Chapter Text
***
He slowly opens his eyes. For a moment the world around is blurry but soon enough he refocuses. Surprisingly, it’s not his bedroom where he had been resting just moments ago but a small chamber of a cave. Four old pillars made of purple bricks stand at the corners, overgrown by vines. Above there is light that seems to weave and twist in some unnatural way.
He stands up, his back hurts a bit but it doesn’t seem to be too serious. Most likely just some bruises.
“And another idiot fell down.” He looks up in surprise. A child is hovering next to him. They have short, brown hair, pale skin and wear dark pants with green sweater. Their brown eyes bore into him. They were kind of greyish. Instantly he assigns the name: Chara. “Anyways, did you run out of carnival? What’s up with that mask?”
A…mask?
He lifts up his hand. It looks like his clothes had changed somehow since now he wore gloves. He touched his face, feeling cold material and not warm skin. He tries to take it off but for some reason it doesn’t move.
“I don’t know. I just woke up like that…” He murmurs in reply, confused. If this is a dream, then it’s a really strange one. “I-”
His head snaps upwards just in time to see a dark shape falling through. Almost instinctively he reaches out to catch it. It turns out that it’s another child that he could easily recognise. Frisk. Dark hair, skin with yellowish tint and wide open red eyes. But there is also a small wound on their forehead. It looked like they hurt their head when falling.
“Huh?”
“Mm. Don’t move.” It was for the best to stop the bleeding now so after putting the child down on the bed of golden flowers, he took off white jacket that he was apparently now wearing and tore off part of it to make a makeshift bandage. Almost instantly material turned red so he kept wrapping more layers over the wound. “Here, finished.”
Frisk blinked in surprise before touching an awkward lump of material over their forehead. “Thank you sir.”
“It’s nothing.” He shrugged in reply, now turning to Chara who quietly watched the whole thing happen with something akin to surprise visible in their features. He thought a bit. Of course Chara hates humans because they were abused so human helping somebody must have come as a surprise to them. He once again put on a now torn jacket.
This whole thing is strange. One moment he was resting in his bed waiting for Temmie to come and get new concept art from him for Chapter 6 and 7 of Deltarune and another he ended up in Undertale. It may be a dream but the sensation of blood seeping through his gloves and pain in the back from the fall felt oddly real… But he sometimes HAD dreams so real that he mixed them with reality. So maybe he just had to wait to wake up.
“Sire?” Frisk small voice dragged him out of his thoughts. “What do we do now?”
He blinks behind the mask. Scratching the back of his head. If this ‘dream thing’ followed exactly what happened in his game then they should get out and encounter Asriel… Flowey right at the entrance to the ruins.
“Uhh. I think we should go through that exit since I doubt anyone would be able to climb up to the hole we fell through.” He finally says. The child next to him nods and looks at the corridor that leads into the darkness. Then they settled on Chara’s ghost. “Are you coming with us too?”
“No.” The dead kid blackly replies.
“But you shouldn’t stay alone… You could get hurt…”
“I said no.”
Frisk looks at them.
“Pretty please?”
“Ugh. You are not going to let go are you? Why can’t you be like others who just passed by?” Chara finally gave up realising that Frisk wouldn’t stop pestering them. Their world however got his attention. The other kids didn’t see Chara and the first human seemingly didn’t leave this place.
“Well then, since that’s settled. We should get going then.”
“Ugh.” Chara rolled their eyes but did float behind them through the tunnel.
Eventually they came across doors with a strange rune inscribed over it, the entrance to the ruins.
“Hey sir?” Frisk suddenly asked.
“Hm? What is it?” He tilted his head.
“What is your name? I’m Frisk and you are?”
Ah. He still didn’t tell them how to call him.
“Call me Toby. Toby Fox.”
“And you?” They turn to Chara.
“Chara.” Dead child answers."
Kid just nods in reply before turning to face the entrance.
“Let's go then.”
Trio entered a much bigger chamber with a single patch of green in the middle, one that was occupied by a small yellow flower. Chara squinted their eyes, most likely not recognising the monster, maybe for the better. Frisk on the other hand stepped forwards.
“Howdy! I’m Flowey, Flowey the flower. Your new best friend!”
Toby didn’t say anything. But his muscles tensed ready to bolt at any given moment.
“Hello! I’m Frisk, this is Toby and-”
“Happy to meet you.” He cut them off. It was better to not tell Asriel about Chara, especially in this form. But how to tell them?
“You wanted to say something else?” Flowey inquired, still keeping up his nice persona.
Frisk opened their mouth but closed it soon after. “No.”
“Oookay then. Since you are new to the UNDERGROUND, you both must be so confused. It seems that I - your new BEST FRIEND will have to teach you two how things work down here. Ready? Here we go!”
Toby gasped as his SOUL was suddenly torn out of his chest. This was considerably more uncomfortable than he wanted to admit. Strangely enough his SOUL ended up being purely white, not greyish like one belonging to a monster. Frisk’s SOUL was obviously red, slightly glowing.
“Those two hearts are your SOULs, culmination of your beings. At the beginning they are weak but it will grow stronger if you gather a lot of LV.”
Okay so Flowey will most likely try to murder them. But strangely enough the Souls were suddenly pushed back into the pair's chests. That was… strange.
“Uh. Flowey. What exactly is this ‘LV’?” Frisk inquired curiously. Chara’s eyes widened as they realised what the small flower was talking about. They looked at Toby and shook their head.
“Don’t.” They murmured.
“It’s LOVE of course! You want LOVE don’t you?” The monster chuckled.
“Yeah!” Frisk replied before thinking.
“Lucky you! I can share some of mine with you.”
Multiple white, spinning seeds appeared around him.
“Down here LOVE is spread through tiny, little ‘friendliness pellets.’ Quick move around and catch as much as you can.”
Frisk reached out to touch one of them but Toby quickly caught them by their shoulder and dragged them away as gently as he possibly could.
“Huh?” Kid mumbled while Flowey’s eye twitched.
“Hey there friend. If you wanted more pellets for yourself you could just say so. But worry not. I can give you more.” Flower claimed, still hiding his true intentions.
Once again Toby made sure that neither him nor Frisk touched the bullets.
“Are you BRAINDEAD?! Run into the bullets. I mean pellets…Hehe.”
Frisk gasped at Flowey’s sudden outbursts before hiding behind Toby. This time there were way more bullets but it was still possible to evade them.
“... You. The taller one. You KNOW what is happening here, don’t you?” Flower muttered, his voice filled with venom, no longer hiding his true nature. “It doesn’t matter then. DIE!”
“!” Older human winced as thorny veins wrapped around his ankles, painfully biting into his skin, drawing out some blood. Hundreds of pellets formed an unavoidable wall in front of him. Hopefully Toriel will come soon and save them…
“Frisk, get behind me.”
The bullets fired.
Those things were extremely cold to touch and extremely sharp, easily cutting through flesh like knives, a lot of knives. Soon enough his whole body was practically covered in deep, bleeding cuts, he barely managed to stand. Frisk stared at him, wide eyed, tears appearing in their eyes.
“STILL alive?! AFTER ALL OF THAT?!” The flower almost roared, this time summoning thick vines. “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO GET AWAY WITH THAT!”
So Toby is definitely dying here. Maybe that will wake him up. He had to tell Tem after that. Magic practically impales him and everything goes black.
***
To his surprise he wakes up not in the comfort of a bed but in front of doors that lead to the Flowey’s chamber.
Frisk holds his hand tightly.
“You died. We died.” They mutter out, wide eyes staring blankly into the darkness of the room. “And we came back.”
Chara is just as surprised by the whole ordeal, they float some distance away. Thinking.
Toby just sighs. He can only guess what the dead child is thinking about. They didn’t expect a monster to attack somebody just like that.
“That’s impossible a monster would never attack somebody… They are big pushovers… Not dangerous. They aren’t like humans… They aren’t…”
Ah. It was going to shake them quite a lot once they learn what happened to other kids that fell down, their brother and their friends. He wanted to comfort them somehow. Maybe chocolate. They were a ghost but their favourite food should shift their focus. But where could he get the chocolate from, if not from Toriel’s house? He browsed through his pockets not really expecting to find anything useful but interestingly it turned out that he had two chocolate bars.
That’s… strangely convenient.
“Hey. Thanks for the warning kid.”
“What are you-?” He dropped one of the bars onto their hand and surprisingly it didn’t pass through. Chara’s eyes widened as they held onto it for their dear life. Then they snapped to look at him. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t know… I kinda expected it to fall through…” He mumbled awkwardly. “I didn’t know you were a solid ghost.”
The dead child looked at him. “...There’s a problem. I am NOT a solid ghost. See?” They passed their free hand through Frisk's head.
“Oh. This feels funny.” The living kid exclaimed before Chara removed their hand.
“Ahhh… It must be magic of sorts then, heh. I mean that flower did attack us with magic.” He countered, hoping to end the conversation. He didn’t even want to think about the possibility of having some sort of magic himself. Coming back to life was worrying enough.
Chara hmphed, definitely not believing this explanation but decided to focus on the chocolate bar, unwrapping it and biting into it. Their eyes slightly widened as, for the first time in Angel, they knew how long they tasted real food.
“Can I?” Frisk asked, reaching out for the remaining bar. Toby nodded and handed it to them.
It felt nice… Save for a vine currently wrapping itself around his ankle.
…
Wait.
The magical vine yanked causing him to lose balance and fall face down onto the cold, stone ground face…mask down. They forgot about Flowey.
“Golly! It looks like you didn’t stay dead. I’ll have to fix that.”
This time the attack grew out of the ground, once again impaling him.
And soon enough the pair once again refused. But this time there was no way he would be standing in place waiting to die. The moment his feet touched the ground he reached out, catching Frisk by their wrist and starting to run as fast as he possibly could.
Toriel should be on the way and with her Flowey should let them go.
The ground under his feet cracked, revealing thick roots underneath. Ones that suddenly grew thorns.
“Do you REALLY think you can escape? Even if you manage. NOBODY will help you!”
A pellet grazed his shoulder.
“Huh?!” A female voice rang from the other side of the chamber. There stood a goat monster with purple robes.
“He?”
Using the confusion that Toriel’s sudden appearance caused Toby, dragging Frisk with him, slid into the main ruins. Goat monster herself, didn’t turn back to look at them but focused solely on Flowey, summoning some fireballs that burned through flower’s magic, ultimately hitting the yellow flower himself.
Toby wheezed, trying to catch a breath after the whole ordeal. He maybe should get up but the ground felt awfully comfortable now.
“What kind of monster even was that?! I have never seen them before!” Chara loudly exclaimed.
“I don’t know but I don’t want to meet him ever again." Frisk mumbled, using Toby’s chest as a pillow. “I want to sleep.”
“Oh. Dear. That horrible creature must have hurt you two really badly. Allow me to heal you.”
Goat pressed her paws to their chest, one to Frisk’s other to Toby’s.
The developer just huffed, allowing warm sensation to slowly overcome his whole body. It felt great, much better than offensive magic.
“Here you go. You have fallen down, haven't you?”
She asked softly. Frisk just nodded in the confirmation slowly pushing themselves up.
Toby followed soon after. Chara on the other hand just hovered nearby, looking at Toriel.
“That’s my mum. She will help.” They finally announced.
“Good to know. I absolutely do not want to fight anybody else.” Frisk replied.
“Ah. Then I shall introduce you to the RUINS. My name is Toriel, the caretaker of the RUINS.”
“So you can say that you will give us a ‘tu-toriel?” Toby asked.
There was a moment of silence. Chara facepalmed, Frisk chuckled quietly just as Toriel did.
“That’s a good one dear child.” Goat monster admitted.
“I’m not-”
“I disagree.” Chara muttered.
“Anyways. We should get going. You must be tired after everything that transpired.”
With that she started walking deeper into the Ruins. Trio looked at each other before following her.
The next room was a small one. With a closed door at the end, yellow lever and six buttons. “RUINS are full of ancient puzzles of all kinds. One must solve to proceed to the next room. You should get used to the sight of them.” Toriel then walked on four of the buttons and then moved the lever. The doors opened with a loud crack.
“Let’s go further. Follow me.”
“Those don’t seem too challenging.” Frisk admitted, glancing at the lever.
“Because they never were meant to be challenging.” Chara chimed in. “Those were built for the monsters to play with and learn to think logically.”
“Oh. Really?” Frisk replied surprised.
“Kids. We will talk but for now I want nothing more than a warm bed.” Toby added, exhausted. “You must be tired too.”
Frisk smiled in response but did start walking towards the door where Toriel disappeared.
The next room was much more spacious with even a small stream of water running through it. The exit was cut off by spikes. Very sharp looking ones.
“This is another type of puzzle that can be found here. Please, move the correct levers. I’ve even marked them for you.”
Toby looked at Frisk and nodded his head in direction of the closest lever, they nodded back and walked up to the ones with yellow pointers around them. For a moment he wanted to mess with Toriel and tell Frisk to ‘accidentally’ switch the wrong one but he was just… too tired to really do this. After all of the levers were pushed down the spikes retracted into the ground.
“Fantastic.” Toriel ruffled Frisk’s hair with a wide smile. “Now it’s time to teach you what to do if you encounter a monster, follow me.”
“It’s so empty. . .” Chara suddenly spoke up.
“Hm?” Toby hummed questioningly.
“I mean… When I was here last time the whole place was just…brimming with life and now it feels almost abandoned…” They sounded almost sad, seeing what happened to their old home.
“I see… But… maybe other parts of the RUNIS are more lifely.” He tried to comfort them, the world blurred at the edges. The ghost just nodded sadly.
Soon the two humans ended up standing in front of a dummy SOULs hammering in their chests.
“Now. Once the encounter starts you’ll be taking turns in actions. You should be able to get out of them just by talking. Try it.”
“Uh… What nice weather we have today.”
Toby muttered, trying to be nice, remembering that there is an actual ghost inside.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Frisk smiled.
Toriel walked into the view.
“Fantastic. Now that you both know the basics, let's proceed.
In the next room the pair came across a froggit. It attacked them with some magical flies but they were easy to avoid in comparison to what Flowey pulled off. Now it was their turn.
“So… What do we say to it?” Frisk asked, staring at the monster.
“Uh. Try to be nice. Give them a compliment or I don’t know, threaten it or flirt.” Chara added.
“That isn’t helping.” Toby murmured. “Well let me try this. Ribbit?”
Surprisingly the froggit blushed before jumping up happily.
…
“What did you just say!?” Chara asked, their eyes widening.
“Well… I just said ribbit while trying to express a positive attitude.” He scratched the back of his head.
“It looked like it just fell in love with you.” Frisk added.
The monster turn arrived but it didn’t attack. All of its bullets turned green, a healing magic… Toby didn’t even know that froggits could display healing magic.
“Whatever you did. Continue so it won't hurt us.” Frisk said.
“Okay… Ribbit.”
The froggit let out a series of happy croaks but it stopped right as Toriel appeared, giving it a look. It was visibly saddened before jumping away into the water.
“Great job with stalling it until my arrival. Now there is one last puzzle I want to show you.
Soon after entering another room the mood shifted. The goat monster seemed to be much more serious than before.”Please forgive me. But I have to go.” With that she ran away through the very long corridor.
“. . .?” Chara tilted their head, confused.
“...”
“So. What do we do now?”
“I guess go after her.” Toby shrugged before starting to walk deeper into the corridor. Soon enough they managed to arrive at a strangely positioned purple pillar and goat monster hiding behind it.
She looked at them and they looked at her.
“Ekhm. My children there was never any danger for you… Now you should stay in this room, for now. I have to prepare some things for your arrival. So please. Be good. Oh and take this.”
She handed Frisk an old looking phone. “I’m really sorry but I don’t have more of those.” She apologetically looked at Fox who just nodded in understanding.
“Very well then, now that’s settled, wait here until I get back to you.”
With that she disappeared.
Using the moment of respite Toby sat down, leaning on the pillar and breathed out heavily. Damn, this…everything was more tiring than he expected it to be. Albeit dying a few times could count as a tiring ordeal.
“...Hey… are you okay?” Frisk asked, worried.
“It’s nothing *huf* I just need to catch a breath… And sleep for a while-”
Frisk shrieked as they realised that the older man lost consciousness. They managed to catch him and put him down on the ground. This was bad, really bad.
They reached out for the phone, picking up only the available number and calling it.
***
The phone laying on a desk beeped with another notification. The screen turned up revealing the message.
*21 unread messages.
Soon enough it went dark without the answer.
Only a small, white dog stared at it from underneath the bed.