fun level 74 Original MC Sans and Frisk
This was getting ridiculous. Someone was back there by now, and Frisk's determination was kicking in and knocking her politeness out. She was getting an answer. "Hey, I am a human! A human and I demand to speak to someone!" She yelled louder as she went faster. "You aren't going to keep us trapped down here, my family will be looking for me!" Yeah, in what life? Not like they knew that. "I am Frisk, I am human, and I demand to be heard! I have the determination to be heard you self-righteous little punks!"
Then, she heard it. A large click. She walked farther up. She put her foot out toward where the border was, ready to yank it away. Even Toriel called to her to be careful, but nothing happened. She reached them finally! She took off quickly, just in case something changed. Beyond the bright light were a huge pair of doors that were opening for her.
Squeezing in she saw a conveyor belt. She moved down it and found herself face to face with a strange door.
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Inside Room Barrier 1 . . .
When it opened, she saw two lazy guys just sitting in chairs with their legs up on some control panels. What?
"Look. It's here," one of them said gesturing to Frisk. "Wow, you were right. Look how small she stayed. Cute. I know more than a couple of guys she could make fantasies happen for."
"Yeah." The other human winked at her. "Good thing I landed this job. Hey there, Frisk. Like your new home?"
"I am here on behalf of the monsters," Frisk said. "I want to begin negotiations to free them."
"Did you hear her?" The other one teased. "Demanding. Baby, you ain't in charge of nothing anymore. It's only right anyhow because you botched the whole thing."
"What?"
"You only had to kill one monster to set it off." One of the guys gestured between him and the other. "I'm Ethan. He's Steve. Which one of us is your type?"
They had better be talking blood type.
"You see, we wouldn't be here right now if you'd just done one thing. When you were eight, you were given this weird shot in your brain. As long as you killed one monster, it would make you want to kill more, and it would be easier."
"Kill the monsters? Serum?" Were they kidding? "I would never do that."
"Yeah, your fright just couldn't overtake you for some reason." Steve shrugged. "Don't worry, that stuff's been gone in your head for years now. Once it ran it's course, it kind of slipped you into a coma. It was some killer stuff though. I heard you jumped farther, ran faster, and never got tired. Those were supposed to be the results anyhow. I mean, no one really knows what it did," Steve chuckled. "They just shoved your ass down the mountain and said 'good luck'."
"I would never kill anything!" Frisk said loudly. She moved over toward the panels and started looking around.
"Wasting time unless you've got one gnarly science degree, Frisk." Ethan stood up. "Now, you have to pay the consequences."
"This isn't right." Frisk started hitting any buttons she could, but nothing was working. The men didn't even seem phased. "They passed the barrier, they should go free. They can be out there, they have that right."
"Really? Well." He winked at Steve. "I guess that means you really want to let them go. You must care about them immensely. You must trust that they aren't going to go out and hunt humans down for sport or their souls."
"Yes. They are good. They just want to breathe fresh air again." Frisk watched them both stand up beside her. "I know it cannot be resolved in a day, but they once lived among us all in peace. We can do it again. There must be a way."
"Okay then, but you're not gonna like it." Steve grabbed her hand and held it tightly. "The truth is, the monster's conquered their test. All that's left is the human ambassador. Or, if you ask me? It should be called human sacrifice."
"Your chances of surviving are just about nil," Ethan said. "In fact, if you die when you made it through all but one test, we are still supposed to let the monsters free. That is how bad it is."
"And, if you aren't dead, you are going to want to be," Steve said, gripping her hand even harder. "What would you really give to save the monsters?"
"You." She pointed toward them. "You need to let them go. Ah!"
Steve clasped her hand extra hard. "You took a mission that was supposed to get rid of these things, and turned it into a rescue mission. Therefore, there was no choice but to follow procedures. Humans a long time ago feared that the monsters might get a hold of some human souls somehow and break the barrier, so they made their own test afterward. Just to make sure a human actually vouches for them." He let go of her hand.
"You were responsible for everything." Frisk held her hand. It felt awful, he squeezed it so tight. She was surprised nothing had broken. "You did things to me too."
"What? Did you just think you happened to get kidnapped, and then when the doors opened, you accidentally ran into a random hole and fell into Mount Ebott?" Ethan chuckled. "Random kid. Far away. The people here before us just wanted to make sure if any news did fall out, when they looked at pictures, they couldn't tell if it was boy or girl or what."
"Yeah. Before you got your rack, your school picture was analyzed the best match of 'could be boy' or 'could be girl'," Ethan said. "Fun, huh? Don't worry, puberty was awful kind to you. I mean, you may have stayed short but everything else filled out nicely enough, didn't it?"
Frisk continued to push buttons, every button she could. What was it, a special combination? Were they all fake except one button maybe?
"Wasting your time. Now, you only get three trips back here, and you just took your first one. If I were you, and you are really serious about rescuing the monsters, then you better ask questions about the tests you have to take."
"Right, 'cause when your number is up, we are gone and a new barrier that will take a lot more work to take down will replace this spot right here. There's no way a few human souls will break it. They'll need hundreds."
"Fine," Frisk agreed. "I am freeing them no matter what. What are the tests?"
"The worst shit our ancestors could come up with." Ethan sat back down along with Steve. "You have to destroy your own soul."
"What?"
"You have to corrupt your own soul," Steve agreed. "Strong, brave and righteousness don't mean anything. You have to bend to the very depths of your soul to free the monsters. See? Even if you had wanted to be the ambassador when you were eight, you would have still been sent away. No one wants to put a kid through that."
"But an adult has a mind of their own," Ethan reminded her. "So? How important is it to you? After all, you moved way over here."
"Yeah. That was fun to discover. Once I spotted you," Steve said, "I had a feeling I knew who you were. Got the official first name, made a cute little hole of 'hope' for the monsters and everything." He shrugged. "We get bored. Don't worry. That hole will stay open for you. But if too many monsters go through, game over too."
"You duped me into here."
"Hey, you duped yourself. You were far, far away and safe," Ethan reminded her. "But, if you happened to be living on the same mountain as them, how could we not resist? It's what you wanted, after all."
"Worked at it your whole life." Steve pulled out some papers from a small drawer and flung them in the air toward her. "Look at all those therapy bills, private journals, and doctor visits. You wanted this."
"Now, what's your next step? Probably want to take a punch at us I bet, but you won't get too far. Everyone in these tests are well trained in fighting and combat. Any of them can take out a little twenty something like you. And if you swing, we swing back harder. And if you piss us off too much? Well. We'll just kill you. No monsters go free, but we just kill you. So brave girl, what do you-"
"I'll do it," Frisk stated. "Tell me about these tests."
"Ooh. Really?"
"I want the monsters freed," Frisk said, "I clearly can't take you down physically or I'll just get myself killed. I have to assume that two guys with your clearly low IQ couldn't build something like this by yourself and that this was constructed as a test that is passable." She pulled herself straight. "I have the determination to get through this. What is the test?"
Ethan moved closer to her. "Even getting the rules has a price to pay. Give us your hand, Frisk." He came closer and whispered in her ear. "But, don't worry. You're close to the end of test one."
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Toriel's ears stood on end and she ran toward the bright light as she heard a scream. A human scream. "Frisk?!" No, the poor human! Humans wouldn't actually hurt her, would they? She was just speaking on their behalf. "Frisk, are you in there?" She moved past the machine fire but there was nothing to reflect. "Frisk!" She watched as Frisk was rolled out quickly toward her, holding her hand.
Toriel quickly grabbed it and set to work healing it. It was cracked in several places and bleeding badly, bone even poking through. "Hang on, Frisk, I will heal it!" It was so badly damaged, she worked at taking the pain away first before she could even attempt to heal the damage. How could negotiations have gone so wrong? Frisk even had injuries from the roll out of the bright light, although they would be easier to heal.
"Wrong. It was wrong," Frisk said, the pain getting numbed away. She fell into Toriel's chest. "Not ambassador. Not ambassador, Toriel."
Not an ambassador? "What do you mean, Frisk?" Toriel continued to heal her.
"Not ambassador." Frisk looked toward her own hands. "Sacrifice."
Sacrifice? "They shouldn't have hurt you, you are human." Toriel moved away with her as machine fire went off again. She pulled them back far enough to be out of range and continued to heal her again. "This is all my fault. I sent for your help."
"I came willingly, it's not your fault. I wanted to make sure you were all freed." Frisk brought her hands back toward herself. "I swore I would do it one day. I got a job here. I got a home here. I swore I would search everywhere for the exit, to make sure that you got out."
Trembling. Toriel felt Frisk absolutely trembling in her arms. Even though she was older, old enough to have her own children, Toriel's instincts to comfort her like a child couldn't be denied. She hugged her tightly, careful of the injuries.
"I can't. I'm so sorry, I just can't! Not yet . . ." Frisk got quiet.
"Come, it's okay," Toriel said. "We will talk in the Ruins. Okay?" The walk was far enough on a healthy human, but Frisk was emotionally distraught and physically not ready for a journey. She shouldn't be walking at all. She called over for Sans. Like it or not, she needed some help.
Hopefully, he wouldn't turn her down.
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Sans approached carefully. Doing the human any favors didn't sit well but Toriel sounded anxious to get home. Covered up in some kind of hooded cloth, Toriel was comforting it on the ground.
"I'm still trying to heal her," Toriel said. "I've numbed most of the pain." She held the hand tightly in her paw. "I can't just walk with her like this. Can you help?"
Sans came over even closer and looked. "What happened?"
"I don't know. I am going to talk with her at home. Please?"
"Tori." Sans shrugged. This was tough. "It's not always smart to help humans. Trust me on this. I can take you home if you want, but. It's too dangerous to take you with that thing."
"Sans." She barely breathed. "I can't believe this is really the same monster that befriended this human. This exact human. What has become of you?"
"I don't want." He couldn't. He just couldn't do it, but she was putting her life on the line just staying in the Ruins with it.
"The human I have in my arms never hurt anyone. It did not ask for anything, just for a way out back then." Toriel stood up, awkwardly holding the human. "It made many friends, and it cared for us. For every monster it met. And even now, it came back for us, to help. And?" She moved her paw away from it's hand. "Her own kind are hurting her for helping us."
"Hm? Is that-"
"Yes, her own bone is sticking out." Toriel covered her hand back up. "I don't know if I even want her to go any farther! She said something about tests and a sacrifice, and I don't want her hurt."
Shouldn't. He shouldn't have. He had seen all the different parallel timelines. It messed up in every one. It killed in every one except his. But, as he looked at that injured hand he couldn't help the same feeling he once felt for it. Other ones killed, but never this one. This one was a good kid. It was dangerous to think like that. He had no idea what triggered it off. Fine, once. I'll just help it once. If I don't, Toriel will still take it home anyway.
Sans took a shortcut to the backdoor of the Ruins. Toriel went inside but looked back at him.
"Thank you, Sans."
"Be careful," he warned her one more time before she shut the door.
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Inside Toriel's Home . . .
"Human? Frisk?"
Frisk opened her eyes, finding herself in a chair with a bandaged hand. It didn't hurt anymore. Last time, she couldn't remember ever feeling any hurt. Sometimes, it even felt like . . . like she was about to get hurt, but then something happened and she was fine. Another blessing of Chara maybe? Toriel handed her some tea and she took it. It would help settle her nerves.
"We are in my home," Toriel said simply, "and we are safe." She took her large chair right next to the small one Frisk was in with her own tea. "Will you please tell me what happened?"
"My hand." Frisk held her hand up. "It was just to get the rules. The price to just get the rules. Toriel, I want to help everyone. I want everyone to be free." She brought her hand back down and sipped on her tea. "But the price is just too high. If I really do this, it will be over a span of several years, not days or weeks. I just, I can't. I don't even see how I could ever." She set the tea back down. "Wait. How am I talking still?"
"Oh, there is a small bubble I wrapped around you, isolating some of the magic density so we could have a conversation," Toriel said, gesturing to the extra red on her sides. "It's only for a few minutes, so please tell me what you can? Do you really not believe that you can free us?"
"My ancestors had two parts to everything," Frisk said taking another sip of tea. "The monsters part was the seven soul barrier. As enough time passed and souls ended in their grasp, they believed in having a way out. But, to make sure enough time had passed, they also had a second test. Designed only for the bravest humans who believed in them." She remembered the words again, lying heavily on her chest. "I must kill my own soul to rescue everyone."
"Kill your own soul?" Toriel asked. "Do you mean die?"
"No," Frisk said. "Well, yes. Death is possible, in most of the tests. But even if I don't die, I must corrupt my soul so entirely, I will want to die." She held tighter onto her cup of tea.
"Death is possible in most tests? Kill your own soul?" Toriel closed her eyes. "What are they?"
Frisk couldn't say anything more. "I'm alone, I'm weak, I have no idea what I am doing. I never should have come, I'm not strong enough. It takes so much more than me to save everyone. I am just a wannabe twenty something year old little bitch that can't do it, Toriel!" She dropped her tea and covered her face.
She felt Toriel come over and embrace her. "But. Frisk?"
"I used to be powerful. No injuries. No losing. Determination was all it took to accomplish what I needed to do. I could do the impossible at eight years old," Frisk said quickly, knowing her time was running out. "It was all just one big illusion. That power was supposed to have been used to slay the monsters. If I had killed anything, there was something in my head that was supposed to make me want it more. They put some kind of shot in my brain." Frisk shook her head. "They did it. I always thought that I was kidnapped, and I ran away and I fell into the mountain. It was all planned out, Toriel." She had trouble accepting Toriel's hug. "I am no one. I can't do this. I have no power, they have it all."
"I see." Toriel's voice was low. "I see now what they are doing." She backed away for a second. Frisk felt something from deep inside her. A once familiar tiny jab and looked in front of herself. Her soul was there, but a small part was missing on the upper left corner.
"You are going to die, slowly shredding your own soul." Toriel came closer to her heart. "I can't allow that. I won't allow that. Death is one thing everyone faces, but to do it to your own soul? Madness."
Frisk's soul disappeared again. "Everything is gone. I am nothing now, Toriel. I can't hurt anyone, but I can't help."
"But . . ."
"I won't leave for good. I just. I'm a failure. I'll do what I can, but I'm a failure, Toriel."
"No, you're not. And for now, place it out of your mind," Toriel insisted. "Stay here in the Ruins for the night. A little while to try and heal more." She moved some of her hair out of her face. "Would you do that for me?"
"If it would make you happy." Frisk shrugged. "Sure. Why not. I can't free the monsters, I might as well be company. At least it's something I can do."
"You'll get better. Your soul can heal," Toriel said trying to comfort her again. "It just needs time. You must take time between each of these tests to deal with the damage it takes upon you. But, if you decide not to do it anymore either, I understand. I won't force you out, Frisk. I would never force a human out like that." She touched her cheek. "A little human, or a little human that just grew up."
"Thank you." Frisk shook her head. "Toriel? I never told you, but I was kidnapped from my family. Far on the other side of the world. I just thought when I was running, I was finding freedom. I never thought I was doing exactly what they wanted." Genocide. "A little eight-year-old with a mind to kill everyone. I would have lost my entire soul into something like that. One small monster. One scared child."
"But you didn't." Toriel patted her head lightly. "You never hurt a single one, and that's all that matters."
"How did I not even remember how strong I used to be? Too strong for a child. Too strong for myself," Frisk whispered softly.
"Eight to . . . how old are you?" Toriel asked gently.
"Twenty-six now."
"Eight to Twenty-six. Eighteen years for a human is a long time to remember things. From childhood to now. I can't imagine how you remember what you can now for your kind," she confessed. "Monsters, even as long as we live, many of us don't really remember the surface all that well, or even much about the humans. But that is over long distances of time, in a span that a human life would never reach." Toriel shook her head. "But, for a human, what you've remembered so far is remarkable. Your trauma, as terrible as it was, must have kept things more vivid too. A kidnapping. I am so sorry. Halfway across the world?"
"Yes. They wanted someone far away, and, and if pictures ever came out." Frisk closed her eyes, feeling the magic getting heavier again. "They wanted someone that could have been a boy or girl. With my hair cut short back then. Just a blurry mystery. To make it even harder to find me." She shrugged. "I guess, at least I wasn't worthy of killing back then." She shook her head, her throat reaching her limit. "Toriel, as many ways as I could have gone wrong in the past, is how many ways I could kill myself now. How many ways? How many ways could I die from this?"
That was it. She closed her mouth. There wasn't much else to add anyway.
Toriel came over to her from her chair and imparted another hug. "It's okay. You don't have to do this if you don't want to. No one should be allowed to hurt you." She moved away. "As long as you are here, no monster will hurt you. I swear that to you. As for humans . . ." She wrapped her paw gently around Frisk's hand. That was all the answer that she could give.
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Sans and Papyrus Home, Back Door Secret Room. . .
"The one on the right," Sans said to Papyrus above him. "Try it right then turn it right and if that's not right, then try it left."
"Sans!"
Sans chuckled. He couldn't help himself, he'd tried to be good during the repair of Gaster's machine but he could only do it for so long. They hadn't used it since Frisk visited when it was a kid. The first time he met that kid, he just thought it was any average human that unfortunately fell into a bad place. He didn't mess with it. Even messed with some of his brother's puzzles so it could pass safely out without getting hurt. He even watched it a bit between his jobs on its little journey for Toriel.
Around Hotlands though, after he met the human at MTT's place, he came home for a break and heard the machine whirring away through their walls. Gaster's old machine didn't do much, except show when different parallel choices made turns in different timelines. Not little ones. There were little ones all the time. No, it watched for major parallel timeline changes. Had they been watching it around Gaster and the core closer, then he never would have been lost. Since then, him and Papyrus just kept it in their back room.
No one knew about it. No one even cared. But, that day when they started to see all the damage affecting parallel timelines from that kid? Sans hadn't seen any trouble, but he took an extra firm look inside at Judgment Hall. If it hadn't changed that far, then it would probably remain good.
And it did. It even freed them for a whole few minutes before something shoved them right back again. Even though Sans did feel a little something for it when he saw it's hand, his mind was still on the parallels it could cause.
"I got it!" Papyrus moved away from the machine with Sans.
Sans hit power. Nothing. Nothing at all.
"It's completely fixed," Papyrus insisted. Last time, there were so many bad parallel timelines the machine was trying to keep up with, that it just crashed and couldn't keep up. "There is nothing."
"Nothing at all." Not a ripple. Not a single death. The human's presence wasn't making a single swing in the direction of good or bad.
"Well. It won't kill us," Papyrus said slowly, "but that means it's not going to help us either. We are still stuck? But I thought the human would eventually break out?"
"Yeah," Sans mentioned, "it, uh, got hurt. I saw it when I took Tori back home."
"What?! Hurt?" Papyrus scoffed. "Humans hurting humans?"
"Yeah. It's a thing. Monsters hurt monsters. Why couldn't humans hurt humans?"
"Well, how was it hurt?"
Sans pulled his bony hand up to Papyrus face. "It's own bone was showing through its skin."
"Eh?!" Papyrus looked at his own hand. "That. I imagined that hurt for a human."
"Yeah. Probably."
"Oh. Sans?" Papyrus asked. "Um. It never did anything like the others. So. And we even befriended it. So. Well. Can we feel sorry for it?"
Sans shrugged. "Well? We just need to keep an eye on the machine."
"What if it does start going crazy?" Papyrus asked. "Will shoving it in the hole be enough? How would we completely block it from coming back in?"
"I hate to say it, but if humans do hurt humans?" Sans shook his head. "That's probably where we'd have to take it." After he said that, his cell rang. Alphys. "Sup?"
"Um. I just got a call from Queen Toriel. She's torn up something bad."
"Torn up?!" The human was attacking? "Did the human attack?"
"No, no. Torn up emotionally, Sans," Alphys corrected him. "Um, she, um. She wants me to go over and talk with the human. It's been a long time. Do you think it still remembers me?"
"Maybe." Alphys and Toriel in one place with the human. The machine wasn't showing anything happening in parallel timelines yet. "What's she want to talk about?"
"I don't quite know exactly," Alphys confessed. "She just said that the human can't do it alone. She needs help, or she's not letting it leave again."
Ugh. Tori. "Well, find out and let me know what's going on then?" Sans hung up. "Tori called Alphys over."
"Alphys? The brilliant Alphys, why?"
"It sounds like this human is here to stay unless someone can help it." Sans put his phone away. "Toriel said if Alphys can't help, she's not letting it leave again."
"What? No!" Papyrus grabbed its skull. "I mean, good human. But."
"Could be bad human at any second." Sans just watched the machine. Nothing. "Nothing's going to happen until stuff goes down. There's no guarantee we won't be the first timeline that gets hit." Sans looked toward his brother. "We need to capture it and get it here, Papyrus."
"But, Brother? That is dangerous," Papyrus warned him. "No one knows about our machine."
"If we can hook it up itself, maybe we can see for sure what'll happen. If we only see good, then we'll know we can trust it. If we see bad, then we have to trust others," Sans admitted. "Tell them what we know."
Papyrus groaned. "It may be for the best. How do we get it?"
"Snatch it from Tori's home," Sans reasoned. "You should be able to overpower it if anything goes wrong. Bring some stuff to knock the kid out if you need to." Sans tapped on the machine. "Bring it straight here, we'll strap it up, get the readings and send it back. Tori will never have known."
"And we'll have piece of mind!" Papyrus shouted triumphantly. "Yes! It's close to night time. The human is probably sleeping. I will get something to knock it out, sneak in, retrieve it, and bring it back here! Nyeh he he!"
"Just be careful, Papyrus." Sans started to mess with the machine. "It doesn't know monster anymore, so you won't be able to reason with it. Unless you remember the human language?"
"Uh. Um. I don't think I was ever all that good at it. Uh? High pitched squeals. And that is weird, how could it forget monster? How do you forget a language in such a short amount of time? Come to think of it, how did a human child know the language in the first place? Oh well. But, no worries! I, The Great Papyrus, will take care of it! Nyeh he he! I will be right back, Sans. I will find something that will knock a human out, but not actually kill them."
"Kay." Sans adjusted the machine to read an individual's timeline instead of charting several different major timelines. Maybe the ripples would start small. He grabbed some adjustable arm pads and extended them to fit the human about right. Hope you are right in the head now, kid. I hate hurting anyone. I don't want to toss you into danger, but you can't do what I saw in other timelines too.
And, it might be the only thing he could do to save the Underground.
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End of Chapter
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Multiverses: When a multiverse is revealed, I will share info about it below. Until then, only the key letter remains. Some are important, and a couple only show up a bit.
fun level 74 Original MC Sans and Frisk
fun level 72 D
fun level 75 K
fun level 73 18
fun level 65 M
fun level 66 MF
fun level 71 MN