The thing about fusing souls with a Boss Monster, it alters a soul if it's still developing. And only being nearly six, your soul had definitely still been developing. Thus when you did get out of the hospital after a full year of recovery, these... alterations... stopped you from going straight back to the Underground and to the people you'd considered family and more.. you WERE going back though. Once you had control over the soul alterations, you were going to find a way to get monsters to the Surface.

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You crouched down, looking into the giant hole where you'd fallen in nearly twenty years prior. You knew no rope would reach all the way down there. No grapple. No nothing. You were going to have to rely on the flowers and a miracle to get down there. You checked your backpack to make sure you had all necessities. A coat and boots for Snowdn, shorts and sandals for Hotland, plus a swimsuit, undergarments, snacks that remained from the trip up, and water. The rest you could get in the Underground at the Shop. You zipped up the heavy bag and let it go first as you shoved it off the side of hole. You took a breath. "I can do this.. I’ve done it before." You reassured yourself before squeezing your eyes shut and stepping off. You plummeted downwards, with thoughts of three skeletons in your head. Sans, Papyrus, and Gaster.

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You groaned. The flowers weren't as soft as you remembered. In fact, upon slowly and painfully sitting up, you saw the flowers were rotten and crumbling. Nobody had taken care of them in a long time. You could feel a wrongness in the air. The darkness was all consuming. You didn't remember it being this dark, either. You worked on healing yourself first, looking around wearily for something. But there was nothing. Not that you could see, anyway. After your pain faded, you lit your hand in [S/C] flame and found your backpack. You muttered a thanks to Asgore for giving you such useful abilities and left the room, certain that something had been watching you in there. "The Ruins was never this dark... right..?" You muttered to yourself. You could be remembering wrong though, it was a very long time ago.

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You remember Sans and Gaster telling you what happened to monsters when they died. They turned into dust. And the deeper in you got, the more dust you saw. You were convinced that something happened in the years you were gone. How did you know it was dead monsters rather than dust from disuse? Simple. Dust from disuse didn't pile up like monster dust seemed to. "All these dead monsters.. are the Gaster's even alive anymore?" You didn't want to think about that. You just continued forward, going through all the puzzles that Toriel had done while carrying you all those years ago. "Is Toriel still alive?" Who or what even killed these all? Did it have something to do with the darkness? Something to do with the C.O.R.E? The atmosphere did feel wrong. She would have to see for herself what was happening to her imprisoned friends. She would have to see who was still alive. She hoped that she wasn't to late to save them. She had to push though and stay determined.

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There was a scream, the sound of something slamming into stone. You ran over to see what the hell was going on. You weren't expecting to see a bloodbath. A particularly large Froggit was ripping into a bloodied Whimsum. The monster was screaming, pinned to the wall, and dusting slowly as the Froggit ATE the Whimsum. You were frozen in shock and fear. Your flame went out in reaction, plunging you and the beast that had once been a kind creature back into darkness. It croaked, sounding close and you found yourself bolting away. You didn't want to see. You could hear it pursuing. Hopping after you on large, bloody webbed feet, guttural croaking echoed around you. You summoned up your magic to take you away from here. Wings, teleportation, anything to get you away! "Asgore help me-" The Froggit shrieked, something else within the darkness had lunged at it, catching its prey. You didn't look back. You didn't want to see it that again.

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You threw up when you deemed yourself safe... for now. You didn't dare reignite your magic, in case it drew the attention of other monsters. Monsters eating other monsters. It was hard to wrap your mind around. Your body quivered and you simply couldn't continue standing. Not with how violently you were shaking. "The wrongness in the atmosphere, the unusual darkness, the food shortage... this must be a C.O.R.E problem." You whispered to yourself. After a small reprieve, you forced yourself back up. You would need to find another safer place to stay. Preferably somewhere with doors that locked. You could gather yourself there and think of a plan to survive this new hell. Maybe you could make allies among old friends if they were still alive or not to far gone. It made you wonder. When this started and how it affected your favorite skeletons. You could only hope that they weren't as bad as the Froggit had been.

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Unfortunately you had to reignite your flame to get through the remaining death traps- puzzles! You meant puzzles. Finally though, you made it to Toriel's, slamming the door and locking it behind you. You checked every single room for a possibly insane goat lady and even checked the basement, but there was none. You were finally safe. With a relieved sigh, you returned to the bedrooms wing of the house for some much needed rest. It was going to be a very busy day tomorrow.