Hal Henderics

The souls enter Lucine's body, one after another. She doesn't feel anything particularly strange as she does, aside from the weights in her chest, and the whispers in her mind. She suddenly feels a booming voice in her mind, and only barely manages to shut her fat mouth before blurting it out out loud. 'STATE YOUR WISH, AND I SHALL GRANT IT.' Lucine hears, and assumes that she was meant to just sort of shout that so loudly that everyone could hear it. She has the power, now. It may not be complete, but whether or not she has the power that a grail war would provide, it's clear that her body is reacting to the power of the SOULs. She has the power to grant one small wish.

Prodditor reads the thoughts in her head only a few seconds before she actually voices them. Papyrus chuckles, arms akimbo with pride. Asriel's entire body erupts in a cold sweat. "W-w-w-" he stutters. "Was it this asshole?" Tattletale asks, revealing her presence near the back of the room, kneeling on a very familiar doll with a gun pressed up against his head. "Let me go! I'll kill you, I swear to god I'll kill you! I need those SOULs!" Dolly shouts, writhing with white hot rage. "I kinda came in after you guys. Sorry, not sorry, I figured you could use my help, but didn't exactly fancy the idea of jumping in a fucking pit at first. Found this little bastard skulking around." "You guys can do your thing now," she shrugs.

Asgore is taken aback. "...You would rather spare my life, even after all I have done." Suddenly, monsters begin bursting into the room. Even more monsters crowd into the room, all familiar faces. Undyne quickly corrects her language in front of the children. Undyne's efforts to modulate her language is thrown down the drain by Alphys, who withers under Toriel's disapproving glare. The dog squadron burst in barking up a storm. "Yeah, these humans are good your majesty! They gave us pets!" Doggo points out. "They smell like weird puppies!" "(Yeah, but like, the good kind of weird!)" "Wa ha ha! It seems you're being outvoted here, Fluffybuns!" Gerson laughs, waving his magnifying glass at Asgore. "They helped me sell out all my icecream in Hotland!" the Nicecream man explains. "Yeah, I took off work for this! Don't mess with my little buddy, man!" Burgerpants begs. "Ohh... Is this the right place? I didn't expect there to be so many people... oooohhhhhh..." Napstablook says, slowly fading into invisibility after floating in. "So, like, uhh, we were just joking about the whole..." "Being hype about destroying humanity thing..." Catty and Bratty attempt. Toriel rolls her eyes, muscling aside several monsters to clear a path to the king for her and her children. "It seems your execution has been overruled, Asgore. As much as you may desire otherwise, we will simply have to put up with you from here on." "Tori..." he attempts. "Oh no, do not 'Tori' me, Dreemurr. Your misguided scheme has left a mess almost as foul as the one our own children made. You have much to atone for before we are back to 'Tori'." she scowls. The entire crowd of monsters collectively wince, save for Gerson, who cackles at them all. "Oh please! You younguns should be glad! You had no clue how insufferable they were back when they wasted everyone's time making googoo eyes at each other! Wa Ha Ha!" Toriel shakes her head at the cantankerous old turtle, before turning to address the party. "It seems the battle we anticipated has come to an anticlimactic close. Though, seeing all the friends you have made... I cannot help but be proud of you all." She waves to the seven SOULs, allowing the rest of the party access to them (aside from Prodditor and Ignia, who had been keeping an eye on them this whole time) as Asgore tears up melodramatically. "I believe it is now time, at long last, for monsters to go free, do you not?" Alphys seems confused about something.

"I'm pretty sure with Queen Mom here, this is a coup," Chara points out. Frisk nods resolutely. "This is it then." The gang continue, walking through the final hallway, and into The Barrier's chamber. Asgore is in the room, facing away from the party. Seven canisters have extended out of the floor with a mechanical hiss. Six of them contain floating hearts, in various colors. The seventh and final one is empty. To the others, the King is still mostly recognizable, though he is far larger and more fearsome than before. He begins to speak. "Human. It was nice to meet you. Goodbye." With that, The King releases an orange SOUL from his body, and lowers it into the canister, the glass tube sealing once the SOUL enters it. Without Nader's SOUL, Asgore begins to shrink, slowly returning to his original form. He continues to stare unblinkingly at the barrier as he addresses the party he heard entering. "I remember the day after my son died. The entire underground was devoid of hope." "The future had once again been taken from us by the humans." "In a fit of anger, I declared war. I said that I would destroy any human that came here. I would use their souls to become godlike..." "...and free us from this terrible prison." "Then, I would destroy humanity... And let monsters rule the surface, in peace." "Soon, the people's hopes returned." "My wife, however, became disgusted with my actions. She left this place, never to be seen again." "Truthfully... I do not want power. I do not want to hurt anyone. I just wanted everyone to have hope..." "I cannot take this any longer." "I just want to see my wife." "I just want to see my child." "Please... Humans..." "This war has gone on long enough. You have the power..." "Do what you-" he begins, as Toriel wraps her arms around him from behind, interrupting him. The embrace continues, and her grip tightens around him as his breath hitches. She begins spinning, until she is moving fast enough to fling The King bodily into the wall, smashing the stone wall into rubble and dazing him. "Asgore, you pathetic idiotic whelp!" she roars, kicking him in the shin as Chara, Frisk and Asriel run over to try and hold her back. After a few moments, her flash of anger burns out, and she collapses to her knees. "Idiots, all of you. My entire family, foolishness bred true," she says, shaking her head with tears in her eyes. Asgore, having already shaken off the attack no worse for the wear, stares in shock at Toriel flanked by Asriel and... He gapes like a fish as his children quickly move on to approaching him. "A-asriel, Chara? And, er... Do I know you?" he says, staring at Frisk with vague recognition. "It's a long story. Can I call you dad?" Frisk deadpans. "...I do not know how this miracle has occurred. I do not know if this is a cruel dream. If it were, I dearly hope I do not awake from it," he says, hugging them all close. "Human... I promise you... For as long as you wish, my wife and I will take care of you as best we can." "We can sit in the living room, telling stories... Eating butterscotch pie... Er, that is to say..." He looks at Toriel awkwardly. She shakes her head ruefully, chuckling with wet eyes as she approaches and kneels beside them. "I suppose, from time to time," she allows, resting a hand on his pauldron. He returns his focus to the children surrounding him. "We could be like... Like a family..." His smile begins to fade, as he looks at the rest of the party. At the rest of the humans. "No. That's just a fantasy, isn't it?" he says, standing up and pushing the children away from him gently as he rises out of the rubble. "Humans. Even if you had no attachment to those who have fallen before... Even if your friend, Nader, asked me to do so... I have taken his life." "For monsterkind to go free, to live on the surface in peace with humanity, what I have done must be addressed." "Having seen my family, knowing they will live on... I will not regret what comes next." The seven SOULs bob slowly in their glass cases behind everyone.

The party quickly reach Asgore's house once again. The Dog Squadron wait outside, as the party enters the home. Toriel, who is seeing the place for the first time in a long time, is struck horribly by the sight of everything, kept just as it was before. There is a small chain strung across the stairs, with a note on it. "Howdy! I'm in the garden right now if you need to talk! The keys are in the hallway and kitchen." Toriel quickly goes to the kitchen, and, searching around, finds the key in question. The crumpled up pile of failed recipes for Butterscotch Pie in the trash give her pause, and she has to leave before her composure breaks. Chara and Asriel take the hall, searching through Asgore's room, as well as their own. They find the key, as well as two present boxes. "He kept them, all this time," Chara says quietly, opening the boxes and pulling out the locket inside. They open the locket. Inside, there is an engraving. 'Best Friends Forever!' Asriel sniffles as Chara puts it around their neck. "Right where it belongs," they comment, before snatching the key and running back. After a moment's consideration, they leave the gardening knife where it is, sitting in the other box. The chain is quickly unlocked to allow the party to continue down the stairs, through the basement, and into the throne room. Frisk halts everyone long enough to SAVE, but no deja vu is forthcoming. "Once we go past this point, there's no turning back." The group can hear the faint whistling of wind through the barrier, even from here. "Are you all ready?"

Toriel is agape at this. "That cannot be true, if it were, the very mountain would be shaking, surely. The barrier would already be broken!" Frisk does something mysterious, and everyone feels a sense of deja vu. "He hasn't absorbed seven SOULs. If he did, I wouldn't be able to LOAD or SAVE anymore. Only the strongest individual in the underground can control time." Asriel wipes his face, forcing a determined expression on it. "We still have time, then. But not much." "Even if he has Nader's SOUL, he hasn't absorbed the others. If he did, we would know. Everyone would know."

Frisk breathes a sigh of relief. It's a massive red flag that they simply shake their head at all of this. Even attempted suicide isn't high up enough to really shock them by now. "God, we are going to need so much therapy after all of this." Asriel's continued and loud emotional incontinence simply reinforces this notion.

"Oh god! What the hell?!" Chara shouts, standing up and sending their adopted brother backwards. Every single goat in the room crowds Rachel, while Frisk fingers the "LOAD" button with a rush of adrenaline, prepared to undo this mess if they die. Toriel shoves Jun bodily out of the way and casts a variety of healing spells, gritting her teeth for several moments as she ignores the fact that Ignia had already tried that. When Rachel still isn't dead or dying, she takes a few shaky breaths. She looks at Chara, then at Rachel. "Your race is foolish. So very very foolish," she says breathlessly. Asriel has begun sobbing again. "Please don't die. Nobody else needs to die today," he blubbers out. Rachel hears a voice, and knows with surety that it is her god. "I forgive you." "Do not forget, before and above your duty to erase that which is evil rests our most sacred duty." "To save that which is good."

The beam indeed passes through Rachel's head, through her brain even, the thin microwave laser piercing her helmet and leaving it a sizzling wreck. And yet... She does not die. Her thoughts are cloudy only for a moment, but other than that? For some reason, she feels just fine. There is no flash of light to herald the Emperor's blessing, nor are there claws of Chaos to drag her soul into the warp. She simply... Survived the beam blasting through her skull, by some miraculous quirk of it missing all the crucial parts, and cauterizing the rest. FLAW REMOVED: It seems the Emperor, above all else... Forgives.

Rachel feels a presence surrounding her. A presence with depth and power beyond what she has felt before. She hears a voice, and then, five words. "Must I forgive this too?" The question carries no malice, nor is it sarcastic. She hears the purity of the words, however faint and struggling they may be. She feels a hand gripping her shoulder, heavy and cold, and armored. "I have forgiven you, my servant. So very many times." "When entities of the warp stood before you, catalysts of daemons, in their fledgling state, I had no choice but to forgive your mercy." Rachel remembers her promise, to not harm a single monster, save for Asgore himself, even if they attacked her. The written law of mankind would call this heresy. "When the unsanctioned psycher toyed with the soul, I had no choice but to forgive your mercy." Rachel remembers all the times she shrugged off Arminius's willingness, not only to manipulate the cast off essence of the soul, but even to draw strength from the souls of humans, of her. She not only condoned it, but encouraged it. The written law of mankind would call this heresy. "When the Soulless thing demonstrated its worth as a vessel for chaos, I had no choice but to forgive your mercy." Rachel remembers how, when faced with a new incarnation of Flowey, at Arminius's hand no less, she decided to allow him to fill them with more soul essence, based only on the word of a child and an unsactioned psycher. The written law of mankind would call this heresy. "When you discovered that a human drew the full power of the warp through themselves to bend time without my grace to protect them, I had no choice but to forgive your mercy." Rachel remembers how, upon learning that a child had the power to seemingly pass into the warp itself, at will, and take control of time itself through warp sorcery, she was merely grateful that she herself hadn't been taken along for the ride. The written law of mankind would call this heresy. And Heresy has but one recourse. "Here and now, you stand faced with a choice." She looks towards the three huddled together children, who look confused, but honestly a bit desensitized after all her behavior early on. They aren't aware of the danger yet. "If you condone this heresy, here and now, I have no doubt that Asgore will live. He will live because he will not fight, and your mercy will be complete." Is this another trick? Another lie from Chaos, meant to tempt her? To throw her misdeeds in her face like this? Suddenly, she sees a vision of the king she has decided to kill. "You see it, do you not?" "The armor, resplendent in gold. The faith, in his kind. The wayward children he has lost. The oppression from forces beyond mortal ken? " "You once said that this world stood as a testament to the fate that would befall mankind if they had defeated Chaos. If I protect humanity from the forces beyond it, then who, here, stands in my place? Who protects the ones who have lost from the ones who had won?" "You believe King Asgore to be a Heretic, A Daemon, or perhaps even a Daemon Prince. But no." "This being stands poised at the precipice, this being stands poised to become the God-Emperor of Daemonkind." She hears the struggle in her emperor's words, as if what he is saying is being forced through the mire of chaos simply to reach her. As if every intonation has reached her battered from all sides by chaos. "Do you understand, Rachel? If you grant 'MERCY' to these heretics, if you do not 'FIGHT', then the humanity of this world stands in the balance. If you have faith in me, in my ability to one day bring humanity itself over chaos, and to extinguish it, then you must understand what might happen here, if monsterkind and humanity were arrayed against one another here." "Should you tolerate this heresy, then you take responsibility for its consequences." "Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you? I can only hope that you do." His voice is fading, even now, the eddies and whirls of the warp carrying his words away from her, distorting their meaning until it begins to lose meaning itself. "Must I forgive you even this?" Even now, she cannot tell if the words she heard were merely the lies of chaos, or the rarest of all the emperor's blessings, that he himself would speak to her. Perhaps it was both, some blend of the emperor's struggle and the machinations of chaos.

He tries, he really does, but Arminius's words trigger something in the prince that has them wrapping their arms tightly around themselves, pulling inwards. Asriel sobs uncontrollably, mouth moving, but unable to form coherent words. Chara fills in the blanks, even as they try to comfort the other monster. "Not the third time. The first." Their eyes meet Arminius's. "There is a reason we were dead when you met us. We had a plan." "I told him to..." Chara begins. "I told him to poison me, so he could take my SOUL. We were going to cross through The Barrier and get enough SOULs to free everyone." Toriel shakes her head, backing away from her children and falling onto the ground. Chara looks distraught, turning to Asriel, who is an absolutely ugly crier judging by the snot and tears they're practically soaking Chara's sweater with. "We accidentally put buttercups instead of cups of butter in a pie meant for the king. I made Asriel feed those same flowers to me secretly until I died, so he could do the deed." "When he took my body to the surface, the people from my village attacked when they saw it. I told him to to protect himself, to kill them before they could kill us." "He refused, and they killed us for it." Chara shrugs, patting Asriel on the back. "After that, I don't know what happened. We should have been dead. Our plan had failed. Our SOULs shattered in the garden we fell down in." Chara looks at the group one at a time, shamelessly. "You have to understand, I'm not really the greatest person. I hated humanity, and I loved monsterkind. I was willing to die if it meant their freedom." They hush Asriel as he tries to blubber out what an idiot he was over and over. "It was a bad plan. I wish I didn't do any of this to you." Asriel slowly gets control over themselves, sniffling as they reign in their outburst. They decide to answer Arminius's other question. "When I gave up the SOULs, I didn't have enough power to stay myself. I was going to turn back into a flower. I was going to forget what love felt like again," Asriel explains. "I told Frisk to just forget me, to move on with their life, but they wouldn't accept that." Asriel begins tearing up again. "They just kept going back, trying to find a way to save me too. Hundreds, maybe thousands of times, they undid everything, to the point where even I forgot. So they could try again. They tried to convince me to live with them, even as a flower. They tried to teach me how to feel. Once, they even tried to fragment their own SOUL just to share it." "They had the power to undo everyone else's happy ending, and did it, just to try and help me," Asriel chokes out. "I wish they didn't. What I did, it hurts so much, and it won't go away. I should be dead," they ramble. Toriel looks like she can't decide whether to bolt or embrace them. Horror and shock, that her children alone are responsible for setting all of this in motion, that Chara's death hadn't been some cruel turn of fortune, but conspiracy. It's around this time that Frisk themselves walk out of the resort, quickly walking over to the two goat children and trying to figure out what is wrong. Rachel belatedly notices her hands on her Inferno pistols, the weapons held in a white-knuckled grip.

Gozer, who had been silent so far, speaks the first words he's said in a long time, looking at the Maskmaker with a cold, lifeless gaze. "Is there a way to undo the effects of a mask?"

Cap scratches his head. "I mean, everything here is made out of metal, right? Why couldn't you just make a dude who can handle the time mask, if you're so good at metalworking?"

-Waterfall Toriel brings herself to her full intimidating height, wishing so dearly to refuse Gerson's words. She opens her mouth, but cannot speak. The dogs, who had been escorting the group so far, finally break out of their shock, kneeling before her, Chara, and Asriel. While the children look uncomfortable at this, Toriel takes it in stride. "Take us to New Home. Take me to Asgore Dreemurr." As the group continue to walk forwards, they encounter another station manned by none other than Sans. Frisk walks forward, and interrupts him. "It's time you learned the truth." "Want to grab dinner at MTT Resort? We'll catch up." Sans looks surprised, but shrugs it off with a lazy grin. Frisk turns to the rest of the party. "We'll be waiting for you in Hotland," they explain, walking away with Sans behind a corner and disappearing before anyone can protest. Asriel most of all squawking in alarm. As the party continues down through Waterfall, Asriel looks more and more tense. "I told that idiot-!" he starts nastily, before shaking his head, hard. "I told Frisk to never tell him anything. I don't like this." The trip continues in silence until finally, Asriel decides to speak up again, just as the group begins passing into hotland, dripping stone walls transitioning into blistering red rock and oceans of magma. "Before we reach Asgore, there's something you guys need to know," Asriel begins, tearing up uncontrollably, but wiping his face in spite of it. "Absorbing a human SOUL... Isn't all it's hyped up to be. Even if he absorbs them, you all still stand a chance." Toriel freezes, while Chara simply sidles closer to the revived prince. "When a monster absorbs a human SOUL, control is split between everyone involved. Even if Asgore absorbed all six of them, all it would take is appealing to the human souls, waking them up enough to resist, and it would all fall apart." "I know this because..." Asriel pauses, squeezing his eyes shut. "Because I've got experience. Plenty of it." He lets the silence drag on. "Remember how Frisk said they've been 'doing this for a while'? Well, before you came, they were dealing with me." "I did bad things when I was a flower. What do you think someone would do, if they had no SOUL of their own?" "Well, I managed it before you guys fell down. Three times even. Once, I tricked Frisk into fighting ASGORE so they could escape. While they were fighting, I stole the six SOULs Asgore had, and turned into..." Asriel's chest heaves as he tries to relay the critical information to the party. "Frisk kept calling for help, even while I killed them over and over, and they managed to wake up all six of the SOULs. They rebelled against me, and stripped me of all my power." Chara tries and fails to squeeze the sad out of him while Toriel's pupils shrink to pinpricks as she holds a hand over her mouth. "When they refused to kill me after that, I tricked them again. I told them that if they made friends with every single monster, and didn't kill anyone, It would give them their happy ending." "That was a lie, of course. Nearly every single monster came into Asgore's house to stop them from fighting, and..." "I took all of their SOULs right then and there, and became godlike." It takes him a long time to start talking again. "Frisk made those SOULs wake up and remember who they were, and I couldn't handle all the emotional backlash. I willingly gave up all that power, and broke The Barrier, now that I could feel my compassion and empathy again." "...My point is, if any of you thought a monster with human SOULs is unbeatable... They aren't. They can still be beaten." they finish, as the party reaches the MTT Resort. For some odd reason, or perhaps it isn't odd at all, Rachel feels her hands drawn to her guns.

-Hotland "Asgore?" they ask. "He hangs out all over the underground!" "Yeah, we see him all the time!" "Oh my God." He's a total goober." "He's a big, fuzzy goofball!!" "Like, I LOVE that guy." "He's like, SO nice." The pair look at each other for a moment, smiling. "God, we're like..." "God, we're like..." "SO hyped for the destruction of humanity!" "SO hyped for the destruction of humanity!" they shout in unison, laughing from accidentally saying it at the same time. "Psyche!" "Aw man, come on Bratty!" -Waterfall Toriel looks down at Ignia with an aloof expression. "Yes. I am the former Queen of All Monsters." At his comment about graves, she frowns, trying to appear apathetic. "I would imagine so. I tried to stop them, but they would not listen," she says. "Six of them, yes? I tried to stop them from leaving, but it was always the same. They fall into The Ruins, they leave, and then they die." "Pathetic, is it not? I could not save a single one," she says with cold, watery eyes. Asriel and Chara huddle around her while Frisk stands awkwardly by. "And now we must put a stop to this pointless war, where I could not," Toriel says, kneeling down to make it easier for them to embrace her. Gerson chuckles ruefully at this. "I wouldn't say it was pointless. Though, it does need to come to a stop now, before it's too late." Toriel scowls at the old turtle. "What could possibly justify all of this? Why must humans die for our freedom, and if so, why would he wait instead of crossing through the barrier after he had a single SOUL? Would he have monsterkind meekly wait in the darkness, hoping another human never falls?!" Gerson holds up his hands wardingly. "People were dying, your majesty." "And they were doing it fast, to boot." Gerson looks at the humans in the group. "You all get old when you grow long enough, and then you get sick and kick the bucket, isn't that right?" "Well, monsters don't get sick, but what do you suppose happens when a monster is done living? I'll tell you what happens. They QUIT." Gerson points out. "I lived this long because I ain't done living yet, but right after the royal brats died? Plenty of monsters were. The first human to drop down here in a thousand years, and they were as friendly as all get out. Then they died and the prince up and got killed by humans. There went our hopes for peace." He looks at Toriel, who is tearing up at this. "Me and Asgore had already talked about this. We used to think going to the surface would be pointless. Even if we somehow escaped, the humans would just kill us all," Gerson points out. "I felt a bit betrayed when Asgore changed his mind and started this mess... But now that I've gotten old and crusty, I'm starting to see why he did it." "Monsters can't live without something to hope for." Gerson poses thoughtfully. He shakes his head. "Maybe you should have kicked his ass right then and there when he tried to declare war on the humans, Your Highness. Maybe that's what he wanted." he laughs. " I bet he never thought you'd up and run away though," Gerson continues. "My point is, I don't think Asgore expected to get all seven." The old turtle says. "I can't imagine how he made himself get this far, even. That's why I think you stand a chance at stopping him," he explains. Toriel tries her hardest to ignore most of what Gerson said, while her children seem content to squeeze the sad out of her as best they can with their little arms. The pain is too raw, too fresh, even after decades.

"Hey, uhh, old guy, I don't know what you're rambling about, but we gotta go kick that Makuta guy's butt or whatever. If you got something important to say before giving us the stone, it's kinda now or never." Cap says, shrugging to himself at the old guy's muttering.

"P-probably just has non-evaporative bb-blood." Law stutters, trying to signal for the ship to deconstruct the blood and gore coating the pair and ship and put it in the feedstock. His hands shake as he inputs the commands. "As for magnetic couplings, I recently installed a manufactuary that should be more than enough to handle your needs." Law seems himself for a moment as he chuckles maniacally. "That baby can print nanomachines, much less magnetic couplings!"

Cap blinks for a moment. "I guess that makes sense." He supposes this world must not have dragons.

Cap's eyes squint. "What if he just tossed it in the magma? Then it'd blow up from the heat and he'd get whats inside or it'd break." "If I were impatient, that'd be the first thing I did..."

Scout nods. "Sounds like a plan, just watch out for any weirdos in spider costumes. One tried his damnedest to softlock me."

Law is breathing heavily, frazzles from basically being shaken around like a rabid dog with a rope in its mouth from trying to hang onto Mirri's shoulder. The peacemaker clatters on the ground, skidding on the floor from losing his grip. "Ggg-good w-work!" he says, offering a shaky thumbs up.

"He was once the captain of the Royal Guard. He is older than when I met him last," Toriel points out, looking aloof. She slaps a satchel of gold coins onto the table, purchasing everyone a can of Sea Tea. Gerson laughs. "Why thank you, Your Majesty," he says, placing the bottles of tea on the table. Toriel frowns.

Law scrambles up onto Mirri, whipping out the gigantic gun and preparing to fire it at whatever's running off. "All systems kill that thing dead!" Law shouts, the barrel of the weapon already crackling with dark eco. His ability to aim the oversized weapon is limited by his size, but that's what Mirri is for.

Law, normally quite frightened at the prospect of a fight, is far less so when that fight is taking place on the one place he's done the most work on. "Yeah, for them, maybe. This is the one place we'll probably have the best chances," he mutters, even as he tries to undo the nail on Mirri's tools.

"If I could have just gotten that damn book, I could have just killed myself to get it somewhere safe. I'm not sure what the right decision is at this point, man." Scout admits, glancing outside of the van nervously.