Chapter Text
Michael woke up and found himself on top of a soft surface, when he opened his eyes he was able to see that it was a golden flower bed, he looked around and saw that he was in some sort of cave, Michael stared upwards getting blinded by the light that came from a giant hole, it was pretty obvious that there was no way out over there.
Michael thought that the afterlife or hell would look different, but he couldn’t complain wherever he was; he knew he deserved it, especially hell, but he expected to at least see his father nearby. If anyone deserved eternal suffering it was William, but that didn’t matter right now, Michael had to start moving.
“Alright, let’s get this started,” Michael grumbled, he was supposed to have died with everybody else, burned to pieces with Henry, Charlie, Elizabeth, his father and… that thing .
He stood up and quickly noticed something was wrong, well… not wrong, but definitely weird, his skin instead of having the rottened purple color was back to normal, he guessed that after dying he would look like before he got scooped, but he was still not expecting it, he also noticed that he was smaller.
When he got a better look at himself he could only guess he was around 13, which was weird but decided that he should do something more useful than standing there, he needed to get a better idea of where he was and see if he could at least find a familiar face, Michael turned around and saw a path as he followed it he founded an entrance or… exit.
There could be seen two old pillars and a weird symbol in the pediment, the symbol was a circle with wings and three triangles, the middle one was upside down, Michael went through and in there he was able to find a small patch of grass with a yellow flower, as he got closer the flower suddenly moved and that was when he noticed that it had a face.
The flower gave him a smile “Howdy! How are ya, I’m Flowey! Flowey the flower!” It talked, it fucking talked! Michael had seen a lot of weird shit, but a talking flower wasn’t one of them “Hmmm… you are new to the Underground aren’t ya?” Underground? What was happening wasn’t he supposed to be dead? “Golly, just look at you! You are so confused”
Michael didn’t like Flowey, the way it spoke to him was weird and he definitely wasn’t fond of that smile, it reminded him too much of his father’s, a smile that looked too nice for its own good, a smile that would tell you to trust them and that nothing bad would ever happen, which only meant that whatever it was going to do it wasn’t going to be good.
“Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!” Flowey kept talking ignoring Michael’s growing suspicion “I guess lil’ old me will have to do” his smile grew “Ready? Here we go!”
Everything seemed to change as it became all black and white while a red heart came out of Michael startling him “What the fuck?” he started to panic looking around and noticed the heart was shaking just like him, he then looked at Flowey whose expression didn’t change and was completely relaxed for whatever was happening.
“See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!” Michael knew about souls, he had the pleasure of having a father that loved messing with them, but he never guessed that they looked like that, maybe being a vengeful soul stuck in the living world messed things up.
“Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV” what Flowey was saying sounded a lot like a video game, not that Michael would know about it, after what he did to his brother he never stayed updated to anything, not like his father would have let him have one and when he was older he couldn’t afford it, plus he was too occupied cleaning his father’s mess.
“What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course!” Flowey then looked closer to Michael as he realized something “Well look at that!” Flowey said, his expression changing “Your LOVE is already up to 2! Who did you kill to get it like that?” he asked, looking at Michael slyly.
Michael started to back away, he never liked to think about it but it was worse when a flower had to mention it, the entire thing about LOVE was either a lie or there had been a different meaning to it, which Flowey wouldn’t have planned on telling him for whatever ulterior reason.
Suddenly he had to stop walking as spinning white pellets surrounded him “Then you already know how this works don’t ya?” Flowey’s grin started to grow more and more “In this world is kill or be killed!” Flowey laughed maniacally as the pellets got closer and closer making Michael fall as he tried to back away.
The pellets started to reach him and as he waited for the impact it never came, Michael looked around and noticed that the pellets had disappeared “Dang it! Not her again!” Flowey muttered under his breath as he went underground, Mike tried to catch his breath not understanding what had happened.
Soon enough a goat lady came up to him “Oh my, I cannot believe such a creature would do this again with another innocent child” she said as Michael looked confused at the newcomer “Do not worry child I won't harm you, I am Toriel caretaker of the ruins” she told him a sweet tone on her voice as she offered her hand to help.
Michael didn’t know what to do, he was still confused with the flower and now a goat?! “I am sorry that you had such a bad impression of the Underground, but please trust me” she said with a sweet smile, Michael couldn’t stop himself from believing her, she looked so caring and kind.
“I’m… Michael” he finally said, taking her hand as Toriel seemed to light up.
“I am so glad that you could trust me Michael” Toriel said as she helped him up “Now, come with me, my home is farther inside of the ruins” she instructed as she walked away with Michael following her behind “This is quite strange, I wasn’t expecting another human to fall down here”
Another human? Could that be someone he already knew? Maybe his father, it could also be Charlie, but it could also be some random person he didn’t know, Michael wasn’t sure where exactly he was but at this point he knew he wasn’t dead, because if he was this was the weirdest afterlife he had ever seen, not that he had seen one before.
As Michael followed Toriel they both entered a small room with two sets of stairs on each side and an exit at the top with vines on each side, in the middle between the stairs there were fallen leaves and just barely he could see a small light it was almost unnoticeable, he didn’t know why it caught his attention but he decided to ignore it and follow Toriel.
In the next room there seemed to be a puzzle that would open the door “Since you are going to be staying here you will need to learn how to solve puzzles to progress from room to room” she completed the puzzle opening the door.
They both entered the room “You will need to trigger the switches as you can see I have labeled them” Michael looked at them while Toriel moved to the end of the room, he was pretty sure that this was done for little children.
Michael looked at the puzzle “This will be easy”
Was he an adult trapped in his preteen's body? Yeah, but he was sure that even his stupid younger self would have solved it without help, Michael walked foward and easily used the first switch and went to the next one, once he was finished he turned around to see Toriel giving him a proud smile.
“Great job! You did wonderfully, let us move to the next room” she said as they both reached it, inside of it was a dummy “As a human living in the Underground, monsters may attack you” she explained “You will need to be prepared for this situation”
Michael groaned at that, he already had enough with the possessed animatronics that tried to kill him, now he had to deal with monsters that would do it in the open, when he worked at Freddy’s he was at least in an office and could find a way to protect himself, now he had to go around trying to not get attacked by an army.
“However, worry not! The process is simple” Toriel said, trying to reassure him “When you encounter a monster, you will enter a FIGHT” she explained “While you are in a FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation, stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict” Toriel instructed “Practice talking to the dummy”
“I just need to talk to it?” Michael asked and went up to the dummy and just like with Flowey everything became black and white as his soul came out, in front of him there were four options: FIGHT, ACT, ITEMS and MERCY on top of this his name could be seen alongside LV 2 and 29HP “What’s this?”
“Oh, those are the battle options” she explained “FIGHT is to use your weapon against your enemy to lower their HP, which I do not recommend, please do not harm any monster, they are just as scared as you are” Toriel asked nervously, trying to keep her smile up.
It wasn’t as if he was going to ever use that, he never wanted to harm anyone “Don’t worry I won’t” he muttered under his breath.
Toriel looked happier “That is wonderful, now since you won’t be fighting I suggest you use ACT” as she said this Michael pressed the ACT button “Once you use it different options will appear, depending on which one you use their name could turn yellow” she explained “If their name is yellow you’ll be able to use the MERCY button and spare them”
Michael looked at the options CHECK and TALK he picked TALK “Uh… hey! How… are you doing?” He awkwardly said he wasn’t good at conversations but at least Toriel seemed happy enough with his action, he then went to the MERCY option using SPARE as everything went back to normal.
Toriel gave him a clap “Very good Michael” she complimented “Aside from using the SPARE option you can also try to FLEE if ACTing won’t work” Toriel informed “And lastly ITEM is used to use the ones from your inventory to help yourself or food to heal your HP”
“Thanks for the information Toriel” Michael said rubbing the back of his head.
Toriel chuckled “I’m always happy to help” she responded “Now let’s go, this next puzzle… well you’ll see” Michael didn’t like the sound of that, he followed Toriel as they went to the next room and finally reached a hall “This is the puzzle, but... Here, take my hand for a moment”
Michael sighed “...Ok…” he was weirded out, he had to keep in mind that he was physically 13, he took her hand as Toriel started walking and he quickly noticed how she walked over spikes but said spikes started to disappear as they stepped over them.
As they walked Michael noticed how Toriel looked at him, she had a sweet smile and looked at him with such care just like a mother, a mother… Michael barely had any memory of his’, after the history of his family he had always tried to forget it, pushing the memories away until there were barely any of them.
He obviously was never able to forget his father, living with him for most of his life made it difficult to try to get rid off, this didn’t mean he had completely forgotten about his siblings, he could never forget about them, he just hoped that once he got out of here he could go back with them in the afterlife or whatever just had happened.
Once they both got out they reached a large hallway “You have done excellently thus far Michael” Toriel said as she turned to look at him “However... I have a difficult request to ask of you” Michael raised a brow “...I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself” he raised his other brow “Forgive me for this”
Toriel turned around as she walked away leaving Michael alone “Well, I mean, at least she worries” he was able to say in his confusion “It’s just a hallway, I can just walk” once he started walking soon enough he was able to find a pillar near the exit and just behind said pillar Michael could see Toriel trying to hide herself "I can see you, you know that right?"
Toriel chuckled as she stepped outside of the pillar "Oh my, you are quite smart" she complimented "Has anyone ever told you that?" Michael couldn't stop himself from smiling, it wasn't that noticeable but it was there, Toriel was truly a kind woman and Michael didn't know how but he was glad he met her.
“Still, thank you for trusting me Michael” she said “However, there was an important reason for this exercise” Toriel explained as Michael’s curiosity grew “To test your independence, I need to leave and check on the other child, I ask you to please stay here” Michael will indeed not stay there “I would give you a cell phone, but the other human, Frisk, has it”
When Toriel exited the room Michael waited a minute and followed behind, the room was filled with different piles of leaves everywhere, and then he saw it, the same small light from before, he walked up to it and when he tried to touch it, but nothing happened his hand just went through it, he decided to ignore it and go to the room that was close to where he came from.
Inside the room there was a pedestal with a bowl of candy there was something written on it but he couldn’t understand it, he decided to get just one candy and put it on his pocket, he went back to the last room and was startled by the start of a fight, there he saw a frog monster, Michael quickly pressed ACT as three options appeared CHECK, COMPLIMENT and THREATEN, he decided to use COMPLIMENT.
Michael thought for a second “You… have a cute little face?” The Froggit looked happy as it suddenly prepared itself to attack, trying to jump after him “Oh no” Michael quickly dodged to the other side, throwing himself to the ground as his soul followed him avoiding the hit, he stood up and looked at his options slamming on MERCY and then SPAREd the Froggit.
The Froggit used its tongue to give him 2 coins and then hopped away as Michael saved the coins “I just need to keep going” he walked to the other room it was just a hallway but in the middle, the ground didn’t look very stable and there was already a hole in it “This isn’t going to end well” Michael grumbled as he stepped in the middle and created a new hole and fell to a pile of leaves “I’m glad this was here”
A leaf fell on Michael’s face as he tried to blow it away “Stupid ruins” Michael stood up as he tried to pull the leaves from his hair, he looked around and saw two exits one on the left and another one on the right “It’s not too difficult to know which one is the best option” he said as he walked to the right crawling out and reaching the last room again.
He looked at the exit and reached the next room, there was a rock already placed on a switch and a line of spikes that had been gotten rid off, Michael just kept moving forward. He guessed that the other human, Frisk? Was the one that had completed it, which meant that the puzzles had been already done.
Once Michael got out of the spike section he entered into an encounter against Wimsun “I’m sorry…” it mumbled shyly, it looked so sad and timid it reminded him so much of his younger brother, so scared of everything and harmless, it hurt him to watch.
He pressed the ACT option and noticed that Wimsun’s name was already yellow, he went back and SPAREd the small flying creature “Thank you” it whispered as it flew away, crying and giving Michael another 2 coins, he put them in his pocket with the other ones.
When Michael reached the next room, it was mostly filled with unstable ground. There were a few holes, he grumbled under his breath as he tried his luck walking to the first tile, how did the other human get through this one? As he stepped on the first tile he fell though and like last he landed on a pile of leaves, but before he could get up Michael got into another encounter and groaned.
“Not again” he tried to get up and fell down again “Oh my fucking god” he said irritated as he finally got up “Alright what do we have here” he looked at the monster that turned out to be a… vegetable? “Ok things are getting ridiculous”
Michael pressed ACT as he got even more weirded out by the options as always there was CHECK and TALK, then there was DEVOUR and DINNER, Michael thought about it and picked TALK it was the most logical one, what was he going to do? Eat Vegetoid? Ask it to go for a dinner date?
He pressed TALK “Hey... there, I’m Michael, how are you?” A simple hello, there's nothing wrong with that.
“Plants can’t talk dummy” Michael looked at Vegetoid in pure disbelief and confusion but before he could mutter any word, the enemy had thrown a rain of vegetables.
Michael tried to dodge them but got inevitably hit a few times by the attack and loosed HP as he ended with 20, once the attack finished Michael clicked ACT again and this time opted by using DINNER, DEVOUR still didn’t look like the best option.
He straightened himself “Boy oh boy I sure am hungry” he said “I wouldn’t mind having some food right now” Michael rubbed his belly as a signal.
Vegetoid smiled “Eat your greens” it said as once again the rain of food came by, but this time they started to bounce around, Michael was able to dodge them better but got inevitably hit by a… green vegetable? The strangest thing was that instead of hurting him it healed 1HP.
When Michael got over his confusion he was able to see Vegetoid’s name in yellow he went to MERCY and clicked SPARE, when the battle was over Michael threw himself back to the leaves as he groaned, that was when he noticed something, there was a path that didn’t have any leaves while the only places that had any holes to fall down from where were the leaves could be found.
He tried to memorize the pathway as he went back up, once he went back to the last room Michael carefully walked around the tiles as he took note of the holes to guide himself, he was able to finally reach the next room, another completed puzzle, this time three rocks had been moved to the switches as a bridge that used to have spikes could be seen, Michael decided to hurry his pace as he finally left the room, the new one simply had a mouse hole and a table with a cheese that seemed to be stuck.
And for the third time he saw the dumb light “What are you here even for?” He asked as he got a closer look at it.
He decided to ignore it once again and walked to the next room, it was just a hallway with another pile of leaves, Michael went over it and found two paths one on his right and the other one going straight, he decided to keep going to the room in front of him.
There were nothing but spiderwebs and a poster, he went over trying to read it “...Yup I still can’t read this” but something did look recognizable, there were two different numbers and a symbol beside them 7G and 18G, he looked over at the spiderwebs and saw some pastries on them.
He went over one of the webs it had 7G in front of it, he had 7 coins it must be exactly what he needs to buy it, Michael shrugged and left his coins in the spiderweb as he grabbed the donut, he wasn’t really hungry but he didn’t know when he would need to eat, so he saved it for later, but would need to keep the donut on his hand for the meantime.
When he reached the room from the right there were three Froggits, but whenever Michael tried to talk with them they would just ribbit as an answer so he decided to move on to the next room, whiiiich already had a completed puzzle, nice, once again he entered the next room and as he walked to the next one Michael had realized that the donut he had on his hand had disappeared, he decided that he was just going to ignore it for the moment, worry about it when he's back with Toriel.
In the next room Michael ended in another fight this time he was against two enemies, Loox and Migosp, he went to ACT and picked Loox there he had to choose between PICK ON and DON’T PICK ON, he went on and used DON’T PICK ON.
“Hey man, I won’t pick on you don’t worry about it” Loox seemed to get happier after that.
“Finally, someone gets it” Loox said as they made a number of bubbles that bounced around the room while Migosp used insects to surround Michael as he still tried to dodge the attack, just like last time he ended up losing some HP.
17 HP, he could survive, Michael SPAREd Loox who gave him 3G and as they left the battle, suddenly Migosp’s attitude changed “La la~” it celebrated “Just be yourself~” the Migosp started dancing as Michael chuckled with the monster’s happiness.
Michael then SPAREd Migosp as it started to dance away leaving behind 2G he walked to the next room and easily left the room reaching a hallway, he saw a path to the left and opted to going that way, it was just a hunch but something in his mind told him that he would be able to find Toriel over there.
In the middle of the room Michael could see an old tree whose leaves had decayed and fallen to the ground, creating a pile of them around the tree, as he walked farther inside he was able to spot a house. It looked very cozy and comfortable. Near the house he saw the light once again.
He stayed there staring at the light, still questioning why it was there and why would it appear, that was until his attention was caught by something else “Oh my, what are you doing here Michael?” He directed his direction to Toriel “Didn’t I tell you to wait for me?”
“Uuuuhh… Yeah, but I thought it would be better if I got here early?”
Toriel sighed “Do I truly take that long to do things?” she asked herself “Now let me take a good look at you" Toriel said as she checked on Michael "Oh my, you got into some fights didn't you?" She then moved her hand onto Michael's head as she used her magic "There, feeling better now?"
He did feel better, Michael didn't know how but Toriel had fixed him, it was as if he had never gotten hurt at any moment, it was weird.
"I-I do, wow, how did you do that?" Michael was genuinely impressed
Toriel chuckled "Monsters can do different types of magic" she explained "And some of them, like me, can learn how to heal others" Toriel gave him a sweet smile as she started heading back to the house "Come in Michael, I made a surprise and Frisk is getting a bit impatient"
And just like that Michael followed her inside the house, wondering what the surprise would be and who was Frisk.