Core Issues: Origins

By Nicolle

YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ ANY PART OF THE CORE ISSUES SERIES FOR THIS FIC!

That said, if you have read series, you'll have fun picking out all the Easter eggs!

I've had a lot of people asking for this and the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wanted to write it. Here's Army!Frisk/Church's adventure in the underground. If you've stumbled on this and haven't read any of Core Issues, that's fine. No extra reading is required! I will have a different narrator for each chapter, and who's speaking will be clearly marked. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Undertale is the creation of Toby Fox. Gaster!Sans is the the creation of Borurou/NatNat. This story is copyrighted to me.

1. This story is rated T for language, suggestive jokes/themes, and violence.

Chapter One, Part One

(Asriel is our narrator!)

The loud banging on my front door jarred me from a nap. "Your Highness! Your Highness!"

I stood, the book in my lap hitting the floor as I lurched from my chair. I yawned and rubbed my left horn, grimacing at the ache. Both horns where growing a bit and it was never the most pleasant feeling. I wandered into the hall and opened the door to find a swarm of Froggits, Vegetoids, Migosps, Whimsums, Looxes, and spiders.

"A human fell! A human fell!"

I held onto the door so as not to be blown back by the force of the statement. I waved my hands to calm them. "Alright, alright. I'll go get them."

"No! No!" A Whimsum cried. "It screamed and now it isn't moving! It's leaking a red liquid all over the flowers!"

"Oh no." I waved them aside. "Make way! There isn't much time! I'll need spider cider!"

The crowd moved and I ran from the house, past the tree of black bark that refused to properly leaf, through the Ruins to my mother's grave. I stopped dead at the portcullis and stared at the scene. A young, adult woman with long, brown hair appeared to be sleeping among the golden flowers I'd poured my mother's dust over so long ago. The light that trickled down from the cave entrance far above bathed her in a soft glow as a red pool of blood gathered under her. Rushing forward, I knelt next to her, feeling for a pulse on her neck. I let out a held breath in relief. She was still alive, but her pulse was very, very weak, her breathing too shallow.

"The cider!" I called, hand out. Several spiders ran over with a jug of spider cider and I carefully tipped some past her pale lips, rubbing her throat to help her swallow. Some color returned to her ashen skin, but the wound causing her to bleed would not close without help. I carefully reached two fingers under her head and came away with a handful of blood. The back of her skull was smashed, the skull over it barely keeping everything in place. Using magic, I lifted her body so that her head and neck were supported and gently carried her back to my home.

Several Froggits hopped ahead, one opening the door to the house, and another opening the door to my laboratory. I laid the woman on the table and quickly pulled together an IV drip of a special concoction that would help heal her while I washed up and gloved.

"She has so much LOVE," one of the Whimsums whimpered.

I looked to the group of monsters crowded at the door and then looked down at the woman. I blinked, staring at her for a moment, before feeling like I'd been punched in the chest. How does anyone have a level that high? I shook my head, and realized I'd neglected to pull my hair back. "It doesn't matter. I won't let her die." I looked to the spiders as I pulled on a surgical mask. "If a few of you would be kind enough to pull my hair back, I would greatly appreciate it."

Several spiders crawled up my legs to my back. I was pretty sure my hair would be less pulled back and more work of art when they were finished, but that wasn't something to really complain about. I'd need to remember to pay them for the cider later.

And with that, I set to work.

A few hours later, the human was stable and I leaned against the counter behind me, exhausted. I'd been forced to cut the long braid from the back of her head in order to cut away the flesh and position the broken pieces of her skull. By some miracle, her brain wasn't damaged, but I worried that even the small movement of her skull might have caused serious harm. I wouldn't know for a few hours.

Her spine had broken in two places under a horrific gash that was probably going to give me a few nightmares. She must have slid down part of the cavern wall on her fall. Several cracked ribs had put pressure on her lungs. Setting them with magic had gone well. Both of her legs were very cleanly broken, and I worked to set the bones first lest they heal improperly under my magic and need to be broken again. Interestingly enough, both arms, wrists, and hands were fine, just scraped and bruised. Over all, it helped that she was in amazing physical condition before the fall. It meant that she'd not only live, but would be back on her feet pretty quickly, provided her brain hadn't been damaged.

I pulled off my gloves and mask, tossing them into a biohazard box, before covering the human with a sheet and then a thicker blanket to keep her warm. She was still pale, but color would come back to her as the medicine worked it's own magic on her. Her face was thin around the eyes, round at the cheeks, and came to a small pointed chin. She wasn't wearing any jewelry though she did have obvious piercing holes in her ears and the left side of her nose. I tucked the blanket around her to help keep her legs slightly elevated before, trudging to the living room, and collapsing into my chair. Several Vegetoids brought me a plate of greens.

"Thank you."

"Are you all right, Your Highness?" a Loox inquired.

I nodded. "Yes. Just exhausted," I managed between bites.

"What are you going to do about her LOVE?"

I frowned. While working to save the woman, I'd been careful to concentrate directly on the task and not think about her level. Or why she had climbed the mountain. Had she slipped at the edge like a few of those who'd fallen before her? Had she willfully jumped like my brother? Or had she been pushed? Regardless of the circumstances of her arrival on the bed of golden flowers that marked my mother's final rest, the human's LOVE had to be checked. Someone that violent could not be allowed to roam the Underground without a guarantee of behavior. And I had an unusual, but ready to use, solution for the problem.

In my lab was something I'd been working on for a long while: an artificial intelligence. One meant to bond with a physical being via implant. It was based on the personality and memories of my brother Chara, who died too young in a fight with a cancer no one seemed to know how to heal. It was the reason I'd chosen medical school. I'd wanted to find a way to cure him, but... It'd been far too late. The AI was ready, and could be used to keep the woman from acting violently.

But... attaching it to someone without their consent? The woman's LOVE was high, but did that really give me a right to alter her body so radically? I looked to the monsters who lived with me her in the Ruins and looked to me as their Prince.

A right? Maybe not. A duty? Yes. Most definitely. If I wasn't going to kill her outright and bare that LOVE myself, then I'd better damn well do something.

I sighed. How does anyone have that much bloodshed to their name? How does that much red wash any person's hands?

I finished the plate of greens and set it on the table before heading back to the lab. Digging through the clothing I'd cut off of her in order to perform surgery, I found a phone and a wallet. The phone's screen was cracked, so I didn't have much hope for it, but gave it a try anyway. It turned on, the screen lighting up, but required a password to unlock. I set it aside for the wallet, which was much more informative. Frisk Emily Church, born January 4th, 1995. Twenty-two? She was twenty-two years old? I knew that was a full grown adult for humans, but to have that high a level at that age? The ID listed her as a veteran. There was a military serial number under her name: A986-42 S.O.P.V. I put the wallet down and checked her vitals. She slept deeply in a magically induced coma, face peaceful, if quite pale from blood loss if the photo on the ID was anything to judge by. She shivered a little and I pulled an extra blanket from a cupboard to cover her.

While the crowd of monsters had mostly dispersed as the evening grew late, a few remained watching from the door.

"What will you do, Highness?"

"After a nap, I'm going to install the AI I've been working on in her head. It will block any violent tendencies."

The monsters looked at each other, but didn't question my decision. Another sign of their faith in me. I looked back down at the woman. January 4th, huh? That would make her a Capricorn like Chara. You have goat to be kidding me. I snorted at my own poor joke and left the lab. A few of the monsters followed me, but the rest remained at the door, watching the human sleep. Finding my fallen book, I turned back to reading it until my eyelids grew heavy.

"Your Highness!" A Whimsum whispered in one long ear. "The human is awake!"

I yawned and rubbed my temples before standing. I took a glance at the clock and groaned. It was two in the morning. The monsters had gathered at the door to the lab, though none had entered. I walked in and looked down at the woman. Her eyes followed me from the door, looking bleary and tired. Getting up close, I could see those eyes were a dark, stormy blue. I smiled a little, gently squeezing her hand. "You're about to go back into surgery. If you close your eyes, you'll go back to sleep and the anesthesia will keep you under."

She wrapped her fingers around mine weakly, smiling a little, before closing her eyes. After making sure she was under, I pushed the wheeled bed to the back of the lab. I washed up, sterilized the lab, sterilized the equipment, and washed up again. I turned her on the table, resting her face down on a pillow with a hole in it so she could breathe while her head was comfortably supported. Gently touching her head, I felt around her brain with magic. It was functioning normally. I let out a relieved sigh.

The IV drip had certainly done its job. The back of her head had healed well. Some of her hair had even grown back. I carefully shaved it away. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly behind my mask, I made the first cut.

A few hours later, I put the AI chip in place and activated it. The implants under her skin lit up a bright blue, indicating that they were working properly. I nodded to myself and gently turned her on her side, switching out the pillow with the hole for one that would cradle her head and neck while she slept. Unlocking the wheels, I pushed the bed out of the lab and into my childhood bedroom. Making sure the woman was firmly covered, I went back to the lab to clean and throw my tools in the sterilizer. In a few hours, she'd wake up and be very hungry. And it was just enough time to make butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

Chapter One, Part Two

(Chara is our narrator!)

Az's fear roused me from sleep. Asriel Dreemurr scared? Of what?

My brother was an insanely powerful boss monster. Even as a child, he'd displayed almost god-like power. It took all mom and dad had had in them to discipline his use of magic, though I think what really spurred him to peaceful mastery had been how easy it would have been for him to hurt me. And all he ever wanted was to save me.

A human had fallen. I could sense the body above the flowers that'd acted as my perch and gave my soul a place to rest and sleep. Sleeping is what I did the most of. I wasn't much use to anyone as a disembodied soul, though I could possess another human if I tried. Speaking of which, the human lying above me appeared, by size at least, to be an adult. An adult that had a lot of LOVE and not the good kind. And if I knew Az, well, he wasn't going to let someone die over that. Which wasn't exactly a safe thing for the monsters in the Underground.

I entered the human's body, letting my soul fill it like a vessel... only to blink as I looked around.

Wait. Blinked? I was a body-less soul. I couldn't...

I stared down at myself in disbelief. I had a body. I touched my hands and then my face before looking down at myself. I was wearing the same green and darker green striped shirt and long, black pants I wore the day I died. I spied a large picnic table under a near tree. I ran to it, placing my hands on the rough surface.

Picnic table?

I looked around. I stood in a forest clearing on the top of a hill overlooking a vast, dark ocean. The overcast sky darkened as the clouds continued to bunch together and threaten to storm. I turned and found a log cabin behind me. The brown wood of the walls and roof looked freshly stained, bright even, in the gathering gloom. Four large windows high over the door reflected the churning, gray clouds in the sky. I tried the door and found it unlocked.

I opened the door and found a large living room. Military awards and honors hung next to portraits on three of the walls, each of the walls dedicated to a different person: one to an older man, one to an older woman, and one to a young woman. The fireplace wall and mantle were covered in pictures of the three together, a family. The young woman pictured all around lay on the floor in front of the dying embers of the fireplace. She wore a long blue dress edged in white lace, with a lace shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

Kneeling next to her, I touched her face; thin around her eyes, round in the cheeks, and ending in a pointed chin. This was her. The human I was possessing. She didn't match the level of violence I saw. I looked around the cabin. I could see a kitchen through a doorway and a hallway back toward what I assumed where bedrooms. Was this her psyche?

Another door caught my eye. It appeared to be a door into a basement. Carved on the front was a green snake, reared up, mouth open, fangs bared, ready to strike. I shivered. That was it. That's were her LOVE was hidden.

Az was talking to her, mumbling under his breath as he was want to do when he worked. It pulled my attention from the door and back to the woman. Her hands clasped over her stomach, she appeared as if she were being laid out for a funeral. Az offered her explanations of her injuries, their treatment, and comfort. I took the woman's hand in my own, gently stroking her arm as I repeated Az's words. As my brother worked, color slowly returned to the woman's face, taking her from too pale to a tawny kind of brown.

There was a point were Az stopped talking and the woman on the floor seemed to be breathing easily, her fingers wrapping around mine. Putting an arm under her shoulders and another under her knees, I found her easy to lift, which made a kind of sense. As a body-less soul and a representation of psyche, neither of us had anything close to a real weight. Going down the hall, I found two large rooms and one small one. kind of like a house with two master bedrooms.

The first large room appeared like an office with an area for physical training to one side. Another version of the woman I held sat at the desk wearing what appeared to be a navy blue dress uniform, chin resting in her hand while she slept. The second large room was filled with a ton of arts and crafts materials. Framed pencil and ink drawings covered the walls while fabric piled high on sewing tables and spilled from drawers. Neatly arranged skeins of yarn filled bookshelves. A picture window with a nook was set in one wall surrounded by piles of books and an old fashioned radio. Another version of the woman wearing what appeared to be layered skirts in cream and pale pink under a heavy, spring green sweater lay in the nook, sleeping.

The last room, and the smallest, was a proper bedroom. A floral pattern wallpaper covered the walls around a four poster bed with canopy. I pulled the big, patchwork quilt back, and laid her on the bed. After tucking her in, I looked around. The whole room was very old fashioned. A cedar chest, with a huge crochet doily on top,rested at the bottom of the bed. A small, white chandelier hung in the middle of the room, a few crystals hanging from it. A dresser painted baby blue rested next to a white rocking chair with a blanket of crocheted granny squares hanging off of it. A framed mirror hung on the wall next to the door.

Heading back toward the living room, I went into the kitchen, and a complete departure from the decor of the rest of the place. The black and white, checkerboard tile floor gleamed under the cabinets and drawers, both top and bottom of which were white metal. The counter tops were bright red to match the bright red fridge and the bright red chairs next to the bright red of the small, kitchen table. A black cat clock ticked away over the sink, eyes moving back and forth, tail swinging, but lacking actual hands to tell time. There weren't any versions of the woman in here.

I went back into the living and stopped in front of what I assumed was the basement door. The one with the snake burned into the wood. Even before I reached for the door knob, I could feel it: a deep and ever lasting cold. I paused before opening the door.

Her LOVE was behind that door. Every violent, every awful, and every terrifying thing this woman had ever done, was behind this door. I took the knob in my hand and turned it, eyes half shut in case it was truly gruesome.

It was a staircase. A plain, wooden staircase painted a plain gray-blue with white walls leading down. There was a light bulb just over my head, naked and dark. When I flipped the light switch on the wall, nothing happened. The light remained off. Even so, I didn't exactly need it to see. The area was lit, though no means of illumination was apparent. I stepped inside the door and took six steps down before coming face to face with the woman.

Where the ones upstairs had appeared serene in their sleeping expressions, this one was awake. And her face was utterly expressionless but for the intensity of her dark blue eyes. There was no curiosity there. No interest. Only a single minded purpose of profound intensity. I fell backwards, scrambling a little on the stairs, before managing to turn and run. As soon as I was off the stairs, I slammed the door shut, leaning against it in the hopes that I could keep whatever I'd just seen from coming out and knowing that the act of doing so was useless.

But the door didn't budge. The woman in the basement did not attempt to come any further up the stairs. Instead, I could hear the foot steps retreating. I relaxed a little. That one had been wearing a black uniform, the green snake embroidered on the shoulder. All the cold that emanated from the door had come from her directly. I slid down to the floor, clasping my arms around my legs and resting my head on my knees, shaking a little.

After I few minutes, I moved away from the door and the cold seeping from it to sit in front of the fireplace. The embers that'd been dying before were now bright, the flames lively on new logs.

What was that? For as terrified as I'd been, she didn't seem like she was going to hurt me. She just didn't want me to go down the stairs.

I wasn't sure how long I sat there, watching the fire as the wood popped and cracked. I only noticed the light around me change as the storm outside subsided. The room lightened and I walked over to look out the window. The world that'd been gray and stormy now appeared green and fresh.

I'd possessed the other fallen humans for a short time when each came, mostly as a way to check on Az and see how things were going before returning to my perch in the golden flowers and sleeping. None of their minds had looked like this. In most cases, it'd only been empty space. Well, that wasn't the right description. It was more of a pleasant kind of relaxed darkness. Listening through their ears and seeing through their eyes had been easy.

I closed my eyes, still not used to having eyes again, and concentrated, remembering how I possessed the others.

Oh.

I wasn't actually possessing her. I was just in her head. That made a lot more sense.

Thinking about it a little, I moved to full possession and listened through her ears. The voices came through, sounding distant.

"What will you do, Highness?"

"After a nap, I'm going to install the AI I've been working on in her head. It will block any violent tendencies."

AI, huh? Good idea. A nap wasn't a bad idea either. I sat on the couch and yawned. Staring at my hands for a moment, I wondered if I'd have had a 'body' in the other possessions had I gone directly to their head instead of just using the eyes and ears. Wait. How had I been hearing Az before? Why did I have to concentrate on it now? With that thought, I nodded off.

And woke up when the woman in the blue dress sat next to me. She looked beyond tired, her head bobbing a little as she kept nodding off. I reached out to take her hand and heard Az speaking. Oh. This was how I'd heard him.

"You're about to go back into surgery. If you close your eyes, you'll go back to sleep and the anesthesia will keep you under."

It was time already? I stood and helped the woman stand, taking her back to the room and putting her in bed. She returned to her deep sleep and as she did, the world appeared to darken around me, like the sun was setting and night called. I went back to the living room and stopped dead in the entryway. The wall in front of me appeared to have the pointed end of a massive scalpel slicing into it to make an incision. The scalpel pulled away and a wire came through. And another. And another.

As each wire entered, they glowed an almost neon blue before disappearing completely. This must be how the AI connected to her. I stepped forward and touched one of the wires before it disappeared. The glowing blue moved across my skin. I touched the next with the same effect. I stepped back and concentrated, possessing her bodily, and came out of it screaming, pressing my hands into my face. My knees buckled and I hit the floor.

That... That was painful.

And stupid.

From where I lay, the wires easily touched me before disappearing and even through my bleary consciousness I could feel a connection developing. The artificial intelligence Az had developed was based on his memories of me. I looked at the cold door with the snake burned into the wood. How about it really being me? I'd mean pretending to not be myself, but then, who'd expect a long dead human to still be hanging around?

I waited for Az to finish, patiently sitting as the minutes ticked by into hours. When implant was finally in place, and the chip connected, I reached inside.