to be able to wield one. Our hearts are not strong enough in order to summon and wield one.” Leon explained.
“While keyblades are able to appear to those with strong enough hearts given enough time, there is another way known as a ‘Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony’, or simply the ‘Rite of Succession’, where a person with a strong enough heart can be tested to see if they have what it takes to wield a keyblade. If they are, then a keyblade will eventually appear before them. However, only wielders that have proven themselves to be exceptionally skilled are able to perform it.” Riku explained.
“Unfortunately, even though Riku is a master and he could perform the ceremony for all of us, we would not be able to awaken to a keyblade.” Aerith explained. “Even so, we are still able to help support in fighting against the Heartless either through direct combat or by using magic.”
“Huh. Well, I guess that explains how they can use magic. And considering all you’ve accomplished, I’d say your more than qualified to be able to summon one of these.” Chara said as they tapped the keyblade, but when they did they paused for a second as though they weren’t expecting something, only to shake their head. Frisk caught that and gave Chara a quick questioning look before Chara simply said “Later, when no one’s watching.”.
“Well, now that we have everything sorted out, we need to discuss what we need to do moving forward.” Leon said.
“Right. The fact remains that the Heartless attacked Frisk’s world and dragged it into darkness.” Riku said. “Even with us looking into other things, all of us have been doing our best to watch out for any Heartless activity.”
“When Merlin called for me to investigate Traverse Town yesterday, he himself said that he had also been keeping an eye out on the stars ever since Ansem was stopped 2 years ago, and this was the first time since then he’s witnessed one going out.” Leon said.
“If I may suggest, I feel like this is something the others should be made aware of as well.” Aerith said.
“Definitely! Maybe we can see if they’ve noticed anything strange going on as well?” Yuffie suggested.
“Others? They’ve mentioned other people a couple of times now. Any idea who they could be?” Chara asked Frisk, who quickly shrugged their shoulders as they didn’t have any idea either.
“Well if one thing’s for certain, we need to be keepin’ a close eye on worlds to make sure nothin’ ain’t going on. Especially any new ones.” Cid said.
“Riku, didn’t you say you discovered a new world not too long ago?” Leon asked.
“Yeah, it was maybe a month ago, but I haven’t really had a chance to investigate it. I’ve been so focused on getting through the Organization’s data. I swear I’m getting close to making a breakthrough.” Riku said as he turned over to the corner where all the devices sat.
“Riku, I know you have been working as much as the rest of us, but I feel like this would be a good opportunity to take a break.” Aerith said.
“I’m in agreement. So far, all you’ve managed to get through is the data for Marluxia and Larxene, and I’ve seen you strugglin’ with the others. You’re runnin’ yourself ragged kid.” Cid said.
“But-“ Riku said before he was cut off by Yuffie.
“No buts! We know how hard you’ve been working to see if you can find any traces of him, but you seriously need to take a break! This is a good opportunity to briefly take your mind off of it and focus on something else! Just because you aren’t trying to find him at any moment doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t!” Yuffie said with confidence.
Riku thought about it for a moment before letting out a sigh and then speaking. “Alright. I guess I can take a break from it for a bit. I’ll head off in an hour or so to investigate.”
“Uhm… Can I ask something?” Frisk asked.
“Go ahead.” Leon said.
“What did you mean by the Heartless dragging my world into darkness? And what does that have to do with Riku needing to go to another world?” Frisk asked.
“Right, we never explained that, did we?” Aerith said.
“No, we didn’t.” Leon said. “Remember how we explained that every being has a heart?”
“Yeah.” Frisk said.
“What we forgot to mention is that not only do living beings have hearts, but worlds themselves have hearts as well. They aren’t alive in a traditional sense, but oftentimes the state of a world is reflective of the state of that world’s heart, and vice versa. Do you remember when it began to storm when the Heartless began to run amok in your world?” Leon asked.
“Yeah.” Frisk said.
“It was storming pretty badly. Not to mention that it came out of nowhere.” Chara said.
“The reason it began to storm was because the Heartless managed to find your world’s Keyhole. The Keyhole itself being a gateway to the heart of a world, and by going through it, the Heartless were able to get to your world’s heart and begin dragging it into darkness. Which in turn caused that immense storm to happen as your world was beginning to be dragged into darkness as well.” Leon explained.
“That makes some sense.” Fris said, and it sort of did after Frisk came to terms with the fact that worlds could also have hearts as well.
“As for the reason I’m heading off to another world, I need to make sure the world’s Keyhole has been sealed, as well as ensure that there isn’t any major Heartless activity there.” Riku explained.
“How can a world’s Keyhole be sealed?” Frisk asked.
“With a keyblade.” Riku said as he gestured towards Braveheart in his hand. “While a keyblade is the only weapon that can truly defeat the Heartless, it also has another major function. As the name suggests, it is able to lock and unlock any lock. Whether it is something as simple as locking a door, or undoing a powerful seal, a keyblade is both a powerful weapon and a tool. And it is with one that a wielder is able to seal a world’s Keyhole, making it so that the Heartless will not be able to get to that world’s heart.”
Frisk looked at Determined Will in their hand as it now dawned on them just how powerful a keyblade was, and the fact that they were now able to wield one also imposed just how much responsibility they now had. They looked up and watched as Braveheart disappeared the same way that it appeared as Riku seemed to release his grip on it before it vanished.
“It’s just like how you’re keyblade disappeared when you passed out. I’m guessing he desummoned it or something?” Chara suggested.
“Now then, I should probably head to get some supplies real quick before heading out.” Riku said as he began to make his way towards the door.
“Riku.” Leon said as Riku turned around as Leon tossed him the same device Chara saw him using with the ship. “Here’s the remote back.”
“Thanks.” Riku said, but right before he could leave, he was interrupted by Frisk calling out to him.
“Wait! I want to come with you!” Frisk said as they stood up out of the chair they were sitting in.
No one was expecting Frisk to jump out of their seat and proclaim that they wanted to go with Riku, so a couple of seconds went by before Riku simply responded with a curious “Why?”.
“I… I…” Frisk began to say.
They were used to going with the flow of things and being able to adapt to any sudden changes, something that they did a lot back through their adventure in the Underground. But at the moment, they honestly didn’t know what they should be doing. They were stranded in another world with Chara by their side who did help them through the Underground, but even then, neither of them knew what was going on. The people around them had helped them out and were willing to explain what exactly had happened, but even then, what should they do? Before Frisk could panic, they once again remembered the words the voice said in their dream about how they could find their friends and family. And if Frisk had ended up in Traverse Town safely, then there was a possible chance that the others were someplace else. Frisk took a quick deep breath to calm their nerves before looking at Riku.
“Because, I want to find those close to me. If I ended up in Traverse Town ok, then maybe everyone else ended up in other places fine too. And I want to find them.” Frisk said.
“That, actually makes a lot of sense.” Chara said.
Riku looked at Frisk for a bit, and he couldn’t help but think about how similar Frisk was to Sora. Riku could quite literally see just how determined Frisk was to see those they cared about and to make sure they were ok, a similar drive that Sora possessed when it came to those close to him as well. But even then, Frisk was still a newfound keyblade wielder. Sure, they were able to take on a group of Shadows and even took on a Darkside with only a stick, but even then, Frisk was inexperienced. It was then that Riku could hear a voice in the back of his head, reminding him once again just how similar Frisk’s situation was to his 2 years ago and how even he was slightly inexperienced back then. After thinking about it some more, Riku eventually came to a decision.
“Ok.” Riku said.
“R-really?” Frisk asked as they weren’t expecting him to say yes.
“Well that was easy.” Chara said.
“Riku, are you sure?” Aerith asked.
“I am. Frisk is a new wielder, and as such it would probably be a good idea to show them what they need to do as one.” Riku said.
“Heh, master Riku here will probably be able to teach you everything you need to know.” Yuffie said teasingly.
“I’m serious. But in all seriousness Frisk, I want you to try and stick close to me. I don’t know what kind of enemies we’ll be facing in this world, and if we are dragged into combat, I at least want to see how well you can hold yourself in a fight.” Riku said.
“Ok, but just in case we do get separated, we can give each other our numbers so we can at least call each other?” Frisk said as they pulled out their phone.
“Hm? Hold on. Lemme see that real quick?” Cid said as he walked over to Frisk and held out their hand for Frisk’s phone. Frisk reluctantly gave Cid their phone and watched as he began to look at it.
“This is almost like the gummiphones Ienzo and the others cooked up.” Cid said as he looked over it.
“Gummiphone? Mine’s a cellphone, although a friend did upgrade it a couple of times.” Frisk said.
“I’m guessin’ this one’s for communication on your world?” Cid asked which Frisk gave a nod. “Thought so. So I’m also guessin’ it isn’t capable of inter-world communication?”
“No.” Frisk said.
“Yeah, unfortunately that means this little thing probably won’t be able to send messages or calls to any of our gummiphones.” Cid said.
“Oh…” Frisk said. “So I won’t be able to contact any of you with my phone.”
“Unfortunately not. However, doesn’t mean we won’t help you out. I’ll run this up to Ienzo later and see if he can maybe do somethin’ about it. Maybe upgrade it for inter-world communication or whip you up a gummiphone for yourself.” Cid said.
“Really? Actually, if I do get one of these gummiphones, can you see if you can transfer all of the stuff on my phone onto it?” Frisk asked.
“Shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll just hold onto this for now, so you two better be stickin’ close.” Cid said as he pointed at Riku and Frisk.
“Ok.” Frisk said before looking at their keyblade and thinking back to what Riku did earlier and how he desummoned his. “Um, wait, how do I do like you did with your keyblade?”
“You mean when I put it away?” Riku asked.
“Yeah.” Frisk said.
“All you have to do is just simply will your keyblade away, and it will simply go back to your heart, ready to be called upon again when it is needed.” Riku said.
Frisk nodded before holding up their arm and looking at their keyblade. They thought about how they summoned their keyblade earlier, and simply decided to try the same thing as they used their soul to simply try and will away their keyblade. It took only a couple of seconds, but Determined Will disappeared in the same manner that it appeared as Frisk felt it returning to wherever it had been called from, ready to be brought back out at a moment’s notice.
“Alright then. I suppose we should get going?” Riku said as he walked over to the door and opened it.
“Yeah!” Frisk said as they began to quickly follow after Riku.
“Well, this is certainly going to be interesting. You better not leave me behind!” Chara said as they floated after Frisk.
“Take care you two.” Aerith said as she waved.
“Bring me back something this time Riku! You said you would last time!” Yuffie said.
“Ienzo should be done with your phone when you get back kiddo.” Cid said.
“Good luck.” Leon said.
Frisk simply smiled and waved back at the others before following Riku outside and closing the door behind them. They watched how Riku seemed to be going back down the way Frisk and Chara had came when they were following Leon when Frisk woke up. Curious as to what he was doing, Frisk followed them as hope filled their heart as they hoped everyone else was okay, wherever they were.
ChaoTheUndying on Chapter 1 Mon 24 Feb 2025 03:54PM UTC
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CyanideJoe on Chapter 1 Mon 24 Feb 2025 06:48PM UTC
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Pheonixfusion20 on Chapter 2 Mon 03 Mar 2025 04:18AM UTC
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UnknownOrigin0410 on Chapter 2 Mon 24 Mar 2025 05:24AM UTC
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LoudNoYou on Chapter 3 Fri 30 May 2025 05:44AM UTC
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UnknownOrigin0410 on Chapter 3 Fri 30 May 2025 04:17PM UTC
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