Lonely Together

Toriel’s soft footsteps were echoed by the child’s loud clacking shoes on the stone floor. She had seen it time and time again. Every time a human falls down, they decide to up and leave, as if they were going on some kind of little adventure. And she had always let them go. They all showed amazing talent, and that made her hopeful. Maybe they were the one… to finally end this all. Maybe they were the “angel.” She was confident in them, but looking back on it now, she realized they were all doomed from the start. This one wouldn’t turn out like that.

“Hmph. You are just like all the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself… Prove to me you’re strong enough to survive.”

The child still didn’t budge.

Toriel turned around, trying her best to feign indifference, knowing full well the child could see through it. But even still, she had to try. The room lit up, exposing the ancient ruins. For this fight, she would stick to only fireballs. That should be enough to deter this child, she thought.

The barrage of fire came towards the human at a breakneck pace, though she was skillfully manipulating them so that they wouldn’t be too dangerous. These were the same patterns she used for training her son. They should work, right?

After a while, something strange began to happen. Where her fireballs grazed the human’s skin, small red marks would remain. At first, she didn’t think anything of it, but once the human began to clutch at these marks in between rounds of fireballs, she knew something was wrong. As much as she wanted to drop everything and rush to the child’s aid, she knew they would leave and get themselves killed if she gave up now. “One more round,” she thought, “and I’ll make it easier on them.”

And so that final round of fireballs came. Each whizzed by the human, with them managing to barely get out of the way in time. Then, a simple mistake. A group of flames that Toriel didn’t control correctly smashed their way directly into the child, engulfing their body with flames. Toriel’s aloof expression was replaced by one of pure horror. Among the roar of the flames, she thought she could make out a scream, but she wasn’t sure.

Pulling back the fire, Toriel rushed to the human’s aid. “My child!” she screamed, dropping all of her false animosity, “Are you okay?!” They responded with nothing but a groan. She went to use her signature healing magic, but no matter how much she tried, nothing seemed to happen. She had never seen any wounds like this before. She only vaguely knew how to heal humans to start with, her only experience being healing up their wounds from when they fell down, and saving this one from that flower.

Temporarily giving up, Toriel got a good look at the damage. The human’s skin was beyond burned, some patches of their skin charcoal black, and about the same texture. One half of their face was scorched, the ruined eye sorrowfully gazing back at her. She had no idea humans were so fragile, otherwise, she would have never sent them out. For a brief moment, Toriel’s anguish surpassed the child’s. Her rumination was interrupted by more pained yells coming from the thing in her arms. She wasn’t even sure it was human anymore; she had turned it into something much more pitiful.

As the human began to fade with her helpless to stop it, Toriel did the only thing she could; hold them, cry, and regret. If there was anything she could do… Anything. She would take it.

Like an answer to her pleading, she began to feel a warmth in her chest, which soon turned into a blazing heat. Toriel’s sorrow was driven off by pain, rivaling even that of the human’s. She couldn’t take it, and not long after, fell into unconsciousness, slumped over the body.

The unnatural silence of the basement greeted her as she woke. Slowly, she stood up, trying to process what happened with her mind hazy. A loud thump on the ground, however, quickly brought her back to her senses. The human’s charred body lay on the floor, limp and lifeless. The mere sight of it repulsed Toriel to no end, even more so because she knew that she did it.

All at once, the sorrow and guilt came flowing back to her, and she rushed up to her room, slamming the door shut, as if it was something you could lock out. There, Toriel held her head in her hands, her tears having long run out. For a long while, she stood there, having moved to her bed, and lay paralyzed by grief.

After a while, she began to feel a kind of… warmth. Not physical, but a comforting feeling wrapping around her. Almost like a hug. Normally, Toriel would have rejected it, but after exhausting herself with her sorrows, she fell into it, letting it completely envelop her. Inside this strange, alien warmth, she thought she could hear a voice.

“…Mom?”

It sounded just like theirs, what precious little of it she got to hear.

“Mom, it’s okay… I’m right here”

This couldn’t possibly be the child she… she killed. There was just no way-

“It really is me,” replied the voice, “I know it’s hard to believe, but trust me on this. I’m here.”

After the initial shock, Toriel racked her brain, trying to figure out how this was even possible. She thought back to… to times she didn’t want to remember. There is one thing that would explain it. Fusion. She remembered the day she saw it in person… Her old wounds re-opened as the young child sat and watched.

“I’m sorry, my child. It seems as though-“

“I know,” they responded, their voice somber, “I saw.”

“…I guess we’ll be stuck like this for a while, ha ha.” Toriel’s fake laughter would have been obvious to the child even if they couldn’t see her thoughts. Her mind drifted back to what led up to this. She only wanted to protect this one, and she ended up… killing them. She should have known better, she-

“Mom,” they stopped her, “you did everything you could. There was no way you could have known how fragile humans were. And besides, it doesn’t make me love you any less.”

Those words resonated with Toriel, and she began to cry, this time out of happiness. Frisk decided to let her have that moment.

After her short respite, she wiped the tears from her face, her expression turning stoic. With this new power, Toriel knew what she had to do, and now, so did the child. A monster with a human soul can cross the barrier.

Their response was scared, but understanding. “I see. But… what are we going to do after that? I can’t… go back home anymore.”

Already, Toriel’s newfound determination was rocked by those simple words. “I… I don’t know. But I’ll think of something.”

Taking the few possessions that Toriel kept dear to her, and some books, she walked down into the basement again, not intending to return. Her immense strength moved the large stone blocking the path out of the ruins without much difficulty, much to the child’s amazement. ‘By the way,’ she asked, this time in her head, ‘I never got to know your name. What is it?'

“Oh! It’s Frisk.”

‘Frisk… it’s a nice name. I like it.’

She began down the long hallway, both excited and dreading the unknown with her new companion.