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"Race ya!" Asriel giggled, rushing past the rocky walls of the Ruins as I attempted to 'chase' him. It wasn't actually hard.

He was slow. Very slow. He's galloping everywhere; his ears flapping, hands curled like a T-Rex's in front of him as he hops like a kangaroo before me.

"I'm gonna get'cha!" I teased as I slowly made my way to the bouncing goat. As weird as that sounds.

"No you're not if you're going in that pace."

I barked a laugh, "Says the hopping kangaroo."

He stopped then, and I was afraid I've offended him.

"What's a kangaroo?" Then I remembered just how clueless he is.

"It's a.. aww, heck, lemme just show you!"

His snout crunches in confusion, his brown eyes pierces into mine as he said, "How?"

"Just trust me." Is what I replied, extending my hand to his, totally not replicating a scene I watched from a different timezone.

Reluctantly, he placed his soft beans—I mean, paws—orr.. in this case, his hands, on mine. And with one glittery and pixel-y motion, I sent ourselves through the world I had always known and loved.

Outside.

"This is . . . beautiful." Is what I imagined him to say. His body close to mine as we both gazed at the developed outside world of Asriel's own world.

"W-Wha—BEN! THIS IS VERY NOT ALLOWED!" his shriek echoed through the cliff I warped ourselves into. His body, indeed, very close to mine; but it was in a way of torture.

His arms wrapped around my neck like he was giving me an arm lock, his legs wrapped around my waist as he clung onto me for dead life.

"W-Wha-Whaaa! WHERE ARE WE?!"

"We're outside, dingus. Didn't you want to know what a kangaroo is?"

"I DIDN'T THINK IT'S OUTSIDE!"

"OF COURSE IT'LL BE OUTSIDE! THE UNDERGROUND HAS LIMITED SPACE! YOU BASICALLY KNOW EACH MONSTER THAT LIVED THERE!"

"NO, WE DON'T! WE GET STRANGERS LIKE YOURSELF EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE!"

That's what stopped me. Strangers like myself.

Does that mean.. I'm not the only one? Does it mean.. there's more of me?

A colony of BEN? A colony of drowned? WHAT?!

"What do you mean?" I asked him quietly. His expression softened.

"I.. I didn't mean to phrase it that way, I—"

"What do you mean?" I repeated, more forceful this time.

He let go of me then, my body missing his wamrth as he cascaded his gaze downward. "I.. We lose and gain a lot of monster since the old scientist died. The amount of monster lost, is the same amount of monster that came. And somehow.. You broke that chain.

"When my parents lost me, they are to expect a single monster to come back. But.. it didn't. Instead, you and I came; along with two other monster. A skeleton."

"Where do they—"

"Snowdin. Mom asked the local fryman if he could take care of them. They were too young to be sent out to our world. We can't afford to lose them when a war comes."

"Wait, hold up! A war?"

"Oh, I forgot you didn't live here. At least every decade, a war is held between us, monsters, and the humans." His brown gaze gazed beyond the horizon, where a village stood in all its glory. "A battle of freedom for us, and imprisonment for them. They didn't want us, monsters, to reside along with their species. They wanted to live as if we never existed. So they gave us this cave. Forbids us from going out of it and into their city.

"But the life here inside a cave, underground, provides us with little resource. That's why some of us scavenge for food outside. But they mistook it as an attempt to take their land."

"Azz.. I'm so—I'm sorry." I offered a hand to his shoulder, to which he returned with a small smile.

"On the second war, we lost the greatest scientist the Underground ever had. Dr. Gaster. He was like a father to me. Letting me play with his stuff, letting me help with his experiments. He even let me make my own. A friend. But before it was even finished, Dad instructed Dr. Gaster to create a weapon strong enough to defeat the magic of humans."

"Magic?" I whispered to myself. Humans don't have magic.

"The Megalovania." For some reason, shivers came running down my spine. "It's a radioactive weapon powered by each monster's soul-desire to defeat the humans. It was strong. Powerful. And destructive. When the humans knew of the thing the monsters created, they were furious. And before we could even get the chance to fight for our freedom, the humans built a barrier at the exit of the cave. Trapping us inside like we were.. savages."

"Asriel, I—"

"Dad ordered Dr. Gaster to blast the barrier with the Megalovania. But in doing so.. Dad, he.. Dr. Gaster." Asriel choked, his brown eyes gleaming with tears as I engulfed his exhausted frame in a hug.

"When the Megalovania failed," he continued, resting his snout on my shoulder, "Dad hired a new scientist. Most didn't think she can do it; because she's young and whatnot. And Dr. Gaster had left an impeccable mark behind him."

"Impeccable?" I asked rather teasingly.

"It's just some big word I heard on the street."

My eyebrows furrowed. "You shouldn't trust every word you hear from the streets."

"Well.. They didn't necessarily trust her, the new scientist." He continued anyway, "But she was the one who figured out how to break the barrier."

"How?"

"Human souls." Another shiver. "Seven of them, to be exact. We needed seven human souls to break the barrier."

"And how are you going to get them? You're not allowed to leave the place because of the barrier."

"There's a hole somewhere in the mountain, just above the cave. If, per say, a human wonders atop the mountain and falls right through the hole.. We could have them. That's why—" he sobbed, his arms wrapping around my waist as I felt him bury himself at the crook of my neck.

"That's why I was so thankful you weren't human."

Part of me ached when he said that. But at the same time, I was thankful, too.

If I was still a human, I wouldn't have the chance to meet him.

"Which reminds me," he sniffled, pulling himself from our hug and looking at me curiously. "How did we get outside?"

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