Underdoom - Chapter 19

The dry, hot wind rushed all around him. Through his closed eyelids, murky shades of blood red seeped into his vision. In the distance, he could hear the faint echoes of the hopeless screams of the damned. He shared their fate, yet remained silent. Wishing for sleep. Wishing for oblivion. He felt no regrets for his many crimes, yet this remorselessness, in and of itself, bore into him more than he though guilt ever could. It wasn't the feeling of culpability, but the feeling of disgust, that cemented him into the dusty, stony ground. He knew his sins alone warranted his tenure here, but more so did his very being. He was a monstrosity. An incomplete sham of a person. He was less than a monster. He was less than a human. He was a freak. An abomination. An aberration fit only to be tossed into the fire. He was nothing. Perhaps, even less than nothing. This did a far better job at filling his eyes with tears than anything else.

And then he heard footsteps. Footsteps that did not carry the grunting and snarling of prowling demons.

He had been alone up until this point. No demon had taken interest in him, as he hoped would happen. He didn't want to fight. Not anymore It had left him a while ago. Gone was his bloodlust, now replaced by self-loathing and hopelessness. He just wanted it to end. He hoped in vain that whatever was walking nearby would do what the hellspawn had neglected to do. As they passed him by, treading a walkway below his vantage point, frustration mingled with his despair. Will nothing save me from this? Will no one look upon me and finish this?

In this desperation, Flowey uprooted himself and scrambled to the edge of his lookout. Who and what were they?

No.

It couldn't be.

His eyes shot open as he saw his Mother and Father, jogging briskly towards an unknown destination.

His mind began reeling. How were they here? Were they looking for him? It certainly had something to do with that spectacle in New Home. Somehow, this had to do with stopping the hellspawn, but what? And why, why did it have to be here? The thoughts of rescue both sickened and terrified Flowey. Those two could save their pity. He didn't need it. He didn't want it. He was beyond saving. The son they seemed to search for was long dead.

Then, he saw that strange man again, wearing that green armor, holding that shotgun.

Who was he? And who was that robot following him? It looked like that walking Junk heap the Lizard created to some extent, but stripped down. Any and all cosmetics had been removed, as had most fo its paint. A blue heart, rather than a pink, hovered in its abdomen

Curiosity temporarily stifled Flowey's tumultuous feelings, and as the trio began to wane out of sight, he burrowed down into the gravel, carefully trailing behind them.

Despite only having been in the Necropolis for a few minutes, Toriel's nerves were already beginning to fray. Every facet of the austere landscape seemed to scream death, and fear that she might have already lost her son petrified her. “VEGA... you're sure he's here right?”

Asgore did his best to abate her fears. “Tori, we've only been here for a little while. I promise you, we'll find him-”

“Gorey, look at this place...” Fear was rapidly mounting in her with every step further into the bowels of Hell. Here was strewn bone upon bone, corpse upon bloody, rotten corpse. The air stank, and foul slough bubbled in rancid pools surrounding the dead flesh. “It reeks of death here... I... I don't know if we-”

She felt a heavy but gentle hand land on her shoulder and turned to see the Praetor looking at her with concerned eyes, trying his best, in his own, silent way to console her. He had grown quite sickened of watching them all squirm like this as they made their first trip.

None had noticed that VEGA had taken the lead. “He should not be too far off. I estimate, based on our last sighting, that we may find him within the hour, if not sooner. As for the Main power source, it may take us a considerable amount of time to eventually reach it.”

“Tell me, VEGA...” Asgore had learned to a certain extent how to drown hell's screaming out. Still conversation would be needed to drown out what little could still be heard. “How exactly does this thing work? What's with all the... corpses surrounding it?”

“These are not only demonic remains, but remains from other realms that Hell has conquered. The Great Steppe has been an area of interest for years, but as I said, it all took a backseat to Argent. What little we know derives from records extracted from Hell. The sum total of all their conquests, save Argent, lie here, and so does the power they once wielded.”

“So we know what this place means for us,... but what about you? I remember Dr. Hayden talking about an energy crisis in your home plane.”

“And he wasn't lying...” The clinical tone in VEGA's words began to wane. “It's going to be a hard way home... but hopefully, if my postulations are indeed correct, this place may harbor just enough energy to adequately replace Argent. It's a stretch, as we haven't dedicated as much time here, but I'm confident that this place can give us a good start in the right direction, if nothing else.”

Suddenly, a noise of crumbling, falling rock overhead. Small, but not small enough to have been moved by the wind. They were not alone. Realizing this, everyone armed themselves, but with slow, deliberating caution. As they inched forward, the Doom Slayer could not help but feel a familiar presence. He knew someone other than VEGA and the Monsters here. The presence was familiar, eery, and subtle. Something about this particular place looked inhabited by him: bones were arranged unnaturally in a symmetric array all around them, which narrowed down into a walkway, leading into some sort of inhabitance marked by a series of large ribs arranged in a makeshift, but solid shelter.

The Doom Slayer was not the only one catching onto the artifice. “This looks like no demon's work...” Toriel's eyes darted to and fro, expecting some sort of ambush. Her heart raced all the more with every step. “Sans, do you detect anything from up there? Are the Probes picking anything up? Anything we should know about?”

“Nothin' you guys don't already see...” The Skeleton's scrutiny yielded no particularly extraordinary observations. “I mean, I see the little bone hut, I see the walkway, I see... wait...”

“What is it?”

“Uhh, VEGA? Did your guys never bother to look this part over?”

“I will reiterate that this was not the UAC's main focus. Why? Do you see-?”

“I'm seeing equipment...”

“Equipment?” A quizzical looked spread on Asgore's face. “What do you mean?”

The Doom Slayer's eyes widened. He began to realize just who might be here.

“I mean stuff that looks way familiar. Stuff like a makeshift DT extractor matrix, a perfect, and I mean perfect copy of the timeline anomaly detector....”

The King froze. “You don't mean....”

VEGA felt somewhat confused, if not concerned. “We were not aware of anything functional here not already scrapped or put to other uses by the demons. What does this insinuate?” Multiple variables came and went as VEGA tried to process the information. Were the monsters holding something back?

“I see a bunch of junk laying around and.... No way....”

“No way what?!” Toriel's paranoia had begun to eat her alive, and fire was nearly erupting from her shaking hands.

The Doom Slayer's head was on a swivel as he took initiative and advanced into the little abode. It couldn't be. It couldn't be him. There was no way he'd have survived after Hell knew what he had done to assist him. They should have killed him eons ago...

“Didn't know I'd be seeing so many familiar faces....”

The King, The Queen, and the Praetorian froze.

They all knew that voice.

Vega on the other hand, did not, nor did he understand its esoteric, alien, nigh incomprehensible dialect. “What was that? Is this someone you all-?”

“Ah, forgive me....” A low, grumbling, gentle voice emanated from one of the shadows. Darkness hiding somewhere in the bones began to coalesce,  taking solid form as it formed a dark, miry apex before the group's very eyes. “it has been a very long time since I entertained company.”

Alphys heard the conversation from her end of the room as she had conversed with Mettaton, leaving him for but a moment to check in on the sudden commotion. “Sans, who is it? What'd I mi- GASP!”

No one spoke as the darkness took form. Hands with palms cut out materialized out of the black muck. A white head peeked out, adorned with two black eyes, one with its socket seemingly caved in from the top. A misshapen, dark mouth crawled into a smile on the creature's face.

Everyone just stood still for a while. Sans said nothing, Alphys said nothing. The King and Queen said nothing.

Then, after an eternal pause, the Queen found her voice.

“Doctor Gaster?!”

The Praetorian raised an inquisitive brow. Doctor Gaster? So that's his name.... all of Hell knows him by a title, an epithet. He knew him not even by any of these. But now, he had a name. Doctor Gaster....

The foreboding monster chuckled a little. “Yes, the one and only...” he then turned his attention to the Doom Slayer. “Ahh, yes, here's a face I haven't seen a quite a while... legions of them wail in utter defeat, and their cries fill my ears by night... I assume you have done it? You have freed the wraiths? I do not see Argent's crimson stream flowing here any longer.”

The Scourge proudly pulled out both sword and shield, raising the former to the sky and holding the latter close to his bosom. The gray world around him was washed once more by their crimson glow. His accompaniment stared in awe.

“Doctor Gaster, you...” Asgore fought his filled mind to find words. “But how did you end up.... how do you know-?”

“I overheard some of your conversation with you Automaton friend. Indeed, he and his master were correct – this place serves as the collective grave for all of Hell's prey. Their False Idols Banished to a wasteland, Their towers fallen, their foundations ground to dust-”

“Their hallowed halls kept empty as cruel reminders-”

The AI and the old Doctor then recited the rest in unison. “...that civilizations shall fall before the ascension of the great ones.”

Gaster nodded approvingly at the Robot's knowing. “So it was your masters who took the Corrax Tablets from their resting place at Kalazzab...”

“It was.” VEGA was suspicious, but he couldn't let it show superficially. “If the Slayer's testaments are to be trusted, and the display from the Doom Marine means what I think it means-”

“Yes, it is true.” Sobriety and stoicism oozed from the Doctor's words. “I am he whom the inhabitants of this world call, The Wretch.... and I know what you're here for, or at least, I know what the Doom Slayer is here for... don't I, old friend?”

The Praetor lowered his arms and nodded.

“And as for you, O King.... If I may make assumptions, I would say you're on the verge of breaking us out of our prison, ere you would not seek such depths, to crawl out from under them and rise to some new paradise...”

“It has already been done.” The King replied to his old scientist with dignity and visible triumph. “A human child wandered into our midst and freed us.”

“But how? I know you well, O king. You would not have been so glad to bring your old vow to consummation...”

“I never had to. I cannot tell you all the details. Those are known only to the child.... Frisk.”

“I see...” The Doctor then turned to Toriel. “I also see that our beloved queen has returned!”

Toriel was somewhat shy of words at the moment. “I have... hiding in the shadows did not do me any favors after all these years, nor has it helped our people, especially now that we're under siege.”

“Under siege? I don't presume the humans would-... ah, I see now.” Grave realizations came to Gaster as he envisioned his old home in flames. “They, the Great Ones, have come for us too.... You are here to stop them then?”

VEGA was becoming eager to pass the pleasantries by and get back to the task at hand. “We are yes... though the King and Queen are here personally in search of their son.”

“Little Asriel?!” Gaster recoiled a bit in shock. “I thought we had all but lost him and Chara forever! And to think you went here to find him! Have you too found out the true nature of monster souls? Am I not alone in my observations?”

Meanwhile, the Flower listened from afar.

“Stop saying that... stop saying that name. It's not my name...” He held back tears as he listened. “That's not my name anymore...”

The implications, though thoroughly intriguing, could not stand in the way of their search. Asgore stifled his curiosity with urgency.  “I know not what you imply, but I'll make this brief as we cannot afford to waste much time – our son's essence stayed where he fell. One of your successors did not know it and tried to use DT on the flower on which he fell-” The sad story was visibly painful to tell, as it was to listen to as Toriel's countenance fell with each word that left her husband's lips.

“I see.... so my observations have led me aright...” Neither Asgore nor Toriel could cut those words out of their minds. Much as they needed to move on, the implications Gaster was making filled them with an anxious hope that upturned their brows and put words at the back of their throats. “No matter. The time is far spent.”

He raised a hand and a gateway of bones lifted up, the interlocking shafts raising one by one.

“Come now. I'll tell you more as we approach to the time crux.”



“Man...  say what you will about what it's made out of.... this stuff's pretty good...!” Frisk barely kept her ice cream in her mouth, and a little bit dribbled out of her mouth as she spoke.

Undyne chuckled a little “Got a little smidgen right there, kiddo.” She wiped it away with the edge of her thumb. “Oh, and a little here too...” Frisk giggled as Undyne continued to playfully wipe her face. “Oh! And some here... and some here...”

“Undyne, stoppit!” Frisk giggled all the more as Undyne's hands cupped her cheeks, shaking them vigorously.

“And alllll over here!”

“Ahahahah-! Whoa-Oof!” She tumbled back on the bed, accidentally spilling her Ice cream in the process. Nonetheless, she couldn't stop giggling.

“Aw, man.. sorry about that, punk...”

“Nah, it's okay...” Frisk wiped away what little ice cream landed on her shirt, most of it having hit the bed.

Undyne couldn't help but smile a bit as she saw the child smile back. There was little doubt in her mind as to the love this little human had for her and everyone in the underground. As to how she could have been so resistant to it, she still had trouble figuring out. This little girl meant no harm to anybody. Why was she so eager to....

At that moment, she tried to suppress the thought. Then she looked at her laying on the bed, smiling, panting a little.

And then she remembered the necropolis.

The little girl no longer smiled. Her face contorted in pain and terror, blood oozing from the ghastly wound in her abdomen, a blue spear jutting out...

Almost immediately, Undyne shook her head to rid herself of the memory. She didn't need to see it ever again. It burned her inside, filled her with rue over something she hadn't done. She had forgotten herself, and in those few split seconds of wretched memory, she didn't notice how quickly the smile disappeared from her face, or how vehemently she had shaken her head.

“Undyne, are you okay?

The Warrior looked down again to see Frisk getting up from her recumbent state on the bed, wearing empathy and concern on her countenance.

“Oh... yeah, I'm-I'm okay.”

“Are you sure?”

Undyne hesitated for a bit.

“Is it about what's been happening lately?”

Somewhat reluctant to answer, Undyne didn't see fit to simply leave her hanging. “yeah... yeah no, it's just nothing... “ Hoping not to have to elaborate, she shifted the subject. “hey, have you gotten any word from the guys up top yet?”

Just then, Frisk felt her phone vibrating. “Oh hold on...” She flipped open her phone. “Oh hey! That's them right now! Hi Dogamy! ….. Okay yeah, we're all still here.... no She won't be back for a while and neither will Asgore. I got Undyne up here with me though.... yeah Okay. Hey Undyne, wanna take it?”

“Sure!” Undyne felt glad to finally touch base  with her soldiers after so long.

“Undyne!” Dogamy's tone was just as simultaneously enthusiastic and tired as Undyne's. “We've been worried sick about you! Frisk's been telling us you've been with the Doom guy all this time,.We weren't sure you'd ever come back!”

“Hey come one now, you know me better!” Undyne's mood though still. “What happened to 'Strongest there is?'”

“Yeah, yeah.... hey, we were wondering if maybe you come come up and give us a hand? If anything just to help calm everyone down. Our magic users are still doing a good job at keeping us concealed, but even they're getting kinda antsy.”

“Alright. I'll be up there in a bit.”

“Sweet! We'll see you then. Bye.”

“mmmbye.” She closed the phone, handing it to Frisk. “Alright, they're getting all shaky up there. Wanna come with? I'm pretty sure they'd love to see their ambassador.”

“Sounds good to me!”

The two hopped off the bed and made their way downstairs. Sans and Alphys were busy at the tether stations while Mettaton continued to monitor the New Home entrances. Papyrus sat idly by his brother, twiddling his thumbs and occasionally looking up to watch the Shore party's progress.

“You two missed  a lot...” Mettaton's familiar, husky voice echoed a bit in the mostly empty room. “They found Doctor Gaster in there.”

“They found who?!” undyne could hardly believe her ears. “Are you serious?!”

Frisk stayed silent. What little she knew about the man who spoke in hands unsettled her deeply. Those creepy followers, those odd Lab Entries, and of course, that strange, disturbing entity lurking in a hidden room in Waterfall, all made her skin crawl and her blood curdle.

Alphys was eager to see her friend back to her normal self, lending to her own smile. “Oh hey, you're back! Yeah, They just found him in the Necropolis. We can't hear much from the Probes but we know it's him. Kinda freaky really. There's a lot I've been meaning to ask him...”

 Papyrus stood up and brushed himself off. “You guys headed somewhere?”

“Oh, yeah.” Frisk was caught off guard by the question, distracted by her nervous thoughts. “Everyone on the surface is getting a little shaky so we're headed up to see if we can calm things down a bit.”

“Mind if I come with you?”

Undyne smiled and waved him over. “Don't keep us waiting, guardsman.”

Turning back to face the others, Sans falgged them down. “Uh hey, frisk.”

“Yeah?”

“Mind hanging back? I'd like to talk to you for a second.”

Frisk turned around and the other two with her nodded. She then approached Sans, somewhat unsure of what the skeleton wanted of her.

“Hey, Alphys, think you can cover me real quick?”

“Sure thing.”

Sans nodded towards the stairs, and the two of them headed up the escalator to where they could speak in private. Then, Sans took a chair and propped it up near the bed, motioning Frisk to take a seat. Now, Frisk was really unsure. Sans had given her some of his little sit downs before, but all of them were prefaced by his cordial, informal japes and quips. This time, he was dead silent. That was enough to make her uncomfortable, much as she tried to hide it as she sat up on the bed again.

Sans noticed the Ice cream mess, but resisted the urge to joke abut it. For a few moments, he tried to gather his thoughts. He knew what he wanted to say, but had no idea how to say it. The ideas were all there, but the words to convey them weren't.  He didn't want to do what he had done at the MTT resort. It wasn't as if he didn't already feel guilty enough about what he told her there. “You'd be dead where you stand-” yeah, very smooth choice of words to tell a  kid. He just sat there, gathering himself while Frisk became more and more unsettled.

“Sans?” The child's voice was timid and weak. “Are you okay?”

“....”

“Sans?”

“Yeah... yeah, I'm okay kiddo.... I just wanted to ask...”

“What?”

“.... have you been able to.... You know... since this started....”

“I don't think I'm catching on....”

Sans forgot to check his own nervousness and impatience. “Look kid, you know what I'm talking about-!”

Frisk recoiled as fear began to set in. “I don't! Please! I didn't mean to-”

The skeleton quickly grew far more exasperated with himself than with the Child. Way to blow your stack, genius. “Alright, look, sorry I just.... You remember our talks? You remember the things I told you?”

“Yeah?”

“And... well, I know you've rummaged through the lab...”

Suddenly, Frisk knew exactly what he was talking about.

“So... have you been able to-”

“No.”

“What?”

“Something's been keeping me from pulling it off. “

“I assume we're on the same page then?”

“Yeah.” Frisk soon found it hard to make eye contact. “I haven't been able to reset since he got here. I know why you'd be mad though if I just didn't”

“Really? Why?”

“Because if you can do what I can do... it means you've got a responsibility to do what's right.”

Sans froze in his seat. “....so you've done it before huh?”

Frisk stayed quiet, still unable to look him in the eye.

“Have you?'

“.... yeah.”

“How many times?”

“... enough.”

“Alright.... is it okay of I asked what for?”

“I made mistakes....” her eyes shifted down tot eh floor, and her legs began to swing whiel her tubs ran over and under each other .

“What kind of mistakes?”

“....”

“Frisk? Frisk, what ki-?”

“big ones.”

“….Oh.”

“Big ones I really don't wanna talk about.”

Sans realized his curiosity had taken them both far enough. “Okay.”

“is that all you wanted to know?” The Girl's tone was noticeably sullen.

A little tinge of guilt welled up indie Sans' heart for digging as deep as he did. “Yeah... look, I'm sorry for taking you back there, I just..... I just needed to know.”

“Okay.”

Another pause ensued. Neither knew what to say or do anymore. It was awkward. Neither wanted to move, yet both just wanted nothing more than to leave.

Then, looking back at the bed, Sans found their ticket out. “Pfft... Undyne suplex you while eating rocky road or something?”

Frisk looked where his eyes were and saw the spilled ice ream. “Oh yeah, that was just a little accident. Undyne needed some cheering up.”

“Man, Alphys is gonna love the strawberry....”

“Yeah, it's not too big a deal..” she jumped off the bed and took the sheets off before putting the down beside the foot of the bed.

Sans sighed a quick little breath of relief. “heh.. yeah. Welp, let's head back downstairs. Getting kinda stuffy in here”

The air was by no means stale, but Frisk knew what he meant. “Yeah, it's kinda muggy up here.”

As the two came off the escalator, Frisk turned and saw what was on the monitor There they all were, treading that bone-ridden ground. It looked so foreboding to her, so frightening and real. She watched and hoped that perhaps he was there, that he was still alright.

It couldn't be too late to save him.