"How did this happen?" Frisk asked, kneeling by Underfell Flowey, helping him up onto his shoulder as they raced off to speak to the Gasters.
"When your other self came down, at first they wanted to believe that the monsters could change into good people on their own." Underfell Flowey quietly said, hanging his little petaled head. "But the longer he stayed down here, the more petty and cruel and pompous and arrogant he found the monsters to be. Gaster...MY Gaster...is one of the few that still had real goodness in him, and the best he could come up with to help the Underground was something that almost amounted to brainwashing. My Frisk finally lost all sense of...of hope." He murmured. "I saw his face when Gaster unveiled the AEON. Saw the way it crumbled as he realized that this? This was the best they could do. And even that wasn't enough. So he's...he's never going to let us go free. Not ever."
"We'll have to tell our Gasters that, don't worry, they'll be able to put a stop to-" Frisk began to say before ...
THWONK! A large wrench knocked him over the head, another sending Flowey flying off his shoulder as Underfell Christa, the Soul of Perseverance, shook her head, adjusting the goggles she wore before twirling the wrench she had in one hand. "No, I don't think you'll be interfering." She said, getting out a pair of handcuffs, kneeling down to put them on Frisk as Flowey faintly stirred. "I can't have you interfering with the TRAGIC accident that's soon to befall Gaster. Maybe next time he'll think to put up better guardrails around his-"
But then Frisk whirled around, leg kicking up, smacking her squarely in the face, making her flop backwards as Frisk ran over to Flowey, picked him up, and then bolted for the exterior of the lab. "Thank GOD villains always feel the need to monologue about their evil plans!" He proclaimed to Underfell Flowey with a bit of a grin.
"You're still conscious?!" Underfell Flowey inquired, looking amazed. "I thought that would have knocked you clean out!"
"I went toe to toe with Undyne, with Papyrus, with Mettaton, with Asgore, with King Sombra, with Underfell Sans, with some of the most dangerous warriors in the world! I can handle a bump on the head-WOAAAAH, little dizzy here!" He admitted, rubbing his still-sore skull and grunting a bit, feeling some sticky wetness and a dark warmth throbbing in his skull. "I've had worse, believe me!" He said, ignoring the blood on his fingers.
Meanwhile, Christa had looped the footage, the cameras peering down at Underfell Gaster and "True" Gaster were currently seeing nothing, the two scientists leaning on the rails, unaware of how weak they really were. Gaster had brought his intellectual equal a little present.
"Here." He said, pulling something out from his dark coat, smiling as Underfell Gaster took it in his clawed, skeletal hands, his eyes wide, the red throbbing of the pupils in the dark sockets now pinpricks as he stared...at a small patch of grass with a flower, a little tulip, growing up in the middle of a tiny box that Gaster had brought him. "A bit of the surface world from where we're from."
Underfell Gaster felt over the texture of the tulip...every tiny little blade of grass, his body slightly shivering, his expression longing, clearly on the verge of tears, looking as though he was about to burst out and trying to restrain himself. "It is...beautiful." He murmured.
"I knew it's something you'd appreciate." Gaster said with a little grin. "And should all go well, you'l be able to plant your own under a proper sun."
Underfell Christa's hologram inducer had activated. Frisk and Underfell Flowey now saw "Fluttershy" walking away from the exit/entrance to the exterior of Underfell Gaster's laboratory, Frisk's heart leapting into his throat as he realized what was happening, "Fluttershy" remarking "I didn't want to do that, but...he left me no choice! I just didn't think he'd...if he'd just listened, I wouldn't have to..."
"They're trying to make it look like one of my friends pushed him into the CORE?!" Frisk gasped. He wasn't gonna have it. He could see, faintly, embedded deep in the wall and out of sight of the cameras on the inside, the glowing lens of the Hologram Inducer, and he dove right through the hologram of Fluttershy, disrupting the illusion. It scattered and spazzed about, turning into tiny dots of light as Frisk kicked the door in front of him open, letting out a yell of "DOCTOR GASTER, GET IN HERE, NOW!" He cried out.
Underfell Gaster and normal Gaster turned away from each other, stiffening up, standing on the large metal concourse and looking in confusion upon Frisk and Underfell Flowey's terrified face...just as the railing they'd been leaning on seconds before finally gave way and fell down, down, down into the magma and deep, horrific heat below, the two Gasters staring in sheer shock before racing over to Frisk.
"Frisk, did...did you know...?"
"It's Underfell Frisk!" Frisk insisted. "He wants to kill you and make sure the monsters don't ever get out of the Underground! He had Flowey trapped in a closet and he's got the Six Humans working along with him, Christa tried to bash my head in with a wrench and everything!" Frisk explained, Underfell Gaster's face becoming cold and furious, normal Gaster looking saddened...yet also angry.
"We need to alert our friends in Ponyville." He remarked.
"We need a plan." Frisk said quietly. "...and I think I have one."
And what WAS happening over in Ponyville? Well, Underfell Sans, Papyrus and Toriel had been lured out of hiding by the one thing they absolutely could not resist.
...pie. Snail pie.
Go figure.
"Oh, what a terrible, terrible shame!" announced Underfell Anthony, putting an arm over his forehead, the sun softly beaming down upon him as he stood in the middle of a forest clearing deep in the Everfree, acting like he'd never acted before. "I've such a lovely, delicious pie to take to my grandmother, but it's just such, such a shame! She'll NEVER be able to eat all this delicious snail pie with her rotting gums and rheumatism!"
Watching from nearby trees, hidden in the dark expanse of the woods, the rest of the Underfell Six Humans and Underfell Frisk peered on, seeing the unmistakable glint of dark eyes watching Anthony...followed by two skeletons in dark, foul attire, and a goat-lady in a slightly ragged robe with reddish, almost insane eyes floating through the air, drawn by the delicious, tempting waft of snail pie that made them circle around and around Underfell Anthony. They moaned happily, the delicious smell of the pie invading every pore of their nostrils when...
"Hello, mother."
The three were snapped out of their baked-goods-induced delight, flopping onto the grass below as Underfell Frisk and her companions hopped out of the trees they were hiding in, Underfell Frisk grinning like a devil. "So good to see you! Have you lost weight?"
"Well, frankly, YES! I haven't had a single child to eat in years now. Can't even nab a foal or filly from the nearby town. Been living off squirrels and chipmunks." Underfell Toriel grunted sadly. "Ah, but snail pie...my favorite!"
"I knew it was all your favorite." Underfell Frisk said with a grin. "A good daughter would always know. And like the dutiful daughter I am, I'm here to bring you home...and put you back on the throne, like you so rightfully deserve."
Underfell Sans and Underfell Papyrus grinned in delight up at Toriel, who clasped her clawed paws together and beamed. "Oh, darling! You know EXACTLY the kind of gift I'd want! I've yearned to have control of the Underground for years, I...wait." She blinked, tilting her head to the side. "I don't think these pastel pony fools would allow that. They're now all...buddy-buddy with the current head of the Underground, Dr. IDIOT." She grunted, folding her arms over her chest, glowering off in the distance, imagining the strange skeletal monster that was Underfell Gaster.
"Oh, true, true. But I thought ahead. He's being "dealt with", and the ponies will take the fall. Then we can seal Underfell off from their dimension so they can't possibly interfere with you retaking the throne! We have to destroy the portal from this side first, though. Luckily I've learned AAAALL about the magic they use." Underfell Frisk said with a big grin, taking out her notepad and showing it off to their mother as she flipped through it, eyes widening. "I took lots and lots of notes."
"What's this I see?" Underfell Toriel inquired. "They call this colt "Jolly Rancher" because he stays so ha-"?
"OHMYGODIGNORETHAT!" Underfell Frisk said quickly, flipping off to the next page. "Nothing, nothing! J-just um...did a little testing of my flirting style on, um...some of these, er...p-ponies, nothing important really!"
...
...
...
...the dark of night had fallen, bathing all of Ponyville in its velvet cloak, as deep rolls of clouds swept across the night sky. Not a single star poked through the expanse of clouds high above, as the Underfell gang of saboteurs made their way towards Twilight's private ramparts under cover of darkness. It hadn't helped, though, that Underfell Sans had that stupid tooth. It stuck out like a sore thumb. So they'd made him eat it.
Turns out it wasn't gold. It was a candy corn piece.
"You are PURE EVIL." Underfell Sans grunted darkly at his brother, Underfell Papyrus surpressing sniggers as best he could whilst Underfell Frisk fidgeted with the door, opening it up as they slunk towards the room where the portal was kept.
"Even I wouldn't make someone eat CANDY CORN. It's the one candy that always tastes the same no matter what...OLD." Underfell Toriel said, sticking her tongue out in disgust as their dark shadows stretched across the long hall, just as the moon seemingly poked its way through the cloudy blanket hovering over the land.
"Here we are." Underfell Frisk whispered out as she pointed into the room before them, a large, circular portal machine set up with magical runes encircling everything. "Here's what we need to do. All of the runes are based off of different magical virtues. We need to remove them in order, or they'll snap right back into place. I would know, I asked that stupid purple pastel pony to demonstrate."
"And, evidently, you asked for her measurements." Underfell Toriel snarkily intoned as Underfell Frisk deeply blushed.
"WHAT?! N-no, of course not, no way, she's not my type, uh-uh-uh, absolutely untrue!" Underfell Frisk insisted firmly, shaking her head back and forth as Underfell Papyrus suddenly found himself asking...
"Did you ask for MY counterpart's measurements?"
"...........no comment."
But then they heard a voice speak up, turning around, seeing a young, mixed-race, half Asian-American, half Caucasian brown-haired lad standing there in their blue and pink long-sleeve, arms folded over their chest. "I had hoped you wouldn't do this. I had hoped you'd be better, because you're my counterpart. I had had hoped you'd see grass was greener on this other side. Looks like you're just not interested in that. So I'm going to give you once more chance, here and now. Go home. And don't come back." He insisted, frowning deeply.
Underfell Frisk gave normal Frisk a big, smirking look. "Naaaah." He remarked.
Underfell Sans held up a bony hand, bones shooting forth, knocking poor Underfell Frisk clean off his feet, as Underfell Toriel swept her arms through the air. Barreling balls of fire slammed into Frisk, sending him spiralling into the wall nearby as Underfell Frisk sneered in dark delight. "Rule number one. Whoever's got the power makes the rules. This isn't about "Peace, Love and Understanding". This is about Kill or be Killed. This is about getting results. Being a friggin' hippie hugging folks left and right who'll occasionally slap them on the wrist then they're bad ain't gonna do JACK SQUAT."
Frisk let out a scream, apparently in mortal agony as Underfell Papyrus's "Special Attack" manifested, a hulking, foul, three-eyed, almost canine-esque skeletal head popping up right over Frisk, jaws opening wide as energy coalesced into his mouth and Frisk tried to rise off the floor...
"You're just the first, and you sure won't be the last. When your friends try to avenge their fallen "hero", they'll get even worse. Well, let's finish this up!
A beam of pulsating, powerful light, flashing through the air, thick, powerful blindness that made them all reel back. For about ten seconds of solid pulsating pain, there was nothing but the blinding whiteness and then...
Nothing but a scrap of sweater as Underfell Frisk picked it up, frowning. "How is it that no matter how badly you massacre a stupid goody-two-shoes type, some shred of their clothing STILL survives? What is this, a bad comic book plot?"
"I call it a trophy." Underfell Toriel remarked, plucking it up before...she frowned. "...wait. Something's not right, I smell...something odd in the air..."
"I get it now. I made the mistake of treating you people like...well, people. I should thank you. It really is kill or be killed."
All of them glanced around, as Toriel sniffed at the air. "His scent just...VANISHED! What in the heck?! All I can smell is scorched air and..." She listened. "...I can't hear where he's coming from, what's going on?"
"Goodbye, Mom." A voice rang out, as suddenly Frisk, his sweater tattered and torn, shot something through the air, stepping out from behind a nearby pulsating computer console, holding up a glowing, magical rune. The round thing he'd tossed slapped itself onto Underfell Toriel's chest...
And they saw her front blow open in a disgusting, horrific, loud wet SCHPLORCH-THLOORGGHH that made her reel back, gasping, plowing through into the next room...
Silence. Horrifying silence as they bolted after her, Frisk vanishing into the darkness, all of them staring, seeing...seeing her body dissolving into dust. Underfell Papyrus and Underfell Sans stared for a moment, at the pile of dust she'd become, at the remnants of her clothing, and Underfell Sans finally let out a scream, racing over to her.
"He...he blew her up?!" He screamed out, clutching at the remnants of her clothing, his dark sockets gazing down in sheer shock. "You...you!" He gasped, mouth agape. "You can't have, you...oh my GOD, she's-"
THA-THROOOOOM! A pillar of harsh, immense, flowing wind barreled down from above as they turned, seeing Frisk standing there, holding that same rune up, high into the sky, the roof above having been torn open as Underfell Sans was surrounded by a horrible, terrifying little tornado of hundreds of mile-per-hour winds, Underfell Sans barely a blur before...before even the dust was gone, dissolved into nothingness. Underfell Papyrus gaped, his body quivering, his bones rattling, Underfell Frisk just staring in sheer shock before...
"You die SLOW!" He roared at "normal" Frisk, who smirked and then launched something at Underfell Papyrus, a big burst of gas that slammed into him, knocking him up, up, high into the air...as a SONIC BOOM ripped through the sky, Underfell Papyrus's screams vanishing into the starry, starry sky above, and Underfell Frisk stared up at the spot where he'd vanished, then looked around. Frisk was outside, leaning against a tree, their clothing torn, their face cold and furious as Underfell Frisk twirled the combat knife he always kept, holding it up, glowering balefully.
"Your friend just took a trip into space thanks to a Sonic Boom Slap-On. Specialty of Alphys after chatting it up with the Wonderbolts. A multiple-stage explosive that can either, say, knock someone clear through a room and focus the blast squarely into one's chest, or unleash a series of sonic booms that'll send them soaring up into the sky. If you had super hearing, you might have heard a big, bony CRA-CRUNCH as his bones shattered under all the pressure from flying up into the sky at oh...Mach Seven?" Frisk remarked with a shrug. "It also helped that I put a few Tornado-in-a-Can canisters on the roof. I WAS gonna activate one over you, but I wanted you to watch."
"...you wanted...me to watch...?" Underfell Frisk foully hissed as she sneered. "And why's that?"
"How does it feel to watch your friends suffer and die?" Frisk snarled. "I imagine how you wanted ME to feel. Doesn't feel too good, does it?!" He yelled back. "Doesn't feel too good, being MANIPULATED. Being EXPLOITED. Being TRICKED!"
"Oh, I'll show you, you self-righteous little hypocrite!" Underfell Frisk roared out, shooting forward at him, the knife held high...
Just as Twilight stepped out from the nearby tree, holding him up, her horn glowing powerfully as she stared firmly into Underfell Frisk's face, and then pointed with her hoof, her face stony and resolute. Underfell Frisk gasped, feeling, for a moment, an awful blunt end of SOMETHING that seemed to jab right into the center of their brain before...she noticed she was bleeding from both nostrils. She fell to her knees, feeling over her bloody nose, gaping in shock as she stared up at Twilight. "Wh...what did you...my-my head, my...its all swimmy..."
"It took us a long, long time to come up with this idea. But Frisk wanted us to have an option. The option to remove DETERMINATION in case they ever went evil. To strip it away from them. Guess we ended up using it on a Frisk after all." Twilight said. "Consider it a magical lobotomy. You're nothing but a harmless little girl."
Underfell Frisk stared for a long, long time at them...and then they saw furious, angry tears coming to her eyes as she pounded into the grass below. "No, no, NO-NO-NO! You! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! You...you're supposed to be BETTER! They'll know! All your friends will know you aren't ANY different than me! You're not any better! You're just as much of a MONSTER!" She screamed out. "You hypocrite! You big, fat fuckin' HYPOCRITE! You're a killer, just like me! That's all you are!"
Absolute silence seemed to reign in over the grass as soft winds blew through all of their hair, the walls of Twilight and Alphys's joint venture still faintly crumbling, pieces dribbling down from the sides and the roof. Frisk and Twilight looked from each other, to Underfell Frisk, staring silently, not making a sound as Frisk's darker counterpart quivered with pure, raw outrage. Then, at long last, Frisk broke the silence, with a small little smile.
"No. That's not all I am." Frisk intoned quietly. "Guys...you can come out now."
With that, Underfell Frisk looked around. Underfell Toriel, Underfell Sans and Underfell Papyrus were all lying in a pile nearby, as Underfell Frisk gasped in alarm, Frisk holding up the rune.
"This rune is a rune of Magic. Based around ILLUSION magic. I had Twilight and Toriel help me spice it up to come up with a perfect illusion to cast, then used Alphys's special concussive explosives play the second part along with Rainbow Dash."
"The bombs here are pretty harmless. They really just feel like a burst in the chest." Rainbow Dash said with a grin, tossing one up and down in her hoof. "We had a few done up with special effects for extra "oomph" to make the illusion seemed real, and then while all your friends were being "blown away", I snatched them all up. Here, watch!" She cracked one open, and fake organs barreled forth as Rainbow Dash was sent reeling back through the air. "WAAAUUGH! My intestines! Blaaauugh, I'm dying! BLARGH!" She proclaimed, now flopping onto the ground, her "organs" splayed all over the grass as Alphys grinned and adjusted her glasses.
"It wasn't too hard to craft some proper "stagecraft" for the show we put on. We just had to make you think they were dead. Looks like it worked well."
"And that "Determination Lobotomy" is just a nullifier spell. I popped you with a bit of a "chill pill". It's just a mild stunner, really. You'll be fine in a few hours." Twilight offered. "Though you'll be feeling woozy for a good day and a half. Plenty of time for us to send you home with these clowns." She added, gesturing at the unconscious pile of Underfell monsters as Dr. Gaster walked over to Underfell Frisk, slapping on a pair of handcuffs over her wrists and legs, Underfell Gaster walking over to Frisk and shaking their hand.
"I cannot thank you enough for this." He remarked with a deep bow. "I admit, I was...surprised you chose this path."
"I admit, I was frightened by my own performance. Being so mean and ugly and hateful is...disturbingly easy." Frisk admitted sadly. "It really scared me. I don't want to be that ugly. I don't want to take the easy way out. The wrong way out."
Underfell Gaster was quiet for a long...long time. Then he sighed.
"You want me to take away the AEONs...don't you?"
"I can't MAKE you, sir." Frisk remarked. "I know that. I don't want to make you, you're a lot nicer than my counterpart. But I think you know that what you're doing really isn't the best way. I'm sorry. It's just how I feel."
Underfell Gaster sighed, rubbing his head with one hand, shaking his head back and forth. "...I'll...think it over." He remarked, snapping his clawed, skeletal fingers as giant, floating spectral hands lifted his "compatriots" up, carrying them off as Twilight and Alphys got to work on manifesting the portal, Frisk watching him head off with Dr. Gaster standing by his side.
"...I feel so bad for him." Frisk murmured. "Trapped in a world, all alone, the only "good" one there...resorting to...to all THAT just to get his neighbors to understand the difference between right and wrong. All alone and...and maybe doomed to fail."
"Makes you think, does it not?" Gaster confessed, watching his counterpart vanishing through the portal, as Twilight approached Frisk, who hung his head, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Frisk...you gonna be alright? I know it was...a lot...to play up the part of...I mean..."
"Do you think what he's doing over there is worth it? That he's trying too hard? That it's pointless?"
"...I don't think so." Twilight finally said. "You can never try too hard to make the world better."
"C'mon." Dr. Gaster said with a smile. "You've had a long night. Let's get you home, and to Toriel."
"You think cookies will cheer me up?"
"She's a mom. Cookies and counseling are her specialty."
A smile.
"Yeah. You're right about that."