Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Again.” Mari coldly stated. Nothing more, nothing less. As Sunny readjusted his grip on the violin he couldn’t help but feel like crying. They’ve been practicing for hours by now and his hands were starting to cramp. Sunny’s previously good mood had vanished, not to be seen anywhere around. He’s already asked Mari for a break, but she had just said he needed more practice, not rest.

It wouldn’t hurt to take a little break, breaks are supposed to be a time to regain strength to come back stronger. Not to mention they’ve been at this for hours and Sunny was only getting worse. 

So why wouldn’t Mari let him?

Thinking about it made him angry and frustrated, he’s been doing nothing but practicing these past few months. He couldn’t recall a time where he got to just hangout with his friends either. And Mari was still getting mad at him. She even accused Sunny of fooling around and not taking this seriously. But Sunny was trying! He was trying his hardest…

Quietly signing he decided that even if Mari disagreed he needed to take a short break as he could feel a headache coming on. He placed the violin and bow down in the case and tried to silently walk out of the room. Unfortunately at that moment Mari reached the part where Sunny was supposed to start playing. And since he didn’t-

PLAMB!

Slamming her fists onto the keys Mari turned around towards where Sunny was standing and was met with only empty space. Spinning around so fast she got whiplash, she now faced the door where Sunny was standing.

”She looks pissed off.”

He thought as he quickly ran out of the room and started down the stairs. He could hear Mari yelling behind him and the scraping sound of the piano bench, but the adrenaline drove him forward as he threw open the back door and started to run towards the woods where the tree house was.

It wasn’t hard to outrun Mari, with her bad knee and all. But Sunny just wanted to get as far away from the house, away from the dreaded piano, away from Mari, as fast as he could.

Pumping his arms he vaguely recognized that he was now passing the treehouse and entering the forest behind it. Sunny could no longer hear Mari as he ran past tree after tree. Not a destination in mind he continued forward.

If it weren’t for the pounding headache he now had he might have seen that the forest was getting unnaturally darker. Unfortunately for Sunny he didn’t pay attention to it until he nearly passed out. Leaning against a tree he panted heavily, trying to get air into his aching body.

It was only now that he looked up and noticed that the air around him was oddly dark and felt off. Wiping sweat off his forehead he walked forward not really sure where to go from here. He was about to turn around when he noticed something ahead. Continuing forward he saw a red door… in the ground?

“Is it supposed to be a bunker? What is a bunker doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”

Sunny started towards it to see if it would open, out of curiosity. But he wasn’t looking where he was walking and his foot got stuck on a root. Falling forwards his shoulder hit a rock which sent shooting pains up his arm as it pierced through his clothes and his skin. Sunny then face planted onto the ground which was the last thing he remembered before passing out.

If you were to tell Noelle that she would sneak out of her house and go on a midnight walk with a childhood friend whom she hadn’t had a real conversation with in years in the middle of the dark, slightly spooky woods… she probably would have laughed at the absurdity of the idea.

But yet here she was. An hour or so earlier she had snuck out of her house. Having got into a fight with her mother she decided she needed to get some fresh air. She barely reached the crossroad area when she ran into Kris. They stood there just staring at each other for few minutes before Kris had given her a small wave.

And that had somehow turned into a conversation which resulted in Kris telling her that they were going for a walk in the woods. According to them the woods blocked out the lights and noise of the town which allowed for some peace of mind. They invited her to tag along if she wanted to. Giving Kris a small smile and an affirmation she walked next to them as the two walked towards the woods.

”So Kris… how have you been doing? It’s been a while since we’ve properly talked.”

Kris gave a nod, then tilted their head towards Noelle.

”Ah- well I’ve been doing okay. My father is still in the hospital and my mother is still as tight knit as ever. You’ve met her before, you know how she is.”

Noelle sighed softly as she watched Kris nod again. A small smile appeared on her face. Kris was never a person of many words, especially around others they didn’t know well. Even if many would call this a one sided conversation, she knew Kris was listening and was responding in their own way.

Noelle breathed in the fresh air as they walked through the forest in comfortable silence. Her smile growing into one of contempt as she thought back to what Kris told her when they ran into each other at the crossroad.

”Kris was right. The woods are so peaceful at night.”

The thick trunks cover up the entire town, no lights or city sounds broke through the wooded wall. Noelle could only hear the sound of wind though the rustling leaves and their footsteps.

Which is why she was surprised when Kris suddenly spoke up.

”Wait.”

Noelle was so startled by Kris suddenly speaking that she stopped instantly. Albeit a little worriedly.

”Kris? What’s wrong? Did you hear something?”

”Weird noise upwards.”

“A noise? But I didn’t hear anything. And I here I thought I had better hearing than Kris.”

”Oh, well- do you want to check it out?”

Noelle would refuse to go alone, after all she did grow up with Kris. Since she didn’t hear anything she wouldn’t be surprised if they were trying to trick her again, like they were little. But to her surprise they nodded, grabbed her hand and started running forward.

Since she was taken off guard it was more like she was being dragged along but once Noelle realized she was being pulled she corrected her stance and started to run next to Kris. 

They ran for a few minutes before Kris let go of her hand and started to look around the little clearing they were in.

”Are you sure you heard something Kris?”

But all she got was a nod. They looked around a few more times before pointing between two trees and hurried that way. Noelle sighed as she ran after them. She was really starting to doubt their hearing and didn’t see that Kris had stopped in front of her which led her crashing straight into Kris.

”Kris! Maybe you just heard the trees or the city and-“

Noelle let out a gasp. She was walking around where Kris had suddenly stopped when she spotted the reason they had stopped so abruptly. In front of them on the ground was a small, human child. And below the child looked to be… blood!?

”Oh my gosh! Kris! The-they’re bleeding! We- we have to do something!” 

Quickly hopping forward next to the child she picked up their uninjured arm and felt for a pulse, which luckily she could feel one. It was weak but it was there nonetheless.

“Kris! Look after the child! I’m going to get Ms. Toriel for help!”

And with that Noelle was quickly gone. But Kris stayed in the same spot. All their life they have grown up with the monsters. Not ever seeing another human around, but yet here one was- bleeding out on the ground.

Frowning, Kris stumbled forward and tried to gently flip the child over. Once they did they were able to see a small wound in the child’s shoulder. Sitting on the ground Kris pulled the child into their lap letting his head rest against their chest.

”They’re so tiny. How old even is this child?”

Kris lifted their hand to the wound and pressed against it. They remember reading somewhere you’re supposed to put pressure on a wound, right? Well hopefully that’s what you’re supposed to do. Hopefully Noelle would be quick.

Chapter Text

Noelle ran as quickly as she could. She was determined to get help for the child. Making note of certain trees and rocks she continued forward. Hopefully she would remember the way back to Kris. As she was running Noelle couldn’t stop the worries filling her mind.

”Hopefully Ms. Toriel won’t be grumpy when I wake her up. Hopefully Kris won’t be in too much trouble for sneaking out at night. Hopefully the child will still be alive when I get back. If I don’t make it in time does that mean it’s my fault?

Trying to stop that train of thought Noelle shook her head and realized she was already at Kris’s house. Moving up to the front porch she knocked on the door. Keeping her knocks consistent and as loud as she dared, she almost didn’t realize when the door began to open.

“Noelle? What are you doing here so late?”

”Ms. Toriel! Please! Kris and I found a child who is injured! They need help!”

Noelle watched as Toriel’s eyes widened as she raced back into the house. Peering inside she could see Toriel going through the cabinets in her kitchen. It wasn’t long before Toriel was back holding a med-kit while closing the door.

”Bring me to them please.”

Noelle nodded and started off towards the woods. She hoped Kris was able to somewhat stop the bleeding.

Mari knows she probably should have tried to go after Sunny. But at that moment she honestly didn’t care. She couldn’t believe how he had been acting recently. Did he want her to fail the recital?

Closing the back door so bugs wouldn’t get in, Mari walked back up the stairs and sat down at the piano bench. If Sunny wasn’t going to perfect his part then Mari needed to make sure that her part was perfect. Maybe the judges wouldn’t pay attention to Sunny’s mistakes.

It wasn’t until she heard knocking at the door that she looked up from the piano. Mari had been trying to memorize the music in hopes that would add extra points or make up for Sunny’s lack of points. Looking around she saw that it was dark out now.

”And Sunny never came back to finish practicing.”

Scoffing, she got up and went to answer the door. Upon opening the door she was met with Aubrey and Basil. Basil was holding his camera as Aubrey’s smile grew bigger.

”Mari!”

Aubrey leaped forward to give Mari a hug. She smiled as she hugged Aubrey back. She looked up to see Basil nervously closing the door.

”Hopefully you don’t mind us visiting. We were worried you guys were still practicing.”

”No, it’s fine. I was still going but Sunny apparently decided he was done for the day.”

”You were going this late? But you and Sunny sound so good!”

Aubrey frowned in worry. She didn’t want her friends pushing themselves too hard. If you asked her they couldn’t get any better because they were already so good. But Mari always said that practice makes perfect.

”Of course! You can never get enough practice!”

”Do you know where Sunny is? We brought some notes from school since he missed school today.”

Mari didn’t see the bag Basil had on at first. But that was probably where his notes were. She gave a slightly forced smile, trying to make it seem genuine.

”He went out for a walk earlier but he should be back by now. You can go up and check the room.”

”Okay! Thanks Mari! Bye!!”

Aubrey gleefully skipped towards the stairs as Basil gave a shy wave and followed after her. Mari smiled back in response. But once they went up the stairs Mari could feel her smile disappear. She would have to talk to Sunny later about skipping practices.

Heading towards the cabinet Mari was going to make herself a snack. Since she accidentally skipped lunch because of practice she was feeling hungrier than usual.

As she was running the options through her head she heard Aubrey shout from upstairs.

”Sunny’s not here! Are you sure he isn’t still on his walk?”

Mari froze. She knows that Sunny left the house in the afternoon and that if he wasn’t back then that would mean he’s been out for hours by now.

”Where did he go? He couldn’t have gone to anyone’s house as they were all at school. Is he in the tree house?”

”Basil! Aubrey! Can you two check the treehouse for me? I’ll call Hero and Kel to see if he’s at their house!”

Closing the cabinet she saw Basil and Aubrey going down the stairs. Basil made a stop at the table to place his backpack and camera there before running to catch up with Aubrey who was already outside. Meanwhile Mari went to go make a call.

She had just finished her call with Hero when she Basil and Aubrey walk back in… without Sunny. That made Mari worried. Hero had told her that Sunny wasn’t there with him and Kel, and since he wasn’t in the treehouse, where could he be?

”He wasn’t in the treehouse.”

Aubrey hummed, agreeing with Basil as the front door open again. Kel came running in as Hero came in a bit more quietly. Kel was chatting with Basil and Aubrey as Hero came over to check in with Mari.

”You didn’t find him?”

”No. I don’t know where else he could be-“

“What if Sunny’s at the hangout spot?”

Kel interrupted their conversation. Mari thought about it and decided that he could be there, but wondered why he hasn’t come back yet. Maybe he fell asleep?

”I could go check if you want.” Hero suggested.

”Uhm- no offense Hero, but you’re not a very fast runner. I could go run there so fast and be back, maybe not as fast since Sunny is also not a fast runner.”

”What-? Kel, I’m not going to let you go off by yourself, that’s dangerous!”

Aubrey was listening to their conversation with interest. There was no doubt about it that Kel was the fastest runner out of their group, but whenever they held races she was the only one who could keep up with him.

”I’ll go with Kel! That way he won’t be alone but we can still go see if Sunny is there.”

”Yeah, yeah! C’mon Hero, we’re the fastest and we won’t be alone!”

”That isn’t what I meant, I mean that you’re too young to be-“

“Thanks Hero bye!”

Kel shouted as he grabbed Aubrey’s hand and together they rushed out of the house and down the street. Aubrey had been slowly inching closer to Kel, they both knew that they were going to have to make a dash for it once they got a chance.

”Hey you two- Get back here!”

Aubrey and Kel grinned at each other. They heard Hero shouting behind them, but unfortunately for him, they were already to far ahead for him to catch them.

“Don’t worry Hero! We’ll be back with Sunny!”

Hero sighed as he walked back to the house where Mari and Basil were standing outside watching in shock. 

“Don’t worry, they have each other to protect themselves!”

Basil tried to cheer them up. It didn’t work and the three went back inside in silence as they waited for Aubrey and Kel to came back either with or without Sunny.

Chapter Text

Kris was waiting for Noelle and probably their mom to get there and help them when they felt movement from the child laying in their lap. Kris froze, they weren’t good with children.

“Hopefully the child won’t run off and will wait for mom and Noelle.”

Unfortunately for Kris their hopes were crushed as the child continued to stir and after a few minutes opened their eyes enough to throw himself to the side in panic.

”Wait!”

Alarmed Kris reached out to grab the child to keep him from falling on the ground, but that just panicked them further.

”What-? Where- where am I?”

Kris watched as the child’s eyes darted back and forth trying to make sense of where they were.

”They’re probably gonna get a panic attack if I don’t do something quickly.”

”Hey, it’s alright. I found you in the ground, my friend’s getting help.”

Kris tried their best to speak calmly in hopes to soothe the child, which had some sort of effect. They waited a few more minutes as his breathing started to slow.

”Who are you?”

”Kris.”

The children continued to look around the area they were in. Kris answered their question in hopes it would keep them talking, that’s what you supposed to do right?

”How- how did I get here?”

”I’m not sure, you were just laying in the ground bleeding out.”

”Oh… my shoulder hurts…”

If this was a different situation involving someone who wasn’t a little child Kris might have laughed, but at this moment Kris was more concerned as to when Noelle would get back.

”Hmm, Noelle should be back soon.”

Kris told him, not that the child would know who Noelle was. They watched as their face scrunched up slightly, probably from the pain. As he placed his hand on Kris’s hand which was still on his shoulder Kris could see tears start to form in the corner of the child’s eyes.

Not wanting to deal with a crying child, (and totally not because Kris felt bad for him) they pulled him in for a weird sideways hug. But it seemed to help the child as he pressed his face against Kris’s shoulder and leaned against them.

“What’s your name?”

”…Sunny”

Kris awkwardly patted Sunny’s back. Which just resulted in the child trying to snuggle up against them. It wasn’t till then that Kris could see he was shaking slightly.

”He’s probably cold.”

They should have realized that. Sunny was just laying unconscious on the ground in the middle of nowhere.

It was then that Kris heard distance footsteps only proceeding to get louder.

”We’re almost there!”

Kris could hear Noelle now. Assuming that their mom was with her they poked Sunny, trying to get his attention since he started to become scared again.

“It’s my friend, she probably brought help for you.”

He didn’t have time to respond as at that moment Noelle and Toriel came into view. Toriel came closer and started taking stuff out of her med box. Kris could see that Sunny’s eyes had widened and his grip on them had tightened. 

“He’s probably never seen a monster before.”

After all, Kris couldn’t remember ever seeing seeing another human before.

“Hold still please my child.”

Toriel began wrapping bandages over the shirt. She was going to have to redo them once they got back to her house but right now she just wanted to stop the bleeding.

Sunny wasn’t sure what to think. He was currently watching a goat lady wrap bandages around his wound. He remembered now. He remembered how he fell on a rock after running from his sister. But he doesn’t remember how he got here.

”There, that will hold for now my child. I will properly bandage it once we get to my house.”

Sunny didn’t understand, why he was going to her house. Where his sister? Or his parents? Or one of his friends?

”Excuse me, but do you know where I am, I need to get back home before my parents worry.”

”You’re in Hometown.”

The deer were who had been quiet so far had spoken up. But Sunny didn’t know of a Hometown.

”Do you know where the town Faraway is?”

”Faraway? I’m afraid not my child.”

The goat lady didn’t know? But he couldn’t have gone that far, did he?

”I could try to search for the town at the computer at home if you like.”

Sunny nodded, the lady had helped his wounds and Kris and and the deer seemed nice.

”Do you feel okay enough to walk?”

Sunny nodded again and held onto Kris’s sleeve, which made the goat lady smile. She has said something else but Sunny wasn’t paying attention. Instead he followed forward when Kris started tugging him to keep up.

Aubrey and Kel were currently running towards their hangout spot. At some point it had turned into a sort of race to see who could get there first.

They had just reached the entrance of the trees and bushes with Kel slightly in front of Aubrey.

”Awh! No fair! I bet you cheated!”

”What!? How would I even cheat?”

They kept bickering even as they continued forward. Despite arguing they didn’t forget why they had come here in the first place. But all talk had died once they entered the area.

They didn’t have to walk any further to see that Sunny wasn’t there. They could see the dock, their pinwheels, the picnic blanket Mari had left from their last picnic. It didn’t look like it has been touched recently.

”Sunny’s not here?”

Aubrey was confused. If Sunny wasn’t here, the treehouse, or with someone else where else could he be? He wouldn’t be swimming since he was scared of the water and she didn’t see him at the park when she raced by with Kel.

”Kel? Where could he be?”

Turning to look at him Aubrey could see her vision was starting to get blurry as she felt tears appear in her eyes.

“I- I’m not sure. Aubrey…”

Aubrey wanted to scream and cry, instead she focused on trying to stay calm and was barely to get her next words out.

”Kel- I think Sunny is missing-“

Chapter Text

After having to wait a day to report Sunny to the police station, they did a search of the area. After not being able to locate him the police had to start an investigation, which they started by questioning Sunny’s friends and family for what they knew.

“I was practicing the piano upstairs when he decided to take a walk in the backyard. I got so caught up in practice I didn’t even realize he never came back until it was to late.”

“Sunny wasn’t at school that day, so I went over to his house with Aubrey to deliver what he missed. He wasn’t in his room or our treehouse, Mari said he went for a walk though. I do know that the recital has been really stressing him out recently, it’s has been putting a lot of pressure on him.”

“Basil and I were going over to visit Mari and Sunny, but when we got there Sunny wasn’t there. I remember checking the treehouse with Basil and then I ran with Kel towards the lake behind the park. But he wasn’t there either!”

“I was with playing fetch with Hector when Hero came out and told me that Sunny had gotten lost. When we got to their house Aubrey and I ran to the park to check if he was at the lake, except he wasn’t there either.”

“I was inside checking over Kel’s homework when I got a call from Mari asking if Sunny was at our house, which he wasn’t. When we went over Mari was in a such a state of panic I wasn’t able to stop Kel and Aubrey from running off to check the lake behind the park.”

The police continued to sweep the area but came up with nothing, not even a scrap of cloth. Mari and her parents were informed that Sunny could have been kidnapped. When word got out that Sunny may have been kidnapped the town descended into a frenzy of chaos.

Parents were too paranoid to let their kids out of their sight and immediately distrusted everyone and anyone. People carried bats and pipes with them just to get their mail. At the stores people wore rings on every finger and carried pocket  knifes with them. Everywhere Mari went she could hear whispers from the townsfolk. 

“That’s the girl who lost her brother, stay nearby or you’ll be taken too.”

“Poor girl, I couldn’t imagine letting my little brother get kidnapped.”

”That’s why you don’t go near strangers, okay? That girl’s brother got taken because he trusted a stranger.”

Their remarks made Mari angry. She knew Sunny was too reclusive to go near a person he didn’t know, especially if he was alone. And it wasn’t her fault he got kidnapped. He went for a walk in the backyard, who gets kidnapped in their own backyard!?

Taking a deep breathe Mari continued forward, clutching onto the strap of her crossbody purse she tried to focus on placing one foot in front of the other. She just had to ignore the whispers and meet up with the others… why did they choose to meet at the park?

As Mari reached the entrance of the park she could see that there was even more people here than she encountered on her walk there. Scanning the park she found her friends sitting on a bench underneath a tree. Mari gave a small smile when they made eye contact with her.

”Did you bring the posters?”

Mari gave a nod, opened her purse and passed it to Hero, who was the closest to her.

”We’ll find Sunny in no time! With all these posters as long as we put them everywhere!”

Kel grabbed some of the posters as Aubrey grabbed one of the tape dispensers Mari brought. They wasted no time in running away and started to tape up the posters on the lampposts. Mari didn’t think a day would come where those two would actually work together.

 “Hey Basil, why don’t you go with them and make sure they don’t get into trouble?”

”Huh-? Oh, sure Hero.”

Grabbing a few more posters Basil jogged over to where Aubrey and Kel had successfully managed to put up their first poster, albeit a little crookedly. Once Basil was out of earshot Hero turned to Mari.

”So, how have you been doing?”

“I’m fine, I just hope we find Sunny soon.”

“Yeah, don’t worry though. Whoever took him won’t get away with it.”

”I hope not.”

”…We should probably catch up with those three, or they might get lost.”

”Kel! You’re doing it all wrong!”

”How?? I did it the same you did with the first one!”

”No you didn’t! Yours is all crooked!”

Looking at Kel’s lamppost Mari could see that the poster he hung up was basically hanging sideways. Mari smiled.

”This is going to take all day, isn’t it?”

“With them, yes.”

Hero sighed as he started to walk over with Mari right behind him. She hoped that wherever Sunny was that he wasn’t suffering too badly.

”I’ll find you soon, little brother. I promise.”

Sunny laid spread out on the couch staring at the ceiling. He was waiting for Kris and Toriel to get back from school. (Or in Toriel’s case, back from working.) At least Toriel said she would ask her principal/ boss if Sunny could tag along with Kris tomorrow. 

During the long school hours were Sunny was in their house alone he didn’t have much to do. Which resulted in him laying around just staring at random things around the house.

”Huh, never realized the tablecloth under the tv was red.”

With these long hours of nothing to do Sunny’s mind would start wander. Which lead him to start thinking either about his friends and family or his current predicament. He would wonder how they were doing and if they realized he was missing, while he didn’t want them to worry he hoped they noticed at least noticed he was gone.

When he started to think about the town he was currently in he couldn’t help but be a little curious. Sunny had only met a few people (monsters?) during his stay so far, but Toriel had told him that Kris was the only human in the town. Sunny wondered why no one ever talked about a monster species before, maybe it wasn’t wildly known?

At least Kris and Toriel were nice. After Toriel bandaged him up he was given one of Kris’s old stripped sweaters since the shirt he was wearing was ripped and was stained with blood. Toriel and the reindeer girl Noelle, had done most of the talking. Kris hasn’t said much since they had found him in the forest but Sunny didn’t mind. Though they did tell him that the internet was down. 

Sunny was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t hear the door open. When suddenly Kris’s face appeared in his vision, he got so surprised he fell off the couch with a yelp and a thud. Hearing their silent laughter Sunny glared at Kris.

With a smug grin and a flick of their hair Kris offered a hand to help them up. To which Sunny accepted, but still stuck his tongue out at them. 

Toriel appeared in the kitchen and started to prepare dinner. Kris, still holding onto Sunny’s hand dragged him over to the kitchen table.

”Sunny! I talked to the principal and they said you’re allowed to come with us to school tomorrow! But your supposed to stay by Kris’s side mainly so you don’t get lost.”

Sunny nodded to show her that he understood. He was just happy he wouldn’t be alone tomorrow

”… why would you even want to go to school.”

Kris asked so quietly that Sunny almost didn’t hear them. Turning to face them Sunny responded.

”It’s better then being here all day, plus… I don’t like to be alone.”

The last part of Sunny’s sentence seemed to peak Kris’s interest. They reached over and patted him a few times on the head. Sunny leaned into the touch, which made him realize how much he misses the hugs Mari used to give him.

…. At least he wouldn’t be alone tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Kris was staring at the ceiling. This had quickly become a nightly routine. Kris’s insomnia was never this bad when they were younger. But recently it would keep them up all night. Kris was lucky just to get an hour or two of sleep. Many nights were spent staring st the ceiling, getting lost in their mind to lose track of time. It was the only way to pass time until morning.

They had just began to zone out when they heard a creaking noise from outside the door. It wasn’t their mom. She would have just walked in without knocking. 

"Sunny?"

The door opened fully to reveal a tired and sad looking Sunny, the blanket draped around his shoulders polling on the floor.

Kris tilted their head and used their hand to tell him to come closer. Sunny closed the door, padded across the room, and sat next to Kris on their bed. After a few minutes Sunny was leaning his head against Kris's shoulder, eyes half open.

Kris poked Sunny on his forehead, which resulted in him sleepily mumbling and tiredly swatting their hand away. 

"What happened?"

Sunny snuggled closer to them. Kris stiffened up a bit, they didn't usually like close physical content, like Asgore's giant bear hugs. "But I guess Sunny is fine."

"I don't like the dark... or being alone..."

...

That- is actually quite similar to themselves. Kris had always stuck with Asriel until he had to go to college. But since then, they've kinda been alone. They don't have any friends unless they counted Noelle.
"But does Noelle even count?"

But even so Kris placed an arm around the smaller one and let him snuggle into their side. It didn’t take long for Sunny to fall back asleep. Instead of the regular nightmares Sunny had a dreamless sleep.

“Hurry up my children! Or we will be late!” 

Toriel called as she quickly scrambled around the house grabbing everything she thinks she would need. She hurried her child down the stairs where the child that was not hers was waiting at the table. 

“C’mon Kris! Pick up your feet a little!”

She had given Sunny one of their old backpacks and stuffed it with some notepads and pencils, the backpack now hung off the chair where Sunny was lazily sitting.

As usual her child had taken forever to wake up, Sunny was already down here when she got up. Toriel hopes the internet comes back soon so she can find the child’s home. His parents must be worried sick.

“I’ll be waiting outside for you two!”

“Kris, Sunny! There you are! We might be able to still make it!”

Toriel quickly hopped in and looked at them from the review mirror, expecting them to do the same.

“I hope Asriel will still enjoy coming to our little town after all the excitement of university. Maybe he can help get you home Sunny!”

Not sure what to say Sunny just nodded to be polite. Zoning out as Toriel talked about the lovely day he wondered who Asriel was. He didn’t want to ask in case it was rude but Sunny could figure that he was probably Kris’s brother or something. He had seen the pictures and the other side of Kris’s room.

When they arrived at the school Toriel hugged Kris, patted Sunny on the head and hurried down the hall. Kris led Sunny down the opposite hall and open a door. Peering inside Sunny could see a small group of students. They were all talking to each other till Kris had opened the door, now everyone was staring at them. Sunny panicked and ducked behind Kris.

“O-oh! You must be the t-temporary student the principal told me ab-about.”

Kris nodded for him.

“O-okay well, you c-can stay with Kris. We are d-doing group projects t-today so you’ll need to f-find a partner. G-get back to work c-class!”

Slowly, Sunny could fell the eyes leave them. Kris walked over to a table where Noelle and a blue bird were stood at.

“Hey Kris! Hey Sunny! How are you doing?”

Kris gave her a thumbs up. Sunny nodded in agreement.

“Wow Kris. This tiny human is a lot like you. Too bad your unique skill set is rubbing off on him.”

Already, Sunny did not like this blue bird.

“Berdly! That isn’t nice. Uhh- Kris. I could ask Miss Alphys if we can make a group of three- oh! I mean four- haha!”

She chuckled nervously, but Sunny didn’t mind. Noelle was nice. Kris gave her a thumbs up. She nodded and turned towards the front of the classroom.

“Miss Alphys! Umm, is it ok if we add Kris and Sunny to our group?”

“Hey! What? No! I do not approve this! ABORT!”

“What? B-but Kris needs a partner for this…”

“Noelle, what were you saying?”

“She was just saying we’re fine being alone!”

“A-actually, I just wanted to know if…”

Before their conversation could delve into all out chaos the classroom door flung open and hit the wall with a resounding bang. The room went deathly silent.

“Hi… hi, Susie.”

“…Am I late.”

“Ohh, n-no! Your fine! W-we we’re just, uh ch-choosing partners for the next group project a-and uhh. You’re with Kris!”

Uh oh. Sunny froze in worry. He couldn’t tell how Kris felt about it, but this purple girl slightly worried him. Alphys had walked back to the front of the classroom and was talking about… chalk? He noticed the Susie girl had walked out of the classroom and slammed the door behind her.

“And uh- Kris. Could you go with her and make sure she ah- she actually gets it?”

At a speed slower than the slowest snail-Kris walked out of the classroom.

It was silent, Sunny could feel multiple eyes return back to watching him. He inched closer to Noelle’s desk. After a few more minutes of awkward silence Alphys spoke up again.

“Uh- hmm, while we w-wait for them why don’t you start uhh- planing your group projects?”

Quiet murmuring filled the room.

“Trust me Noelle, we dodged a bullet! We actually wanna pass this project don’t we?”

“Well yes, but… we still could have included Kris and Sunny.”

“Sunny? Oh that’s you? Why’re you hanging out with Kris anyway? They’re just gonna get you into trouble!”

“Berdly! That’s not nice.”

Ignoring the smirk on the birds face Sunny looked around and saw that the other students were taking to each other and that Alphys was distracted by something in her computer. He slowly inched closer to the door, cracked it open just enough for him to slip through and closed it behind him.

Now that he was out in the hallway he didn’t know which room was the storage closet. There was a door in the middle, but thinking to led to another hallway Sunny turned right and saw another door. Hoping this was the right one he opened it and was enveloped by darkness.

Sunny woke up on the ground… in a forest? Behind him was a giant golden door that didn’t look like it would open. So the only path he could take was to continue down into the pink and purple trees. So Sunny followed the only road he could see until he stopped to read a sign.

“Enemies ahead! You’re gonna die!

Signed, Lancer!”

Alarmed, he looked up to see a green spear shaped slug holding a small triangular sword ahead.

*Rudinn drew near!

Sunny froze- for whatever reason a sharp, shiny knife appeared in his hands but not knowing what to do, Sunny stood there looking as stiff as a pencil.

The enemy, Rudinn(?) stood there slightly impatient, like it was waiting for something. After a few more minutes it spoke up.

“Is this your first time in a battle or something?”

“Uh! What?”

“Oh boy… guess I gotta explain it to you.”

*Rudinn explained how battles worked to Sunny

“You get it now?”

“Yeah, I think? But if I can’t act, how can I spare you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. You ready?”

“Uh- no?”

*Rudinn drew near

Sunny decided to defend to raise his TP. Rudinn summoned diamond shaped bullets and shot them at him. Somehow through all the weaving he did Sunny managed to come out unscathed.

Sunny cast one of his spells, using 16 TP he summoned a sheet of paper in front of the Rudinn.

“Oh! How sad.”

*Rudinn felt emotional

Rudinn cast more diamond shaped bullets and this time one of them just barely hit Sunny. It wasn’t deep, merely a scratch but it still stung.

Sunny used 16 TP to spare the emotional Rudinn

*You won!

*Got 0 EXP and 13 D$

Sunny looked around the small clearing, the Rudinn was gone now. Hoping he finished the battle correctly, Sunny continued forward to read the next sign.

“If you’re reading this…

I guess you’re dead!

Signed, Lancer”

“Well good thing I’m not dead.” Who even is this lancer person. Sunny walked forward and read a sign about it being in progress. When he walked south he read another sign about how the star fruit on trees don’t heal you, even if he wanted to try one Sunny wasn’t tall enough to reach the candy fruit.

Continuing left Sunny ran into a necklace of Rudinn. After a few rounds of raising TP and summoning a sad poem to make them feel emotional, Sunny was finally able to spare them. However in the next room he saw a gold pyramid person and a smoldering cake on a table.

“Mamma Miba, you don’t know the terrible beast that did this to my beautiful cake, do you?”

“Uh- I don’t think so?”

Sunny apologized for what happened to his cake and kept walking on. After wining a battle with a Rudinn and a Hathy and suffering only minimal injuries Sunny found another pink tree, this time there was a candy fruit he could reach.

“My injuries aren’t that bad, it’s basically the same amount of scratches I get whenever I help Basil with his garden. And what if the fruit is poisonous?”

Passing on the candy fruit, Sunny walks into the next room. The room has three floor switches, a sign, and a clock. Reading the sign Sunny can gather that this was a puzzle but either it’s broken or already solved. Quickly walking over the spikes Sunny sees a sign.

“Behold, the maze of death! Prepare to GET LOST, clowns!!!

Signed, Lancer”

Now that Sunny knows how a battle works he isn’t as afraid of these signs that are trying to be ominous. The clobbered pink blobs definitely scared him more than the signs. After finding an empty chest and a few more confusing signs he found a pink blob that wasn’t smushed into the ground.

“W-woah! Wait a minute! I should warn you as well. A purple beast is roaming, clobbering anyone who blocks her way. (Sobs) we don’t even like fighting, the king left us no choice! You should hurry before it comes back!”

Quickly scurrying away Sunny found the exit of the maze and walked into another puzzle room. This one has more switches on the ground than the last, but the door was already open so Sunny hurried through. Up ahead he could spot a giant tattered tent with a sign labeled shop on it and in front of the shop was…! Kris and Susie?!

Chapter Text

Kris was standing in front of the shop going through the different items on sale while Ralsei made conversation with the shopkeep. They had tuned out the conversation once it had turned more mundane. Kris was mentally debating whether or not they should buy another amber card when all of a sudden they were laying on the floor.

They could hear Susie yell a “Hey!” While Ralsei had squeaked in surprise. The weight on Kris’s back had disappeared so they got up off their stomach to face what had tackled them to the ground. When Kris turned around they were surprised to see Sunny sitting next to them, albeit he looked a little different. Sunny, who was already really pale was now paper white. In contrast his hair and eyes had darkened and resembled an empty void. Instead of the stripped sweater Toriel had gave him he donned a simple black tank top and black and white stripped shorts.

Kris got off the ground and offered a hand to help Sunny up. Looking over to where Susie and Ralsei were standing they could hear the tail end of their conversation.

“-are they?”

“What? I dunno - why don’t you ask them.”

Kris lead Sunny over to where they were standing prompting Ralsei to start talking to them.

“Oh hey Kris! Who is this?”

Sunny was hiding behind Kris but gave Ralsei a small wave to which he waved back.

Susie crossed her arms. “Who are you again?”

Sunny looked towards Kris before quietly answering her question, “my names Sunny.”

A few moments of awkward silence passed before Ralsei spoke up again.

“So Sunny- er how did you get here?”

“… I fell… through a closet.”

“Hmm- that’s not good. Kris we must close the dark fountain at once.”

Noticing Sunny’s confused expression Kris  motioned towards Ralsei to explain about the dark world to Sunny.

“Oh- don’t worry Sunny! I’ll explain it to you while we continue exploring. Though first it’s important you know how to handle yourself in a fight- Kris do you still have the manual I gave you?”

“It’s okay, I know… how to fight already.”

“Oh, you do?”

“Yes… a Rudinn taught me.”

Leaving them to continue talking Kris walked back to the shop and bought another amber card and gave it to Sunny.

“Defense.” They whispered to him upon noticing his confused expression. He nodded and tucked it into his inventory.

A blue puzzle piece wearing a top hat walked up to where Kris was standing. “Hey, hey kid. Ya wanna buy a tutorial? It’s only 50 dark dollars.” They shook their head and backed up as the puzzle piece’s eyes widened.

“HA! HA! Did I say FIFTY!? Well, we just went on sale! Twenty! TWENTY dark dollars!”

They shook their head “no” again as the puzzle piece start shaking in its place. By this point the others had noticed the frantic puzzle piece and walked up to were Kris was.

“ONE!!! ONLY ONE DOLLAR!!! PLEASE PLEASE!!! I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW!”

Hesitantly Kris nodded their head, at the very least to get the puzzle piece to stop bothering them.

“Really? You changed your mind? Heheh… right this way for your tutorials, gentleners.” The puzzle piece turned around and walked down the path into a little area surrounded by trees.

“Oh Sunny! This is a perfect opportunity to teach you how to fight!”

Kris didn’t miss the face Sunny gave at Ralsei’s statement but Ralsei, oblivious to it started down the path where the puzzle pieces were. Kris patted Sunny on the head a few times before leading them down the path to where Ralsei was having a conversation with the piece.

“We’re sorry, we’re normally puzzle guys but we’ve been forced to do tutorials just to make ends meet.“

“Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that.”

Looking around the little area Kris could see 5 other puzzle pieces all wearing a different amount of top hats. Sunny walked up to a hole and threw a dollar in it. Kris was only half listening as they followed Ralsei to talk to the other puzzle pieces. It was mostly stuff they already knew or could easily assume, but started to pay attention when Ralsei got to Sunny’s puzzle piece.

“I’m Sunny Master. Ask me about Sunny’s.”

*Emotions        *Fun fact         *Support

“Sad, happy, angry, it makes us feel. Spare us, and we won’t cause you a deal.”

“Sunny loves when you give us cash. It means we won’t eat from trash!”

“Using emotions on your team will change your stats, experiment and give it a chance.

Use emotions on yourself and get a stronger effect, I just hope you won’t wept.”

“Hey kid, you should use it on me to make me stronger that way I can thrash my enemies!”

“What Susie! Sunny will not be doing that, and we need to show kindness to our enemies not beat them up!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.”

Basil fiddled with his watering can as he filled it up under the tap. He needed to water his plants before walking to Mari’s place.

It’s been almost a month since Sunny’s disappearance and their group has had trouble keeping their morals up. Mari has been taking less and less care of herself, she constantly looked stessed and whenever he would see her it vaguely looked like she had been electrocuted with how frazzled her hair had become. Her and Hero had become more closed off as well, whenever they were in a different room he could hear them whispering stuff.

Meanwhile Kel and Aubrey were mostly doing the same, they were more worried and obviously missed Sunny. Though since Sunny’s disappearance whenever they are together they either get along so well like two peas in a pod or they fight so much it feels like they’re going to run each other into the ground. Even so they were spending more time together, they were probably scared to lose anyone else.

Turning the tap off Basil lugged his watering can back to his room to start watering his plants.

As for him he liked to think he was doing pretty okay, but that probably wasn’t the truth. He deeply missed Sunny and desperately hoped wherever he was that he was doing okay. He’s also become a bit more forgetful, the first week after Sunny’s disappearance he had forgotten to water some of his plants. He hadn’t remembered until his Grandma pointed it out, Basil could see the worry in her face. And not wanting cause his Grandma any distress he’s tried to keep up his normal routines while at home.

Basil sighed and placed down his watering can. He had gotten so caught up in his thoughts he didn’t even realize he watered all the plants already. Grabbing a jacket from his closet and quickly pulling on his shoes Basil rushed out of his room and towards the front door.

“Bye Grandma! I’m going to Mari’s house.”

Hearing a muffled “Be careful!” He closed the door and began the short walk towards his friends. Walking up the driveway to the door Basil knocked a few hurried times on the door, and after waiting a few seconds Hero had opened the door with Aubrey right behind him, her face had a small frown on it.

“Hello Basil.” Hero greeted him with an obvious fake smile on his face.

“Basil!” Aubrey had barely let him into the house before urgently pulling him towards the couch where Kel was standing on it.

Hero had closed the door behind him and walked into the kitchen, probably where Mari was.

“Does he know does he know?!” Kel whispered yelled as he plopped onto a cushion on the couch.

“SHH! Kel! You’re so loud!” Aubrey shushed him but was ‘whispering’ at the same volume that Kel had been.

“Do I know what?” Basil asked worriedly as he sat next to a bouncing Kel on the couch.

Aubrey sat next to Basil on the couch and started whispering again, this time a bit more quieter.

“Mari and Hero know where Sunny is but they aren’t telling us cause they don’t want to worry us.”

Basil frowned, “are you sure? They’re more closed off but do you really think they would hide that from us?”

Kel started nodding very quickly then stopped to start talking, “it’s because they think it’s dangerous.

Aubrey hummed in agreement, “sometimes when your grandma wouldn’t let you come over and they thought we were asleep we would listen into their conversations.” Aubrey’s expression darkened and a scowl appeared on her face.

Kel had started frowning while he stated, “Mari and Sunny got into a fight and Sunny had ran off, that’s why he disappeared.”

Basil’s eyes widened in surprise. Sunny had expressed to him how sometimes he felt Mari was acting colder and colder towards him during their practice but Basil had never imagined that Mari would care so little about Sunny running off by himself, much less they even get into a fight big enough to make Sunny flee in the first place.

Aubrey scrunched up her face in anger, “Its Mari’s fault! She didn’t bother going after him or made sure he came back! And we know it’s her fault cause we heard her tell the story to Hero!” Her face has turned red and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I can’t believe she just let him run away-“ she murmured quietly while furiously wiping away her tears.

“Which is why we’re making a plan to go find Sunny ourselves!” Kel stated while puffing his cheeks with air. “And we Need you because you’re smart!” Aubrey nodded in agreement with Kel.

Basil was unsure, yes he wanted to find Sunny but it was risky to try and find him themself. Especially because they aren’t even allowed outside by them selves anymore, but still…

“I’m in.”

Chapter Text

Aubrey closed the door quietly and walked down the porch steps to join Basil and Kel.

“You don’t think we should let them know we’re leaving?” Basil questions, looking slightly worried.

Aubrey doesn’t bother answering him as he might not like her reasoning. Instead she starts walking down the sidewalk.

“Nah! we’ll be fine, my house is only right next door anyways!” Kel exclaims as he bounces to keep up with her. His response doesn’t seem to do much to help Basil either way.

A few minutes later Aubrey and Basil are waiting for Kel to unlock the house’s door with his key. Once in, he doesn’t even take his shoes off before going to look for his mom or dad to let them know that they’re here.

“So Aubrey, have you two started working on a plan yet, or at least have an idea of where to start?”

Ah, right. They needed a plan if they actually wanted to be able to find Sunny.

Aubrey hesitantly responded, “uhm- our plan was to… get you to help us-?” She nodded, as yes Aubrey what a smart idea 

Basil looked at her with an unimpressed stare. She shrugged in response.

“Thanks ma- uhh guys? Why’re you two still at the door?” Kel looked at them from the kitchen doorway.

“We were waiting.”

“Oh, well no more waiting! Come on!” He heads for the stairs leading to the room he shares with Hero. Aubrey and Basil share a look before following him.

When they reach the room Kel is shoving things off his bed to make room for them.

Aubrey wanted to say something about the state his side of the room is in but bite her tongue instead as Basil asked Kel for some paper and a pen.

“So to start off we should list reasonable places and paths that Sunny would have taken depending where he would have ran out.” Basil starts as he places his paper on the crowded desk and starts to draw a simple map of Sunny’s house.

“But he could have gone anywhere!” Kel yells as he collapses onto his bed

“Which is why we start by marking out general areas he could have gone to and then we we search the areas and cross out ideas as we go depending if we can prove it did or didn’t happen.”

“But isn’t that what the police did when they first got called out before they gave up?” Aubrey didn’t realize she said it out loud till Kel was agreeing with her.

Basil stared at them with disbelieving eyes as he responded. “No not all! They did the bare minimum of investigation! With the information they gathered it could have very well been a runaway case if they didn’t want to pass the case off so easily! Didn’t you find it a little weird they only came here once before they declared it a kidnapping-“

“It’ll be okay guys! We’ll just find Sunny faster than the police can!”

“Shut up Kel, Basil is doing all the work anyways!”

“Yeah- haha!! Basil you’re very smart!” Kel says with a grin, “you could probably plan a murder and get away with it!”

“Kel! Basil is not a murderer!”

“I didn’t say he was!?”

Ahaha thanks?” Basil laughed awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck, “though Kel, I’m not sure that’s as nice of a compliment as you think is it.”

Rolling her eyes she looks back down to the paper Basil had been writing on, surprised when she saw how much he had already wrote.

The simple house he had drawn now had an assortment of boxes around meant to represent the furniture. Around was a collection of arrows that started from the box labeled ‘stairs’ with each arrow having its own pathway before eventually going out one of the doors and going in a different direction with the name of a place by it. On the side in he had wrote the name of each area and a few bullet notes below it with a few names of places.

“Woah Basil! You work fast!” Kel exclaims.

“Hah, thanks. I’m just worried we’ll be too late.”

Chapter Text

Susie was bored.

Since joining back with Kris, Ralsei has been warning the enemies about her attacks which defeats all purposes of a battle. What’s the point if you’re just going to talk to them anyways.

The smaller human that was with Kris earlier, what was his name again? has joined them.

Susie thinks it’s a little uncanny. Shes pretty sure they aren’t related, and they don’t look like they are but she can’t help but find similarities.

They have encountered a few battles which was still pretty boring when they all knew her moves ahead of time.

Despite what others may think Susie can be observant when she wants to. She’s noticed that Ralsei has had the boy stand off to the sides during battles which she thinks is quite dumb.

The twerp was able to make his way to find them and he clearly encountered at least one battle on his way if the scratches on him say anything. He obviously knows how to battle already. Shouldn’t Ralsei be happy with any help that he can get? Guess not if he just has ‘em stand off to the side.

They had a few encounters with Lancer, which, by the way, what the hell?? She threatens to bite his face off and he just laughs and thanks her!?

Oh wait, Susie completely zoned out. They were in the middle of a battle with this… checker piece? With legs? Yeah.

Who knows what is up with this guy, he keeps running directly into her attacks? Is he really that stupid or something?

And Kris and Ralsei were bowing to it. Something about his crown, why bother bowing to it? She can just hit it off with her axe.

She can vaguely hear Ralsei yell about how his crown should be loose enough but still isn’t falling off.

The three of them are in the middle of bowing to each other when a paper pops in front of the checker and it has a faint blue glow around it.

It’s bowing slows until it stops midway through a bow and its crown slides off its head, the checker shrinks and it rolls away.

The battle ends.

“Wow!! You clowns really are heroes! You saved the next 20 minutes of my life!!” Lancer slides across the checkered floor.

“Ummm, Susie, Sunny. Not to downplay your contributions but…” Ralsei turns to her and the boy behind her.

“Well, Susie, if you were nice to it in the first place that whole battle could have been avoided…” Susie tunes out whatever he’s saying. It doesn’t matter. She’s heard the same lecture from everyone.

“And Sunny, you shouldn’t have jumped in like that. I haven’t had time to go over the fighting manual with you yet. It can be quite dangerous,” Ralsei turns to him.

This makes Susie frown. Ralsei is scolding him for doing, what? Compared to her, the one who wants to fight everything, Sunny followed the way Ralsei wants them to fight better than Susie ever has. And if that’s the case…

“Heh. Alright Ralsei you got it. Since we’re such crappy heroes,” She walks to the other side, dragging Sunny with her who is surprisingly very light and isn’t putting up a fight. “From now on we’re one of the bad guys!”

She deposits Sunny next to Lancer who is glowing,”woah really?? You’re both going to be on my team?”

Startled Ralsei tries,” Susie! You can’t just-! And Sunny-!”

“Quiet toothpaste boy! Susie and Sunny are my comrades now! We’re going to have monogrammed track jackets and sleepovers!!” Lancer does a spin.

“Uhh yeah?” Susie hesitantly agrees, “well whatever! See you guys never!”

“If they can even last that long haha!!” Lancer adds as they turn around and run.

Susie does feel a little bad. In a way she didn’t give Sunny much a choice when she dragged him over but he didn’t struggle against her and even ran away with them after Lancer’s speech.

And now that he is insisting they need a dark motto Sunny is even helping lancer with his part of the speech.

Okay, So maybe Susie doesn’t feel bad.

Susie grins as she spots the familiar figures walking towards them, “here they come.”

Kris and Ralsei come up to the clearing, “Susie! Lancer! Sunny!-“

Lancer does a twirl, “well well, if it ain’t the so called heros!”

“Are you ready to see what happens…” Susie continues

“When you try to act soft…”

“Against a team that crushes anyone in their way?”

“Dark Jack Lancer!”

“Violent Ax Susie!”

“Poem Crusher Sunny!” Lancer says Sunny’s title for him.

“Together we are..!”

They pose together, Susie using her ax and Sunny using his knife created an upside down V for lancer to stand underneath with him posing.

“The dark fun squad!”

A second passes.

Then another.

“Um so…” Ralsei seems unsure, “so what’s your er, evil plan?”

“Dude we just formed our team. We haven’t done anything past our intro yet.” Susie rolls her eyes.

“Have a little patience please!” Lancer adds

“Oh- well I look forward for the rest-“ He gets cut off by Susie.

“Hah, well you won’t have to look forward for long.”

“Starting now we’re going to ceaselessly!”

“Unstoppably…”

“To make an evil plan to thrash you clowns!”

“Watch your backs.” Susie turns and starts walking down the path with Sunny.

“And your fronts!” Lancer finishes as he slides after them.

They follow the path until lancer stops them at a tree stump with salsa in it.

“The finest snack!” Lancer presents them.

“Oh great! I’ve only had chalk today!”

Kris and Ralsei walk up again.

“How’s the evil scheming going?” Ralsei asks to which Lancer starts talking to him.

Susie noticed how Kris went up to Sunny and they seemed to have a conversation without words. Kris gestured using their hands and Sunny responded by nodding or shaking his head.

Their conversation seemed to end when Sunny gave a thumbs up and Kris nodded back before walking forward on the path with Ralsei quickly following him.

Chapter Text

Kris continues on forward leaving Sunny with Susie and Lancer. They hope he’ll have more fun than he was while watching them battle.

They know Ralsei probably didn’t mean for their circumstances to lead to half their team turning to the “dark” side but they don’t know what else Ralsei expected to happen.

Coming from someone who is definitely not good at social interactions, well Ralsei is not any better than them.

Kris and Ralsei run into their friends again in front of some blueprints where lancer was planning on using Sunny’s knife to make “cool holes” in their clothes. They won’t stop them but Kris can only hope they get distracted again before there’s any causalities.

While following the path Ralsei directed them onto they helped a three headed monster named Clover get along with itself and rearranged some boxers. Quickly solving the puzzle with Clover’s advice they continue upwards.

Till they come to a stop at a small bake sell, Kris buys a lancer cookie to help fund their “evil plans” in which it included them going to buy a jelly donut and trying to figure out how to cut it three ways.

“Ah man! If only we had a knife to make this easy!” Lancer yells and no one bothers to corrects him.

And yes, they definitely were making fun of you when you asked Ralsei, not that Kris responded actually to his question.

By dodging some ballerina’s point shoes and getting out of the small maze led them to a little clearing where lancer was standing in the middle of it.

“Oh woe! Woe is me! Rows and rows of woes! If only a hero could help me! A sweet little boy who needs help!” Lancer poses dramatically in front of them with a fake mustache.

“What kind of help do you need?” Ralsei asks.

“I need to make an evil plan. To impress my cool friends!!”

“Well if it’s for friendship, Kris,” Ralsei mumbles before stepping forward and responding louder, “how can we help?”

“It’s all on the paper you delicious little apple!!” Lancer steps back as blueprints fall in front of them.

Ralsei then got them to spend the next half hour making a tank machine that will surely not be used against them. Yes Ralsei, surely this won’t backfire.

When Ralsei announces they’re done Susie comes barreling out of the nearby bush with Sunny following behind a bit slower. She doesn’t bother taking the branches out of her hair.

Susie and Lancer laugh and call them losers while Sunny gives a thumbs up before they all run off.

Kris ignores Ralsei’s comment about Susie and Sunny and continues forward- to be attacked by a winged star…

After dodging a spinning laser to see complete darkness they complete the dark puzzle by flipping the switch in the tree and move on to find a lounge setup and Lancer’s lackeys fanning leafs.

The Rudinn standing in the corner informs them, “Some-somehow prince lancer made friends with real lightners! Someone should tell the king immediately, but not me. Whoever does that will be wrecked!”

“So,” Ralsei begins while heading towards Lancer, “how is the thrash machine going?”

“The what machine?” Lancer exclaims.

“Oh that, yeah we’ll work on that in the last minute,” Susie responds without paying attention.

“You two should really start working on it earlier..-“ Ralsei starts.

“What’s with the lecture??” Lancer quips back, still with a smile on his face.

“Yeah! We’ll have you know that we have actually already started!” Susie defends while pointing an accusing finger at them, “show ‘em Sunny!”

Sunny pulls out a notebook and shows them his sketch of the tank. When inspecting it Kris can see each part was labeled with the color it was going to be. They also noted the small doodles done around the side of the page ,some offensive and others not, curtesy of either Susie or Lancer.

“Yeah! Take that toothpaste boy!” Lancer happily insults with Susie joining in.

“So, uhm, ready to be a good guy again Susie? Sunny?” Ralsei asks, turning away from lancer.

“Nah. Gotta say being a bad guy is pretty sweet. Not only is it way more fun than being good but my teammates are proud of what I do.” Susie grins while leaning back on her lawn chair.

Lancer bounces in his chair, “you should have seen her earlier!”

“Oh? Well what happened earlier?”

“You just had to be there! And don’t even bother asking me to explain what Sunny did! I still don’t get it!”

Kris considered asking anyways but decided not to since it looked like neither of them were hurt and it wasn’t their problem. They turn and head forward  following the path.

“Hey! Beware yourselves of the forest maze, you’ll probably get lost!” Lancer shouts at them, “At least without someone who knows the forest like the back of their head, like me!”

Heading lancer’s “warning” Kris decided to follow him through the twists and turns, at least until they reach a dead end.

Lancer turns to face them, “so? Where to now?”

Ralsei looks confused, “er, well we were following you.”

“Oh why would you do that? I have no idea where I’m going!” Lancer runs off.

“Hey Kris, let’s just go where Lancer doesn’t go.”

They went back to the beginning and tried again. They got further and ran into Susie wandering through the maze. After yelling at them for letting lancer get lost she runs off. They decided not to follow either Susie or Lancer through the maze.

Just a little while later of going the way they aren’t taking they, once again, run into a little clearing this time with Sunny in it.

“Oh Sunny? Are you lost too?” Ralsei questions.

Sunny looks around before answering, “not lost, no need to worry.” He starts to walk away but before leaving completely he adds, “don’t follow Susie or Lancer, they’ll completely turn you around.”

“Hmm, seems like only Sunny knows the way through. Let’s continue on Kris.”

After what seems like hours, though it’s only been a little while, Kris and Ralsei make it out of the maze.

“I did not… Kris! Isn’t that the machine we designed?” Ralsei sounded shocked.

Looking up confirmed that it was indeed the machine they built.

“Alright this might be tough but let’s try our best-“

As ralsei started to get ready to fight the machine unexpectedly blew up.

“Yeah your design sucked so we had Sunny rig it up to explode,” Susie explains as they walk into the clearing.

“There was supposed to be fireworks too!” Lancer exclaims, “but then we remembered we didn’t have any!”

“Oh,” Ralsei looked a bit sad,”so now what’s your plan going to be?”

“Yeah turns out we didn’t need a plan. Just a rule,” Susie crosses her arms while smirking. “Anyone that gets in our way. Gets crushed into dust.”

“Ah but Susie you need us to return home,” Ralsei tries to reason, “doesn’t crushing us seem a little counterproductive? And Sunny you-“

“Nah see that’s where you’re wrong, we know we can’t get home without you guys, but unlike you we consider all our teammates. So, let’s fight,” Susie summons her axe and starts a fight with them.

“What? But Susie-“

“If you can beat us we’ll go back to being “good”but if you lose you’ll become bad guys with us,” Susie states while sending a laser at them which effectively cuts Ralsei off.

Lancer wheels in while his bike is on fire  and sends spades out to attack him while yelling, “this bike is fueled by evil!! …and friendship!”

Sunny summons a sad poem in front of Ralsei which he gets distracted by and becomes emotional.

Kris has Ralsei sing a lullaby to put Susie to sleep and starts trying to convince Lancer to change his ways. It wasn’t working at first because his bike was absorbing the words but when Sunny jumped on and started riding with him Kris’s words were starting to get to him.

“Uh oh,” Lancer looks worried.

“What’s wrong dude?” Susie questions as she pauses her barrage of attacks.

“I accidentally started liking the enemies..! Now just seeing them makes me feel round and soft!” Somehow Lancer appears to be melting.

Susie looks at Lancer, then at Sunny who is still standing behind Lancer on his bike, then she sighs and puts her axe away.

“Well if neither of you wanna fight… there’s no point I guess. Battles over!”