Monster Age

by GR Griffin

The cold feeling on the tips of Alphys's claws almost made her soul shatter. The sensation on her girlfriend's brow did not feel like water. It was too thick. Too oily. Too greasy. Too familiar.

  She retracted her claw. A blue, gooey substance stained her fingertips.

  She shook her head. "…Oh, no…"

  The Royal Scientist was back in the Underground, gazing down into the abyss, water tugging on her ankles. She glanced at the same claw and could have sworn white residue persisted on them.

  "No… no, no, no…" She looked at Undyne and her worst fear was coming true. Globs ran like paint down Undyne's scales, building in blue puddles around her. "No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO! PLEASE GOD NO!"

  It was her laboratory all over again. She was the terrified scientist, watching as the monsters she saved from death began melting before her eyes, one after the other. There was nothing she could do but stare in petrified silence as her patients tried to sustain their physicality, ending up sticking to each other in the process. She could still hear them. And what did she do? Nothing. She stood as still as a statue, sweat and tears pouring. No amount of the word 'sorry' could ever fix what she had done.

  "NOT YOU TOO, UNDYNE!" Alphys screamed, clutching her head. Never before had tears poured so fast. She faced the heavens themselves. "THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! NOT AGAIN! WHY? WHY? GOD, WHY?"

  The captain of the Royal Guard opened an eye, her blind one. "Is it really that bad?"

  "Of course it's bad! You're dying, and it's all my fault! I… I…" She crumpled to her knees. "And I tried so very, very hard to do the right thing for once…" Her head fell back to the shoulder. "I just wanted to help. I never meant to hurt anyone, because I love you guys. You're the greatest friends anyone could ever have… and I only wanted to be a part of it…"

  To that end, Undyne smiled and reached out with a melting hand. "Alphys…" She gently wiped Alphys's cheek with her thumb. "This is exactly why I fell in love with you…" she said weakly "No matter what it is, you care about it, one-hundred percent at full power."

  Alphys held Undyne tight as she began to ooze through her arms. "I care about you, Undyne. I love you, at one-hundred percent, maximum power." Her eyes were shut. She cried harder than she had ever cried before. "Please… stay whole. Don't leave me. Please." She sniffed sharp, painful breaths. "If you go… I'll have nothing left… I can't lose you. Not like this. Not like this…"

  Undyne's arms, with the strength draining away, found their way around Alphys in an embrace. "You're a big girl, Alphys. You're better than you think, stronger than you know. You'll survive this, go on to live an extraordinary life, and meet plenty of great people along the way. You deserve it."

  "B-but what about you…?"

  "There's nowhere I'd rather be than with you… to the end."

  Alphys sniffed. "I'm not ready to say goodbye… Not to someone as great as you. I want you to be in my future. I want you to be greatest person in my life."

  Undyne quietly hushed her. "We have all the time in the world." They rocked ever-so gently, and repeated, "All the time in the world."

  * * *

  The skeletons over against the wall shifted their heads as life returned to their broken bodies. Papyrus leaned against his brother. His weight on Sans's cracked skull ached like mad, but Sans didn't mind much.

  "Papyrus," Sans whispered, "How ya holdin' up?"

  "I'm hungry…" was all the great Papyrus could think to say. His mind swam with pasta. "And I can't feel anything anymore."

  Sans huffed an exhausted sigh. "I get'cha, bro… I can't feel my appendix."

  "Sans, I…" Papyrus realised what had been said. "You don't have an appendix."

  Sans responded by fumbling into his jacket and pulling out a children's book. Upon opening it up, the index page was revealed to be missing. A jagged edge hinted to where it should be. He chuckled a broken chuckle before hitting a coughing fit.

  Papyrus slapped his massive glove over his face. "What a pity. Your terrible sense of humour is still alive…"

  That emperor was getting closer to Fleck, ready to finish the job. The trident patted up and down in his left hand.

  "Papyrus," Sans said. "We gotta do somethin'?"

  Papyrus nudged himself off Sans's head. "The great Papyrus is on it."

  Hugging himself against the wall, he pressed down with his feet. His pelvis lifted one foot off the ground before the strain set in; his broken, mashed bones croaking like damaged supports. He pressed down harder and his right tibia disconnected from the kneecap, sending him tumbling to where he slumped before.

  The two sat there, stunned silent as Papyrus's right leg, wearing the red boot, lay motionless in the dirt, pointing south.

  "Curious… that hasn't happened in a while…" said Papyrus. Rather calm for someone who just lost a leg.

  Sans dug his fingers into the earth. "Does… does it hurt?"

  "No."

  Papyrus leaned over to pick it up when he heard the rattle of loose stones from inside his glove. There was something in there. He pulled it off out fell two fingers which clanked limply off his femur and to the ground. A quick glance at the two gaps in his own hand revealed the fingers to be his own.

  He picked up what he reckoned was his ring finger and groggily tried reconnecting it. It wouldn't. "What's happening to me, Sans?" Right after Papyrus finished that question, the whole of Sans's hand detached from his wrist. It lay still, with the fingers crumpled like the legs on a dead spider.

  Sans hung his head at his separated appendage. "I think…" He looked at Papyrus with sad eyes and a grinning mouth. "I think we're dying, bro…" he confessed. "Either that or we're shedding out baby bones."

  The still air was interjected with the tapping of phalange against metacarpal. "But I shed my baby bones when I was twelve," Papyrus said.

  Sans chuckled low, beckoning another hacking fit. His brother was a late bloomer and a fast grower, not like that fun titbit of knowledge made any difference to their situation. The laugh ended quickly and a depressing tone took over. "Then that means…" He trailed off. There was no need to finish that sentence.

  Papyrus grumbled, to Sans's surprise, in a tone that was less wretched and more disappointed. "Over already?" he asked. "But who's going to drive around the city when I'm gone? Who's going to make use of all that numbered spaghetti, without the threes?"

  Sans laid his stump on his brother's cracked battle body. "Sorry, man. Guess some things aren't meant to last forever."

  Those empty eye sockets of the Royal Guard hopeful gazed upon the lion adversary and his human friend.

  "He…" Papyrus hesitated, then regained his composure. "He doesn't stand a chance, that guy," he bellowed, referring to Emperor Zeus.

  Sans said nothing as he inspected the same sight himself. From his angle, one foot beside his bro, the battle looked one-sided, but not in the way Papyrus envisioned it.

  Papyrus continued even as the pinkie dropped off, making it three fingers lost. "He can't defeat Fleck. Nobody can defeat Fleck, not even I, the great Papyrus." He clutched his annoying brother and pulled him closer. "Just watch. This battle will turn right around, just you wait."

  Sans watched as the monster with the trident got closer to Fleck. If the kid died, what's gonna happen? Back to the Underground? Back to his new home on the surface, without any memory of any of this? Perhaps this was not the first time he had done this. A thought occurred that maybe he and everyone else were reliving the same two days like an episode on television being rerun endlessly. The thought terrified him. All those months spent going around the circles below the Earth's surface, being made a plaything out of some twisted game of curiosity only to spend the rest after that in an endless loop was upsetting, yet ironically fitting. There was no point in fighting. All he could do was smile and crack a lame joke right in the funny bone.

  For his sake, he hoped Papyrus was right.

  * * *

  The King held his Queen, having been able to escape the blast jus
t in time, lay together nearby on the other side of the garden. Asgore held her close. Toriel was limp in his arms.

  Toriel stirred and mumbled something under her breath.

  "Tori?" Asgore leaned closer. "Speak to me."

  He neared her as she muttered again. Asgore made it out.

  "Fleck?"

  The Queen's eyes opened. The next thing she saw – two things, actually – was that Emperor and her child.

  "Fleck." A terrified feeling creeped into her soul. A spark of energy. "Fleck!"

  * * *

  The human, on their back, too weak to fight and too injured to move, looked to be already dead. The rising and falling of their chest, the only sign they still drew breath. Still, Zeus looked forward to making sure it was dead. His grip tightened with excitement as the royal weapon became lighter. Nothing would give him greater pleasure than to drive the stake into the beast's heart.

  He was six steps away when, all of a sudden, as mass of grey swirled between him and his kill. A figure of dust formed two legs, two arms, a thick body and a head with hair just like his.

  "Zeus, stop!" Zeus halted upon the appearance of such a wretched being, coupled with a voice he thought never to hear again. "It's me!" Juhi called out.

  Zeus stood motionless at the sight of his father, his undead father – a shell of his former self. Juhi had his hands out, beckoning his son to stay where he was. Zeus had spent his entire life with his father, stuck in the same world as him, and yet not even death could keep him away.

  Juhi appeared scared, betrayed by a softness in his stance. "What… happened to you?" he asked, barely recognising his only son, nor his armour, under the alterations. Juhi cranked his head to see Fleck and regretted it in an instant. Such a small creature, so healthy and full of life within their home at the bottom of the Forest, now resembling a corpse. "What have you done?"

  "You're not supposed to be here," Zeus snapped, gesturing the weapon at him. "It's fitting, really. You can't even die right."

  "Listen to me, my son. I understand how you feel, but this isn't the answer." He couldn't stop himself from taking glances back at Fleck. Each look shot pangs of guilt into his empty shell. The human whom he dragged into this mess, whom was on the brink of death, was in their sorry state because of him. He had done so much wrong. Now was his chance to do something right. "I can feel this world dying; its people – your people – are fleeing for their lives. Their suffering is unimaginable, but it's not too late. Nobody has died yet, we can solve the Obelisk's secret and save everyone here. Everyone, including you and Fleck and all those people here."

  Everyone else by now had dropped their arms and their grudges and reconnected burned bridges upon seeing the dead return. The Emperor of the Outerworld remained as defiant as ever in the face of his dead parent. "Now you want my help to discover the Obelisk's secret?" Zeus inquired, annoyed. "The same secret you spent your entire life hiding from me?"

  "Yes, because I feared what would become of it!" Juhi made clear that statement was aimed at Zeus, or rather, what he had become. "Now I realise it was wrong of me to keep that secret from you, and I'm sorry. I should've told you everything. We should've worked together, you and I. Now look at what it's brought us. Look at yourself." He stepped closer. "This thing that's taken control of your soul, it's destroying you! I don't even recognise you anymore."

  Zeus replied with a scoff. "You don't recognise me? That's rich coming from you, Dad. Do you know why you're a walking, talking pile of dust now?" He pointed to the child. "It's because of that human's ancestors. They forced us to flee here, forced us to live here, forced you to die here. Look at us. Look at what we've become. We exist because they made us this way!"

  "The humans didn't do this to us, Zeus. We did this to ourselves." Juhi took one last look at Fleck before he couldn't bear it anymore. He covered his eyes. "I was wrong. Wrong about Fleck, about their Determination, about everything! I wanted a miracle. I was desperate when I spoke their name. Fleck is an innocent victim in all this – they came here purely on their own volition, because they just wanted to help everyone."

  "It doesn't matter whether that thing is innocent or not. The damage has been done." Zeus went to step around his father. "It'll be dead soon."

  Juhi grabbed his son's arm. "They wanted to help you, Zeus, because they believe there's still good within you. Don't let that hope be in vain." A pleading tone ran rife in his broken voice. "Let go of this hatred. Let go before it's too late."

  "If Fleck really wishes to help me, it can die quicker for all I care," remarked Zeus. He tugged against his father's hold. "And I'll be the one to take its soul."

  "Think about your mother. Your grandparents," Juhi beseeched. "They wouldn't want to see you like this. They'd be horrified by what you've become. By all this." He gestured to his surroundings. "By everyone you've hurt. These people. Rickard. Barb. A child."

  "Don't you dare place their deaths on me…"

  "I'm not blaming you for anything. Zeus, please. You made a promise."

  "Yeah?" Zeus snapped around. "AND YOU'RE DEAD!" Then he did something which might've well have killed Juhi outright.

  He swung the trident, slashing his father in the chest. The three prongs made short work of Juhi's dusty torso, slicing him in two. His legs crumbled. His body span and collapsed in a heap. A moment of respite occurred as the former emperor resembled how he looked on his deathbed, then his pitiful face took shape.

  The father and son looked at each other. There was no emotion or apology in Zeus's dull glare

  Juhi's bottom lip quivered. "…Son…"

  "Spineless, that's what you are," hissed Zeus. "You'd rather lay down like a coward than take a stand. Mother is dead alright, they're all dead because of you, because you were too weak to help when they needed you the most! You keep thinking that if you do nothing, then something great will happen! That a solution will just magically appear from out of nowhere and make all these problems disappear. You did nothing back then, and our family died. You did nothing now, and now everyone is dying. Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me you did the right thing?" Juhi glanced away, hesitating. "That's what I thought." Pitilessly, he stepped on the pile that was Juhi's legs. "Lie there and wallow in your self-righteousness. I'll be the one to make the change. The change you couldn't make."

  Zeus stepped over what used to be his father and, in the one second, Juhi comprehended the soul-crushing truth.

  He had lost his parents. He had lost his wife. He had lost his home. He had lost his life. And now…

  "…I've lost him…" Juhi whispered. "…I've lost my boy… I've lost everything…"

  His grief manifested into desperation.

  "What have you done to Zeus?" Juhi curled up into a ball. "What have you done to my boy? What have you done?"

  Slowly, savouring every moment, the Emperor stood over the critically injured child. Fleck had been reduced to a terrible mess: their skin blue, one slither of blood trickling from the mouth spelt internal damage, and the purple of broken bones.

  Through bleary vision, those three dusty points hovered above Fleck's chest. The next blink returned the vision from their dream.

  Their foe stood above… a trident in strong hands… Prongs aimed squarely at them…

  "Know this before you die," Zeus said, savouring the moment. "I will destroy everything you tried to protect." His words came out as black and as twisted as the power that encompassed his soul. "Everything you ever cared for. Everyone you ever loved. I will make humanity beg for death. I will terrorise them in ways you could never imagine. They will know nothing but pain and despair for all eternity, and it will all be thanks to you."

  Fleck knew the next part. In a few short moments, the trident would come down and put them out of their misery.

  Just like in their dreams, the prongs rose in preparation for the final strike. Zeus, himself, struggled to contain the excitement on his face.

  It came down on—

  "NO
!"

  Toriel clambered over and collapsed beside Fleck, throwing her body over theirs. She wrapped her hands under their head and held them tight to her chest.

  "I beg you, please do not take Fleck," she cried with deep remorse. "I have lost so much. I cannot lose another child…"

  Asgore stumbled over and landed beside them both, adding his embrace to hers. "And… I cannot lose either of you…"

  Toriel looked up at Zeus. The corners of her eyes glistened. "I beg you, Zeus, do not do this. Please, look deep within your soul, and understand this child did nothing to hurt you. Just let us go."

  Zeus snarled, exposing fangs of white. He had resisted direct attempts to sway his soul. A few words from a fallen queen kneeling down in the mud would persuade him not.

  "But… if I cannot convince you to stop… If you must take Fleck's life…" Her eyelids closed and two droplets streamed down her cheeks. "You must take mine as well."

  Asgore pulled his wife and child close. "And mine, also," he said.

  Zeus tightened his grip on the trident – Asgore's own weapon. "Fine," he said, then began to raise the weapon, ready to deal the final blow. With this strike, the war will end. In fact, all war will cease to exist. Humanity will pay for every sin in its worthless existence, and he will reshape the world in his image. The monsters will rule the Earth and the humans shall become their slaves until they died.

  Toriel lowered her head. Somehow, through the pain, Fleck worked up the strength to smile. Knowing that as they faced the end, they were together once more.

  "It is alright, Fleck…" she whispered, loud enough for Zeus to catch. "Everything is going to be alright. Just do not look…" She sniffed. The end drew near. "Just don't look…"

  "Toriel… Fleck… I love you…" Two droplets ran down his beard as Asgore said his final words. "I love you both so much."

  Toriel's eyelids were shut so tight, yet they could not stop the tears. "We love you too. I…" Her arm wrapped around King Fluffybun's unmistakable shoulders. "I love you too, Gorey." She stroked Fleck's hair. "Just don't look, my child…"