I think that, of all the places in the Underground, Home was my least favorite, and I'll admit that I was a little pleased when they were all but abandoned and called Ruins.

You see, I already thought of the entire Underground as a prison. For as big as it was, I knew what was beyond, and that made the place feel much smaller. But, on top of that, Asgore insisted on no one leaving "Home" into the caves beyond. I think he was appeasing the other monsters' fears and beliefs when he said it was dangerous, and that monsterkind had to stay close together for the time being. So, the path back to the rest of the caves was blocked. They made a barricade of stones and dirt and whatever they could get their hands on, then retreated farther back into Home.

I was furious. Not only were we already stuck in this infernal pit, but now Asgore wanted to make our prison even smaller! This also limited our resources- there was wood in Snowdin and an abundance of Magical materials in Waterfall, and the magma in Hotland had to have some use!

But no. I wouldn't get the chance to even think much about the CORE for a very, very long time.

And then consider that all the monsters and I were stuck together in this small zone. I couldn't go more than five miles away from Asgore, whom I was still quite enraged at for surrendering to the humans. I would have rotted forever in their prison- in the complex on the surface- than surrender.

But Asgore had surrendered, and I was stuck underground with him because of it.

I was almost as angry with him, then, as I was with the humans.

So I just got as far away as I could. I hid myself away in the farthest, least-traveled branch of the caves I could. While the other monsters were unpacking what few provisions the humans had allowed us to take, I was sulking in the dark.

Eventually, I did come to the conclusion that sulking was not going to help me in any way, and that if I wanted to be strong enough to fight on the off chance the Barrier- or, Barriers, as we were barricaded into Home- was ever brought down.

So I set to work.

The rest of monsterkind seemed content to make do with what they had, but I, ohhh, I had a fire. Firhaur's fire still raged in my Soul, and now I put that motivation to use.

I started to build.

There was a thick layer of dirt, sort of a strange purplish hue, covering the ground of the caves, and this I used. Mixed with water and just a touch of Magic, it could be shaped into bricks that hardened nicely.

I made my shelter first. I say shelter rather than home, because, despite the official name of the place, I still only associate it with anger and hatred, and those are not feelings that a proper home should provide. But, because I had chosen my place in the out-of-the-way cave, no one saw my work. No one saw how I paved the ground and built real walls, how I installed a ceiling and mounted Magic torches on the walls, how, after acquiring some seeds from a vegetoid, I planted a flourishing garden in front of my growing abode.

And I continued to work in solitude, only occasionally showing myself to the pitifully small group of monsters that had become the entire public. I became a recluse, and as a month turned into a year, and that into two, I became something of a myth, a legend of a time on the surface, but no one any more.

I think this was a good thing, really. The people knew I was violent, but they still thought of me as a hero. I was not a hero. I am not a good person. I did everything I did not for the good of the people, but for my own interests. Yes, even my attempts at avenging Firhaur were for me. They were for my own anger, to sate my own hatred. And if I had been working with others, if I had been still in the public eye...

Well. I would not have been so respected as I had been. I merely would have been feared.

That's not the only good reason for my separation.

With nothing threatening me, nothing that tried to hurt me, and nothing I could do but look ahead, I slowly began to loosen my grip on my Lv. I never fully let go of that anger, never finally laid it to rest, but it shrank away, overshadowed by something else.

By sorrow. I hurt, and anger wasn't helping me. When I finally realized this, finally accepted this...

I could never let go of that anger. I could never extinguish the fire, I could never turn my back on Firhaur like that. I still haven't. But I learned that some things had to be put on a back shelf, left alone, until they were of real use. And my fury was no help to me here.

That was the day that I took off the jacket that I had worn so faithfully through the war, the scarf that had been taken as a trophy, the clothes that had long graced the cover pages of newspapers and headline stories on the television. They were carefully folded, the scarf slipped into the hood of the jacket, and set aside, where they would remain until I moved to Snowdin once it was allowed. And from there, they would sit in a dresser until decades later, my sons gave them new meaning.

Because to me then, they were my armor. My battle clothes. And now...

Now, I was setting the war aside, until the day it would reclaim the sun.

And now, I picked up that clean white lab coat. That garment that Firhaur had so long ago told me to wear, that would protect me from my work.

It was not without a bittersweet taste that I donned my coat. The thing reminded me so closely of Firhaur. But the war was over for now, and so I would take up this mantle of science, of progress. I would carry on.

And one day...

... One day...

...

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A/N

So, just a quick note, I headcanon that each of the areas in the Underground is a lot bigger than what you see in game. I mean, we know the Ruins and New Home definitely are, there's those panorama views and stuff. And Snowdin there's that entire forest beneath the cliffs. So I also think Hotland and Waterfall are much larger, too.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!