Grief

BANG BANG!

The gavel slammed down upon the judge's bench as he stared down at the accused. The courtroom was more than packed, the monsters were piled even outside the courtroom doors.

"Prince Edrege Dreemurr, First born son of King Asgore and Queen Toriel. You stand here today accused of the murders of Royal Scientist W.D. Gaster and Samas Dreemurr. As well as assault with intent to murder on Royal Scientist Times Roman. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Despite the massive amount of people, the courtroom was eerily silent as Edrege stared forward, directly into the eyes of Judge Gerson. After a long undisturbed silence, he spoke. "Your honor… on all charges, I plead gui-"

The doors to the court were flung upon as a woman walked in, tightly dressed in a suit and tie. This monster was rather tall, around six feet, maybe a little below. She resembled a lizard of sorts, with flaming red eyes. She approached Edrege and put a hand on his shoulder, leaning a bit. "Your honor, this is a gross miscarry of justice, and you're making a mockery of this courtroom"

Judge Gerson seemed to be outraged by this outburst but kept his cool. "

"Ms. Kawabata, what is the meaning of this disturbance?!"

Kawabata chuckled, a bit of a hiss in between her laughs. "Sorry, but did you think you could hold a trial against the prince in this state? Come on. One, he doesn't have a lawyer representing him. Two, his sister was just murdered, whether he's responsible or not, that's family. Three, his family is completely unable to attend the trial due to the funeral of his sister, which he has not been able to attend because of your trial. All of these are grave offenses and injustices, but add them together, and what do you get?"

At this point Gerson was fuming, leaning over his bench with fury in his eyes. "What are you getting at?!"

Kawabata sneered at Gerson, stepping closer until they were inches from each other "I'm saying I'm Mr. Edrege's lawyer! And you've put my client on trial under duress!"

The courtroom practically exploded in excitement as gasps of shock and yells from the audience filled the room. Judge Gerson got quickly overwhelmed by everything and repeatedly slammed his gavel down. "Order! Order!"

His voice felt as if it echoed through their very bones, once again silencing the entire room. His gaze fell upon them all as he looked back and forth. "Are you aware, Ms Kawabata, that your client was about to plead guilty on all charges?"

"I repeat myself, your Honor, my client was acting under duress. This is a mistrial! I demand the immediate release of Prince Edrege effective immediately, until further notice"

Judge Gerson seemed as if he was about to explode in an unstoppable rage but calmed himself down. "I'm starting to regret putting you through law school girl"

"Aww. Thanks your honor" Kawabata made her way back to Edrege, helping him stand and practically dragging him out of the court.

"Thank you for your time everyone! See you at a real trial in a few months! Byyyeeeee!!!"

And with those parting words, she sprinted out of the courtroom, dragging Edrege with her.

****

Chara sat alone in her room, curled into a ball with her face on her knees. She tried to cry but couldn't. She just felt numb. Dr Gaster… Dr. Roman… Samas. Either dead or injured. By her brother… but… Edge didn't assault Dr. Roman… and he certainly didn't kill Samas. She saw it all.

She remembered it vividly, Dr Roman and finished his experiment… they both had fallen into madness from the constant resets, and spent a long while repairing their fragmented mental states, when they did… the alarms started, and Samas suddenly snuck up on them.

She put Dr Roman's skull in with a hammer and went after Chara, trying to incapacitate her as well. She wasn't herself… her eyes were dull… and dead. Chara had barely managed to evade another swing and got her hands on a scalpel, slashing Samas repeatedly, coating herself and Dr Roman with blood.

Samas was weak… but ran away… and of course, died shortly after. She killed Samas. Not Edrege. Edrege was only there and killed Dr. Gaster because she agreed to undergo Dr Roman's experiments. All this was her fault.

She bore so much guilt but felt almost nothing, was she still not cured? The only one who could fix her… was Dr. Roman. She quickly got up, she knew Dr Roman was in a coma, but maybe, just maybe, she could share her determination with him. Heal him.

She swung the door open but was greeted by Asriel staring directly at her, he seemed a bit nervous but gained some relief seeing her.

"Chara! Oh my god, it's so good to see you. I was so worried, our brother, Edrege-"

Chara scoffed, cutting him off which he was baffled at. "Chara? What's the problem?"

"My problem is that he's not OUR brother, he's YOUR brother. I'm not a Dreemurr! I only carry the Dreemurr name because your family took me in!"

Asriel seemed to be a bit offended, even more taken aback by Chara's outburst. "C-Chara… come on, we: 're family"

Chara just rolled her eyes and pushed past Asriel, leaving her bedroom in the teashop. As she opened the door to exit, she turned to Asriel, a bit of sadness in her voice "I don't want you to see me as a family"

And with that, she stormed away on her mission.

****

The queen Toriel stood in her garden, beyond the castle watering flowers. She was humming a small tune to herself as she did say, reminiscing of younger days. When she was more open and free. The underground was big, but you can only live there so long before everything becomes familiar.

The job of a queen is a hard one. The king is allowed to grieve, but the queen cannot. The queen must always smile. To bring peace to her subjects. It only made it hurt so much more, but a queen cannot cry. A queen cannot give up her duty. A queen has a duty to her people, as the king has a duty to his kingdom.

Right now, however, she was alone, so she dropped to her knees, allowing the tears to flow. Her daughter… dead at the hands of her son. What could she do? What could she ever do? The allegations were too much, but despite it all, she kept humming between the sobs.

A lullaby, a lullaby she would hum to all of her children to lull them to sleep, was now what she used to try and comfort herself. How could she let this happen? Where did she go wrong? She just kept crying until she felt the presence of someone approaching.

She quickly wiped away her tears and turned to face whoever was coming her way and instantly felt a surge of relief as she saw her son Asriel, enter the garden.

"Oh, my dear Asriel! It's so good to see you!" She rushed over to her son and embraced him tightly.

Asriel swiftly returned the hug, feeling all his problems vanish in his mother's embrace. "Mother… something's going wrong."

Toriel felt a sting in her heart, realizing that while she had been here selfishly mourning for herself, she hadn't considered going and visiting Asriel, checking in on him. "Asriel, I'm so sorry. I haven't been there for you"

"No, Mom, it's okay… I came here to talk to you about Chara."

"Oh… OH!!!" Toriel lit up a bit, smiling wide at her son. "So? What is it?"

Asriel was a bit taken aback by the sudden mood shift from his mother, but he carried on. "I think… I think she's taking everything harder than anyone else I think… I don't know. She just told me… she's saying that she's not a Dreemurr. That she doesn't want me to see her as family. Is she… is she scared? With everything going on, she might get hurt too?"

Toriel laughed a bit, amused by her son's rambling, but also with a bit of nervousness as she worried for Chara as well. "Listen, she's a young woman who's gone through a lot these past few months, same as you. You have to remember she saw what happened to Samas. Things are hard right now, so she's trying to distance herself, maybe she thinks it'll hurt less if we aren't family. You have to take that into account"

Asriel seemed to take what Toriel said to heart, nodding to himself and turning away. "But then where did she run off to? Where would she go? I'm so confused"

Toriel wished she could answer her son's question, but she simply could not. "Everyone needs their privacy Asriel, you need to respect Chara's privacy, I know you guys have spent most of your lives together, but sometimes you need space"

Asriel didn't like the answer, but he had no choice but to accept it, nodding in annoyance, yet acceptance. "Thanks mom… I have to figure things out"

And with that, Asriel ran off, he wasn't sure what to feel right now, but it needed to be figured out. So, he left, leaving Toriel in her garden.

"Alone again" she sighed, gazing around the garden, an empty room, with only one color. Yellow.