Chapter Text

Chapter Text

[You have been invited to join Node1127. Do you accept?]

"NGAAAAAAH!!! What IS this? SHOW YOURSELF!"

Undyne stared daggers into the reeds and flowers of Waterfall. Back and forth she looked, searching for her solicitor, a blue spear of pure magic manifesting in her hand.

But nobody came.

"Who's there? What kind of mental magics are you using? How DARE you use them on the Captain of the Royal Guard?"

Not only did no one come, there was, in fact, nobody there. No one except for her.

"Grrrrr… This is some kind of prank," the fish-monster muttered to herself. "Or… one of Alphys's inventions? No. She would've told me. Wouldn't test it on me without my permission."

Undyne turned towards Alphys's lab nonetheless, figuring she'd cancel her patrol early. Then had a thought, mid-turn. Then froze, mid-thought.

Could it be coming from outside the Underground?

Could it be… a human?

In the anime that Alphys had watched with her, the humans… some of them had the ability to control minds! Was this some sort of telepathic probe? A preemptive strike, for when the Monsters inevitably claimed seven human SOULs and used their power to declare war on the Surface? Those cowards!

Well, Undyne wouldn't back down from a challenge! Screw that! Screw whoever this was! She was going to get down to the bottom of this!

"Whoever you are, I'm coming for you!" Undyne roared.

[Connection established.]

"Hey, Yuri, can you handle this report for me?"

The woman speaking was named Aya. She may have cut a neat and confident image in her rumpled blue jacket, white hair framing a face with ever-closed eyes and an ever-clever smile. In the grand hierarchy of the City, however, she was nothing. Less than a spot of dust. Below even the lowest rung on the latter. She worked as a Fixer, hired to solve any and all sorts of problems. But in a world where even Fixers of the highest grade, Grade 1, died like such trash, this person was a mere Grade 8. She was barely qualified to enter combat, and would struggle in a battle against the weakest of the weak.

But even these stories are worth telling, wouldn't you say? Even the likes of Rats, scraping and clawing for scraps, are humans.

"Right!... Though, I didn't do much on that request, I don't think? Wouldn't Hopkins do a better job?"

The child responding was named Yuri. A bandage across her eye marked one that had lost its place forever. A similar outfit, in red rather than blue, marked her as a member of the same Fixer Office as Aya. As it should. They may have been a similar age, but the woman was her senior. The Office itself was a homely one, with little prestige or capability. But it had low hiring standards and did not conduct background checks. This was the reason several Fixers had found a place there.

"Oh, surely~ But you could use the experience, I think. These forms are common in Fixer work. You will need to know how to fill these eventually!"

The woman did not lie. But she had ulterior motives she did not voice.

"Oh… Okay. I'll do my best!"

The child would. It was what she had always done.

The work went smoothly. The child lacked experience in this field, but had no shortage of dedication. And paperwork was paperwork. Her senior guided her when she stumbled and explained lines that were confusing.

Partway through came an interruption.

"Aya… do you hear a voice?"

It was the invitation to join Node 1127. Only the child called Yuri could hear it.

"Do I? I can't say I do. If you're hearing things, maybe you ought to get some rest? Go on, I won't mind. You always seem so tired."

It was an accurate observation. Even when fully rested, the child's exhaustion was always plainly evident. Her posture was crooked. A slumped back that let her hair trail forward most of the time. Upon her shoulders was a weight that could not be seen, one she carried at all moments of the day. The weight of the fallen, of lingering will, and of the crushing guilt that came with.

"...You're right. I'll take ten."

Ten minutes was the standard break time at her old place of work: Lobotomy Corporation.

"You can go a little longer than that. Don't worry, I won't let Hopkins yell at you~"

She would fail.

"Thanks… Aya. But I'll be back soon."

As the child went off to rest her eyes, she had an errant thought, propelled by curiosity. She wanted to know what was going on with the strange voice she'd heard. An invitation? What was a 'Node'? Was it dangerous? Rumors abounded of megacorporations conducting strange experiments on random passersby. Was this one of them? She didn't think she'd imagined it.

I want to know… what that was about.

[Connection established.]

[You have been invited to join Node1127. Do you accept?]

The thought made Pyrrha stumble. It had come nearly out of nowhere. Not her own. Not natural.

And not the best timing. Her lapse in concentration gave Cardin Winchester, her only remaining opponent, the time necessary to regain his footing. Even the time to wind back, swing. His heavy mace was backed by prodigious brute strength, and would do serious damage if it connected. His missed blows had left craters all across the arena.

But they didn't call her the Invincible Girl for nothing. She had not become the so-called 'pride of Mistral' by failing to single slip-ups. And Cardin, while no pushover, was also far from the strongest she'd fought. His precision and speed… she hated to put down her classmates, but there was no getting around it. He was lacking. He fancied himself a lumbering Goliath, but he did not have anywhere near the power or durability of the legendary Grimm.

Pyrrha Nikos pivoted. Weight, partially shifted to her back foot. Her shield raised to meet Cardin's mace, denying him momentum, leverage. And her sword elongated into its javelin form, complimenting her forward thrust into her opponent's chest. The armored boy staggered back, barely connecting with her defense. Open.

Advantage reclaimed, Pyrrha. Her course of action was clear as day.

An upwards slash denied Cardin footing, sending him into the air. A flurry of piercings pushed him further as Pyrrha joined him in midair, discarding her shield for extra speed, extra power. Cardin was helpless to stop her. His Aura protected him from physical harm, but rapidly depleted as it absorbed the force of a whirlwind from Pyrrha's assault. A final flip, a grab, and a downward plummet slammed Cardin's head against the stone floor below. His Aura decreased to unacceptable levels.

That was that.

"And that's the match. Well done, Miss Nikos. You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament."

The tournament. Or, as it was more commonly known, the Vytal Festival. The most publicized event on Remnant, broadcasted all across the world, where the best and brightest from the four Huntsmen Academies competed to become the champions. These weren't new words to her, but she felt a blush of pride at them all the same. Pyrrha may have been one of the strongest, if not the strongest student at Beacon Academy, but Professor Glynda Goodwitch was yet beyond her, holding the titles of veteran Huntress and teacher of generations of students. A compliment from her was worth its weight in gold.

Pyrrha moved to thank her, opening her mouth to say the words.

[You have been invited to join Node1127. Do you accept?]

…Only to be distracted. That thought again. Once could have been a feverish delusion, an exceptionally esoteric daydream. Twice was a pattern.

So Pyrrha Nikos kept her mouth shut and thought about it, putting a slightly empty smile on her face as Professor Goodwitch selected partners for another spar. Most likely, this was being caused by someone's Semblance. Perhaps Fox Alistair, of Team CFVY (Coffee)? The upperclassman's Semblance was Telepathy, as his team's leader had told her once. The power specific to him let him send mental messages to people of his choosing, though the details were not known to her. And he was somewhat known for enjoying a good prank. Though… this seemed a little strangely specific to be a prank. And frankly, possibly even a little mean-spirited. To send her such a message while in the middle of a spar, uncaring that it may distract her? She admittedly didn't know him well, but she liked to think he would not do such a thing unless she had offended him somehow. She made a mental note to ask nonetheless.

One of the transfer students from Haven Academy brought her attention back to the present. A boy with sharp gray hair that partially covered his face, requesting a spar with her. Normally, Pyrrha would be happy to engage him. But this strange node invitation had her worried, especially as it dinged her again with a:

[You have been invited to join Node1127. Do you accept?]

So Pyrrha said nothing as Professor Goodwitch told off the boy, apparently named Mercury, for requesting a battle from someone that had just completed one. And Pyrrha returned to her seat in the stands to contemplate her options regarding Node 1127 as Mercury Black fought against Blake Belladonna.

When the invite came for her, Kyoko Sakura did not miss a beat. Literally. Damn her if she missed her chance at a high score on Dog Drug Reinforcement because of Kyubey. Again. No. Her feet slammed the panels of the dancing game in perfect rhythm.

[You have been invited to join Node1127. Do you accept?]

Then again, don't exactly sound like Kyubey. The white Magical Girl mascot's mental voice was completely different. More cheerful, higher pitched. Could be a fellow Magical Girl with a mind-speaking power, she supposed. She's met a few. Fought off most of them. Weird way to ask for an alliance, but she was willing to hear 'em out before she took her spear to them.

And she didn't get on the leaderboard anyway. Drat.

Well. Nothing for it. And it wasn't as if she was doing anything else this afternoon.

Sure, why not.

[Connection established.]

Actually, she could just have a snack. Kyoko'd been leaning against the DDR cabinet's railings with her eyes closed, focusing directly on the strange node that'd popped up in her head. Some sorta weird chatting thing? With an incredibly sheltered shy girl? Nah. What was it that so-called "ModScarlet" had blubbered about a multiverse? Apparently, there weren't just Magical Girls out there.

Not the point, at least not yet. Point was, she was hungry. She could have a Rocky.

munch munch

…What?

She piss her off or something?

Kyoko wasn't all too worried. If her hunch was right.

Chapter Text

The child called Yuri had exceeded her self-imposed ten minute break time by a fair margin, at this point. She'd been lying on the surprisingly clean Office couch with her eyes closed, yet still able to see the strange text interface where people from other worlds continued to argue and demand explanation. A 'groupchat', as the increasingly harried "ModScarlet" once stated. She'd never heard of such a thing before. Work orders from the Manager back at Lobotomy Corporation, appeared in a similar format through a standard-issue tablet, so the functions weren't completely lost on her. But to use such a format for casual chatting—let alone through this telepathic measure… she'd never once considered it.

The child blinked, surprised that Undyne was apparently a fish. She didn't know much about her nodemate, having only 'met' them less than an hour ago. But she'd already built a tentative mental image, befitting that of a 'royal guard' of 'Monsters'. Ornate black and purple armor, like shades of night. A flowing cape. Some kind of helmet, with horns. Maybe one of those whimsical feather plumes. A fish, though?

Truth be told, the child had no particular attachment to either of her current nodemates. Kyoko, while a Magical Girl and therefore extremely cool and probably badass, was still a stranger to her. She knew nothing of her aside from the fact that she enjoyed fighting and was probably red-haired. And Undyne, despite her clearly bombastic personality, she cared for even less. Whether she was akin to the monsters from the Outskirts, the Abnormalities taken care of in Lobotomy Corporation, or something even stranger, the child found it difficult to relate to a being that was specifically not a human. Sentience, as a non-human, was against the most base of laws in the City.

She still wanted to help. One might call it basic human decency, though that might be stretching the definition of the term. One could say that she wanted the moderator's favor, since even if their capabilities were restrained and competency dubious, their knowledge was by far the superior of anyone else's. One could even say it was curiosity, a sense of wasted potential. The thought that losing a fellow victim of this strange circumstance would simply be… unnecessary, especially if done for reasons that nobody except for Undyne knew. And one could say that it was survivor's guilt that drove her. The lingering desires of those that had fallen, and the hope that she could be the rare person that each and every one of them could one day be proud of.

For the briefest of moments, the child witnessed something mystical appear in the palm of her hand as she sat up in alarm. An infinitesimal dot, with no dimensions, a glow emitting from that singular point. No height, no width, no depth, and no mass. But even with that brief moment of exposure, she could tell that there was something special about it. That, rather than anything else, was what fully convinced her that this strange 'Node' was not a delusion. The feeling of the glowing relic, cupped in her hands.

And then it winked out.

"Yuri! What are you doing just lying there? Pick up your useless body and help out around here!"

This voice belonged to Hopkins, third Fixer of this Office. Unlike the other two Fixers, he was armed at that moment, weapon of choice a black and blue crossbow. Tousled blond hair, large rectangular glasses, and a slim build could cause one to mistake him for a harmless nerd. But as far as members of this trio went, he was by far the most likely to survive any given incident. Ability to run away at top speed might not be as glamorous as standing until every last drop of blood has left one's body. But in the career of a Fixer… it is nonetheless important, for any day one could encounter a mis-graded threat, one that leaves you with no choice but to survive. He, too, was the child's senior. But only in name.

The child could not respond to the accusation in time. Aya, instead, replied.

"I told her to take a good, long, break! She's got my permission! Don't be a grouch, m'kay~"

"You don't need to give her such leniencies. She was a Feather of L Corp. Just because the Wing has since fallen does not mean that she suddenly needs babying. Surely she can handle simple Office work?"

As her senior and her "senior" continued to argue, the child quietly slunk away to do some work yet to be determined, hoping that it would appease the more irritable of her two coworkers. But thoughts of the Node continued to bounce around in her head, sparks slowly flying together and igniting fires.

[You have been invited to join Node1127. Do you accept?]

That was enough. Pyrrha had had enough.

She'd timed it. A ping, one every minute and thirty seconds. The same mental message every single time. And the same split-second feeling that an alarm had gone off, that there was urgent business, every single time. Attempting to ask for clarification had not changed it. Mentally declining had not caused it to go away. Whatever this "Node1127" was, it was surely persistent if nothing else. And right now, it was very annoyingly stopping her from going to sleep, even though she'd been tousled up in the dark in bed for upwards of thirty minutes now.

She hadn't told her teammates about this. Not for lack of trust nor belief that she wouldn't be believed, mind you. Jaune, Nora, and Ren were good people. Good friends. But Pyrrha liked to think herself the kind of person that wouldn't trouble others unnecessarily. Self-sufficiency was a virtue, after all. Only now, late at night with everyone asleep, it was arguably too late to realize the issue wasn't one that would be easily resolved. Not without taking a risk or two, anyway. Self-sufficiency and arrogance… two sides of the same coin, where the sole factor tempering the outcome was self-awareness. Clearly, Pyrrha did not understand herself as well as she'd thought.

Acceptance…

Talking with Coco, and through her, Fox, had yielded no results. Pyrrha had been oblique about the issue right up until it became clear that neither of them knew anything of Nodes or Fox's unusual use of telepathy. Then, she'd simply thanked them and walked away. In hindsight, that was the moment that she should have gone to a member of the faculty. But that selfsame arrogance had warped her judgment, and she'd simply spent the entire rest of the day receiving irritating pings. Frankly, it was a miracle that no one had called her out on her emptier-than-usual smile.

As it stood, she had two options. She could continue weathering the storm of psychic invites all through the night, without getting a wink of sleep, then go to a faculty member or otherwise trusted person and ask for help in the morning. Exhaustion was not a new concept to her, as someone who'd trained until incredibly late hours of the night to hone her skills. She could handle a day or two without rest without too much degradation in her capabilities. The issue, however, came in the possibility that, uh, maybe no one would know how to help her. Professor Ozpin was probably the most knowledgeable and experienced person at Beacon Academy, despite his young age. He wouldn't have made Headmaster otherwise. But the thought that even he wouldn't know what was going on or how to fix it, to trace the issue... Fox hadn't noticed anything earlier, and you'd think he was an expert, right?

Her other option was to once again shoulder the burden on her own: accept the invite in full and try to get answers straight from the source. And, in doing so, prove that she hadn't learned anything over the course of the entire day.

...Damn. Self awareness, eh?

…So casual. Was we intruding on something? Did she miss a memo?

She needed to stay focused and get answers. Though, admittedly, that was no reason to be rude about it. Manners were important.

…Maybe a little passive-aggressive. Just a tiny bit. She was just a little bit tired.

In a moment of vague realization, Pyrrha noticed that, even as she continued receiving mental messages from each of the group's three participants, the pings each message caused were significantly less insistent. Instead of a feeling of imminent alarm, each line of text felt instead more like a spoken word, background conversation. And seeing how it was 3:13 in the morning…

Chapter Text

"Wosh u leg… Wosh u face… Wosh u stab wounds…"

Undyne awoke to the sound of splashing and the smell of detergent. God, she'd never been so grateful to see Woshua and his little bird monster friend. In Waterfall, Woshua was the only practitioner of Green magic aside from herself. And his came in the form of Green bullets—bullets that healed, rather than harmed. Being the hypochondriac that he was, he'd probably word it as 'cleansing injuries', and heck, it was what he was doing to her, so she wasn't complaining.

Undyne gave herself a check-over. And… well. Kyoko had done a number on her. Her armor would have to be scrapped. The left arm had been completely shorn off. The rest wasn't looking much better, filled with chips, cracks, and massive punctures, ones that had hit straight through the armor and damaged her body underneath. And that damage had been no joke. She could feel her HP dropping drastically with every single strike of Kyoko's spear-whip-thing. Knocking her out completely…

It occurred to her that, if Woshua hadn't come by, she might've fallen down. Or even died. The magical princess(!!!), Magical Girl, whatever, had left her in critical condition. Not to mention that, if those human history books and documentaries were correct, the girl was only a child. A full-fledged adult… could have torn through her like mere tissue paper. Turned her into a filet with a single stroke.

Anime was real. Anime was so real. And It was dangerous as all heck.

The worst thought came when she realized that, of all the monsters in the Underground, she was undoubtedly among the strongest. Second only to ASGORE and maybe the toughest of Knight Knights with the brightest of Good Morningstars. And she'd gotten her ass totally beat. Any other monster wouldn't stand a chance either. They'd be even easier pickings for any similarly powerful human. There was a time when Undyne had thought that she would be able to handle any human that came down into the Underground. Never that it would be easy, not really. It would take a pitched struggle. Blades would clash. The wind, whipped up into a howling maelstrom. The knight in shining armor, clad in righteousness, would narrowly defeat the villainous human, and bring justice to the Underground.

…It could still happen. Anime was real, after all. But it would take a hell of a lot more training. She'd need to double—no, TRIPLE! Triple her power output! And she'd need to take the rest of the Royal Guard with her. As much as she loved the dogs of the Snowdin Canine Unit, they were in no shape to take on humans if she'd had this much trouble! #01 and #02, too, they too had to be brought up to snuff. She hoped Mad Dummy wouldn't be too inconvenienced with finding a new home. Because, as her training dummy, she was going to PULVERIZE them!

She was still connected to the stupid Node, even now. Scrolling up real quick (which felt really weird when it was just happening in her head), turns out someone else joined up too, only to go to sleep immediately afterward. Whatever. Before that… Yuri had, under the insistence and guidance of Scarlet, done some programming thing that had canceled the summoning command and likely saved her life. And Kyoko hadn't seemed all that worked up over not getting to finish her off.

She was still lying on the ground… Okay, she needed to fix that. Unfortunately, even with Woshua's constant application of green healing magic and soap (mostly soap), she was still too weak to stand. She needed serious help. And she guessed she could call Alphys or Papyrus to help her out… but nah. She wanted to maintain SOME of her dignity, okay?

"Woshua," Undyne croaked. "Thanks for the wosh—dammit, wash. Can you get me some good, clean, food? And maybe keep this between us?"

Monster food was made of magical ingredients. When consumed, it didn't get digested, not really. Instead, it went straight to the SOUL, and converted directly into energy. It would give Undyne a massive boost to their healing. She'd be back to 100% in no time, if she could get some food in her.

Woshua nodded. He looked eager to be part of this strange Undyne conspiracy. Then, the turtle-like monster trundled off. Hopefully, he'd be able to find some grub that met his standards of cleanliness within a reasonable amount of time…

Ah, who was she kidding. She'd be lying here for at least a couple more hours. Even if she couldn't move… much, she wanted to do something.

…As much as Undyne hadn't wanted her to intervene at the time, in hindsight, she needed to thank Yuri. That STUPID Moderator hadn't felt it worth their time to get involved, but at least they'd pushed Yuri to help instead. And they'd done it. Saved her from the brink of death by 'overloading the Node' or whatever… she'd need to go ask Alphys about how that worked. Or "ModScarlet", even though she didn't trust 'em one whit.

Hm. Was Yuri a human? Even if they were, Undyne supposed they still deserved a modicum of thanks.

The Underground didn't have access to the Internet of the surface world. But Dr. Alphys, brilliant scientist that she was, had created an alternative using magic and discarded parts from the surface… UnderNet! As the name suggested, the Underground's Internet! This meant that even though she'd never seen the real thing, she could still parse the interface of the Node, which was similar enough to a certain messaging board. It meant that she'd been able to figure out how to change her name pretty quickly, even without scrolling up to see how Kyoko and Yuri had done it.

And it also meant that she figured out private channels faster than… pretty much anyone else, she was guessing. Her own, as well as ones to communicate with other people.

It was no surprise to Undyne that Yuri knew nothing of monsters. They'd been trapped in the Underground for so long, after all. Even their dust had begun to accumulate dust of its own. Generations of monsters had come and gone, ASGORE one of the only constants among them. Thinking about the history of monsters made her woozy, sometimes. Also the whole multiverse thing, she guessed.

As Captain of the Royal Guard, she was supposed to have this entire lubbing speech prepared, one that told human visitors of the Underground, the Monsters, and its history. A solemn affair, ideally recited from a clifftop or something and meant to last like three whole minutes. It would impress with a great sadness, impart the seriousness of monsterkind's plight upon the listener, and ensure that, even though they would be doomed to die nonetheless, they would at least die understanding their purpose. It was not meant for trickery or deception (though Alphys theorized that it might make the infamous power gap between humans and monsters just a little smaller, if it could successfully plant the seed of compassion in their souls). Rather, it was a measure taken in honor. For honor. To protect the honor of monsterkind as a whole. Honoring a sacrifice for the greater good. All that honorable stuff.

Undyne thought all this was really great. Truly, honestly, for real and all that. This would be a great time for it. What WASN'T great was the fact that she COULDN'T FREAKING REMEMBER IT!

Seriously. She had the darned thing written down at home somewhere, probably misplaced during one of Papyrus's cooking lessons. She'd gone over it at least, like, twice! And yet, her mind remained blank. Empty as a skeleton's skull. All she could remember was something about the number of human souls they had? The number of human souls they needed? Gah… so frustrating! She'd forgotten even those opening words during the encounter with Kyoko, and so attacked her out of embarrassment. In hindsight, not the best idea.

Screw it. She'd wing it.

Undyne wasn't the type to hold back her innermost thoughts. But she did have just enough tact to not mention, at this very moment, that she considered most of them COWARDS and SCUMBAGS. Instead of working for the highest bidder, those monsters should be working for the Royal Guard! Trying to find a way to break the Barrier. Helping maintain peace in the Underground. The Madjicks and Whimsalots of the world… She had no respect for them.

Undyne could see where Yuri was going with that, if they hadn't cut themself off. The implication… was that they were less free than the monsters of the Underground? She wanted to immediately dismiss it as nonsense. But then again, she could understand the weight of the chains of responsibility. She didn't get to be captain of the Royal Guard without caring about the well-being of her subordinates. That heaviness was weighing on her now.

The sound of bubbles popping indicated that Woshua had returned, a bag of food on his back.

"...The food. I got it… at the soap-ermarket…Fresh!"

Yeah. That sounded about right.

Morning.

Apple. crunch

Second apple. crunch crunch

And that was breakfast.

Soul gem: Unclouded. Undyne was all bark and no bite. Took no magical power at all to beat her down. Intimidating armor, true, and the storm of spears was pretty cool. Watching them flood the starry sky and fall like rain… it brought back a faint sense of wonder. But she hit like a small child and couldn't take a hit in return. Disappointing, honestly.

Now, onto the most interesting thing that had happened to her in months.

Pyrrha Nikos needed to chill out.

Kyoko nearly flinched as a massive chunk of text plopped down into the chat's field of vision, her focus processing it all at once.

blink.

Honestly, she didn't care that much. Wasn't the first time someone had tried to off her. Most tended to be fellow Magical Girls trying to take her territory. None of it was personal.

Kyoko reached into her stash and pulled out a half-used Grief Seed.

…Pocket dimensions, huh.

Chapter Text

Way Kyoko saw it, the skies of Kazamino City were kinda like a giant static lake. And she was the Magical Girl skimming the top of that lake, darting through the air and bouncing off of the tips of buildings for only the fleetest of moments. A touch of metal, of roofing, and bam! Off like a rocket to the next roof. Like a red, toothy skipping stone, one with the best view in the whole damned city. Feeling the air rush past her, ruffling her ponytail, spear trailing behind her…

There was no denying that Magical Girls took a lot of crap. But there were undeniably benefits, ones that made the job worth doing. And this… this was at the top of the list as far as those went.

Even more worth noting: paying attention to the Node as she sped from building to building… well, she didn't really. She didn't have to pay any of her valuable attention. Almost zero focus spent. It was as if reading and responding occurred entirely unconsciously.

Weird.

Kyoko chuckled. The two of them were apparently on similar wavelengths. In terms of cleverness, at least. Being reasonable and practical people? Maybe less so.

Alright. That was fair. Get a lolly, give a lolly.

A miasmic glint. Her Soul Gem pulsed. And the location…

Descent.

Kyoko had another hunch.

The additional multitasking capability provided by the Node only worked so long as she was using the Node, and only for Node things. Like, she didn't know, some kinda work-monitored internet connection. No slacking off on the Node! But that was the thing, wasn't it. Brains didn't work that way. They considered multiple thoughts at once. They combined thoughts. Couldn't just split your brain in half so cleanly. If she wanted to talk about Witches in the Node, or compare and contrast spear techniques with Undyne as they battled, that got offloaded to the Node multitasking. Cause it was Node-related.

How far did that go, she wondered? Just how much processing could she get the Node to do for her?

She dove into the Labyrinth.

What they were doing now was dying.

One foot in front of the other. Adjust footing, to the ground that feels like burlap drenched in oil. Then push. Stance. Swash. Reap the sky. Fresh air burst from each Familiar getting stabbed out of existence.

That wasn't the actual reason, Kyoko couldn't help but think. And she couldn't offload the thought to the Node either. But Pyrrha Nikos was some kind of goody two shoes college student, and would probably throw a hissy fit if she knew. And since they were all supposed to be not stabbing each other… best if she kept silent for now.

She pushed forward.

A casual piercing. Shattered another wave of Familiars.

Kyoko didn't use much magic in general anymore. But she checked her Soul Gem nonetheless. Barely darkened at all. Great.

She opened the door.

She'd got all the time in the world to prep. So first strike should be a big one. Charging magic into her spear, doubling in size. Setting ablaze. Pinpointing the face. Preparing an exit plan in case things go wrong.

Fire.

The Witch recoiled. Burned, as stitching was set aflame and cogs in her grand body were melted. Fresh air burst from her bursting seams. The opposite of smoke. Kyoko flipped away, recalling her exploded spear to hand and watching the Witch writhe. Rarely did a first strike kill a Witch, but she'd been lucky before.

Not this time. The Witch roared with the sound of boiling oil, then charged her, slithering like a massive burning snake. Surprisingly quick. Kyoko still vaulted above her easily, lashing out at her body with whiplike strikes with the segments of her spear. All ignored, as the Witch curved around herself and attempted to swallow her whole, massive stitch-mouth opening wide and revealing gear-teeth teeth. Kyoko impaled both of her sealed-shut eyes.

She finally decided to use her magic in earnest, or what was left of it, anyways. A red lattice of chains sprung into existence, binding the Witch in place. Though she was slippery and would likely escape after mere moments, it was all the time Kyoko needed. Another magic infusion into her weapon. And an ultimate attack aimed right at the Witch's weak point. A completely unnamed ultimate attack, since calling out cringey attack names was for stupid people and babies.

It did the trick. Pierced straight through. Shattered the Labyrinth itself. The Witch's core, her Grief Seed, clinked off a headstone and fell onto a freshly-filled grave. Kyoko claimed it triumphantly, then glanced at the name.

The hell? Wasn't she just threatening to kill her?

Whatever.

Overall, she thought that the experiment had gone pretty damned well. The goal had been to offload all of her observing and strategizing off to the Node, so that her conscious brain could focus entirely on what was actually going on, dodge attacks and projectiles, compile attacks. It'd sorta worked. Her reflexes had been a little faster, her attacks a little more effective. It was a small edge, for sure. As far as "Node-based superpowers" went, it wasn't exactly groundbreaking.

But in this world of Magical Girls, every tiny edge counted for something. Could be the difference between life and death.

She'd take it.

It was time. Pyrrha could put this off for no longer.

Scarlet had returned some time after Kyoko's textual recounting of the Witch battle. Late enough that the Magical Girl herself had gone to sleep. Pyrrha had asked if she could ask them a question or two in private, and the Moderator had created this private channel to do just that. With reassurances in hand, she'd begun working up the courage to tell her team about the Node.

Pyrrha had been doing so for most of the day now. Funny how that courage didn't seem to come.

She'd promised herself that she would tell someone about it last night. That promise had finally come due. And her team at Beacon had been the people she most trusted, most wanted to tell.

Saying that it would be simple would be a falsehood. Explaining the concept of the strange multiversal chatroom and its "exceptional" occupants would take some time, require weathering a number of difficult questions. But it should not be nearly as difficult as it had ended up being.

Was the issue that Pyrrha was loath to disturb her teammates with her own problems, as per usual? Yes, that was likely it. Especially when they were all looking so peaceful, so content right now.

Jaune had been training with Pyrrha just an hour earlier, working on his sword arm strength and dexterity. Now, he was cooling off at his desk, part-studying for Professor Mulberry's class and part reading a superhero comic book. He'd been doing great for a boy who'd cheated his way into Beacon, had no experience when he'd come in, and in fact had to have every element of being a Huntsman—no, being a combatant on Remnant—explained to him like he was a two-year old child who'd just discovered language.

…When she laid it all out like that, it almost sounded like she hated him. No, that couldn't be further from the truth. Jaune Arc was not an idiot. He picked up on new concepts quite quickly. He worked himself to the bone, improving by leaps and bounds when working on correct guidance. He didn't complain, save for one memorable incident when he'd managed to get struck by lightning twice in rapid succession atop the dorm roof, which frankly was probably warranted.

More importantly, Jaune was kind. Beacon infiltration aside, he was effectively guileless. He was a pretty funny guy, though he'd get offended if she pointed it out. And so mind-numbingly oblivious that he'd somehow never ever heard of the name "Pyrrha Nikos". She'd never met anyone like him. And she was happy beyond happy to have chosen him as her partner.

Did any of this save him from being easily the weakest student at Beacon Academy? …Well, no one was without their faults. And that selfsame obliviousness could occasionally be quite annoying. Jaune couldn't see what was right in front of him, sometimes.

Her love life aside, Team JNPR (Juniper) did have two more students on it. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. A pair of students that couldn't be spoken of as anything but a pair. Where one went, the other always followed. And not in the identical twin sense; rather, they both took themselves to an excess, and relied on each other to balance each other out. Seemingly, anyway. Was that rude?

Nora was the most boisterous person Pyrrha had ever known. She greeted every morning like a best friend she'd been joyfully reunited with. And she fought like every enemy's face was a best friend her warhammer needed to be forcefully reunited with. She didn't look it, but Nora was impossibly strong. Maybe even stronger than herself, under the right circumstances. Sometimes, she acted as if the rules of reality didn't apply to her. But she knew when to ground herself when it counted. As befitting a girl with the power to act as a living lightning rod.

Lie Ren, or just Ren, or Renny if your name was Nora, was the opposite. Quiet, reserved, and generally stoic. He didn't stand out, didn't try to. But the quiet rat-tat-tat-tat of his automatic pistols was one of the most reliable sounds she'd ever heard. And there was no denying that he cared for his team, Nora especially, in his own way.

The two of them were curled up on Nora's bed together, not-cuddling as a not-couple. Pyrrha wondered if that could be her, one day.

…She needed to just bite the bullet. These were good people. She trusted them. They would trust her.

"Hello, everybody. I have some news."

Good start.

"What's up, Pyrrha?"

"Something strange happened to me yesterday…"

And so Pyrrha ended up explaining what had happened to her. How the invitation to the Node had shown up in her thoughts. How she'd resisted opening it until late last night. And so on. And so forth.

"So…" Jaune summarized, "you were put into a weird interdimensional Scrolltext chat?"

"Yes."

"With a bunch of redheaded people with superpowers."

"I believe so."

"Is this why you look exhausted?"

"Do I?"

"Well, no… but I kind of got that feeling from you?" Jaune tried. "Uh. Anyway! You didn't actually tell us anything about those redheaded people? Who are they?"

She could say as much.

"Kyoko is the chattiest person here," Pyrrha started. "She's a warrior who battles monsters called Witches in someplace called Kazamino City. A 'magical girl', in her terms. She fought one just today."

Jaune gasped. "Like in the cartoons?"

Pyrrha gaped. "The… cartoons?

A grinning nod. "Yeah! You know, Magical Azure and the Five Stars? Crimson Heroine? I've always preferred comics, personally, but they're all pretty awesome! Is her personality like those?"

"Ah… maybe?" Pyrrha guessed, feeling somehow as if she was drowning on land. She didn't exactly have the time to watch television while training for the Mistral circuit. She made a mental note to do some research on these cartoons that Jaune was apparently a fan of. Maybe it could provide interesting discussion…?

Also, how to phrase this…? She didn't want to badmouth Kyoko when she wasn't present; that seemed like the behavior of a gossip. She supposed she could just tell the girl that she was about to insult her to her team, but that was rude in a completely different and far worse way. And Pyrrha wasn't exactly one for lying. Plus, she was asleep.

Eventually, she settled upon, "She's somewhat brusque and has a short temper, from what I've seen of her. But she also fights diligently to protect people. I think she's a good person at heart."

Jaune nodded sagely. "So she's like Katarhina. Not my favorite, but that sounds cool. I'd like to meet her!"

"Who else is there in your alien chatroom?" Nora eagerly asked, thankfully distracting everyone from Pyrrha's pop-cultural and social deficiencies.

"There's Undyne. She's some kind of fish monster? From an entire underground kingdom of 'monsters', which is the name of her species. She's enthusiastic. Kind of like you, Nora."

A horrifying thought struck Pyrrha at that moment. From what she could tell, calling Undyne enthusiastic was an understatement, if her chatting intensity was anything to go by. And Nora… well, she had much experience with her firsthand. She didn't know how Ren dealt with it all. If the two of them met… Pyrrha was worried they might cause some sort of muscular flexing bombastic singularity! It scared her. Truly. It worried her deep into her bones. Never must the two meet, she resolved.

She moved on, much faster, to ward off Nora's upcoming, "You should introduce me!"

"N-Next, Yuri! Yuri is the quietest among us. I… don't know that much about her, now that I am thinking about it. She lives in a world with only one City? And seems thoughtful. She rarely speaks unless she has something meaningful to say."

"Sounds like Ren!" Nora eagerly pointed out. For his part, Ren, who Pyrrha feared might have fallen asleep, simply shrugged.

She felt somewhat ashamed of the fact that she did not have more to say about the person from the City. Logically, she knew it was not her own fault that Yuri had not said more in the Node. But at the same time, she felt as if she should give each of her Nodemates equal time in her team's spotlight, Undyne aside for completely justified reasons. The fact that she simply couldn't was somewhat grating.

"Finally, there's the moderator, who started this whole project. They go by ModScarlet, and their goal is to improve 'multiverse coherency.' I'm not entirely sure what that means, honestly, and they've been somewhat frustrating to talk to."

Nora and Jaune both opened their mouths, presumably to ask more questions. But Pyrrha held up a hand to forestall them just for a little bit. "Before you or I say anything more, can you do me a favor?

"Can we please keep this just between us?"

Once again, Pyrrha was just self aware enough to know that this was probably a bad idea. She was dealing with alien forces here. Even magic, if her Node-mates were to be believed. Frankly, even though she was probably one of the best students at Beacon Academy for shouldering this burden, that did not change the fact that she was still a student. Faculty, diplomats, leaders and shakers, kings in all but name and Huntsmen storied… Any and all of them had more credibility to speak on behalf of Beacon, of Vale, of Remnant as a whole. Pyrrha, by comparison, was a mere more-competent-than-average child, even if she'd technically reached her age of majority. In a perfect world, she would hand this responsibility (and make no mistake, that was the way she viewed the Node: a responsibility) off to, say, Professor Ozpin, Headmaster Lionheart. She would barely hesitate. Her preference would have been to retain her largely normal school life, free of Witches and monsters and slightly mutated mice and the moderator's constant caginess. Wash her hands of the matter.

(She really did get the sense that there was something they weren't telling her. She just couldn't figure it out. And she was too polite to pry.)

That wasn't the world she lived in. Apparently, it wasn't the world that any of the Node users lived in. And since this onus fell solely on Pyrrha, she figured it was up to her discretion as to how she wished to deal with it. Call her selfish, but she still wanted to try and preserve that normal school life as best as possible, even if it may have been a fanciful daydream in the first place.

"I assume you would prefer it if we didn't tell Team RWBY (Ruby) about this," Ren commented.

The thought did give her pause. Much like with her own team, Team RWBY was a group of Huntresses-in-training that she would trust with her life. Both because they were good, honest people and because they could easily hold their own in a fight. In a straight duel, Pyrrha was stronger than any individual among Ruby, Weiss, Blake, or Yang. But as a team, RWBY was likely superior to JNPR as a whole.

That said… Ren was right. She didn't want them to know. They had their own issues to deal with. Yang and Weiss were both busy setting up for the annual dance in Team CFVY's stead. Blake was conducting her investigations into the White Fang. And Ruby… well, okay, Ruby probably wasn't up to anything, but Pyrrha wasn't just going to tell one member of the team.

…Pyrrha didn't want them to look at her differently. Was that too much to ask?

"Yes," she responded.

Jaune suddenly straightened, winced, and let a vague look of despair come across his face. "Ugh. I'm going to forget about this and blab, like I almost did with Blake. Guys, can you remind me if I'm about to screw up?"

Pyrrha would have reassured him, but Nora beat her to the punch. "Jaune, come on! You definitely won't forget! And that's because, if you do, I'll hit you right in the face with my hammer!"

"Ahahahaha… please don't."

Pyrrha smiled. She had the best friends.

Chapter Text

"Pant… pant…"

The Snowdin Canine Unit was an elite force of dog monsters, serving to protect the town of Snowdin as members of the Royal Guard.

"I can't… I can't move! I can't see things that can't move! Does that mean I'm i-i-invisible?

Their storied lineage stretched back to the very founding of the Underground.

"We're so tired… I think we might vomit."

Their noses had been tested on the sweetest of bisicles and the stinkiest of human trash.

"(No, seriously, we actually might.)"

They were utterly beyond reproach in every way.

Whine…

Still, Undyne couldn't help but think, looking at the exhausted dogpile before her, I think I might've been a little too lenient on these guys.

"Come on, troops!" she valiantly attempted to rally. "It's only been three hours!"

The only response was a chorus of groans, dejected barks, and warbling arfs—no, sorry. Warbling barfs. Damn, the Dogi really did throw up.

Undyne sighed, resigning herself to the fact that her planned-out sixteen-hour exercise schedule was going to get knocked off track.

"Alright, alright… Take a break, take a break! We'll meet back in… whenever you're feeling better!" she shouted, much to the relief of her trainees.

Ugh. Undyne wanted to complain. Too bad 01 and 02 were off patrolling Hotland, so she had no one to complain to.

Actually. No! She had this stupid chat in her head! A captive audience!

"UNDYNE! UNDYNE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE?"

The monster who possessed the name of Papyrus was jogging over through the Snowdin treeline. Undyne gave him a toothy wave.

"Heya, Papyrus! We're training!"

"WOWZA! THE ROYAL GUARD TRAINS AT SIX IN THE MORNING? INCREDIBLE! SUCH DEDICATION!"

"Actually," Undyne said, "We've been training since 3:00 AM! Dogamy and the Dogaressa just threw up, it's so intense! The rest of the Snowdin Canine Unit is just as exhausted!"

Papyrus gasped. "OH NO! THAT'S TERRIBLE! I WASN'T AWARE THAT BEING IN THE ROYAL GUARD COULD BE SO BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH!"

Undyne allowed herself to feel a fleeting moment of hope.

"CLEARLY, THIS MEANS THAT YOU ARE IN NEED OF MEDICAL AND MOTIVATIONAL HELP. HELP FROM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

"I ONLY NEED A SINGLE MOMENT! TO CHANGE OUT OF MY BATTLE BODY! AND THEN…"

Papyrus struck a pose of intense longing. Undyne raised a finger, opening her mouth to speak, to cut him off. But she thought better of it.

"I WILL PROVE MYSELF! WITH THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF MY NUMEROUS TALENTS! YOU WILL BE SO WOWED, YOU WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO ACCEPT ME IN THE ROYAL GUARD! JUST YOU WAIT!"

With that final monologue, Papyrus cartwheeled away in the direction of his house. Undyne and the dogs all watched him go, faces etched in various shades of confusion.

"...He moves so much, but he didn't give us any pets?"

Growls and grumbles of discontent.

Undyne started mentally going over her speech on monsters and human souls and the barrier again.

Then she realized that she'd already given an explanation, of sorts, to Yuri. She mentally changed channels, pulling up the exposition she'd already stated, and started more-or-less copying it into the public channel. By the time she'd finished, Papyrus had returned with an absolutely ridiculous outfit. Undyne wouldn't deign to describe it, even in her own mind.

"ALRIGHT EVERYBODY! PREPARE YOURSELF FOR… THE PAPYRUS TRAINING ASSISTANCE SPECIAL!"

…He didn't even know what they were doing. The Canine Unit looked between themselves, then glanced at Papyrus, who started doing some strange version of an exercise routine that Undyne, once again, refused to describe in any capacity.

"...Let's get 'im."

BARK! BARK!

Papyrus did a very good job of keeping his skull cheerful and voice from wavering. Or perhaps he simply did not understand the situation he was in, oblivious goofball that he was.

"THAT'S THE SPIRIT! COME ON, GET THOSE BODIES MOVING! PUMP THOSE HEARTS! NOT THAT I WOULD KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT PERSONALLY, BUT—AIIIEEEEE!!!!"

Things happened to Papyrus. Undyne continued refusing to narrate them. The dogs weren't directly harming him, so she didn't feel the need. Plus, it at least got them up and moving again.

"hi."

Undyne whipped about, caught completely by surprise. A spear started to form in her hand, but then she realized it was just Sans. Sans the skeleton.

"Jeez, you startled me! Why do you keep sneaking up on me?"

"because you're really easy to sneak up on?"

Undyne, as usual, completely understood Papyrus's desire to smack his brother a new one. Then it occurred to her that she'd literally never seen Sans awake before the start of his shift as a sentry, and sometimes even then.

"Why are you up so early?"

Sans gave a carefree shrug.

"paps woke me up. said something about you and was out the door. i wanted to know what was going on."

He paused.

"what's going on? i can't really tell."

"Your brother is… "helping" the Snowdin Canine Unit train. I… did not ask for this."

"heh. that sounds like him. what a great guy, y'know?"

Undyne could agree with that.

Come to think of it, everyone in the Node except for Kyoko and maybe Scarlet was also awake, weren't they? What was up with that?

"hm. why are you doing this so early?" Sans abruptly asked.

"Huh?"

"just curious."

It was a pretty good question.

Look. It wasn't like Undyne didn't KNOW she was being a wee bit unreasonable. She probably should've dialed things back, like, four hours. 12 hours of work a day was doable, right? Yeah. And she didn't NEED to wake up the Canine Unit at such a miserable hour. She herself was feeling the effects of sleep deprivation too, possibly even more so than her subordinates. She'd been out here all night, clearing the clearing for their training session, after all. And it wasn't as if she'd slacked on the training routine either; probably the only reason the Guard hadn't gone into open revolt. She demanded 200%, but she gave just as much!

…Yeah. It was exhausting. But she needed to do this. She wasn't trying to be mean. She wasn't a SADIST. But. You know. Cruel to be kind. Was that how the saying went?

…They weren't ready. The monsters she knew just weren't ready. Not strong enough. Not brutal enough. The Royal Guard was better prepared than Papyrus, but that was a low, low bar to clear. This hellish day was meant to be a wake-up call. A jolt. A breaking of complacency.

She still might tone it down over the next couple of days, though.

In the end, she brushed Sans off.

"Someone said to me that training for so long with such intensity was impossible. Well. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

"mmhm. ok."

Sans continued to watch his brother have indescribable things done to him by Snowdin's dogs with a smile on his face. Undyne was reminded that, technically, the lazy skeleton did work for her.

"HEY! Hold on a second! If you have time to hang out and gawk here, you have time to do your job! Get outta here!"

"sure thing, boss."

And then, true to form, he sidled off in the exact opposite direction of either of his sentry stations. Undyne wanted to yell at him for it, but she knew him well enough at this point. If she were to make a mad dash and check his post, he'd somewhere manage to be there, probably asleep. That guy and his "shortcuts"... She figured it was because he was too lazy to follow the laws of physics.

"*HUFF, HUFF* YOU GUYS ARE… DOING A FANTASTIC JOB! *HUFF HUFF* KEEP IT UP, AND YOU MAY ONE DAY CATCH UP TO ME! THOUGH I HOPE NOT LITERALLY!"

Undyne chuckled, before picking up a spear and joining in on the fun. She had the most amazing junior. Somehow.

The child was on Office contract. She had mentioned it earlier, but it bore repeating. The Office she was currently working for specialized in excavation. Abandoned buildings and facilities, in the City, frequently became overtaken by hostile entities, and thus excavation Offices were hired by prospective buyers or even looters. Whoever paid. Though, on occasion, if the excavation Office discovered a site of particular value coupled with manageable risk, they might consider attempting to explore the site themselves, on their own An and accepting full liability.

For those so inclined, excavation provided a number of benefits compared to straight combat or straight investigation. It required elements of both, but required less skill in both. One who had not specialized their talents could flourish in excavation. And in well-funded Offices, ones with proper reconnaissance and research teams, risk to the Fixers doing their delving could be almost minimized, as long as the Office could continue to fund and find work, of course.

This was not one of those Offices.

The contract, this time, had been offered by a would-be restaurant owner, who had recently purchased the rights to a now-dilapidated gyros place. He had, upon his own inspection, noted that the building was infested with slightly-more-frustrating than usual fauna, and designated the job as an Urban Myth. And so, he had provided the blueprints of the building, as was customary, assuming it would be all that was necessary to complete the job.

In a sense, his initial analysis was not entirely incorrect.

"Hello! You're being evicted! Don't worry, I'll make it quick~"

See, a family of Rats had taken up a stealthy residence within the old building. And this group of poor, hungry, Backstreets dwellers…they were disinclined to give up their home. And such as human nature led, the only possible outcome was violence.

A true shame, for the Rats.

The child called Yuri was… practiced, in the act of combat. As any Fixer ought to be. But it was practice born by necessity, by trial of fire. She had entered a business where one either learned to kill or learned to die, and her resolution to survive was too great for her to consider the latter. This was not to say that the child had talent, however. Every scrap of skill and power she had, she'd bought with hard-earned cash, or traded with blood, for scars and wounds she couldn't afford to heal. Violence did not come easily to her.

It didn't especially matter here. The Rats had even less combat ability than her. And she had the support of an Office behind her. Aya and Hopkins stood at a slight distance, gunning down those that tried to escape. 'Massacre' would not be an inaccurate term to describe what had happened.

Within minutes, eleven Rats lay dead on the ground, cut apart by the child's sword or filled with projectile wounds. All remaining could relax, as the job was now considered complete. And the child could afford to pay attention to the Node once more as she cleaned her blade.

The child resisted the urge to scream. What was Kyoko doing? She had read the descriptions of the Node's potential powers. They all seemed useful. And she needed the Moderator's permission to use any of them. And make no mistake: she understood just how useful they could be. Pyrrha, she suspected, was more powerful than she seemed at first glance. Undyne had access to a whole world of 'monsters,' all of which almost certainly barred from the City but potentially helpful regardless. And Kyoko had given the entire Node a demonstration of her prowess.

In this City, every tiny edge counted for something. It could be the difference between life and death.

This was more than a tiny edge. This was potentially a power to rival a Singularity.

She couldn't seem desperate. That was the best way to be taken advantage of. To reveal how deeply you desired something was to scream to the world just how much they could charge you for it. How much they could cut away and break off of you. She couldn't express how upset she was with Kyoko's flaunting, with her arrogance, her pride in power. She couldn't beg the Magical Girl to reconsider, to lay down upon the Moderator's mercy, the hope that they wouldn't smite her for her arrogance.

There was nothing she could do.

"Don't you just stand there, Yuri. Help me harvest these corpses."

The child must not have hid her distaste well enough, for Hopkins gave her a filthy sneer. One meant for those that showed contempt.

"What, do you think you're too high-ranked to do such filthy work? Feathers of a Wing don't play around in the shit? It is this kind of work that keeps our Office afloat, don't you know?"

It is worth noting that the child was not unused to handling human corpses. Death was frequent at her old place of work, and she was of low enough rank that it often fell to her to clean up sites of death. From placing what remained of the body into bags to mopping and scrubbing the blood off of the halls. She had gone through all of the steps of corpse disposal.

The issue, here, was that the child found the process of gut-harvesting disrespectful. When the slain had died and would not be able to object or complain any further, their corpse was often all that was left of them. And given that… it made sense to attempt one final gesture for them before placing their memory out of mind. The butchering and profiting involved with Hopkins' operation… it didn't sit well. The Rats may have only been Rats, but it felt like a grave desecration.

…She was the Office's junior. Hopkins was her senior. There was nothing she could do. She bent down, accepted the proffered surgical tools, and began to cut.

"You idiot. You've sliced the intestine straight open. This length is ruined. I should dock this out of your pay. Try again with this next one."

It seemed that Hopkins was in a good mood today. He was giving her a second opportunity, only lambasting her briefly. He revealed why moments later, as she managed to extract the guts from the Rat to his standards this time.

"We've gotten quite lucky today. That foolish restauranteur misclassified the threat level of this job. And we were still able to handle it without greater expenditure. We'll be able to charge twice and a half for our work here, and Hana will surely support that."

He glanced over at the child's work, deemed it satisfactory, and continued, voice thoughtful. "Then again, you're working at a flat-rate contract, aren't you? So this doesn't apply to you. A shame… you did an adequate and efficient job on the front line today."

It was a false sympathy, a meaningless compliment. It was not as if he was going to make it up to her, nor pay her extra. A comment, not an offer. She simply had to accept it nonetheless.

The child placed the most recent set of guts into a U Corp stasis container, then moved to the next corpse. But Hopkins gestured for her to stop.

"None of the rest of these are worth anything. Can't you see how our attacks have ruined the organs? Leave them alone. Go talk with Aya or something, get more paperwork advice. I've taught you how to do this gritty work."

He hadn't taught her anything. But she took the dismissal for what it was and scampered out of there.

Aya was just outside of the building, and had just finished communicating with the client. She turned to the child as she approached, putting a slight grin on her face.

"Yuri, good to see you aren't hurt. Did Hopkins give you a hard time?"

She didn't trust herself to respond, and her senior took the information from her pained expression.

"Ah… I hope you'll forgive him. He cares too much. We don't strictly need this revenue, y'know? But he builds a buffer for if work dries up or in case of emergency, and that's probably worth having."

Aya shrugged. "It's probably good for him to get back to his roots every now and then~ Keeps him from getting a big head. I'm sorry you got dragged into it."

"...It's fine," was all the child said.

…This Office. It was far from the best. But it had accepted her, to some degree. Yuri couldn't help but think she was lucky to have it. And at least one senior who cared.

Chapter Text

Downtime, for the child, was not truly a time for respite. It was true that, when she was not working, she had time to sleep, time to eat, and space to recuperate from injury in the privacy of her home. A physical relief of burdens, which she supposed counted for something. But mentally, home was no respite at all.

She did not enjoy work as a Fixer. But she almost preferred it to being alone in a room with only worries and harsh memories for company.

Though, on a second spin of that thought, she realized it was untrue. The Node was an ever-present diversion, was it not? And she did have a question to ask.

The child had come around on the multiversal construct, over the past few days. At first, she had considered it a distraction, a line for inane chatter of no consequence. Much of what the Moderator had said was beyond her comprehension. Talk of multiverses and cosmologies had little to do with day-to-day life in the City. Especially in the Backstreets, where survival was the primary idea of each dawn. She had participated out of social obligation and idle curiosity.

Then, the Moderator had revealed the Node's true purpose, and the capabilities offered. Yet, before she'd had time to process or consider, those capabilities, those powers had been lost to her. …She thought she might despise Kyoko and Undyne, just the tiniest bit for that. But it was history, at this point. Cooperation, being someone that could be cooperated with, was key right now.

Those capabilities… The Node's Cores, too, had been the object of changing opinion. Her gut reaction had been to attempt to utilize them to gain an edge as a Fixer, or to obtain exotic resources from other worlds. The two Blur Cores seemed the most valuable for this. She could rise in the ranks, in the City.

But recently, she'd had another thought, one that almost didn't suit her at all. The child wondered if she could transcend the City itself.

Marvelously selfish and ambitious.

She shot a query into the chat as she changed, preparing for bed.

The City had a very strange view on human life and its sanctity. This may seem like a strange tangent, there's a point here, promise! If you were to ask the average person in the City whether or not they valued human life, one would receive a myriad of answers. Some would claim they hold it in high regard, since the Head so clearly does as well. Some may brush it off, saying that individual humans mean nothing in the City. Yet more would claim that humans ought to be kinder to each other, since the state of affairs is so miserable for all. The medley of answers and beliefs forms the song of the City.

We all sing the same song, dance to the same tune. And when it comes down to it, nearly any person will kill any other to survive, to gain an advantage, or even for the pettiest of reasons. When death is an omnipresence, the spots of life that shine through seem all the more precious, don't they?

The child could understand Pyrrha's stance. But that did not necessarily mean she agreed with it.

The child wondered. The macrocosm of the City had been built for humans, by humans. Under the rule of the Head, it stood as a monument to that idea: that humans should belong here. Despite the perpetuated cruelty, the technologies beyond comprehension, and the blistering wastes that lay just outside the walls, it had stood, unchanging, for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Were the beasts that lay waiting in the Outskirts as horrifying as those Pyrrha described? As the Witches that plagued Kyoko's reality? Or were they more like Undyne? Reasonable, rational?

The child noticed a second avenue open up to her, in her mind. Even as Pyrrha continued to exposit on her reality. A second channel, one with a distinctly different feeling to it. The Node's main channel was public, and even in this short period of time, had accumulated a culture to it. Anything said. Anything went. Simultaneously, there was a degree of levity to everything posted there. This private channel, she sensed, was only accessible to her and one other. And to go through the effort to send something privately… she suspected there would be a matching amount of seriousness. It had been the case for the private channel Undyne had created, after all.

It was still Pyrrha. Double-posting across channels.

The child did not know what to think of her, at the moment. The lecture on Remnant had been one of the longest stretches the otherworlder had ever spoken. And even when she did speak, she did not reveal much about herself.

She presented as having a strong sense of justice, and a value for human life that she might be willing to act upon. It was almost solely due to Pyrrha Nikos that the child had not been more talkative in the Node. See, both Undyne and Kyoko were not ones to shy away from violence. That much had been made abundantly clear by their very first interaction. She figured that they, if no one else, would understand life in the City. What it took, and what it took from you. They both seemed quite willing to shed blood themselves. But Pyrrha…

Justice, by some definitions, is simply a sense of what one finds intolerable. And the ability and desire to act on it. The girl from Remnant found murder intolerable, and claimed that she would prevent it. So the child found herself often second-guessing herself. Sharing as little as was necessary. Undyne and Kyoko, both seemed powerful enough that they did not care. But the child knew that she was not a great power, in this Node.

What did she have to say? What could she say?

There was a long pause before the next reply. So long, in fact, that the child grew worried.

The child scrolled through the history of the Node, and found just that. Kyoko had made the offhanded comment that the name was meaningless to her, though things had progressed too quickly for anyone to request elaboration. In hindsight, a lot of things had happened quite rapidly in the first day or two. She might have to go back and reread it more in-depth. Perhaps she'd catch something useful.

There always was. The child refused to blindly believe in charity. Everyone, in the City, was self-interested. Selfish. It was simply human nature, and is there anything truly wrong with that? Even Aya, she was sure, had her own reasons for favoring her. The idea that Pyrrha Nikos, otherworlder and apparently a notable talent on Remnant, would simply assist her free of charge… unbelievable.

In this particular scenario…perhaps she should not have doubted her.

The child's hands were clenched. Fists, shaking. If her voice were audible, it would be wavering.

Were they friends?, the child wondered. They barely knew each other. Their only connection was through this Node. How could she say such a thing so easily, so freely?

Freedom… the thought was intoxicating. Countless Citydwellers had tried to free themselves from the City's shackles. As far as she knew, all of them had failed. If she could be the exception…

The child dared hold onto a fleeting spark of genuine promise.

Then, she buckled down, came down from the clouds, and returned to the surface of the City. If this didn't work out, she would not break. She refused. She'd face her reality as usual, one day at a time.

If nothing else, she had the L Corp contract to look forward to.

Dead Witch. That much, was a non-issue.

Dead family. A mom and her daughter. That stung a fair bit more, she could admit.

Kyoko hadn't even intended to go hunting Witches today, y'know? She had enough Grief Seeds stocked to keep her healthy for a good while now, even throwing away the one she would've given to the moderator. Only reason she'd fought this one was 'cause it happened to be on the way home from the market, she'd been taking a bit of a weird detour through the lesser-populated parts of the city, and she was in a good mood. Happenstance and nothing more. In any other timeline, she never would've even seen this Witch, let alone arrived in time to help. These two were doomed… pretty much no matter what.

Didn't stop the small ache of regret. She would've liked to be able to save 'em. In an ideal world, she would've saved them.

Yeah, she knew that she wasn't exactly the best person anymore. She didn't think that ideal hero, the girl that a younger girl had wanted to grow up to be, had ever existed, when she really put some thought into it. But it wasn't like she wanted people to die or nothin'. It was just… a waste, right? A waste of life. Sure, Witches may have been above humans on the food chain, and yeah she got that every Witch she didn't kill or delayed probably managed to off a couple, but…

These two didn't have to die. That was what she was getting at here. Maybe there wasn't a whole lot that coulda happened to save 'em. God knew she wasn't going to change her behavior.

…Look. It wasn't like she was actually gonna kill Undyne, right? She was just gonna rough her up a bit. Did, simply rough her up a bit. She couldn't take back any of the stuff she'd said, but she may have been exaggerating a bit.

Kyoko looked more closely at the Witch's victims. The mother, with dark hair and a white tank top. And the girl, with tufty green hair and cigarette burns on her face. Kyoko guessed they were caused by the Witch's influence. Their life forces had otherwise been straightforwardly drained, since they didn't seem to bear any other big wounds. Better than gory suicides, she supposed. Maybe they got to drift away quietly. Peacefully. She wondered if they were having a happy dream together in their final moments, before their souls got off to wherever they were going.

There was no telling.

The bodies would be found. But it'd take awhile. This house was out on the fringes of Kazamino, suburban. She doubted they had rent to pay, no landlord that'd pop up monthly; this may not have been the best house, but…she didn't really know how actually owning houses worked. Did people ever come around to check on you? Taxes or something? Either way, she didn't want these two decomposing in here.

After checking outside to make sure nobody was watching, she carefully dragged the duo to the door, left it slightly ajar so that someone would see, and absconded. The police would probably be called, and she guessed it'd be up to them from there, however they diagnosed it. Or maybe Kyubey would get involved before any normal people say. It was out of her hands now.

…Well. That was depressing. She needed to get her mind off things.

Fortunately, Yuri came to her rescue mere moments after the thought crossed her skull.

Kyoko stumbled.

For a brief moment, she became aware of what it was like to not be herself. A snapshot of what it was like to be Yuri.

She was taller than Kyoko. Wearier. Jolts of discomfort and pain could be felt all over her body. Hair let down loose. Exhausted slouching. A weight was at her hip. She only saw out of one eye. She saw a desk covered in documents. A hand held a pen. The air smelt of ink and electricity. The sound of dead silence.

A dozen impressions, gone in an instant.

Kyoko was slightly better prepared this time. She managed to take in a little more from this usage of the command.

Undyne, too, was taller than her. She figured this was gonna be a trend, given everyone was older than her. But her body had a really weird sorta…nebulousness to it? She didn't know the exact word, couldn't put the feeling into words. But it wasn't all there.

There were more teeth in her mouth. She was also missing an eye. And wearing a full set of armor that probably would've been heavy, but she was strong enough that it wasn't a burden. Skin that felt weirdly slimy, scaly. Through the slits in her helmet, she was looking at a gushing waterfall.

Most notably: No trace of the wounds Kyoko had inflicted a mere couple of days ago. Very unlike Yuri's aching body. She was right as fish-rain.

Huh. Those two were surprisingly chummy now. Or was Kyoko reading too much into it?

Pyrrha held her hair in a long ponytail, a lot like Kyoko's. The surface of her skin bristled with that same nebulousness, the stuff that Undyne's whole body felt. Kyoko wondered if that "Aura" thing was just so common on Remnant that even schmucks like Pyrrha had it.

She was clothed in what felt like a school uniform, formal wear on top of a skirt, dress shoes. Some kinda circlet around her forehead?

…Yeah, Kyoko had to hand it to her. The view was pretty spectacular. The city, itself, was a vibrant spread of buildings, streets. Some parts kinda resembled parts of downtown, with large skyscrapers and office buildings. Others looked more old-fashioned, Western. Like castles straight out of Europe. She could see all the way to the sea, which stretched towards the horizon. Cool airships straight out of a video game soared back and forth.

Vale was a very nice place.

Kyoko wasn't picky, simply firing off the command. Nothing changed for her, but she guessed it probably sent to the rest of the Node the same way theirs did her.

Kyoko shrugged, then realized that nobody could see that. She pulled over to a random car parked by the side of the road, positioned herself to capture as much as possible in the side-view mirror.

Come to think of it, the helmet was new. And Undyne'd taken it off since her last snapshot, giving a full view of her face, as her reflection stared back from a pool of still water. Eyepatch, glowing yellow eye, blue skin, jagged mouth of teeth… yup, it was Undyne alright.

Yuri somehow managed to look even more tired than she felt. Instead of an eyepatch, she had a white cloth bandage over her missing eye. Her red hair fell straggly and loose, not well-taken care of.

The moment Pyrrha sent didn't just contain a photo of Pyrrha, held on a fancy-looking handheld. No, it had four people in the photo. A blonde, two redheaded girls, and a black-haired boy with a pink accent in his hair, all in a somewhat stylish black school uniform. Kyoko managed to identify Pyrrha as being on the left by the ponytail and headband.

Maybe it was a little silly to say this but… Pyrrha was really pretty? Tall, smiling, with bright green eyes. A really nice figure. Yeah, she was pretty in a western sorta way. She'd rock a Magical Girl dress.

The image of the kid from before, the dead one with the green hair, popped up again in her head.

Hell.

…Everyone, in the Node, had brought up someone else. Someone else they cared about, that they interacted with on a daily basis. Yuri had her Office. Pyrrha, her team. Undyne, her guards and also Papyrus the skeleton not-a-guard.

When was the last time Kyoko had talked to another person? Like, for real? Not just passing conversation, or taunting some random fellow she'd just stolen from?

…

She had a telepathic construct in her head that let her talk with people from across the multiverse. She had power, a collection of Grief Seeds for security. Skill with a spear to match even the strongest magic. A freedom from authority that lotsa kids would kill for. She had it all.

And yet, Kyoko, at that moment, couldn't have felt more alone.

Chapter Text

"Hey! Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha glanced down from her position atop the Beacon dorm's roof, hearing her name called by a familiar voice.

Even from this great height, the mane of blonde hair was unmistakable. That shade of brilliant yellow was something of a rarity on Remnant. Coupled with its immense, flowing volume and also the fact that she was shouting at her from ground level, there was no confusing Yang Xiao Long for anyone else.

Standing beside her, looking slightly less excited, was the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company: Weiss Schnee. Though, perhaps it was unfair to designate her purely as such. It was not as if Pyrrha enjoyed being constantly identified as the Invincible Girl after all! If she were instead to describe her character, she would call Weiss prickly. Easily riled up, and quick to judge. But at the heart of it all, she cared. She cared for her team, about upholding her own high expectations and family legacy. For the people she fought to protect, and the skill that allowed her to do so.

It was not as if Pyrrha herself had not exhibited some of those negative traits. When they had first met, Weiss had attempted to partner with her. She had not done a good job disguising her naked desire. Pyrrha had assumed that the heiress was planning on riding on her coattails, so to speak (she didn't wear a coat), and had actively avoided her as politely as possible. In hindsight, while there was undoubtedly some element of that—Weiss Schnee was an opportunistic, pragmatic person—there were also genuine common elements between them. Both had been held apart from the masses by a pedestal, that invisible barrier of perceived superiority. Both possessed great skill at combat, a fact that had frankly surprised Pyrrha to see. And both had been quite lonely, when first entering Beacon.

Pyrrha was glad that she had not rebuffed Weiss more forcefully on their first meeting. It would have been a shame to lose such a good friend over a poor first impression.

"Hello again!" she shouted down, only half-paying attention to the Node now, Undyne and Yuri's speculation on her teammates.

"Whatcha doing up there? You rushed out of the cafeteria so quickly!" Yang shouted.

"I am," Pyrrha started, before realizing that she didn't have a ready reason to provide. 'I wanted to send people from a different dimension a snapshot impression of Vale' would… probably require some additional explanation. And she didn't really want to go through that right now! She needed to come up with a plausible excuse that dispelled suspicion.

Pyrrha, floundering, glanced around at Beacon's campus. Her eyes locked onto the only building taller than the dorm roof, which gave her the idea she needed.

"I wanted better CCTS reception," she announced proudly, holding up the Scroll in her hands.

Beacon Academy's central tower served many purposes. It stood above all of Vale, serving as a symbol of inspiration and awe for all of its citizens. It contained Professor Ozpin's office, a spot at the very top where he could survey his school, do paperwork, and sip his cocoa (presumably). It was a landmark (a beacon if you would) for lost travelers. And arguably most importantly, it was one of the four pillars upon which the Cross-Continental Transmit System was built.

The CCTS facilitated global communications for all peoples of Remnant. So long as one held a Scroll and the four CCT Towers stood, one could speak with a loved one, a coworker… anybody at all, anywhere at all. One tower resided in each Kingdom, and if any of them were to fall, Pyrrha was certain that the world would be plunged into a new era of chaos, of darkness. A time of false information and frightened searching for lights in the blacked-out sky.

Yes. It would be a simple fact to state that the CCTS was fundamental to society as they knew it. It was the reason that the Towers were so strategically guarded, sectioned in the middle of the Huntsmen Academies. It would take an army, led and composed of pure evils who wanted for the downfall of not just Vale, but the entire world, to bring a tower down.

All of this to say: the transmitter and receiver at Beacon Academy was at the top of the tower. It made perfect sense to climb to a height if one wanted a better connection. It was genius.

…Judging by Weiss's baffled expression, it seemed as if not everybody present agreed with Pyrrha's deductive reasoning.

"Are you sending a large file? The reception is just fine down here!" the white-haired girl shouted.

Oh no. A hole in her ruse.

"Maybe?" Pyrrha tried.

It only now occurred to her that she could have said 'I wanted to send a picture of Vale to a friend in Mistral.' That wasn't too far from the truth, and wouldn't raise any questions. In her defense, though, she wasn't especially good at. Lying. Honesty was the best policy, wasn't it?

"What do you mean, 'maybe'? That's—" Weiss let out a long-suffering sigh. "This is ridiculous. Get down here. I don't want to keep shouting up at you."

Ah, that was reasonable. Pyrrha's voice carried, but she too would prefer not to wear it out unnecessarily. She put her Scroll in her pocket and went to meet Weiss and Yang the same way she had initially gotten up here.

Thud.

"Nice landing," Yang commented. "Could've done without the dust in my hair, though."

Pyrrha straightened and put her hands over her mouth, mortified. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She'd simply wanted to get down quickly!

Yang laughed it off, thankfully, shaking some of the aforementioned dust loose. "Don't worry about it. Anyway, Weissy and I were going to finalize some stuff for the dance this weekend. Just figured we'd say hi."

Weiss interjected, "Speaking of the dance…"

An accusatory finger, pointed straight at Pyrrha's heart. It jumped.

"Do something about your lout of a partner! He won't stop propositioning me to go to the dance with him! I've been quite polite in rebuffing him so far, but Jaune is starting to try my patience!"

It was true, Pyrrha couldn't help but think. Jaune had been… quite persistent, in his attempts to woo her. In some ways, she could admire his determination. He'd spent nearly the entire semester attempting to win her affection, despite her complete and utter non-interest. Negative interest, borderline antipathy. Truly, the ice queen was cold.

A more present part of her wished that he would look at Pyrrha with that degree of absurd fervor. Was Jaune just into poliosis?

Weiss concluded, as Pyrrha thought the matter over, "If he asks me again, I'm sending him through the nearest window."

"Please don't. Though, I'll see what I can do," Pyrrha affirmed, offering a slight smile.

"Welp," Yang said. "We should be on our way now. Nice catching up with you, Pyrrha!"

That, too, reminded Pyrrha that she had an appointment to keep. She'd promised to study with Nora for Professor Peach's Dust Studies exam. While her teammate was quite skilled in mixing Dust out of what seemed like natural talent—she built her own grenades from scratch!—her ability to exhibit that skill and practice on paper, the mathematical requirements to know exact Dust ratios and identify more esoteric types, needed some work.

Looking at the time, she really did need to be going. Pyrrha bade farewell to Yang and Weiss, and returned her attention to the Node as she walked towards the library, where it seemed that Scarlet had an announcement to make.

"Hey! Pyrrha! Over here!"

Nora's voice filled the library, much to the consternation of the other students studying there. Her table, across the library, was covered in books, food, and Dust. Pyrrha hurried to her classmate's side in the hopes that she'd quiet down. It worked, thankfully. As soon as she sat down, Nora's voice shrank to a whisper: "What's going on? You left us at the cafeteria in such a hurry! Is it something to do with—" Nora glanced left-right, furtive, her voice dropping further, a whisper of a whisper, "Your Node buddies?"

"Yes. Of sorts," Pyrrha replied in that same low tone. "Yuri wanted a view of Vale."

"That's the quiet one, right?" Nora asked.

Pyrrha nodded. "Though, that isn't why we're here." She tapped the Dust Studies textbook in front of her.

"Aww…" Nora whined plaintively. "But aliens…"

Pyrrha wondered why Yuri had decided to disguise her intentions. Was it because she simply didn't trust Scarlet? Or was it that she was testing the waters, so to speak? On how much they were willing to tolerate, morally speaking?

Alternately…was she straightforwardly telling the truth? That raised a whole different cache of concerns. Where would she be obtaining such a human? Yuri had mentioned the City was a harsh place to live, but had not gone into much detail as to why. Mentions of Grimm-like monsters, true, as well as a mercenary—Fixer, sorry—job that seemed utterly soul-crushing. Did she deal in that many human corpses?

Pyrrha could appreciate the consideration for Undyne and her circumstances. But now she worried for Yuri's soul.

…She had a solution to Undyne's issues as well. It was a good one. But she did not like thinking about it.

She could have one more semester, right? She wanted to shine at the Vytal Festival. She wanted more time with her teammates. She wanted… more time.

The future wasn't here quite yet.

Right there on the table next to Pyrrha's hand, a tiny point appeared, just as Scarlet had described. Glowing. Free-floating. She got the sense that she could pick it up and move it around if she wanted to.

Was this really a portal to another world? It was so small.

"Hey, what's that?" Nora asked, eyes keenly focused on the new distraction.

Pyrrha didn't know how to answer. So she parroted back the terms the Moderator had used to call it into existence.

"It's a connection between four realms. A free-floating point," she said, slowly.

The weight of the Node, previously just a mental chatroom and little more, began to set in. This was a tangible point in the physical world. More than just words and promises.

"It's a portal."

"Hey. Whaddya think we'll do when we finally reach the surface? What kind of plans do you have?"

Alphys's room, inside the Royal Laboratory. You wouldn't think a metal building built inside the roiling inferno known as Hotland would be comfortable. But thanks to the glorious Alphysian invention of AIR CONDITIONING, Undyne could hang out with her best friend at her house without shriveling and dying! She was super considerate like that!

"Oh… Um. I-I-I guess I'd… want to see the sun! Sunlight! Being outside and feeling the sun on my, uh, scales… it sounds r-really cool! Uh, I mean warm!"

For those not in the know, Alphys was a yellow lizard monster. The Royal Scientist, a very lofty title! Also, a HUGE NERD! She threw herself into things with the same fervid intensity that Undyne threw herself off cliffs! Except, instead of chasms and falls meant to toughen her body and soul, Alphys preferred the finer things in life: Anime! Cup noodles! Human history! Also science, she guessed, but it was those things that had drawn the Captain of the Guard to the Royal Scientist in, like a fish to a hook!

"Hahaha! That's cute! But, I'm not gonna lie: That doesn't sound like you. When was the last time you left the lab? This room?"

It was what they were doing right now, actually. Watching some human anime. Specifically, one about magical princesses! Alphys had been overjoyed by her interest, and being the well-prepared professional video-player purveyor that she was, already had one queued up! Panic'd Manic'd Mary Maine had been a little slow, so far, but she'd already learned so much about Magical Girls…

"Uh… I-I-I mean, I think I'd, uh, go outside more? If it was, uh, the real surface? *sigh* No, you're right… at least we'd get, uh, like, more complete a-a-nime? Less scrounging around in the, uh, dump."

Er. She didn't really have a great reason to kill Kyoko anymore, but she wanted to be equipped just in case she had to! What was that they said about the smallest edges and the difference between life and death? Probably that a BIGGER edge was better for both, haha! Hence the SUPERMASSIVE anime sword they'd been building together but that wasn't the point at all now was it.

"Sounds like a good reason to me! Plus, on the surface, they have anime ONLINE, don't they? You wouldn't even have to leave your house! Your room! Dream come true or what?"

A nod from Alphys. A period of companionable silence between the both of them, as they settled in and watched Mary Maine kicked the ass of a bunch of brain-spider-tank-things with her crazy magic spear.

Right up until Undyne broke it.

"Hey… Alphys. You've worked with some weird sciencey stuff, right?"

Her primary job, as Royal Scientist, was to break the Barrier through any means necessary. The two of them, they worked towards the same goal, the same dream, from different angles. Neither of them had yielded fruit so far.

"Uh… Yes? Y-yes, of course."

Her eyes were still locked on the television screen.

"What's the most powerful thing you've ever worked with? Like, a source of energy?"

As ModScarlet had suggested, the members of the Node had done some brainstorming, earlier that day. Each had walked away with leads to chase, powers that turned out to be unusual brought to light. Pyrrha had her 'Dust'. Yuri had 'Singularities'. Kyoko had her magic, though it turned out that wasn't exactly an option for… some reason. And Undyne…

"Oh! Well, I, um, I've performed maintenance! O-on the CORE? That thing powers the, uh… the entire Underground, doesn't it. D-does that count?"

Monster magic, maybe. But she was hoping for something with a little more punch to it. Something more unique. ALL monsters had magic, after all. Not so exotic when you got down to it!

"True… But I was thinking a little smaller. Something powerful that has a lot of energy! And I know this is a bit of a stretch, but… maybe something that rivals the power of a human soul?"

Alphys wasn't looking at the television anymore.

"O-oh. I-I-I… I see. That's… T-that's—If I, uh. If I h-had something p-p-powerful enough to… to break the b-barrier. I would h-have used it! Already!"

She was nervous. Well. Moreso than usual. Alphys was normally kind of a twitchy bundle of nerves, Undyne could admit. But this was weird, even for her. Undyne felt kinda bad even for asking.

…Yeah, what kind of friend was she being? Of COURSE Alphys didn't didn't have anything that strong. Undyne was insinuating that the Royal Scientist wasn't trying hard enough to break the Barrier, wasn't she? God, now she felt like crap. How would SHE feel if, say, Jerry, frickin' Jerry, said that she was soft on humans? SHE'D BREAK HIM OVER HER KNEE!

But Alphys wasn't like that. When she was out of her element, she got scared. She wasn't a combat-focused monster. So…

"Ngah. Forget it, let's just watch the show!"

"Okay!"

So they did.

That's how Undyne became one of five monsters in the Underground to see a sky full of stars.

Waterfall's ceiling was beautiful in its own, unique right. Some monsters called it gloomy, dank, depressing. But Undyne liked it and she'd fight anyone that said otherwise. Spreading and dying mosses and lichens, each glowing a slightly off-white color, contrasting with the black-blue stone and reflecting off the rushing waters below. As much as she hated the Underground, she truly, genuinely, loved Waterfall. There were worse places to build a home.

The night sky of Remnant blew it out of the water. Which, Onionsan aside, was probably where most monsters wanted to be anyway.

It was the DISTANCE that was really getting to her, she was guessing. In the Underground, everything was… well, underground. The ceiling was never more than a couple of hundred feet away. A lot of the time, in the twistiest caverns of Waterfall, she could reach up and touch it. Jump up and poke it. Throw a spear at it.

Undyne hadn't paid all that much attention back in monster school, but thanks to Alphys's occasional nerd-outs, she knew that each of the little twinkly dots was actually an unfathomable distance away. Light-years. If she were to chuck a spear at the stars, it'd just… come back down. Even in the fastest rocket ship monsterkind could ever build, actually traveling there would be next-to impossible. The gulf of space was not entirely unlike the Barrier: completely impassable.

Unless you were a human in a giant space robot!

"Uh, U-Undyne… Are you, uh. Okay?"

Undyne startled, realizing that she had been paying absolutely no attention to the anime Alphys had put on. Too starstruck, literally. Crap.

"I-it's just that, uh. You were kinda… s-spacing out? Mary just d-defeated the, uh, Chill Queen. And you'd normally b-be, like… s-s-saying something? Right h-here?"

Undyne sighed. Yeah, that was enough.

"Yeah… you're right. I've been a little distracted."

She'd intended on finishing the anime before breaking the news. Get Alphys comfortable, all that. But seeing as she'd picked up on Undyne's distraction, she figured this was as good a time as any.

"But there's a good reason for that! You know that question I asked earlier? About exotic sources of energy? It wasn't… gah. What's the word? It wasn't RHETORICAL. That's it."

Undyne pulled the Node Relic, the portal, the connection - the whatever. She pulled it out of her pocket. And felt pity at Alphys's expression of confusion. It was about to get so much worse.

"So there's this Node…"

Chapter Text

Undyne yawned. Stretched. Blinked the blurriness out of her eye.

Realized that this wasn't her bed. Then... Alphys's lab, she was guessing? Yup. Sleeping on the couch. Man, what a wild night.

To recap: Undyne had gone over the Node with Alphys. Her lizard friend had run the whole gamut of reactions: shock, confusion, barely-concealed laughter. Finally, she'd settled upon excitement, as Undyne had explained the Connection Relic. She'd immediately called off anime night and set upon doing all sortsa sciencey science tests, with machines Undyne couldn't even begin to fathom. Massive drilling laser things. Tiny little flashlight-esque devices that Alphys had warned to never ever shine directly into her eye, lest she be rendered blind as a blobfish. She'd been wrapped up in the whirlwind that was the Royal Scientist with a new toy to play with, acting as a research assistant, a sounding board, and occasionally heavy muscle.

She must've fallen asleep at some point. Not sure when. And Alphys probably moved her to the couch.

Undyne checked the backlog on the Node, see if she missed anything, or if anyone had noticed the late-night Relic testing.

Ah, right. Undyne remembered this. Pyrrha was kind of an upright stick in the mud, and that Aura thing had made her confused as to whether or not she was a human or a monster for a moment. But you couldn't say she wasn't thoughtful.

The red-haired human (ha, that described everyone in the Node except for Undyne) had spent the next twenty minutes attempting to apologize for 'improper decorum' and 'dropping personal business in unnecessarily'. And stuff. Which was ridiculous. Whatever Pyrrha said, this was still a CHATROOM. Sure, some kinda interdimensional, telepathic, superpowered, Undernet-disconnected chatroom with magical visitation rights moderated by some figure none of 'em had yet seen, but that didn't change the fact that, like Undernet, it was built for stupid people doing stupid things! Reckless shenanigans! Sharing them with the world! Nothing wrong with announcing you got a boyfriend. LOVE WAS A TREASURE!

...Oh God. Now she felt self-conscious. What was she doing here? Lying on Alphys's couch, blanket half-tucked over her, probably snoring up a storm through the night while the Royal Scientist scienced the science on that Node connection? What kinda guest was she being! What kinda FRIEND was she being?

The thought filled her with determination. Undyne sprang out of her resting position, filled with bloodlust! Intent on battling apathy and tiredness! And to fight the fight that was being a better freaking friend!

With pep in her step, a pie in her eye, and phones in her bones, Undyne grinningly rushed to face the day...

...Only to be confronted with a distinctly different sight than what she was expecting. A sight that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Alphys. A personage of similar volume to Undyne, but completely different lifestyle. A robot that brought back memories of the Node's discussion on stars, for who else could possibly exude as much raw star power? Who else could so effortlessly command the attention of a room with their stunningly rectangular body? Who else...

...would be lying (seductively?!?!) on Alphys's piano(?!?!). With a bowl of grapes.

Undyne stared at Mettaton.

Mettaton looked at Undyne.

Undyne glared at Mettaton.

Mettaton slowly and deliberately raised a grape to his face, held it there longingly as if it were the pinnacle of all Underground morsels, and popped it into a heretofore unseen grape-sized hole, emitting a canned and implausibly fake chewing sound from his speakers.

Undyne chaired at Mettaton.

By which, of course, she meant that she hucked a chair at him.

"WHOA THERE! THIS EXCEPTIONALLY HANDSOME AND PHOTOGENIC FACE IS NOT A SEATING REPOSITORY! THINK OF THE HEARTBREAK YOU'LL INFLICT ON MY ADORING FANS!"

Undyne snarled. Of course he'd dodge.

And now Yuri was saying things. Ugh. She could just ignore the Node for now. She'd catch up on it later.

"Can it, tin can. What the hell are you doing here? Were you watching me sleep?"

The robot let out an overly dramatic gasp, holding a hand over where his heart would be.

"MY, HOW UNCOUTH! I WOULD NEVER STOOP TO SUCH UNDERHANDED DEBAUCHERY!"

He paused.

"UNLESS MY RATINGS WERE TANKING. AND I THOUGHT IT WOULD HELP. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT!"

Mettaton put his four-fingered hands on his waist.

"I'M SIMPLY HERE TO SEE THE ESTEEMED DR. ALPHYS. AS WERE YOU, I'M SURE, BEFORE YOU PASSED OUT SO SLOPPILY."

Ugh. That was frustratingly plausible. They WERE friends, after all. Undyne didn't see what Alphys saw in the melodramatic showbot. Well, he was nice to look at, she supposed. But she didn't get that vibe from her, that she only cared about Mettaton for his right angles. They were, like, legit friends. It was weird.

Mettaton shuffled back and forth a bit on his wheel.

"SO... WHERE IS SHE?"

Oh, right. Undyne made her way towards the room Alphys had been using, pushing a door open.

"Last I saw her, she was just through here... Oh God."

Turns out that Undyne wasn't the only one who'd fallen asleep. And Alphys hadn't had time to clean up before conking out. The room was littered with scraps of doodled-upon graph paper. Machines lay about, some toppled over, some even still running. Some kind of gear mechanism spun wildly without purpose, and was that a laser cannon firing into a mirror? The hell?

In the midst of a mass of crumpled papers, Alphys lay spread-eagled on the ground in what must've been an extremely uncomfortable position, given her tail. But Undyne supposed she was just so goddamned exhausted that she managed to lose consciousness anyway. She'd been there! Recently, even.

Undyne and Mettaton shared a glance. Mutual understanding passed over their faces. And then they both quietly tiptoed out of the room. Well. Undyne tiptoed. Mettaton rolled less squeakily.

"So..."

"YES."

"I'll get her a blanket."

"I WILL MAKE SOMETHING FOR HER TO EAT WHEN SHE WAKES UP. PERHAPS SOMETHING MORE NUTRITIONAL THAN CUP NOODLES."

"Yes. Please."

...They both cared about Alphys. In their own ways. Some better than others, in Undyne's humble opinion! But if nothing else, she could respect Mettaton's hustle. And also his grapes. Man, she wanted grapes just like his.

Reconvening after completing their respective tasks, Undyne found that the robot had the courtesy to make a double-serving of... ooh! Monster eggs and monster bacon! With orange-flavored ghost juice on the side, apparently—where did he even get that? Enough for both her and Alphys. It was almost enough to forgive him for his stunt earlier that morning. She dug in with gusto as Mettaton tapped away on a phone, apparently working on "THE PLOT OF MY NEXT BOMBASTIC MOVIE!"

The silence that followed was almost companionable.

"WHAT'S GOT ALPHYS IN SUCH A TIZZY? COULD IT BE A BREAKTHROUGH? ON BREAKING THE BARRIER?"

Mettaton didn't seem as enthusiastic on the subject as one might expect. For a self-proclaimed part-time 'killer robot', he tended to be skittish on the subject of their inevitable war on humanity. Undyne could only guess why. Still, she didn't see the harm in being honest.

"Maybe! It could even be an alternative means of escape! All thanks to yours truly!"

A lot (read: all) of the science had gone over her head last night. But Alphys wouldn't be this worked up for no reason. This was promising. A real possibility, a powerful tool that could aid their escape.

If anything had convinced her that this Node was a blessing, it was seeing Alphys's face awash in studious dedication. The passion, the drive, the feeling that of 'Oh my God, this might actually be possible!'

Most of all... Hope looked good on her.

Mettaton let out a humming hm sound, like a television tuned to a dead channel. Undyne couldn't help but find it just slightly ominous.

"WELL, THEN. GIVE HER MY BEST WISHES! I CAN'T STICK AROUND FOREVER, I'M AFRAID. YOU KNOW, SHOWS TO HOST, MOVIES TO SHOOT! TOODLE-OO!

And with that, Mettaton was gone.

...What was up with him?

"Has anybody seen my purse?"

Kyoko grinned widely, matching the brightness of the noontime sun. Who knew that the normally calm, somewhat composed, very shy woman could be so easily flustered? And who knew that screwing with her would be so damned fun?

...It was almost enough to shrug off the disappointment. At the fact that she legitimately wasn't interested. Kyoko would've made a great senpai, y'know? She knew all sorts of ins and outs of combat. Could teach a thing or two. Most Magical Girls tended to be either hostile or generally uninterested in mentorship. She'd only met one exception.

"My purse! My purse is missing!"

That lady oughta shut up. If she'd wanted it to not get stolen, she shoulda held onto it better. Kyoko hadn't even needed to use magic to snatch it from right next to her. She'd been careless, plain and simple.

Kyoko watched from the mall's second floor as the woman who'd just unwillingly treated her to a week of candies and gaming descended into panicked, angry hysterics. A security guard approached her to try and calm her down, get her to stop making a scene. It only seemed to drive her further into a tearful frenzy.

"It has a gift for my daughter in it! It's her birthday! She's been looking forward to this for so long...!"

Huh, was that what this box was? Kyoko gave it a shake next to her ear. Something weighty, metal. She considered tearing off the gift wrapping just to get at what was inside. If it was nice, she might use it herself! Whatever it was. She was guessing jewelry, lady seemed posh enough for that to be reasonable.

Wasn't as if the mom couldn't just buy her girl another present, prolly. All dressed up in fancy silks and shiny heels. Daughter was just as probably some rich, spoiled brat anyhow. Tantrum-throwing, mother-snubbing, ungrateful girl. People who had everything tended to be like that. Took stuff for granted, didn't realize how good they had it.

Yeah. This gift wouldn't be missed. This purse, and all the money inside it, wouldn't be missed.

Huh. She had. She'd admitted it back when they were trying to figure out "exotic sources of energy" they might use to power up the Node. The illusion magic of her youth was what came most naturally to her, and she didn't have it anymore. Everything else, she'd worked out from base principles. To be fair, even if she did still have it, she wasn't sure how she'd feed it into the point-sized connection Relic, tucked away safely near her Soul Gem.

A little of that non-illusionary magic helped tidy up her appearance, made her look slightly more respectable. Her hair wrapped into a slightly fancier ponytail, washing grease out of it. There wasn't anything she could do about her hoodie without illusions, but she was able to give it a cleaning, get some of the chocolate stains out.

Yeah, she was doing this in broad daylight. No, nobody noticed. People tended to stick to their own damned business. If a spot of dark on a random teenager's shirt vanished between one blink and the next, who cared? Trick of the light. Seeing things.

Kyoko approached the hysterical woman, channeling her best "not a delinquent" energy. "Excuse me, is this purse yours?"

The woman's eyes locked onto the purse, held in Kyoko's outstretched arms.

"Oh! It is! Thank you so much! Where did you find it?"

The lady was only halfway paying attention to her own question. Too busy rummaging through her bag, trying to figure out what was there and what was missing. She could almost see the thoughts run through the woman's mind: surprise, that her bag had been returned at all. Dismay, that all of the cash had gone missing. And finally, relief that her little girl's birthday gift was still in place.

Kyoko was especially satisfied to see that last part. She woulda been a little pissed if Miss 'Boo-hoo I'm Going To Make A Scene Over My Daughter' cared more about the money than the girl she'd so espoused.

"It was a bench on the upper level," Kyoko smoothly not-quite-lied. "Tossed over, like someone had been digging through it. I'm sorry if there's anything missing..." she trailed off, tried to put on a remorseful expression.

The woman gave her a hug.

Oh.

Huh.

Uh.

Clearly, she needed to steal more stuff.

"It's fine, thank you so much! I wish I could repay you somehow, But it looks like you were correct, I don't have any money left..."

"No, no, that's fine," Kyoko said with a smile. "Just trying to do what's right." The words almost didn't feel wrong coming out of her mouth.

The security guard, who she'd almost forgotten about, spoke up. "I appreciate you doing your civic duty, young lady, but shouldn't you be in school?"

Crap. She didn't let her expression slip, but internally, she cursed herself for forgetting. Her fault. Shoulda remembered that most girls her age weren't in malls at one o'clock.

"I'm homeschooled," Kyoko lied, hoping the guard would simply buy it and not ask further questions.

He didn't. "Oh? Would you mind if I asked your name, young miss?"

What was this guy, a freaking truant officer? What did he care?

"Kyoko Tomoe, sir," Kyoko half-lied. ...Ugh. She immediately wanted to backpedal. Felt slightly guilty for borrowing her ex-senpai's name in such a stupid way. 'Specially since it could, maybe get her in real trouble. It was the first thing that came to mind, unfortunately.

"And your parents?" Man, this guy just wouldn't let up.

Purse lady came to her rescue, luckily enough. "Oh, officer, give the young lady some room to breathe. Clearly, her parents are doing something right if she is willing to take time out of her day to help someone in need."

...The praise was nice. But Kyoko remembered that it was fake. Like she'd said in the Node, she wasn't an altruist. She'd been the one to snatch the woman's bag in the first place, after all. Anything the lady said had to be filtered through that info. Returning it was simply a lesser crime.

Security guard didn't know that though. "I suppose you are correct... Well, then. Enjoy your shopping, you two."

The moment the two adults looked away, Kyoko snuck away, using a tiny pinch of magic to quiet her footsteps. Once she was well and truly out of sight, she escaped the mall post-haste, finding herself on the shingled roof of a nearby restaurant.

Kyoko scowled, as she'd been wont to do when interacting with Pyrrha Nikos.

Quoth her father: Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear.

Kyoko Sakura. There is another Magical Girl hunting Witches in Kazamino City. I am informing you as per my promise.

Kyoko nodded to her patron and transformed, jamming a Finnish Sweet in her mouth.

Her spear manifested at her side. Kyubey sent her coordinates, a sense of location. Kyoko took to the skies.

She poured her thoughts into the Node. Words, run through her mind, run through the logs. Unfiltered. Raw.

Chapter Text

That was all she wrote.

In the wake of Kyoko's furious outburst and subsequent radio silence, the Node had entered a period of uneasy awkwardness. First had come the begging and pleading, for a response. Mostly Pyrrha's. Then came the strained discussion, the trailing threads. Much of the conversation made their way to the private channels, hidden and scurrying from the light of public attention.

Each of them had sent a private message to Kyoko, once again at Pyrrha's prodding. The child hadn't known what to say, but gave a token effort nonetheless, with a focus on honesty and sincerity. Well, aside from capping it off with a 'Senpai' note. It had made the child feel incredibly ridiculous, but she'd sent it anyway. She figured that, maybe, the young teen took that honorific seriously. She was ninety percent sure that Kyoko had only brought it up to mess with her, but who knew?

Privately, the child couldn't help but wonder if this was all an overreaction on their part. She wasn't a member of a Syndicate, but she understood territory and keeping it nonetheless. Offices typically wanted to keep an area safe in their direct vicinity, if only to protect from raids. And mercy was... frequently unwise. Kyoko wasn't wrong, by her view of things.

She shook the unnecessary thought off. The child had greater things to worry about.

In her hands, she held a cheap wine bottle. She'd acquired it in a back alley, not far from the location of her Office. Struck a deal with a somewhat shady vendor, for lack of better options. Its contents consisted of a black liquid, darkened to an ebony hue. A blackness so deep, it seemed almost artificial. A synthetic shade of lightlessness.

This, supposedly, was a sample of a Singularity.

For the uninformed, Singularities are technologies. But not just any. Technologies so profound, so impossible, that they can turn the City, the world on its head. Seething crucibles of genius ingenuity, passionate rebukes towards the laws of physics, silken threads of gold and polymer that bind the book of human advancement... a Singularity is to conventional understanding as a television is to a caveman, playing with sticks and rocks. Wars have been fought over such technologies. Wings of the World, risen and fallen on the backs of their unique, coveted, invention.

To put it simply: they're a big deal. Even the commonplace ones, ones that have been disseminated to the masses.

Ugh. Now this. The child knew that wasn't true, on some level. Of all the beings in any world, she was one of the only ones with direct influence on the life of Kyoko Sakura. One of six to have a pipeline directly into her mind. Claiming powerlessness was true, most of the time, for the child. But not this time.

She was being selfish, plain and simple. She cared less about the death of a human she'd never known than her own survival. Which, it should be noted, is perfectly fine! Survival and the desire thereof is human. It would be better if she would simply be honest about it.

Regardless of my opinion on things, the child withdrew the portal Relic from her jacket, placing it on her table. Next to it, the bottle of black Singularity-liquid. Finally, a small dish. The former two were placed into the latter. And so she waited.

Unfortunately for the child...

I think I've been scammed, the child thought. Again.

The history of tattoo-based augmentation in the City is quite an interesting one. The rise of old M Corp, the patent war fought over their profitable Singularity, and its subsequent implosion and replacement by the M Corp of today. The tale could fill a history book on its own! Very little of it, however, is relevant to the child's tale. We'll have to forgo going into it, in favor of the details of the Singularity pertaining to the child's goals here.

After old M Corp's fall, their Singularity became public domain. While the secrets of certain other Singularities might have been bought up by other Wings, this was not true of M Corp's. And seeing how it is quite versatile, stylish, and above all: cheap, it spread through the Backstreets like an inky flood. Those with knowledge of the techniques behind inscribing ink with power, and the dexterity to apply it became commonplace. The exact source of said ink, however, remains something of a mystery to the common Citydweller. After all, why concern yourself with the method of function if the method functions?

The child had hoped that she could acquire a sample of the tattoo Singularity's power source. For usage in reducing the Node's power allocation. However, all searching had done was open her up to opportunists and liars. Vials of useless, glowing liquid that did nothing of note besides stain paper. This particular one was only the latest in a series of failures.

A real shame, that the child had so easily dismissed Enkephalin. The substance extracted from my children. I speculate, though I cannot be sure, that it would suit her purposes quite nicely. After the fall of L Corp, it is admittedly something of a rarity in these parts of the Backstreets. But it would be a better investment than the false leads and snake oils she was currently chasing.

Pursuing these avenues was doing a serious hit on the child's finances. Every penny she earned from Fixer work that wasn't allocated to taxes or housing, was going towards the Node. It was a bad idea, in many ways. But she was desperate to chase the brilliant, scintillating light of Remnant. She'd do anything to escape the City. Throw all caution to the wind. Spend every Ahn she owned.

As far as warnings went, perhaps it was one she should have followed.

But when you've spent your entire life in Hell, only able to dream of a nebulous entity called Heaven... what is one to do when the real thing deorbits, tracing a blazing streak across the sky?

The child could only chase it like a falling star.

The thought wouldn't leave her head. The growing guilt that this situation with Kyoko was all Pyrrha's fault. Cultural differences, or perhaps personal differences, had driven the Node apart and possibly might even lead to the death of an innocent. Pyrrha didn't want to retract her analysis of Kyoko as a fundamentally good person at heart—she liked to think almost everybody was, at the end of the day! But that was looking increasingly unlikely. So she was left adrift. Unsure as to the action she should take, whether she could take action at all.

Going for a walk to clear her head had seemed like a good idea, at the time. Beacon's campus wasn't exactly crawling with Grimm, nor criminals, a dubious Blake aside (forging papers to enter Beacon was probably also some kind of felony, but any judge that would be so heartless as to seriously prosecute Jaune Arc of all people probably didn't deserve the position). And it gave her some time away from her teammates, who, while curious, hadn't thought twice about her doing so. Only, now, she found herself desiring their advice more and more. Kyoko's dilemma was too much for a single girl to ponder. Perhaps, she'd overly gotten used to using the Node as an eternally accessible communication tool.

Her wanderings brought her to a small courtyard. Its centerpiece was a statue carved from gray stone, which Pyrrha went over with a critical eye. Two unnamed Huntsmen stood atop a rocky outcropping, posing heroically. Just below them, a Beowolf roared into the distance, as if to challenge the very notion of humanity's victory.

There was no explanatory plaque, no signposting. Only context and the knowledge that Professor Ozpin had been the one to order its installation. What was he trying to communicate to the generations of students passing through this institution? That Huntsmen must always be diligent, for the forces of evil were never far away? That there must always exist Huntsmen, to combat the Grimm?

A third possibility, one uncomfortably relevant. That Huntsmen—heroes, were ultimately doomed to fail. No small victory mattered, for the Grimm were ever-present. Even a lifetime spent pushing back the tide meant nothing if the ocean's flow could not be stemmed. Ozpin seemed like the optimistic type, and so Pyrrha wanted to think this was not the case.

...Pyrrha would like to think that she wasn't wrong. She'd posted her piece, and while she clearly had something incorrectly, she did not think she'd said anything incorrect. Anyone who fought was to be admired. Those who did not, could not, ought to be protected. It really was as simple as that. Kyoko Sakura was the one who'd gone astray, not her.

Right?

...Why did this have to happen? Why did it have to be Kyoko, of all people, to end up in such a disagreement? Pyrrha had nothing against Undyne or Yuri, don't get her wrong. They were tentatively fine people, as far as she could tell, though her doubts on those fronts continued to grow. But the relationship between her and them, it was tempered by need. They needed something from her. It was not new to her, but nor was it pleasant. Every interaction, every flattery, and every innocuous request had to be tinted with that lens. It was what she had come to Beacon to escape. The fact that the Node had forced two more such people onto her, despite her best efforts, caused her no small amount of consternation.

Kyoko was the only one that didn't want anything from her. And while she was actively rude, held extremely different viewpoints, and was frankly arguably her complete antithesis for everything except their position on the color wheel, that single quality alone made getting along so much easier. Her silence could be felt.

...She couldn't let that stop her. The notion of Kyoko slaying a fellow girl coldbloodedly brought notions of mortality to her mind. A hand on the clock in her head turned. And she needed to bring something to her Nodemate's attention.

She'd come prepared for this refusal. And while she hadn't talked this over with her team, Pyrrha was no idiot. She'd brought arguments in advance.

Sometimes, Pyrrha reflected, she'd experienced a phenomenon known as 'her words getting caught in her throat.' It wasn't a pleasant feeling. An almost tangible blockage in the base of her chest, an internal struggle to force sound to emit from her mouth, to force her vocal chords to vibrate. It was all psychological. But it made it no less difficult to turn down Headmaster Lionheart's invitation to Haven Academy, to ask Jaune directly to accompany her to the dance.

The Node was not a physical medium. The speed of thought was not slow. Even though it should, logically, be equally psychological, just as difficult to speak such heavy words, instead her thoughts flowed like water bursting from an overwrought dam, a bullet from a smoothly oiled rifle. These words, once uttered, could not be taken back. They would change the trajectories of both of their futures, forevermore.

Posting the words to seal their fates was so easy.

Arguing for her own death. It was... certainly an experience. One would think it would be harder.

...Did this make her suicidal? Gods, she'd like to think not.

...Her timetable had moved up. Perhaps she could squeeze in a trip back to Argus, to see her family? Hopefully she could avoid giving them any hint that anything was wrong.

She needed to spend time with those she cared about while she still could.

Chapter Text

The Beacon Academy Dance was a truly wonderful time.

Walking down the star-studded aisle next to Jaune, watching the crowd murmur and whoop, meeting Nora's eyes as she cheered for the pair of them... even the clammy feel of Jaune's sweaty hands didn't feel so bad. Pyrrha was sweating too. It was almost romantic, in a slightly gross and sticky sense.

The atmosphere schismed between a refined, classical ball and a hard rave. Powerful stacks of speakers that stretched to the ceiling blared out a gentle piano waltz. Doilies and lace lined the cheap folding tables. Hors d'oeuvres sat out on a plate next to a spiked red punch bowl. Yang and Weiss had collaborated to create something truly special here.

Most of all, she couldn't believe that Jaune, the densest boy alive, had finally taken her hints. That she'd wanted to go to the dance with him. Granted, she'd had to spell it out to him in extremely clear terms. Twice. And even then, it'd taken him ten minutes. If Nora had felt bad watching him puzzle things out with a barely-restrained screaming sound, she couldn't have imagined how Pyrrha herself had felt, watching him blunder around the answer to a question that hadn't even been asked.

She ought to thank Weiss. Her final announcement regarding defenestrating Jaune had been what had given her the push to move, to finally take the step in bridging the incredibly stupid gap between them. Pyrrha hadn't intended, strictly speaking, to ask Jaune out that night. She'd honestly planned solely to communicate that the Schnee heiress was running out of patience for his courting. But, well, one thing led to another... And here they were. Dancing.

She had once been told that dancing was much like tournament combat, in that it revolved around the careful interplay between two people in constant lockstep, where a single mistake could spell disaster. And while she had not much experience in dancing, she was quite well-versed in combat. Pyrrha concluded that that person was not so far off the mark, in the end.

Jaune, as everyone knew, was not the most experienced fighter. But he was a surprisingly competent dancer! He seemed to have a gut understanding of rhythm and melody, the appropriate movements and timings. It was not as if Pyrrha had not listened to music before, but he seemed to get it, better than she did. During the waltz, she found herself occasionally unsure, caught off-guard by the "three-four tempo". Jaune was never unsure, though. He moved smoothly, pulled her along firmly yet kindly.

Ultimately, they didn't miss a beat.

"You're quite the dancer," Pyrrha remarked at some point, shortly after the waltz had ended. "How did you become so experienced?"

"Ah, well... seven sisters, remember?" Jaune said sheepishly. "They loved music of all kinds. And they loved to dance. Dragged me into it pretty frequently! You'll get the hang of it."

"Teach me for once, then," she replied, smiling.

A fast-paced dance number started up, base vibrating through the floor. Yang must have chosen the next song. Jaune gave her a nod, smiling just as wide.

"Of course, my lady."

Pyrrha didn't know exactly how long the two of them were on the dance floor. But she knew for a fact that she enjoyed every second of it. Ren and Nora, who had been off to the side not-flirting, even joined in when Shine began to play. Would be a waste not to perform that choreographed dance number, after all, to a smattering of applause.

Oh, what a night. So many sights, so much fun...

Ultimately, though, she did grow slightly tired. And Jaune, despite his impressive resilience, perhaps could have used more training in the field of endurance. The pair eventually broke off for some fresh air and time alone, with intent to return to the festivities later on. Refreshed and relaxed!

Attempting to slip out to the balcony failed to pan out. A pair of visiting Haven students—Pyrrha recognized Mercury Black, the gray-haired kickboxer who'd once attempted to challenge her to a spar, but got shot down by Professor Goodwitch—blocked the way. They politely yet apologetically explained that their team leader was feeling a bit ill and wanted time alone with some fresh air, same as them.

So they substituted. Pyrrha'd had cinematic views on the mind, though, so...

"Jaune, hold on tight," she told him.

"Wait, what? What are you planning?" he squeaked, confused. "Why are you carrying meEEE—"

They landed gently on the ballroom rooftop. Pyrrha waited for Jaune to steady before settling him down on dry tiling.

"Whoa," Jaune said, breathless. "That was awesome. But a little warning, next time?"

Pyrrha chuckled, letting out a slightly insincere "I'm sorry!" She enjoyed seeing him flustered. Frankly, she enjoyed seeing him, period. For all that he was normally so lanky and awkward during his day-to-day, he cut a surprisingly nice figure in his borrowed suit.

Seeing that he seemed to have no intention of standing from where she'd put him down, Pyrrha brushed her dress a bit and sat next to him quietly, looking at Vale's nighttime skyline. There were still Bullheads active, and their lights could be seen flying above the buildings. But for the most part, it was quiet. Even with the dance going on at full power beneath them—apparently, the grand hall was well-soundproofed.

Jaune was the first to break the silence. "So... this has been fun. Thanks, Pyrrha."

"It has, hasn't it..." she said. "I should be thanking you, Jaune."

A blink of confusion. "Huh? Why?"

Seriously? He didn't... Ugh. Of course he wouldn't. But she could spell it out for him.

"You've always been there for me," Pyrrha tried. "In our time here at Beacon... I honestly don't know how many students are currently in attendance. But I don't think I would have had nearly as pleasant a time if my partner had been any one of them but you."

"Man..." Jaune groaned. "You don't need to flatter me, Pyrrha. We both know I'm nobody special. I'm not strong, not clever, not smart. I barely know where my own feet are half the time."

"But that's precisely it, Jaune!" He turned to face her, eyes wide, and Pyrrha realized she might've accidentally raised her volume a bit more than was appropriate. In more subdued tones, she continued, "At this school for Huntsmen and Huntresses, you'd be hard-pressed to find a person who hasn't heard the name 'Pyrrha Nikos'. I'd once thought that would mean that I could find peers here. people with which I could form meaningful relationships, rather than one-sided rays between idol and idolator. But it turns out, Huntsmen and Huntresses have, if it is even possible, an even greater appreciation for my skills and power.

"If it hadn't been for someone like you, someone so impossibly far-removed from politics and Huntsmen and popular culture, I think I would've been more alone at Beacon than I was on the tournament circuit."

A moment of silence.

"Pyrrha..." Jaune started, "...when you put it that way, somehow it sounds even worse."

She couldn't help it. She laughed. A full belly-laugh that left her clutching her stomach and Jaune sputtering in dismay.

As she recovered, her eyes wandered to the CCT Tower, Beacon's Tower, and Headmaster Ozpin's office at the top. Absentmindedly, she wondered if he'd planned this, before deciding it really didn't matter.

"Wait," Jaune asked about a minute later, notes of panic and realization beginning to creep into his voice. "Does this mean we're dating?"

"Jaune," she deadpanned. "I asked you out to a dance. You accepted. We danced."

"Oh," he said, voice having crept from 'panicking' to 'panicked'. "Oh. Oh jeez..."

"Jaune," Pyrrha said.

"Oh, God, this is my first time having a girlfriend!" he almost shrieked.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said.

"I wish I'd listened to what my mother told me! I knew it would be important one day I just didn't—"

"Jaune! Someone just jumped out of a window!" Pyrrha interrupted, finally getting his attention.

She wasn't lying. Likely a coincidence, but not long after she'd started looking at the CCT Tower, a dark smudge had smashed out of one of the windows on the upper levels—the Communications Centre, if she remembered correctly—and fallen to the ground, out of sight. At best, they were responsible for entering the tower after-hours and a case of damage of public property. At worst... well, as everyone knew, the CCT was foundational to life as they knew it on Remnant. Sabotage, while unlikely, was not out of the possibility.

Pyrrha rose to her feet and pulled out her Scroll, Jaune unsteadily getting up with her.

"What are you doing? Do you need help?" he asked, fumbling for his own Scroll.

Navigating to the application that managed the rocket lockers, Pyrrha shook her head. "No. You go back down, alert Professor Ozpin. I think I saw him on the fringes of the dance floor. I'll head out and... see what's going on, I suppose."

Jaune nodded, then pushed off the side of the roof to slide straight down. Then he fell straight down, with a bit of a girlish scream. Pyrrha felt bad for his pride, somewhat, but rationalized that his embarrassment would likely draw attention, which could be helpful for chaining that into Ozpin's. Plus, when it came to pride, she doubted that Jaune Arc had much left in the eyes of the students of Beacon.

In the meantime, she took off across rooftops, heading towards the site of the yet-to-be-determined crime. A bit of calculation let her obtain her weapons, Miló and Akoúo̱, along the way, with a well-timed rocket locker landing. She'd lost track of the defenestrator's exact location, but she was fairly familiar with Beacon's campus at this point—she knew there were only so many places she could go, so many routes to take to get there. And if she was correct...

There.

A woman in a black bodysuit, with long flowing black hair. And a mask, which couldn't signify anything good. Pyrrha jumped down straight in the woman's path, landing with a clang of her shield on pavement.

"Stop," she announced. "What were you doing at the CCT Tower?"

A wary silence was all that awaited her, an acute gaze. Pyrrha tensed her grip on her weapons. The woman wasn't obviously armed, but... that often didn't mean anything, when it came to Huntresses. Something about this woman made her skin crawl, itch.

"Explain yourself," Pyrrha tried, to no avail. Only more silence awaited her.

...She didn't want to be the aggressor. Maybe there was a good reason for what was going on here.

Pyrrha opened her mouth a third time.

That was the precise moment the woman struck. Pyrrha, not quite unprepared, tracked the distance between them, watched the woman cover it in a worryingly quick frame. Miló transitioned into its javelin form and shot out , almost catching the woman's path, but her foe contorted around it mid-jump, striking her across the face with a bladed heel and forcing her gaze away.

Instinctively, Pyrrha tucked in, brought her shield back towards her, and felt about for any metal she could control with her Semblance. Aside from some public lampposts and a signpost, there was nothing to be found. The woman's heels were made of something that Polarity couldn't touch.

The woman attempted to follow up with more strikes, but she'd lost the element of surprise. Pyrrha hunkered down, keeping her eyes on her opponent. The other woman was faster, which was quite surprising to her, but she wasn't so fast that she could not be reacted to, that Pyrrha couldn't respond to each of her strikes with a parry from Miló, a block with Akoúo̱. A degree beyond, but not a whole league.

Pyrrha came to the realization that, even if she were to lose this fight—a prospect that, while unlikely, was possible—she would still be at an advantage of sorts. This woman was likely a criminal of some sort. And Jaune was currently getting help. Any time she could stall was another second the woman didn't have to spare. Every second closer to reinforcements arriving was valuable.

Her opponent must've realized this as well. A well-timed palm strike, too quick to comfortably avoid, struck her leg, knocked her footing out beneath her. Launching Akoúo̱ into the ground and having it rebound back to her steadied her balance, but it gave the woman just enough time to disengage, to dive through a glass storefront window and shatter it as well.

She seems to enjoy destroying windows, Pyrrha couldn't help but note as she pursued, launching herself forward with the help of rifle recoil.

...Only to find herself in the middle of a storm of glass, a sudden whirlwind spun out of nowhere, slicing at her Aura. No, not nowhere. The window!

The attack came from everywhere at once, unblockable. She gritted her teeth, pushing through, but the scintillating razors continued to slice at her, following her. Pyrrha couldn't see past the wall of rapidly heating shards, as they rose to a fever pitch. This must've been the woman's Semblance.

It took at least another ten seconds to disengage from the whirling menace, after which the storefront ended up utterly trashed. Pyrrha made a mental note to apologize to whomever owned it, but then realized that she'd lost her opponent. The woman had left traces, though. Speckles of that same glass, which must've caught on her suit. Pyrrha quickly followed, though she had little hope that she'd actually find the culprit anymore. She could only hope that Jaune had put together a team quickly enough to catch her on the backend.

The traces of glass, even as they became fewer and fewer, led her straight towards the ballroom, where she ran into Jaune, Nora, Ren, and... huh. Blake?

"Pyrrha?" Jaune gaped. "I thought you said—"

"Yes, I did!" She quickly explained. "I've been tracking her path. She should be..."

A twinkle, on the balcony. The one where Mercury and his partner was! And their team leader!

"Up there!" she finished. Another mighty leap took her straight up, only to be greeted with a truly gruesome sight.

A dark haired woman in a ballroom dress, one that she didn't recognize—their team leader, Pyrrha deduced. Mercury, spattered in blood, cradling his green-haired partner. And his partner, that had been caught with her Aura down, gouged across the face beyond any hope of disguise or recovery. Unconscious. Broken glass glittered across the balcony.

The two remaining members of the Haven team looked up at Pyrrha's landing, eyes wide.

"Did you see... Who in the world was that woman?" Mercury's team leader muttered, tone dead and dull. Like she was in shock. Then she shook her head, as if disbelieving her own curiosity. "No, I frankly do not care. You're chasing her, yes? You're covered in glass."

"Is she alright?" Pyrrha choked out, eyes transfixed by the pooling of blood.

The woman said, "Emerald is tough. She'll be fine. But whoever that was... she hurt a member of my team. Mercury and I will look after her."

She pointed towards the shuttleport.

"She went that way. Avenge my subordinate for me."

Pyrrha was torn. Something about this almost seemed fishy to her... the woman was too calm, Mercury too quiet, the girl too specifically-wounded...

"Pyrrha! Did you see where they went!" Jaune's voice shocked her out of her theorizing, reminded her that, likely, they had no time to lose. The woman was quick. If they didn't chase her, they'd never find her again.

Pyrrha jumped down to rejoin her team.

And so they searched for hours.

But no traces of the mysterious intruder would be found.

Chapter Text

Kyoko couldn't help but wonder, sometimes: when was the last time she'd prayed to God? When was the last time she'd really, genuinely, tried to talk to, with, the Lord up above? Not just dropped His name as a swear word or mockingly sent Witches to Him.

It wasn't as if she'd stopped believing, or so she'd like to think. She'd been raised better than that. She'd just... gained perspective. Yeah.

Sayin' that they had a complicated relationship was either overstating it or understating it, depending on your point a' view. Would be arrogant to claim that God gave any more of a whit of His infinite time and care about some random Japanese girl than every other in the world. But if He was supposed to be looking after her like her father'd said, then He'd been doing a pretty lousy job, ain't that right? Given how hard she'd tried, the happy dream she'd chased—the dream He'd denied her... God couldn't blame her for being a bit ungrateful, could He?

The very thought was probably heretical. Kyoko couldn't find it in her to care.

...

Okay, that was a lie. She did care. She really did care. She'd really like to know if He was watching, whether to smite or to bless. To know if He was judging her right this instant.

The Lord was the closest thing she had left to family left on this earth. Closest thing to a father other than her actual father. Hell, He played that role in the scripture, didn't He? That, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, if she was remembering correctly? So...

If He really was watching... she wanted to know what He'd thought. If He approved.

Kyoko wanted to know if she'd made the right decision.

Alright, Kyubey. Who'm I dealing with?

Kyoko wasn't thinking about much. Nothing important. Combat strategy. The simple motions of spear and body. A fierce torrent of not-thoughts ran through her brain. She could drown in them. Drown everything else out.

A girl named Tsuruno Yui. She utilizes fire magic in the form of fans in combat.

The girl hadn't been far. She was just as Kyubey said. Yui Tsuruno was clad in orange and white, bright and cheery. Her weapons, those fans, were held at her side. They weren't active, at the moment, but something about the way the air spiraled around her, the scent of smoke and echoed heat of a once-present blaze verified Kyubey's report. Not that he was known for lying in the first place, but it couldn't hurt to make sure.

The other Magical Girl hadn't quite been expecting her at this moment, Kyoko could tell. There was surprise in her eyes, but not her response. She'd been expecting someone at some point. Whoever was in charge of this area. Her, in other words.

Yui made the first move. "Hello! I'm Tsuruno Yui, from Kamihama City! The Mightiest Magical Girl!"

"Kyoko Sakura," she replied bluntly. "You say you're from Kamihama? What's someone from so far away doin' in Kazamino City, huh?"

The other girl scratched her hair, right above a flower-shaped hair ornament. Embarrassed. "Well... evil needs to be fought with justice, right? My hometown's been peaceful, but Magical Girls have a duty! I wanted to promote my family's restaurant, and I wanted to fight a Witch!"

Kyoko could read between the lines. Kamihama was going through a drought. And the girl needed Grief Seeds. Survival. Unless your name was Mami Tomoe, that usually was the name of the game.

"Speaking of which, I just slammed down a REALLY big one! A massive, ugly Witch! You won't need to deal with it anymore!"

"Mhm... What makes you think I needed help, hm? Kinda sounds like you think you're doin' me a favor. Helpin' me out."

Kyoko smiled, all red edges and hard lines.

"Whatcha gonna do if I don't see it the same way? 'Cause, my point of view... you came in 'ere, fans blazing. And started poachin'."

Kyoko gave her spear a twirl, a stylish show of force. The other girl's smile didn't let up. So not-pale, maintained such a facade of confidence. No one was that naive in the face of such an obvious threat. It kinda felt to Kyoko that she honestly wasn't all that sure of her situation at all. Miss Yui's Soul Gem was prolly pretty dark right now. Probably pretty desperate to brave her turf, to try and negotiate.

"Well... If you do see it that way, then I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it!" Yui said. Still not panicked. Still cheerful. Kinda grated on Kyoko's nerves, and they were rubbed a bit raw to begin with.

"I still have this Grief Seed from the Witch I beat! I haven't even used it yet, on my family's honor! We can share it! Is that okay with you, Sakura?"

Preaching peace. Wasn't that a riot. How'd that Psalms verse go again? Do good? Seek and pursue peace?

"Guess Kamihama's not the kinda place where you hack each other up to steal territory," Kyoko mused aloud.

She wasn't thinking. She didn't want peace. Conflict was simple. Win. Lose. Just 'cause she could've compromised... didn't mean she was gonna.

"Not how things work here. Here's what's gonna happen."

Finally. A spark of something. Yui took a step back. Raised her fans.

"I'm gonna beat you down hard enough you won't be able to get up again. And from there..."

Kyoko levelled her spear. Sighted her target down the shaft. Fire in her soul, a beckoning blaze.

She shot herself forward.

Crack of a bullet.

The spear that would send her to Heaven.

"...From there, we'll get started!"

Yeah. And as far as fights had gone, it wasn't close. The so-called "Mightiest Magical Girl" wasn't unskilled, wasn't quite weak. Clearly, she had some experience, some training. Maybe even an ex-senpai of her own. But that senpai had been no Mami Tomoe, and by extension that theory of a girl's kouhai fell even further from that ideal. Meanwhile, Kyoko Sakura, despite herself, had always held herself up to that standard, found herself looping back, trailing back towards those stupid yellow hair drills.

Down in Kamihama, who knew? Maybe Tsuruno Yui was the mightiest there was.

Not here. Not in Kazamino.

In the end, with so many things predetermined, there really was only one choice to make.

Yui's defense wasn't half-bad, when she put her all into it. Fans were made of sturdier stuff than they looked, as with all Magical Girl weapons. And they covered a pretty large area. Wending strikes were deflected, dodged.

Didn't matter. Restaurant-girl didn't have power. Couldn't fight back without leaving herself wide open. No more tricksy playing around.

Tack switch. Kyoko hammered strike after strike into Yui's center of mass. Lightning quick. Left no room to dodge.

Block. Block. Block.

Shatter.

The other Magical Girl's arm gave out, snapped under the strain. Magical Girls could recover from worse, Kyoko knew. In that moment of pain and shock, she took Yui through the opposite shoulder.

That would do it.

Kyoko slowly levered her opponent into the air, watching her futile efforts to dislodge herself. Sparks sputtered and died as she tried and failed to launch a counterattack. Her spear, coated in blood, pointed just above the horizon, Magical Girl impaled upon it.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

It would be... child's play. To slash her apart, shoulder to sternum. Disable her for good, while she found and crushed her Soul Gem. And burned the remains. What was a little more red against Kyoko's dress? What was a little more fuel for the fire?

She'd seen the messages left to her by the Node. None of it stuck. This wasn't an inconvenience; it was something she wanted to do. Anyone who still thought she was a hero, a so-called 'good person'... clearly they hadn't been paying attention. Even the plea that came out of the blue, the one from so-called emma... what had other people ever done for her? What was wrong with the strong dominating the weak? That was just the nature of things. Predator and prey.

Tsuruno Yui was weak. Kyoko oughta put her out of her misery. It was what she'd said she'd do. Kyoko Sakura was no liar. The girl was still struggling, with a weak smile on her face. But there was no world in which she got down by herself. Not with a shoulder destroyed and an arm broken.

"Ugh... Sakura. Do me a favor, please? Before you—"

Another attempt to wrench herself off ended in failure, cutting off Tsuruno's wet rattle; must've clipped a lung. Kyoko tapped her foot impatiently.

"Tell my dad... what happened? Please? His address... is on the flyers. In my uniform."

"He know you're a Magical Girl?" Kyoko asked, eyebrow raised.

"No!" Yui tried for a chuckle, which came out more as a hacking cough. "But... he'll be so worried. I don't want him... to worry."

Kyoko didn't say anything.

An afterthought occurred to the other Magical Girl. "Oh! And... if you're there... try out our mapo tofu! It's the house special! Guaranteed—"

Shinnk. Thud.

"He doesn't have to know," Kyoko found herself saying. Her own voice felt far away. "The knowledge could destroy him. Take it from someone who knows what happens."

A cough. "...Sakura..."

Kyoko fished out a Grief Seed, half-consumed. Flipped it in Yui's direction, watched it clink along the ground towards the Magical Girl with no means to catch it.

"You wanna tell him? Do it yourself. And if you don't... make sure he never finds out."

A forlorn smile, unconsciously adopted, morphed into a vicious snarl.

"Now get the Hell out of my city. Don't ever come back."

Seriously?

Kyoko rolled back through the chat's history. Leafing through Pyrrha's messages. And... welp. In hindsight, it should've been damned obvious. Look, it was kinda hard to dislodge an assumption once you'd made it, okay? And, technically, Pyrrha hadn't actually said anything to disprove that she was anything more than an ordinary university student until now. She wasn't an idiot for thinking it!

Still embarrassing.

Hm.

So Yuri wasn't saying anything insane or anything. Hell, the example they'd just gone through meant someone was probably gonna bring this up sometime or another. Maybe it woulda been Pyrrha, or Undyne. And maybe Kyoko, a girl not known much for thinking, was overthinking this over much. But on top of bein' hungry (munch munch though not anymore), her gut was rarely wrong. And right now, her gut was saying that Yuri was... um. Lying wasn't quite the right word, but...

See, check this. Say you had an empty closet. And an acquaintance poking around your house. You probably wouldn't be against them sticking their nose about into your sorry excuse for a clothes-holder, would'ya? Worst they can do is poke fun atcha for not having anything to wear.

Now. Say you've got one or more corpses in that closet. As many as you fancy. Skeletons or not. And if that sama's still poking around... might be inclined to warn 'em away from your bedroom, right? Say you want your privacy, and sound perfectly reasonable doing it. Who'd object to a bit of privacy? And if that acquaintance started pushing? All of a sudden, they'd be the unreasonable one.

Kyoko wasn't going to say anything. Yuri could have her boundaries, her privacy. She'd follow the rules set up, lest she get into more conflict with the other members of the Node, who were frankly probably fed up with her antics. But she wouldn't forget, and if corpses came tumbling out of Yuri's closet... she'd be ready.

Rules were made to protect those with something to hide, after all.

That'd gone better than Kyoko had hoped.

And now... to deal with a certain "newcomer"...

Emma sighed.

She'd been anticipating this moment for what felt like a long time. Ever since she'd reached out to ModScarlet. Not quite since the formation of the Node. There was this sense of dread, anticipation. Reaching for something new, yet a return to form.

There was a science to first impressions. Levers and buttons, conscious or otherwise, that could be pulled, pushed. Clothing, body language, eye contact. She'd once had an innate talent for this, bolstered by years of practice and analysis. A spot of research for her modeling career, in attempts to stand out to directors and talent seekers. It'd been easy for her to walk into a room and command its attention. And in many ways, she still had a knack for it. She'd atrophied, a social muscle disused for more than a year, but Emma was still fairly certain that unless a situation involved—

Flinch

Emma flinched. A full-body shudder. Her eyes tore away from the nothing-in-particular, shut tight. Buzzing filled her ears, her skin crawled. It was like every thought in her head jolted to a sudden stop, derailing and shattering.

A mental breakdown.

To face the outside world... she... she just couldn't. Composure was king. Like, she could put on a passable front for, like, a couple minutes? Maybe an hour at a time on a good day? But inevitably...

There was a reason she hadn't left her room in more than a year.

Deep breaths. In. Out. Pull yourself together.

It took her a couple of minutes of blind, seemingly timeless reorganization, of rethinking and reconstructing. She'd gotten better at this, too, piecing her thoughts back together after an episode, trying to start again back where she'd left off. Early on...

No. Not a good place to go. It had been worse, and she'd leave it at that.

Where was she? Right. First impressions.

In text, in the Node, there were so many fewer factors. Only the context of her words. The speed at which she sent them. So many things that would otherwise be considerations... weren't. From what she could tell, the "/inputFlow" function, even as it showed every facet of a Node member's senses, only showed singular instants, infinitesimally brief snapshots.

Text could be edited, polished, perfected. An image could be taken in the best possible lighting, from angles that hid imperfections and accentuated details.

Emma, at this point, all but lived on the internet. The fact that emotion and subtext were lost in translation was not unfamiliar to her.

At the present moment, it was her only lifeline.

Kyoko... Kyoko's behavior was painfully familiar to Emma. The mannerisms, the philosophy, the anger, the hardness. It was all Sophia. Shadow Stalker.

Sure, the Magical Girl was Japanese. More Christian, if the way she capitalized 'God' was any indication. And her fashion sense was less, like, emo? Edgy, reeking of delinquency, but not dark, not ashy smoke. But at heart? Kyoko Sakura and Sophia Hess...

Thinking of her former friend hurt. Not nearly as much as a certain other one. But there were regrets there, and they stabbed at the fringes of her withered conscience.

Sophia... maybe she was looking back with an imperfect lens. But some part of her wondered if their relationship was destined to end with words meant to hurt and prisons of their own making. If there were a point in time where she could have changed things, made a different choice.

...In other words, she was relieved. Relieved that Kyoko hadn't made Sophia's mistakes. Hearing of the deaths Shadow Stalker had caused had made her feel squirmy inside, though it hadn't been enough to persuade her to change.

Maybe it was a small thing, in truth. But it felt larger in her mind.

Anyways. Time for a response long overdue.

Time for a test run.

It was a half-truth. There'd been time, between processing the Node's existence and her role in it, for her to approach the other members before hitting the awkward point. She'd chosen not to engage. Half-remembered Master-Stranger advice from Sophia encouraged her to observe and analyze.

Should've contacted the PRT, actually.

But that certainly wasn't happening anytime soon.

From there, she'd tried to learn as much as she could. Reached out to the Moderator, gotten what she could out of them. Looked up names and gotten some matching results, though they were probably only coincidental. And finally, planned her ultimate approach to the group.

Emma was at a disadvantage now. Everyone else had already established a rapport, gained common ground, banded into loose pairings. Yuri and Pyrrha, acting together to reign in chaos and bring the more enthusiastic among them down to earth. Kyoko and Undyne, despite their seemingly adversarial position; they'd mostly settled down into semi-friendly ribbing, if she was reading the toneless text correctly. She'd be working her way in from the outside.

But gaining a greater understanding of the Node had been a worthwhile trade, in her eyes.

The character she was trying to portray here... it needed to be a balance. Enough truth that she could shift seamlessly away from her current vulnerability. Half-lies enough to convincingly show that vulnerability.

Even though I am vulnerable... I need to lie in order to show it.

If Emma was reading the room correctly, Kyoko was the most paranoid, least trusting girl. Convincing her would be a good indicator she'd be able to convince everyone else, for the most part.

Way more muted than I was expecting.

It was a good sign, Emma liked to think.

She'd make her full debut when she was ready. Gather a run-down on the situation on Earth Bet. Be as absolutely helpful as possible, with her limited resources and ability.

She'd been a victim of her own insecurities, her mistakes for... far too long. She would've been one for even longer, if not for the Node. Hopefully. Hopefully. This time, she'd prove herself a survivor instead.

Chapter Text

The Moderator's 'setup period'. Five users invited and joined, each allocated a percentage of Node power. The child did not truly understand the terminology involved, nor the telepathic pseudo-science that went into calculating and defining these numbers. But she knew what numbers meant in general, and that any user in a world would take up a percentage of power. An intuitive system.

A quartet of messages, none of which the child remembered sending. The color was similar to her own, the color of her hair. But upon closer inspection, still a shade distinct.

She had considered the possibility that the now-present fifth member of their group was a test account, as their name suggested. But dismissed, in short order. For one, they seemed to legitimately come from a world of their own. The child guessed that 'test' would not have their own percentage value if they did not come from a certain world.

A second piece of evidence that backed up her hypothesis:

The Moderator had confirmed it for her.

The way the Moderator had worded that was not encouraging. Like she imagined Yesterday's Promise would present a contract, back when the Star of the City had been terrorizing Nest L, or so she'd heard. Still, there was nothing she could do about it.

A sudden sense of alarm filled the child. If the "Summon" worked in the way that she suspected, it would cause an illusory duplicate of one of her Nodemates to appear in her vicinity. Inside her apartment. At the present moment, it was a mess. Half a dozen mostly-empty boxes of takeout sat near the sink and counter, food stains patterned across the unused kitchen like scattered leaves. The few sets of clothes, professional or otherwise, were strewn about, unwashed for quite awhile.

In many ways, it was an embarrassing sight. And for the most part, the child could have tolerated that.

The real issue, for her, was the armless Rat currently bleeding out onto her futon.

While she was in no way a social expert, the child could be considered at least socially adept. She knew just enough about communication and emotion to get along in a Nest, in the Backstreets. When to lend a sympathetic ear. When to shutter one's own emotions, one's judgments. What could be shared, what to keep secret, so as not to end up ostracized. The fall of Lobotomy Corporation had simply rendered all of her average skill... pointless. Because none of it could overcome the indelible stigma of having belonged to a fallen Wing.

In the Node, however, nobody knew. Nobody cared. Which was enlightening, a relief in many ways. But after Undyne had started ignoring her (and make no mistake: she had been ignoring her), the child was left confused, scratching her head. Something, somewhere, had gone awry. What had she said incorrectly? She could tolerate loneliness and alienation; the choice to bear them often wasn't hers. The child would prefer to be accepted, cherished, however.

The child had tried her absolute best to reassure the fish-monster that everything would be alright, that she could make good on her promises, and that the freedom of her people would not be an issue. What was the issue there?

The idea to practice soul acquisition for Undyne had seemed like a good one at the time. And, true to her words, it had not been overly difficult. Her Office work, today, had been finished ahead of schedule, and Hopkins hadn't been in to force more upon her; he'd instead been off to negotiate with their employers for their biggest job yet: "Limbus Company". Aya had invited her to go shopping for additional augments with her, an offer she'd declined, not wishing to reveal her currently lacking funds. It left plenty of time to trawl through the Backstreets, to look for a suitably vulnerable Rat.

It was precisely as simple as she'd indicated to Undyne. A dirty business, but it posed no real difficulties. A sole strike to each of the shoulders and a harsh blow to the skull; then all that was left was dragging the Rat back to her apartment by the feet. Perhaps Undyne's silence had been out of skepticism; Kyoko had mocked her for being bottom-of-the-barrel, a few days ago. The child imagined that particular Nodemate would appreciate the efficiency of the capture, and would have some of their worries assuaged.

The child's concern, now, was the idea that Pyrrha would see this scene. Kyoko and Undyne both spoke of human casualty too casually, such that they had to be at least passingly familiar. As always, as usual, Pyrrha Nikos was the problem.

...The child supposed that she ought to be thankful, in some ways. If the Huntress Student was so inclined to speak on behalf of and protect complete strangers to her, she would likely do the same if not more for those she actually knew. And since Summoning was now available to the Node, she might even be able to put that conviction into action. But fuck if it wasn't frustrating in situations like these.

The child made a mental pause and took back everything bad she ever said or thought about Pyrrha Nikos. Bless her.

The child took a deep breath. She scanned herself in the mirror, looking for hints and flecks of blood that hadn't been covered up by the red or black on her jacket, hoping that the pause wasn't too suspicious.

It was just as Kyoko had described.

The splitting of her vision took some getting used to. One eye gazed upon familiar surroundings: a room, a Rat, a reflected wreck of a remnant. Another found four faintly familiar faces from a photograph.

A moment was spent to take in the room, her first continuous glimpse of Remnant. The word that came to mind was "bright". Varied colors, an evening's sunlight streaming through the window...even the knick knacks and random possessions about spoke to the brightness of the room's occupants. Toys, books, expensive-looking weapon components... She could have confused it for a Nest.

Manners were universal.

"Hello," the child said, demure. "It is an honor to meet you in person, Pyrrha Nikos. Once again, I look forward to working with you."

The child bowed at the waist, hands folded in front of her chest, towards the redheaded girl with short hair, blue eyes, and a grin to rival Cheers for the Beginning.

She knew that she'd messed something up immediately, by the wince on the blond teen's face, the widening of eyes on the girl assumed to be Pyrrha Nikos. The child attempted to frantically backpedal, even as she could not, for the life of her, figure out what she had done wrong.

"Oh! I'm sorry... Have I offended? I didn't mean to, I promise," she tried. Mentally, she even prepared to unsummon herself, if things went incredibly poorly. She didn't notice, but her original body, back in the City, was wringing her hands in tandem with her apology, one which only ceased once the final redhead in the room spoke, voice rich with bemusement and embarrassment. The tallest one, with her hair back in a ponytail.

"Yuri... That's Nora. I'm Pyrrha Nikos. Yes. It's good to meet you."

The child froze. A heating red colored her cheeks. She observed the now-named Nora's mouth widen, laughter threatening to spill out. The similarly blushing grin on Pyrrha's face.

She wanted to sink through the floor.

Then, she remembered she had a second body at her disposal. And as her summoned duplicate in Remnant desperately attempted to patch the miserable attempt at an introduction, her original body stabbed the stirring Rat in the face and went downstairs as fast as her legs could take her.

As far as substitutes for sinking through the floor went, it was a poor one.

Pyrrha, as it turned out, had forgotten to introduce the rest of her team, even after showing the Node their group photograph. She'd remedied this post-haste, both to the child in-person and the rest of the Node. Pyrrha's teammates, while somewhat eccentric, seemed to be good, kind people, made of much the same moral fiber as their strongest member. Sharing the mortification had tempered it, and at the end of her visit to Remnant, the child found herself surprisingly at-ease. Even with the commentary from her telepathic peanut gallery.

It was around this time that Undyne finished communicating with Alphys and finding that secluded location. She'd then invited Pyrrha down for a "Human vs. Monster battle! The spar of the century!" The Huntress-in-training, as the exact title turned out to be, accepted. And by both of their accounts, the fourteen-minute battle was quite close, Undyne snagging the win by a slim margin. An exciting time, for sure, though the child was not able to view it in-person, save for a couple of /inputFlow snapshots, taken mid-fight.

In the meantime, the child had gotten around to cleaning up her apartment. Blood, washed out off the walls and out of the couch. Trash, thrown out into the street for the Sweepers to consume. Clothes, jammed haphazardly into a closet. By the end of it all, she could almost call herself presentable, once she grabbed a shower anyway. She settled, instead, for a change of clothes into something not smelling of iron and death, and a quick wash of anything visibly bloody.

By now, the excitement surrounding the Node's new feature had mostly died down. Undyne proposed bringing the Relic back up the next day so that Alphys could continue to work on it, which no one had any real objection to. Kyoko expressed some antsiness about being unable to play with her new toy. And Pyrrha either went to sleep or was gathering Dust for when the Relic came back up; the child wasn't quite sure which.

Throughout it all, Undyne had mostly ignored the child. She'd been inclined to leave it be, at least for awhile. Apologies ran through her head, but she still wasn't sure quite what for.

So when the Captain of the Royal Guard sent her a private message, the child was quick to respond.

In this instance, and a rare time for today, the child was telling the complete, unvarnished truth. She was genuinely concerned for her Nodemate's well-being. She'd heard stories, calling the genre of which "horror" would count as severe understatements.

Once again, that odd splitting sensation. The child had only moments to take in the atmosphere.

Waterfall had a dampness to it. The air was wet with... wetness, if the name was any indication. Water. It wasn't stifling, however. More like the City air after a harsh rain: heavy, but clean. If there had ever been blood and toil here, the water had washed it all away. Perhaps it was darker than Pyrrha's room in Remnant, and the narrow gap between the walls of the cavern were slightly oppressive. But the child still couldn't help but feel as if it were better than the City. Anything was better than the City.

Her gaze finally settled upon her Nodemate. The monster. She opened her mouth to speak, watching the sharp-teethed one open at the same time.

And then it was over.

A wrenching jar, back to her original body alone.

But nobody came.

And the child, for the life of her, could not figure out what she had done wrong.

Chapter Text

She'd thought it before and she'd think it again: Alphys looked SO MUCH BETTER with hope in her eyes. The glimmer of cheer—no, make that POSSIBILITY, the light of POSSIBILITY, reflected off her lenses, radiating from every scale on her body.

It was cute.

"This Relic, this connection—i-it's truly, truly fascinating! It emits light on wavelengths I, uh, can't even perceive! Even with t-top-of-the-line analytics! I've had to, uh, don't tell ASGORE this but I've had to disassemble some of th-the previous Royal S-Scientist's equipment! Just to, just to construct the equipment I'll, uh, need, to make anything of them!"

Undyne whistled. If she remembered correctly, Alphys had left a lot of those gadgets and machines untouched, even this long into her tenure. Respect for an unmatched genius, one inventor to another! Not to mention how some of those things had ended up being unexpectedly useful for oddly specific issues. The fact that she was now willing to get her claws elbow-deep into their guts now was a testament to just how viable this Node thing was, how sure she was of her ability to make something of it.

"Awesome! Where do you think you'll go with that? Learn how to make another one? Maybe some kind of Node portal gun?"

Yeah, Undyne was guessing based on Alphys' random mumblings and the anime the two of them had watched.

"Well, uh, no promises! But! But, I, I think that if I can, uh, duplicate, the radiation, with a device of, m-my own m-making. Then, maybe, I c-could gain greater insight into j-just how to use it to. Breach the b-borders between universes! Maybe."

Alphys had always had a confidence problem. Not an easy thing to help with, that. Undyne had confidence in excess, arguably. But it wasn't so easily transferred. No magic, no alliterative ancient antique amazing arrogance artifact that could do that.

All she could do was give her best friend encouragement whenever the time was right. That, and news that might be relevant.

Y'know, like.

"Well. Do you think you could work without direct access to it for a bit? Most of us want to turn it off so we can visit each other in person!"

Technically, it was probably rude to blame the humans for this. She'd agreed, too, even if she wasn't participating in their multiversal exchange program just yet. Wanted to, to be fair. But she wasn't going to summon even a projection of a human until she was far, far away from monster civilization. Sure, it'd been a long, long time since anyone had seen a real human. And they did come in all shapes and sizes. Most civilians wouldn't even realize that Pyrrha, Yuri, Kyoko were human if they came up to them and waved!

There were some, uh, political implications to consider. The Royal Guards were trained to identify humans. 01, 02, the Snowdin Canine Unit. Sans. The idea that the Captain of the Guard might be harboring one, sympathizing with one, consorting with one? Even if ASGORE was a big, furry, softy, he might have to fire her for that! Especially if there was proof.

"I-I mean, I suppose? Um. I already have some r-readings, for the most p-part. I can, uh, work with those f-for a bit. How long?"

Undyne shrugged. She hadn't considered it. Hadn't asked. But now that the unpleasantness in their relationship was mostly over (she'd still kinda like to give Kyoko the beating of a lifetime! On principle!), she didn't think it'd be too much of an ask to keep things short, sweet.

"Maybe a day? Dunno."

It didn't take long. Even as Kyoko kept interjecting and Yuri kept trying to innocuously get her attention (she'd get back to that! Promise!) If Undyne ever felt at risk, she'd cancel the summoning. If Pyrrha ever felt at risk, she'd do the same. No pressure. From there, it was just a matter of waiting for the Huntress to get changed.

Pyrrha Nikos, kitted out for battle, was something to behold! She stood, clad in red and gold, hair waving gently behind her like a bright flame. A spear (SPEAR GIRLS UNITE!) and shield were held in loose grips, symbols edged in gold trim and hinting at glories. If Kyoko was a Magical Princess straight from Mary Maine, then Pyrrha was more like, some kind of Magical WARRIOR Princess! Not to say that Kyoko Sakura wasn't a warrior, but Pyrrha certainly looked the part, y'know?

The Huntress-in-training took in the environment, glancing towards the reeds, the boulders, the high ceiling, the rushing waterfall in the distance. Taking in her new set of black armor. Her helmet, where her hair was set to flow freely—more dramatically than Pyrrha's, if Undyne could say so herself! And her glowing blue spear, bursting with as much magic as her soul could handle.

The human (projected) across from her adjusted her sash.

"Undyne, it is a pleasure to meet you. I hope for this to be an enjoyable match."

Undyne smiled, the gesture lost beneath her helmet.

"Show me the strength of your soul! The determination of Remnant!"

Abruptly, Pyrrha kneeled, shield held in front of her, spear locked atop it. With a shifting sound of machinery, Undyne found herself staring down a tube. A barrel.

A human firearm!

Undyne took off, running directly to the side. Bullets whizzed past her, behind her, only barely clipping her armor. With her free hand, she gestured, willing more spears into existence, hurling them at the speed of thought. The first few dissipated against Pyrrha's shield, though it was clearly causing Pyrrha some exertion. They forced her to let up on the gunfire. Which meant that, with just a little MORE concentration...

"Take THIS!"

Undyne's spears erupted out of the ground right below her opponent, promising a messy impalement. But the warning, brief as it was, had been enough. Pyrrha shot into the air as spears rose up to meet her, executing an impressively perfect backflip. Undyne prepared another volley to catch the girl helpless in midair.

But it turned out the girl was far from helpless. CLUNK went Pyrrha's shield. DENT went her helmet. "NGAH!" went Undyne, sent reeling. And in Pyrrha went for the kill.

Undyne blindly rained spears down in the rapidly dwindling space between the two of them as she tried to right herself. She didn't hear a single one connect, which was. Y'know. Not great. But the Captain of the Royal Guard was no quitter. She stared down the shaft of Pyrrha's spear-gun moments away from impact, straight into her emerald eyes, the Huntress's face set in neutral expression.

Unseen, she grinned coldly.

Comparing humans, Kyoko and Pyrrha were both speedy, dextrous as all heck. At times, Undyne could barely even track 'em as they whirled about with her one good eye. And their spearplay was faster yet. Their respective pointy sticks might as well have been burning blurs. Kyoko's whiplashing segments had left cracking sonic booms in their wake. And Pyrrha's thrusts were so impossibly keen, the air itself became an extension of her weapon. The piercing intent she wielded... it punctured without puncturing. She could feel it.

Undyne couldn't keep up. Wasn't ashamed to admit it! But she wasn't SO outclassed that she was willing to throw in the towel just yet! What she lacked in spearplay quality, she made up for with spearplay QUANTITY! Not to mention the slew of tricks she was keeping up her bracers!

It didn't hurt that Pyrrha's hits hurt much less. Every landed blow was still noticeable, mind you. Couldn't sit and eat them forever. But her armor was still mostly intact, which was more than she could say compared to how it had held up against the Magical Girl's rending, tearing strikes. Maybe the magic she'd used was simply that much stronger.

Finding the opportunity to land even a single blow in melee combat proved to be nearly impossible. Pyrrha's defense was THAT good. Even as she started generating and hurling dozens of extra bullet-spears at her from thin air in the midst of their clashing—and some did get through her shield, which was nice—Pyrrha stubbornly refused to let Undyne stab her up-close and personal.

It took a frustrating amount of time and a whole lot of glancing wounds to her helm and chest for her to finally get that hit in. Spears from the ground, forcing a dodge to the side, a worsening of footing. A simultaneous shower of spears from above, to pull her shield away from her front. And a sacrifice in the heat of the moment: Undyne intentionally body-checked the sharp edge of Pyrrha's now-sword (ow ow ow) to obstruct her movement. All that, and Undyne managed to just BARELY graze her opponent's shin with the tip of her personal spear. If she remembered how Remnant's Aura worked correctly... it probably did even less damage than the unblocked spears she'd hucked at range.

But when that spear was infused with green magic? It might just be enough to tip the scales in monsterkind's favor.

See, the green stuff wasn't just great for healing. It could be used offensively too. And when done so, it had a neat property: it could lock a monster in place, more or less. They could still move about, a little bit, but would be bound to the spot where they'd been struck. Let it never be said that Undyne could not learn from her mistakes! She hadn't even been able to pull off this much against Kyoko. Something about the surprise, or the Magical Girl's magic, had made the air feel just a little thicker.

Watching the suddenly-green-tinted girl struggle against the magic binding her in place was surprisingly satisfying. Undyne couldn't suppress a laugh. Forced to cut it back off, shortly thereafter, as Pyrrha once again shifted her spear to a rifle and started taking potshots at her, but that was nothing that taking cover behind a boulder couldn't fix. Briefly, she peeked around the corner and sent a picture to the Node, just to flex on her. And shot some more spear bullets at Pyrrha out of the corner of her mind, just to keep her busy.

Now. Undyne supposed she COULD hypothetically cause a buttload of spears to sprout from right under Pyrrha's feet, now that she was unable to dodge. It'd probably take her out. If not on the first volley, then surely at some point. But that wouldn't exactly be sporting, now, would it? To wipe out the human warrior with magic without giving her any more chances to fight back? Borderline unfair, she'd say! So instead, she took a moment to catch her breath.

And when she was good and ready, Undyne suplexed that boulder, leapt into the air, and brought it crashing down on Pyrrha's position.

The fight hadn't ended right then and there. Pyrrha Nikos proved herself to be INCREDIBLY durable. And enough outside physical force could disrupt a green magic binding, putting them back on even-ish footing. But one didn't just walk that kind of impact off. The fight continued, but Pyrrha was noticeably off-kilter. And only grew moreso as they dragged on, taking another boulder to the face and getting suplexed into the waterfall.

There was no denying that Pyrrha was a peerless warrior in her own right. She moved like a whirlwind, wreaking havoc on everything in her path. But she clearly hadn't been expecting the more literal storm of spears, and didn't seem to have great countermeasures for the power of green magic.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of combat, and right as Undyne herself was starting to feel her limits of how much damage she could eat in a day, Pyrrha had blinked out and conceded the battle in the Node chat. Her Aura had dropped to fifteen percent, or so she'd said. By Remnant tournament standards, that meant that Undyne had won.

Undyne had proved, at least to herself, that she could in fact eke out a win against a human.

That meant she felt a bit more ready for this next conversation.

So... Yuri. Innocuous name. Great in anime. Looked pretty tired in the snapshots she'd sent. A fellow eye-not-haver! And one of five entrapped in this Node business. They should've been the best of friends. Even if she WAS a human.

It was no secret, at this point, that Yuri's world was kinda lousy. Not a fun place to live. She wasn't obvious about it in the main chat, Undyne had noticed. Talked about it all casual-like, as if every day was just another day at the office. Or Office, as it might be. But a private conversation they'd had, likely in a moment of weakness for the City-dwelling human, had betrayed her. Talk of death, of MURDER...

Undyne genuinely wasn't sure what to think. Unusual for her. Most times, she could point at a Thing, good or bad, and rush towards or against it fullheartedly. Like a jetpack. Justice was important to her. But she didn't want to cut Yuri off, especially since she was so clearly miserable, all the time. She wanted to give her a chance. Justifications. And now that they could, she wanted to do it in-person. Text-chatting could be misinterpeted. She wanted to see Yuri's face, hear whatever conviction was in her voice.

The shock of red hair, the rumpled jacket. These were not new. Undyne had seen these before. Been these before. There was a body of flesh and blood under that outfit. Tired bones, bruises, and bandages. That inputFlow command could be used to learn a lot, if you paid proper attention. A far cry from the majesty of Pyrrha or the fanged viciousness of Kyoko. She did have a sword—never before seen by Undyne, but she'd known of its existence—red in hue, glowing faintly. Even now, Undyne could tell it wasn't expertise that would drive its use, not the same way that the other two humans treated their weapons like extensions of their own bodies. A subpar swordswoman.

The ominous pressure, though. That was new. That was worrying.

It was like being near some kind of bizarre reverse black hole. A point, near the Fixer's eyes, pushing outwards. Undyne was torn. She wanted to take a step back. She wanted to throw a spear forward.

She couldn't move a muscle.

Undyne tried her best to give it a chance. She really did. But Yuri wasn't even looking at her to start, taking in the periphery, the isolated edge of Waterfall she'd chosen for a meeting spot. The effect from being on the periphery of the human's gaze was already this intense. And as her attention focused, Undyne felt it grow worse, amplifying. She didn't want Yuri to gaze upon her. She didn't want to be perceived. It wouldn't... end well.

She cut the connection.

She could breathe again.

Slowly, deliberately, as if the air around her had turned to jelly, she raised a hand to her face, felt it come away sticky. Dipped in a thin film. Dust. Just from being in her presence? Nothing like what had happened with Pyrrha, or even Kyoko. Like a laser had been taken to her very soul.

...The face of death wasn't unkind. Not cruel, nor malevolent. It simply didn't care. Yuri, quiet and pitiful as she made herself seem... her apathy. It was deadly. If she'd decided to move forward, to walk straight past Undyne, she wouldn't be able to resist. She'd push through her like a pillar of sand.

Funny. Not a Magical Princess, that came the closest to killing her in this Node. Not some space-robot, or a horror slasher, or a cackling villain.

Just a girl who wouldn't blink twice before swinging her sword.

The report came in from an anguished Ice Cap, later that day. Verified by Sans some moments later. A human had come to the Underground. They were killing every monster in their sight, without mercy. Last sighted in the woods outside Snowdin, tearing Greater Dog into kibble.

Given Undyne's recent experience, the response came without hesitation. Evacuate Snowdin town. The most likely next destination, Waterfall. Rally the Guard, whatever might be left of them. Ready a team to collapse the tunnels in Waterfall, if need be.

It wasn't enough to save Papyrus, but seeing as there were any survivors at all, she was willing to take that as a win.

Chapter Text

"Pyrrha! Pyrrha! Oh, and Ren!"

The voice came from behind, high-pitched and energetic. The enthusiasm of a child. And the telltale whoosh! of a speed Semblance—Petal Burst.

Pyrrha turned around to the smiling face of Ruby Rose. And behind her, not her partner Weiss, but Blake Belladonna. Not a usual pair, but she supposed there was likely a reason for it. She'd heard through the grapevine that Ruby had also gotten into an altercation on the night of the dance, quite possibly even with the same person, though many of the details were a bit fuzzy all around—she'd even heard one upperclassman claim that she'd been arrested and detained! Blake, meanwhile, had been on the scene just outside the great hall. It made sense that she would have an interest.

Pyrrha gave the two of them a warm smile, stopping in place. Ren, beside her, simply slowed, advancing a little further towards their dorm room and giving the appearance of getting out of earshot.

"What can I do for you, Ruby?" Pyrrha said politely.

Ruby eagerly replied, "I heard you got into a fight! At the dance!" Words streamed towards her, almost overlapping. "So did I! Did she come from the CCT Tower? What was she like?"

Behind the red-clad Huntress, Pyrrha caught the faintest whiff of a sigh escape Blake's lips. She'd probably wanted to approach her in a more serious manner. The concealed cat Faunus tended to want to treat most things with a sense of gravitas, and Pyrrha could respect the effort. That said, Team RWBY wouldn't be Team RWBY without Ruby's childish whimsy and Yang's boisterousness.

"Yes, she did come from the CCTS Tower," Pyrrha started slowly, trying to put her thoughts in order. "Jaune and I saw her dive out of a window from the dance hall's roof."

"Congratulations on that, by the way," Blake commented dryly.

Pyrrha nodded, continuing, "She had long black hair and wore a domino mask. And a telekinetic Semblance, or perhaps one pertaining specifically to heated glass. Given my own Semblance of Polarity," she awkwardly gestured at herself, "it's a little difficult to judge when we only fought for such a brief time. I believe she would have proved herself the superior combatant, had the fight dragged on for long enough, however."

Ruby gasped. "Really? But you're Pyrrha! Was she really that—" Ruby struggled with words for a moment, chopping about with her hands like a bad ninja impression. At times, the fact that she'd been admitted into Beacon two years early showed. Eventually, she settled lamely on, "—strong? Was she really that, um, strong?"

"Yes. Ruthless, as well." Pyrrha recalled the image of Cinder Fall's fallen teammate, left to bleed out and scarred for life simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing something she ought not have. It was… disheartening, to have let her attacker escape that night. To allow someone so quick to injure, so unfazed by doing harm to another human being, to roam free.

Justice should have been done.

"You're talking about Emerald," Blake said. "I'm not sure if you heard, but she's recovering in the hospital as we speak. Mercury says she should be discharged soon. In time to participate in the Vytal Festival."

Gratefully, Pyrrha smiled. "That is a relief. Her injury was the result of my failure. If I'd just been a bit faster—"

"C'mon, Pyrrha!" It's Ruby that interjected, pouting adorably. "Nobody's perfect! If she was really as strong as you said, there isn't much you could've done, right? You'll just have to be stronger next time!"

…Pyrrha appreciated the effort, truly. But it was a double standard she was being held to. In two sentences: surprise that Pyrrha Nikos had failed at a task, and encouragement meant to lower her own expectations? She could not both be imperfect and the Invincible Girl. And while she would, in many ways, prefer not to be seen as the latter… not at the cost of someone's health. In the future, as a Huntress proper, it would be innocent lives at stake. She could not afford to make errors then. She would have to be invincible in truth, not just in reputation; it was not as if the Grimm cared about it.

It was with a shaky smile that Pyrrha accepted Ruby's smiling advice regardless. "To finish my account, the perpetrator ran off into Vale proper. Blake, you would know; you were there. And we lost her there. That's all I know."

Blake and Ruby shot each other meaningful glances that Pyrrha couldn't quite decode. Something to do with their sorties against Roman Torchwick and the White Fang? Blake seemed to find it a passion project, on account of it being her people committing the acts of terrorism. Whatever it meant, they both seemed satisfied. So as Ruby gave thanks and turned to leave, Pyrrha began to do the same, catch up to Ren.

"If you don't mind my curiosity, what are you doing with all that Dust?" Blake asked offhandedly.

Pyrrha froze.

That's right. She was carrying a SDC-branded briefcase, silver-and-white. She'd borrowed it from Weiss, thanked her for the lent Dust powder. Almost every different type known to man. It was for the Node, the Relic in her pocket. She'd promised the Moderator, and her Nodemates by extension that she would get her 'multiversal constant' in order.

With the help of her team, she'd come up with a ready excuse for why she needed it. Jaune had been the one to ask for it, betwixt an apology for harassing Weiss for so long.

She couldn't remember the excuse.

"I… um…" Pyrrha stuttered. Blake raised an eyebrow.

This was mortifying. Perhaps she should just come clean about the Node. Team RWBY were good people! They'd understand.

A quiet, yet firm voice came from over her shoulder: Ren's. When had he arrived? She hadn't heard him. "Nora wanted to experiment with different Dust types for her grenades. We don't have the funds to purchase it full-price, so we asked Jaune to ask Weiss for a discounted sampler."

Pyrrha laughed, a little too high. "Ah, yes… yes, that's exactly it."

Blake's eyebrow lowered, slightly. But if Pyrrha was reading her correctly, her skepticism had not gone away. But she did not question her further, simply replying, "Good luck with that."

With that, Ren and Pyrrha finally started making the trek back to their dorm room. Ren took the impetus to speak up:

"Pyrrha… you know I love you. But the phrase 'I'm getting it for Nora' is not rocket science."

"I…" Brothers, this was awful. Getting lambasted by Ren. He didn't even sound mad. Just… tired. It made it worse, somehow. How did Nora cope? She could cry. She might cry.

"If lying is so difficult for you, consider not lying," Ren said, tone still carefully neutral. "Team JNPR is here for you, but we can't manage this every time."

Pyrrha sighed. "You're right, Ren. I'll… I'll think about it."

Her whole team was here to see this. Mostly because she was in their shared dorm, and they would've been here anyway. But she still appreciated the show of support! Nora, in particular, was on the floor sitting next to Pyrrha, ooh-ing and aah-ing at each of the Dust vials laid out. She made a mental note to legitimately give them to Nora if they ended up with any left over, since it was clear she would enjoy tinkering with new Dust types. She could make the lie into reality! The thought was appealing.

She uncapped a vial of Burn Dust and did just that.

"Is anything supposed to happen?" Jaune wondered aloud.

"Say cheese, Nora," Pyrrha said. Nora shot her a peace sign and a customary grin.

The process repeated with Electricity Dust, Ice Dust, and Earth Dust, each one taking less and less time. Pyrrha thought it was because Scarlet was acclimating and gaining experience. The truth turned out to be less glamorous.

"You've stopped," Ren noted. "Has there been an issue?"

Pyrrha sighed, pushing the remaining unopened Dust samples over to Nora. "Different types of Dust apparently only count as a single energy source. The Moderator isn't gaining any new meaningful information. They're currently asking if I can think of any unique ones. Do any of you have any ideas?"

A moment of silence passed. Nora gave up first, shrugging and returning to putting Dust samples back into the briefcase. Ren was next, though he made no obvious tell about it.

Jaune, of all people, ended up speaking up: "Hey, Pyrrha, remember when you went to spar against, uh, Undyne? You asked me to monitor your Aura for you, but we didn't have a monitor for Undyne. Did she just not have it?"

Thinking back, that had been one of the more exhilarating experiences Pyrrha had ever had. Undyne was not nearly as skilled as Pyrrha in melee combat. But she made up for it in spades—or should she say, spears!—with her unique monster magic, calling down storms of spears and freezing her in place with that strange green attack. She'd had to go all-out in that battle, short of using her Semblance on Undyne's intimidating suit of armor and locking her in place; that'd be poor sportsmanship. And she'd still lost! That hadn't happened in… Brothers knew how long.

When they fought again, Pyrrha would use her Semblance for a cheap win, just to stoke some friendly competition. She had no doubt that Undyne would adapt, whether by shedding the armor for better mobility or some monster trick she couldn't even conceive of. She was looking forward to it.

(Some part of her thirsted to test herself against Kyoko Sakura. Recalling from the early days of the Node, apparently she'd thrashed the monsters' Captain of the Guard in short order. The raw power that would require… Pyrrha was very curious. She likely wouldn't stand a chance, but even if there was no victory in strength, surely she could learn something.)

Pyrrha paused in thought. "Apparently, monsters are made of 'magic'. From what I and she could tell, it essentially meant that her body was composed entirely of Aura. She didn't know the term 'Aura', but she clearly used it during our spar. I believe it's simply a difference in vocabulary."

"What about the other two?" Jaune probed.

"...Come to think of it, they didn't have theirs' active, when they activated the inputFlow," Pyrrha realized, slowly. "The sense-sharing command," she elaborated.

Jaune's eyes widened. "Didn't? Or couldn't? Remember, when I first came to Beacon, I didn't have Aura. Maybe that's true of people in other worlds, too!"

That was a thought worth consideration.

"You're right, Jaune," Pyrrha said, awe evident in her voice. "Aura is unique to Remnant. Of course you would be the one to figure that out."

"I… think that was a compliment!" he squeaked out. Pyrrha dug around in the sample of Earth Dust until she'd retrieved the Connection Relic, still shining brightly.

She didn't do something so rash as to try to activate the Relic's Aura. Rather, she simply treated it the same way she would Miló and Akoúo̱: as if it were a weapon, an extension of her. It was more difficult to do so for the unfamiliar otherworldly connection than it would have been for her battle-tested personalized armaments, but at the same time the Relic had literally no mass, if Scarlet was correct. It balanced out. And results came in immediately.

As Pyrrha did so, another thought occurred to her. One that should have much earlier, in fact. Even if Aura was not native to her Nodemates' contexts, that did not mean she could not unlock their Auras for them! They surely had souls, after all. It could help them in their day-to-day lives, especially if they were anywhere near as dangerous as the life of a Huntress.

What?

"You look like someone just stole your pancakes!" Nora exclaimed. "What's up?"

"They're talking about cartoons now," Pyrrha confusedly explained. "Apparently, both Kyoko and Undyne's worlds have this special kind of animation called 'anime'. Comes from a place called Japan? Wait, actually, Undyne doesn't really know. Kyoko says it comes from Japan, though she also doesn't have much experience with it. Wait, now Yuri's chiming in? It's a specific style?"

Pyrrha's report rapidly devolved into contradictory murmuring. The rest of Team JNPR watched, first worried, then amused. In the end, they failed to establish a consistent definition of anime, settling on "You'll know it when you see it."

All in all, a pretty good day.

Emma turned her hand over, watching the glowing Relic cascade between her fingers. Like a marble, or a coin. No sensation of touch or mass. She didn't have the dexterity to stop it from escaping her grasp, so it gently fell and rested on the carpet.

Emma spun herself around in her chair and rose to her feet. She walked to the window, covered by heavy curtains. Peeled back a corner, granting her a slight glimpse of the world outside it.

It was palatable, looking out over the darkness. A crescent moon tonight—that was nice, too. Not too bright. Not too dark. Outlines were visible. But nothing concrete. Not enough detail to make out anything too small. Anything with too many legs, too many wings. Anything, really. She stood there, and stared, without flinching.

It was her way of making progress. Of crawling—no, she didn't like that word. Of pulling herself, pulling herself back together. Back from the brink. A week ago, she wouldn't have even tried to do this much. Wouldn't have tolerated it. She knew she wasn't winning any records like this, but even the small steps felt like monumental undertakings, these days. Maybe, someday, her room wouldn't reek of repellant—necessary, for now. She'd be able to go outside again.

…Might want a HAZMAT suit first.

She was thinking about a moment, earlier on.

That was a deflection. A dodged question. Undyne wasn't even being subtle about it. Nobody noticed, called it out. It strained disbelief. The other redheads could not be this oblivious.

…No, they absolutely could. Pyrrha was formal, polite, but in a celebrity's manner. Like a hero waving down from a pedestal. She was trained, but not practiced. In terms of interactions with peers on an individual level, Emma wouldn't be surprised if she were only experiencing it with her term in college, in this Node. Kyoko was confrontational in a way that suggested she spent most of her time alone, aggressively warding people away. The two people Emma knew of that she'd met in person, she'd attempted to kill, which spoke volumes about her social skills. And Yuri… She probably had noticed. She worked in a corporate environment, with fellow 'Fixers'. Had demonstrated that she knew how to toe a company line for the most part, presumably how to read the mood of a superior and react accordingly. But she was paranoid, skittish. The same social savvy that let her detect Undyne's blatant bullshit also discouraged her from saying anything about it.

Emma had formed a detailed profile of the Fixer. Her introduction hadn't gone as planned. In the wake of Yuri's unconcealed fury, she'd been socially obligated to reveal information. She'd explained a lot of base details about Earth Bet, parahumans, and herself: mostly the same things she'd told Kyoko. But she had learned a lot about her Nodemate that she otherwise would not have. Disparate puzzle pieces, finally pieced together thanks to a glance at the bigger picture. Providing information that she was willing to do so regardless: it was a good trade.

She could boil down her Nodemates, their desires and wishes, into single, digestible words. It was reductive, but sometimes she didn't have time to take into account every element of every person. Sometimes, she could feel a panic attack coming, a memory resurfacing, and knew she didn't have much productive brainpower left. Needed to simplify. One-word concepts and quick solutions, conclusions.

Kyoko was 'independence'. Undyne was 'justice'. And Yuri was 'safety'. She craved the abstract feeling of 'not feeling like she was in danger'. And almost all of her actions could be structured around that: She worried over Emma because the unknown was dangerous. She was terrified of ModScarlet, of Pyrrha, because they were powerful, and therefore potentially dangerous. She chose her words carefully, because saying the wrong thing in a social situation could be dangerous.

Ironic, that she wasn't very good at it. Yuri had tried. To hold back her true feelings, and stay professional. But it had taken only a minimum of prodding to get her to spill over. Social savvy, but with poor self-control? Emma wondered if she'd realized her own weakness, if it was part of the reason she tended towards quiet.

When it came to silence, Emma was in no place to judge.

Back to Undyne. Undyne being quiet all day, despite being awake, wasn't anything troubling on its own. The fact that she felt the need to hide the fact, however, was. She'd forgotten, in the end, to follow up on her initial question, on God. Content that the flow of conversation had been driven away from her. The cover-up was a failure: it revealed more than silence would have.

Undyne, what are you hiding? What are you concerned about?

Undyne was awake this late. If Emma wanted to, she could confront the monster, at the cost of revealing her presence to one more person. One more little thing she would have only grasping control over.

…She was probably getting worked up over nothing. Undyne was going on a date with Alphys, or hanging out with Papyrus. Something she didn't want to talk about, but not something to worry about.

It didn't matter. She'd be fine.

Not like Emma could make a difference, anyway. Not in this Node full of monsters and Magical Girls. Even Yuri at least had combat experience, though she'd been keeping coy about her superpowers.

…Pyrrha's offer to unlock their Auras was a tempting one. She'd have to reach out to a third person. But the reward? A personal forcefield, like Glory Girl's? Even at its weakest, it could be a Brute 1 rating. Enough to become a cape, to count as parahuman. She could feel strong, and have it not be a lie. Maybe even enough to catch up to—

Distantly, Emma felt the impact on her ass. Knew she'd fallen down. It took a backseat. To the scratching. Scritching. Buzzing. A tiny cacophony, for her and her alone. Her knees, hugged to her chest. Hair fell into her face, and she welcomed it. Familiar red blocked out the vision of her room, the blackness infecting the edges of her vision.

It would pass. It wasn't the first time. They'd been lasting shorter, shorter.

But any time was still far too long. And in the meantime…

It still proved she was the same victim she'd always been.

Chapter Text

The Underground didn't have… laws, for this kind of thing. Offhanded discussions between herself, Alphys, and occasionally ASGORE, sure! Those casual thought experiments were what they of the Underground were putting into effect now. For all that they'd been morbid and depressing, Undyne was glad that they'd had them. Else they'd be really flailing now, panic and riots skyrocketing.

In theory, it was a simple two-part plan, with slight adjustments per region. Step 1: Move the residents of the region further away from the dangerous human. Step 2: Collapse the tunnels to that next region to seal the human away.

It was going more smoothly the further away they were from the human. From what Undyne had heard, New Home's barricading efforts could almost be considered orderly, especially since ASGORE was there to help personally. Mettaton was providing a similarly calming effect on Hotland—she couldn't believe she'd need to thank the entertainer soon—even if Alphys was technically in charge of the overall effort.

Waterfall wasn't as simple. The damp, winding tunnels were difficult to navigate, even if you were familiar with them. The routes to Hotland weren't intuitive. For monsters that didn't traverse them often? Heck, monsters that had never left their neighborhood? A nightmare of navigation. 01 and 02 hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the last day or so, constantly busy guiding groups of panicked monsters to and fro. Nor had Undyne. She'd been broadcasting confidence non-stop for more than twenty four hours non-stop, and while she WAS a confident person, there was only so much she could do to dispel the nagging doubts, the panicked whispers of the monsters she was trying so desperately to reassure.

Her goal, by the end of this. No monster left behind. Not a single one. They wouldn't collapse the tunnels until every. Single. Monster. Had made it through to safety.

A traitorous part of her mind tacked on: Or they'd been killed by the Fallen Child.

…Her conviction could not afford to waver. She was the hero of the Underground. THE Hero of THE Underground! She did not have time to hesitate.

Especially because someone was sabotaging the evacuation.

Not Step 1, no. That would have been bad. Like, REALLY bad. But this wasn't much better. This mysterious monster was sabotaging the tunnel-collapsing efforts!

There were multiple ways out of Waterfall. The river, for one, though the Riverperson had long left. And, more relevantly, a myriad of tunnels leading to Hotland. She'd ordered all of them ready to be collapsed on demand, commandeering some of Mettaton's explosives in various shapes and rigging them to detonate if they received a signal from Alphys' phone. All well and good. Some of Mettaton's goons had gone out and set them up. Undyne, not trusting the monster mercenaries, had gone out to check on their setup. And to their credit, as far as she could tell, the dogbomb (woof) and glass-of-water-bomb were well-positioned. Good explosions!

The issue, then. Vines, massive thorny vines. Embedded into the walls and propping up the tunnel. Undyne was CERTAIN that they hadn't been there before. She wasn't one hundred-percent sure that they'd keep the tunnel up under the force of Mettaton's explosives. But she'd bet every dollar she owned that it was the intention.

…She didn't have time for this. Monsters, as a whole, didn't have time for this. The Royal Guard was stretched impossibly thin. And while she knew that Hotland was having its own troubles, she needed help. Advice from someone smarter than her.

In a brief moment of respite, on the border between Waterfall and Hotland, Undyne talked to Alphys, asked directly about the plant monster. And like a dam, built up and cracked, words poured forth. She had a lot to say.

The crowded cave where they met was uncomfortable for the both of them. Alphys was 'cold-blooded', and preferred warmer areas, else she tended to freeze up over time. With her armor on, Undyne preferred the cool, the damp, to keep her hydrated. This cavern bordered the two extremes of the Underground. It was too hot for Undyne, too cold for Alphys.

Funny, that. By the time she'd had finished her stuttering, horrifying, yet still abbreviated explanation, Alphys was sweating bullets. And processing, coming to grips on the experiments that had taken place in the dark basement of Alphys's lab, the end product… Undyne's blood was running cold.

To make a short story shorter, she'd been experimenting with a substance called Determination, or DT. All humans possessed it naturally, and having a lot of it made them so much stronger than monsters. In a valiant attempt to manufacture someone or something that could break the Barrier, as well as an attempt to save those that had fallen down, she began to inject the substance into things. Monsters. And a golden flower in ASGORE's garden.

The Amalgamates, as Alphys called them, would almost certainly be more horrifying in person. Their mere description, fallen-down monsters unable to handle the Determination of humans and thus fused into semi-conscious monstrosities—she couldn't believe Alphys had been involved in such a creation. The flower, though, was somehow worse. She'd created a being without a soul, brought to life with the power of human Determination and nothing else. A will to persist, but no compassion, no caring.

Alphys looked like she wanted to throw herself into a lava pit by the time she finished. But as much as Undyne wanted to reassure her, to encourage her, to make all the logical arguments, there just wasn't time. Her return statement was token. 'Cause the plan needed to change.

They needed monsters to get out there, to ensure that the cave-ins happened, to chop the golden flower's vines. Everything would have to slow down. And the huddling panick-train wasn't going to move any faster.

She wasn't the first to have this idea. Gerson had promised both to stall the human and not to be a hero, and while Undyne wasn't sure how that was gonna work, she trusted in the old turtle's wisdom. Unfortunately, it seemed like it wasn't going to be enough. They would need more.

Undyne armed herself. Scarfed down some uncooked instant noodles; they were better raw.

Time to buy time.

The Echo Flower fields. Undyne liked Echo Flowers, most of the time. They were fun! They'd repeat things they heard back to you. Nobody was dumb enough to talk about sensitive topics in a field full of eavesdroppers, so most of the time, the flowers just repeated random stuff! Jokes kids wanted to share, dramatic stories meant to impress. The occasional practiced speech or confession, done by people who wanted to hear their voices played right back to them.

But right now…

"Mama! Mama! Where did you go? Mama?"

…Every Echo Flower…

"Angel save us… we're all going to die… all of us! We're all going to die here!"

…Every cadence…

"You saw it, right? That dusty tutu, those worn shoes? They killed Aaron!"

…Every refugee, monsters of all kinds…

"The Royal Guard will save us! ASGORE will save us!"

…All that was echoed…

"Thousands of people wishing together… and none of it will matter, in the end."

…was the sound of fear.

"hey."

Except that one. There was no mistaking that tone. That slackery voice. That comical font.

Undyne's head snapped to the right, only to find yet another innocuous Echo Flower. She narrowed her eye suspiciously, waited for a moment.

"hey."

When she turned back to the left, the skeleton himself was waiting for her, right in her path. Hands in his hoodie's pockets like always. Tiny pinpricks of light shining in his eye sockets like always. Still smiling, like always.

…He did the thing with the Echo Flowers! The thing she liked to do with the Echo Flowers!

"Sans. That's MY trick! And what are you doing here? I haven't seen you… at all."

Since Papyrus died, she didn't say. She didn't blame him. If she weren't the Captain of the Royal Guard, she, too, might want to hide away like he did.

She couldn't afford to. The Underground couldn't afford to. The hopes and dreams of every monster… all resting on her. Undyne REFUSED to let them down!

Any more than she already had, a treacherous part of her mind added.

"you've been acting different lately. like the end of your journey is at hand."

Did he have a point here?

"I mean, yeah! If you haven't noticed, things aren't looking too great right now! It's kinda the Underground's darkest hour! But I haven't given up! We're going to be alright."

She couldn't read his face. Undyne was a people person. But Sans' skull really didn't change at all, huh. She didn't know if he believed her. She didn't know if she believed herself.

"...y'know, if i were you, i would have thrown inna towel by now. and you still could."

"You will not be judged. You will not be judged for your inaction. You know what EXP is?"

Offended, outraged, preparing to respond with all the righteous fury she could muster—the non-sequitur caught her off-guard.

"It's an acronym. Execution Points. A way of quantifying the pain you've inflicted on others. How much pain do you think that human has inflicted so far? The more they killed, the easier it became to distance themself from us. The easier it became for them to hurt us."

His eyes were closed, Undyne realized. There was a seriousness underpinning his tone now. She remembered from the human animes, bits and pieces of human anatomy. And that skulls, skeletons, were symbols of death. Human remains. It had nothing to do with the situation, but the thought came unwanted, unbidden.

"It's that LOVE, see. Another acronym. Level of Violence. The human has gained EXP. And they've gained LOVE. You look like you know what that means"

Yeah, something was definitely off.

"But you? Undyne, you never gained any LOVE. Do you really…"

Sans opened his eyes, white pinpricks the same as always. A sheepish grin came to his face, like he'd been caught setting whoopee cushions all about again. And he let out a casual shrug. The easy transition was jarring, but whatever spellbound moment he'd enraptured her with was over. The outrage came back, flaring up in her blood.

"i dunno, you really thought this through?"

"Sans. I'm not gonna SACRIFICE myself. Not if I can help it! You think I don't know that humans are terrifying? I have a plan, y'know! The human child can't kill me if they can't hit me! What, did Alphys put you up to this? Does she even KNOW you?"

She WAS fast enough, to keep up with a human; Pyrrha had taught her that. And she was a pretty good shot with a spear! The few eyewitness accounts had said that the human never showed mercy, even to monsters that were running away, willing to chase them down and end every. single. one. She'd make them pay for that, a hundred times over. But until then, she could take advantage of that behavior.

If she engaged the human briefly, then shot off, she could keep them busy. As long as they never got a hit in, never got the chance to push her with the full force of their killing intent, she could buy time. She could last. Kyoko had taught her that.

If she ever failed, of course, she was dead.

Yuri had taught her that.

So she simply wouldn't fail.

"don't you know? i know everybody. and dodging, huh? that could work. yeah, i got nothing then. break a leg out there."

Undyne flashed him a grin. Confident, now.

"Thanks! But…"

Sans took a step backward. Ha! Realized what was coming to him, huh? Must've forgotten that she was his BOSS!

"If you've got time to mess around with Echo Flowers and lecture me, you've got time to do your job! I know that… Papyrus—"

Her voice only hitched a little bit. And she'd deny it if anyone asked!

" —he's gone. But you're quicker than you look! And we need all the help we can get! Go talk to Alphys, figure out what needs doing! Evacuate monsters with your 'shortcuts' or whatever!

"You know it's what your brother would have wanted!"

That, more than anything, seemed to get to the lazybones. He cocked his head at her, then shot her a jaunty salute with his left hand.

Moments later, he was gone. The Echo Flowers waved about lazily.

Moments later, so was she.

"...sorry, alphys. this is why i never make promises."

…It didn't go so cleanly, in the end. She arrived just a bit too late.

"Hurt? I'm not hurt. This is nothing."

That kid from Snowdin. The one with no arms. The little idiot (endearing) (sorrowful) (regretful). They didn't evacuate with the rest of town. Maybe they got lost. Maybe they were just REALLY stupid. But the human child caught up to them. And for all that Undyne knew the monster kid could be pretty quick when they wanted to be, they didn't run. Stood their ground instead.

"Next time, listen when the adults tell you to leave, okay?"

It wouldn't have ended well, Undyne had known. Her first good glance at the human child had told her everything she needed to know. She didn't even think it was right to call them a human, not from what she'd seen from the Node thus far. Something else was behind those squinted eyes. A mechanical sort of drive, Determination. One that couldn't be reasoned with or diverted. The ballet shoes in their hands… they wouldn't have hesitated. Didn't hesitate, as the monster kid postured and tried their utmost to stand tall.

"Yeah. I'll take care of this! Get out of here!"

Undyne couldn't sit back and watch.

…Kid was gone now. She could drop the act. Just her and the human. That was a bored expression on their face, she was pretty sure. Looking at her like she was lower than the dirt she was kneeling in. Undyne wanted to get angry at that. All she could feel was a hollow sense of emptiness. A slashed dream, gaping across her chestplate. Her soul was dissolving to dust.

She'd failed.

…She could have let them die. Maybe she should have let 'em die. She could pull off her plan that way. Pull them away from the evacuees. Deeper into Waterfall's caverns, maybe drop the human off a rickety bridge or something. Get them to drown in a river. Instead, she was going to die here. Accomplishing nothing, watching the world fade and blur from her one good eye..

"...Heh. 'This is nothing'... what a pack of lies… Should've known."

All that bravado, all that confidence. Kyoko… was right, in the end.

"...D…damn it…"

"..."

Chapter Text

"You…

"You're gonna have to try a little harder than THAT."

You could call Kyoko an 'open-air enthusiast'. And it was that depth of experience that she could authoritatively, one-hundred percent say: It was a beautiful day outside. Birds singing, flowers blooming. From the lofty perch of the day, she could see some parent and their kid out in a park with baseball gloves and a ball, playing catch. It was the kinda day that made you glad to be alive. Kyoko imagined that, when Undyne and all her monster pals escaped the Underground in a couple hours or days or however long it took her to clean up that mess with the skulking kid, this would be the day they'd been waiting for. Wouldn't it be disappointing if they broke free of the dark and damp, only to run headfirst into a muggy, rainy day?

…Huh. Kyoko had no idea what time it was for the monsters, right now. Of the year, that was; their days and nights seemed to align pretty well, across all four—five—of them. For all she knew, it was the dead of winter for Undyne the same time it was early spring for Kyoko. Didn't help that Pyrrha's whole seasonal system was all sorts of messed up, if the way her shattered moon worked was any indication. Kyoko was no astrophysicist, but even she knew that the moon was supposed to revolve around the earth. Not the other way around. And they still somehow had the same four seasons?

Offhandedly, Kyoko fingered her Soul Gem and transformed.

For all that she kept pulling Undyne's leg about her earlier thrashing, she had no real doubt that the Royal Guardswoman would be able to manage the stupid kid. Kyoko supposed she could've been nicer about it; the kid had gotten away with killing a few monsters through dirty tricks, apparently, and Undyne was probably feeling guilty about that. She was a protector, as aggressive as she may have been. But, like, c'mon. Undyne wasn't strong like Kyoko, but she was strong. Apparently, good enough to fight Pyrrha to a standstill, for whatever that meant.

If Undyne didn't have the guts to finish the job, or if the little brat ended up having superpowers or something, she'd help.

Probably wouldn't be necessary though.

Guess she'd have to eat her words. Seriously?

A dark cavern, as was common to Undyne's home. A narrow bridge. Atop it, a small child, just as she'd said. Yellow skin. Barely a ten-year-old, and at that age where you couldn't really tell whether they were a boy or girl, ambiguous clothing not helping. Squinting at Undyne with…

Kyoko wasn't the type to let others' feelings bother her. Glared daggers rarely bled you as much as real ones. Hindsight, horror—hurt had hardened her heart. If she let herself be swayed by the opinions of others (Mami's, mostly), she'd never get anything done. Apparently, Undyne wasn't so armored. Despite the armor. Who'd have thought the brash fish monster was so empathetic? Even in that snapshot of information, the human's radiated malice came across clearly.

Something else that definitely wasn't her imagination. The inputFlow thing usually just transmitted physical sensation. Sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste. But this time, when Undyne used it, something new came across quite clearly. Tangible across her armor. Her emotions.

A cloying, choking fear. Crushing shame. And above all, a grim, desperate determination.

Undyne had gotten quite the glow-up since Kyoko had last seen her. Her armor, once a plain and unfurnished black, had grown much more elaborate, spiking shoulderpads and a great white heart bursting from the chestplate. 'Grown' wasn't a figure of speech, by the by; it looked disturbingly biological, the almost-metal slick with fish-slime. Her eye though, was the greatest and most noticeable. Where there was once an eyepatch, now was a dark void, an arrow-shaped beam of light flashing out and around the empty socket.

Ah. Not an arrow, a spear. Which made sense, honestly.

Kyoko was reluctantly impressed. As far as Magical Girl-esque powerups went, that was aesthetically top-notch. Though, tempered by the fact that she was still losing to a ten-year-old child.

Said child stood warily further down the bridge, squinting at Kyoko with something not quite like malice. One hand held one of Undyne's discarded spears. The other held a set of dusty ballet shoes, for some reason. All of it was tinted green, kinda like how Pyrrha had been—Undyne must've used her magic on them, stopping them from running.

…Honestly, that was all Kyoko needed to know. Wasn't in the mood for talking. And apparently, they'd killed enough people lately. She lazily swept her spear, let it break into links and lash out. And to the kid's credit, they blocked it about as well as someone their age humanly could. Sure, Undyne's spear shattered, fingers snapped, and a great rip slashed across their front, shirt and flesh torn. But they were still standing.

Second strike came too fast for them to do anything about, and the kid was swept off the bridge and into the yawning abyss. Kyoko put her hand to her ear, waited for the distant sound of death. Took a couple seconds.

splat

Nice.

"How's that? Doesn't take a hero," she laughed, turning to where Undyne still hadn't moved.

Looking closer, Undyne had taken a beating. Scuff marks and dents coated her armor, sweat pouring down from exertion. Spikes on her shoulders were bent and chipped. Inhale, exhale—deep, heaving breaths moved her entire body up and down.

…Why did she need help here again? The kid hadn't been any threat at all to her, and yet here, after what looked like a power-up? She was struggling? The thought occurred to her that, maybe, Undyne had summoned her here solely to keep her hands clean, to avoid having the blood of a child staining them. And dismissed just as quickly; those signs of battle were real. Despite all indication to the contrary, she really had been in a desperate deadlock with an ordinary ten-year-old. Needed her help to break it.

"Okay, you look pretty neat and all, but what is the problem with—" she tried to say, but Undyne let out a garbled laugh, let out a liquidy sound in a language Kyoko couldn't understand. Sounded like… English?

Abruptly, the spear in Undyne's hand slammed its butt into the bridge. Kyoko startled at the noise, watched her as she fell hard to one knee, splashing against the bridge planks, all weight on her weapon. The effort of staying upright seemed almost too much for her, even as the grin on her face didn't waver, the spear of light in her right eye still glowing brightly.

Wasn't sweat dripping down Undyne's body, Kyoko finally realized. It was just… her body. Her armor drooped, puddled in her shadow. The monster was melting before her eyes.

It was like a cold bucket of water had been splashed on her. This was really happening. She spoke the words aloud, at the same time as she sent them in the Node.

She screamed for help, but was cut off by Undyne in the Node.

More ideas. They had five worlds of magic and powers to access; surely they could think of something! But she couldn't heal others. Her magic didn't allow for that; she could barely heal herself. Could Yuri help? Could Pyrrha? Emma? Maybe she could browbeat a prospective Magical Girl to make a wish to save Undyne's life? Or find one with healing magic! Back in Kazamino, her other body telepathically screamed for Kyubey, to no response.

Kyoko dismissed the summoning and waited with bated breath. Slashed at the air angrily, like she could somehow kill death itself.

She'd make it through, Kyoko was sure. Sure. Undyne was strong. Now, maybe as strong as her. They hadn't had their rematch! She hadn't led her monsters out of the Underground. She still hadn't seen the sun for real, tasted the freedom she kept yammering about.

Undyne wouldn't die. Not now. Not yet. There was too much left unresolved!

Undyne looked worse, now. Her legs were indistinguishable from the puddle of gray-black at her feet, which had grown to cover almost the width of the bridge. The heart on her chest was nothing but a white splotch amidst a watery surface. Hunched over, hair dripping red, hand more a blob than a hand…

Was there really nothing they could do?

Undyne's smile still didn't relent, even as it seemed her teeth had fused together. As long as that smile held strong, she'd be alright. Yeah. Even if nothing else. Kyoko tried to make her thoughts more coherent. Tried to think of ways Undyne could be saved. But nothing came to mind, and all she could think to do was stand next to her, pry her spear out of her hand with a wet schloop, and provide a shoulder to lean on. Ignored the way Undyne was starting to seep into her clothes, her hair.

…It was a ridiculous last request. Kyoko couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

The regret struck hard. If she'd been just a little kinder, chosen her words a little more carefully, would they still be here? Maybe she could have come earlier, put the fallen child in their place before they could hurt Undyne. She should've been here from the start, even! Her spear should've been the first to strike, not the last. She was stronger!

Something gave out in Undyne's lower body, her spine. She slumped forward, separating from what had once been her legs with another gruesome sound. Kyoko caught her on reflex, propped her torso up in her lap. Somehow, she still wasn't dead. Lights still burned in her eyes.

Kyoko should've used her strength. Before it was too late. Before Undyne had sloughed into this… barely recognizable lump. Running out of time. She spoke quickly.

God, she hated the Node all of a sudden, right now. The words that appeared on that stupid screen—no emotion in them. She couldn't spit regret and grief into them the same way you could with your mouth and lungs. It drove her to speak the words aloud, loud, even though Undyne couldn't understand her. She remembered her father, tried to copy his fiery passion, the magic that had gone into it. The wish she'd made.

Please, listen, Undyne, she tried to say. I'm telling the truth, I promise, she tried to convey. Please don't die, she tried in vain.

That, of all things, finally killed Undyne's toothy smile. Her eyes closed. Kyoko tried to shake her, to keep her awake, but her hands pushed right through her shoulders, like putty.

God dammit, why was Undyne so… fragile! Why?

Kyoko's heart dropped as Undyne's final moments passed. As her melted body dissolved into dust and sprinkled through her frantic grasp. As even the puddle she sat in crumbled away.

Fistfuls of dust flew away even as she reached out her hands, tried to close around them.

"Undyne!"

The last thing Kyoko saw, as the summons ended. Dust that had once been Undyne, carried away by the last gasp of Waterfall's howling wind.