Her Majesty

Chapter 3 - Her Grace

The basement was oddly eerie, despite looking normal.

Well, as normal as one could be when housing seven coffins.

Undyne felt her heart skip a little when she saw them, feeling for the first time the reality of what Asgore had actually done over all of these years - and what she had just done, too. Seeing the coffins, the proof of those murders - save one - brought it truly home for her, and she paused at the foot of the steps for a moment, her hand over her heart. Over the soul she'd absorbed.

She then started forward slowly, as if to go faster would somehow disturb the children who were long-dead. She stopped in front of the first one, its red heart making her pause. There was no glow upon this coffin, not like the others, but the colour was identical to the one the human she'd killed had. She shakily placed her hand over it for a moment.

Chara.

She knew this was the coffin of Chara, the human that Asgore and Toriel had once raised as their own, who'd died along with their son, Asriel.

She bit her lip, unable to imagine that kind of pain, the pain of losing not just one child, but two.

And here I am, just having killed a child, myself. Had that human been loved, somewhere? Did I just make a family fall into agony?

Does that make me... evil?

She winced. She'd often struggled with that. She'd never killed before, not before this. She often wondered how it would change her when she did, because she'd figured it would be inevitable with the job that she had.

So how has it changed me? she wondered, looking deep within herself. She closed her eye, her palm covering the red heart completely.

But no matter how hard she looked, she didn't feel the change she'd always thought.

She felt... sad. She felt the remnants of that fear that forced that action. She felt angry that she'd had to resort to those tactics to survive, and to save others.

But she didn't feel like a demon. She didn't feel bloodthirsty or wanting more death. If anything, she never wanted to take another life ever again.

She opened her eye at that thought, a flash like steel going through her whole body. If I never want to take another life again, then I need to make things right.

Dad's right.

I can do this.

She lifted her hand slowly off of the coffin and went towards the second one. This one glittered, and she could see the soul hidden within it. Her hand still shook, even as she held her palm over it, but she didn't move her hand away. She reached out, and when she lifted her hand, the soul came up with it. She held it for a moment, looking at its colour, before she slowly brought it to her chest. Her own soul reached out - again, almost hungrily - and touched it, and in that moment, she felt it again, that rush of intense power as it was absorbed into her body.

She staggered, grabbing onto the side of the coffin for a moment to stay on her feet, her eye wide and her breath held. She waited, gritting her teeth, feeling the power of that soul course through her entire body, before it slowly seemed to either fade - or she somehow got used to it.

Deep within, she felt... amazing. She felt so powerful, as if she'd drunk a dozen of those syrupy drinks that Alices liked, almost shaky and breathless with how energetic she felt. Her eye opened, and she didn't know it, but it glittered for a moment with three different colours before fading to normal.

Slowly, she pushed herself to her feet again, and moved to the next coffin.

She did it four more times, each time finding it easier to stay on her feet, each time feeling so much more powerful and so much more energetic.

By the time her hand was about to cover the last, she was trembling, sweating hard and her eye wide and dark, but she was smiling, almost drunk from the power.

Was this why the war was fought? How do humans stay calm, with this kind of power within them all the time?

No wonder they thought we were dangerous...

No wonder we thought they were, too...

Finally, she reached out, and took the last soul.

From there, it was like a dream.

Once her soul, already so saturated with power, touched and absorbed the last one, Undyne suddenly stood up straight, her eye closing, not tight or hard, just fluttering closed. She felt a sense of euphoria fill her, as if that was what her blood was now made of, and she laughed, softly, without menace - just a small laugh of delight. She stood up tall and straight, a hand to her chest, feeling so light and wonderful.

She didn't know that physically, she'd changed, and she looked different, now. She didn't see the inner light that shone from her eye once she'd slowly opened it, nor how it changed from its usual black to a bright, emerald green. All she knew was that sense of joy, of power, the kind that could so easily be abused, could so easily bring torment and misery, and yet within these hands - her own - it would only bring that to one thing: the barrier.

Slowly, she made her way back up the stairs. The countless injuries she'd received from the human were gone, not only knitted up like old scars but smoothed over as if they'd never been there. The longer she walked, the more she changed, even to the point of her clothing dissolving from sharp-edged armour to soft, scale-plated robes.

She could feel the barrier. She knew exactly where it was. It was as if she could feel that it knew her, sensed her coming, and was afraid, as though it were a thing of its own mind. She followed its call, her smile wide and her eye blazing, excitement and hope making her heart pound within her breast.

We're going to be free, she thought. We're going to be free, and I get to see it. We're going to be free, and I get to make it happen...

She had no idea, but she was crying again. Only this time, they were tears of pure joy.

 The barrier was not at all what she'd expected.

Undyne had pictured a tall, thick wall, one made of pure magic, one impenetrable and invincible.

Instead, she found herself in what looked almost like a subway tunnel, stretching from where she stood to so far beyond, she couldn't see an end. It flashed with light every so often, stretching that span before repeating. There was a faint breeze, one that tasted of old, old magic.

Something stirred deep within her when she tasted that. Though she'd never asked, and never even read anything about it, she suddenly knew exactly what she needed to do to break it. She trembled with excitement, slowly taking several steps forward.

She felt the barrier yield to her. Of course it would; she possessed at least one human soul and one monster soul. She had the option of travelling between each world now if she so chose.

But she wanted so much more.

When she felt that slight bend in the barrier, she stopped. She held out her arms, raising her hands high above her head, her palms up and her fingers splayed open. She raised her head, looking up above her, focusing, reaching within her by instinct alone and summoning the power that she now held.

It rushed up her arms and from her fingertips eagerly, like unbridled lightning. A rainbow of colours seemed to gush from her hands, foaming outwards and smashing into the walls that still pulsed with white light, changing that white to the cavalcade she held.

Her hands shook, and she felt a tug of power from her core, like she felt when she was using up too much of her magic too quickly, and for a moment, she felt a sting of panic.

Am I not strong enough? Am I too weak for this? Will it kill me, will we then lose the souls, and all of this will be for nothing?!

But as if the souls heard her, she felt the drain on her core ease, and soon those walls pulsed with those rainbows of light. She couldn't look away, now, not even if she wanted to. Her hair, once ragged and now smoothed, whipping a few times in her face from the force of the power she unleashed, but she didn't stop.

She couldn't stop.

And then...

...there was this sound of the smallest of glass breaking.

And then...

...it burst out into a symphony of broken shards, musical in its chaos.

And then...

...everything went from all of the colours she'd ever seen in her life...

...to stark, unforgiving black.