Good Child

by LostGirlDess

Summary:

The angel of the underground was left abandoned. They guided everyone to their happy ending, a perfect score. 10/10. No notes. But as soon as they turned to follow Toriel, they were kicked out. Sent to the Void. Even their vessel was discarded, just like they were. They get sent to a world quite like their own, but it's not the same. Not their own. Not quite.

Notes:

SOUL takes place of Frisk as the angel of the underground in this case, being in control of themselves during the Undertale run. (CHARA DID INDEED COMPEL THEM TO DO GENOCIDE, BUT THE TERROR THE SOUL FELT STARTED THE CHAIN REACTION. IT WASNT EITHER OF THEIR FAULT, NOT TRULY. They reset before Asgore, after getting dunked on, and did true pacifist.) Might be bad! This is my first even remotely serious fic. Be nice!!

The SOUL woke up! It was a good day. They were a person! They were! They had an identity, a name (whycouldntheyremembertheirnamewhywhywhy)

They got out of bed, did their morning routine and went to school! Seeing Toriel this glowing was new. The skincare of a woman who hasn’t lost it all, they presumed. This time was going to be fun, for sure! Even if their vessel got discarded, they had this one! They just had to do things right, and they wouldn’t be kicked out at the end of the story. They’d get to stay this time. They would. They wouldn’t get abandoned. Not at the finish line. Not after doing everything right. They just had to be better. Just had to be a good kid.

Getting to school was easy. Toriel held their hand (justlikeintheruins) and didn’t burn them (pleasestopmommyimsorrynomore) when they walked out to the car. A simple hug when they got dropped off, (getdunkedon!!!) and their brand new school day started! Walking into class, the voice of who they presumed to be the one known as Kris, the body they were inhabiting, (parasiteparasiteparasite) told them to talk to Noelle. She’d likely have space to have them in her group, even if Berdly was also part of it. He could be blustery, but he wouldn’t mind after a bit. A simple tap on the shoulder, no speaking necessary, Noelle picked up on their intent.

The purple lizard came through the door before the girl could ask, however. Alphys said the two of them were working together. Before the class began in earnest, though, she realized that the chalk was gone. They wanted to help, (i’llbeagoodkidpleasepleaseplease) so they offered to accompany Susie to get more! Catching Susie eating it wasn’t much of a surprise, as Kris told them that she was their bully. Being picked up and slammed against a wall was nothing new to them (pleasedonthitmeillbegoodipromise) so they shrugged it off when she dropped them again.

The nearly glowing dark (darkdarkyetdarker) came out of that door, and for a split second, they were in the dark closet again. YellingYellingAlcoholHurtHurtHurt- They couldn’t breathe. Susie shook them a bit, exasperated they weren’t listening, which removed them from their stupor.

“We’ve got to go in. Let’s do it together on 3, yeah? 1, 2… 3!”

Past the threshold was… Nothing? Papers across the ground, but the walls were nonexistent. The darkness was all encompassing. Before they had time to panic… The ground was gone. They were falling.

With a sickening thud, the ground rose to meet them incredibly fast. No pain shot through them despite the fall, (themountainnobodyreturnsfromyellowflowersyellowflowersyellowflowers) but they checked their body juuuust in case. Other than a sick new fit, nothing was wrong. Walking for a while, Susie was hidden behind a pile of dust. How odd. Scariest girl in class, more terrified than them. There was a castle in the distance, so they “temporarily” banded together.

Reaching it, a cloaked figure approached. (He? She? Hard to tell with the mumbling) spoke of a prophecy, one in which they and Susie were heroes (willyouactasambassador?). Ah, he was the Prince of Darkness. So a he, then. The weight of the prophecy was known, so they did little to resist. They wanted to help save the world. (begoodbegoodbegood) Susie, however, felt quite strongly about returning home. Helping them with the prophecy was out of the question. A small spade shaped boy ran over the cloaked figure. It seems that helping Ralsei would make enemies out of the rest of the denizens of this world. They didn't mind. It was nothing new to be targeted by everyone despite trying to be helpful. After the boy had left, Ralsei returned. Susie complained about the mumbling, so the Prince took off his cloak. He looked rather cute, despite the features being shadowed.

The adventure went without a hitch, other than Susie ditching them. It was fun. Actual fun. Susie and Lancer kept cooking up silly stuff to try to “defeat” them, but it never did much. Eventually, the final showdown happened. They and Ralsei won handily, with the two of them flattering Lancer enough to make him look fondly upon them. It might have been a little underhanded, but who cares. They were all friends now, right? (amigoodyetamigoodyetamigoodyet)

Lancer started acting strange a bit further up. He told Susie that he was going to leave, and sprinted off before she could ask him what was wrong. Guards came out of nowhere, shooting bullet patterns en masse before they were encircled by bullet patterns in a familiar way. (thesearefriendlinesspellets!trytocatchthem!)

Now in the Prison, Susie was separated from the group. Kris, who rarely spoke up, asked them to eat the moss in the corner. A simple task, so they obliged (amihelpingamiagoodkid). She called out shortly after, though, speaking about a puzzle she couldn’t solve. Ralsei asked them if they could help her solve it by giving her directions. They looked at him, completely stumped. They didn’t know how they’d give directions without being able to see the puzzle. It definitely didn’t help that they couldn’t speak. Kris wasn’t stopping them, but they hadn’t been able to speak since birth for the most part, something about selective mutism? They couldn’t remember where they heard the term.. (youfuckingfreakcompletelyuseless)

Ralsei simply looked back at them, completely and utterly befuddled. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. They were supposed to help Susie escape, looking at the puzzle from their special point of view. He regained himself after a moment, deciding it was just a fluke.

“Can you describe the puzzle? I’ll help!”

A simple description later left Susie with a solved puzzle and an opened door. Ralsei still didn’t know how to feel about them being unable to help her, but it was time now to talk to Kris. He asked them to close their eyes and think about Susie…

Dark. So dark. DARKDARKDARKDARKCOLDCOLDCOLDCOLD ILL BE GOOD I PROMISE I DIDNT MEAN TO DO ANYTHING BAD ILL BE BETTER PLEASE NO PLEASE PUT ME BACK PUT ME BACK PUT ME BA-

“So that’s why, okay Kris?”

Upon regaining their body, they hurled themselves to the corner of the room. Shivering, completely catatonic. Nothing but half formed mutterings and quiet sobs. Their eyes darted around the room. The walls. The shackles. The moss. Ralsei. Their armor. The feel of the floor. The feel of the leather undershirt. The feel of the pommel of the sword. The roughness of the stone ground. The sound of dripping. The yells from other prisoners. The sound of their choked sobs. The smell of the dampness. The smell of apple shampoo. The taste of blood, from their lip that they bit. 4 in. They were alive. They weren’t stuck in the closet again, waiting for the inevitable blows that would rain down on them. 8 out.

If Ralsei had been suspicious of something being wrong with the planned course of things before, he was completely panicked now. The SOUL... It was- THEY were scared. They weren’t some extradimensional being, looking down from the sky. They were terrified, emotional, and all too real to fit into the visions he recieved. The Angel of Prophecy, Savior of All… Was cowering from being sent away, put into the void for but a moment. This wasn't good. One thought rang out in Ralsei's completely pure brain.

Shoot.

Kris was in a similar boat. Though being in the backseat muffled a lot of the feeling from their body, they were still nudged up next to the consciousness of the SOUL. Terror beyond anything their mind could make was emanating in thick black streams from their partner. With a thought, Kris sent a small amount of comfort. That gave it enough of a start to start calming down. It helped that it knew basic therapy techniques, somehow. Kris really didn’t want to think about the implications of that. They couldn’t feel for it. It possessed them! Like some parasite! It’s not human. It’s not. It’s not human. It can’t be. If it is then… What happened to make it react like that to a small stint outside of their body? One thought ran through their swear filled brain.

Shit.

After that whole episode, they looked apologetically at Ralsei. They were sorry he had to see that. Ralsei hid under his hood a bit further than usual, his facial expression hidden fully for now. They didn’t know why he had done that, but they didn’t mind. They stood up on shaky legs, motioning for him to come along. He walked out of the room with them, trailing slightly behind as always. Finding Susie was easy, but she looked downcast. She spoke of wanting to resolve things peacefully with the King. That was new. They didn’t mind. Sparing is the only right thing if they want to be a good kid!

The King was scolding Lancer, about to hurt him. A spade hit his back, no doubt summoned by Lancer, and he took off. King stood before them. A small encounter later, King was kneeling. He begged for mercy, for forgiveness. Ralsei healed him, accepting his pleas, before he was smashed out of the way like trash. King stood up, calling everyone foolish, before knocking down Susie and them. They tried to protect Susie, but got kicked back even further. King kneeled down and picked them up off the ground. The tone of voice he used to speak to them was familiar (pleasedadivebeengooddonthitme). Before he could harm them, a crowd of darkners headed by Lancer swept him up. He was swiftly sent to the prison, and they were allowed access to the FOUNTAIN.

Susie suggested they go say goodbye to everyone, but they knew she wanted to and just wanted it to sound like their idea. They acquiesced, walking out of the FOUNTAIN room to go say goodbye. She swiftly sped off, saying goodbye to everyone, as they stood dumbly near a wall. She returned, and the two of them spoke to Ralsei. For a second time, Susie asked him to take off a garment that he was mumbling into. Once it was off, he looked remarkably like (asrielisdeadyoucouldntsavehimbadchildbadchildbadchild) Kris’ brother. Susie was startled, and she did the rest of the talking for them in her surprise. Ralsei was adorable, after all. After finishing speaking with Susie, he flicked his eyes over to them with a slight tint of… pity? They hadn’t done anything pitiable had they? Them being scared was something Ralsei should be angry about. Pity was not the correct reaction. How odd.

It didn’t matter. Susie dragged them off towards the FOUNTAIN, hasty to leave. As they gazed upon the river glowing darkness that somehow flowed upwards,

IT WAS AS IF... T H E I R V E R Y S O U L W A S G L O W I N G…

And suddenly, there was the spare classroom. Toys strewn about the floor, in a mock rendition of the… Card Kingdom…? Wait, there was a stuffed cat shaped like Seam, too… That paints a very odd picture. They decided to test their theory, hucking all of the contents of the room into the storage closet, before reuniting with Susie. She said that the two of them should go there again tomorrow, and sped off.

Outside the school, they simply started to walk back to Kris’ house. Until they passed by a very familiar shop. Grillby’s? No, the rest of it was scratched off, with the “‘s” at the end being repurposed into “‘sans.” Sitting outside the storefront was him. The skeleton. The judge. The weakest enemy. The End.

YellowLightBlueEyeBurningBonesBonesBonesBloodSinsSinsSinsDeathDeathDeathDunkedOnBADCHILDBADCHILDBADCHILD

As soon as they saw him, they turned around and sprinted towards Kris’ house as fast as possible. They couldn’t break down in the street. No matter how much seeing his face made them want to curl up into a little ball and never uncurl. Reaching the house, they walked past Toriel, (youreallyhatemethatmuch?) past the pie (butterscotchorcinnamon?) and directly upstairs. To Kris’ room.

A couple of steps into the room and-

*CRUNCH!!!*

They looked at Kris. They were outside of them now, it seemed. It felt weird to see the body they inhabited from outside. After that startling realization, Kris, with the force of someone who had no outlet for rage but violence, slammed them into the birdcage at the foot of the bed. Kris staggered for a moment, their strength leaving them. The SOUL cowered into the corner of the cage, shaking like a leaf in a bad storm. Kris needed a moment to themselves. The strings fell away with, taking strength with them, but they felt freer than they had in forever. They stared down at the pitiable thing. Why did it shake?

They had been a bad child. They made Kris angry somehow, obviously, (theyhadbeennicewhyweretheymad) and that was bad. They were bad. They deserved this. The cold metal pressed against them was the only thing they could feel. It was dark. They were so cold. They were not needed. They had been a bad child. They had to be better. That’s why they were thrown away last time. Unneeded. Unwanted. Bad chi-

Kris stumbled over. Sat next to the cage. Hatred and empathy were battling for space in their eyes... But empathy won, if just barely. The terror they could feel emanating from it had tipped the scales, if only a little. They had some strength left, and although it would leave them a bit drained, they didn't want to leave it alone. Fingers moved towards the cage, unlatching it. The SOUL was still terrified, but started moving slightly towards them. Through the link they shared, a slight amount of hope leaked through, instead of the terror that had been plaguing their connection for nearly that entire day.

“Don’t make me regret this.”

And the cage opened fully. The floating heart moved out of the metal prison, before rushing at th- nudging into their hands like it was the only lifeline it had. The SOUL felt soft, like an old worn out pillowcase. It loved physical touch, or comfort in general. Maybe they could try praise to get it to do what they wanted, classical conditioning or whatever. The physical touch explained why it had hugged Ralsei so many times, Kris assumed. They gently placed the heart next to their chest, a halfway-hug. It was more of a test of whether it could be trusted to stay out when wanted than a show of affection, but if the heart realized that it certainly didn’t care. The SOUL didn’t cross the boundary, simply soaking up the comfort. It didn’t infiltrate them.

They sat there like that, for what felt like an eternity. The SOUL stopped twitching, the terror and sadness that plagued it fading slowly like a river drying up. Kris gently placed the SOUL inside. The SOUL made no movement to take control, no strings wrapping around their limbs. The emotions from the link were just trust and an amount of adoration that Kris could barely interpret, overflowing. It saw them as a friend, a god. Someone that was their sole light in this dark world. It was the equivalent of a lost puppy who was fed scraps after being kicked daily.

There was one thing they could do for it, at least. They walked downstairs. The knife that they never let out of their sight was pulled out of their pocket, and they cut into the pie. Toriel would make a new one tomorrow, regardless. Looking at that slice, the perfection of it, Kris felt a memory pass through them. The SOUL had eaten Toriel’s pie before…? Not the weirdest thing about it, that's for sure. Following up on that would be a question for later, when their stomach isn't growling with fervor previously thought impossible. For now? Pie.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Random DT/UT Oneshots of Varying Quality