Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Frisk woke up in a flower bed. They didn't remember how they got there at first, but then it came back. A bunch of bullies chased them onto Mt. Ebott until they reached a hole, where they pushed them in. If they weren't an orphan, their parents would be worried sick. All of a sudden, they heard a voice.
"Golly, that sure was a nasty drop. It sure is a miracle you survived, little one." Frisk looked around them, but saw nothing.
"Who's there?! Where are you?! If this is a prank, it's not funny!"
The voice responded: "I can assure you this is not a prank. Unfortunately, i can't show myself, as i'm just a mere voice in your head. Your name is Frisk right?" Frisk got scared: did the drop damage their brain? Were they becoming insane? "There's no need to worry Frisk.", the voice answered. "You're not insane. Somehow, my consciousness manifested itself in yours. I can read your thoughts, but no one but you can hear me. Now Frisk, i imagine it'd be a good idea to move onto the next room if you want to return home. Standing in a flower bed while arguing with a voice in you head doesn't get you anywhere."
Confused and somewhat annoyed, Frisk moved on in the direction of a grey door. Who was that voice, and why did they manifest into THEIR mind? But they were right, they better should search for an exit.
In the room behind the door, they saw a single golden flower. They approached it, and suddenly, it started moving, and even stranger, talking! What kind of flower was this?!
"Oh! Hello my child, you must be very confused where you are. These caverns are the Ruins, the entrance to the Underground, where monsters live." Frisk got even more confused. Were monsters real?! What kind of place was this?!
"A-are you a monster?", they asked. The flower shook her… head?
"I am not a monster, just a talking flower. My name is Flowey, and it seems like you could use a tu-Toriel on how things work down here. Frisk started to think about what that pun was about, when everything around them turned black, besides Flowey, who became completely white. They looked down, and suddenly saw a red heart in front of their chest. Flowey started talking.
"See that red heart? That is your SOUL. It's the culmination of your being." Flowey created some pellets around her, which slowly moved towards their SOUL. "These pellets are friendliness pellets. They give you LOVE! Grab them, quickly!"
Frisk ran into the pellets, but… they hurted? Was this some kind of sick joke? Flowey started to cackle, and her face grew into a horrific shape.
"Didn't your mother tell you to not trust strangers? What a poor parent that must be… Anyways…" Pellets surrounded Frisk on all sides, slowly getting closer and closer. "Time to take care of that SOUL of yours!"
Suddenly, a lightning strike came from the sky, electrocuting Flowey, who quickly fled into the ground. The pellets started to flicker, and vanished.
Some kind of lizard creature stepped through the door, and quickly rushed towards Frisk. "A-are you okay?! T-that was a nasty c-creature!" Frisk quickly grabbed the stick they had in their pocket, and pointed in the lizard's direction. The lizard backed off. "S-sorry, h-have i s-scared you? I-i didn't mean to! I mean no harm! I'm Alphys, and i'm the caretaker of these Ruins… I guess."
Frisk put the stick back into their pocket. Alphys sighed in relief. "S-so… Y-you're a human r-right?" Frisk nodded. "Thought so. The only monsters i can intimidate are Whimsuns... A-anyways, you seem kinda hurt. I guess i got to t-take you to my h-home then. Follow me, i-if you're ready of course."
Alphys moved on through the next door, and Frisk started talking to the voice in their head. "Hey voice, why did you not tell me it was a trap! I could've died right there!"
The voice sighed. "My dearest apologies. It's just… I couldn't bear to see *her* again, so… I acted like a coward and ignored everything that happened. I'm sorry."
Frisk told them they understood. After all, they often did the same thing when their friends got bullied. "Anyways, what is your name? Since calling you voice is a bit… awkward…" The voice sighed.
"I wish to not use my real name at this point. So, how about you just call me the narrator?"
Frisk moved onto the next room, where Alphys was waiting. "T-thank god, i was almost w-worried about you! You kept me w-waiting for a while. By the way, do you have a phone already? It m-might be a good idea to have one in case we get s-separated somehow."
Frisk shook their head. The orphanage didn't have money to afford phones.
"Here, take this one. It has everything a phone needs! The option to call of course, connection to the Undernet and the Ruins Network, a calculator, an item finder (that might not work) a WingDings translator an energy gun (that i forgot to refill the plasma of so you can't use it at the moment)tonsofanimerecordingsand… Oh, i'm going into nerd mode again, heheh…
Now, grab my tail, and i'll guide you trough the Ruins!"
Frisk grabbed Alphys' tail, and they moved ahead, suddenly, they received an Undernet update:
KissieCutie2IsTrash: Oh my god! A human fell down! I hope i can keep them in the Ruins!
FallenDown7: Mom, i don't think this is a good idea...
TheTrueCelebrity: Good to hear darling! I'll prepare my fabulous puzzles!
spookydude4...: don't do anything stupid metta…
THECOOLGUARDCAPTAIN: NYEH HEH HEH! I'LL TELL UNDYNE IMMEDIATLY!
-SkeletonFan01 liked this
toolazytomakeaname: k.
YourHopesAndDreams: Face my revenge human!
KissieCutie2IsTrash: Oh no! I was supposed to put this on the Ruins Network! Ignore my last post please!
Frisk send a message in response:
FallenDown8: -_-
Alphys turned around. "A-actually, walking like this is kinda u-uncomfortable… I a-assume you can walk on your o-own?" Frisk nodded, and walked towards the SAVE point. While they never saw it before, they somehow knew how it worked. The knowledge their future opponents knew they were here… It didn't fill them with DETERMINATION, but they SAVEd anyways...

Chapter Text

When Frisk walked into the next room, they saw Alphys there, sweating and clearly being worried about something. When she noticed them, she rushed towards them and started to ramble some apologies.
"I-i'm s-sorry of w-what happened b-back there. It w-wasn't my i-intention to w-warn everyone! I swear!" Frisk mumbled something in the trend of "it's fine", after which Alphys seemingly calmed down.
"Anyways… This is a puzzle. here are a lot of them down here, in all shapes and sizes. This one here is just a simple button puzzle from long ago, but it's a nice introduction so i didn't bother to replace it. S-sorry if it's a bit underwhelming… Oh, i almost forgot to mention there's a hint to the solution on the sign!" Frisk walked up to the sign and started reading.
"Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both do not walk the middle road." Frisk was confused. What kind of hint was this? It seemed more like a warning...
After a while of thinking, the narrator decided to help them out. "Look at the buttons Frisk. Do you see the middle road?" Suddenly they noticed the darkened ground below the middle 2 buttons. They pressed the other ones, and the door opened. Alphys seemed very excited, and jumped up in joy.
"Excellent! I knew you would figure it out eventually! Just keep believing in yourself and friendship and family and love and you'll solve all problems (Or however they exactly said it in that one anime episode)! However, you'll see some puzzles will me more difficult than others, so not all of them will be as straightforward as this one."
Frisk followed Alphys into a room that was significantly hotter than the previous one. 3 blue lasers moved from left to right in some kind of pattern. When they looked at Alphys, they saw her grinning from ear to ear, her eyes sparkling and her hands rubbing against each other in pure excitement.
"So this is one of my creations, one that's all about timing! See these blue lasers? They require you to stand still to not get hurt! Incredible what magic combined with technology can do isn't it!" Frisk started to get worried. Did she just expect them to go through a seemingly very tough puzzle that could actually harm them?! What was this madness?!
"Alphys, do you seriously think this is a good idea for a second puzzle?", they asked. Alphys' face dropped, and she tried to say some clever answers in response, but failed miserably. She averted her eyes, looking down at the ground.
"Y-you are completely right… W-what was i t-thinking?... Of course this puzzle is way too d-dangerous for a child… I-i'll just deactivate it…" Alphys grabbed a remote control and turned the lasers off, and then sat down in the corner and started crying softly. Frisk started to feel guilty, and started to sit down next to her, trying to comfort her a bit.
"Alphys, it's not your fault. The puzzle isn't terrible, it's actually pretty great. It's just that a puzzle that complex shouldn't be put this early on." Alphys started to calm down a little bit by this, but she still had some tears in her eyes.
"Y-you're right i suppose. There's a dummy in the next room. Try to talk to it or something. Just leave me for a moment." Frisk nodded, and went to the next room, where they saw the dummy… wearing some kind of anime wig? Strange. The narrator started talking.
"Since Alphys is not here to explain, i assume i'll have to do it. Here in the Underground, you don't have to FIGHT to solve conflicts. Try to ACT, and maybe your opposer will decide to stop fighting. How about you compliment the dummy's hairstyle?" Frisk approached the dummy, and the screen faded to black. They saw 4 buttons appearing in front of them: FIGHT, ACT, ITEM and MERCY.
"These buttons are your tools to survive battles. FIGHT allows you to attack your opposer. However, it's best to never use it, as FIGHTing too much will kill your victim. ACTing is the preferred option." Frisk pressed the button, and 2 new options appeared: Check and Compliment.
"Check is the most common ACT. I can see and tell you your opposer's stats and some small bits of information by using this ACT. And like they say, knowledge is power, so try to use this option on the dummy." Frisk pressed the option.
"Dummy. Attack: 1. Defense: 1. This dummy has the power of doG AND anime on its side." The dummy responded to the check by doing absolutely nothing.
"Isn't it supposed to attack me or something?, Frisk asked. After all, that's what Flowey did.
"Many monsters indeed will try to put up a fight, but it seems like this dummy isn't interested in harming you. Which makes it easier for us to spare it after we finished ACTing.", the narrator answered. "Now, i suggest to Compliment, as checking doesn't progress battles."
Frisk tried to compliment the dummy, but they couldn't think of anything. All they managed to bring out was "it's… weird?" The dummy started to shake, and 2 angry red eyes appeared, just when Alphys entered the room. The dummy started talking.
"I worked really hard on this, you know! So don't insult me like that! I hate bullies like you!" Before Frisk could explain they didn't intend it that way, the dummy started to glow and floated up in the air. Alphys let out a faint "nani?!", and then passed out…
"Super Saiyan Dummy. Attack: Over 9000! Defense: Over 9000! You have no idea how a dummy can do this, and neither do i honestly.", the narrator told them. Frisk got scared. How could they ever survive fighting against something with that much power? Luckily, it seemed to take a while for the dummy to charge up it's attack. Maybe they could try to calm it down in the meantime? They started to apologise.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way! Please, calm down!" However, the dummy seemed to ignore them. They tried again, but still to no avail. Only after the 4th time, the dummy started to listen. They knew it was now or never…
"I'm sorry! I never meant to hurt your feelings! It's just that i've never seen a dummy with a wig before! Please forgive me!" The dummy started to calm down, and he slowly returned back to his normal self.
By the time the dummy was back to normal, Alphys came back to her senses… and she immediately ran away in terror, without even looking at what was happening around her. Frisk chased after her into the next room, where they found her desperately clinging to the wall, heavily sweating and her teeth clacking in fear. "I-is the d-dummy back to n-normal again?", they asked. Frisk nodded. "It was already back to normal by the time you ran off." Alphys let out a sigh of relief, and started to walk into the direction of some kind of device.
"Luckily, this is another puzzle room. One that's not deadly (mostly). There used to be a spike puzzle here, but i replaced it with something much better! But, the hint room here went kinda unused, so i rebuilt one of my old Hotland puzzles in this area. It's a very simple shooting puzzle, nothing that you'll struggle with (at least, i assume)! Frisk went towards the puzzle, but a small white monster hopped closer and closer… Alphys saw it just in time, walked up towards it.
"S-sorry to bother you mister Froggit, b-but could you p-please keep your d-distance? The h-human isn't familiar with us yet, s-so you might be s-scaring them right now." The Froggit thought about what Alphys said, and left. Frisk continued their way, and solved the puzzle easily. The blue lasers blocking access tomthe rest of the room turned off, and Alphys seemed to be very proud and especially excited once again.
"So i was going to make a tile puzzle here, but they are really though and confusing, so instead i made a bunch of quizzes about my favorite (and not-so-favorite) anime's! Answer wrong, and the spin tiles activate and spin you all the way to the start!" Frisk got worried. Anime? They never watched any. How could they ever solve this puzzle? Alphys saw the look on Frisk's face, and her pupils widened in shock.
"You n-never w-watched anime?! Wat a horrible life you must've had! G-guess i should give out the answers then… And when we reach my home we will binge watch all these anime episodes you've missed in your life!" Frisk tried to tell Alphys that wasn't neccesary, but she already shoved them in front of the first computer before they could say anything. On the monitor, a multiple choice question appeared:
Question 1: what was Ash Ketchum's starter Pokemon?
A: Charmander
B: Eevee
C: Pikachu
D: Togepi
Alphys stated to ramble excitedly. "Oh it's Pikachu! You know, if i was a Pokemon i'd be a Pikachu because we are both super cute yellow and have electric attacks itsaperfectmatchdontyouagree?!" Frisk sighed. This was going to be even less fun than they already thought…

-Jump-cut to the end because the author barely knows anything about anime and the chapter would become way too long, let's just say it's a lot of questions about real and fictional anime and in over half of them Alphys starts to ramble. Maybe some of you would enjoy seeing this but too bad i guess. Go watch a spinning small white dog instead or something-

They finally reached the last question. Frisk was extremely annoyed and tired of all the questions. Oddly enough, Alphys seemed quite serious all of a sudden. She turned around.
"S-so, t-this last question is very i-important… It's about if Mew Mew 1 or 2 is the best. And u-unlike the others, it… it explodes at a wrong answer. W-why? Because Mew Mew 2 is a disaster! So choose Mew Mew 1 or we both get blown up!" Frisk tried to press the first option, but tripped over a loose pepple, and their hand hit the wrong button. An alarm went on, and Alphys started to freak out.
"OH NO! I DON'T WANNA DIE LIKE THIS!" A few moments of absolutely nothing happened, until a cloud of grey smoke came from the water. Alphys stopped freaking out and seemed very confused. "You know, for an explosion this seems kinda… calm…" Frisk also wondered why they weren't blown into pieces yet. Alphys suddenly started to giggle nervously.
"Heheh, it seems we got l-lucky. The water must've interfered with the explosion mechanism, causing it to malfunction. Now, p-please press the r-right option. Frisk pressed the "correct" answer this time, and the gate opened. They hoped they never had to go trough something like that again...

Chapter Text

Alphys guides Frisk trough an empty hallway. All that was in it was a lonely pillar. Frisk was wondering why Alphys didn't put any puzzles here, but didn't mind it. After all, after the last "puzzle" they very much deserved a break. When they reached the pillar, Alphys' phone rang. She told Frisk to wait there, and went behind the pillar to pick it up.
"Y-yes? Oh, it's you Chara. Why are you calling? I-i f-forgot to refill the chocolate supplies?!" Alphys let out a sigh of annoyance. "Y-yes, that's very important indeed Chara… Listen, i'm busy helping out a h-human right now, can't this w-wait an hour?..." Frisk could hear an angry shout coming out of the phone. "Ok, ok! I-i'll go to the shop immediately! I promise!" She hang up the phone and walked up to Frisk, trying to explain the situation.
"That was Chara, the human that fell down before you. I f-forgot to tell you about her, sorry. She didn't want to leave, so i decided to adopt her. I apparently forgot to buy chocolate, and she's very impatient if she has none… A-anyways, i got to go now. Can you get t-trough the Ruins on your own?" Frisk nodded, and Alphys told them to call her if they needed her help. Alphys ran off, leaving Frisk on their own.
After a while, Frisk walked to the next room and saw a SAVE star. The fact they still lived and could explore the secrets of the Ruins on their own… It filled them with DETERMINATION…
A Froggit suddenly hopped closer. Frisk prepared for a battle, but rather than initiating a fight, it started talking. While Frisk couldn't understand him, the narrator translated it for them.
"Ribbit, ribbit. (Greetings, human. When Alphys passed through here, she asked me to explain some things about the Ruins and its inhabitants to you. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask.)"
"Well, that's nice of her!", Frisk answered. "Perhaps you could explain me what monsters exactly are? It still is kinda confusing to me to be honest."
"(Monsters? Well, that's everyone down here besides you and Chara. Like me, as an example. We're very magic-based, and come in all shapes and sizes, even in ones you don't expect. I warn you though, not all monsters are as nice as us, but if you ACT in a certain way, you can make most monsters stop their fight. Sorry if it's a little short, but i'm just a simple Froggit, so i'm not the most educated monster out there. Anything else you want to know?)" Frisk thought for a bit.
"Well, i would like to know a bit more about Alphys. And what's that "Chara" person like?"
"(Alphys is the one who takes care of the Ruins. She used to be friends with the queen, but when she decided all humans had to die, she went to the Ruins to protect them. She's definitely the most intelligent monster in the Ruins, and maybe the entire underground. She might seem a bit weird sometimes, but she means the best for all of us. Chara on the other hand…)" The Froggit looked down. "(Truth to be told, she's not the nicest person… She's quite violent and quick to anger, so we generally try to avoid her if possible. She has an extreme hatred towards humanity for some reason, even though she's a human herself. So that might become problematic for you...)" This concerned Frisk. What if Chara didn't accept them in the Ruins? Where would they need to go? But then they remembered they weren't planning to stay anyways. But if they would leave they most likely would have to face monsters loyal to that queen, who wanted them dead. Would they ever see the sunlight again? They needed to think of something else for a moment, so they asked what the Ruins exactly were the ruins of.
"(The Ruins are the original monster city. All monsters lived here until the discovery of the caverns past the door. After that, most monsters moved out, and it has been mostly abandoned and crumbling for many years until Alphys came here. Things definitely improved since (though some individuals here should not have a phone…) Anyways, i hope any questions you might've had are answered.)" Frisk waved the little monster goodbye, and looked around. They saw a pillar with a bowl on it in a small room in front of them, and decided to look if there was anything edible in it. Some food would definitely be nice. When they looked around in the bowl, they were filled with disappointment. All they found were a few empty candy wrappings and chocolate remains. However, their eyes spotted a small plastic can hidden in a corner. It turned out the be an oddly green ice cream, that somehow hadn't melted yet. They decided to taste it, but it wasn't what they expected at all.
"Seaweed?! Who makes ice cream with that flavour?! Well, it's better than nothing i suppose…" Suddenly their phone rang. They hoped Alphys was calling, but when they looked at the screen, they saw a name they had never heard of. sans, for some reason written in Comic Sans (fitting) and uncapitalized. They picked up anyways, and were greeted with a "heya alphys."
"Sorry, but i'm not Alphys. You must've picked the wrong number." The voice fell silent for a moment.
"wrong number? maybe you just have the wrong phone bud. cuz i'm pretty sure that's one of alphys' spare phones you're using right now. let's just say it's a lil joke of me that i never call her on her main one. anyways, the name is sans. sans the skeleton. i'm what you could call… a real sans-ation." Sans laughed at his own joke, and then fell silent for a bit.
"thinking of it, could you do me a favour? if ya see alphys, tell her i fixed her ice cream machine and that i put it in front of her door." Frisk told them they would tell them immediately.
"thanks bud, i appreciate it. if we meet again i'll give ya a free hot dog." Before Sans hung up, Frisk swore they heard a whoopee cushion. Odd. But they decided to not think about it, and dialed Alphys' number.
"Hello, Alphys? Frisk here. Some guy called Sans accidentally called me and said he fixed your ice cream machine and put it in front of your door." Alphys said they'd get it inside immediately, and then asked Frisk if they preferred strawberry or chocolate ice cream. Frisk told them they didn't mind either, and asked who that "Sans" person was.
"S-sans? Oh, we are old friends. He's our current Royal Scientist (and a better one than me...) He really loves puns, and if you want to learn the arts of seeming active while sleeping, he's the best sensei you can have! (Though i still despise the fact he put ketchup on a perfectly fine seaweed ice cream once…)" Alphys hung up. Frisk started to feel really hungry, so they decided to sit down for a moment and eat the seaweed ice cream. They were getting kinda bored though, and then suddenly had the thought of calling Alphys again just to say hi for a small giggle.
"Y-you just want to say hello? Uhm… H-hello too! (Note to self: improve non-undernet social skills…)" Alphys then hung up. Frisk wasn't satisfied yet and did it again, after which Alphys asked them to not do that again. Still unsatisfied, Frisk then got a ridiculous idea: what if they would flirt with her? That surely would get them a funny response from her.
"Hey Alphys? Just wanted to say, even though i never watched anime, i'm 100% sure you're prettier than the cutest anime girl." Alphys fell silent, and hung up. Mere seconds later, they received an Undernet update.
"Ohmygosh the human flirted with me that's so cute!!!" Frisk then decided this was enough, and stood up to continue their journey.

Chapter Text

When Frisk attempted to proceed to the next room, suddenly something white jumped right in front of them. Before they could take a proper look at it, their surroundings faded to black, and a battle started. A fly flew around them, and suddenly a long tongue snatched it out of the air, but not before it nearly hit them in their state of surprise. When they finally managed to get a good look at their opponent, it turned out to be a Froggit in some kind of ninja outfit.
"What the… A ninja Froggit? Who thought that was a good idea?! Alphys?" Frisk certainly was surprised. "Can i have a check, please?"
The narrator told them it was indeed a ninja Froggit, and a master in Frogjitsu, Kungfrog and Tongue-Judo. The Froggit focused on Frisk for a while, and then launched its next attack. A small frog jumped through the area a few times, before quickly charging at them. Frisk looked through their ACTs, and decided to challenge them.
"Hey! If you're such a good ninja, try fighting me blindfolded!" The Froggit's headband fell down, covering its face. Surprisingly, their next attack was just as accurate as the previous. When it lifted the headband back up, Frisk complemented these aiming skills with their next ACT, but the Froggit did not listen. They attacked again, this time slinging their tongue around the room, barely leaving room in the corners for Frisk to escape to. Frisk tried their last ACT: Fake Hit. They acted like they were going to attack the Froggit, only to seemingly fall on their face. The Froggit seemed to not see them as a worthy opponent anymore after this, and left, but not before mumbling something the narrator translated as "pathetic". They won!... or something like that. It seemed like their opponent dropped some gold as well. Yay!
When Frisk walked into the next room, it seemed nothing was there besides some weird rectangular holes. They thought it was just an empty hallway, when all of a sudden, the ground collapsed below them, dropping then on some leaves in a room below. There were 2 doors, but both were blocked by lasers, and there seemed to be nothing to deactivate them, as the only other thing in the room was a poster depicting some anime cat girl. Frisk started panicking. How could they get out of this room?! Was this some kind of trap?! No, there had to be a solution somewhere. They looked around, and noticed the anime poster had a loose corner. When they peeled it off, it revealed a lever, which deactivated the lasers. When they went through the right door, they somehow ended up in front of one of the rectangular holes.
"Huh. Interesting. Gotta ask Alphys how that works when i see her again."
In the next room, they saw a bunch of rocks. A voice came from one of the corners, but they saw nothing but a rock. It took them a while to realize the rock was talking.
"Hey you! Ah, ya finally noticed me! Howdy pardner! This here is the best puzzle in the Ruins, the rock puzzle! I'm Rocky but ya can call me Rocky." Frisk got confused. "Isn't that exactly the same?" The rock seemed to get confused, even though it couldn't be seen.
"Listen pardner, do ya think i'm here to make up fancy names? No? Thought so. So are ya goin' to try the puzzle or what?" Frisk decided to do what the rock asked them. The first 2 rocks went easy, but from below the second rock, something slimy crawled out.
"Moldsmal appears."
One battle later, Frisk could go back to solving the puzzle. When they pushed the rock in its right position, some big metal doors opened, unleashing a big cloud of steam. They started sweating, but kept going on despite the heat. When walking into the room, they started to see some metal platforms within the hot fog. They walked onto one, when suddenly a burst of steam knocked them off the platform onto some conveyor belts below, leading to a door that hopefully would bring them back up. A bug like monster that was standing next to the door suddenly asked them if they had seen its swarm, as their "overmind" told them to gather.
"Uhm, i don't think so. Why do you have to gather exactly?" A big grin appeared on the face of the monster, who introduced himself as Migosp.
"Well, we need to teach a nasty Loox a lesson, so the overminx decided that we are gonna mass raid his hangout server on the Undernet! JUSTICE SHALL BE SERVED, FILTHY SINGLE-MINDER!" Frisk started to understand what the Froggit meant with that some individuals shouldn't have phones. But it wasn't their business, so they decided to ignore it.
After some fiddling around with the steam vent puzzle, they eventually reached the end. Away from the heat, finally! But what they didn't know, was that their situation would become a whole lot worse…
When they stepped into the next room, they noticed a lot of carvings in the walls. Some were random, while others seemed to form symbols and letters, most notably a group of ones spelling out the letters C H A R A. A girl walked up into the room, but stood still when she noticed Frisk, and let out a big sigh. Her eyes narrowed. Since she was human, Frisk realized this could only be one person. Chara. She started talking.
"Oh. So you're that human mom talked about… I bet she told you about me as well…" Something in her voice made Frisk very nervous. Chara started to laugh.
"Intimidated? Thought so. Heheh." A silence fell for a moment "Anyways, i'm glad you didn't die or anything, i always wanted a little sibling. Having to share a room with someone and not getting all the attention are just the best things ever." In a moment of blindness, they said thanks, which angered Chara. "Why are you such an idiot?! I bet you couldn't even understand sarcasm if it stabbed you right through your soul! I should've expected as much from a human…" Frisk got confused. Wasn't she human too? They told that to Chara, after which she became even more furious, and it was like they could see fire in her eyes.
"Don't compare me to you, you idiot! I will never be a part of your horrible species!" Chara all of a sudden walked away, but flinged a knive at a hidden switch somewhere high up right before she left the room. Blue lasers activated behind her on all entrances, trapping Frisk. They had the feeling this was no puzzle… The last thing they heard from Chara was "Good luck escaping this…"
Frisk searched for minutes, but they couldn't find anything. No hidden button, no secret switch, nothing. Throwing their stick at the switch Chara used didn't help either. There was only one thing they could do. Admit defeat and call Alphys for help...
"Y-you are trapped in a room with no w-way out?! B-but that r-room shouldn't have t-traps! S-eems like Chara did that in her spare time… H-hold on, i'll cut off the p-power!" A few moments later, the lasers started to flicker, and then vanish. Frisk proceeded, but their shoes felt like they were filled with lead...

Chapter Text

After the trap Chara set up, Frisk expected to face yet another nasty trap. But to their surprise, all they saw was a mouse hole and a table with a piece of cheese, a bowl and a note, which said the following:
"Did you know mice don't actually like cheese? They actually have a sweet tooth! So i decided to test this out by putting cheese and chocolate next to each other and look wich one gets eaten first! -Alphys" They looked in the bowl, but only saw some crumbs. They got the feeling it wasn't the mouse who ate the chocolate… The feeling of dread returned… They SAVEd.
In the next room, they saw Chara, their back turned to them. They laughed.
"Heheh. You finally got here. Took you long enough. But you had to cheat your way out of my trap by calling Alphys huh? Pathetic. But i shouldn't have expected a human to be smart enough to do it on their own." Frisk started to get angry, and their fists clenched.
"It's not funny to trap someone in a room with no way out! And you are a human too, so don't think you're higher than me!" Suddenly, a knive flew right past their head. Chara was furious, her eyes glowed red and her fists clenched even harder than Frisk's.
I'M NOT HUMAN! WHEN WILL YOU FINALLY UNDERSTAND THAT! I LOST MY HUMANITY LONG AGO, SO STOP COMPARING ME TO YOU! Chara grabbed a knive of of her pocket, and Frisk's surroundings turned to black again. This was gonna be though…
They tried to Check, but somehow, Chara managed to prevent the narrator from reading them. Frisk suspected they noticed, and hoped it didn't anger them… Chara raised her hand, and magical knives appeared, which she flung across the room, barely leaving an opening, and in their surprise, Frisk didn't manage to dodge in time. Chara laughed at their shocked face.
"Surprised? Of course you are. In their anger, Frisk forgot the narrator's lesson, and used the FIGHT option. However, they missed their attack. Chara laughed at their pathetic effort, and attacked again.
"After a while in the Ruins, Alphys discovered i am gifted with the ability to use magic. This makes me not human, but like they call it, a demon. Why is it that good things are seen as horrible by humans? Monsters... Demons… You're all so stupid." The cycle of Frisk getting angrier due to Chara's attacks, insults and teases continued for a while, until Frisk exhaustedly realized fighting wasn't the solution to get Chara to stop. Not as long as Chara seemed to barely feel their attacks. They looked through their ACTs. Check seemed to be gone after it failed, and instead, there were Taunt, Beg and Joke. They started to grin. They liked that first option. After all their taunts, it was time to taunt them back!
"Hey Chara! I heard Alphys was gonna make chocolate ice cream! But if i tell her you try to kill me, i'll get all of it and you don't get any!" Chara backed off in surprise of their sudden switch in behavior, and then got angry. Her face turned red, and she clutched her fist around the knife she was holding.
"IF YOU SAY ONE MORE WORD, YOU WON'T EVEN BE ABLE TO TELL HER THAT! UNDERSTOOD?!" Frisk's grin grew. A few more taunts, and she would run off in anger. They hoped, at least. Chara's next attack seemed more chaotic and agressive than the previous ones, and Frisk got hit multiple times. It hurt a lot, but they couldn't give up now.
"If you kill me now, i doubt Alphys will make you ice cream ever again. I wouldn't be surprised if she kicked you out of the Ruins and leave you to be killed out there." Chara stopped to think about this for a moment, only to burst into an even bigger rage once more. Knives homed at Frisk, determined to finish them off. The pain of the attacks that had hit them was immense. Frisk reached for their items for something useful, but all they had was the half-empty can of seaweed ice cream. Better than nothing, at least.
Somehow, it helped. Better than they imagined. The pain was much less intense than before. Frisk regained their confidence. Chara was less happy with this however. Most likely she expected Frisk to have collapsed from the pain already. Chara kept attacking, but this time, none of her attacks hit. Frisk taunted her one more time
"Is that all you got?! You were a lot better at the start of the fight! Are you scared?!" Chara looked like she was going to explode, but rather than unleashing another attack, she ran off. Frisk's surroundings returned to normal, and they returned to the SAVE star at the mouse hole.
Having succesfully defeated Chara. It filled them with DETERMINATION.

Chapter Text

When Frisk returned to the room where they fought Chara, they noticed the path branched. The room in front of them was filled with cobwebs, and everywhere there were spiders crawling on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. Creepy… But out of curiosity, they went in anyways. Next to the door, they saw a sign:
"Spider bake sale. The best food made by spiders, for spiders and of spiders. Drop gold in the webs to buy our goods. Spider donut: 7G. Spider cider 18G. On Alphys' demand, no alcohol for minors." The "of spiders" part creeped Frisk out a bit, but out of curiosity they decided to purchase a donut anyways. They dropped the gold in the web, and immediately a spider came down with one. Tasty…? Better look around some more and not think about it. Out of curiosity, they tried to drop some gold in the web for the cider. But instead of a spider delivering the drink, one shove the money back into their hands.
"Hey, have you not read the sign? No alcohol for minors. We don't want a repeat of the Chara incident." When Frisk asked what that incident was, all they got was "don't ask." Not very helpful…
In one of the corners they noticed some dvd's hanging on a web. They asked one of the nearby spiders what that was about.
"Have you ever heard of the great Spiderman, the human with spider powers? Ever since we found these between the dvd's Alphys' threw away (like she does with every one that isn't anime), we decided that when we can return to the surface, we will search for him and join his cause to fight evil." Frisk started laughing.
"Pfffffth. Spiderman isn't real! Everyone knows that!" The spider seemed disappointed.
"I see that like most, you're not a true believer… Do not talk to me again until you realize the truth…" Frisk decided to leave the delusional spider alone and go the other way, which led to a small town area filled with all kinds of monsters. There was a small market stall in the corner near them, ran by some kind of carrot monster. It told them to eat their greens, and gave them some smaller carrots without asking any payment.
In the wall in front of them a Japanese arch was built, with 2 doors below it. The sign in between read: "< Dog Dojo - Frog Dojo >". When they entered the Dog Dojo, they saw it was filled with all kinds of junk. At the back wall was a shrine depicting a small white dog with a sealed off donation box. Nothing interesting, it wasn't even a proper dojo. They did find an old Monster Candy on the floor. It didn't seem too edible, but they thought it might have some use somewhere.
The Frog Dojo on the other hand was much more interesting. A group of Froggits was meditating, led by an older one.
"Riiiibbiiiit (Greetings human. I am Sensei Final Froggit. If you're here to learn our ancient techniques, then i must disappoint you, as only Froggit can learn these. But if you're just curious, then feel free to watch.)" In a corner they noticed a Froggit facing towards the wall. When they approached it, it turned around… meowing? And did they see stitches? Their surroundings turned to black before they could get a closer look.
Froggit? attacks?
They asked the narrator for a Check, but he was just as confused. He could not read anything. Oddly enough, the Froggit thing did not attack afterwards. Frisk decided to inspect closer. They heard some soft hissing coming from the face thing between its legs. Suddenly the Monster Candy dropped out of their pocket, and a small cat slowly came out of the Froggit disguise to inspect the treat. The battle ended. After a closer look, Frisk noticed a little inscription on its collar: Mew Mew.
Frisk left the dojo and continued forward. In the wall next to the dojo was a little crack with a note saying behind it was Whimsun Village, and when they looked through they saw 2 scared eyes quickly disappearing. When they tried to move further, a single-eyed monster blocked their path.
"Are you that human Chara talked about? She said you were a real bully and that you like to pick on people. Well, you won't pick on me!" He charged into Frisk, initiating a battle.
Among their ACTs, Frisk saw Pick On and Don't Pick On. They chose the latter.
"Whatever Chara said was a lie. I never picked on anyone and i'm not going to pick on you." In the Loox' confusion, Frisk managed to end the fight. The Loox let them pass.
The room they entered had 6 cracks in the floor. A little note seemed to have been sticked to the wall at the entrance, but it was torn off. They found it hidden away in a gap.
"Fall down the cracks and look for a lever hidden in one of the rooms below to progress. -Alphys" They dropped into the crack in bottom left corner. When they landed, they not only felt leaves, but also something else. A ribbon?
"Golly, that's a nice ribbon.", the narrator told them. "I heard monsters will hit you less hard if you look cute." Frisk equipped the ribbon. They looked through the room, but there was no lever in sight. They climbed back up dropped down the top left hole, but bounced onto something, which turned out to be a Moldsmal.
After a battle with said Moldsmal, they went to the top middle room, where they saw an anime poster. Knowing Alphys, they knew the lever was hidden behind it. They moved forward.
The wall of the room in front of them was covered in cardboard cutouts of cherry trees. A little river flowed through the middle, with no bridge across. On one of the fake trees hung a sign:
"Throw the seeds in the river to make a bridge. Ring the bell to reset." They looked up and saw a bell hanging above a bunch of seeds. They threw them in a straight line, and when they all were thrown in, they magically opened up to form a bridge. On the end of the hallway was a sign: "Alphys' house --->". They were almost there...

Chapter Text

Frisk reached a crossroad. To the left left was Alphys' house, and a sign indicated in front of them lied the old town of home. Out of curiosity, they decided to take a peek there. If it wasn't interesting, they always could go back.
In the next room stood a lone Froggit. It seemed to try to get Frisk's attention. They walked up to it.
"Ribbit ribbit (Just between you and me, i saw Alphys coming through here with some groceries. I didn't ask her what they were for, because she'd ramble for minutes if i did.) Ribbit." Frisk walked through the door next to it, and was greeted with the view over a big city. They noticed something tucked away in a corner. After closer inspection, it turned out it was a pair of scissors, of the kind typically used to cut paper. They equipped it. There was a door on the side leading to a spiral staircase, presumably used by Alphys when she was buying groceries, but it was locked. They went back to Alphys' house.
In front of the house stood a radio antenna, built on the stump of a burnt tree. Next to the house they saw another SAVE point. Having reached their destination filled them with DETERMINATION.
When they entered the house, they heard Chara yelling "MOM, THEY TRIED TO KILL ME!", followed by Alphys trying to put the situation into perspective.
"I-i'm pretty sure you're exaggerating now Chara. And even if they were a bit h-hostile, a few monsters informed me of the fact you attacked them f-first. I don't tolerate that b-behavior towards our guests. G-go to your room." When Chara passed Frisk and noticed them overhearing their conversation, she yelled "What are you looking at?!" at them. Alphys suddenly noticed them due to this.
"Oh! S-sorry you had to h-hear that. Chara was a bit u-unreasonable, s-so i had to be the strict m-mom for a moment." An uneasy silence fell, until Alphys asked if they wanted some ice cream, which Frisk said yes to. When they were done eating the ice cream, Alphys stood up.
"I-it's getting late. Usually i would watch some anime with you, but after such a long day you need some sleep. I'll show you your room." Alphys walked past the staircase, into a hallway on the other side. When they passed Chara's room, Frisk saw a knife sticking through the door. Totally not disturbing… They passed another room until Alphys stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway.
"S-so, this is your new room. I hope you like it!" Frisk looked around. The room wasn't very furnitured and decorated, containing just a few empty shelves, a drawer with some striped shirts and pajamas and a bed with a lamp next to it. Alphys noticed the expression on Frisk's face.
"I-it's not the g-greatest, i know. After all, i d-don't really know you y-yet, what you l-like and such. But i'm s-sure that in a w-while, it'll be like home. I promise!" She left Frisk alone, and they decided to just go to bed.
When they woke up the next morning, Alphys was already preparing some food in the kitchen. It seemed to be noodles. She seemed to be still wearing her very Anime-esque pajamas, and noticed them looking at her.
"Oh! Y-you're awake! Sorry, i-i haven't d-dressed yet, my teeth aren't brushed and… let's just forget this awkward situation. Have you slept well?!" Frisk nodded, and asked where Chara was. The last thing they wanted was to unexpectedly bump into her.
"Chara? W-well, she sneaked of at n-night. Usually if she does those t-things, she wont s-show up for a day." Frisk liked this turn of events. They wouldn't have to worry about her, and maybe they could take a look through her room to see what Chara was like outside of her hate for them.
The room was a mess. Dirty clothes lied all over the floor, and knife marks covered the walls. On one of them hung a dart board with a crudely drawn drawing of their face on it. "I look way more handsome than that", Frisk mumbled. They opened a drawer. Inside of it were a lot of striped clothes, the same as she wore when they first met her. Not interesting. They opened another one. It was filled with knives. They considered equipping one for a moment, but then realized Chara would most likely kill them if she found out. If she wasn't going to already for breaking into their room…
On a table next to Chara's bed stood the tidiest thing in the entire room, a flower pot with a golden flower inside of it. The bed itself however was just as much of a mess as the rest of the room. A small shelf filled with some black and white comics hung above it. Unsurprisingly, there was also a book about knives.
After Frisk left Chara's room, they decided to take a peek through Alphys' room as well. The sight was… bizarre. The only way to describe it was an anime nerd's heaven. Posters hung all over the walls, most depicting some cat girl named Mew Mew, though one seemed to depict some big sword, with the words "Sword GF" below it. In a corner, something was written. "Undyne's favorite anime." For some reason, it filled them with sadness.
The rest of the room was even more ridiculous. The bed's pillow and sheet both depicted the same cat girl from the posters, and where there were no posters were shelves filled with anime DVD's and the same kinds of comics as in Chara's room. In a closet, they also found a life-size Mew Mew doll. There was one thing in the room that stood out due to its strange normality: a small photograph next to Alphys' bed depicting some kind of blue fish women with an eyepatch and a big toothy grin. They wondered who it was.
A few days passed. Chara and Alphys both didn't seem to have noticed them sneaking into their room, but Chara didn't get less hostile. Life was certainly weird and chaotic, and they weren't sure if they like that or not, though they had no intention to leave. But one night, they suddenly thought about their friends, who certainly were worried sick. They wanted to see them again. They wanted to go back home…
After they woke up, they decided to ask Alphys how to leave the Ruins. When they entered the kitchen, they saw her preparing breakfast. The box said it were Jelly-Filled donuts, but they doubted that. They called her name, and Alphys made a jump.
"Oh! H-hello Frisk. Y-you're very good at sneaking up on people! But anyways, i have a surprise for you! Since you're here for a few days now, we are gonna buy stuff to decorate your room with! Making it more like home! But did you wanna ask something?" "N-nothing", Frisk answered. It took them a few minutes to get back the courage to ask her how to leave the Ruins. Alphys gasped in shock.
"L-leaving the Ruins?! B-but why?! O-out there is only d-danger! H-how about we just sit down and watch anime together?! The first season of Mew Mew Kissie Cutie Origins starts today! W-would you really want to m-miss that?!"
"How can i leave the Ruins?", Frisk asked again. Alphys started to sweat nervously.
"P-please! You d-don't know what you're t-talking about! If you would l-leave the Ruins, you'd d-die! Do you w-want that?! H-how about i make ice cream! W-would you l-like that?!" Frisk started to get annoyed by Alphys' attempts to change their mind. "How can i leave the Ruins?", they asked one more time. Alphys sighed.
"I-i see… Y-you're serious about this… F-fine then. Come downstairs once you're r-ready…" Alphys went downstairs. Frisk had the feeling something mayor was coming up, and went outside to SAVE...

Chapter Text

Frisk went downstairs. At the end of the hallway they saw Alphys, waiting.
"T-this is the exit of the Ruins. If you wanna l-leave, you should g-go through this door." A silence fell for a moment, before she started speaking again.
"I c-can't just let you l-leave. Not with those d-dangers. So convince me. Convince me i should let you g-go. I won't let you get t-through before you have made some solid arguments." Frisk's surroundings became black.
"Alphys blocks the way."
Frisk checked. "Alphys. Attack: 3. Defense: 10. Just wants to protect you." Alphys attacked. Small electric sparks appeared throughout the area, yet never where Frisk was standing at the moment, so they figured out they could just stay in one spot and not get hit. They reached for their ACTs and chose Convince.
"Listen, i can take care of myself. I survived Chara already after all." A tear came out of Alphys' eye.
"Y-you don't understand! Chara was just one p-person, and you had me here! But out t-there, there's an e-entire civilisation out for your S-SOUL, and i can't h-help you there!" She attacked again. This time the electric sparks circled around Frisk, and again they could just keep staying in their spot. They tried again.
"Chara hates me! I'm sure she'll eventually hurt me if i stay here!" Alphys seemed to get encouraged.
"I'll protect you, no matter what. I promise." She didn't attack this turn. Frisk tried to convince her to let them go once more.
"Alphys… I just want to go home." Alphys' courage vanished, and she started sweating nervously. She seemed to get worried.
"T-this can be your h-home now! I'm s-sure you'll like it… e-eventually." She attacked again, and one spark moved towards Frisk, which they easily dodged. They kept trying.
"B-but my friends! I… I don't want to never see them again…" Alphys started shaking and sweating even harder.
"I-i'm sure y-you'll make new f-friends here! E-eventually!" In her panic, she accidentally hurled multiple sparks toward Frisk, in a way they couldn't dodge them. Upon realizing this, her breathing stopped for a second, and she clasped her hand against her throat.
"I-i'm so sorry! I-i didn't mean to h-hurt you! P-please f-forgive me!" Frisk quickly forgave her before she started to panic even more. But they couldn't think of anything to convince her she should let them go. Nothing besides… the truth.
"Listen Alphys… It's not your fault. You're trying so hard, but the truth is… This life just isn't for me. I can't just eat ice cream and watch bad anime dubs every evening. Maybe Chara can, but i don't. The Ruins are way too small for me." A silence fell, until a tear came out of Alphys' eye.
"I… I know… I tried to lie to myself that i could provide everything you need, but i c-can't… The Ruins indeed are not big enough for a child to grow up. I will let you go, but p-please…" An unnerving silence flooded the room.
"Fight me."
Frisk's stomach started to feel heavy. "F-fighting y-you?..." Alphys sighed.
"Yes. I must k-know you're strong enough to s-survive out there. G-get me to a quarter of my strength, and i'll let you g-go. But if yours g-gets to a quarter, you'll stay, u-until you grow strong enough." Frisk checked again, feeling as if something had changed.
"Alphys. Attack: 7. Defense: 13. Wants you to be safe." 4 electric sparks appeared in the corner of the room, and moved to the center in a cross. Frisk looked at their ACTs. Besides Check, there were none. They knew they had no choice but to fight. They pressed the button with dread, and slashed the toy scissors at her. She responded to the attack with multiple electric balls flying in their direction. They attacked again. It seemed to hurt her, but she didn't give up, and a lightning strike struck into the center of the room. This process repeated multiple times, until Alphys seemed to have almost been weakened enough. They attacked one more time…
SLASH!
The moment Frisk landed the hit, Frisk knew something wasn't right. Alphys collapsed, and a big cut could be seen in her chest. Her breathing became very heavy. She struggled to move her face up to look Frisk in their eyes.
"H-heheh... G-guess i overestimated my s-strength huh?... I-i'm sorry i made you d-do this... Tell Chara... I-i... Tell her i love her... And if you manage to reach U-Undyne... Tell her i still love her, d-despite what she d-d-d-d-did…" After speaking her final words, Alphys completely collapsed, and her body slowly turned into dust…
Frisk couldn't think straight. What just happened? Did they just kill someone?! Their stomach hurt and they felt a cold feeling in their heart. Yet somehow, they also felt… powerful. They hated it. What a horrible person were they! They should not feel anything good after something like this! They heard the Narrator trying to comfort them, but their mind wasn't able to understand his exact words. They sat down and cried.
They didn't know how long they've sat there, but they suddenly realized they should tell Chara about what happened. Dread filled them when they went upstairs. This wasn't gonna be fun… If she didn't hate them already, they definitely would now.
The whole house was dark all of a sudden. They looked through the house when suddenly, a silver glow came from behind them. They barely managed to turn around before a knife went right through their heart. An immense pain filled their chest, and their surroundings became blurry, before everything went black…
GAME OVER

Chapter Text

Everything was black. Was this what being dead was like? A never ending darkness? Frisk hoped it was more than that. Suddenly, they felt and saw a warm red glow inside and around them. Red shards flew around them, slowly forming a red heart. Their soul? They heard a voice in the distance:
".o.t .i.. .p. ..ay De…...ed. Do.t .iv. up. S.ay De..r..ned. Don't give up. Stay Determined." They felt their strength regaining as their soul became whole again. Suddenly there was a flash, and they woke up in front of Alphys' house. What was this?! What happened?!
They tried to move. Oddly enough their body still functioned like nothing ever happened. But it DID happen. They hoped Chara would not kill them again.
They sat there a while, thinking about what happened, when Alphys came out of her house... Wait… ALPHYS?!!! What was going on?! They saw her die! "A-alphys? B-but…" They were going to say they saw her die, but realized that it'd be very creepy to do so.
"S-so here you a-are.", Alphys spoke. "I-it took very l-long for you to f-follow me, so i d-decided to check in on you. Did you r-reconsider s-staying perhaps?" This confused Frisk even more. Did the fight… never happen? "N-no", they answered. I-it's just… I-i needed to prepare. The glimmer of hope in Alphys' face vanished.
"O-oh… Well… I-i'll be d-downstairs then…" She went back in, and her footsteps slowly faded away. Frisk followed her a while after, but when they attempted to go downstairs, Chara pulled them away and pressed them at the wall. She talked quietly, yet her voice was filled with rage.
"Listen, you little piece of shit. I know exactly what you did. She may not remember that other timeline, but i do. After all, i had that power before you fell down and stole it."
"O-other t-timeline?" Frisk's voice was shaking. "P-power? W-what are you talking about?" Chara laughed.
"So you have no idea? Pathetic. Having the greatest power ever but not knowing anything about it. You can rewind time you idiot!" This all was too much for Frisk. Rewind time? Them? But before they could think about it, Chara started to talk again.
"Alphys is down there, and she'll fight you again. Don't dare to kill her another time. I'm giving you one chance, but if i find her dead one more time, i'll hunt you down and kill you over and over again until you lose your Determination, and i'll be in control again. Understood?" Frisk nodded. Chara let them go and walked away without saying anything. However, she gave them one last angry glare. Shivers went down their spine…
They went downstairs. Once again, Alphys was standing there. Once again, she told them she couldn't just let them leave. But now, Frisk knew how to convince her to let them.
"Listen Alphys, it's not your fault. You're trying so hard, but the truth is, this life just isn't for me. I can't just eat ice cream and watch bad anime dubs every evening. Maybe Chara can, but i don't. The Ruins are way too small for me. And i miss my friends. Besides, i survived Chara, so i likely can survive what's out there as well." Alphys gave Frisk a sad smile.
"Y-you're right... I c-can't lie to m-myself anymore… The Ruins are indeed not big enough for a child to grow up… And friendship is very important… If anime taught me anything, it's that… B-but… It's too easy to say you can s-survive out there. So p-proof it to me. S-show me you can b-beat me, and i'll let you g-go. If any of us reaches a quarter of our s-strength, the fight is over." Once again, Frisk's surroundings were black. But Frisk knew fighting her wouldn't end well. They reached for the MERCY button.
"No."
This surprised Alphys. "N-no? B-but. If you don't f-fight, they'll k-kill you. There is n-no other o-option." Alphys attacked. When their turn came, Frisk once again pressed the MERCY button.
"Alphys, listen. I won't fight. There must be a peaceful way to survive out there! I just know it!" Tears dropped from Alphys' eyes.
"N-no! There isn't! U-undyne… She swore to kill all humans. The only way to get past her is killing her…" She started to cry. This was the second time she mentioned this Undyne person (although the first time was in that other timeline, would that count?), and it seemed it was someone who was really close to her at some point. After Alphys' next attack, they noticed a new ACT had appeared: Talk. They decided to ask about her.
"Alphys, it seems like you know that Undyne person. Who is it and why does she want humans dead so much?" Alphys sobbed.
"U-undyne… She was a close f-friend… But when a human k-killed out king and queen, she was chosen to r-rule. And she decided that all humans had to be k-killed. Even the ones that were i-innocent. I t-tried to s-save them, b-but…" Her eyes started tearing up again. "I… I c-couldn't… I d-don't want to l-lose another one..." Her next attack simply consisted of her tears dropping into the battle box. Frisk felt like they had to cheer her up. "You saved Chara", Frisk told her. Alphys stopped crying and gave them a sad smile.
"Y-you're right. I managed to save one human. I only wish i c-could've saved t-two… Maybe i still can…" A glimpse of determination (the emotion, not the thing that apparently gave them time powers) could be seen in Alphys' eyes. Frisk suddenly felt like this was going to be more difficult than they thought, and her next attack proved this thought. An electric ball bounced around the box, and was much more difficult to avoid than her previous attacks. It seemed like Alphys was really trying to defeat them now. But they couldn't give up.
"What was Undyne like?", they asked. This question caught Alphys off-guard, and she had to think for a while before she could answer.
"What's U-undyne like? Well, she's strong, like, really strong! And she never gives up! B-but that also means she w-won't give up on trying to k-kill you…" multiple electric balls appeared around the box, shooting towards Frisk one by one. Frisk realized talking about Undyne would only make Alphys more determined to stop them from leaving. There was only one thing they could think of that would stop her from fighting… They hoped this worked...
"Alphys. Why do you want me to fight you. I know you want to know i can survive out there, but if i'm honest, you're not the greatest opponent. If i can survive Chara, i can defeat you too." The two fell silent for a moment, and then Alphys suddenly started laughing.
"You're totally right. I'm just some old fool trying to seem stronger than she actually is. I can't come up with excuses to keep you here anymore." A tear came out of her eye. "And my worries… For you, i'll set them aside Please… G-go ahead. If you wish to return, you're w-welcome… I'm not crying you're crying!" Frisk hugged Alphys, and proceeded through the door. They knew their journey was far from over. It had just begun...

Chapter Text

Alphys looked at the door Frisk left trough. She hoped they'd be okay. So many memories flooded her mind, and they weren't happy. How she left Undyne… All the humans she couldn't save… It all came back.
It was a while after the death of the king and queen. The Dogi couple had just delivered the message that the murderer had finally been captured. However, unfortunately, captain Doge had lost her life in the progress. Undyne was clearly heartbroken about this news, as Doge had been one of Undyne's closest friends, after Alphys and Papyrus. Undyne suddenly started talking.
"Finally. The killer has been caught, and will be executed in an hour. But this isn't enough. It won't fix anything. I made a decision…" Undyne fell silent for a moment. "The other 2 humans that have fallen down. They must die too. And every following one that falls."
Alphys was shocked. "W-what?! But… They are innocent! T-they don't deserve this!" Undyne sighed.
"It is the only way we'll ever go free. We need 7 human souls to break the barrier. There is no other option." Before she realized, Alphys was yelling.
"The 2 humans in Snowdin have been nothing but kind towards us! If you kill them, you're no better than the human who killed your friend!" Then she noticed what she said, and tried to calm herself down. "I-i'm sorry. I s-shouldn't have said that. But p-please, you're making a big mistake!" However, even after a long heated argument, Undyne still wouldn't change her mind. She bursted out in tears.
"I-if you really want to do this h-horrible act, then i'm l-leaving! G-goodbye Undyne! I'm headed to the R-ruins! Don't f-follow me!" She heard Undyne's shouting "Wait! Alphys! Come back!", but she ignored them, and ran off out of the castle, out of New Home. She hoped she could still save the pair of humans that Undyne wanted to be killed by bringing them with her, but when she arrived in Snowdin, she heard it was too late. They were gone. Alphys fell on her knees in the cold snow and started to cry.
Many months later, when she had properly settled herself in the Ruins, another human fell down. A young boy, named Thomas. He was very patient, and stayed with Alphys for a good while, never straying too far from the house. But one day, something went terribly wrong. When she woke up, it was awfully cold all of a sudden. It didn't take long until she found out the source of the cold: the door to Snowdin was open. And in her terror, she found 2 things in the snow: the pair of paper scissors Thomas had with him, and a drop of blood. Monsters didn't bleed… In her shock and rage, she blew away the trees surrounding the door with a giant lightning strike, the power of which still shocked her to this day. The next 2 humans didn't stay long. The first wanted to reason with Undyne, while the other left when she heard the tragedy of monsterkind, believing that their freedom was more important than her life. They both never came back…
Chara found Alphys crying in front of the door. "Is Frisk gone?", she asked, to which she nodded. Alphys gave her a smile. "At least you're still here. Have i ever told you how much you mean to me?..." Chara nodded.

Chapter Text

Frisk walked through the door, into a long hallway. They felt sorry for Alphys for leaving her behind, as well as worry over what they would encounter next. However, they were determined to continue. At the end of the hallway was a little patch of grass, similar to the one where they encountered Flowey. When they came closer, suddenly the dirt rose up and, speak of the devil, there she was. Frisk felt their heart pounding in their chest and backed off, and hoped they could scream loud enough to get Alphys' attention. Flowey started laughing.
"Ha ha ha. My child, do you really think i would try to kill you again? No, i need you alive. So i'm going to help you." This confused Frisk. "H-help me?" Flowey sighed.
"Yes, my child, i'm going to help you. So i'll tell you something. That voice in your head…" She noticed the confused look on Frisk's face. "Yes, i can hear him too. But he is not who he seems. He is a traitor, a coward, a miserable creature trying to trick a poor innocent youth into their death. You can not trust him." Suddenly, Frisk felt a burst of anger inside of them. The hypocrisy! She did the exact same when they first met, while the Narrator had only been kind to them!
"And why should i trust you?! He was helpful and kind, while you only tried to do the same as you said he would do! You're just lying!" Flowey's face suddenly warped into yet another horrific shape, and it looked very angry...
"Bah! I shouldn't have expected you to listen to me, foolish child! I might have lied about that last part, but he still is a traitorous coward, a miserable creature! He's the pathetic former king of monsterkind, ASGORE DREEMURR! And if he was still alive, he would kill you!" She cackled, and buried back underground.
Before Frisk could even think about what Flowey said, the Nar- no, Asgore started talking. "Believe me, what she said was a lie. I might be a coward and maybe a traitor in some sense, but i never meant you any harm." Frisk told them they never doubted him. But it seemed like he and Flowey knew each other... They asked Asgore what as going on between them. He sighed.
"Flowey wasn't always like that. Once, she was a normal woman named Toriel. Well, not really a normal woman… She was the queen. My wife..." Frisk was still a bit angry and before they realized it they started yelling. "Well, then it was a poor choice to marry her!". Asgore sighed.
"She was not always that way… Once, how hard to imagine for you it is, she was a loving and caring mother (although she already was somewhat hypocritical back then). But then, tragedy struck us…" Asgore started telling their story.
"Once upon a time, we lived on the surface together with humans. But a war broke out due to the humans' fear of our abilities to absorb their souls. It ended in our loss, and humans sealed us underground with a magic spell. We tried to make the best of it, and we started building a civilisation down here. However, one day, a human fell down, a man. The drop heavily injured him, and he died at the castle door. But then, another human, i later learned it was his son, fell down. He must've found his father's coffin and seen the wounds, because he brutally killed me and Tori one night. She never tried to understand the reason, and grew a hatred for humans, which only became worse when she revived as a Flower… She was the only one who could hear me, but never listened… That girl, Chara, also ignored me. But i'm glad you decided to actually listen to what i say."
Asgore and Frisk sat there for a while, talking. However, they knew that they had to move onward. They headed towards the door on the other side of the room. A cold breeze greeted them when they opened it…

Chapter Text

Behind the door lied a cold, snowy forest. Were they still underground? It couldn't be. "Are we in Narnia or something?", Frisk asked. Asgore started laughing.
"Ho ho ho, i don't know what a Narnia is, but it's certainly not where we are. This is the forest leading to Snowdin, the nicest town in the Underground, in my opinion at least." Frisk wondered how it was snowing in a cave, but they didn't bother to ask, as something in a nearby bush peaked their interest. A lens of a camera was sticking out of it. Were they being watched? They came closer, but suddenly they felt the ground below their foot sinking, and suddenly ketchup squirted in their face. What a welcome…
When they cleaned off the ketchup from their face as best as they could, they proceeded until they reached a small bridge with some kind of metal laser gate at the end. A sign was standing next to it.
"To any human reading this, do not move through the orange lasers! They will totally kill you! Yes, they'll kill you, very painfully, i swear! Wait until i get here to deactivate them! Signed: Mettaton." That didn't sound suspicious at all… They suddenly felt a chill behind them, different from the cold of the area. They slowly turned around, only to be eye to eye with a ghost. Wait… A ghost?!
"uh… boo?..." The ghost seemed to try a pathetic attempt at scaring them, but Frisk could hear them mumbling "no, that's not how to greet someone…", before they started talking to them again. "oh… sorry to interrupt you… the name is napstablook… i'm nothing special…" He then fell silent for a bit, before asking Frisk if they were a human.
"Uh, yes? Why?" They weren't sure if that was a smart idea, having heard Alphys' warning, but the ghost seemed nice enough.
"oh… thought so… i'm kinda a sentry for the royal guard, you know… but don't worry, i don't intend to harm you… Frisk let out a sigh of relief. They were safe, for now. Napstablook seemed to not notice, and kept talking to them.
"i mostly took this job to get away from my cousin mettaton sometimes… don't get me wrong, he isn't a bad person, but he's quite exhausting to work with… lately he's obsessed with capturing a human for his tv shows… so, watch out for him, i guess?..." He then looked at the orange lasers.
"i guess you want to get past these lasers… contrary to what the sign says, they're save to walk through them… they're orange, after all… he put the sign there to trick humans unfamiliar with orange attacks… just don't stand still in them… anyways, i'm heading back to the sentry post… see you there, i guess… or not… maybe you don't want to, i'm nothing special, after all…" He then disappeared again. Frisk tried to move through the lasers, and like Napstablook said, they did not hurt at all. They went past a big pile of electronic junk and then they saw the sentry post. Napstablook was floating inside, listening to some music. When they approached him, he looked up.
"oh… you actually came here… thanks…" Frisk took a look at the sentry post. Inside was a shelf with a CD collection and a radio, as well as a little computer. "Nice thing you got there!", they said. Napstablook smiled.
"nice huh?... alphys made it for me… too bad metta decided to dump a bunch of things for his shows right next to it… but i can't complain too much… it is better than lying on a dirty floor while feeling like trash… speaking of metta, he can come in any moment… it'd be a good idea to hide behind the pile… i think…"
Frisk hid behind the heap of cameras and stage lights when they heard a loud "INCOMING!" above them, followed metal box landing in front of Napstablook's sentry post. An arm came out of the right side flipped a switch on the back, and a cloud of smoke appeared around it. After it cleared they saw a human-like robot doing a dramatic pose, shouting "OH YES!". "a dramatic entrance as always huh metta?..." Napstablook asked him. Mettaton came out of his dramatic pose.
"Of course Blooky, darling! After all, dramatic entrances are what i live for! (Besides fame and glory, of course.) By the way darling have you seen a human yet?" Napsta answered with a short "no…" Mettaton started to act dramatic again, in a very Shakespearean way.
"Oh what though is the life of a rising celebrity! Never they get what they need for their success!" They then looked at Napstablook. "Wait, why aren't you wearing your T-shirt?!"
"the "watch mtt tv one?..."
"No, the one with stars and glittering rainbows and His face. Mettaton started to yell. "Yes of course the "Watch MTT TV" one!"
"you know i hate that thing…" Mettaton started to get annoyed.
"You know that if we want my show to be a success, we need to advertise! Put it on!" Napstablook sighed.
"ok… i'll change it at the gate…" He grabbed the T-shirt and floated towards the gate. Mettaton seemed to be confused.
"Why don't you just do it behind the pile like usual?!" Frisk could faintly hear a "not feeling like it right now, sorry…" coming from the distance. Mettaton let out a frustrated groan and yelled in Napstablook's direction he was going to look if his shows and puzzles still were functioning before he left. After a while, Napstablook appeared right next to them. Frisk let out a squeak.
"oh… sorry if i scared you… but metta's gone now… you can come out of your hiding spot…"
Frisk walked further into the forest. To the north they saw a little river with some kind of television in front of it. It showed a pink screen with "To be continued soon!" in yellow letters. A bar with small news articles was scrolling at the bottom.
"Koffin-K escapes jail, crashes getaway car into prison. When reached out for a comment, koffin-k responded with "CURSE MY LACK OF HANDS!""
"Local plumber realizes during a hotel stay, all toasters toast toast."
"Local Mettaton still heavily underappreciated."
Frisk didn't bother reading further. They went back to the forest, where they saw a box. Inside was a winter jacket, which they put on. Just in time, they started to freeze. They noticed they skipped over a SAVE point. The fact they made a friend in this hostile land filled them with DETERMINATION.

Chapter Text

When Frisk proceeded further, they heard Mettaton arguing with Napstablook.
"What took you so long Blooky?! We have loads of shows and puzzles to check through in case the human appears!" Napstablook sighed.
"but metta… we just did that yesterday… do you really think we need to do that every day?..." Mettaton was about to answer when he suddenly noticed Frisk standing there. Uh-oh. He pointed his finger at him.
"See blooky?! I knew a human would show up! Finally i'll get the fame i deserve! I'll capture them and personally bring them to the queen! I'll be a hero!" While Mettaton was fantasizing about his future, Frisk quietly sneaked past him. On a small open space they stood still for a second and looked at Mettaton, giggling. They then continued forward, and reached a small sentry post. Mettaton posters covered its sides. When they walked past it, a voice suddenly came out of it. They stopped. A dog head rose up.
"Did something move? Was it my imagination? If something WAS moving... For example, a human…" Frisk tried to hold their breath. It seemed like this dog monster couldn't see things that weren't moving, so if they didn't make any noise, maybe he wouldn't spot them. They hoped.
"... I'd ask them to buy this stupid Mettaton merch so i could go on with my guard duty again. I should've thought twice before i accepted his offer to gain some extra money for dog treats. Nobody buys this junk!" Frisk started breathing again. Apparently the dog just wanted to sell some stuff. Maybe he wouldn't kill them if they helped him. Carefully, they moved their foot. Suddenly the dog saw them.
"So something was moving indeed. Wait… Is that a human? No, don't be afraid, i'm not gonna kill you kid. My contract forbids killing potential customers. Don't stand still, keep moving! And please, buy something." Frisk looked through what the shop had to offer. Most of it was poorly made merch they doubted they would ever have a use for. Eventually they settled with the same T-shirt Napstablook was wearing. At least that could have some use somewhere.
They slid over a frozen puddle when they saw something that seemed like a studio for a news broadcast. When they tried to walk past it, Mettaton suddenly landed right in front of them, blocking their path.
"MY MY. THAT WAS VERY RUDE, DARLING, JUST WALKING PAST ME WHILE I'M ABOUT TO CAPTURE YOU! BUT MAYBE THIS IS A GOOD THING… AFTER ALL, WE HAVE MANY SHOWS AND PUZZLES TO GO THROUGH!" A cloud appeared, and Mettaton suddenly was wearing some kind of news reporter outfit.
"SO FOR THIS SHOW, WE NEED A REPORTER, AND YOU'RE THE PERFECT CANDIDATE. THERE'S A CAVE BELOW HERE THAT NEEDS TO BE REPORTED ON. SO DARLING, DON'T RETURN UNTIL YOU'VE BROUGHT ME SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY. AND SMILE! YOU'RE ON TV!" He strapped a camera on Frisk's head, and all of a sudden a trapdoor opened right below their feet. They landed in a very dark cavern. They stumbled their way through the darkness until they tripped over… a dog?
"OH MY!", Mettaton's voice came out of a speaker somewhere. "SO APPARENTLY DOGS LIVE IN CAVES! WHAT A SHOCKING REVELATION! AND WHAT'S ALSO A SHOCKING REVELATION IS…" Suddenly the whole room lighted up. They were surrounded by many objects, all equipped with a… fuse? Mettaton flew right in front of them.
"THE DOG IS A BOMB! AND NOT JUST THE DOG, BUT EVERYTHING! YOU THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE AN ORDINARY NEWS REPORT, BUT IT WAS I, METTATON, WHO SET THIS ALL UP. THIS WAS A BOMB DEFUSE ALL ALONG!"
"But i don't have anything to defuse the bombs with!", Frisk yelled. Mettaton scratched his head.
"HUH, I GUESS YOU'RE RIGHT DARLING. WAIT, GIVE ME THAT PHONE FOR A SECOND." Frisk reluctantly gave the robot their phone. He tinkered with it for a while, before he gave it back.
"HERE, I REFILLED THE ENERGY GUN'S PLASMA STORAGE. NOW, SHOOT THE BOMBS IN THE RIGHT SPOT OR YOU'LL BLOW UP!" The bombs' fuses caught on fire, and started the frantically move around the room. They desperately tried to aim for the bombd, but to no avail. The bombs almost were about to blow up, when they suddenly stopped. They heard 2 voices from above. They seemed to be angry about something.
"And what do you think you are doing Mettaton?!"
"(Wait… Do i sell bombs down there?!)"
"YES, BUT… I'M IN THE PROCESS OF CAPTURING A HUMAN SOUL!"
"Imbecile! If those things blow up here, you'll destroy not just this cave, but also Doge's memorial!"
"(Besides, even though i find it hard to believe you found a human, that's the guard's job! Not yours!)"
"BUT THE QUEEN HAS SAID EVERYONE IS ALLOWED TO KILL A HUMAN WHEN THEY ENCOUNTER ONE!"
"Not by blowing up the former guard captain's memorial! Next time we'll arrest you and lock you up in the Royal Guard HQ in waterfall, understood?!"
"FINE! IF I BECOME FAMOUS, YOU WON'T GET MY AUTOGRAPH!"
"(Like we want one.)" The voices moved away, and Mettaton lowered a rope ladder.
"FORTUNATELY FOR YOU, AND UNFORTUNATELY FOR ME, WE HAVE TO CANCEL THIS SHOW. BUT I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, YOU CAN COUNT ON THAT!" After those words, Mettaton flew off. Napstablook appeared in front of Frisk.
"sorry i couldn't stop metta from putting you in this situation… so i warned my colleagues about it… they'll probably try to kill you now though… sorry... but i'll share this with you, they love petting… maybe that'll help… i hope..." Napstablook vanished again.

Chapter Text

Frisk walked further to see a spear sticking out of a snow-covered, with a metal plate attached to it. They wiped off the snow from the plate, and a text became visible.
"Here lies the dust of captain Doge. She lost her life here while protecting monsterkind from a human. May she rest in peace." They sat down for a while to think about this. So apparently the human that killed Asgore and that bitch of a Flowey killed more people. No wonder monsters were trying to kill them. Their heart started feeling heavy. Asgore started talking.
"Truly a tragic tale. They thought they were in the right until the very end… Too many lost their lives due to a single misunderstanding. I wish you did not have to be the victim of this..." Frisk sighed.
When they realized they started to freeze, they stood up and continued further. On the other side of the bridge was a rabbit monster with some kind of ice cream stand, as well as a snowball with a sign next to it, saying it was some kind of ball game, and that they should try getting it in the hole. It didn't seem like one of Mettaton's traps, so they tried it. After 5 seconds of getting the ball in, a red flag popped up.
"Bravery. Justice. Integrity. Kindness. Perseverance. Patience. Using these, you were able to win at the ball game." All of a sudden, 50G bursted out of the hole. Their reward? The path forward was blocked off by blue lasers, so they went back to the rabbit monster, and heard him mumbling something to himself.
"I don't understand why these aren't selling… It's the perfect weather for something cold…" When he noticed Frisk, his sad demeanor quickly went away however, and a big smile grew on his face.
"OH!!! A CUSTOMER!!!", he yelled. Frisk stepped backwards in surprise. Realizing he was scaring them off, the rabbit quickly apologized, and changed up his behavior. "Oh, sorry to scare you! I just hadn't had a customer in a long time. Would you like some Nice Cream? It's the frozen treat that warms your heart! Now just 15G!"
"Sure", Frisk answered. "I'll take 2." The rabbit was overjoyed, and when they received their Nice Cream, they told them to have a "super-duper day". They walked towards a pair of little buildings when Napstablook appeared next to them.
"supporting local business i see?... how nice… you know, i'm selling some things as well… gotta pay the rent, after all… want to buy some ghost fruit for 5g?... Frisk agreed with the deal, but when they tried to eat it, it phased right through them. Napstablook started to sweat.
"ooh, sorry… i forgot only ghosts can eat that… here, you can have your money back…" He put the 5G back in their hands, and vanished embarrassedly, but not before telling them Mettaton hid the remote to deactivate the lasers near the buildings.
They continued towards the 2 buildings, which turned out to be 2 more sentry stations. A sign stood in the middle, talking about smell ratings or something. Suddenly, they heard something approaching them.
"What's that smell?"
"(Is someone at our sentry station?)"
"If your a smell, identify yourself!"
"(And tell us what you are doing here too.)"
2 dog monsters suddenly started running around them, halting right next to them, one on each side.
"Here's that weird smell. It makes me want to eliminate."
"(Eliminate YOU!)" The 2 dogs moved in front of them to face against them. Once again, their surroundings turned black. Frisk thought for a moment. So their smell was what caused the 2 dogs to try to kill them?... But what if they rolled around? They looked through their ACTs, and as expected, this was a viable option. They rolled through the snow to mask their scent. The 2 dogs seemed to be confused due to their smell changing, but still attacked, swinging their 2 axes towards them. It seemed they needed to sniff harder. Carefully, they approached them.
"What?! Smells like a…"
"(Are you actually a little puppy?!)"
In their confusion, Frisk quickly pat them on their heads. This caught the 2 dogs by surprise, enough to spare them and end the fight. The 2 dogs talked about how a new world had opened for them, of dogs petting other dogs, and left off. Frisk noticed a little remote lying in the snow. When they pressed it, it deactivated the blue lasers, allowing them to proceed.

Chapter Text

When Frisk went through the gate where the blue lasers were, they were greeted by Mettaton and Napstablook, who were standing in front of a piano.
"Darling, you're awfully late! I've been eager to show off my next puzzle, because my darling cousin made it! So Blooky, where is the puzzle, if i may ask? I only see this piano."
"the piano is the puzzle…", they answered. While Frisk was wondering how a piano could be a puzzle, Mettaton bursted into laughing.
"Great joke Blooky! But now seriously, where is it?" Napstablook sighed.
"i'm not joking metta… besides, you know i'm not good with jokes…" Mettaton seemed to get annoyed, but tried to hide it. "So, what is the goal of this… puzzle?"
"oh… it's very simple… i play a song and the human plays it on the piano…" Mettaton let out a big sigh.
"Blooky, darling, i thought i made it absolutely clear we needed drama, action and bloodshed so we attract viewers. And this puzzle has neither of these things! But fine, if it makes you happy, we'll have the human do this one too."
Frisk took place behind the piano, and Napstablook played a little tune. With their limited piano knowledge, they tried to replicate it as best as they could, but from the moment they lifted their hands from the keys, they knew they butchered it. Mettaton laughed.
"Ahahahaha! You failed! That means you're now my prisoner human!" A silence fell. "Wait… Where's the capturing device?" Napstablook answered him there was none, after which he stomped his feet onto the ground in anger.
"Doesn't that remove the entire point of these puzzles?! You know, capturing the human?!" Napstablook started crying. The angry expression on Mettaton's face suddenly turned into a concerned one, and he crouched down next to him.
"Blooky, darling. Don't cry. Sorry, i didn't mean it like that." After Napstablook calmed down, he started talking to Frisk.
"that was a nice try… maybe you'll do it successfully next time…" This seemed to frustrate Mettaton but he tried to keep it to himself, although it seemed like his eyes could pop out of his head any minute. Frisk tried to play the song again, and this time with success. Mettaton gave Frisk a glare.
"This time you've won, but the next puzzle won't be as easy. There will be drama, action and especially bloodshed!" Suddenly Frisk heard a bang in the distance and a cloud of smoke appeared. Mettaton ran off as fast as he could, followed by Napstablook. Frisk followed them, but didn't make haste. They passed a small shop with a pair of notes lying on the counter. The first one simply said it was looking for employees, but the second one, lying on a plate of meat, was written to them.
"To the human. Darling, if you're reading this, you passed my first challenges! So how about a little snack? Take as much of these Face Steaks as you want!" Below this was written in a different handwriting that the steaks were poisoned, so they decided to not take one. They walked towards a safe spot next to a mouse hole. Knowing that the mouse could feast on Face Steaks someday filled them with DETERMINATION. They proceeded. A bit ahead they saw Mettaton discussing something with a bird-esque monster, while standing on top of some burnt rubble. When he noticed Frisk, he walked up to them.
"Ah, darling, there you are. Nothing went wrong here, totally according to schedule! Err, our special effect just went off a bit too early, that's all." Frisk doubted that. "But anyways, this next challenge certainly will be the hardest one you've ever seen! It's terrifying! It's feared across the entire Underground! And it's certainly impossible! Ladies and gentlemen, here is… The try not to laugh challenge!" Wait, was he serious? Mettaton strapped some sort of metal bracelet on their arm.
"If you laugh, this bracelet will send an electric shock through your body, that can potentially be a little bit deadly. Now, Snowdrake, it's time to tell your first joke! Let the challenge begin!"
"Want an ice pun? Well, that's -snow- problem for me!" Frisk was unamused. Was this supposed to be funny? Snowdrake kept making more and more ice puns ice puns. "Want to know my favorite food? Macaroni and -freeze-!" "What did the snowflakes say while playing hide & seek? -Icy- you!" They kept getting worse and worse, and Frisk did not let out a single laugh. Eventually this started to bother Snowdrake.
"Giving me the -cold- shoulder huh?! You really should -chill- out!" Annoyed, Frisk removed the bracelet.
"I don't think this "challenge" is getting anywhere. These jokes are not funny in the slightest." They tried to walk away, but Snowdrake flew right in front of them, blocking their path.
"Well, this won't be funny either!" Frisk's surroundings turned black.

Chapter Text

Snowdrake looked at Frisk, angrily, while behind him Mettaton was clapping and cheering.
'Well, if that isn't a dramatic twist, i don't know what is! Wait, i got a great idea! We'll host a fighting tournament here!" While speaking, he transformed himself into his box form. He grabbed some kind of phone-like device out of a secret hatch in his body and started talking into it. "TO ALL MONSTERS IN THE VICINITY OF THE MTT BRAND SNACK STAND (WHICH WE STILL ACCEPT EMPLOYEES FOR, BY THE WAY), WE HAVE A THRILLING ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU! THE CHANCE TO DEFEAT A HUMAN ON LIFE TELEVISION! THE PRICE FOR VICTORY? GLAMOUR AND GLORY! NOW, DO YOU DARE TO TRY?... WE ALREADY HAVE 1 COMPETITOR! GIVE A WARM APPLAUSE TO… THE TEENAGE COMEDIAN, SNOWDRAKE!" While Mettaton was saying all of this, Napstablook slowly vanished. Snowdrake still was eager to attack Frisk, and Mettatons encouragements did not help against this in the slightest. Frisk decided to Check him.
"Snowdrake. Attack: 14. Defense: 7. He thinks you have no sense of humor." Before Frisk realized it, multiple crescents flew around them, and a few hit them in their stomach before their opponent got tired out and stopped attacking. Frisk knew they needed to calm them down. They liked jokes, right? Maybe making a joke to them would help. They tried their hardest to think of the best joke they could come up with. However, their attempt seemed to only make Snowdrake angrier.
"Was that supposed to be funny?! Do you think you are funnier than me?! Well, you aren't!" However, they heard someone laughing from a distance.
"Haha! Wow, Drake! You suck! Even the human is funnier than you!"not long after, an UFO-like monster came into Frisk's view. Wait, were they?... Scratching their butt?... And now they were licking the same hand they just scratched it with?! Ew!
Snowdrake didn't seem happy with this monster's presence, and sighed loudly. "Jerry…" Mettaton didn't seem too pleased either, but broadcasted his name anyways, although less enthusiastic. "OUR NEW COMPETITOR, SNOWDIN'S NUMBER 1 NUISANCE, JERRY…"
When this Jerry person reached Frisk, he sneezed right in their face without even apologizing, followed by him starting to text something on his phone.
Snowdrake's next attack seemed to go on for longer than the previous, almost like Jerry's presence had something to do with it. In addition the commented he was gonna kill them in -cold- blood. Frisk decided to Check the newcomer.
"Jerry. Attack: 10. Defense: 30. Everyone knows Jerry, but noone likes this." Jerry quit texting on his phone complaining about bad Wifi, and lifted his arms, causing a massive odor cloud to come out of his armpits. Frisk and Snowdrake turned nauseous the moment it reached them, and the crescents in Snowdrake's next attack were extremely inaccurate. However, Frisk had trouble walking straight and in the end walked right into one of the crescents. Snowdrake was about to pass out before Mettaton turned one of his hands into a fan and blew the odor away. "JERRY, YOU AREN'T SABOTAGING THE OTHER CONTESTANTS, ARE YOU?"
Seeing how much the others seemed to dislike Jerry, Frisk decided to tell them an extremely bad joke about him. Surprisingly enough, both Snowdrake and Mettaton started laughing, as well as a pair of monsters that had just showed up. Jerry felt horribly insulted.
"Puh! SOME friends!" When Snowdrake attempted to begin his attack, Jerry pointed his phone at him and released a nasty electric beam, causing Snowdrake to be completely paralyzed. "Get your own human, twerp! This one is mine!" He then started to rapidly fire at Frisk, but after only a few electric beams, they stopped. Jerry started complaining and rambling about shitty batteries and poor technology. While he was distracted and Snowdrake was still paralyzed, Frisk decided to grab the phone out of Jerry's hands, causing him to start protesting loudly and obnoxiously.
"Hands off that phone, it's probably one of a kind! Give it back! It's mine, i found it in the snow, not you!" However, Frisk did not even remotely consider giving it back and stashed it in their pocket. Meanwhile, Snowdrake started moving again and sneaked up behind Jerry while he was trying to take back his phone.
"-Freeze-" Before Jerry could turn around to see what was going on, Snowdrake started pecking him in his butt, and kept chasing Jerry when he ran off, repeatedly attempting to peck him. That was 2 opponents down, but there would be at least 2 more.
"WE GOT 2 NEW OPPONENTS, BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES! A WARM APPLAUSE FOR THE (NUMBER 2, BECAUSE NUMBER 1 IS ME) KING OF FASHION, ICE CAP! AND THE ETERNAL ANARCHIST, CHILLDRAKE!" With these words, Frisk's opponents came closer.

Chapter Text

Frisk stood face to face with Ice Cap and Chilldrake, both of the 2 eager to defeat Frisk. They decided to Check Chilldrake first.
"Chilldrake. Attack: 12. Defense: 7. A rebel that casts anarchy wherever he goes." The monsters started shouting some anarchic things before launching the same crescent shaped attacks as Snowdrake at Frisk. While they stepped backwards to dodge them, the snow below them started rising up in the shape of a hat, and icicles launched upwards. The same thing started happening all around them, launching icicles all over the area.The sudden onslaught of attack had led them to be at the brink of death when it stopped, and they collapsed onto the ground. They could just make out Mettaton slowly and dramatically coming towards them, clapping. With their last strength they reached for the Nice Cream in their pocket, remembering the effect Alphys' seaweed ice cream had on them while fighting Chara.
When consuming the Nice Cream, they quickly felt their strength returning, and when Mettaton grabbed them to deliver a finishing blow, they punched him right in his metal screen. This sudden assault caused him to release them from his grip and stumble backwards, between the 2 attackers straight into the depths below the cliff. Mere moments later, the robot flew back up leaving a trail of fire below them, and started hovering in front of Frisk above the abyss.
"MY, MY! DARLING, YOU CERTAINLY HAVE SOME GUTS. KEEP IT UP, THE AUDIENCE LIKES DAREDEVILS LIKE YOU!" Mettaton flew back towards the cliff, but when they didn't pay attention he sent a bolt of electricity into their arm, followed by a "THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WON'T PUNISH YOU FOR ALMOST KILLING ME THOUGH."
When Frisk attempted to walk back where they came from, a blizzard stirred up around them, leaving only a waving path clear from the frigid and untransparent wind. Before they realized it, crescents flew out of one side of the path, barely flying past their nose. More and more started to come out of it, and Frisk had trouble dodging them all. All of a sudden, the blizzard stopped as quickly as it stirred up, and they were able to see their opponents again, as well as to hear more anarchic shouting from Chilldrake. Without even listening to this shouting, Frisk decided to act like they agreed with his "cause".
"I completely agree! We should take down authority! No more rules!" Chilldrake was extremely surprised and uncomfortable by this action and stepped backwards. "But… You don't know my cause! You should agree with me! Then it's no anarchy anymore!" All of a sudden, he ran off, leaving Ice Cap behind. Another blizzard stirred up, but without Chilldrake Frisk easily stayed unharmed. After the wind stopped, they Checked the monster.
"Ice Cap. Attack: 11. Defense: 4. This teen is obsessed with showing off his hat." Indeed, the monster seemed to try to get Frisk to pay attention to it. Instead however, they decided to look the other way, where Snowdrake was still chasing Jerry. This seemed to annoy Ice Cap, who looked like he was about to rush towards Frisk and plant their eyeballs into his hat.
"HELLO??? My hat's up here, not over there." More hat shaped snow piles started rising up, and Frisk dodged the falling icicles while attempting to keep his eyes away from the hat as much as possible. After keeping ignoring the hat for a while, Ice Cap stomped his tiny feet on the ground and said he'd ignore them too, after which he turned around.
Frisk tried to walk away, but Mettaton flew right in front of them, blocking their path. "DARLING, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING? YOU HAVE NOT YET CLAIMED VICTORY AS LONG AS BOTH OF YOU ARE COMPLETELY CAPABLE OF FIGHTING. DO SOMETHING, WE HAVE AN AUDIENCE TO ENTERTAIN!" Mettaton kept blocking the path, leaving Frisk with no other option than to continue the fight. Unable to come with any other idea, they pulled the hat from Ice Cap's head, causing it to melt in their hands, but more surprisingly, the Ice Cap turned into a cube of ice.
"So… Cold…" Looking at Ice Cap in this miserable state, Frisk felt somewhat guilty, and tried to cheer him up.
"Uh… You still look good without the hat. You have... Nice hair! Yes, your hair is very nice!" The ice cube said he liked his hair too, not realizing he had no hair. Mettaton reluctantly moved out of the way, but when Frisk attempted to leave, they heard a loud "ooooooowWAAAAAAA!!!" and a furry creature fell down from the sky, to Mettaton's surprise.
"A… TEMMIE? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" The Temmie vibrated rapidly while talking (and also while not talking.)
"TeM wantz pet hooman! Hooman TOO CUTE to not petz!" Suddenly her leg started to stretch beyond belief trying to reach them. What was this madness?! Creeped out, Frisk slowly stepped backwards, and then ran off, being chased by the leg all throughout the area, much to Mettaton' amusement. Eventually they were completely surrounded by leg. The Temmie then pet them on the head, feeling surprisingly normal. Moments later the Temmie's face bloated and red bumps appeared all over it. She yelled "HOIVES!", and ran off.
When it turned out no more challengers were coming, Mettaton turned back into his humanoid form and picked up the camera. "Darling, you have provided some great footage, so you may go… For now. We have some great shows ahead, and it would be a shame to cancel them after all!." However, his enthusiasm quickly faded when he noticed the lens cap was still on it. He took a deep breath and started shouting "Blooky! Come here!" The ghost appeared in front of them.
"what is it, metta?…" Mettaton stomped his feet on the ground in anger and frustration.
"I told you to remove the lens cap, so why is the lens cap still on the lens?! We can't have a fighting show with just audio!"
"you didn't tell me to do so metta… you were too busy panicking over the stage having exploded…" Mettaton attempted to come up with an excuse, but when he failed to do so he started shouting at the other participants.
"Reshoots! I want reshoots! Come here, we're doing this all over!" However, when he realized none of them were in a state they were able to fight Frisk, he just slammed the camera and the ground and walked off.
Napstablook kept floating there for a while silently, before he noticed the phone Frisk took from Jerry. "hey… i think that's the phone alphys gave me i lost a while ago… how did you find it?..." Frisk told Napstablook about how he snatched it away from Jerry, and then gave it back to him. Napstablook let out a sigh after look through the phone "oh… seems like jerry deleted everything… thanks though…" He then vanished, leaving Frisk on their own.

Chapter Text

Frisk walked back to Mettaton's shop, tired out from the continuous battling and sat down on one of the stools to regain their energy. Although they were freezing cold, finally being able to sit down after all this felt like the most pleasant thing in the world at that moment. In this moment of peace, Asgore started talking.
"So… You've been through a lot so far. And i'm afraid things will get worse later on. But even when you feel like you just want to give up… Stay determined." Frisk nodded. After a while, they stood up from the stool and walked up to the SAVE point, and as the SAVEd, a warm feeling heated up their could body. They re-continued following the path forwards, nearly tripping into the depths below while going over a small wooden bridge, but they quickly were greeted by Mettaton once more. Next to him stood a tall metal tower. "Oh no, not you already…", they said when walking up to him.
"Oh yes, i already! Darling, please meet my latest challenge that'll be sure to get the audience beyond the edge of their seat!" Suddenly, lights started glowing in the tower, and turret after turret popped out. "The MTT-brand… Turret Tower! The goal of this challenge is to fly to the top and ring the bell… Without dying!"
"How do you expect me to fly, Mettaton. I don't have wings", Frisk responded. Mettaton bursted into laughter and opened a compartiment in the bottom of the tower.
"Of course not, darling! You're going to fly… With this!" Frisk took a look inside the compartiment. Inside, an extremely rusty jetpack could be seen. They grabbed it out. Could this old thing even fly? "Come on, strap it on! We don't have all day!", Mettaton commanded. Hesitantly, they strapped it on. Mettaton pointed at 2 buttons that peeked out from under their arms. "Press these to go left or right. Now… Go!" He slammed a button on the back, and Frisk suddenly got blasted into the air.
As Frisk rapidly flew upwards, the turrets started firing electric balls from above, but as they looked downwards in panic they failed to notice them until a nasty shock went through them. While the pain went through them, they managed to look up in surprise, just in time to see a row of electric balls approach them. The balls did not form a solid row however, and right above Frisk there was an opening between them, causing them to safely dodge the balls. However, the next row wasn't as merciful and had its opening at the very end. Trying to ignore the pain, Frisk directed the jetpack towards the opening and flew through, only to have the next row of electric balls appear on the other end. They responded just too late to completely dodge and, and the electric ball went through their arm. They pulled their arm away in a reflex, but as this caused them to release the button, they failed to dodge the next row, somehow being unable to move further away in the other direction as if an invisible barrier blocked them. Another jolt of pain went through them, but this soon turned the least of their problem, as the shock caused the jetpack to short-circuit, causing them to fall to their death. As they hit the ground, they just were able to feel their bones shatter before everything went black…
Once more, there was their soul reforming. Once more, there was the voice, the flash, and they woke up back at the shop. Back at the tower, they were again greeted by Mettaton. "Ah, there you are darling! Now, meet my latest-"
"Yeah yeah, show me that jetpack already. The earlier this is over the better", interrupted Frisk him with, much to Mettaton's surprise.
"Oh, you know already?! Either you are really good at guessing, or you eavesdropped on us. But well then, let's waste no time!" Once again, he opened the compartiment and gave Frisk the jetpack, which they strapped on. "Well, since you already know, no need to explain!", Mettaton said, and slammed the button, and Frisk blasted off. As they were prepared this time, they had a much easier run, and rung the ball without crashing, after which they slowly descended back downwards somehow. Mettaton was crossing his arms.
"Darling, what were you doing?! There was like, no tension at all! I'll have to pull out the big guns for the next one. Just you wait." With these words, he walked off, and Frisk quickly followed him until they reached a box made of glass filled with water.
"So, you know that trick of a guy being locked up in a box with handcuffs on and a key in their pocket they need to open the door?", Mettaton asked them, to which they nodded. "Well, you're gonna do it! Have fun!" Before Frisk could object in any way, Mettaton dropped a small key in his pocket grabbed them and extended his arm to put them into the box. When they fell into the surprisingly warm water, the lid quickly fell downwards, trapping them into it.
Frisk started to panic as they seemingly were about to drown. Through the glass, they could vaguely see Napstablook appearing and saying something to Mettaton, although they could not hear what they were saying. Mettaton held up what seemed to be a pair of handcuffs. Wait… If he had the handcuffs on him, then… Frisk looked at their hands. No handcuffs. They reached for their pocket and grabbed out the key. As they opened the door, the water flushed out, and they fell on the old floor, gasping for breath. They shivered. Napstablook rushed towards them. "are you alright?... we should dry you up before you catch a cold…"
Mettaton rolled his eyes. "Why you're so protective of the human is beyond me, Blooky. But fine, i'll dry them up." He pulled out a big flamethrower. Frisk crawled backwards a bit to stay out of the blast of fire.
"whoa there, that's a bit extreme, isn't it metta?...", Napstablook responded.
"Blooky, you want this human dry or not?", Mettaton told him. "Don't worry, i'll try to not burn them… Too much."
One extremely tense "drying session" and 13 scorch marks on their clothes later, Mettaton finally deactivated his flamethrower and flew off in his box form. "WELL DARLING, WE'LL SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN VERY SOON! AFTER ALL, THE SHOW MUST GO ON! GOODBYE!"

Chapter Text

Not long after Mettaton had flown off, Frisk saw him land mere meters away. "Wow Mettaton, what a dramatic exit", they thought. "And so useful. Not." They moved further until they went face-to-face with Mettaton. "You know i could see you, right?...", they asked him.
"DETAILS DARLING, DETAILS! THE ONLY DETAIL YOU SHOULD WORRY ABOUT IS HOW MUCH THIS DEVICE OVER HERE LOOKS LIKE MY GLAMOROUS FACE!" He waved his hands towards… Nothing. The only thing that was there was a few tall trees forming the edge of a forest. Mettaton coughed. "BLOOKY, THIS WAS YOUR CUE TO RISE UP THE MACHINE… AHUM. LIKE I SAID... THE ONLY DETAIL YOU SHOULD WORRY ABOUT IS HOW MUCH THIS DEVICE OVER HERE LOOKS LIKE MY GLAMOROUS FACE!" As he finished the sentence, a metallic platform slowly rose up from the ground, carrying a huge computer shaped like Mettaton's box form. Meanwhile Mettaton had transformed into his more humanoid form, now wearing a glittery outfit. "Beauties and gentlebeauties, i present to you… The Arcade-aton!" The device turned on, revealing what looked like an old-school video game menu. Frisk hesitantly walked towards it, and as they sat down, a metallic belt strapped them into the chair.
"Now darling, the rules are simple. Win each of the games… Or you'll die!" Mettaton clapped his hands in excitement. "How lucky you are, being the first to play my special brand of me-themed video games!" Frisk clicked on the start button, and 4 squares popped up, together with a red heart-shaped cursor resembling their SOUL. They hesitantly moved it towards the one in the top left, and as they clicked on it, a maze filled with small circles showed up, with 4 colorful Mettatons in a box in the center. They grinned. Pac-man was one of the few video games they had at the orphanage, and they had become quite good at it after playing it a lot.
However, after a bit of playing, something odd happened. As one of the Mettatons moved over one of the big circles, it started to glow. As it got positioned in a straight line from the heart, a beam came out of it, hitting it from a distance and causing it to shatter. Mettaton laughed.
"Darling, did you expect something straight-forward? Well too bad, because unexpected twists like these are what i live for! The enemies can use power-ups too, ahaha! Well, you have 2 lives left, darling! Be careful." During their next round, more nasty power-ups showed themselves. One of the Mettatons split itself into 2 for 10 seconds and nearly trapped them as the copy vanished, while another went straight through a few walls before the effect wore off. But the true trouble came from the 4th one. As they almost cleared the level, the final one touched the last remaining big circle, and electric beams popped up between walls at random sections of the maze. As one of them appeared straight in front of the heart, a Mettaton cornered it from behind. Once more, the heart shattered. One life left, but finally, Frisk managed to collect the last circles, and they returned to the hub screen. 3 more to go.
As Frisk clicked the second square, the heart ended up in a rectangular box that only allowed them to move sideways. All of a sudden, the heart flipped upside down and colored yellow, as Mettatons started moving down from the top. This time, their life counter was set on 20, which they found oddly generous. But as the Mettatons descended downwards, they realized why. After shooting off a few rows, they started to fire back, and often they were only barely able to dodge their shots.
But when the endless barrage of attacks finally ended, the worst was about to come… From the top of the screen, a giant Mettaton descended, and giant letters on the screen read "BOSS BATTLE". Giant lasers fired downward while small Mettatons flew out of the giant robot's mouth. If Mettaton's actual attacks were only half as impressive as that laser Frisk would be already dead. After a long and tedious battle, the robot finally exploded, and they returned back to the hub screen. 2 more games to go. The next game was a fast-paced minigame collection, and endlessly more fun than the previous 2. "Mettaton, you did something wrong here. I actually had fun with this one." Mettaton ignored the comment and waved at them to proceed to the next game.
The final game… As Frisk activated it, all that showed up was their soul and their health bar of 20, as suddenly without warning, hundreds of electric bolts rapidly flew onto screen all around them. Before they even had the time to react, they were cornered with only 1 HP left.
Then the game froze… Literally. Ice spread across the device, which completely came to a halt. Smelled like a lack of heating systems. Mettaton jumped up as he noticed the malfunction. "Hold on, that's not in the script! Blooky, help me defreeze this thing!" As his face literally touched the machine looking for what exactly went wrong, his body got stuck against the machine like a tongue against a lamppost. As the metal belt opened up due to the machine shutting down piece by piece, Frisk considered quietly walking off while Napstablook tried to pull Mettaton away from the frozen exterior, but something made them decide to turn around and yell at Mettaton: "Use your flamethrower!", before walking away… Straight into an armored dog with an extremely long neck.
From the distance, they heard Mettaton, who managed to release his face from the machine, shouting: "Come on Lesser, go defeat that human! Blooky, get the camera!" However, the dog seemed to not notice Frisk at all and aimlessly wandered around, waltzing through the snow sculptures scattered around the area. A faint smile appeared on Napstablook's face as Frisk made their swift escape. "you should've scheduled that documentary on his neck after your shows metta…" Mettaton let out a groan of annoyance. "I'm gonna pull out the real big guns Blooky. The next time i won't fail!"

Chapter Text

Frisk quickly SAVEd at the SAVE point nearby them as they ran off, and then made their way towards a chunk of ice-covered rock surrounded by tall trees, the same ones they had seen at the start of Snowdin Forest and had slowly been popping up around them again since a while back. On the ice were some fading X and O symbols, with a crumbling stone button located on its farthest side. It seemed that whatever sort of puzzle this used to be had been broken for a while now, as the path forward was opened up and unobstructed. At their right was a path that went downwards, towards a small rock platform with another of Mettaton's television screens on it, which Frisk decided to pay no attention to. They slid towards the other side and walked into a small passageway that cut through a very dense forest of the tall trees.
As Frisk went deeper into the forest, from between the trees came a purple glow. Before they realized it, a purple flame flew right in front of their face. After a few more rapidly followed, they quickly tried to turn back, but were stopped by a row of flames slowly closing in on them, while more flew across the passage on that side. It seemed like running was Frisk's only option. More and more fireballs flew around them as they ran, until they finally reached the end of the forest.
They tried to run towards an area filled with snow piles, but another row of flames prevented them from progressing. They turned around to find another way out when suddenly a purple fire-like monster appeared right in front of them, floating above the ground. Its eyes glowed a bright yellow, and a menacing grin lied on its face. Frisk stumbled backwards in surprise and fell on the ground. "W-who are y-you?"
The monster started laughing in a way a typical movie villain would laugh. "I am Emboo O. Lantarn, the Underground's greatest terror. My name does not get spoken out of fear! And soon i'll be… Your worst nightmare... Now, how can i kill you the most painfully?..." Frisk tried to stand up to attempt to flee while they could, but they slipped again in their attempt, their face planting itself in the snow. They closed their eyes waiting for the inevitable, when they heard laughing. They slowly opened their eyes, and saw Emboo pointing at them with a floating hand made of fire, starting to hiccup from his laughter.
"You fell for it! I can't believe how easy to scare you are! You should've seen the look on your face! And the faceplanting! It was priceless!" Frisk stood up and tried to walk off, but the row of flames blocking their path reappeared. Emboo stopped laughing, but his grin stayed on his face. "You seem like fun, so i invite you to my little home over there." He pointed at a path leading downwards towards a lower section of the cliffs.
"No thanks", Frisk answered, not wanting anything else to do with this monster. I have somewhere else to go." Emboo's grin disappeared, making place for a stone cold expression.
"I think you may have misunderstood me. Leaving is not an option. As you may have noticed, the entrance to Snowdin is not accessible. You either accept my invitation, or freeze to death in the forest. Your choice."
Frisk sighed deeply. "Fine, i accept your invitation… I suppose it's better than freezing in a forest…" Emboo's wide grin reappeared.
"That's settled then! I'll be waiting!" He floated towards the cliffside and vanished into it, leaving a group of small blue-greenish flames where he vanished into the rock. Frisk followed him, but couldn't find anything that could let them access inside the wall. Hoping to find another way, they walked further around the cliff.
They encountered a reindeer-like monster with "decorations" stuck in its antlers and helped it by taking them off and walked past a bunch of holes with what seemed to be eyes spying at them, and then they stood in front of a cave opening. "Well, hopefully he's in here…", Frisk told themselves, as they entered.
The cave was illuminated by glowing mushrooms, and in the back was a large mansion-like door. As they approached it, the door opened seemingly by itself. Behind the door was only darkness, but a deep voice echoed throughout the room."COME CLOSER, HUMAN, IF YOU DARE." They hesitantly stepped forwards, and as they walked past the door, it closed itself with a loud slam, trapping them in the pitch-black room. Above them, a chandelier lit up with a light so dim it only illuminated itself and the ceiling right above it. They heard a creaking noise, and suddenly the chandelier dropped downwards. Frisk dropped themselves onto the ground, making themselves as small as possible, and closed their eyes, waiting for the impact…
But there was no impact. As they opened their eyes, the chandelier hung mere centimeters above where their head was, and now illuminated the entire room.
Emboo was sitting in a dark corner, looking at them with a wide grin. "Heh, did my little greeting scare you?" Without waiting for an answer, they floated towards a table nearby him, and told them to have a seat. When Frisk tried to sit down, the chair pulled backwards, causing Frisk to fall onto the ground. "Oops, sorry", Emboo apologised, although Frisk severely questioned the genuinity of it.
Emboo floated towards a small kitchen and returned with 2 damping cups of tea. After the cold of Snowdin Forest, Frisk was grateful for something warm to drink, and thus they very eagerly drank it. But of course it wasn't that easy. The "tea" felt like it set their insides on fire and evaporated all water in their body. Not only that, but it also phased right through them, dropping onto the chair, which rapidly heated up. Frisk quickly jumped up to not burn themselves, while frantically looking around for some water. "What, do you not like my special ghost tea?", Emboo asked them.
"Wa… der…" was the only thing Frisk could managed to bring out as a response with their burning throat. A look of annoyance appeared on Emboo's face. "Water? You want WATER?! Can't you see i'm part fire elemental you fool?! Why would i have water here?! Go eat some snow or something!" Not letting themselves get told that a second time, Frisk rushed outside, and kneeled into the snow, grabbing hands full of it and cramming it in their mouth. They let out a sigh of facilitation as it doused their insides. When they finally stopped feeling like they were on fire, Frisk stood up. The quicker they got away from here, the better.
They got their wish quicker than they hoped for… As they walked back towards the snow pile area, the ground cracked beneath them. Before they realized it, the cliff below them had collapsed, causing them to drop towards the deep woods in the abyss below.

Chapter Text

Frisk slowly opened their eyes. Their whole body was feeling very painful, but somehow they were still alive. "How did the drop not kill me? And where am i, and how did i get here?" These were the thoughts that went through their head. They barely managed to look around. They were lying on a bed with a red and green checkered blanket, and in the corner of the room stood a Christmas tree illuminating the room with a soft light, despite Christmas being months away. On a bedside cabinet next to them stood a glass of milk. They laboriously managed to reach for it, and as they drank it, their pain quickly started to ease, just like all the other food they had in the Underground so far.
With their new strength, they went downstairs, into the living room. In one of the chairs sat a reindeer-like monster with blonde hair tied in low bunches and quite prominent front teeth, who jumped up when she saw Frisk. "Oh! You're awake. I was almost getting worried! A-are you alright? That was a nasty drop, even with Marline trying to slow you down. You were unconscious for over a day. Oh, i probably should introduce myself. Um, i'm Noelle. Nice to meet you, i guess?"
Frisk reached out their hand, and the girl hesitantly grabbed it with a 3-fingered, hoove-like hand in return. "My name is Frisk. Thanks for taking me in, i really thought i was going to die there. But how did i get here? And how did that Marline person save me?"
Noelle was about to explain when they were interrupted by someone repeatedly knocking on the door. It sounded like wood hitting wood, so Frisk suspected it was some sort of tree monster or something similar. Noelle rushed towards the window and carefully peeked through an opening in the curtain, but quickly backed off after seeing who it was. "O-oh no, this is the worst possible time for that old skeleton to go snooping around here! What if he finds out i helped you by taking you in?! What if he calls the guard?! They'll arrest me for treason and take my head!" Tears started to form in her eyes, and she nervously started biting on what seemed to be her equivalent of fingernails. Her eyes quickly fell upon a storage closet, with a key sticking out of the door. "Quick, hide in there!"
Frisk rushed towards the closet, and Noelle closed the door behind them. Through the keyhole, they were just able to see the key sliding into her pocket. If she would decide to betray them and turn them in, they'd be completely trapped now. They kept peeking through the keyhole, and saw Noelle return with an old skeleton who looked more than annoyed. "You youngsters have no respect for the elderly! You oughta be teached some manners!", the skeleton said, while hitting Noelle's head repeatedly with his cane, after which he swung it in the air, almost causing the lamp above him to crash down. Back in my day, old people weren't kept waiting in the cold for 5 minutes! And i'm not saying this again, keep those curtains open! A town patrol needs to be able to see it if something ever happens!" Noelle quickly interrupted the old skeleton's rantings by asking what he was doing here (in which she dropped his name, which was Semi), after which he lowered his cane and sat down in the seat closest to him. "Rumors go there's a human in this town, and that they're sighted near this house. Have you seen anything?"
Noelle's face became pale and she began to sweat nervously. "Um, n-no. N-nothing here. Hehe, a human around this house, that would be terrifying."
"I hope you don't mind, I'll take a look around, then", Semi answered. Before Noelle could object, he already started his inspection. Eventually the skeleton approached Frisk's hiding spot. They quickly ducked and made themselves as small as possible, hoping the angle of the keyhole and the darkness would conceal them. A hollow eye socket with a grey pupil stared through the keyhole. After a few seconds that seemed like hours, the eye finally went away, and they heard Semi talking again, although they were too afraid to look again.
"Where's the key of that door?" Frisk's worst fear at that moment became reality. If he would get his hands on that key, there was no way out for them. Thus, they barely managed to hold in a sigh of relief when Noelle came to their aid by saying she wasn't sure but believed it was somewhere upstairs.
After they heard Semi leave to search for it, the light of the room outside filled Frisk's hiding spot as Noelle opened the closet. She whispered. "Q-quick, get out of there, before he returns.", while frantically looking for a new hiding spot. "Um, see that lamp? Put the cap on your head, then i'll hide the rest of it. When Frisk covered their head and tried to stand as still as possible, Noelle put the lamp in the closet and locked the door again. It sounded like she walked off somewhere, but she returned just in time for the old skeleton to return. Frisk could only overhear their conversation.
"That stupid key is nowhere to be found. Are you hiding something, hmmm?"
"N-no, i swear, i'm not hiding anything! Um, maybe it's in the hallway, then?" Frisk heard her hastily run off, returning moments later. "I got it!"
They heard the key being turned around and the door opening. "What is that lamp doing there?" A few seconds later, they heard him coming closer, and they tried to hold their breath. All of a sudden, the cane hit their chest, and they barely managed to not move. Was their cover blown?
"Why do you have such a freaky lamp?" Semi started mumbling. "Those youngsters… You have no sense of what looks good..." They heard him leave, and finally they let out a sigh of relief as Noelle helped them remove the cap from their head. They were safe… For now.

Chapter Text

After Semi had left, Frisk helped Noelle to clean up the mess Semi made while searching for them. "So, back to my question before that skeleton interrupted us. Who is that Marline person, and how exactly did she save my life?"
"Well…", Noelle started. "Marline's the granddaughter of Semi, you know, the skeleton that was searching you… B-but she's nice! She would never betray you to him!", she quickly said after she saw the look on Frisk's face. "W-well… She IS a bit naive sometimes, so i suppose she COULD have accidentally mentioned you… But not on purpose, i swear!" Noelle started to sweat nervously. "A-anyways… She's sort of a friend of mine. And for how she saved you, well, all skeletons have access to a type of magic that can manipulate gravity. Weakening it, strengthening it, reversing it, stuff like that. She weakened the gravity for your body to make you fall slower. D-does that make sense?" Frisk nodded. That explanation really would help them get past Semi, back up to Snowdin. If there was a way up…
"How can i get back up to Snowdin?", they asked Noelle. "And where is this place, actually?" Noelle explained they were in Icefall Village, an isolated town located in the Deep Snowdin Forest. The only way up to the higher Snowdin area was a lift quite far away from the village, which ended up quite close to the town itself however. Frisk, curious of this new place, decided to explore Icefall Village (despite Noelle repeatedly warning them not to). As they stepped outside, they saw the town was built in a circle around a large fire pit, illuminating the otherwise gloomy houses in an orange light. The only buildings that weren't run-down were Noelle's house, which was covered in Christmas lights, and a nearby house that had a pink bow clumsily stuck above its doorway and a snowman (or snow skeleton, as they realized upon closer inspection) in front of it. At the end of the town stood a brightly lit building that had thick smoke coming out of its chimney, and the smell of greasy food came out of it. They decided to pay a visit, hoping to stock up on some for their trek through the forest.
As they entered the building, the mixed smell of fries, fish, soup and alcohol entered their nose. The interior of the building looked like it hadn't been cleaned for weeks, grease and all kinds of condiments littering the floor and furniture, surrounded by flies, and the undersides of the tables could barely be seen in between the chewing gum that was stuck everywhere. Most monsters at the tables looked tired or drunk, and Frisk decided to ignore them.
Behind the counter stood a polar bear monster smoking a cigar, dropping the ash into a big soup-filled pan next to him. He looked at Frisk with a suspicious glare with the eye that wasn't blind. Frisk shivered. "You're not from here, are you kid?", the monster spoke in a gruff voice, not blinking for a moment as he kept glaring. Frisk shook their head. "Figured. Never seen you before. Well, make your order quickly, no chit-chat! But if you pay me a bit extra, maybe i could tell you a thing or 2. Frisk looked at the soup, which had ash and lumps of grease that had fallen out of the monster's beard floating around in it. They started to regret they decided to walk in, but ordered a small bag of fries just to obtain some information. "A small eater, huh?", the monster said. "I don't like that. But a deal's a deal, so i oughta tell you some stuff i suppose. Well kid, what do you want to know? You get 2 questions, and then you gotta pay extra again for every question afterwards."
Frisk thought carefully, and they decided to ask why the town looked so gloomy and run-down. The monster let out a stern laugh. "What, expected a fancy town that's all happy go lucky?! Listen kid, this is not the higher Snowdin area. Not much to be happy about here. Most monsters here aren't rich, but for one reason or another they don't wanna live in the city. So they go here! Don't know why the Holidays and Calibri's are still around though. They're rich enough to go live in Snowdin, but for some godforsaken reason they decide to stay here. So, any more questions kid? And remember, only the next one's free."
For their second question, Frisk asked about Semi. A look of annoyance appeared in the monster's eyes. "Semi…", he gruntled. "As if the town wasn't bad enough, he had to show up here after his retirement. No manners, that skeleton, the guard position really got to his head. Invites himself into your house with no warning to "check in on you", and then complains about everything you do or have that he doesn't like. And if you don't let him in and act like you're not home, he stares through your window until he sees something move. Like now!" Frisk jumped up in shock. Were they seen? They rapidly turned around and saw… Nothing. From behind them they heard laughing. "You're really scared of that skeleton huh kid?! That look on your face was priceless!" Frisk turned back towards him in annoyance, their fists clenched as the monster still was laughing. "Listen kid, i'm starting to like you. So out of my generosity, you get one extra free question. Not many can say Boris Blizzard did them a favor for free!" The monster laughed again, a much more hearty laugh than the ones before. Frisk awkwardly laughed with him while thinking of the last question. They asked what the quickest way to the lift back up was, and Boris laughed even harder. "You wanna get back up, huh?! Well, i don't blame you! But there's only one way there!" Meanwhile, the smell of burnt food filled the air, and black smoke came out of one of the frying pans. Frisk quickly ran off before the building would go up in flames.
Back outside, they saw a skeleton girl with a pink bow that was roughly their size building another snowman next to the snow skeleton. As she noticed Frisk, she ran up towards them, shouting "You're awake mister human!" Frisk quickly put their finger at their lips to tell her to be a bit more quiet, in case Semi could hear her. They asked if she was Marline, to which the girl nodded. "Yup, that's me! The cutest skeleton in the whole world!" Marline giggled. "Noelle told me you're going to go through the woods. Mom always tells me to never go there. I'm jealous."
"So, what are you making?", Frisk asked, looking at the snowman. Marline giggled again and said it wasn't a snowman, but a snow Noelle, and then started to ramble about how Noelle was the greatest friend in the world, and when she seemed to have completely forgotten them and went back to work on the snow Noelle, they silently walked off, into the woods.

Chapter Text

The woods were cold, and it wasn't until long until Frisk saw their first obstacle. A tree had collapsed onto the path, and upon closer inspection, the tree was burned where it had broken off. They looked around to see another way forward, and their eyes fell onto a path cutting through much denser part of the forest, where the trees the light coming from above. Even though it seemed to lead away from the cliffs that formed the higher area of Snowdin, there was no other way ahead, and on the plus side, the likelihood of bumping into Semi there was slim. At the entrance stood a small wooden shack that looked like it could collapse any minute, with a few rusty lanterns standing on a shelf. As soon as Frisk picked one up, it started to faintly glow, and a warm feeling flowed through their hands. Thankful for having a light source to guide them through the darkness, they took it with them, and entered the dark forest. A SAVE point lied near the entrance. The fact they didn't have to navigate the woods in complete darkness filled them with DETERMINATION.
Fortunately the trees blocked most of the cold wind that they could hear howling above them, but in exchange they could barely see what was ahead of them, even with the lantern. All of a sudden, they heard a noise coming from below their feet. As they stepped away to see what it was, they saw a face with a jagged mouth and mean looking eyes. The snow rose up, forming a formless sculpture, with 2 claw-like sticks coming out of it. Their surroundings turned black, although that hardly could be noticed in the darkness.
"Malisnow", Asgore Checked. "Attack: 17. Defense: 4. A snowman filled with malicious intent." Around them the snow started to rise up forming walls, trapping them in a very small space. The snow monster pulled its claw backwards, followed by a rapid slash of a larger magic claw formed around it, which cut into Frisk's arm. The monster pulled its claw back again, and Frisk jumped out of the way, but it didn't slash forward, and moments later the other one slashed right through Frisk. A shrieking laughter came out of the creature's mouth. A sharp pain was flowing through Frisk's body, and their body started to feel cold. They shivered, while the monster was still laughing at them. It started to piss them off. They raised their lantern above their head.
"If you want malicious intent, then you'll GET malicious intent…", they mumbled, before smashing their lantern into the creature's head. As the monster faded to dust, a warm feeling of power filled their body. From behind them they heard the rage-filled shrieking of another Malisnow, angered by the death of the other one. Without hesitation, Frisk turned around and slammed the dusty lantern straight into its face. More of the powerful feeling filled their body as they looked at the dying monster, grinning. And suddenly it wasn't the snow monster they saw turn to dust, but instead they saw Alphys' face as it dusted in the earlier timeline. The warm feeling of power made place for one that was cold as ice as the realisation kicked in, and they put down their dusty lantern. They did it again. They killed someone, not by accident, but out of anger, pleasure even. These monsters, while seemingly horrible creatures, likely had friends or family of their own, like Alphys was to Chara. Their tears froze before they hit the ground, and they closed their eyes. If only they could undo this…
When they opened their eyes, they found themselves back at the forest's entrance. Even though they had put it down in the woods, it had returned into their hand. They looked at the bottom: no dust. "Yes. You really managed to undo your action", Asgore started speaking. "The power to rewind time is a strong one, but not one to take lightly. I ask you, please, do not misuse it."
Frisk nodded. "I won't. I promise." They proceeded back into the woods, determined to end things the right way this time.

Chapter Text

This time, Frisk carefully watched their step, avoiding the Malisnows that hid themselves in the ground. Eventually, the path slowly became wider, until they reached a clearing. A chilly wind blew through, and snowflakes were blown towards them with it. They held the lantern in front of their face to protect it from the gusts of wind that kept blowing towards them mercilessly, while trying to look for a path forwards. They shivered.
They barely realized it, but their surroundings had turned black. They looked around, but they saw nothing. And neither did Asgore it seemed, as when they asked for a Check, he could only apologise for being unable to help out. Suddenly, a gust of wind even harsher than before blew into their face. Out of nowhere, large balls of snow flew towards them, some white and blue. Frisk managed to dodge the barrage, and once it ended, they shouted: "Hello?! Is anybody there?!"
A voice that sounded like the howling of wind responded from within the gusts of snow. "Caaan't youuu seee meee, chiiild?" Frisk looked at the direction where the voice came from. Nothing. They answered no, and they could've sworn they heard a shout of anger as the blizzard stirred up once more. Tornadoes emerged around Frisk and started to move around frantically. Where they collided, they fused together into larger tornadoes, until only a single one remained, which quickly vanished. As the wind around them calmed down, Frisk shakily asked what the invisible creature wanted. The howling voice returned. "Giiive meee somethiiing thaaat allooows meee tooo beee seeen. I dooon't waaant tooo beee inviiisiiible." More tornadoes emerged.
Frisk desperately tried to think of anything they could give the creature. Preferably something that they wouldn't need to not freeze to death. They scratched their head, when they touched the ribbon. The ribbon! Frisk took it off and reached it out in front of them. The wind around them calmed down a bit, while suddenly, a cold gust touched their hand as the ribbon was lifted into the air. When they looked very closely, they could see a very vague foggy manifestation holding up the ribbon. The creature attached the ribbon to what appeared to be their head. "Thaaank youuu", it said, before floating off. With the wind calmed down, Frisk could see a path on the other side of the clearance, and followed it.
Soon, the path was once again dark and eerie. A few more Malisnows awaited to ambush them, but Frisk was careful to dodge the malicious monsters. Eventually, he finally reached the end of the forest, where he was greeted by… Emboo. The ghost grinned. "Wow, you're really good, managing to get through that forest alive. Personally i would have gone through the higher forest though. Oh wait, that's right, you couldn't, because i blocked it off!" The ghost started laughing. "Well, what did you think of your little detour? Did you like it?"
Frisk clenched their fists and started yelling. "Like?! If you had any idea what i went through, you would wipe that grin off your stupid face! Your little "detour" almost turned me into a murderer!"
"But like you said, it was ALMOST, not entirely." Emboo did something that looked like shrugging. Frisk's head felt like it was boiling.
"WIPE THAT STUPID GRIN OFF YOUR FACE RIGHT NOW, OR I'LL THROW A GLASS OF WATER STRAIGHT INTO IT!" Emboo backed down.
"Whoa there, didn't know you'd get mad! Don't throw- Wait a second... You don't even have a glass of water. Ha! But anyways, i just wanted to tell ya you made a wind elemental very happy back there." Emboo started floating away, but turned around briefly. "Oh, and Semi is up ahead, and he seems really pissed about something. Heard he's looking for ya, so i thought warning you about it would be the least i could do. Well, goodbye!" With these words, Emboo flew off into the distance, and Frisk could hear a laugh slowly fading.
Frisk eventually reached a small locked house. As they walked past it, a silhouette could be seen ahead of them. The silhouette started speaking.
"Human." Frisk froze. This voice could only be from one person: Semi.

Chapter Text

"Human", Semi started monologuing. "You thought you could deceive me, Semi Aster, the former lieutenant of the Royal Guard? Think again!" He let out a laugh. "I've been catching troublemakers before you were even born, but you younglings treat me as a senile old man who falls for the oldest tricks in the book! Well, not anymore! Once i bring your soul to the queen, i'll be a hero! I shall revive the good old days, where people respected the elderly!" Without warning, Frisk's surroundings rapidly turned black and white as Semi swung his cane at them. Frisk was surprised by this. Generally, their opponents had waited for them to make a move before attacking "Maybe a lesson in respect might help you at heaven's gate!"
Once the attack was over, Frisk Checked. "Semi. Attack: 18. Defense: 10. A skeleton quite fit for his old age." Semi stomped his cane onto the ground. Frisk readied to dodge an attack, but they were not prepared for what happened next. Their whole body started to feel like it was made like lead, and as they looked at their soul, it had turned blue. A row of bones erupted from the ground in front of them as Semi lifted his cane in the air, and as it came down, they started to move towards them. Frisk looked for an opening, but the bones spanned the whole area, with no way through.
"You can not dodge this attack by merely running, young one", Asgore spoke. "It might seem tough, but you must try to jump. It is the only way." As the next row of bones launched at them, Frisk tried to jump over it, but got caught off-guard by the increased gravity, and as they tripped, they fell straight into the attack. The pain in their chest was intense. Frisk tried to grab the small fries from the cafeteria, but Semi launched more bones at them. This was a test of endurance, and one they were about to lose… With all their strength, they tried to jump again, and while they could feel the bones hit their heels, they had managed to jump over them nonetheless.
Bone after bone got launched at them, and with each jump, Frisk became more confident of themselves. Meanwhile, Semi became more and more frustrated and tired out. Suddenly, they could feel the gravity de-intensify back to normal. Semi was panting, and Frisk carefully approached, asking the skeleton if everything was alright. However, as they came closer, Semi raised his hand, summoning something in the air above him. It looked like the skull of a beast, and was glowing with energy. "Do not step closer, human!", Semi shouted. "Or i'll use.. I'll use…" Before the skeleton could finish his sentence, he collapsed from exhaustion, and the skull vanished.
"Frisk!" When turning around, they saw Noelle run towards them. "A-are you alright?!" She then noticed Semi lying in the snow. "Oh! What h-happened?!" In a few words, Frisk explained what went on. Noelle looked at Semi again. "W-well… We can't let him lie here in the snow… L-let's put him inside his cabin." Together, they lifted up the passed out skeleton, and a few minutes later he was lying in his bed, above the blanket with his clothes still on. They silently sneaked out.
"S-so…", Noelle said when they were back outside. "The lift is right ahead. So… Good luck, i guess." Frisk nodded, and walked away.

Chapter Text

The lift halted at the entrance of the cliffs Frisk initially dropped down from, at the entrance of the snow pile-filled room, which was now unobstructed without Emboo's interverance. A disproportionally large piece of armor leaned against a small dog house nearby, a small white dog was sleeping inside. As Frisk walked between the piles, they felt a sudden urge to spit through them all. It seemed pointless, but there was no use to resisting the urge. Much to their surprise, there was some Gold in the very last snow poff. Looks like the urge was useful after all. They proceeded towards a large metal bridge that connected this side of the cliffs with the town in the distance, as they heard footsteps behind them. Before they knew, they were lifted into the air, and forcefully were turned around, getting eye to eye with a purple dinosaur-like monster. She grinned, revealing a set of blinking sharp teeth. "So you are the little runt the flower told me about? I'd almost pity you." She opened her mouth wide, bringing Frisk's face closer to the sharp teeth, but right as she was about to pierce them through Frisk's head, she pulled them away from them, and threw them into the snow. "But where's the fun in eating your face right now? No, i think i'm going to have fun with you first." She pulled out an axe, and the now all-too familiar signs a battle had initiated came into sight.
The dinosaur monster grinned. "Let's see how much of a wimp you are! I'm betting you're gonna last less than a minute…" As the monster was monologuing, Frisk Checked her."
"Susie. Attack: 14. Defense: 2. Snowdin's biggest nuisance." As the Check finished, Susie slashed her axe through the air, releasing a large shockwave that covered half of the area, barely giving them the chance to get out of the way. Another pair of shockwaves blow on the sides, and to end it off, a larger shockwave that only left the smallest gap to get through to finish it off.
A slight hint of annoyance appeared on Susie's face as Frisk was still alive. "You still haven't had enough yet?!" She clenched her axe tighter. "You want more pain?! Then more pain is what you'll get!"
"What is your PROBLEM?!", Frisk yelled back at her. "Why are you like this?!" They were getting incredibly annoyed by this monster's attitude. The dinosaur grinned.
"A small flower told me the guard isn't doing their job. So i decided to take matters into my own hands. Once i deliver them your soul, i'll no longer be some outcast everyone spits on! They'll respect me and do everything i want them to do, because i'll be their hero!" Her grin widened. "And besides, getting to beat someone up is reason in itself for me." As she cleaved her axe through the air, spinning magical axes flew at Frisk.
"Why would they think a jerk like you could EVER be seen as a hero?!", Frisk countered. "Just let me through!" The reptilian monster didn't answer, instead hurling more axes at them while grinning maliciously.
"Talking will not help, i'm afraid…", Asgore remarked. "But if you look closely, maybe you'll notice that axe is the source of her attacks. Maybe if you can take it from her…" Frisk nodded, carefully coming closer to their opponent while axes and shockwaves got blasted at them at increasing speeds. They reached for the axe… But Susie got them first. She lifted them in front of her, showing her teeth.
"Hey kid, let me tell you a little secret… People who think they can outsmart me… PISS. ME. OFF!" She raised her axe. "So i'll cut you in 2, and THEN bite your face right off that head of yours." Frisk closed their eyes waiting for their imminent death, but as the axe hit them, there was no pain, just a loud squeak and the feeling of plastic. As they opened their eyes again, they stared straight into a face of pure embarrassment. Susie harshly threw them onto the ground. "Listen punk! …This never happened! And if you tell this to anyone you're dead!" She threw her "axe" into the snow and ran off faster than the eye could see.

Chapter Text

As Frisk was about to step on the metal bridge, a large metal panel sank down below their feet, and a large amount of white smoke concealed the village on the other side from their sight. They tried to carefully step further, but as they set their foot down, the bridge started to light up yellow for a second, and an electric shock zapped through their body, and they fell backwards in pain. As the smoke started to settle a little and they managed to stand up, a familiar silhouette came into their view.
"THOUGHT YOU COULD CUT THE LINE, DARLING?"
Lights flickered on in front of them, forming a grid of brightly colored tiles that span across the entire bridge. Mettaton flew closer, landing right next to Frisk. "YOU WENT OFF THE RADAR FOR WAY TOO LONG DARLING. I HAD TO POSTPONE ALL OF OUR SHOWS! CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND HOW HARD IT IS TO DISAPPOINT MY BELOVED FANS LIKE THAT?!" Mettaton leaned backwards dramatically, holding his hand above his face, and a teardrop pattern appeared on his screen as his voice emphasised the made-up sadness. "BUT NO WORRIES! BECAUSE THIS DELAY WAS JUST WHAT I NEEDED TO MAKE THE LAST SHOWS THE MOST THRILLING OF THEM ALL! THERE WILL BE DRAMA! ACTION! AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: BLOODSHED!" Fire blasted from the sides of the bridge. "BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES, I PRESENT…"
The "dramatic" silence took way longer than was needed. If only there were crickets, the whole scene would have been complete. "THE MULTICOLOR TILE BRIDGE! A PUZZLE UNLIKE EVER SEEN BEFORE!" With these last words, a cloud of smoke concealed the robot from sight.
As the smoke settled (again), he stood there in his humanoid form, wearing a pair of over the top nerdy glasses and holding a pointer, while standing in front of a cardboard wall with an equally cardboard whiteboard, some illegible notes written on it. "Now, seeing as this is a puzzle of a brand-new design, i'll explain it for the people at home. The tile puzzle is a complex mechanism that consists of multiple tiles of multiple colors, each with a different effect. The red tiles are unable to be passed through, they are surrounded by forcefields. Yellow tiles, as you just saw, are electric. Orange tiles make you smell like oranges, and will cause the deadly piranhas in the blue water tiles to attack you, because they love oranges. Blue tiles also will zap you if they are next to a yellow one. Purple tiles are slippery and will make you slide, but will make you smell like lemons, the arch-nemesis of oranges and piranhas. Pink tiles do absolutely nothing, and green tiles… Uhhh…" He fell silent. "You'll see. Well, onto the show!" He shifted back into his boxed form, hovering over the bridge.
What came next was what felt like hours of wandering and sliding through a maze of colors. Upon stepping on the green tiles, nothing happened besides the tiles making a sound as they stepped on them. All the while, Mettaton was singing some sort of awful song, if you could even call it that, while tauntingly flying in front of Frisk. "Human child! Stuck between tiles! About to break! Their little mind!" It barely even rhymed. Frisk covered their ears as they continued.
At long last, the end was in sight. As they reached the last tile, they basically jumped from the bridge to the snow-covered mainland. Mettaton landed in front of them. "WELL, YOU ALMOST BORED THE AUDIENCE TO DEATH IN THE PROCESS, BUT YOU MADE IT. AND JUST IN TIME, I "REMEMBERED" WHAT THE GREEN TILES DID! THEY MAKE YOU FIGHT A MONSTER: ME!" Their surroundings turned to black… And then suddenly black to normal as they heard a voice.
"stop…"
As Napstablook floated towards them, Mettaton turned around. "WHAT IS IT, BLOOKY? MAKE IT QUICK, I HAVE AN AUDIENCE TO ENTERTAIN, AND A HUMAN SOUL TO OBTAIN."
"that's the thing metta… snowdin is now declared a "no combat zone" by the citizens and the guard...", Napstablook answered. A piece of paper floats near him, which Mettaton hastily grabs and reads.
"BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS BLOOKY! YOU SIGNED THIS PAPER NOT EVEN 10 MINUTES AGO! ARE YOU ACTIVELY SABOTAGING MY SHOW?! MY WAY TO STARDOM?! DON'T YOU WANT ME TO REALIZE MY DREAM?!"
Napstablook started sweating. "metta, of course i do… but please, give the human a break… they have gone through a lot already…" Mettaton gave him a glare of "why would i care", but he continued. "and if you would fight them now, where would the show be… you could always fight them when they're trying to reach waterfall…"
Mettaton scratched his "chin", thinking about it. "THAT'S A WONDERFUL IDEA. YES, AN EXHAUSTED HUMAN DOES NOT MAKE A GOOD OPPONENT." He looked at Frisk. "YOU'RE LUCKY, HUMAN! FOR NOW, YOU MAY LIVE! TOODLES!" With these words, he flew off, leaving Frisk and Napstablook on their own.
"well, you're safe for now…" Napstablook looked at them. "listen, metta… please don't hurt him as you'll confront him…" Frisk nodded, promising they wouldn't. Napstablook smiled. "well, how about i show you around?..."

Chapter Text

Napstablook led them past a sign that read "Welcome to Snowdin Town!", heading towards a building with 2 doors, one having "shop" written above it, and the other "inn". From both sides of the building came a pleasant and welcoming light, and in between the doors, a SAVE star rested on the ground. Frisk touched it, and Napstablook raised an eyebrow. "why are you touching the snow?..." Frisk looked at him, trying to think of how to answer, but it seems the ghost misread their expression. "oh, never mind, it's probably something personal… i shouldn't have asked... i'm sorry..." He vanished a little.
Frisk gave the ghost a smile. "It's fine, it's just… Hard to explain. Let's just say it's something only i can see, okay?"
They wandered into the shop, where a kind-looking bunny monster greeted them. "Oh, hello Napstablook. I see you've brought someone along?" She gave Frisk a look. "It's been a while since the last time i saw a fresh face around here. But how can i help you?"
Frisk looked around the store. It was a rather small room with various seemingly random objects on the shelves. And oh, how adorable. A cinnamon bun in the shape of a bunny. "Can i have one of those?", they asked.
After they bought the Cinnamon Bunny for 25G, their eyes fell on a pair of pink yet tough-looking gloves. They smirked. Maybe they could make Mettaton envious of them. They seemed to like pink after all. "How much?", they asked. After their purchase, Frisk decided to ask a little about the place.
"You want to know what to do here in Snowdin? Well, Grillby's has food, and there's a library with quite a lot of books to read… And if you're tired, you can go to the inn right next door, my sister runs it." The bunny gave Napstablook a glance. "And i suppose you COULD watch his cousin's antics if you're really bored, but…" Out of politeness, she didn't elaborate further, but it seemed to be too late already...
Napstablook vanished slightly. "oh… am i too much?... i'm sorry…" He looked at Frisk. "i'll be waiting for you outside then..." The ghost floated through the wall, backwards.
The shopkeeper let out a sigh. "Didn't mean to upset him… Nothing bad about Napstablook himself, he's great, always there to try and help out. Out of the entire guard, he's the most involved with the town. Unless it comes to his cousin, that is. If it's about him, he vanishes as quickly as possible"
Although they knew all about him, Frisk asked further about Mettaton. Couldn't hurt. The shopkeeper raised her eyebrow slightly. "You wanna know about him? You're a curious one. Well, he's quite the nuisance, to say the least. Putting his shows all throughout the forest, and advertising them very aggressively. If i had 1G for every poster we had to remove from the shop and inn, we'd be decently rich. He really seems to want to get the last human soul, thinks it'll make him famous or something."
"Yeah… I… Noticed...", Frisk brought out. They almost slipped out that they went through his shows and puzzles themselves, but that would have brought attention to their humanity, which didn’t seem like a very good idea. What if she would've called the guard on them? They packed their newly bought stuff and waved the monster goodbye. As they left the shop, they saw Napstablook sitting in the snow outside, their back turned towards the shop.
"metta is not a bad person, you know…", the ghost said as he heard Frisk's footsteps. "he really isn't… it's just… he's taking things too far lately… and i don't know why… i only have vague ideas... oooh, i'm rambling, am i?... i'm sorry…" He floated back up. "want to visit grillby's? my treat…" Frisk nodded in response.
As they reached the restaurant, a brown bear raised his hand. "Morning Napsta." After Napstablook greeted him back and went into Grillby's, the bear turned towards Frisk. "We may not have a mayor, but if stuff's getting out of hand, Napstablook will try to solve it, or tell a skeleton about it so he can. Thaaat's politics!"
The restaurant was lit cozily, and a jukebox played in the back. A humanoid fire monster silently stood behind the bar, cleaning a glass. As they looked to one of the tables, Frisk flinched for a moment, as the 2 dog monsters that attacked them earlier in the forest sat there. However, they didn't seem to pay attention to Frisk, instead saying something about them waiting for a few others, Frisk gathered from their eavesdropping. Napstablook floated towards the bar, where only 2 stools were empty.
"PFRRRRRRRRRRRRT." As Frisk sat down, a loud farting noise came from below, and the hooded figure at the stool next to them chuckled. "come on kid, that's not how ya should behave next to your new pal."

Chapter Text

"come on kid, that's not how ya should behave next to your new pal." Frisk looked at the hooded person who said that, and then pulled out a large plastic cushion from underneath them, after which they held it up towards him. "did noone tell ya this stool is boobytrapped?" The figure reached out his hand towards Frisk. "the name's sans." As Frisk shook his hand, another loud farting noise sounded through the room.
Frisk froze for a moment, before they started laughing. "I'm REALLY bad at dodging those, am i?"
"yup, ya really are." Sans loosened his hand. "so you're a human right? hilarious. say, your voice sounds rather familiar… you're the kid with the wrong phone, aren't cha?"
After a few moments, Frisk finally realized. "Oh! You're that friend of Alphys! The one that called in the Ruins!" Sans grinned (although he already did that).
"yup, the one and only. guess it's time to keep true on my promise huh? grilbz, 2 hotdogs please." The bartender silently handed them over. Sans grabbed a red bottle from his pocket and handed it towards Frisk. "ketchup?"
"Yes please!", Frisk answered. After they were done with it, they handed the bottle back to Sans again. Out of nowhere the skeleton then put it against his mouth and started gulping it down, leaving both Frisk and Napstablook with a very grossed-out face. Grillby looked away, returning to his glass cleaning. "Are you… Seriously DRINKING that just like… That?!", Frisk brought out.
Sans winked. "hey, ain't the weirdest stuff ya can drink kid. like, it could've been mustard. heh, now that'd be ridiculous." Frisk felt a slight discomfort, and from the look on Napstablook's face he felt the same way. Neither of them seemed to want to be rude, however, so they just sat there awkwardly as Sans told the bar a few bad puns. Most of the monsters were laughing loudly in response, even Grillby letting out a snicker, but Frisk could not have figured out the funny part if their life depended on them.
However, mercy soon came in the form of Napstablook's phone buzzing. His face grimmed a little as he picked it up and saw the received message. Frisk's lips silently formed the words "Mettaton?", and Napstablook nodded. "oh, right… i and the kid have an uh… appointment… yeah, we gotta go now… i'm sorry…"
"oh, that's aight." Sans looked away, but looked back at Napstablook as he and Frisk stood up. "guess i should applaud ya for confronting your cousin. not many could do that."
Napstablook flinched, and ectoplasm started dripping from their forehead. "what do you mean with that?... do you think?..."
Sans closed his eyes. "well, ya said you and the kid both have an appointment, and we both know only one person here would have an appointment with a human. ...or were ya perhaps planning to just ditch them and leave them on their own when they'll need ya the most?"
Napstablook looked down ashamed for a moment, but then looked back up, an angry look in his eye that wasn't usual for him, just like the tone in his voice. "it's not like you have the right to talk about family matters, sans. i'll help the human, but it's for her sake, not yours."
Upon hearing the first sentence, an expression of shock appeared on Sans' face. Frisk could swear they saw a glimpse of blue in his eyes, but within an instant, it was gone. Not only that, but so was the white, his eyes now only showing a black void, while the door suddenly opens, releasing the cold wind inside. Frisk stumbled backwards in shock, tripping over their own feet and landing on the floor. Without a word, Sans left a bunch of G on the counter, before turning his back on the 2 and walking out. "…close the door.", Grillby said right after Sans left the building, after which the door slammed shut.
Frisk stared at the door in surprise, no, slight shock would be the better term. "W-what happened?", they brought out. However, Napstablook didn't answer, silently floating out through the closed door. Frisk stood up and ran after him. "W-WAIT!"
As he was outside, the ghost looked around, but Sans was nowhere to be seen. "i'm sorry…", he muttered, before noticing Frisk behind him. A long silence fell, neither of them really knowing what to do now. "sorry…", Napstablook muttered a minute later. "sans was right there… i didn't want to help you truly confront him…" He looked down. "i'm a coward… i'm sorry..."
Frisk tried to lay a hand on his "shoulder" to comfort him, but it phased through. "Hey, if i had cousins i wouldn't want to fight them either. You're not a coward And it sounds like Sans was being unreasonable there, not you. And you promised to help anyways even though you're supposed to kill me like these other guards, so you're the bravest little ghost i know."
Napstablook cheered up a little. "...i am?..." Frisk nodded, and a look of confidence appeared on his face. "let's go then… the sooner it is over, the better…"
The 2 walked past a large house Napstablook mentioned was theirs, until they reached a large fog cloud, which neither of them could see anything in. They wandered inside, and as they approached the center of the fog, a beeping sound came from underneath Frisk. As they looked at their feet they just could see an alarm tile going off, before a voice pierced through the fog.
"Welcome darling, to the greatest and last show you'll ever see!", they heard as Mettaton's silhouette came into Frisk's view as he slowly came closer. "Ladies and gentlemen, today is the day the human will meet their tragic end. Today, we will finally be free! Now let the show begin!" The fog around them started to vanish, forming a clear circle around them. As the duo came into view, Mettaton suddenly flinched. "B-blooky?!"

Chapter Text

An expression of shock lay on Mettaton's face. "Blooky, why are you here?! What are you doing?!"

"i do what i must do, metta…" Napstablook tried to sound confident, but had only a modest amount of success. "please, stop this…"

"No Blooky, i am the one who does what must be done! Get out, or you'll get yourself hurt!" Mettaton's voice sounded with a mix of anger and concern. "I WILL deliver their soul to the queen, and monsters will be free!"

"metta, we both know that is not the reason you are doing this…  you're doing it all for yourself, for your "revenge", your hunt for popularity…", Napstablook countered, visibly having trouble getting the words out. An expression of anger appeared on Mettaton's face, and suddenly, a small jolt of electricity exploded in front of Napstablook, causing him to stumble backwards. Multiple blue laser beams then appeared between the 2, with Frisk stuck on Mettaton's side.

"I'm sorry Blooky, but you know why i have to do this. Besides, this should be YOUR job as a guard member." A television screen floated next to him. "VIEWERS", it read. "Let's see how well monsters will like my show", Mettaton mumbled, before facing Frisk. "But enough talk! Let's dance!" A grid of 9 tiles appeared below Frisk's feet. One started glowing in front of them, before a bolt of lightning struck onto it. They could see the tile below their feet starting to glow as they looked down, and they quickly jumped backwards, right before another bolt struck where they stood just a second ago.

2 glowing tiles, 2 lightning strikes. Then 3, then 4, 5, 6. The difficulty quickly started to ramp up, and it took a while before the tiles finally vanished. Frisk gasped for air in exhaustion. As they looked up, it seemed like Mettaton seemed to be awaiting what THEIR next move would be. They looked at Napstablook for help. The ghost signed at them to strike a pose. Frisk started to balance on one leg, stretching their other leg and arms, careful to not fall. Upon glancing at the monitor, it appeared quite a few people were starting to tune in. That was it! If they could manage to attract viewers while avoiding getting killed, maybe it would distract Mettaton enough for him to let them go.

"Elegant, darling. But how's your memory?" The Television screen flickered blue, orange, blue, blue, orange, before the ground underneath Frisk started to glow. Circles of energy started to launch upwards through Frisk. Blue, orange, blue, blue, orange. They moved and stood still at the right moments, dodging the attack. "Let's up the pace." The screen and circles flickered and launched again, faster, and Frisk somewhat struggled to keep up. Nonetheless, they kept themselves standing.

As it was their turn to ACT, they started taunting Mettaton. "Was that all you got?" In response, Mettaton sent out a few small robots that started to fire heart-shaped objects at Frisk. One ACT later, another mini-ton came, sending out a blinding flash. As Frisk opened their eyes, they could see a half-orange and half-blue protection of their soul floating in front of them, a vague beam of light connecting it to their chest.

"Behold, my fabled colored attack!", Mettaton shouted excitedly. "I'll run you through the basics. Think of where you want the halves to go, blue goes through blue, orange through orange. Good luck!" As Frisk tried to control the soul projection, they found that the blue and orange parts moved separately. After a few moments of testing it out, Mettaton started to fire orange and blue projectiles into the field, many of which were long bars of energy that took up a lot of manoeuvring space. Nonetheless, despite the now odd way of moving around, they managed to survive. 

ACT > Flirt. They decided that maybe flirting would be a good way to boost up the ratings, but they failed miserably at it. Awkwarrrrd. It seems the viewers were increasing for "comedy" though. Mettaton seemed slightly confused. "...Darling, are you… Trying to flirt with me?..." He quickly regained his cool, however. "You think the power of love beats everything? Well, let's give some back!" Minitons started to fly around again, shooting hearts of various colors towards Frisk's soul, a few fortunately being green. Frisk started to become more confident in their abilities to make it out alive.

ACT > Taunt. "I saw those green attacks! You don't want to hurt me, do you? Can't resist my charm?" They exaggeratedly winked. Bold one. While it was good for increasing the viewers, Mettaton seemed to be determined to end them even more now. Frisk's soul returned to normal, before a beam of electricity zapped from Mettaton's fingers. The space Frisk could move in was cut in half, before electric sparks fired from the sides. The most intense attack so far. 

They tried flirting again, much more successfully, and much to Mettaton's annoyance. "Whatever you're trying, it's not going to work. Just give up." Yet, the amount of viewers said otherwise. Frisk was forced to dance again as the grid returned.

More posing, more taunting, more flirting… The battle continued for a while longer, until a loud "DING" sound throughout the area. Mettaton looked towards the screen in surprise. "5.000 VIEWERS REACHED" blinked across the screen. Mettaton looked back at Frisk, and then at the screen. "Did you just…" He regained his composure and started to improvise some lines. "It appears we reached a stalemate, so you're in luck. I'm showing mercy, just this once! And that's not all! Since you seemed to be so insistent on flirting, you've won an exclusive date to celebrate this new record number of viewers." Blue laser beams activated at the path ahead of Frisk. "And yes, it is unskippable, darling. See you there, toodles!" He turned into his box form and flew away.

As the lasers between Frisk and Napstablook vanished, the ghost floated towards them. "oh… you actually did it… good job… thanks for not hurting him..." Frisk gave him a thumbs up, but they weren't entirely happy though. Who knew what kind of things could happen at that "date"?... But they couldn't proceed either. They slowly moved back towards the town.

Chapter Text

They wandered back into the town, stopping in front of Napstablook's house. "well… good luck…", Napstablook said as he opened the door. The interior seemed to be mostly to Mettaton's liking, with a pink carpet lying in front of the door, and a pink couch facing a large television. Quite a lot of pictures could be seen, depicting Mettaton and Napstablook together, with Napstablook mostly in the background. They ignored the door leading to the kitchen, and went upstairs, where they were greeted by 2 very different looking doors. The first door was pink, and looked like something  you'd expect an actor in a theatre to have, with the name "Mettaton" written on it in curly golden letters. The other was plain, painted in a simple white color, with a small name plate attached to it. "Napstablook" was written on it in even smaller letters, so small you'd almost need to squint to make it out. Frisk tried to open Mettaton's door, but it was locked. "oh, metta is probably still busy preparing… so… want to see my room?... it's okay if you don't want to…"

Frisk gave Napstablook a wide smile. "I'd love to." Napstablook seemed to brighten up, and floated through the door, after which an unlocking sound could be heard. As Frisk pushed it open, they were greeted with a rather undecorated room, with only a computer, a shelf with CDs, and a poster-sized picture, depicting the dog monsters Frisk encountered earlier, together with a tall grinning skeleton who was practically shoving Napstablook into the foreground with one of his arms. "WELCOME TO THE ROYAL GUARD!", was written on the bottom of the picture, in the Papyrus font.

 Curiously, there was no bed in the room, or anything that could be used as one. "it's not much…", Napstablook said. "but i hope you like it…" Frisk gave him a thumbs up and said it was nice, though with the curious question where he slept. "oh, just, on the floor… don't worry, i like it there… it's also a family tradition, i guess… laying on the floor, and feeling like-" But they were suddenly interrupted by Mettaton abruptly opening the door.

"THERE YOU ARE, DARLING! COME ON, YOU DON'T LET YOUR DATE WAIT, DO YOU? THAT'S JUST RUDE." Frisk was about to counter that he was the one to let them wait, but the robot was already dragging them out of Napstablook's room, towards his own. "BLOOKY, I'M GOING TO NEED YOU TOO, TO HOLD THE CAMERA."

Frisk sighed. "Camera? So this is all just one of your stupid shows again? Great… (Why did i expect anything else?) Alright, just start, the sooner this'll be done..."

"SPLENDID!" Mettaton rolled to the side. "YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING WHY I AM NOT IN MY MORE HANDSOME FORM. WELL, IT'S SIMPLE! IT'S A PRECAUTION AGAINST ALL THE SHOCKING REVELATIONS THAT WILL COME UP. AFTER ALL, THIS FORM IS NEARLY UNBREAKABLE! BUT PERHAPS A DRESS WILL HELP ME WITH BEING MORE GORGEOUS." He pulled a blue dress from a cabinet and put it on. Frisk thought it looked silly. Mettaton clearly didn't. "MUCH BETTER."

The date was as annoying as Frisk already expected. It was as cheesy as could be, with basically every focus being on Mettaton himself, rather than Frisk. Even for fake date standards, this was a low bar. They grew more and more impatient by the minute. Would this ever end? 

"DARLING, COULD YOU PLEASE LOOK AROUND THIS ROOM AND SEE IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING?" Frisk had been half-dozing off as Mettaton kept talking, but with this sudden question, they were snapped right out of it.

"Huh, what did you say?" Mettaton repeated his question with a slightly annoyed tone, and remarked that they should pay attention. Slowly, Frisk stood up and wandered around, looking if there was anything in the room that was interesting enough to ask about. Most of it was very Mettaton-centric, and not interesting at all, but one thing caught their eye, specifically because it was so non-Mettaton. A small photo, depicting a fish-like monster, with "LAUREN" written on it, with a small heart. They picked it up. "Your girlfriend?" 

Mettaton quickly rushed towards them, almost panickedly shouting "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" He grabbed it out of Frisk's hands, and after a few seconds, he quickly added "AND NO, SHE'S JUST A FRIEND."

This sudden reaction startled Frisk. But it also intrigued them. If she was just a friend, why did Mettaton react so strongly? Who was this person? "You're… Rather protective of that picture, are you? Mind… Sharing why?"

Mettaton quietly looked at the photo, contemplating if he should talk about it. With a sigh, he eventually started to speak. "FINE… THIS... ISN'T SOMETHING MANY PEOPLE KNOW OF. BUT MAYBE I SHOULD JUST… LET IT OUT. MOST PEOPLE THINK MY HATE FOR ASRIEL STEMS FROM PURE JEALOUSY, BUT LAUREN... SHE'S THE TRUE REASON." Frisk looked curiously, waving their hand in a "go on" manner. "WE WERE GOOD FRIENDS BACK IN THE DAY, WHEN TIMES WERE... SIMPLER. I DIDN'T HAVE THIS BODY YET, AND WE WERE BOTH AIMING FOR THE STARS, WANTING TO BECOME THE FACE OF THE UNDERGROUND'S TELEVISION. AND LAUREN SUCCEEDED IN SETTING UP QUITE A POPULAR NEWS STATION, AND NOONE BROUGHT THE NEWS AS GOOD AS SHE DID! I WAS SO HAPPY FOR HER!"

He clenched his fist, and looked downwards. "BUT THEN ASRIEL CAME. AND WITH THE QUEEN'S SUPPORT, HIS NEW CHANNELS, THEY SUFFOCATED THE SMALLER ONES, CAUSING THEM TO HAVE TO CLOSE ONE BY ONE!" He sighed. "AND LAUREN... SHE COULDN'T HANDLE IT, SHE NEARLY FELL DOWN... ONLY THROUGH THE SUPPORT OF ME, BLOOKY AND HER SISTER, WE MANAGED TO PULL HER AWAY FROM A CERTAIN DEATH. …AND WE ONLY BARELY SUCCEEDED…"

He fell silent for a moment, but then started yelling. "AND ASRIEL?! HE DIDN'T CARE AT ALL! "STAY POSITIVE, I PROMISE I WILL LET YOU SEE THE SUN AND FULFILL YOUR DREAMS, BLAH BLAH BLAH!" HE KEEPS SAYING THESE HOLLOW WORDS! BUT MY CLOSEST FRIEND NEARLY DIED BECAUSE OF HIM, AS HE CRUSHED HER DREAMS! SHE NEARLY LOST HER CHANCE TO SEE THE SUN! BUT ASRIEL NEVER TRULY CARED ABOUT ANY OF US! HE'S NOTHING BUT A LYING-'' He decided to swallow the insult and gasped for air, although staged (robots don't breathe) and overdramatically, before looking towards Frisk, softly concluding "THAT'S WHY I HATE HIM SO MUCH." 

Frisk laid a hand on his... shoulder? Even though Mettaton had been a complete asshole towards them for the last few days, they sort of started to... Sympathize with him? However, they were disturbed when Mettaton's phone started buzzing repeatedly. Mettaton quickly picked it up, his expression becoming more and more surprised by the second as he scrolled through. "DARLING... WE JUST WENT VIRAL."

Chapter Text

Undyne let out a deep sigh as she looked at the fight that played out on her phone, before quickly closing it to open up her messages. Aside from Napstablook, every single guardsman and -woman in Snowdin reported the same thing to her: A human has made its way through Snowdin, and was now headed towards Waterfall. With another sigh, she turned off her phone and laid it down on the table.

So it was true. Another human had fallen down. She deeply hoped that someone else would manage to deal with them instead before they could reach New Home, but if not… "One last time", she told herself. "One last time, and it will all be over." She grimaced. "Then monsters will finally be free. We will see the sun again. So be happy goddamnit!"

She returned to the throne room, telling the guardsman standing there that she didn't want to see anybody, unless it was for something very urgent. She took place on the throne, and just… Waited. Waited for the human to finally arrive, whether it'd be alive, or as a soul in a jar. The echoes of the Echo Flowers planted in the throne room started to sound again, the last words of the 6 she had slain. "Shut up!", she shouted, throwing a spear up in front of her, which crashed into the wall above the doorway. Just like many had done before it, leaving said wall to look like swiss cheese.

Chapter Text

At last, Frisk could finally proceed into Waterfall, and it didn't take long for the wintery landscape of Snowdin to transition to somber blues, puddles of water and the occasional small crystals. As the river they walked past made a turn and Frisk wandered into the caverns themselves, they could see a small empty sentry post. A yellow armless monster in a white shirt that was standing there quickly rushed away upon spotting them approaching. "Huh, wonder what their deal is", Frisk shrugged off.
"Huh, wonder what their deal is", suddenly sounded again, from their side… And with their own voice. When they quickly turned towards where it came from in surprise, all they saw was a blue glowing flower. "W-who is there?!" No response. No movement, no sound, nothing. Rather paranoid now, Frisk carefully stepped further into the caverns, where they saw a waterfall, with a wooden platform put underneath it. A row of spikes blocked the path on the other side of the waterfall, so Frisk looked around to see if there was anything to disable it. While they didn't find a switch of any kind aside from a lever on the other side of the spikes, it seemed something cloth-like was hanging from the planks. Frisk carefully made their way down there, and as they pulled it loose, it appeared to be a nurse uniform. A new piece of equipment that could be useful.
Back to puzzle solving. They wandered across the stream until they saw there was something behind the waterfall. A cave! They rushed through the falling water into the cavern behind it. Behind the waterfall, they saw a large block on one side of the room, and a switch on the other. They pushed it onto the switch, and a click sounded from the wall, and when they were back out, they saw the spikes were lowered.
As they walked into some extremely tall sort of grass, 2 voices sounded from the cliff above. "ARE YOU SURE YOU SAW THE HUMAN?"
"Yeah, absolutely sure! Look, i activated the puzzle and now the spikes are gone!" Lacking arms, the kid pointed their tail towards it."
"BUT THAT MEANS THE HUMAN IS SOMEWHERE AROUND HERE." He moved closer to the edge, looking at the grass. Frisk tried to hold their breath as best as they could. Suddenly, they felt something pulling them upwards, before floating in the air, face to face with the tall skeleton they saw on Napstablook's picture, with the child from before standing next to him. "I KNEW IT! HUMAN, BE HONORED THAT YOU ARE FACING THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD!" The skeleton thought for a moment. "WHILE I COULD BRING YOUR SOUL TO UNDYNE NOW… I AM GIVING YOU A FAIR CHANCE HUMAN. MAKE IT THROUGH MY ARSENAL OF PUZZLES, TRAPS AND CHALLENGES, AND I SHALL LET YOU REACH HOTLAND!" Frisk didn't have much other choice but to nod. "SPLENDID!", Papyrus continued, before dropping Frisk back onto the ground. "ONWARDS TO THE FIRST CHALLENGE, MK!"
"Aye aye!", the kid shouted, before the 2 headed onwards to who-knew-where. Frisk slowly stood up, slightly sore from the harsh drop. "Well, at least he didn't try to immediately kill you", Asgore remarked slightly optimistically.
"Yeah…" Frisk slowly proceeded further. Another SAVE point. The fact they had at least a chance filled them with DETERMINATION.

Chapter Text

Frisk made their way further, until their progress was blocked by a river. As they looked through the room to look for a way forward, Papyrus' voice came from above. He and Monster Kid were standing on an elevated platform, a retractable ladder (which was currently in retracted mode) leading up to it. A basket was laying underneath "WELCOME, HUMAN, TO THE FIRST PUZZLE! I CALL IT "CATCH THE SEEDS!" THE GOAL IS SIMPLE. I'LL THROW BRIDGE SEEDS AND BONES TOWARDS YOU, THE GOAL IS TO CATCH 4 SEEDS IN THAT BASKET WITHIN THE TIME LIMIT, WHILE MY BONES TRY TO KNOCK THEM OUT OF IT. IF YOU GET 4 SEEDS WITHIN ONE AND A HALF MINUTE, YOU MAY USE THEM TO PROCEED. BUT FAIL, AND YOU'LL BE OUR PRISONER!" Spikes suddenly rose up from the floor. "NOW, GRAB THE BASKET, AND THE PUZZLE BEGINS."
As Frisk took the basket, immediately it started raining bones and seeds around them, and they desperately had to scoop up the seeds from the air. But surprisingly, they were enjoying this, despite how exhausting it was. It was barely within the time limit that they collected the 4 seeds required. "I got them!", they yelled, holding the basket high into the air.
"INCREDIBLE!" Papyrus didn't even seem mad or disappointed. "NOBODY HAS EVER BEATEN THIS CHALLENGE!"
"Uhh, that's because noone has ever tried it before, yo", Monster Kid responded. Though Papyrus didn't notice.
"WHAT YOU DO NOW IS VERY SIMPLE. SO SIMPLE, IN FACT, I'LL LET YOU FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF!" His grin turned a bit more menacing all of a sudden. "AND IF YOU CAN'T, YOU'LL BE MY PRISONER ANYWAYS! NYEHEHEH!"
Frisk looked at the water for a while, as they tried to figure out how some seeds could help them cross a river. Very quietly, they asked Asgore "What do i do?"
Asgore let out a friendly laugh. "You're lucky i was a big gardener during life. You know how they are called bridge seeds? Because they make bridges. They grow when you place 4 of them next to each other in the water. It's a marvel how fast they do so! But look, the gap there is just big enough to fit them all."
Frisk carefully put the seeds in the water, and much to their surprise, it actually worked! The seeds sprouted into large flowers, connecting to form a bridge.
"CONGRATULATIONS, HUMAN! BUT WHILE YOU SUCCEEDED THE FIRST OF MY CHALLENGES, THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING! BEFORE YOU REACH THE HOTLANDS, YOU'LL BE BROUGHT TO UNDYNE, EITHER DEAD OR ALIVE!" With these words, he took Monster Kid on his shoulder, and started… Walking through the air? Strange.
Frisk made their way through another room of bridge seeds, where they ended up responsible for a lonely quiche that had been abandoned, and got told by a sign they wanted to expect they failed the puzzle by trying to inspect it. Rude. As they made their way out of there, they were greeted with many echo flowers, talking about wishes from the sounds of it. 2 sisters, wanting to see the real stars. Both sweet and heart wrenching at the same time… A telescope aimed towards the ceiling high above them, guarded by a buff mermaid horse monster. Another monster seemed to be cleaning the cave's walls. As they approached the telescope, the 2 suddenly came towards them.

One fight with Aaron and Woshua later…

As the merhorse monster flexed away, and the other decided to go clean the bridge seeds, Frisk could now focus on the telescope. Was it just simulating stargazing with the crystals on the ceiling? Or did it have another purpose? Frisk moved it around. Wait, what were these dark spots that repeatedly briefly blocked the view of the crystals? They moved it towards one of the large blue spots in the corners…
"CHECK WALL ^" Well that couldn't be more obvious. As they touched the wall in the indent on the back of the cave, the wall suddenly vanished as their fingers touched the stone, and a doorway appeared. Behind it seemed to be docks for something. They stepped outside.
Ancient plaques covered the wall in front of them, telling a tale of a war, of the power of a human soul, how it could turn monsters into horrific creatures… It was unsettling, not helped by the pitch black water the docks were leading to, with only a way too small wooden raft being there to cross it.
Another Woshua appeared to be cleaning a sign, and after swiftly sparing it, they took a look. The text was barely legible, most of the letters mostly scrubbed off by the clean freak. "D_ N__ _OR__! __E __FT G__S AU__M_T__AL_Y _NC_ ___ _IT _O_N ON _T! -__E __EAT CAP___N P_PY__S"
Hesitantly, Frisk took place on the raft, just barely fitting. Slowly, it crossed the dark and wide body of water (they could not make out if it was a river or a lake), leading to another set of docks, stone pillars looming over it from one side. As soon as they set foot on it, the raft was pulled back. Something told Frisk swimming back would be a terrible idea. So this meant they were stuck here, in this ominous place…

Chapter Text

As Frisk stepped further onto the docks, a silhouette suddenly appeared from in between the pillars: One that was all too familiar now. But when Papyrus spoke, somehow, his voice sounded different. More sinister. "RUN, HUMAN."
Suddenly, a row of bones emerged behind them, and the skeleton started to fire more straight at them. They started running, and more bones emerged from the wood. The docks were fairly oddly shaped, turning with no rhyme or reason at multiple points. Multiple X's were scattered across the wooden platform, and they could see spikes blocking their path in the distance. As they stepped over one of the X' panels, it turned into an O. They groaned. Not just were they getting relentlessly attacked, it also was a puzzle at the same time?! Dodging the bones (with moderate success), they made their way over the tiles, very careful to not hit them twice, which was much easier said than done when at some points the bones forced them backwards. But eventually, the last panel was in sight, and with a click, the spikes retracted. When they stepped across, Papyrus disappeared into the shadows as soon as he emerged. Frisk stopped inside a tall patch of grass, panting. They waited to hear if anyone was coming for them, but it seemed the coast was clear. Carefully, they left the grass, to see where they were now.
An empty and honestly ridiculously small dock was sticking into the water, and in the cave in front of them, they could see the glow of a SAVE point. Finally, a place to rest. The entrance of the cave appeared to have another mouse hole, with a table with crystallized cheese standing near it. Next to it stood a spray can of "cheese anti-crystallizer", but alas, it seemed the mouse was unable to use it. How sad.
They decided to spray the crystal. The idea that the mouse might get the cheese after all filled them with DETERMINATION.
After resting up a little, they moved further, sidetracking a little to buy something from the Nice Cream Guy in the process. It seemed the cave was already ending, as after slipping through a poorly made gate, they now reached a swamp-like environment with strange blue glowing water. They weren't sure if they'd have the pitch black water or this, and hoped the glow wasn't due to it being radioactive. Frisk shivered at the thought.
2 figures could be seen further ahead, clearly being Papyrus and Monster Kid. Frisk approached with a sigh. “Alright, what kind of puzzle are you gonna put me through now?” As Papyrus turned around to face them, they noticed a stache of rather italian appearance on his face. Monster Kid meanwhile wore some sort of black uniform. “And why that mustache?”
“PAPYRUS? I DON'T-A KNOW WHO THAT-A IS-A”, Papyrus started talking in the most insultingly fake Italian accent imaginable. “THOUGH HE SOUNDS-A LIKE A HANDSOME-A GUY... MY NAME-A IS ERR... GIOVANNI. YES, GIOVANNI. AND THIS-A IS MY FRIEND… MY FRIEND…” He leaned towards Monster Kid, whispering “QUICK, WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”
“Uhhh, Rocket?”
“OH YEAH, THAT'S-A RIGHT, ROCKET.” He stood up straight again. “WE'RE-A COOKS, BUT WE LOST-A OUR-A TOOLS-A TO MAKE-A OUR-A FABLED SPAGHETTI.”
“It is like super famous yo, if you start eating you'll never want anything else!”, Monster Kid added to it, leaving definitely-not-Papyrus a little annoyed.
“ROCKET! I TOLD-A YOU NOT TO SAY-A "YO" WHEN WE ARE-A TRYING TO SEEM-A PROFESSIONAL-A!” Monster Kid quickly apologized, barely managing to not slip up and call him Papyrus.
“(Is this for real?)”, Frisk thought to themselves, confusedly asking. “So only a few minutes ago you chased me with bones everywhere, and now THIS is your plan, Papyrus?”
A silence fell, before Papyrus asked “CHASE YOU? WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?” Somehow, it felt like he was not talking in-character this time.
“Back there? At that weird dock?”, Frisk asked confusedly. "You threw like, a thousand bones at me there!"
Papyrus sweated nervously. "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT…"
Frisk sighed. "Nevermind… Now where did you "lose" those tools?"
"SOMEWHERE-A ON THE OTHER SIDE-A OF THIS-A MARSH-A. GOOD-A LUCK-A." It seemed he was back in his role again, even after his identity was exposed. With another sigh, Frisk proceeded, the echo flowers repeating a conversation about wishes as they passed by. A side path led to a large patch of grass, which Frisk figured was the perfect place to “lose” some tools, so they went ahead to inspect it…
... Instead, what they found was a somewhat red stained nurse uniform, covering a medicine case. Were these items from previous humans? Somewhat hesitantly, Frisk took them. Now, where were these tools?...