Asriel and Golemite lived in a simple apartment in Central Nowhere. It was a small place; basically a kitchen, a small eating area, and two bedrooms, but it was enough for them. The bossun and the golem's presence was evident by the decor; despite his issues with certain flowers, Asriel found he had a gift for growing them, and had potted flowers of all colors (with the exception of yellow) all over the place. Golemite, on the other hand, was a sculpter and a stoneworker, and fashioned most of the furniture he used out of lumps of stone.
Most of the furniture existed in pairs; Asriel's being cushioned and covered with images of flowers and Golemite's being carved out of stone. The only exception was their dinner table; it was made out of stone, but had a small stone stairwell on one side that led to a landing where Asriel's seat sat.
Asriel sat silently at the table, slowly eating his soup. It was quite good; aside from his habit of trying to sneak a handful of gravel into the pot, Golemite was a pretty good cook.
Golemite was busy cleaning up in the kitchen, singing as he worked. While his normal voice was deep and gravelly, he surprised Asriel after their inital meeting by proving himself quite the tenor.
Asriel listened to his roommate sing absently, his own mind currently dwelling on the information Mayor Mayor gave him. It was a lot to take in, and not all of it was pleasant.
It just goes to show how distracted Asriel was currently when he didn't notice that his friend stopped singing. He jumped as Golemite pulled his heavy stone chair out from under the table and sat down beside him.
"All right, Azzie." Golemite said, putting his hand on the young Dreemurr's shoulder. "Talk."
"W-what?"
"You've been quiet eva since you got back from dat meetin' with Mayor Mayor. What's da deal?"
Asriel sighed and pushed his bowl away. "Golemite ... do you know about the Everstar?"
Golemite let out a hearty laugh. "O'course I know 'bout da Everstar! Everyone knows about da Everstar! It's what made tha Deep!"
"Seven shards filled with the essence of dreams." Asriel said, looking down at the table. "When brought together, they have the power to grant someone's desire. Mayor Mayor wanted a safe place to live, where humans couldn't follow even if the barrier fell."
"Kinda amazin'." Golemite said. "I mean an itty-bitty star makin' a place as big as da Deep. I tell ya, if I even managed to get my mitts on dat thing ..."
Asriel remained silent as he pulled his shirt down enough to reveal the glowing star on his chest.
Golemite stared in shock. His mug fell from his hand, breaking on the floor and spilling molten silver everywhere.
"You ... you had a shard?" He said, his head moving closer to get a better look. "All dis time? An' you neveh said nuthin'?"
"The skeleton ... the one I lost when I first met you ... he told me people would be after it. He told me to keep it secret or I'd end up ..."
After a few moments of silence, Golemite asked, "End up what?"
"End up as a flower." Asriel finished, shuddering slightly at the thought of his previous form. He still had nightmares on occasion about not being able to feel his arms or legs. "I ... I died, Golemite. I was killed years ago, but I was brought back by accident without a soul, stuck in the form of a flower. I couldn't feel, I couldn't care, I couldn't even die because my determination would just bring me back. I ended up hurting a lot of people trying to get a soul, but when I did, a friend helped me realize I was taking those things from everyone I hurt. It was hard, but I gave up all the souls I'd taken ... even though that meant I'd just be a flower again."
He looked up at Golemite. "But it didn't happen; the shard of the Everstar found me. Even just a shard of it's strong enough to act as my soul."
"Your soul is a piece of the Everstar." Golemite repeated, sounding dazed. "And if someone takes it, you go back to being a flower."
"I can't." Asriel said, tears coming to his eyes. "I can't go back to that. I hurt so many people, Golemite, and if it hadn't been for Frisk, I ... I ..."
Golemite quickly rose to his feet and approached his little friend to give him a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Hey; it's all right, kid. Anyone tries to take your shard, they're gonna have to go through me. As long as we both keep our mouths shut about it, no one eveh has to know, right?"
Asriel smiled as he wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "R-right."
Golemite beamed at him before heading back to the kitchen, his massive stone feet pulverizing the remains of his mug. As he poured himself another mug of molten silver, he said, "So that's what da Mayor wanted to talk about, huh?"
Asriel opened his mouth to reply, when the kitchen wall seemed to explode, sending Golemite flying over the table and into a makeshift trellis bearing a blue flowering ivy. The trellis snapped like a bunch of twigs and landed on the fallen golem's back as he hit the floor and lay still.
"Golemite!" Asriel shouted, moving to help his friend.
"Don't move!" Said a strangely hissy voice. Asriel turned to the destroyed wall to see a green monster with five red eyes and a set of pincers for a mouth. It walked toward him, each of its four arms bearing a blade. "Where is it?"
"Where's what?"
"Don't play sssstupid!" The insect-man hissed. "Where is the sssshard? I know you have it!"
Asriel resisted the urge to clutch his chest. "Who are you?"
"Ssssaymor Draxsss." The insect said, still moving closer. "I've been sssssearching for you for a long time, Asssssriel."
Asriel felt his blood run cold. "How do you know me?"
"Assssgore." Saymor hissed. "I remember seeing you when I worked for him as an assssssassin."
"My dad would never-"
"Ssstop being ssssimple!" Saymor snapped. "I sssaw you ssssneaking into the chamber where he hid the ssssouls. Did you think they just appeared from nowhere? Did you think that ssssoft-hearted father of yoursss had the gutsss to kill the humans himssself?"
Saymor lunged at Asriel, who was only just able to throw himself out of the way in time. Asriel quickly rose to his feet. He had a few tools on his tool belt that could be used as weapons, but it was on the other side of the room, behind Saymor.
"Don't make this difficult!" Saymor said, his five eyes red with anger as he pulled his swords out of the wall. "Just give me the sssshard and I'll end it quick."'
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
Saymor let out an angry screech before leaping at Asriel again. Asriel ducked and crawled under the table, his paw slipping momentarily on the smooth surface of the pool of cooled silver. He rose, hands already grasping for his belt. He fumbled at the belt as Saymor stomped around the table, dropping one of the swords to reach for him.
Asriel spun about, his hammer hitting Saymor's insect-like mandible with enough force to crack the exoskeleton. As Saymor shrieked in pain, Asriel picked up the fallen sword and quickly darted away as Saymor's other blades stabbed into the ground.
"I will make you sssuffer!" Saymor said, dropping another blade to clutch his injured appendage.
He may have been injured, but he still had two swords left as he approached Asriel. Asriel started to raise his sword when he realized he could feel the Everstar pulsing in his chest. For some reason, this filled him with courage he didn't realize he had.
He ducked and rolled under the twin blades, grabbing the other fallen sword as he passed. Memories of the time he'd held the six souls filled his mind as he held both of the blades in his hands. They were too large for him, but with another roll he was beside Golemite's fallen form. Asriel slid the blades beneath his massive bulk and yanked upwards with all his might; the crystal swords snapped in half, leaving him with two blades little more than a foot long.
He spun about, raising his twin daggers to block the sword slashes he knew were already heading toward him. There was a look of uncertainty in Saymor's eyes now as Asriel met his gaze, determination flooding through him.
"Leave." Asriel said, his voice quiet. "Don't come back."
"Not without the Everssstar sssshard!" Saymor hissed. He swung at Asriel, but the young Dreemurr was faster. He slipped behind Saymor and used both blades to slice off one of the sword-bearing arms.
Saymor screamed, green ooze already pouring from the shattered exoskeleton. He swung wildly now, but Asriel was focused; With another roll, he was behind the creature again, using one knife as a brace as the other cut through the last sword-bearing arm.
There was definite fear in Saymor's eyes now as he backed away from Asriel, his last remaining uninjured arm raised as though to stop the bossun child's approach. "P-pleassse! Mercssssy! I beg for mercy, Prince Dreemurr!"
Asriel slowly approached, driving the insect man back until he hit the wall beside Golemite.
"Pleasssse! Pleassse!" The assassin whispered as Asriel raised his makeshift swords.
Asriel stared at the bug-man, uncertain as to what he should do. It was then he heard a voice that sent chills running through him.
"What are you waiting for? Kill him! Take his shard! In this world, it's kill or be killed!" Said a yellow flower sprouting from the dirt from pots broken from the fight thus far.
"N-no." Asriel said, shaking his head at the yellow flower. "You can't be here."
"Of course I can, silly! You're good friend Flowey is always here to help!" The flower gave him a wink even as the bug-man looked uncertainly from Asriel to the flower.
"Who ... who are you talking to?" Saymor asked, voice quavering.
"The yellow flower!" Asriel said, "It's right there."
Flowey laughed as the bug man continued to look at the dirt as though seeing nothing. "Oh, you silly billy! He can't see me! After all, I'm not a part of him ... I'm a part of you!"
"No." Asriel said, "You're wrong."
"What, did you think that all the bad things you did would just disappear? That you could just walk away from it all, just because Frisk forgave you?" Flowey let out a cruel laugh. "I realize coming from me this is strange, but you really are an idiot. Now kill the bug!"
"No."
"Kill him! Kill him now!"
"No!"
"Kill him!" Flowey screamed, his face horribly distorted.
"No!" Asriel screamed, clenching his eyes shut. Instantly, he was tackled to the floor, the blades knocked from his hands. He opened his eyes to see Saymor standing over him, one of the unbroken swords pointed straight at Asriel's chest, where the Everstar shard was now glowing so brightly that it shone through his shirt. There was no sign of Flowey in the spilled dirt.
"There it is!" He hissed. "The Everstar! I'll I have to do is cut it from your body!"
Asriel clenched his eyes shut again, bracing himself for the pain, when a calm familiar voice said, "Why take one when you can have two?"
The shadow child stood in the kitchen, a black shape with two bright eyes that shone across the room.
Saymor let out a low hiss. "Who are you?"
"A friend of Asriel." She said, taking a step forward. "And I have something you want."
Another light burst from the center of her chest. Asriel felt his shard surge at the presence of another, so close to him.
Saymor dropped Asriel to the ground and approached the shadow child. "Two sssshards in one day! I can't believe how lucky I am!"
He reached for the glowing star, only for the shadow child to step away.
"Don't you want to know who I am?" She asked.
"I don't care!" Saymor lunged at her, only for the shadow child to appear in a different section of the room.
Asriel quickly backed away from the two as this continued, until finally in frustration, Saymore scooped Asriel up with his injured limb and held the blade to the Bossun's chest.
"You are playing with me!" He declared, mandibles practically frothing. "I will have the shards! I will have both of them!"
"And I will give you mine if you simply ask me who I am."
"Fine! Who are you?"
"I'm the distraction."
"Distraction?" Saymor's eyes widened at the sound of stone moving on stone. He turned in time for a massive stone hand to grab his arm, sword and all, and yank it from Saymor's body. Asriel slipped out of Saymor's grasp as the insect man screamed in pain, five eyes filled with fear.
"Wait! Wait!" He shrieked, but Golemite's eyes were blazing with fury. He slammed two closed fists on the insect's body, completely flattening him in one blow and splashing green goo everywhere. As he raised his hands, only a small pile of ash remained.
"Golemite!" Asriel ran to the golem and put his arms around his friend's chest as much as he could manage. Golemite's massive arms wrapped around him protectively, making him feel safer than he had in a long time.
When they finally separated, Asriel asked, "Are you okay?"
"I've got a hell of a headache." Golemite said, rubbing his head. "You?"
"I'm okay." Asriel said, hugging Golemite's massive arm. "Thanks to you and-"
He turned to thank the shadow child, but she was gone.
"Golemite," Asriel said, looking up at the stone giant's face. "Did you see her?"
"Can't see much of anything to be honest; too blurry." Golemite said, wobbling unsteadily as he moved to his chair. "Jus' ... let me rest my head for few, okay?"
His head hit the table with a loud crash. After a few moments, he mumbled, "Tell Jenny I wanna Lodestone Pie, no ammonites this time. Ammonites mean it's gone stale ..."
"Golemite!" Asriel cried, shaking his friend's shoulder. He looked at his friend, worried for the worst until Golemite let out a great snore.
Sighing in relief, Asriel patted his friend on the back. "Thank you, Golemite. I owe you, big time."
He glanced at where the mysterious shadow girl previously stood. She was gone, but he found he wasn't surprised.
"... and you too, shadow girl." He whispered.
A glimmer of light caught Asriel's eye; something in the pile of ash was shining. He knelt down beside the remains of the assassin. Sifting through the remains of another monster was a little disconcerting, but he nevertheless felt his way through the pile until he felt something warm. No sooner than he wrapped his hand around the object, he it pulse. It wasn't just the object, though; beneath his shirt, his Everstar pulsed as well, in perfect time with the object.
Asriel slowly opened his hand, revealing a small tear-shaped object that shone brightly for a few moments before rising into the air and flying straight toward Asriel's chest. He gasped as the energy of the second shard filled him with warmth and power.
He sat back, gasping for breath. A glance at the Everstar on his chest found it now glowing especially brightly in the very center, making the five points seem dark. What was more, he could feel the others, their presence pulling him slightly in their respective directions.
With that realization came other knowledge, however; just as he could sense them, so too could those who carried the other shards sense him. They could sense him even more strongly now, as he bore two shards of the Everstar. Not everyone with a shard was out to kill him; the shadow girl made that clear to him. Still, those like Saymor would no doubt already be on the way, ready to claim the shards for themselves no matter the cost."
Asriel watched Golemite for a few moments. The big lug seemed no worse for wear. Their kitchen was pretty much in shambles, though; fortunately, the apartment across from ours was empty at the moment.
He had to make a choice; stay in Nowhere and prepare to defend himself, or go out into the Deep and find the other shards. Part of him thought he should just pack up and leave, but if he learned anything from his ordeal in the Underground, it was that he should make such big decisions without talking to his friends. They deserved that much, especially Golemite.
With a sigh, Asriel went to find the broom; it would be hours until Golemite woke up, and he might as well stay busy until then.751Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6pj1ey8JS
