au where the dreemurrs' monster children come in the other order.
Undyne, young and passionate, so eager to harvest six SOULs from the surface until she feels Chara's real intent and realizes this isn't justice. But revenge won't bring anyone back.
Asriel, born just before the first child falls and his parents split, growing slowly without his mother's magic while she wonders every day why his father chose him over every human child. Learning to fight with his twin sabers, serious and quiet, a lonely lover of tea and magic. He'll be his father's son, he swears. He'll do what his sister could never have, and, holding the last SOUL aloft, bring humanity to heel before the absolute god of hyperdeath.
His best friend, his student, the only one who's any fun to play with--Papyrus deserves to drive down the highway under the warm sun. Rather than rising from the ground like her spears, his bones plunge from the heavens like lightning.
In darkness, Alphys wakes an old and lonely spirit. She comes and goes, heart heard, teeth sharp. She gnaws her own petals for the taste of golden flower tea. Dad, mom… is she even theirs anymore? Was she ever? Her brother is happy. She's only ever been Determined. Time goes backwards, forwards. What's the answer? Where's her justice? Where is Chara?! She calls herself Spear. That's all she is now.
But these monsters are interesting. They wake up feelings she swore were just In Her Way. Alphys, her crush, her rescuer, the one who gave her a second chance. Papyrus, her best friend, her favorite plaything, the one who makes her realize laughing isn't always crying.
Toriel's child--they cut her down. That's alright. Chara's just mad again, and Undyne understands now. She understands when they rip her best friend away. They're her best friend.
She doesn't understand when the brother she never knew stands in their way. Too determined to die, his body twists and warps and stretches and pulls the very barrier in to form his wings. He is the angel. She was supposed to be the angel, until she wasn't. Now the child who steps past his broken invulnerable body is the angel.
(To him, when his best friend dies, everything shatters like glass. Love is gone, hope is lost, compassion dead. Everyone's hearts are beating in his ears--humans, monsters, something else that doesn't even know she has one anymore. They want an end to this stupid game. This isn't funny anymore! He just wants them to reset everything, he swears. Take it back! Give him his friend back! Give them all their friends back!
She watches them laugh as they raise their knife to her, and laughing isn't always crying but since Papyrus fell she and her brother and her sibling have all laughed in the same wretched voice. Does she refuse them? No one is left to see. Surely, that camera in the corner goes unwatched.
Time goes backwards. Forwards. What's the answer? Where's her justice? Where is Chara?
She tries to take their SOUL the second they fall, but Toriel is wise to her tricks. Fine. She'll wait. She'll watch.
Toriel's child--they leave the nest, singed and determined, promise they'll come home when the barrier is broken. She did too.
Papyrus' best friend--they laugh at his jokes, his basketball shoulders, call him on the phone at all hours of the day and night.
He did too, the Dreemurr's new angel. With prismatic light he hunts them in the marshes, swearing he'll live up to every example his father set him. But he can't-- seem-- to strike the last blow. He knocks them into the marshes, and the flowers whisper in their ear, and he is no closer to understanding why he wants to stay his hand because the memory of those flowers speaking to him was just a dream. Gone in daylight. They keep running into his ring of stars during his monologue so FINE! He'll fight them right now! He'll kill them over, and over, and over, because there is no such thing as a happy ending. This is all that's left. But apparently all they hear is him asking them to stay and befriend him, even if he doesn't understand. His threats fall as inaccurate as his Shocker Breaker, and Papyrus insists that everyone come make friends.
They tell him about Toriel, and he says they're the sibling he wishes he always had, and a floral heart twists with envy.
Alphys and Mettaton's little darling--she keeps them away from her dark secrets, so she goes there to plot. Watches old anime, writes speeches, stews and stews and stews.
She's watching the palace camera when they finally, finally, cave to injustice and raise her sibling's knife. Okay, Chara. If all humans must die…
With six SOULs, vengeance is incomplete. She is steel and dripping flesh and a single shining eye, turning the sacred shape of battle into something fast-paced, unrelenting--ironically, the genre named for SOULs.
Her sibling--NO--is fast and clever and almost as good at the knife as she the spear, and when her six minibosses hold her down she almost, almost, sees justice from her shining eye. But the eye that sees is on the other side, seeing their signs for mercy, mercy, mercy.
So she lets them go. Revenge won't bring anyone back.
Or will it? That knife was Chara's. Was that kind smile? That quick wit? Dad said he saw their look in this human's eyes. She knows science now. She forms a hypothesis and tests it, follows the human back to the lab. Endures the stirrings of the heart that should be dead. Shapes the story for the human--lab entries, tapes, the seeds that stick to you and won't let go. Watches recognition dawn.
At the barrier, her family defies her. Don't they understand?! This is Chara all over again. And once she takes their SOUL, they'll all be together forever. She won't let them down this time. Even her brother, her beloved, join bolts of lightning and guard them from her. Even Papyrus. FINE! She doesn't need anyone. She feels their hearts beating as one and yanks.
Seven, she says. Seven human SOULs, and we'll be together forever. You promised me, Chara! You promised your sister--
She is a shadow of armor on the shining barrier. She screams at the uncomprehending child before her, hatred and anger and vengeance and
injustice and loneliness and the agony of failure.
Mercy is for the weak, she tells them. All humans will die! This is the end, the inevitable, everything they all cried out to her for. Killing them now is her mercy, she says, and they tell her that mercy is for the weak. She is weak, they say, to try to kill them like this, to throw away justice, to hate humanity. She can be strong, they know she can, but she has to give up her dreams of murder.
She is weak? She needs to get stronger. Determination bends to her will and every SAVE point cascades into her form. She sees every timeline, good and evil, sees the form her brother took before their blade and stars help her but she thinks it's cool.
Armor cracks and warps like living flesh. A knight becomes an angel of death. Spears rain down like the shooting stars she saw falling through the sky the one night she saw the surface.
(she wished for every monster to reach the surface in peace)
She is the one with the Determination. They cannot SAVE her. She will finally, finally, give everything and destroy humanity just the way she wanted.
But they can SAVE something else.
Toriel and Asgore stop blasting fire past them at each other and welcome their child with open arms.
Sans and Papyrus' dark eyes finally shine with hope.
Alphys brushes away seeds and recognizes that even her worst mistake loves her.
And Asriel, Asriel, golden boy, angel, cannot stop laughing. Frisk, isn't this hilarious? None of it mattered. Nothing either of them did mattered. The world is one big long cycle and it's Undyne and Chara's story, not theirs. This is just a game, and they are not the players, Frisk! Hee hee hee... hee hee hee... hee hee hee...
He's unprepared for them to say, so what?
So what if they're not the ones in control. They're having fun, aren't they? They had tea. They shared stories. They roleplayed as the Absolute God of Hyperdeath and his favorite human hero. They talked on the phone, and Papyrus was there, and this has never been his story but he has been the most important character the whole time.
With six SOULs saved, they feel something else resonating within the Undying, stronger and stronger--
They didn't even know you could be adopted until they met the monster princess, the one who looked nothing like her mom and dad but had his braying laugh, her ridiculous jokes. They didn't even know anger could be something beautiful until she raged at the barrier, hurling spears and rocks into it to see how they burned up in the light. They didn't even know Determination was the future of this world until their games went wrong and she pulled the fumbled knife out of her eye and told them to try a little harder than that. They didn't even know revenge wouldn't bring her back until they were both dying in the garden and their hideous laughter was dying in her throat.
It was a mistake. An injustice. They were children, not knights, not angels, and the winged armor slowly melts away to nothing as she screams at them that she will not die.
She tells them she will, because she has failed, because she is strong enough to break the barrier with every heart beating as one but afterwards she would go back to just being Spear.
Every heart is beating in her ears, too loud, and Frisk tells her what they're saying. They like Spear--angry, lonely, lost, Spear--because she has changed, but they all have changed, and she's still Undyne.
She tells them to strike her down, and, dutifully, they raise Chara's knife and whack her on the shoulder with the pommel, just like they used to do.
So she lets go. She knows what justice is, she knows where Chara is. She knows the answer. She shatters the barrier, and fades. In the flowerbed, she chews on a petal and tells Frisk to take care of Asriel and her parents, or she'll come back, and they'll wish she had just taken their SOUL.
On the surface, Papyrus drives down a highway in a red sports car. Asriel drinks tea with his father and mother--nothing will repair their relationship, but they both love him dearly. Alphys is reading a love letter.
And Undyne, the lost Dreemurr, asks you to let her family live their lives. Around her neck, a rainbow ribbon.