Halftale - Undertale AU Story

Ruins and Recollections

     I pushed the door to the Ruins open. As we walk through Toriel's home, I feel a sense of remorse. Sometimes I had wished I stayed with her, as when I fought with Undyne or Flowey. But when I remembered we had freed everyone, the sense of remorse disappeared. When we pushed open the front door to the actual purple-bricked Ruins, we found something of a surprise. Inside, the chattering of a hundred Whimsuns and Froggits fills the air. The normally meek monsters are talking to one another. Bits and pieces of their conversations float into my ears. "Barrier... Human... royal family... Asriel..." The last one makes me stop short before Chara motions that we should probably keep going. We continue. Finally, we reach end of the Ruins, where we first found Flowey. My partner and I look at each other, and nod. On the other side of this wall, they'll either be nothing, a flower, or a goat. Hopefully, Asriel is still there.
     We round the corner, and immediately recognize the white fur. Asriel Dreemurr is standing at the edge of the flower bed that broke our fall. We walk up behind him, and then I sit down next to him, as does Chara. He doesn't notice us until I say something.
     "This is where it all began, right?" He jumps back with a small yelp. Then he sees who it is. He calms down and his fur flattens again.
     "It's where it ended for me." He sits down with a sad look in his eyes. Chara sits closer and hugs him. She knows what he means. It's where it ended for her, too.
     "You know, we traveled through the entire Underground to see you, right?" I rub his back consolingly. 
     "I'm... flattered?" He says. I take a deep breath and prepare to unleash a plot that might kill me or might save him.
     "Okay, so... I haven't really talked this over with Chara yet. But." I begin and realized it might be too soon. So I head in a different direction.
     "I have an extra Bisicle. Do you want to split it?" Chara spits out the fake glass of water she was drinking, and then realized that it wasn't what she thought I was going to say. Asriel laughs at the sight of it, and Chara and I smile. 
     "Sure!" His happy voice almost makes me cry, just because I know what happened to him. I take the Bisicle out of my bag and split it in two. Handing one half of it to Asriel and keeping the other half, I lay down in the bed of flowers and stare up at the sky. Has it really only been two days since I fell? It's felt so much longer. It's felt like a lifetime since I've seen the sun. What would the people above us feel now? Would they welcome me, the monsters? Or would they shun us still? Will they hurt me? Will they hurt my friends? Thoughts are swirling in a tempest around my head. What will Chara think? I sit up and take a deep breath. 
     "Asriel, I think I can save you." He freezes for a moment, then turns his head with a small laugh. 
     "How so?" The look in his eyes tells me that he's given up on seeing the surface or his family again. "I don't think I can be saved." The words strike me, but I launch into an explanation.
     "Well... It took the equivalent of seven human souls to give you back your normal form at first, right? And you absorbed that determination that was left over within them. However, when you did, your body remained normal. This determination allowed you to bring back your real form, and beyond, while not allowing you to melt. Your body adapted to the leftover determination. And when you released those SOULs, the human SOULs didn't take back the determination you had absorbed. This is why you're still Asriel, the determination is still fading. And Flowey is made of determination. So... If you had a vessel for that determination, say, half of a human SOUL, then you could stay in this form. Theoretically. The half a human SOUL would be able to hold the small amounts of determination left in the other SOULs, allowing you to sustain your current form and your feelings." Feeling very proud of myself, I resume eating the bisicle half. 
     "But where would we get that half of a human SOUL? I already released them all..." Asriel looks as if he understood all of it. Good. Chara is sitting cross-legged and very intrigued. Her ghostly form doesn't have any effect on the flowers below her, making for a very awkward effect. Then, Asriel realizes. His eyes widen, and his face sports the look of someone who's just been told the most amazing fact of his life.
     "You'll have to use your sword on my SOUL to split it. I'm sure it'll hurt, but I know I can pull through with the help of my Determination." The feeling coursing through my veins is one I've never felt before. But I know that this will work. Somehow, deep within, I feel code changing in our universe, in our timeline. This is something that's never been done before. Chara, too, can feel it, judging by the look on her face. But no matter what it takes, this child will see the sun again. Even if I have to give my own life to do it. He never deserved to be sucked into all this. Asriel is more determined than I've ever seen him, even more than when he was turned into a god. He realizes how much I want to do this, and I think it reminds him of Chara when they were younger. The white sword flashes into his hand. The red heart floating in front of me is glowing brighter than ever as I push it as far away from my body as possible. 
     "Are you sure about this, Frisk? We've only just met..." I nod as hard as I can as I brace myself. Asriel takes a deep breath and his sword slices the air downwards. I fall onto the ground, the bright red glow around the two halves of my SOUL growing more brilliant. I can feel the Determination flowing into my SOUL and out into the air, forcing it to stay apart but stay together. A voice echos through the air in a scream. The whole room is filled with red. The glow ebbs away and the pain recedes. Asriel and Chara are stunned as one half of my cleaved SOUL floats in the air, the other half returning to my body. The color of my half SOUL is less vibrant than it was before. I have less determination. Asriel's half, however, is just as bright as ever. He reaches a white paw out, stepping forward and holding it cupped in his hand. A small tear rolls down his cheek before being lost in the flower bed below us. He pulls his cupped hands close to him. The SOUL disappears, and his eyes suddenly change from the dusty grey they had been to a green as bright as a lime. Chara stands entranced, as he cries and laughs at the same time. I jump to my feet and hug him.
     "Thank you, Frisk..." He falls into my embrace, tears falling all over my shirt as he laughs. He pulls back and does a little twirl. His hand lights up in a rainbow, leaving a trail of color behind him as he dances to music only he can hear. He stops, turns around, and laughs before wiping away the tears on his face. He runs to the other side of the room, the entrance to the Ruins. He looks back at me with a huge grin on his face, his newly green eyes sparkling like cider.
     "Are you coming? We have a lot of places to go now."