Glen stared up at the moon of Everblue, her mind in a daze. She lay on the shore of Yuna Lake, a small body of freshwater not far from the idestan capital, Muonsol. Her head was pillowed by her clothes ... her clothes, and those of the tigreth woman currently resting against her side.
An arm covered with soft auburn fur snaked across Glen's bare chest, pulling her closer until Glen's lips met that of the woman she'd married just a day ago.
"Teria." Glen said, rubbing her cheek. "You're awake."
"Mmmhmm." Teria said, her lips still tantalizingly close. "I thought you were gonna wake me up before the suns set."
"I couldn't bring myself to wake you." Glen said, hugging her wife close. They kissed again, longer this time.
When they finally released, Teria settled beside her, her eyes following Glenda's starbound gaze.
"You okay?" Teria asked, rubbing Glen's cheek with the back of her hand.
Glen nodded. "Yeah. Just thinkin', that's all."
"Oh? About us?"
"Kinda." Glen said. "Just wondering. After everything that's happened, I just can't help but wonder how things might have been different."
"Second thoughts?"
"Never." Glen said before giving Teria another passionate kiss. "I was just thinking; what if things had played out differently?"
"You mean what if you'd stayed in Longshore." Teria said, nodding. "Yeah, I wondered that a lot over the past year."
After a few moments of silence, Glen looked over at her wife. "And?"
"And we would've been married a year ago instead of yesterday." Teria let out a light-hearted laugh. "I wasn't the one who had a problem with us; my parents would have just had to deal with it."
They stared up at the sky as they lay beside the lake in each other's arms.
"But what if I was different?" Glen asked.
"What, like if you were a guy?"
"No ... well, maybe. What if I was a different person? What if I was a vuestan or a rimstakken?"
"Then I'd be taller as well as stronger than you." Teria said with a grin.
"Very funny. I'm serious; what I was a different person, or what if things just didn't happen the same way; if you'd never found that ring and necklace, or if we never participated in the Glyche Circuit, or ..."
Teria interrupted her with another kiss. "You think too much. We're together now, and I can't imagine it every being different. Now if you're finished waxing philosophical, your wife would very much like your full attention. Close your eyes."
Glen closed her eyes. She pursed her lips in anticipation for another kiss, and was therefore taken by surprise by a loud and happy bark.
Her eyes flew open. She was lying on the stone floor of the corridor to the Underground, Jake standing over her body with his tail end wagging.
"Get off!" Glen said, shoving Jake back so she could sit up. Jake didn't budge; Headache's strength augmentation was offline. Jake nevertheless backed away so that the Dreamer could sit up.
It wasn't just Headache; her Tek-boots were dead as well. Glen undid the clasps of her right boot with some difficulty (the mechanical hands were as inert as the rest of her gear) and tugged it loose to get a better look; from what she could tell, the power cells were completely dead.
"Well, great." Glen said, looking at her Headache-clad arms.
Without power, they were essentially massive weights ... weights she couldn't even remove. Headache was her prototype; it had many innovative features, some not even implemented in the Universal Builder Tool uprades her company would one day produce, but she'd never got around to installing the standard safety releases.
Without access to fresh power cells, she'd have to rely on the stream converters. They'd gradually recharge the cells with the natural flow of magic in the environment. That would take hours; until then, Glen would just have to deal with it.
Glen turned to head back to Ebott, only to run headfirst into something she couldn't see. She fell back to the ground with a loud 'oof'. The air in front of her shimmered like the surface of a moonlit lake disturbed by a thrown stone.
As the magic barrier settled, a stunned Glen rose and slowly extended her immobile hand forward. Her hand encountered resistance, slight at first but growing rapidly stronger the further her arm extended before finally stopping her altogether. Trying to move her arm faster made the effect nearly isntantaneous.
Frowning, Glen said, "Sans? Is this you?" When there was no response, he continued, "Toriel? Undyne? Papyrus? Al ... oh! Of course!"
Glen raised her bracelet to her mouth and said, "Alphys! Alphys, can you read me?"
There was no response. Frowning, Glen looked at the bracelet and found it too was dead. It had a solar strip for recharging, which wasn't much use underground.
Glen looked past the barrier; she could just barely see the sunlight coming through the entrance to the Underground. There was no sign of any of the others, which bothered Glen a little. No one bothered to check on her once she didn't come back out?
A horrifying thought occurred to her. Had whatever she'd been running from gotten out and hurt them? It had been going quite fast; perhaps it just kept going. The entrance was on the side of a mountain; perhaps it simply shot over the cliff and either flew away or fell over the railing at the edge of the park. Maybe it just left; it hadn't harmed her or Jake after all, and it certainly had every opportunity to. While there was no way to be sure, Glen did find this thought reassuring.
Sighing, she said, "C'mon, Jake; we'd better get moving."
Jake let out a whine.
"Not much we can do until we figure out what's up with the barrier." Glen said. "Until then, we might as well continue our investigation. C'mon."
With a final glance at the light of the surface, Glen headed for the doorway leading out of the passage. She paused just before passing through, her brow furrowing. There had been a door there earlier; she remembered it being send flying over her head. A second glance at the barrier found no door lying on the floor or against the wall. Even more puzzling, the doorway itself seemed perfectly intact.
"Huh." Glen said, eyeing the stonework for any remaining hinges or screws and ultimately finding nothing. "That's ... odd."
Jake gave an impatient bark. Shaking her head, Glen tucked the mystery of the door in the back of her mind and said, "Right. Moving on."
Glen never visited the Underground before, not even Dremurr Castle, which lay closest to the surface. She always meant to, but never seemed to have the time. Now that she was there, however, she gazed around in amazement at the elegance of the place. She'd thought an underground city would feel cramped and stifling, but the corridors of the castle were wide and airy, with little to none of the musty cave smell Glen always imagined.
After wandering the corridors for a time, she soon found her way to a wide pair of doors. Sniffing, Glen glanced at Jake and said, "Air smells a bit sweeter here. You gettin' this?"
Jake's face sniffed a few times before he let out a bark. For all his doglike mannerisms, Glen was reminded that he was technically a robot. Still, she gave him a kind pat on the monitor before pushing open the doors to reveal a large courtyard filled with the same yellow flowers that filled the parks and gardens around Ebott. A throne sat in one of the few patches of tile that had not been reclaimed by the flowers, another throne lying in the back of the room beneath a thick sheet. The only other door lay on the opposite wall, currently closed.
Momentarily taken aback, Glen soon found her voice to say, "Whoa. Didn't expect this." Jake barked happily in reply before leaping into the midst of the flowers and rolling around like his biological counterparts.
The yellow flowers were everywhere, their scent almost intoxicating. Glen shielded her eyes as she stepped forward into a warmth and light that momentarily made her think she was outside. A large window beside the doors she'd just opened radiated a gentle sunlight that seemed to spread across the entire room.
Her wrist beeped. Glen looked down and was pleasantly surprised to see Alphys's wristwatch was working again.
"Thank the Creator for magical sunlight." Glen said before raising the band to her mouth. "Alphys, can you hear me?"
After a few moments of silence, Glen heard Alphys's voice reply, "W-who is this?"
"It's Glen; I'm okay. I'm in some kind of courtyard right now ... or maybe a throne room. Is everyone else okay?"
The silence that answered her was almost deafening.
"Alphys, I need to know." Glen said, preparing herself as best as she could for the worst. "I'd check myself, but some kind of barrier's keeping me in here."
"Y-you need to get to Hotland right now!" Alphys said, panic in her voice. "I don't know how you got this frequency, but if you're not in my Lab, then you're in danger!"799Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrUUxFzQRVo
"Danger?" Glen asked, brow furrowed. "From what? There's just a bunch of flowers here."
"Oh my god." Alphys whimpered. "Y-you're in Castle Dremurr? The human's headed right for you! Please, just try to avoid them and get here as soon as you can!"
"The human? What human? Alphys, what the hell is-"
Something hit the side of Headache with the force of a bullet, knocking Glen off-balance. She looked around for the source, but all she saw were flowers.
Another shot hit her armored shoulder, knocking her back. Frustrated, she shouted, "Now cut that out! Who'd doing that?"
She stared around the room until her eyes caught movement moments before something small and white shot toward her. She leapt out of the way and took aim with Headache, forgetting for the moment that it was dead. Staring out over the top of Headache, she found herself looking into the black eyes of a particularly large flower.
It took her a few seconds to fully comprehend this, and even then, something about it nagged at the edges of her thoughts. "Talking vegetables, I get. Dummies that move around on their own, I understand; I even accept semi-sentient gelatin molds. Talking flowers are a first ... unless you count dryads. Or mandrakes ... oh, and the um ... the girls who grow in the center of roses? The uh ... Alarainy? Alraune? I can never remember."
"You ... you aren't Chara." The flower said, sounding (and oddly enough, looking) surprised. "W-who are you?"
"Call me Glen. Shoot at me again, and I'll call you compost."
"But I've never seen you before!"
"Likewise."
"You don't understand! I've seen everyone Underground more times than I can remember! Where did you come from?"
"Mum always said the stork brought me. Dad had ... different theories." Glen's eyes widened as she realized what was bothering her. "Wait a second ... you're Asriel, right? I came here to look for you!"
With a yelp, the flower disappeared into the dirt. Jake barked and dove at the spot.
Sighing, Glen said as Jake pawed and sniffed at the ground. "Okay, maybe I coulda worded that differently."
"Hello?" Said a deep voice. "Is someone here?"
Glancing in the direction of the voice, Glen said, "Uh, yeah. In here!"
The large door at the opposite end of the hall opened to reveal a massive figure in a fancy robe. Glen recognized him instantly; if the horns weren't enough of a giveaway, the steaming cup of tea he carried was.
"Asgore?" Glen said with a grin, greeting her old friend with a hug. "I'll be damned. Good ta see ya again!"
Asgore quickly pulled away, a confused look on his face. "Who are you?"
Glen blinked. "Glen. Glenda Adams. Your former landlady. Maker's breath, Asgore, it hasn't been that long.
"I-I beg your pardon? This is my castle, madam." Asgore gave Jake an odd look. "And er, robot dog.
"I thought you took my advice and headed off to Vinta with that sweet tauren teacher I introduced to ya. Kinda thought you two'd be married by now; she certainly seemed keen enough on you."
Asgore's cheeks went red beneath his white fur, prompting Glen to chuckle and slap him on the arm. "Hey, I ain't trying to pressure you or nothin'; just surprised to see a friendly face. Did you know there's some kind of barrier blocking us in here?"
Asgore raised a blonde eyebrow at Glen, a strangely calculating look in his eye. "You don't say."
"Yeah. Damndest thing. I leading a group down here."
"A group?"
"Yeah. Sans and Papyrus, Undyne, Frisk, and Toriel."
Asgore stared at Glen wordlessly for a few moments before he finally said, "Toriel was with you? Up there? Beyond the barrier?"
"Yeah. She's probably still up there ... at least, I hope so." A few strands of hair fell over her eyes as she shook her head. She tried to brush them out of her vision, and was again reminded that her hands were currently stuck in Headache.
She caught Asgore looking at her strangely. It was the kind of look of someone who was doing a lot of thinking; she realized she shouldn't have been surprised; Asgore was Toriel's ex-husband, after all. Of course he'd have complicated feeling about her.
"Ugh." She said, looking down at her useless arms. "This is getting really annoying. Stupid power cells gave out, now I can't even take the damn things off."
"Oh ... I'm sorry." Asgore said, giving a confused but genuine smile. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Nah, that's all ..." Glen stopped, an idea in her mind. "Actually, yeah, maybe there is."
She took a few steps away before facing Asgore, Headache blocking her face and chest. "Hit me with some fire magic."
"What?" Asgore said, clearly alarmed.
"Seriously; just hit me with a small fireball or somethin'."
Asgore still seemed reluctant, so Glen said, "The stream converters turn magic into energy for the power cells; it's a big crude, but a direct hit from a spell should give me enough power to get these off, so if you please."
"Oh. Uh, well, if you're sure." Asgore raised a hand and appeared to concentrate. In a matter of moments, a small orb of fire appeared in his outstretched hand and shot toward Glen. The force of the shot knocked Glen back a bit, but she escaped the burst of flames with little more than singed eyebrows and two powered (and very hot) UBTs.
Not sure how long the power would last, Glen quickly reactivated Headache's release switches. The units released their grip on her arms, allowing her to unhook them from her impulse harness and remove them. She sighed with relief, rubbing her slightly red arms.
"That's much better." She said before removing her harness and boots as well.
"Is everything okay?" Asgore asked, eyeing Glen's gear curiously. "I hope I didn't damage your equipment."
"Nah." Glen said, waving him off. "If they survived me up to this point, a little magic won't hurt them."
She gingerly checked Headache's display. "Huh. Didn't get quite as much power as I hoped. Listen, Asgore, you mind if I just leave this stuff here for now? It's basically just a bunch of dead weight without power."
"I could hit them with another spell." Asgore suggested. "Or a more powerful one, if you'd like."
"Nah, better not; it's not really what the converters are supposed to be used for. I'll just let 'em charge and pick 'em up later if I really need them.
"Certainly Miss Glen." He said. as she pulled off her visor and tossed it onto the pile of her gear. "So, um ... what brings you here, Miss Glen?"
"Looking for a talking flower."
"Really?" Asgore said, raising an eyebrow. "Golly, that sounds interesting."
Glen chuckled. "That's a word for it. Listen, could you tell me where Alphys's lab is? I was talkin' with her a moment ago, and it sounded like she was in some kind of trouble."
"Alphys is in trouble?" Asgore said, a worried look on his face. "Did she say what kind?"
"She said something about some human heading this way. Sounded terrified, to be honest. Still, you're here with a cup of tea; can't imagine anything too bad is going on." Shaking her head, Glen said, "I do want to go check on her though, just in case."
"Yes, of course." Asgore gestured to the door. "Take the right path just past the door, head down the corridor past the chapel and hit the main road through New Home until you reach Hotland ... you'll know it when you see it. Alphys's lab is right near the entrance."
"Thanks." Glen said, shaking Asgore's hand. "And uh, I'll keep an eye out for any crazy humans. Well, any other crazy humans. C'mon, Jake."
Asgore chuckled as Glen and Jake headed for the door. "You are a strange woman, Miss Glen."
When Glen laughed, Asgore asked, "What's so funny?"
"Last time you told me that, I'd just poked my head up through the middle of your flower bed. Thought for sure you were going to whack me with your hoe, but you just laughed and called me strange. Odd way for a landlady to meet her tenant, but there you go." Shaking her head, she said, "Take care of yourself, Asgore."
"And you as well, Miss Glen." Asgore said, giving her a bow of his head as she and Jake departed.
