Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sophie slowly opened her eyes. Her blurry vision told her she had landed on a bed of golden flowers. Still dazed, she gradually pushed herself onto her knees, trying to get up, noticing that next to her were Joel and the Rat Child still unconscious. In that moment, she remembered why she was there. 

“Sam!” She quickly stood to look upward, toward the entrance of the mountain. Although light shone in, she could neither see nor hear anything outside the mountain—not even the sky. 

She could no longer hear the screaming sky, but those screams would never leave her mind. 

Trying to flee into the mountains, the angel had found them, and the only reason they were still alive was thanks to Sam. 

Her legs gave out, collapsing back onto the cushion of flowers, hands trembling and tears streaming down her cheeks as she remembered how Sam had used his arm to push them into that pit. She had watched as he was siphoned away by a ray of light from the angel. 

“hhh... Sam...” Soon Joel was slowly regaining consciousness, along with the Rat Child. Sophie quickly wiped her tears. 

“Sam,” repeated the Rat Child, who then went over to her, letting her hold him in her arms. 

“Where—hhh—are we? Where’s Sam?” Joel asked, clutching his stuffed toy, Fuzzy. Fear was evident in his voice—he was terrified. 

“He’s...” She wanted to say the truth—that he had sacrificed himself for them—but... She noticed Joel’s teeth beginning to grow again, this time stretching down past his navel. “I-I’m sure he’ll be waiting for us outside the mountain! You know Sam is really strong. Remember how he beat Leigh? Twice! And once in his monster form! I’m sure those floating eyes don’t stand a chance against him!” she said, forcing a smile of joy and confidence. Even if Joel’s face, now filled with teeth, couldn’t see through it, she knew she had to play that role 100%—otherwise, she would collapse again in front of him. 

The boy’s teeth stopped growing as he calmed down at her words. “Y-you’re right. He’s—hhh—really strong.” 

The Rat Child also seemed to settle, letting out a few happy squeaks before jumping onto some backpacks—the supplies they had brought to survive in the caves. Sophie inhaled deeply, then exhaled, before going over to the three backpacks: hers, Joel’s, and the Rat Child’s. The others hadn’t made it down here. 

“Let’s see what we stashed in here...” Sophie said, pulling a chocolate bar from her backpack and starting to eat it as she rummaged through. “My trick tools... a couple of gas bombs, some leftover food, some bandages, and... twenty chocky bars” 

“You filled your whole backpack with chocolate? No wonder I couldn’t find any!” said the toothy boy, offended. “What happened to—hhh—sharing?” 

“Sam said I could eat all the Chocky bars I wanted,” she replied playfully, sticking out her tongue. 

“That’s not true!” 

“Yes it is, tough luck for not asking first.” She giggled, then turned to Joel’s backpack. “And what did you bring?” 

“Hmm? Well...” He checked inside. “A first aid kit, some tonics and disinfectants... and a tupperware with several slices of pizza... pizza I’ll only share with the baby!” 

“Hey! That’s not fair!” she protested, though she knew she could swipe a few slices at dinner. She soon turned to the Rat Child. “And what do you have in your backpack, baby?” she asked with a sweet smile. The Rat Child promptly took off his red backpack and opened it. 

Inside were a pistol, a combat knife, an SMG, and several boxes of ammunition. 

“...Why am I not surprised,” Sophie muttered, while the Rat Child squeaked happily. 

“We have to—hhh—find the way out of this cave, we have to find Sam,” Joel said, standing and helping Sophie back to her feet. 

“Right,” she replied, a little uneasy, taking the lead. “Looks like there’s a... gate up ahead?” she said, noticing a structure leading deeper into the mountain. “... We should keep close to each other. Seems these caves have tenants.” She take her slingshot to put in in her pockets and started forward, Joel and the Rat Child following behind. 

As they passed through the gate, it seemed they had entered the entrance to what looked like ruins, and at the center stood a solitary golden flower. Sophie could sense that this flower was not normal, even before she could make out a face on it. 

“Howdy! I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flower!” it said as they came close enough. 

 ///

Flowey had felt it. A human had fallen into the Underground after so long. And he would be the first to find them and finally obtain a human soul. Soon he heard footsteps approaching, though they weren’t the footsteps of just one person, but several. 

Within moments, the flower saw three figures drawing near. 

“Who are those two monsters? I’ve never seen them in the ruins before,” he wondered, noticing a child whose face and abdomen were covered in teeth, and a massive rat with multiple arms and eyes. “Doesn’t matter. It’s not like they can do anything.” He turned his attention instead to the human girl dark-skinned, with dark hair, wearing a purple sweater and black pants with a slingshot tucked in her pocket. 

“Howdy! I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flower!” he said with the friendliest expression he could muster, aiming for a good first impression. But he noticed something strange—neither the human nor the two monsters seemed particularly confused to hear him speak. With the human, that was to be expected; from experience, he knew they weren’t very expressive. But normally, other monsters reacted in a much more... surprised way. 

“Excuse me, Mister Flowey,” said the toothy monster. “Can you tell us how to get out of this place? We’re—hhh—lost.” 

“How could anyone be dumb enough to get lost all the way here?” was what the flower wanted to say, but thinking it over, the boy didn’t exactly look like he could see where he was going. There was a chance he had stumbled into the ruins without realizing it. 

“Of course! But first, human, you’re new to the Underground, aren’t you? Gosh You must be very confused.” 

“Thanks for asking, but we just need you to tell us if there’s a camp or base nearby where sane people are,” the human girl replied, keeping her distance and eyeing the end of the chamber that led to the next. 

“Wait! Don’t you want to know how things work down here?” Flowey kept up his friendly façade. 

“I already know how this works. If any monster attacks us, we beat them down.” She answered quickly, gripping her slingshot tightly. 

Flowey’s face instantly twisted into something sinister. The girl knew what was going on. Probably the other monsters with her had already told her everything she needed to know. 

“THEN LET’S NOT WASTE ANY MORE TIME!” 

Thorny vines shot up from the ground beneath the human, wrapping around her, squeezing so tightly that their barbs pierced her skin and forced her orange soul into view. 

“G-ah!” The girl groaned in pain as the vines cut into her skin and stole her breath. 

“Sophie!” The toothy monster was caught off guard, while the overdeveloped rat scrambled onto the human to try and free her. 

Flowey wasn’t going to allow that. Almost instantly, he began conjuring a swarm of petals with his magic. “DIE!” he screamed, laughing as he launched them all at Sophie. But to his surprise, the toothy monster stepped in the way, taking the full brunt of the attack. 

“What? How did he see where it was coming from?—No matter, he should already be—” Flowey’s thought was cut short when he felt the vines binding the girl suddenly sliced apart by something sharp. The rat had used a knife to cut through everything and free her. She quickly grabbed her slingshot and fired a marble at Flowey. 

The projectile struck him, and the flower felt a pain he hadn’t expected. “A-agh! W-what kind of damage was that?!” The sheer amount of harm stunned him. It wasn’t on the level of Asgore’s attacks when he had tried to rip out the human souls by force, but it was still considerable. 

But when Flowey looked back at the trio, he was left speechless by even greater surprises. 

First, the toothy monster was still alive, standing defiantly after taking the attack deskgned to kill the human—something only very strong monsters could endure. But that wasn’t all; he was bleeding! 

“HHH—Are you okay, Sophie?” he said, then replaced his row of teeth with sharper ones. Flowey could hear flesh tearing as the new teeth pushed through, and the old ones clattered to the ground. But that wasn’t the biggest surprise. Flowey could see the soul of that... “monster.” It was green. A human soul. 

“He’s... he’s human?!” was all Flowey could think. It made no sense. It was absurd. And things only grew more absurd when the rat brandished its knife with a furious squeak, revealing a bright cyan soul. 

All three of them, somehow, were human. And the final shock came from the way they looked at him. Flowey could feel it in their gaze—or whatever passed for it in the toothy boy’s case. It was an expression he hadn’t seen in a long time. An expression not even the previous human had shown—at least, not until Flowey had forced the situation. 

These three were more than willing to kill him. They wouldn’t try to talk, wouldn’t seek a peaceful way out. They would kill him without remorse or die trying. Flowey grinned at this, because it could only mean one thing... 

These children had killed before. 

Yes, he could feel their high level of violence. That was why the girl’s projectile had hit so hard. 

“HAHAHAHA!” The flower began to laugh, his face twisting even further. “Wonderful! I can feel this is going to be so much fun! But it would be a shame if everything ended too soon. Too bad—I’ll have to take my leave... We’ll meet again soon!” 

“You’re not getting away you piessashit!” Sophie shouted and then Joel shoot his teeth from his mouth like a cannon toward Flowey. But the flower ducked underground, and the teeth only embedded themselves in the floor. 

 ///

“He got away...” Joel muttered, hugging his teddy bear. “Sophie... Did you know this was a trap?” he asked, turning his head toward her as if he could see her. After all, they had kept their distance from that flower because she hadn’t wanted to get close. 

“He looked and acted far too friendly... I’ll never forget how Phillipe betrayed us,” she said, remembering that painful moment with anger as she pulled out some tonics for herself and Joel. “If Sam were here... he probably would have fallen for that trap again.” She sighed, and the rat squeaked in agreement. 

The children healed their wounds, then pressed onward into the ruins—now certain that this place was anything but safe. 

Chapter Text

The three children arrived at another room, which was blocked by a double gate they couldn’t open. Joel and Sophie tried pushing and pulling, each in a different direction.

“No, no, we need to push together,” ordered the girl.

“No—hhh—we need to pull. I already pushed a moment ago and it didn’t open.”

“A moment ago I was pulling!”

While they argued, the rat child was squeaking, pointing toward some specific tiles and a switch next to the door.

“Hmm? What did you find?” asked the girl, noticing six metal tiles on the ground. Four were laid out horizontally one above the other, while in the center two were placed vertically.

“Do you think it’s a puzzle?” Joel approached the switch on the wall.

“Ugh! Why does every place we go have to be filled with puzzles?! First the apartment with its discs and now this.” She spoke in frustration, searching the room for some kind of clue. Luckily, there was a sign. “Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road....” “Wait a second, did it just give us the solution outright?”

“Morton would be disappointed if he were here,” commented Joel as the rat child walked across the horizontal tiles and then activated the switch, opening the door.

“All right, next room. I just hope there aren’t any dangerous puzzles...” said Sophie, only to soon step into a chamber blocked at the far end by metal spikes. “Of course...”

Again, there were switches on the wall. But the solution was far more obvious than the last one, with yellow paint marking the correct ones along with writing that said: ‘Please press this switch.’

“Why do I feel like I’m being insulted?” wondered the girl as she and Joel pressed them to clear the way forward.

“Maybe it’s to—hhh—keep out the mad monsters? They wouldn’t be able to read the instructions,” suggested the toothed boy, which made Sophie bring her hand to her chin in an exaggerated thoughtful gesture.

“That makes sense. Then all the puzzles will be easy!” she said with a smile as they all entered the next room, where they simply found a mannequin that the rat child immediately began biting over and over again.

In the following room, however, they found a path filled with spikes, flanked by water on both sides, and no switch in sight.

The rat was about to jump into the water before Sophie held it back taking it. “Wait, little one! We don’t know what’s in the water.”

They retraced their steps and found a sign explaining what they had to do, yet a problem remained. “One wrong step and—hhh—our feet could end up like cheese!” exclaimed Joel, seeing that this time it really was dangerous.

“We can’t just stay here either, or that flower might attack us again...” The girl pondered what to do. On one hand, they could risk crossing the water, hoping to find nothing there—but that was complicated now that both she and Joel were injured, their blood possibly attracting any creature, and they had no means to defend themselves. On the other hand, if they tried the spikes and one of them slipped, they might not be able to walk or fight for a long while, leaving them all dangerously exposed.

Before she could decide, a voice came from the other side of the path. “Oh! Greetings, my child. Are you having trouble solving this puzzle?” The girl looked up to see who was speaking. A goat woman stood at the exit. “This puzzle is dangerous, but don’t be afraid, I’m going to help you.” She began walking across the false spikes, which simply sank into the floor; from her movements, it seemed she knew the path by heart.

“Hmm... She looks very friendly,” Sophie commented to Joel, her face still carrying a suspicious expression. The boy only nodded.

“I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins,” said the goat woman once she stood before them, her face carrying a motherly expression. “If you’ve made it this far, then I suppose your friends who accompany you have already explained the basics about how this place and its puzzles work.”

“We figured out what the puzzles are for, yes...” replied the girl, taken aback by the look the goat woman gave her. That gaze was so similar to the one her mother used to give her before...

“Splendid. In that case, I’ll guide you through the rest of the ruins.” Toriel extended her hand toward Sophie. With some hesitation, she took it. The woman then extended her free hand to Joel, and the baby rat climbed onto her shoulder.

Sophie still felt a certain distrust toward the goat lady, but she couldn’t stay in that room forever either.

///

Toriel did not remember ever seeing the two monster children who accompanied the human before, but she was glad it was them she had found first and not other hostile monsters who might try to hurt her. Although it was a shame that the lesson she had prepared to teach humans—how to become independent—wouldn’t work if her friends stayed by her side, it was still better to have friends.

“Where do you two come from?” she asked the tooth boy and the rat child on his shoulder.

“From Montreal,” the boy replied, while the rat let out a confirming squeak.

Montreal? She had never heard of such a place in the Underground. Probably some new settlement created after she had exiled herself.

Meanwhile, the girl watched the monsters wandering through the ruins, staring at her. Surely some of them wanted to attack, but they wouldn’t dare while Toriel was nearby. Perhaps they wouldn’t even try if those two children remained at her side.

“Is it just me, or are all the monsters staring at me?” the human asked, feeling somewhat uncomfortable at being watched by everyone.

“You are the first human to fall here in a very long time, my child. They are only curious, but I am certain that NO ONE will try to hurt you.” Toriel gave the other monsters a serious look, which made them quickly retreat. For a moment, the girl’s expression shifted into one of inner conflict.

“So most of the people here are monsters?” the girl asked, before realizing something. “Ah! I forgot to introduce us! I’m Sophie, this is Joel, and this is the baby!” she said, now carrying the rat in her arms.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sophie, Joel, little one,” Toriel said with a nod. “Indeed, this kingdom is the kingdom of monsters.”

“Then you’re the Queen?” Joel asked, surprising Toriel a little, since she hadn’t expected someone so young to recognize her. “That’s why those monsters are—hhh—afraid of you.”

“That boy figured it out,” she told herself, reflecting on what to say. “Perhaps I should be honest with her from the beginning, before she has any thought of leaving the ruins...”

“I was the queen. But when my ex-husband, King Asgore, declared that any human who falls into the Underground must be killed, I decided to leave and live here in the ruins,” the caretaker answered, watching the girl closely to see if she reacted with fear or shock. To her surprise, she didn’t seem very taken aback by it.

“More than Asgore, he should be called Asshole.” That was all Sophie said, more as an annoyance than with any real understanding of the danger she was in.

“And that’s why that flower attacked us!” Joel exclaimed indignantly; in fact, he seemed more upset about the situation than she did.

“Poor child... Even though he knew about the king’s decree, only now has he realized what it truly means. I wonder if the same situation happened with the friends of the other human children,” Toriel reflected.

“Sophie, language,” she said, gently but firmly scolding her.

“Sorry,” the girl replied, not really meaning it.

///

Soon they arrived at Toriel’s house. The goat lady walked ahead, looking back at them with that maternal face that made Sophie lower her guard.

“Well, she told us that outside the ruins there’s someone who loves killing non-mutants, so she can’t be bad. Besides, she had the chance to ambush us with all those monsters watching us, and instead she drove them all away...” That was the reasoning Sophie gave herself to justify why she trusted her so quickly—just because she resembled her mother. A kind and caring woman, who was more than capable of kicking anyone’s butt.

“Well then, I thought we could celebrate your arrival to the Underground with a butterscoch and cinnamon pie. How does that sound?” asked Toriel, while Joel seemed happy, raising one arm in celebration.

“Yes! It’s been ages since—hhh—I last ate pie!”

“Great! I’m sick of eating so many hard candies,” said the girl with a tricky smile as she glanced at Joel, who immediately looked indignant.

“Hey! You said you lost them when that moose in—hhh—the taxidermist’s room ate them!”

Sophie just stuck out her tongue, then ran off and climbed the tree in front of Toriel’s house, with Joel chasing after her.

“Hey, Joel,” said the girl as she lay back on a branch, noticing Toriel had already gone inside to make the pie.

“What?” he asked, offended, still upset about being tricked.

“Sam... he’s surely looking for a way down,” she said, hiding her pain as best as she could by lying. “And if we go looking for the exit out of the ruins ourselves, we’ll have to fight a bunch of monsters who’ll want to kill me, so... maybe we could ask Toriel to let us stay with her while we wait for Sam.” She stared at the rocky ceiling, unable to look directly at Joel or the rat child.

“Hhh... Toriel is kind, and she could have attacked us earlier...” he said, taking a moment to think before nodding. “Yes, I think we can wait at her house.”

“Great! Now go and help Miss Toriel with something,” she said, wanting to be alone for a while. “You wouldn’t want to forget Papineau’s lessons. Find what would be our room and clean it.”

“Custodial arts aren’t meant to satisfy you! -Hhh- They’re a very serious discipline to fight against entropy passed down from generation to generat—Ah!” The rat child leapt at him from the tree with a squeak.

“Oh, and the baby needs a wash, he stinks,” Sophie continued, before pulling out a Chocky bar and tossing it to Joel. That surprised him.

“Oh. Th-thanks for—” But the rat child snatched the chocolate bar from his hands and ran toward the house with it. “H-hey! Wait!” The toothed boy chased after him.

Now alone, her calm and cheerful expression vanished completely, replaced by exhaustion, as if she had just thrown off a massive burden from her shoulders. She was almost certain that if she had been standing and not lying down, her legs would have given out the moment she tried to act normal and pretend everything was fine.

She was about to cry, to let go of everything she hadn’t been able to cry out until now. But in front of her, white moths began to flutter.

No, not just in front—around her, surrounding her. A great swarm of white moths blocked part of her vision. Soon, other white insects that looked like flies broke through the swarm, striking her with the force of marbles being shot at her.

She immediately stood up to see who was attacking her, when she noticed an orange glow shining from her chest. “The flower again?!”

Soon, black orbs pierced through the swarm, hitting her. She couldn’t dodge while on the branch, so she fell to the ground. The pain she felt was strange—though the blows didn’t seem to harm her body much, the pain in her chest, precisely where the orange glow came from, grew sharper with every strike.

“U-ugh...!” She looked up, expecting to see the flower. To her surprise, it wasn’t Flowey, but three different monsters.

One of them was a kind of ghostly flying moth, its face showing both sadness and terror. Another was a small monster, basically an eye with tiny legs, teeth, and horns, and on top of it sat what looked like a cockroach, laughing.

“Hahaha! I knew waiting until she was alone would work!” said the cockroach.

“This is a terrible idea...” said the moth, looking terrified. “If Toriel f-finds out, we—”

“She won’t be able to do anything if we bring the human soul to Asgore,” the eye interrupted the moth as it blinked.

Sophie reached for where her slingshot should be, but there was nothing. Looking back at the tree, she saw it hanging from a branch.

“Oh damn,” she muttered, realizing she was outnumbered three to one.

“YOU FILTHY SINGLE-MINDED! We’ll take your soul and finally be free!”

“I-I’m sorry! They forced me!” said the moth again.

“Silence! Here she comes!” said the eye, while Sophie pulled out a scalpel she had hidden in her shoe and lunged at them.

“HA! YOU CAN’T BEAT US! WE ARE LEGION!” the cockroach shouted, conjuring magic to summon multiple cockroaches that swarmed around Sophie, preventing her from dodging to the sides. The eye, meanwhile, summoned more dark orbs and hurled them at the girl, striking her.

But Sophie kept going. Though the pain in her chest grew worse, it was nothing compared to what she had lived through in that apartment. She had been bitten by giant rats, burned by acid, electrocuted in a falling elevator, poisoned by hallucinogenic mushrooms, and sickened from eating mutant pizza—and she had kept fighting. This was nothing.

A clean slash with the scalpel across the eye was more than enough. She expected blood or other fluids, as when she had cut the eyeballs of other monstrosities, but instead that one-eyed monster simply turned to dust before her.

The cockroach fell onto the pile of dust in shock, unsure how to react. By the time it came to its senses to say something, the human’s shoe was already pressing down on it.

Once again, she expected something slimy beneath her sole, but instead it felt like stepping on a heap of dust that scattered everywhere.

The moth was now hyperventilating, collapsing onto the ground, trembling in complete shock. When it saw the human’s hand reaching out toward it, it shut its eyes, bracing for the worst, wishing it would be quick.

Instead, the monster felt those hands carefully lifting it up.

“Easy. You said those guys forced you, right?” Sophie spoke gently. When the moth opened its eyes, it saw her smiling as if nothing had happened, as if killing them had been nothing more than a trivial matter.

Which only terrified it even more.

“I have a few questions,” the human continued. “What is this orange heart? I thought it was just the flower’s gimmick, like how some monsters sometimes have their own, but it looks like you guys can do it too. And also, why did those two turn into dust?”

Chapter Text

“Wait, what do you mean that monsters are made of magic?” Sophie asked, confused, while still holding Whimsun in her hands.

“I-it’s the truth. When we die, our body turns into dust and our soul disappears forever,” explained the moth monster, afraid of angering the human.

“Hmm nope!” she said, still looking confused. “Some of them do dissolve, but most don’t. Anyway, what’s that about that orange heart being my soul?”

“That’s a h-human soul,” the monster quickly replied. “U-unlike a monster’s soul, a human soul remains after death, so a monster can try to… absorb it. That’s what A-asgore wants.”

“Oh, it’s like a kind of merger?” she said, remembering how some monsters that Sam and she had faced could assimilate their victims and turn them into an extension of themselves.

“You’re not going to try to attack me again, right?” Sophie asked, and Whimsun quickly shook his head, signaling that he wouldn’t do it again. “Oki,” she said as she let him go, and he quickly fled.

She stayed behind, thinking for a while about this new information. If this Asgore had already had several humans to merge with, then by now he might be a very powerful monster—too powerful for them to fight alone without the help of an adult like Sam, Hellen, Papineau, or the others.

She climbed back up the tree to retrieve her slingshot, brushed the dust off herself, and went inside the house.

///

Joel was cleaning the whole house. Even though it looked tidy, Joel could easily find spots where his presence was needed.

“You don’t have to do this, my child, you can rest while I prepare the pie,” said Toriel as she put the pie in the oven, feeling a little embarrassed to see the boy in his apron pulling white fur out of the dishwasher.

“Of course it’s –hhh– necessary! Without Papineau it’s my responsibility to fight against the forces of chaos and entropy,” Joel replied energetically.

“Umm, what?”

“As an apprentice of the custodial arts, it is my duty to take care of civilization! It’s my duty to preserve what our forefathers left us, –hhh– to clean, repair, and maintain. Someone has to keep the forces of chaos at bay, or entropy will consume us all in these difficult and hopeless times.” He said it so seriously that it ended up sounding funny, and Toriel covered her snout with one hand to let out a small giggle.

“That’s a very noble thought, little one. It’s good to keep hope alive by doing these things.” The goat lady sighed, remembering those days when she used to wait for some human child to arrive, barely taking care of herself and collapsing more than once.

After finishing with the dishwasher, the boy picked up the rat child, placed him inside, and turned on the water to bathe him, while the little one just squeaked.

“Do you have family waiting for you at home?” she asked curiously as she lit the oven with her magic fire.

“!!!” Joel seemed shaken by that question, pausing for a moment before continuing to wash the baby, who looked back at him with what seemed like concern. “Maybe? It’s… hhh… complicated. It wasn’t safe to stay with them.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Joel.” Toriel felt bad for asking. “Why else would a child like you wander so deep into the ruins?” She thought.

“It’s okay, I have Sophie, the baby… and Sam, who’s looking for us.” He said, lifting the baby with both hands as it squeaked happily and waved its tiny arms at the mention of Sam’s name.

“Sam is your caretaker?” she asked, noticing how the topic cheered him up.

Joel nodded energetically. “Yes! And he’s really strong! He can beat monsters many times bigger than him with –hhh– just one hand! W-well, he only has one arm after all, he lost one saving the baby.”

“Sam sam!” the rat child repeated happily.

Toriel hadn’t expected that part, but she smiled, glad to know Sam was a good person. “I see. In that case, I would love to meet him.”

“Of course! Before we got lost, we were, well, moving. Maybe we can stay around here if we find a good place.” Joel said, something that made Toriel quite happy.

“That would be wonderful! In Old Home there are still some houses that are habitable,” she suggested. “If her friends stay in the ruins, then Sophie won’t have to leave." That was her reasoning. "And you won’t have to worry about food either. Snails are plentiful, and the vegetoids can give us vegetables almost daily. Snowdin isn’t too far either, so you can visit from time to time to buy supplies, and if you’re not afraid of spiders, you can stop by their bake sale.”

“That last one won’t be a –hhh– problem, Sam made friends with a bunch of cockroaches.” Joel said as he started drying off the rat child.

“Umm… That’s… good?” she replied, rather puzzled by what he said, before changing the subject. “And I’m glad to know you’re friends with Sophie, is good she counts on you in this place.”

The boy nodded, though Toriel soon noticed he looked a bit insecure. “Yes, but… I think she’s still mad at me. She keeps teasing me with jokes and –hhh– stealing my candy.”

“Oh, by any chance, could it be because maybe you attacked her when you first met?” she asked curiously. It wouldn’t be surprising if that had happened. And even if that is true, teasing is something normal between kids.

“No, I-I mean, that did happen but…” Before he could continue, Sophie walked into the kitchen. The goat woman noticed her clothes were dirtier than when she had first arrived, and she looked a little roughed up.

“Sophie! What happened!”

“Oh, some assss—” One look from Toriel made the human reconsider swearing again. “—ailants threw me off the tree. I took care of them.”

“Hmph! Later I’ll make sure to find them so they can apologize,” Toriel said in an annoyed tone, while Sophie simply looked away as if trying to cover up a prank. “The pie isn’t ready yet. If you like, you can take a nap.”

“Actually, I’d like to take a shower,” the human said.

“Of course, I’ll prepare some clothes for you and heat up the water.”

///

When Toriel went to prepare Sophie’s bath, Joel happily came up to her. “Sophie! Miss Toriel said we can stay in the ruins! When Sam comes back, we can take one of the abandoned houses and –hhh– live here!”

“That’s… That’s perfect!” she said with a radiant expression upon hearing the news. “The monsters in these ruins aren’t very strong, except for that flower. We can handle ourselves even alone if they decide to be idiots and attack us.”

“Ah, that’s right, they attacked you! Are you okay?” he asked, now sounding worried.

“I’m fine! It seems like the stronger monsters are further inside the mountain, and that Asgore guy seems to be one who can merge with his victims to become more powerful.”

“Like the garbage worm that turned Papineau’s friend into its tongue?”

“Or the police car that merged with the officer and his dogs. But it could also be that this Asgore is intelligent like Leigh,” she explained, pointing out how dangerous that monster king could be.

“Hhh… Yeah, it’s a bad idea to explore outside the ruins without Sam,” Joel replied, which helped Sophie relax.

Toriel soon returned. “The bath is ready, Sophie,” she said with a maternal expression. She then turned to Joel and the baby. “You two will need something as well.”

“Well, the baby’s going to have to take his nap,” Joel said, while the rat child squeaked in confusion, looking up at the boy holding him. If Joel still had a face, he’d be smiling right then—a small revenge for the chocky bar Sophie had given him earlier, which the baby had stolen.

“Of course, follow me. I’ll show you where all the rooms are,” the goat woman said as she guided them to the bedrooms and the bathroom. Sophie went into the bathroom and noticed that Toriel had prepared a change of clothes: a green and yellow striped sweater and a pair of brown pants.

Before stepping into the shower, Sophie felt the urge to wash her face. In the mirror’s reflection, she saw the happy and carefree expression she had worn almost all day. But when she splashed water on her face and looked again, she was met with an expression of exhaustion and defeat.

“This is the face of a liar,” she told herself, placing her hand against the mirror and touching its cold surface.

“Why did you lie to them? They needed to cry for Sam. We needed to be crying for him together.”

Her hand fell from the mirror and went to her head.

“It was to protect Joel… Another lie. His family left, he and you were in the same situation, but you still lied to him.”

Staring at herself with fury. “Why did you lie?” she repeated to herself as the water kept filling the sink.

“You were afraid Joel would lose his mind again, like when Sam and you found him, isn’t that right? When his teeth consumed his last eye… Yes, you were afraid he’d go insane like her… and that you’d have to kill him.”

She pressed both hands to her face, shaking her head. “Don’t be stupid, you beating Joel? Don’t be an idiot, admit you’re a coward and that you were afraid of him!”

Now Sophie avoided the mirror completely, watching the sink fill with water.

“Beating Joel, what a joke. You’ve seen him devour huge monsters, toxic ones, made of both flesh and metal. You’ve seen him devour—”

Her hands, whether by choice or muscle memory, scooped up the water that had filled the sink and splashed it over her face, cutting short this self-imposed punishment. Looking at herself again in the mirror, water and tears streamed down her face.

“The three of us are… the only thing Sam left behind… and the only thing we have left.”

She whispered before turning off the tap and stepping into the shower. It seemed that, even outside the apartment, they had been lucky enough that hot water was still available.

Chapter Text

Sophie came out of the shower already in her change of clothes, heading to the room the goat lady had given them. When she entered, she saw Joel and the rat child sleeping together—it looked like the tooth kid had fallen asleep while trying to get the rat to lie down.

The girl simply smiled before leaving quietly to let them rest, heading to the living room where she found Toriel reading a book in front of the fireplace while the pie baked.

“Hello there, little one. Aren’t you going to rest with your friends?” Toriel asked with a kind smile.

“Nah, that shower was exactly what I needed.” She pulled up a chair to sit by the fire and get comfortable. “So… how long have you all been living inside the mountain?” she asked curiously. Though the place was ruins, there was so much here that it couldn’t possibly have been built all at once when the visitor came.

“Oh, I’m afraid I don’t know, my child. At the beginning it was very hard to keep track of time without being able to see the sun or the stars,” Toriel explained.

Sophie nodded, then stared into the fire, losing herself a little in the way the wood slowly burned away. She wanted to ask more, but she didn’t want to sound inconsiderate—there was a high chance Toriel had lost loved ones during this time.

Noticing that the human didn’t know how to continue the conversation, Toriel took the lead. “Um, I want you to know how happy I am to have someone here. There are so many books I’d love to share.”

Sophie gave her a worried look. “Please tell me you’re not going to make me do homeschooling.”

“Of course I am, young lady,” Toriel replied, stifling a little laugh. “I already have a curriculum prepared for your education.”

“Ugh! And here I thought I’d never have to go back to school ever again.” She pouted, crossing her arms. “Joel would probably be happy to hear this.”

“Starting a school—what a wonderful idea! With your friends, you could begin one right here. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.” Toriel winked.

“Fine… But I’ll warn you, I’m not the most… well-behaved in class.” Sophie answered with a defiant grin. “I wasn’t the teachers’ nightmare for nothing.”

“Oh, it’s not the first time I’ve dealt with troublesome children,” Toriel answered with a smile, accepting the challenge.

Soon both of them were laughing, the goat lady elegantly covering her muzzle while the girl laughed louder, holding her stomach.

“Ha… Yeah, a school’s a good idea. Besides, from what Joel told me about his caretaker Sam, maybe he could help me in case more humans fall into the underground.” As she said that, she noticed Sophie tense up, looking uncomfortable. “Is something wrong?”

The human glanced back to make sure no one was listening. “I… I don’t think anyone else is coming here.”

Even with the fire in the hearth, the air in the room seemed to drop several degrees. Toriel could hear the fear in her voice, which told her the girl was telling the truth. “What do you mean, Sophie?”

“When the visitor left our world, it left behind a creature that… that made most of the survivors disappear. There was nothing we could do to stop it, all that remains are their clothes, and this p-place might be one of the last safe places in the whole world.” She pulled her legs up onto the chair, clutching her head as she began to tremble, images from that moment flashing back in her mind. “I can still hear those screams from the sky, its multicolored eyes watching us. All we could do was run, hide, and pray it wouldn’t find us… but it did!”

“Sophie!” Even though Toriel didn’t fully understand what had happened, she could tell something very terrible had taken place on the surface. She placed herself beside Sophie to comfort her. Seeing her, Sophie lunged forward, hugging her tightly, burying her face in Toriel’s soft fur, and crying. “Calm down, my child, you’re safe here. This place is safe from whatever is out there.”

“Sniff… Sam won’t come… He… he sacrificed himself so we could escape.” She slowly pulled away from the hug, wiping her tears.

It took Toriel a few moments to register this since she had been focused on consoling Sophie, but once the girl calmed down and was sipping a cup of hot chocolate, she asked, “Wasn’t Sam Joel’s caretaker? How could you have known him before falling down here?”

“Hm? I came here with Joel. Why do you think he’s from here?” Sophie replied, leaving Toriel visibly confused.

“Um, well, Joel is a monster. He couldn’t have crossed the barrier, unless he had…” Toriel shook her head, dismissing the thought. There was no way Joel could have killed one of the human children, escaped, and then returned. She knew that since Chara, only six humans had fallen, and those six souls were safeguarded by Asgore.

“He wasn’t always a monster, he was my classmate until the visitor came. He didn’t look outside, but his little sister did—she bit his face and baby teeth started sprouting all over his face and chest.” Sophie explained as if it were nothing. “Why did you think he was from your, um, kingdom?”

“…” Toriel didn’t know how to react to this information. Joel had been human? How could that be possible? She wanted to know what all this meant, and after a few seconds of shock, she asked again, “You mentioned a visitor… What do you mean by that?”

“Eh? You know, the visitor—that thing from space. If you looked outside, it turned you into a monster and drove you crazy. You must’ve looked outside to become a monster.” Sophie answered, which only confused Toriel even more.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding… The monsters of the underground haven’t seen the light of the sun in centuries, and we were definitely not humans in the past.”

Sophie stopped drinking her chocolate, staring at her wide-eyed in complete shock. “What do you mean you weren’t human before?”

“We are a different species than you,” Toriel said, extending her hand to conjure a small magical flame. “Our bodies, unlike humans’, are made of magic, which we can shape at will.”

Sophie watched the flame in the goat lady’s hand with a mix of awe and wonder. “So… you’re the monsters from the old fairy tales?”

She nodded with a sweet smile. Just then, a timer rang from the oven, signaling that the pie was ready.

“I’ll have to set the pie to cool. Excuse me, my child,” she said, standing up and heading to the kitchen.

“O-okay, I’ll be in the front yard,” Sophie said, quickly finishing her chocolate before heading outside. “I’ll have to find that moth again, or some other monster, to explain a few things to me.”

As she walked, she replayed the information in her head. “Let’s see, so Asgore isn’t a mutant who merges with his victims, but a fairy-tale monster who seeks human souls to…”

It didn’t take long to find one—face-to-face with a frog that suddenly leapt at her, hurting her a little and making her orange soul appear again.

But Sophie didn’t draw her weapons or prepare to fight. Instead, her eyes lit up as she saw the frog monster. Without saying a word, she lunged forward, grabbing it with both hands and lifting it into the air. “Frog!”

“RIBBIT?!” the monster frog exclaimed, completely shocked.

“Oh my gosh, you’re the coolest and CUTEST frog I’ve ever seen! Just like in that video game!… At least before it got gross, but still!” The frog looked overwhelmed but seemed to understand it was being complimented, so it stopped trying to fight. “Can you talk? Do you have a name?”

“Ribbit. (Yes, I can talk, and my name is Froggit. C-could you put me down now?)” said the frog in frog-speech, though somehow Sophie could understand.

“O-oh, sure, sorry.” She carefully set it on the ground. “Okay, straight to business. I have some questions about Asgore.”

“(Um, couldn’t you just ask Toriel that?)” Froggit replied, a little nervous about talking about the king.

“My mom always got upset when someone asked about dad after they separated, and I don’t want to risk it being the same with Toriel,” she said immediately.

“(Yeah… That wouldn’t be a good idea),” Froggit croaked. “(I’m just a Froggit who lives in the ruins, I might not have all the answers.)”

“Don’t worry, if I’m not satisfied with your answers, then I’ll just keep you as a pet in Toriel’s house,” she said with a smile the frog couldn’t tell was a joke or not. “Why does Asgore want to collect human souls?”

“(Humans sealed us here, so it takes seven human souls to break the barrier and return to the surface. Asgore has six so far.)”

“Barrier? Toriel mentioned a barrier but I didn’t ask. How did you all end up down here?”

“(Long ago, two races ruled the earth: humans and monsters. In short, there was a war, and the humans won, trapping the monsters in this mountain.)” Froggit explained briefly.

“Why was there a war?”

“(Because monsters, being made of magic and weak souls, are much weaker than humans. But if a monster were to gain a human soul, they could become a being of immense power. Humans feared that potential and declared war on monsterkind, driving us nearly to extinction and sealing us here with a spell.)”

Sophie listened intently to the story. She couldn’t help but notice the irony that thanks to that war, monsters had been spared from becoming victims of the visitor and that thing still roaming the skies. Monsterkind survived down here, while humankind was on the edge of extinction. “So then, the king absorbed the human souls and became invincible?”

“(No. While King Asgore is the strongest monster, from what I heard from the spiders, the king is keeping the souls stored until he has all seven. Once he has them all, he’ll use them to destroy the barrier and wage one final war to wipe out humanity.)”

“If there’s even any humanity left,” the girl muttered, thinking of everything she’d been told. Then something clicked in her head, an idea that hit her like a bus. “… Just how strong does a monster get with a human soul?” she asked with such seriousness that it made Froggit shiver.

“(W-well… a monster could become nearly indestructible. I’m sure if a monster with a human soul wanted to fight, they’d be unbeatable…)”

“I see… and… what if a monster absorbed six?” Sophie asked again. This time, Froggit trembled as he looked at her, though she didn’t know why.

“(I-it’s said that with seven souls, a monster could b-become a god… If someone absorbed six, they’d be close to divinity…)”

“So, a god, huh?… Thanks, Froggit, you’ve helped me a lot.” The girl turned back toward Toriel’s house while the monster frog hopped away in the opposite direction.

Sophie didn’t realize it, but at that moment she had a wide, uncontrollable grin from ear to ear—the kind she only wore when she was about to pull off one of her biggest pranks. Except behind that smile, there wasn’t the joy and anticipation of an innocent, carefully planned prank.

Chapter Text

“M-mmgh. I fell asleep.” Joel told himself as he woke up slowly, seeing the rat child beside him sleeping peacefully. The tooth-child stroked his head and then turned to the backpack Sophie had packed. “Well, she’d given me a Chocky Bar so…” Joel soon reached into the backpack to pull out a bar. But he quickly noticed something at the bottom. It looked like a small envelope wrapping some kind of paper. Just as he was about to grab it to see what it was, the door to the room flew open and Sophie appeared, looking very angry.

“You’re stealing my chocolate!” she said in an accusatory tone, pointing at him exaggeratedly.

“Y-you always steal –hhh– my food!” protested the tooth-child, hiding the bar behind him.

“If you’re with an adult then it’s called sharing! Not cool, Joel,” Sophie replied defensively, then changed the subject. “Anyway, change of plans, we’re leaving the ruins and going further into this place.”

“What?! B-but staying was your idea.” The child was confused by the sudden change.

“I’ll tell you everything when we go talk to Toriel. Now wake up the baby.” Sophie snatched the backpack to check it, sighing with relief that the envelope was still there and closed. “Damn, why did I bring this with me?” the girl wondered as she remembered an incident in that apartment.

“N-no! I’m not going to give you another photo of all the p-people!” Sophie remembered how that man, completely covered by a black blanket with multiple legs, began to scold her after she had given him one of Sam’s discs.

“Please, Lyle!... If you don’t, I’ll tell Sam you’ve been taking pictures of him asleep.” she said with a villainous smile.

“W-what?! I-I didn’t... H-how do you know?!”

“A few days ago I saw you climbing the apartment building from the outside to take pictures of Sam through the window,” he answered in a slightly mocking tone. She didn’t know it was Sam’s apartment, but it was just simple 2+2 when Lyle had asked her for a kiss on two different occasions.

“N-no! I won’t be blackmailed by a child! Sam won’t believe you, he knows you love getting into trouble so he’ll just think it’s another one of your jokes.”

“Maybe... Fine, don’t do it. But in that case I won’t tell you anything about your... competitors?” he said in a slightly lower voice, as if about to gossip.

“C-competitors?” Now she had Lyle’s attention. “What do you mean by c-competitors?!”

“You know, you’re not the only one after Sam. There are people who give him roses and other things every day and there’s even someone who sleeps with him every night.” Well, that last one was because Sam’s third suitor is a being that lives in another plane of the apartment’s reality and is invisible.

“G-ggh... Fine! You win! I’ll take the photo but... why do you want something like this anyway?”

That’s what Lyle asked and she couldn’t answer. The visitor had simply left after causing so much suffering and had left behind a beast that would finish the job and no one knows why.

Luckily Sam didn’t take her to perform the ritual to try to communicate with the visitor, something she could understand perfectly. She couldn’t do anything to help him and she knew it, but that didn’t stop a prick of helplessness from lodging itself inside her and making her wonder what would have happened if she had gone up to the rooftop. Would she have become a monster like the four astronomers? Most likely she would have died, but another part of her wondered if maybe she could have been able to communicate with the being that had caused so much suffering and ask it why.

However, with the visitor gone from this world there was no way to commune with him.

With the baby rat already awake and ready to leave the room, they heard footsteps quickly receding — it seemed Toriel had been listening to their little conversation.

“I think we’ll have to talk to her about privacy too,” the human said with a slight smile, and Joel chuckled.

They soon noticed she was going down toward what looked like the basement, so they went down as well. Instead they found a long, poorly lit tunnel that stretched on and on.

“This place is scary...” Joel commented while the rat child made some skittish noise.

“Please, let it not be like with Phillipe, please,” she told herself as they began to move forward.

They continued walking until they came upon a door. In front of that door stood Toriel, facing away from the children. The children approached slowly and on alert.

“Ms. Toriel... Is something wrong?” Joel asked worriedly.

“Here lies the end of the ruins, the only access to the rest of the underworld... I’m going to destroy it so no one can leave again,” the goat-woman replied ominously.

“What?! Why?!” Sophie asked, taked by surprise.

“I’ve seen how every human who falls here meets the same fate. They arrive, they leave, and they die...” The pain in her voice was noticeable as she said this. “My naive children, if you leave the ruins then they... Asgore... will kill you. I cannot allow that to happen, even if there are no humankind up there I cannot allow Asgore’s plan to succeed and destroy the barrier and... that thing you escape find us.” With a heavy tone, she turned to the children pleadingly. “Do you understand? Please go back upstairs.”

The tension eased knowing that she was only trying to protect them, but Sophie stepped forward. “I know it’s dangerous but can you hear me?”

Toriel seemed to consider it for a moment. “Alright, Sophie. You yourself told me there was no longer any reason to return to the surface, so I don’t know why you’d want to leave the ruins.” The other children who wanted to leave the ruins intended to go back home, but in this case that wasn’t true, so Toriel didn’t understand why suddenly the girl wanted to risk going into the underground.

“Thanks! Okay, my plan is that you come with us to steal Asgore’s human souls and you absorb them,” she said with a smile.

“...What?” Toriel was surprised and confused. Whatever answer she expected, it wasn’t that.

“Monsters who absorb a human soul become much stronger, right? So if you absorb the six souls that Asgore has, you’ll be able to cross that barrier and kick that biblical-accurate angel’s butt, and since that beast used to be human you’d absorb its souls to break the barrier! Not only would monsters be free, you’d also save what remains of the world!” Sophie explained her plan proudly while the others looked at her in surprise.

“Wait, what do you mean by –hhh– absorbing souls?” Joel asked.

“Oh right, you were asleep. The monsters of this place aren’t monsters because of the visitor; they’re the monsters from fairy tales who were trapped in this mountain by humans of the past because those humans could absorb their souls.” she explained quickly.

“What?!” The tooth-child exclaimed, but then an idea occurred to him. “So if Sam keeps fighting that thing we can –hhh– help him.”

“E-exactly!” Sophie agreed, smiling at Joel and then turning to Toriel. “Please! We need your help!” Now her look was pleading.

“Sophie, what you propose is very dangerous. It’s a long journey and it’ll probably be full of monsters trying to hurt you,” Toriel said, though she couldn’t help but see the merit in the idea, even if it was born of desperation.

“Joel and the baby can easily pass as monsters and you are the queen! Maybe if I wear a hood or some hat no one would recognize me if I’m surrounded by you,” argued Sophie.

Toriel, for her part, was considering what to do. On one hand she was terrified something might happen to them and wanted to prevent their departure; on the other, they asked her to stay with them and accompany them.

One of the reasons she didn’t want the human children to leave in an attempt to go home was because they would have to kill Asgore to get out, forcing them to take a life. However they didn’t want to leave; they wanted her to be the one to go out and deal with the being that tormented them, to be the one who saved the day... Sophie wanted to stay with her in the end and Joel did too, though he seemed to hold onto hope that his caregiver would return — something that, if Toriel refused to help, might cause him to harbor resentment.

“...Alright Sophie. I’ll go with you, I’ll protect you from Asgore and I will defeat that being that dared to hurt you,” she said firmly and determinedly.

“Yes!” Sophie, Joel, and the rat all jumped in celebration.

“Oh, I almost forgot the pie!” The goat-woman suddenly realized she’d left it to cool. “The trip will be a bit long so it’s best if I take it to eat on the way. Wait for me a moment,” she said with a maternal smile and began to walk rather hurriedly back toward her house.

“Sophie, you’re –hhh– a genius! We’ll be able to help Sam defeat that thing.” Joel looked excited, very much so.

“Of course! Everything will turn out fine in the end, I promise,” she said with a big smile, then realized something. “The backpacks! We left them in the room. I’ll be right back!” she said, running quickly toward Toriel’s house, going up the stairs and entering the room to grab the three backpacks in her hands, but before she could go back down she noticed the pie was still on the table.

“Toriel was supposed to come get it,” she thought as she approached the table; when she reached it her foot stepped on a large mound of dust. “How strange, this place wasn’t this dusty before and surely Joel wouldn’t have let it—”

It only took her a few moments to realize that it wasn’t dirt dust. Immediately she brought her hand to where her slingshot was, but some vines had trapped her arm. When Sophie tried to use her free hand to pull them off she felt a sharp burning pain in her abdomen cutting from back to front, and soon she felt hot liquid begin to pour from there. Lowering her head she saw a sharp vine like a giant needle piercing through the left side of her abdomen just below the kidney; the next moment her orange soul became visible.

“A-aggh...” She tried to scream but felt the air leave her; instead she let out a choked squeal as she watched her blood begin to flow more heavily as the stingeer vine was removed.

“Howdy.” She heard a voice behind her that she recognized immediately. Turning her head slightly she could see that golden flower again. “Don’t worry, I didn’t hit any vitals, we don’t want this to end too soon,” he said with a mocking expression.

Little by little Sophie began to catch her breath, looking at the flower with hatred. “W-why you—”

“Why I killed Toriel?” he interrupted the question, finishing it. “It’s simple. If she had accompanied them and petitioned Asgore for the souls he would have handed them over peacefully and... that would have ruined my plans! I couldn’t allow her to accompany them for anything in the world... Besides... She had the audacity to give you them clothes.”

As he said that the human felt the vines that had trapped her arm begin to grow thorns that pierced her skin and tore the green sweater with yellow stripes Toriel had given her. Blood began to run from her arm. “A-aggh! Y-you’re going to—”

“Pay for this?” he interrupted rudely, watching the expression of pain on the human’s face with joy.

“No... You’re going to die for this.” Correcting the flower, Sophie used her free hand to grab her scalpel and cut the vines that held her in a single motion, which broke the scalpel in the process but left her free.

“Ha! Are you so angry because I want to kill you or because I killed your new mommy?” Flowey continued to taunt the human. “Don’t think I didn’t see how efficiently you killed Loox and Migosp. Do you think they didn’t have families? That they were less than Toriel just because you grew attached to her?” He taunted her, attacking her morality just to mess with her.

Sophie breathed a little raggedly and then gave a mocking grin. “I only care about those I care about.” She took a marble to place in her slingshot, which she still held firmly despite bleeding. “The rest can die if they are in my way.”

“So close and yet so far from the truth of this world.” Multiple brambles of different sizes began to sprout around Flowey, preparing to fight. “No one matters but oneself, because in this world IT’S KILL OR BE KILLED!”

Chapter Text

Flowey shielded himself from the impact of a marble using one of his larger vines. He already knew that the human girl could cause him serious harm if he wasn’t careful.
“Pathetic! And here I thought this would be interesting.” The flower sought to undermine Sophie’s will as he created a few bullets and fired them toward her.

Sophie dodged the bullets by moving to the side and fired her slingshot again, though the projectile was once more blocked by the flower. Blood kept flowing from her side. Normally, he would have attacked her soul directly, but this human, already showing a high level of violence, would require some work to weaken her determination and break her will to fight.

Flowey soon used his magic to summon a whirlwind of petals flying around the girl. Somehow, she could sense the flower’s intentions and immediately used her arms to shield her abdomen, raising her shoulders a bit to keep her neck less exposed. Petals flew at the girl from behind, then from the sides, and finally from the front, slashing Sophie’s skin.

Her arms, legs, back, and even one of her cheeks suffered small cuts. Flowey also made sure one of his petals sliced through the elastic of her slingshot.
“Come on, what happened to that whole ‘I’m gonna kill you’ thing?” the flower taunted with a mocking grin, sending out a large vine to strike Sophie hard, knocking her out of the petal storm. “You’re such a disappointment.”

And he meant it. Seeing her and her group’s high LV, he’d thought they would wipe out any monster in the ruins, that he could use them to steal the remaining human souls. The disappointment he felt when he saw that they actually wanted to stay with Toriel like innocent children disgusted and enraged him.
“You planned to play happy family with Toriel when all of you are killers? Don’t make me laugh. Creatures like you wouldn’t have lasted long before getting bored and killing her. Now that you know how weak monsters really are, how long until you start seeing them as toys?”

Flowey attacked again with his vines, and Sophie dodged — the vines slammed into the ground with enough force to show they could’ve killed her had she not moved in time.
“Oh, not this villain speech about how we’re the same. What’s next, you turned evil after a bad day?” she replied with a grin, running to hide behind Toriel’s couch.

“Ha! You’ve got no idea how many bad days I’ve had,” he said before destroying the couch with two huge vines, sending the stuffing flying all over the room.

From her hiding spot, Sophie threw what looked like four small spheres toward Flowey. The flower noticed one of them had a lit fuse, so he blocked that one — but to his surprise, the other three exploded in his face. The small but multiple blasts left him stunned for a moment, and then the sphere with the fuse exploded, releasing thick smoke all around him.

Although the attack caught Flowey off guard, he soon noticed a human silhouette through the smoke and immediately fired his bullets to avoid any surprises.
“Clever, very clever,  but not clever enough!” he said as he saw his bullets strike the silhouette. However, he suddenly felt a hit on one of his vines. What he had shot wasn’t a human — it was part of himself.

“What?! My vines weren’t even there!” he shouted in shock. At that moment, a fork embedded itself in the side of his face. “Ugh! Where did that come from?!” He fired again toward where he thought the attack came from, but this time his bullets and petals hit nothing.

Another fork lodged itself in the back of his face. This time, the flower cleared the smoke and finally spotted her. “Got you!” he snarled, sending his vines to impale her — though with unusual difficulty. This was becoming more dangerous than expected. Flowey grinned when he thought he had her trapped, but the girl’s image simply vanished.

“What the—?!” The flower looked around, confused and frustrated, struggling to lift another vine to block a third fork that tore through one of his petals. “What did you do?!” he demanded furiously.

“Heh heh heh¯, just a little chaos¯,” the girl replied, standing a few meters in front of him, forks in hand, still bleeding but acting as if she wasn’t losing blood every second, a mischievous grin on her face. “A special mix I made myself — causes mild poisoning that leads to confusion and, well, mild poisoning. Too bad Sam didn’t let me test stronger toxins.” She explained while throwing another fork, which landed slightly off to the right of where Flowey expected.

“You’re the biggest idiot alive if you think you’ve beaten me,” Flowey said, surrounding himself completely with vines that sprouted countless large thorns.

“Gonna wait for the effects to wear off? You do know my friends probably heard this mess and are coming to kick your ass, right?” she taunted.

“I know. But this is something your toothy friend taught me,” he said with a laugh as he began to build pressure in his thorned vines.

“What are you— Oh no!” she exclaimed, remembering how Joel could shoot his teeth at high speed. She quickly covered herself with her arms just as the flower fired all his thorns in every direction across the room.

Multiple thorns pierced Sophie’s skin, embedding deeply enough to be dangerous had she not covered her vital spots — but even so, they were bad.

“A-aghhhh!” With a cry of pain, Sophie collapsed to the ground, right next to Toriel’s pile of dust. She tried to stand, but her legs trembled. The bleeding was too heavy now; her once colorful clothes were soaked in dark red, and the scent of iron filled her nose.

As the human dropped the last fork from her hand, Flowey approached with an expression of irritation and triumph.
“You’ve caused me a lot of trouble, but once I have your soul, it’ll all be worth it.” His deformed grin stretched wider as he tied Sophie’s hands with vines, forcing her to rise. Her soul became visible, and the flower moved closer to claim it.

After so many years of emptiness, the power that would make him a god was finally within reach. He could almost taste it.

“Soon, the whole world — humans, monsters — will learn the true meaning of this worl—”

But before he could finish, a huge amount of dust was thrown in his face, getting into his eyes and mouth.

Flowey began coughing in confusion. It took a few moments before he could see again — and then he realized what had happened. The girl’s foot was covered in dust, and Toriel’s pile of ashes had shrunk considerably.

The flower recoiled, shocked by what the human had done — using Toriel’s remains that way just to buy herself a little more time.

“Y-you! You’re sick!” he yelled, genuinely taken aback and disgusted that the human had desecrated someone she cared about just to gain a small advantage. “What’s wrong with you?!”

“Heh heh heh~” Sophie smiled again, showing her white teeth as blood kept pouring from her abdomen and the thorn wounds. She simply stared the flower in the eyes.
“I’ve had a lot of bad days.~”

She decided to play the role of the villain to rattle the flower — and she could see it worked, noticing sweat on Flowey’s face. By the time he regained his focus, it was too late — a gunshot whizzed past him.

“Sophie!” Joel shouted, approaching with the rat child on his shoulders. The shot had probably missed because the rat child didn’t want to risk hitting her  or so Sophie guessed.

Flowey scowled before disappearing back into the ground, his vines releasing the girl, who collapsed to the floor again.
“What happened?! W-where’s— hhh— Toriel?!” Joel cried out.

“G-gh!... That flower... killed her...” she managed to say, coughing up blood as her vision blurred. “Damn... that flower kicked my ass...”

She muttered before passing out from blood loss. 

Chapter Text

“Heh heh heh... I can’t believe you actually offered to let that thing eat your arm just to save the rat.” Leigh said as the group — Sam, Leigh, Sophie, and Joel — returned after exploring the first floor of the apartment building. “You know that’s just going to make things harder for you when I ask for a rematch.” The woman grinned broadly as Sam collapsed onto the couch, blood seeping through the bandages that covered where should have been his left arm.

“I guess now it’d be a fair fight,” Sam replied, petting the baby rat that had curled up on his lap. The rat child was so tiny he could fit in the palm of his hand. It would take time before he grew any bigger.

“You!” Leigh looked ready to demand her rematch right then and there, but the pain coursing through her body forced her to stop halfway to the couch, leaving a faint trail of blood on the apartment floor.

“Heh heh heh... The next time you lose a limb because of your stupidity, I’m not getting between you and the next big monster that ambushes you in a hallway,” she warned, still grinning, before sitting down on a chair to rest.

The group had either the worst luck in the world… or the best luck, depending on how you looked at it  since they’d somehow survived. During their exploration of the first floor, they had encountered the rat child and a grotesque mouth on the wall that wouldn’t let them leave unless it was fed. Sam, of course, refused to give it the child  and instead offered his own left arm, which the thing tore off and devoured.

To make things worse, as they tried to reach the exit, they were ambushed by the Rat King. Sam was far too weakened to fight, so Leigh had to take the lead using her beast form while Sophie and Joel supported from a distance. By the time they made it back to the apartment, both adults were pale, exhausted, and barely standing.

“Heh heh heh... You kids are gonna be tough when you grow up. Can’t wait to wrestle you,” Leigh said, turning toward the children. Sophie was standing on the sink to reach the cupboard and steal a snack, while Joel was trying to regrow his teeth.

“Mmm, w-when I grow up,” Joel mumbled, intimidated by the woman’s monstrous form. Sophie, on the other hand, didn’t seem scared at all.

“Of course! I’ve been practicing what you taught me!” she said energetically, grabbing a carving fork and stabbing at the air with decent enough form. “STAB STAB STAB!”

“Good technique, good technique. Heh heh... Though you still rely on cheats to win your fights,” Leigh said in a half-reprimanding tone.

“Oh please! That rat was kicking your butt if I hadn’t helped,” Sophie pouted.

“But throwing the urn of ashes — probably belonging to that little guy’s grandmother — to blind the thing was a pretty... dirty move,” Sam added from the couch while the rat gave a small squeak.

“Mmm, Sam... I saw you sell my mom’s purse the other day,” Joel said, turning his head toward his caretaker.

“T-that’s different. We needed the money to buy food,” Sam defended himself, staring straight at the turned-off TV to avoid eye contact.

“Speaking of food, I’m hungry!” Sophie suddenly declared — and soon the others joined her in protest.

“Yeah, Sam! Make something to eat, heh.”

“I’m starving... c-could you -hhh- make something please?” Joel asked shyly.

Sam sighed, exhausted, but got up anyway. “Yeah, I should cook something.”

However, just before reaching the refrigerator, he heard knocking at the door. “I hope it’s the nurse... We’re really low on medical supplies.”

While Sam went to check, Joel sat down at the table with Sophie, who was munching on chips and absentmindedly scratching the tabletop with her fork.

“Hey, Sophie! What book did you end up... hhhh... reading for the book report?” the tooth boy asked, sounding completely genuine — not joking at all.

“Uhhh... I didn’t even bother reading it!” the girl replied, visibly confused.

“Wh-what?! But it’s due on Monday!”

“Umm... I’m not sure we’re gonna have school on Monday, Joel.”

“Huh!? Why?”

Sophie couldn’t help but burst out laughing at how ridiculous the situation was. “You know what? You’re right! They said the report needed ten... no, twenty more pages.”

“Twenty pages? Hhh... this is... I’m gonna have to stay up all night!” Joel said nervously, while Sophie barely held back a chuckle. Teasing him was going to be fun.

Before the girl could keep messing with the gullible Joel, she heard Sam’s voice from the door, speaking to whoever had knocked.

“Yes, Sophie’s here!”

Curious and suspicious about who would ask for her, Sophie hurried toward the door, fork still in hand. When she arrived, she saw a pale woman on the other side who looked exactly like her mother. She had the same haircut and was wearing one of her old dresses, but the poor lighting made her face hard to see — her hair fell forward, hiding everything except one glowing eye.

“There you are, my daughter. Finally, we are together again.”

It was her mother’s voice — but too calm, too monotone for someone who had been searching for her child for days.

“... ... Mom? Is that you?” the girl asked, her tone uncertain and full of doubt.

“Please... give her back to me,” the woman said to Sam instead of answering her daughter directly.

Sam could tell something was horribly wrong and immediately stepped in front of Sophie to shield her. The woman took his action as a refusal, and her hands reached down to lift her dress — revealing countless legs and claws that had replaced her entire lower body. Now, two rows of white, sharp teeth lined her face.

“Come to me, my child.”

Sam acted on instinct, swinging his cleaver and slicing off one of the creature’s many feet. “Sophie! Get back inside!” he shouted, just as Leigh rushed to the door with her gun drawn, firing several rounds into the woman’s torso.

Despite the command, Sophie’s legs wouldn’t move.

Both Sam and Leigh were far too weak to fight effectively. A flurry of kicks struck Leigh, knocking her out cold, while several claws slashed Sam’s good arm, forcing him to drop his weapon. “Ugh!”

“You don’t recognize me, my child? We need to go back home,” the woman said again, extending her claws to grab Sophie, who remained frozen as she was dragged closer.

Thanks to the glint of white teeth, Sophie could see the woman’s jaw stretching unnaturally wide.

“M-Mom…” she whispered, trembling, trying to command her body to move — but it wouldn’t obey.

The corrupted Harriet stretched out her arms to embrace her, believing that would make the girl stop resisting.

Before her own mother could end her life, Sophie saw something in the corner of her eye — a blur rushing toward Harriet. Something full of teeth.

Joel had sprinted forward and bitten down on one of Harriet’s arms with such force that Sophie could hear the bones cracking under the countless teeth in his mouth.

“AHHH!” the woman screamed in pain, throwing Joel to the ground and immediately stomping and clawing at him, tearing at his skin and gums, trying to rip out his teeth by the roots so he’d never bite again.

“You damned brat!”

“AHHHGHMPH!! AHHHH!!!” Joel screamed in agony, pinned to the floor as his gums split open, his mouth filling with blood while he tried to break free.

“Joel!” Hearing his cries of pain, Sophie’s body finally reacted — but not to run. Instead, she charged forward, carving fork in hand, and lunged at the woman who had once been her mother stabbing the shining eye as deep as she could.

Harriet screamed again and slammed Sophie against the wall with brutal force. Blood streamed from her ruined eye as she staggered toward the girl.

A wave of claws came at Sophie, but Sam threw himself in the way, taking the blows head-on. Deep cuts tore into his body, but he refused to move aside. If he was going to die protecting them, so be it — he had already made peace with that.

This was it — the end. Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, unable to face what was coming. But before it could happen, she heard the sound of bones snapping  and a muffled, wet noise.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Joel again — his jaws clamped around his mother’s throat and part of her collarbone. He bit down with enormous force, then pulled, ripping out a huge chunk of flesh and bone.

Sophie could see the muscles tearing as they separated from the body, shards of bone scattering in every direction, while Joel’s enormous mouth moved on its own — chewing, tearing, grinding what he had just ripped out.

Her mother’s grip weakened, finally letting her go. Both of them collapsed to the floor. The mouth of what had once been her mother moved slightly, as if trying to speak final words — but without a throat, no sound came.

Even if she’d still had her neck, Sophie wouldn’t have heard her last words anyway, because Joel was making too much noise swallowing.

-------------------------------

The girl woke up suddenly, tears streaming down her cheeks and a cold sweat running down her forehead. Looking around, she realized she was in the room Toriel had prepared for them. A dull ache in her body reminded her just how close she’d been to dying.

Soon she noticed the rat child sleeping at the foot of the bed, an SMG in his hand—it looked like he had been keeping watch while Joel was off doing other things.

If her friends had arrived just a few seconds later… or if that flower hadn’t tried to play with her… she would already be dead. Sophie understood that. After all, she could rarely handle any monstrosity on her own.

She got up from the bed; still bandaged, she knew that the clothes Toriel had given her were now nothing but rags. Quickly, she searched the room for the clothes she had arrived in. Luckily, they were there and clean.

“Toriel must’ve washed them… or maybe Joel did while I was asleep,” she murmured, changing into her purple sweater.

“Toriel… seems like every responsible adult that has to take care of me ends up dying… Well, Sam’s not exactly responsible anyway,” she sighed, remembering how often he let her wander off exploring with him.

She left her room, carrying the baby rat in her arms, to look for her companion. Joel had cleaned the living room where the battle had taken place. The tooth boy was placing all of Toriel’s dust—now collected—into a small urn, which he then set carefully on the table.

“How long was I out?” the girl asked.

Joel turned immediately, visibly worried, rushing toward her. “A few hours, but are you okay?! I closed all your wounds, right? I had to use the med kit and disinfectant, just in case,” he said, checking if any blood had seeped through her clothes.

“So that means we don’t have any medical supplies left…” she noted grimly, realizing they were in a serious situation. The rat baby snuggled against her chest, sleeping peacefully.

“Are there any other supplies in this house?”

“Nothing except food. I went out to ask some monsters if they had bandages or anything, but apparently they use magic to heal themselves,” Joel said, pulling a carrot out of his pocket. “But one of them gave me this… well, a few vegetables. I was thinking of making soup or something, but there’s no gas in the kitchen or anything to make a fire.”

“Ugh, soup,” Sophie muttered, making a disgusted face. “I’d rather eat the pie.”

At that, Joel turned his head away, looking suddenly embarrassed.

“…You ate the pie without me!” she yelled, loud enough to wake the baby with a squeak.

Sophie grabbed the little rat with both hands, bringing it up to her face. “Tell me you didn’t betray me, baby!” she said dramatically, though a playful tone was easy to catch in her voice.

“N-no, it wasn’t him! I—I ate it myself, don’t blame him!” the boy stammered, trying to protect the rat child.

Indeed, both of them had eaten the pie—they’d been starving.

“Oh, so you betrayed both of us! I can’t believe you’d do something like that!” she said in mock anger, trying not to laugh while Joel grew more nervous. The rat child joined in, chirping disapprovingly and nodding in agreement with Sophie, making Joel feel completely betrayed.

Sophie continued teasing Joel a bit longer before going to claim Toriel’s refrigerator and declaring everything inside as rightful compensation.

To her disappointment, most of the prepared food was snails. Of course, they’d have to take them—food was important—but Sophie wasn’t exactly thrilled, as she’d been hoping for more sweets.

Even what caught her attention in the fridge left her with a bitter taste, literally. The dark chocolate inside was far purer than her usual Chocky Bars. Still, despite the bitterness, she enjoyed it.

While taking another bite of the chocolate bar, she watched Joel and the baby arranging several forks, table knives, and plates to use as throwing weapons. They were also searching for pieces of cloth in case they found some kind of antiseptic to make bandages or, better yet, some alcohol for Molotovs.

As Sophie finished her chocolate, she noticed a carving fork lying on the counter. She picked it up, examined it absentmindedly, and finally tucked it away. Then she remembered her slingshot was damaged and quickly fixed it, cutting the other part of the rubber so the elastic band would be the same length as before.

The rat child soon scurried into Toriel’s room and came back carrying a wallet in its mouth—stuffed with money. Sophie petted its head and checked the contents, surprised to find it filled with gold coins. A hundred of them.

“Um, Sophie. What do we do now?” asked the tooth boy, confused, now that it seemed they were ready to move on. “Without Miss Toriel, we don’t really have a plan. We could stay and wait for Sam.”

“We just have to think of something…” Sophie replied, deep in thought. “Our plan was for a monster to absorb the souls to defeat that thing and then free monsterkind. But it has to be a monster who doesn’t want to destroy humanity… we need to find one who’ll help us,” she said, modifying their plan. “And we can’t stay in the ruins for long, we don’t know when that flower will attack again. We’ll have to go deeper underground to look for help.”

Joel hesitated, clearly unsure about this, but with Flowey still out there they didn’t have much of a choice. He nodded, accepting her reasoning.

In response, Sophie picked up Toriel’s urn to take it with them—you never know when something might come in handy.

The group descended once more into the basement, walking down the long hallway with their heavy backpacks. After a while, they reached a large door, which they managed to open with some effort, letting a blast of icy wind strike their faces and blind them for a moment.

“So cold! Good thing we’re wearing sweaters—and that the baby’s covered in fur,” Sophie said, not having felt such cold since that ice apartment.

As they continued walking, they realized the place was a huge, snow-covered forest. They pressed on quietly, passing tree after tree. All three of them had enough experience to know that, in moments like this, you were never truly alone—something was always watching.

That feeling was confirmed when they heard a loud crack behind them and saw a thick branch snapped clean in half as if it were a twig.

“GHIA! W-what was that?!” Sophie yelped, jumping in fright and immediately hiding behind Joel. Despite being used to blood and death, loud noises and cheap jump scares terrified her. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say she got more scared watching Sam play Screamatorium than fighting abominations beyond human understanding.

“We should hurry,” Joel said seriously, taking Sophie’s hand and moving faster.

Ahead of them was a bridge with some kind of… gate? Way too wide for anyone to be stopped by it. They didn’t pay much attention to the strange structure, though, because heavy footsteps began to echo behind them. When Sophie and the rat child turned, they saw nothing.

An illusion?

Suddenly, Joel stopped, causing Sophie to nearly bump into him. Looking forward, they saw a dark silhouette on the other side of the bridge.

“H-he just appeared! Hhh…” the boy muttered, confused and alarmed, stepping in front of Sophie in case whoever that was turned out to be hostile.

The silhouette began to move closer, slowly. Joel immediately took a combat stance—which, for him, meant opening his jaw wider to show his teeth more clearly.

“Who are you?! –hhh–”

“Whoa, whoa, I don’t want trouble, kid,” said the figure as he stepped into the light—revealing himself to be a skeleton wearing a blue jacket, black shorts, and slippers.

“I’m Sans. Sans the skeleton. Your friend over there’s a human, right?”

“So what if she is?” Joel asked, suspicious.

“I’m supposed to be on guard duty for humans, but, y’know, I’m not really into capturing anyone,” he said, extending a hand toward Joel. “That makes us pals, right?”

Joel hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should shake his hand. It could be a trap. But he was the toughest of the group by far, if it was a trap he could take the hit and handle this guy now rather than risk Sophie getting hurt later. So, he reached out to grab the skeleton’s hand and—

BRAAAAAAAAAAP!

The only sign that Joel was completely embarrassed was that his ears turned bright red.

“Hehe, the old whoopee cushion-in-the-hand trick. It’s ALWAYS funny,” the skeleton said, grinning, while Sophie burst out laughing uncontrollably—so hard she nearly ran out of breath.

Chapter Text

A few moments passed before the human caught her breath. “Oh, the whoopie cushion is the best. They always fall for it,” the human said as she placed a hand on Joel’s shoulder. “So, you’re not going to try and steal my soul?”

“Nah, too much work,” the skeleton replied. “Now my brother Papyrus, he’s a human-hunting FANATIC. Hey, actually, I think that’s him right over there.”

Upon hearing that, the group of children grew tense, ready to fight, but the skeleton continued with his carefree tone. “This way, follow me. My brother built this gate—you can see you can pass right through the bars without any trouble,” he said as he walked ahead of them.

The children decided to follow him, Sophie keeping her slingshot ready just in case. Soon, they reached a small wooden stand, and beside it was a lamp shaped suspiciously like Sophie. Before the girl could ask anything, Sans spoke again. “Quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp.”

Without much time to think, Sophie hid behind the lamp, peeking out just enough to see a much taller skeleton wearing a red scarf, red boots, and a white chestplate. He looked rather upset. Joel and the rat child stood on either side of the lamp, trying to block Sophie from view.

“Sup, bro?” Sans asked casually.

“YOU KNOW WHAT ‘SUP,’ BROTHER!” the tall skeleton shouted. “IT’S BEEN DAYS, AND YOU HAVEN’T... RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!” Papyrus scolded his brother, but Sans didn’t seem to care much, knowing there wouldn’t be any consequences for slacking off. “WE’RE THE ONLY SENTRIES IN SNOWDIN RIGHT NOW, SO YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO BE A LAZYBONES! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!”

“Not much, just helping these kids who got lost in the woods,” he said, turning to Joel and the baby with his ever-present smile. Papyrus, surprised, only then noticed their presence.

“Y-yeah! Mr. Sans is showing us where the nearest –hhh– town is,” Joel said quickly, and the rat gave a few confirming chirps.

“OH, THEN YOU ARE WORKING!” Papyrus said, his tone much happier now. “GREETINGS, LITTLE ONES! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL ESCORT YOU SAFELY TO SNOWDIN TOWN!” He struck a heroic pose, his red scarf fluttering in the wind.

“Uh... I—” Joel wanted to refuse, since it would be safer if they all stayed together. But then he remembered that the tall skeleton had said he and Sans were the only sentries around. In other words, if he and the rat child went with Papyrus, that would keep him from looking for Sophie—she could follow them from a distance instead. Sure, there were risks, but if that Sans guy was watching over Sophie, there shouldn’t be too many problems—certainly fewer than if they fought Papyrus. Even if Sans wasn’t interested in capturing humans, Joel doubted he would just stand by if they attacked his brother. And that flower could easily use such a fight to ambush them again. “Thank you! Please guide us to –hhh– Snowdin.”

Joel suddenly felt a small marble hit his head—thrown by hand. When he turned slightly, he saw Sophie glaring at him with an expression that clearly said, What the hell are you doing?!

“GREAT! NOW, ONWARD! IF YOU GET HUNGRY, I CAN MAKE SOME SPAGHETTI ALONG THE WAY!” Papyrus declared as he turned around, Joel and the Rat Child following him.

“Okay, you can come out now,” said the shorter skeleton, and Sophie stepped out from behind the lamp.

“What is Joel thinking?! It’s dangerous for us to split up,” Sophie said, crossing her arms in annoyance.

“Well, I’m glad he did. My brother’s been kind of down lately—especially now that Undyne took the rest of the Royal Guard to Waterfall to deal with some issues. Helping a few lost kids will probably cheer him up. Not as much as catching a human, but still,” Sans said sincerely.

“Well, if it keeps your brother from trying to kill me,” the girl sighed, her breath faintly visible in the cold air.

“Don’t worry, he’s harmless. Even if he tries not to be.”

“Hmm... maybe, but if he tells anyone about me, the entire Underground will be hunting me,” she said, unconvinced that Papyrus was harmless.

“Heh. And let someone else take the credit for catching you?” Even though Sans always wore that grin, this time he seemed genuinely amused, closing his eyes slightly. “His dream is to join the Royal Guard. He won’t tell anyone about you unless it’s Undyne herself who asks—or if you, let’s say... make a big mess.”

He opened one eye to look at her, and for a moment, Sophie felt the atmosphere grow so tense it made her skin crawl.

“Well, kiddo, I’ll keep an eye on you. See you later,” he said in a tone that eased the tension again, before walking off in the opposite direction from where his brother and the others had gone.

Sophie got the message right away—she knew a threat when she heard one.

“AND THAT WAS A DIMENSIONAL BOX,” Papyrus explained to little Joel, who looked visibly confused about why there was a box sitting out in the middle of nowhere. At first, he hadn’t planned to ask anything to keep Papyrus from talking too much and keep him away from Sophie—but curiosity won. “IF YOU PUT SOMETHING IN HERE, YOU CAN TAKE IT OUT FROM ANY OTHER BOX SOMEWHERE ELSE. YOU COULD PUT ONE HERE AND THEN GO TO HOTLAND TO RETRIEVE EXACTLY WHAT YOU DEPOSITED... THOUGH ACCESS TO HOTLAND IS CURRENTLY RESTRICTED BECAUSE OF THE CHAOS IN WATERFALL, BUT THAT DOESN’T MATTER.”

“So –hhh– what happens if someone goes inside the box? Can they come out from another one somewhere else?” Joel asked curiously. “Could we travel to Hotland by getting into –hhh– one of these boxes?”

“THAT...” Papyrus thought for a moment. “I HAVE NO IDEA. BUT IF YOU CAN’T GET OUT OF THE BOX ON YOUR OWN, YOU’D NEED YOUR MOM OR DAD TO TAKE YOU OUT, RIGHT?” he replied uncertainly.

“Squeak squeak.” The rat child sniffed the air, then started heading north, making Joel chase after him.

“Wait, baby!”

Following the rat, they soon encountered a snowman who spoke to them.

“Hello, I am a snowman. I want to see the world... but I cannot move. If you would be so kind, traveler, please... take a piece of me and bring it very far away?” the snowman pleaded.

Joel wasn’t sure how to respond, but feeling sorry for the snowman, he nodded. “Okay,” he said, reaching out to take a piece.

Before he could store it, however, the rat child jumped up and bit the piece clean off.

“No, baby, no!” The tooth boy tried to catch the rat, but it ran in circles around the snowman.

By the time Joel managed to grab the rat, it had already devoured the snow piece completely.

“I-I’m sorry, sir! It was my fault, I’m sorry!” he said, alarmed and deeply embarrassed by the rat child’s behavior.

“Y-you let your pet consume a piece of me?! Right in front of me?!” The snowman looked furious.

“I-it wasn’t on purpose! S-sorry –hhh– it w-won’t happen again.”

“Begone! You and your stinky rat, begone!”

Joel walked away with his head down, feeling terrible about what had happened.

“DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT, LITTLE TEETH. THE ROYAL GUARD DOGS KEEP STEALING MY BONES ANYWAY, SO I’M SURE HIS SNOW WILL GROW BACK... I THINK.” The skeleton tried to cheer him up. “WHAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU TRIED TO HELP SOMEONE IN NEED.”

“But I just made things worse... like when –hhh– I try to hug someone but my teeth end up biting by accident,” he said sadly, unable to remember the last time he’d hugged anyone.

“WELL, I’VE HEARD THE LEATHER AND DENIM CLOTHES THEY MAKE IN THE WILD EAST ARE QUITE RESISTANT. BUY SOME FOR YOUR FRIENDS AND THEN HUG THEM!” Papyrus suggested.

“My teeth can cut –hhh– through metal,” Joel said gloomily.

“OH... IN THAT CASE, ALPHYS COULD INVENT SOMETHING FOR YOU! THE ROYAL SCIENTIST COULD MAKE SOMETHING SPECIAL! SHE’S A GENIUS.”

“I don’t think someone like that has time for my problem. I don’t want to be a bother,” the boy sighed, resigned.

“NONSENSE! ALPHYS IS VERY CLOSE TO UNDYNE, AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM UNDER UNDYNE’S DIRECT TRAINING! TOOTH BOY, I PROMISE I WOULD GET ALPHYS TO MAKE SOMETHING FOR YOU!”

Joel looked up at him. Even though the boy had no visible facial expressions, Papyrus could tell he was looking at him with hope.

“VERY WELL, LITTLE TOOTHY ONE. IT’S TIME TO CONTINUE A—”

Just as they were about to move on, they saw Sophie enter the area, checking out a sign in the middle of a frozen lake. She lifted her head and froze when she saw the three of them—she hadn’t expected to run into them so soon.

Joel ran his hands through his hair. Between asking about the boxes and the snowman incident, they’d lost so much time that she had caught up.

“OH  GOD! IS THAT A HUMAN?!?!” Papyrus exclaimed after staring at Sophie for several seconds.

“U-uh, you sure??? I-I think she’s...” Joel scrambled to come up with something, blurting out the first thing that came to mind. “...A –hhh– giraffe?”

He could feel everyone’s eyes on him—even the baby gave him a judgmental look.

“A giraffe...” Sophie repeated, sounding more disappointed than angry.

“OH, AND I WAS JUST GETTING EXCITED THINKING I’D FINALLY FOUND A HUMAN,” Papyrus said, his tone so sincerely disappointed that now everyone else stared at him in surprise.

“Wait, what?!” the giraffe exclaimed, a mix of surprise, irritation, and confusion.

“WAIT A MOMENT... GIRAFFES HAVE YELLOW! THAT MEANS SHE IS A HUMAN!” Papyrus shouted again, thrilled.

“Just because I’m not yellow?!”

“UNDYNE IS GOING TO... I’M GOING TO BE... POPULAR!!! POPULAR!!! POPULAR!!!” Papyrus cheered as Joel and the rat child readied themselves for anything. “AHEM. HUMAN, YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU AND CAPTURE YOU! WITH THE HELP OF MY TWO NEW FRIENDS, WE WILL PREPARE PUZZLES TO HINDER YOUR ADVANCE!!!”

It took everyone a few moments to process what the skeleton had just said.

“Wait, WHAT?!!!” Joel exclaimed, completely caught off guard, unable to form a coherent thought.

“YOU SEE, MY TOOTHY FRIEND—BY HELPING THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAPTURE THE HUMAN, I’M SURE ALPHYS WILL GIVE YOU PRIORITY AS A REWARD,” he said, giving a thumbs-up before turning back to Sophie. “HUMAN, CONTINUE... ONLY IF YOU DARE!!!”

Papyrus then grabbed both Joel and the rat, jumped high into the air, and started... flying? Over Sophie?! Both of them flailed their arms and legs in panic at the sudden movement.

“W-wha-wha-what?!!! No, wait, wait!”

“Squeak squeak!!!”

“NYE HE HE HE HE!!!!”

And just like that, the three of them left Sophie standing alone in the middle of the frozen lake, speechless and utterly confused. Several minutes passed before she finally snapped out of it and processed what had just happened.

“...” She soon looked down at her reflection in the icy water. “I don’t look like a giraffe... do I?”

Chapter Text

“AGGHH SANS MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING TO MAKE THIS PUZZLE MALFUNCTION!” shouted the skeleton, stomping the ground after being electrocuted for the third time in a row.

“Heh heh heh...” Sophie grinned mischievously, halfway through the invisible maze. When she touched one of the invisible walls, she immediately noticed the orb Papyrus was holding light up and shock him. It was clear that she was supposed to be carrying the orb, not him.

Meanwhile, Joel covered his face with his hands in embarrassment and pity for the skeleton, fully aware that Sophie was doing this on purpose. “I marked the path for you with the snow...” he muttered as he watched the girl deliberately ignore the correct route and bump into another invisible wall “by accident,” causing another electric shock to jolt Papyrus.

“I’M GOING TO MAKE SURE THAT LAZYBONES RECALIBRATES EVERY PUZZLE IN SNOWDIN PERSONALLY AFTER THIS!” Frustrated, Papyrus threw the orb onto the ground.

After that, there was no point in Sophie continuing to mess up on purpose. Once she got out of the maze, she saw Joel crossing his arms and shaking his head in disapproval.

“What? If I’d gone through the maze too easily, he’d have suspected you were helping me,” she whispered, suppressing a laugh.

“WELL, EVEN THOUGH THAT PUZZLE HAD A FEW... PROBLEMS, I MUST ADMIT YOU DID PRETTY WELL! CONGRATULATIONS, HUMAN! YOU’VE PASSED YOUR FIRST TEST!” Papyrus praised Sophie. “BUT THE NEXT PUZZLES WON’T BE SO SIMPLE! THE NEXT ONE WAS PREPARED BY MY BROTHER SANS IN ADVANCE, WHICH MEANS HE’S HAD ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD TO GET IT RIGHT! THERE’S NO WAY HE’LL MESS IT UP THIS TIME! NYE HEH HEH HEH!”

With that, Papyrus, Joel, and the rat child moved ahead again. The tooth boy was ready to sabotage any puzzles to make things easier for Sophie — though after what had just happened, he wondered if that was really necessary and debated helping the skeleton instead, to make things fairer.

As they walked away, Sophie pulled out a piece of the snowman. “I guess you can see and hear even from a piece of you if you asked me to carry it. When I see you again, I’ll ask you questions — and if not... I’ll tuck you inside Joel’s shirt to freeze his back~”

She started walking again and soon ran into a birdlike monster about her size, standing in her way. Sophie immediately got ready to fight.

“Ice to meet you,” greeted the monster.

“... Ha, I get it! Ice, nice,” she said, forcing a laugh when she realized this monster was trying to be a comedian, much like that giant mushroom from the apartment with the exception this time the jokes were about ice instead of fungi.

“Oh, I see you have a good taste in jokes!!” said the bird monster, preparing to continue his routine. “Better not 'snowflake' out!”

Sophie forced another laugh, which delighted the monster. “See?! Laughs! Dad was wrong!”

“... Same! When my dad try to hit me for swapping his favorite drink with water, my mom made him 'chill' out with a kick,” Sophie said with a more genuine smile, continuing the ice puns.

“Ha ha, good one!” the monster replied. “I ran away from home. Why? ’Cause my father was so 'cold' to me.”

“HA HA HA HA!” Sophie burst into genuine laughter this time, wiping a tear as she came up with her own line. “Mom and I left Dad because he couldn’t keep a 'cool' head.”

“HA HA YES! Moms are the best. Mine always laughed at my jokes and puns...” The monster seemed about to make another pun, but Sophie spoke again.

“And mine always let me prank people all I wanted, but now she...”

“But now she...” the monster said at the same time, continuing his thought.

Both were laughing and tearing up as they built up the setup — and together, they delivered the punchline in unison.

“She’s cold death!”

This time, the laughter stopped — but it felt like a heavy weight had lifted off both their shoulders.

“Maybe... I should go back to my dad. He’s probably really worried. I’m Snowdrake,” said the monster, ending the stand-up act.

“Sophie. Nice to meet you,” replied the girl, and both went their separate ways.

“So -hhh- the puzzle your brother made is... a junior jumble?” Joel asked, staring at the supposedly terrifying puzzle Sophie was meant to face. It was understandable that the boy looked... disappointed.

“I SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED THIS,” Papyrus sighed. “OH WELL, GOOD THING I HAVE A BACKUP PLAN!” He walked a few meters ahead and found a microwave. “I PREPARED A PLATE OF SPAGHETTI! THE HUMAN WON’T BE ABLE TO MOVE FORWARD BECAUSE SHE’LL BE TOO BUSY EATING INSTEAD! NYE HEH HEH HEH!”

“... Kid, I think we’re gonna have to give Papyrus a hand after all,” Joel said, holding the rat child, who nodded in agreement.

“OH, BUT YOU TWO MUST BE HUNGRY AS WELL, RIGHT?” The skeleton soon pulled out two more plates — from the snow, apparently — and set them on the table. “EAT! THERE’S ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE!”

The rat child approached one plate and sniffed it, but his animal instinct screamed don’t eat that, and he began growling at the spaghetti.

“I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE ADDED GRATED CHEESE TO THE SAUCE,” Papyrus said when he saw the rat refusing to eat.

Joel, on the other hand, ate the spaghetti in a single bite, showing no displeasure toward the barely edible dish. Seeing him devour it so eagerly, Papyrus’s expression lit up. “WOWIE! NO ONE’S EVER ENJOYED MY COOKING BEFORE! WELL THEN!!! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU EVER WANT!” Papyrus laughed joyfully, while the rat child stared in confusion wonder  how could Joel eat that and not be sick?

“What? I’ve eaten all kinds of –hhh– mutants before, this isn’t—” he muttered, when suddenly a thought hit him, as if pieces he hadn’t noticed before finally fit together. “Wait... a lot of those mutants were people... does that mean I’m a –hhh– cannibal?...” Joel shook his head, pushing those thoughts deep down. He’d never thought about it before and it was better not to start now.

“VERY WELL! THIS IS THE NEXT PUZZLE, MADE ENTIRELY BY ME! THIS IS JUST A TEST VERSION, SO IT’S THE SIMPLEST ONE — BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S NOT CHALLENGING!” Papyrus announced, showing that there were two blue Xs on the ground which turned into circles when stepped on. Turning two Xs into circles and then stepping on a tile caused spikes ahead to retract into the ground.

“Hmm... Isn’t that too simple, even for a first puzzle?” asked the tooth boy. “She got through the –hhh– maze easily.”

“HMM, GOOD POINT, KID. SOME SLIGHT MODIFICATIONS WOULD BE NICE. CARE TO HELP ME WITH THAT?”

Joel nodded eagerly.

“... WHAT. IS. THIS. PUZZLE?!!!” Sophie yelled, completely exhausted and confused, staring at a field full of blue crosses forming an odd pattern. Every time she tried to move, she’d accidentally step on another circle and turn it into a triangle, forcing her to restart the puzzle.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” said Joel from the other side of the spikes.

Sophie spent fifteen minutes trying before completely losing her patience. “This is impossible!”

“IT SEEMS THE HUMAN HAS FAILED TO SOLVE THE PUZZLES OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND HIS ASSISTANT! IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE, YOU MUST BE CAPTURED BY ME!” declared Papyrus, who, curiously, was standing on the same side as Sophie.

“Yeah yeah, you can capture me and all that, but tell me how to solve this first!” she said, knowing she wouldn’t be hurt with her friends around.

“PERFECT! THE FIRST THING YOU HAVE TO DO IS... EH... HMMM.” The skeleton stroked his bony chin, thinking. “... I THINK IT WAS... NO, NO, THIS WAY... NO.”

“Mr. Papyrus... did you forget the solution to your own puzzle?” Joel asked in disbelief.

“EHEM... THE PUZZLE WAS UPDATED IN A HURRY AND I DIDN’T MEMORIZE THE PATTERNS YET...” he excused himself, while Sophie, utterly done, began rummaging through her prank materials.

But Joel noticed this mixture wasn’t for poison or smoke bombs — he recognized that improvised preparation in a small vial.

“Sophie... w-what are you doing?” he asked nervously, already knowing the answer.

“Oh, you thought I wouldn’t ask Monty how to make his special brew? This’ll make my tricks much more powerful,” she said with a mischievous grin.

“Sophie, those things are explosive!” the tooth boy said in panic.

“Behold! Sophie’s Special!” she shouted, holding up the small explosive vial and throwing it at the tile — it exploded, damaging the mechanism and causing the metal spikes to retract, clearing the path.

“HEY! THAT’S CHEATING!” Papyrus protested, clearly upset.

“Sorry, but I wasn’t going to stay trapped here forever,” the girl replied.

“He can fly!” Joel added.

“HMPH! THE NEXT PUZZLE WON’T BE ONE YOU CAN SOLVE BY THROWING BOMBS, YOU’LL SEE!” Papyrus said before marching off toward the next puzzle.

“See you -hhh- later, Sophie!” Joel followed the skeleton.

The next X-and-circle puzzle was much simpler — Sophie solved it easily and moved on. The next one seemed intimidating due to its long explanation, but everyone burst out laughing when all the tiles turned pink, allowing Sophie to walk across effortlessly.

The following puzzle was also easy, and she even took her time skating around to enjoy it.

While Sophie skated, Papyrus led the other kids to Snowdin Town. “AND HERE WE ARE! SAFE AND SOUND THANKS TO THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” he said kindly, with a touch of pride. “THE HUMAN SHOULD ARRIVE SOON, SO I MUST CAPTURE HER HERE BEFORE SHE GOES TO WATERFALL.”

Joel looked down sadly — he didn’t want to fight him; he liked Papyrus. “Is... it really –hhh– necessary to capture her?”

“WELL, I NEED TO CAPTURE A HUMAN TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD! BESIDES, WATERFALL IS FULL OF GUARDS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE OF SOME... ISSUES GOING ON THERE.”

“But... I heard they’re going to take her soul to give it to the king... Sophie’s my friend,” he pleaded.

“THE KING IS A BIG FUZZY PUSHOVER!!! I’M SURE IF YOU ASK HIM TO LET YOUR HUMAN FRIEND GO, HE’D GUIDE HER TO THE BARRIER WITH NO PROBLEM!” Papyrus replied, his innocence even greater than Joel’s. The boy knew it couldn’t be that simple.

“Wait a minute, then –hhh– we’d have to see the king?” he asked, as an idea began forming in his mind.

“OF COURSE! TO REACH THE BARRIER, YOU HAVE TO PASS THROUGH THE KING’S CASTLE,” replied Papyrus.

“Then -hhh- could you guide us there yourself?”

“I’D HAVE TO REPORT TO UNDYNE. I CAN’T WAIT FOR HER TO CONGRATULATE ME AND SEE WHAT I’VE ACCOMPLISHED!”

“Yes, but... –hhh– wouldn’t it be better if it were a surprise? If the king himself congratulated you and personally invited you into the Royal Guard?” the tooth boy suggested. If all four of them went straight to the king, they’d have a better chance of avoiding trouble with other monsters.

“THAT WOULD BE A WONDERFUL SURPRISE, NO DOUBT. BUT UNDYNE TOLD ME TO REPORT ANY ENCOUNTER WITH A HUMAN — I WAS PLANNING TO CALL HER NOW THAT WE’RE HERE.”

“Y-you said the Royal Guard is very busy dealing with something –hhh– that means Undyne won’t have time to come here.” The boy was nervous, silently begging him to accept.

Papyrus seemed to consider it for a moment. “YOU KNOW WHAT? YOU’RE RIGHT. BESIDES, EVEN IF UNDYNE FINISHES HER MISSION RIGHT NOW, SHE’D PROBABLY WANT TO HAVE ONE OF OUR COOKING LESSONS OR GO EXPLORE THE DUMP WITH ALPHYS LIKE THEY USED TO BEFORE ALL THAT CHAOS.”

Joel sighed in relief — they wouldn’t have to hurt him to escape.

Chapter Text

Sophie was crossing the wooden bridge, and in front of her lay the town of Snowdin. Incredibly, she hadn’t killed any monsters here—mainly because she didn’t want to raise the alarm and have the entire Underground coming after her. So far, the monsters she had encountered didn’t seem to recognize her as a human and just seemed like kids looking for trouble.

There was a small monster wearing a cone-shaped ice hat who seemed desperate for attention, and to get it, he tried to attack her. So she used one of her tricks to blind him temporarily and stole that cone hat—which she was now wearing.

“What’s up?” said the skeleton who suddenly appeared on the other side of the bridge, completely catching her off guard.

“Where did you come from? Weren’t you going the other way?!” the girl asked, confused.

“I was gonna warn you not to fight my brother, but it looks like that’s not gonna be a problem. Your toothy friend’s pretty convincing,” he said casually, completely ignoring the subtle threat. “Also… gotta admit, I didn’t think you’d actually listen to what I said earlier.”

“You’re the second person around here surprised I don’t kill everything that crosses my path. Do I look like the Blood Knight to you?”

“I guess not. Otherwise, those two kids wouldn’t be tagging along with you,” he said, that same smile still on his face.

Sophie thought about saying they were humans too, but that would only make Joel and the rat child targets for the other monsters if they found out. So, better not. “What, can you tell about all the trouble I caused before getting here?” she asked with a grin.

“Nah, who do you think I am? Some kind of judge who’s gonna put you on trial for all your sins?” he replied, winking.

“Then I don’t have to worry about the skeletons in my closet,” the human said with a smile. Ever since that little ice pun contest, she’d gotten more interested in that kind of joke and had been practicing a few.

“Heh, yeah, I’m not the type to meddle in other people’s spine business,” he said, turning around to leave. “How about I treat you to lunch at Grillby’s? I know a shortcut.”

“Umm, sure,” she said, following him—and in the blink of an eye, she found herself in some kind of bar or tavern. “Wait, what?!”

“Fast shortcut, huh?” said the skeleton unfazed. “Here, get comfy.” He pointed to some bar stools while greeting the other monsters there. None of them paid much attention to Sophie, but they all laughed at Sans’s jokes.

Sophie just shrugged and sat on one of the stools.

WRAAAPPP.

“Whoops, watch where you sit down,” said Sans as he walked to the stool beside her to sit down. “Sometimes weirdos put whoopee cushions on the—”

WRAAAPPP.

The sound of another whoopee cushion interrupted Sans right as he sat down.

“Heh heh heh.” Sophie smiled triumphantly.

“... I like you, kid. I misjudged you before.” Though the grin on Sans’s face didn’t change, Sophie could tell he was genuinely smiling. “Anyway, let’s order. Whaddya want?”

“Hmmm.” The human looked over the prices and menu. “Well, I’ll take some fries and… three—no, four bottles of vodka.”

At that, both Sans and the fire bartender turned toward her with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s not for me, I wanna make some Molotovs,” she said quickly so they wouldn’t think she was a drunk.

“A Molotov, sure, that makes way more sense,” the skeleton said offhandedly while ordering fries for himself too. “So, what do you think of my brother?” he asked while Grillby went to get their food.

“He’s fun. I think Joel’s having a good time with him,” she replied. Truth be told, in the short time she’d interacted with Papyrus, she’d grown rather fond of him.

“Fun as in cool, right?”

“More like silly,” she said, laughing lightly.

Grillby soon returned with their order—of course, he refused to bring the alcohol. Sans offered the girl some ketchup, she accepted, and the skeleton got back at her for the whoopee cushion prank by making a ton of ketchup spill all over her fries. Sophie ignored it and kept eating as if nothing happened.

“Anyway, cool or not, you’ve gotta admit Papyrus tries really hard. Like how he keeps trying to get into the Royal Guard.”

“And to join the Royal Guard, he has to capture me,” Sophie commented between bites.

“Yeah, but don’t sweat the small details,” he said with a wink, as if the human’s soul wasn’t at stake.

Soon, the skeleton told her how Papyrus once went to the Royal Guard leader’s house at midnight asking to be trained—and how he waited outside all night after she shut the door in his face, until Undyne finally agreed to train him. A funny little story.

“If you’re telling me this, then I’m guessing Joel convinced Papyrus to ‘escort’ me personally to the royal palace so the rest of the guard doesn’t try to kill me on sight,” she said, assuming that was the reason.

“Partly, but there’s more to it.”

At that moment, the girl felt a change in the atmosphere—like only the two of them existed there, and only they could hear each other.

“See, thanks to the river that runs through the mountain in the Waterfall region, the Underground’s had access to... pieces from the surface. Usually junk we reuse, like old comics and mangas, toys, tech we adapt and improve, some fish we can eat, stuff like that.” The skeleton spoke, pausing to sip some ketchup. He glanced at Sophie and noticed how tense she’d gotten when he mentioned a way for things from the outside to get in. “But lately... something bad’s happened. First the fish stopped coming in, and then some... creatures started coming out of the river. Hostile creatures that attack any monster they see. Alphys thinks they’re the same fish that used to swim there.”

“How long has this been happening?...” the girl asked, noticeably more nervous.

“For weeks there’ve been a few sightings and isolated incidents, but... two days ago, Waterfall got completely blocked off. The Royal Guard was sent to regain control, and Ms. Holiday froze the Snowdin river to keep those creatures from reaching here, but... the ice we harvest from Snowdin won’t reach the Core to cool it down now. Normally, that wouldn’t be a huge deal if it only lasted a few days, but if this keeps up, the whole Underground’ll run out of energy—and, well... we’d all be in big trouble.”

The human nodded. She could tell he wanted her to say what those creatures from the surface were that were causing so much trouble.

“There’s no... surface left to go back to,” the girl answered.

“Seems that way. Still, that doesn’t explain why you want to reach Asgore’s palace. Why make the whole trip if you’re not planning to leave?”

“... Because of the souls. They’re the only solution to this problem. Whatever’s out there will find a way in—worse things.”

They both fell silent for a few moments, until Sans stood up, and the atmosphere went back to normal.

“Welp, if you’ve got experience with what’s going on in Waterfall, then I’m counting on you to look after Papyrus,” Sans said, relaxed again.

“What?! Wait, but—”

“Oh, and for keeping me off work for so long—you foot the bill.” He said it before heading out the door.

“... Oh, he has no idea how I’m gonna pay him back for this.”

Chapter Text

“Awww, how cute!” said Sophie as she held a small bunny in her arms. The rabbit was being walked on a leash by a rabbit woman. As bizarre as the situation seemed, it appeared to go completely unnoticed by the girl’s mind.

“You’re right! My Cinnamon is the cutest thing! Bun-buns are so adorable!” the bunny monster replied proudly.

“Cinnamon? What a coincidence, I used to have a guinea pig with the same name. But one day Sam took him to explore around the building and he escaped. Such a scatterbrain,” she commented, unaware of what truly happened to Cinnamon.

Speaking of cinnamon, at that very moment Joel was in Snowdin’s shop, carrying a bag full of freshly baked cinnamon bunnies and talking to the shopkeeper.

“If you and your friends are tired, you can take a nap at the Inn. Don’t worry about the cost, she only charges if you stay the whole night.” The shopkeeper smiled, seeing how the boy had practically bought everything she’d prepared.

“U-understood,” replied the tooth boy, before heading out and meeting Sophie outside. The rat child was running around, playing and chasing the little bunny.

“Got everything ready?” asked the human, watching as little Cinnamon jumped onto her head and the baby started climbing her to reach it. “Haha, wait—don’t! Ha!”

Both Joel and the bunny woman couldn’t help but chuckle softly at Sophie’s predicament. She caught the rat child while Cinnamon leapt into his sister’s arms.

“I was thinking of stopping by the library before we continue,” the boy said—there was still much they didn’t know about the Underground, and he wanted to see if there was any useful information.

“Nerd,” Sophie replied with a small grin, similar to Leigh’s.

“I-it’s not nerdy to want to know more about all this! Hhh…” the boy protested.

Sophia shrugged and turned around. “Have fun, I’ll go look for more marbles.”

Hotland, Dr. Alphys’s Laboratory.

On an operating table lay what appeared to be a giant fish. However, anyone could tell something was wrong with this creature—it was far from the kind found in the outside world. The fish had enormous sharp teeth that could rival those of many monsters known for their fangs, and just below its chin, where its neck began, there was another face, complete with eyes and a mouth. From that mouth extended a tongue ending in a chitinous, saw-like tip.

“The studies don’t lie—this thing was originally one of the fish we used to catch from the river,” said Dr. Alphys as she jotted notes down on paper. “So far, the strongest hypothesis is that humans dumped radioactive waste, causing aquatic life to mutate.”

“Like in that anime we watched?” Undyne asked, stepping up to the table beside the yellow dinosaur.

“Y-yes! Just like in the anime!” Alphys stammered, then gasped. “Oh my gosh, I hadn’t thought of that! If this is real, then what if other things from the anime could be real too? That would mean Mew Mew Kissy Cutie could be based on a true story?!” she said, now more excited than alarmed.

“How disappointing,” replied the head of the Royal Guard flatly.

“E-eh?! Why? I-if you want, we could watch something else on our next anime night…”

“No, no. it’s not that. The anime’s fine. I’m disappointed that humans would be so cowardly as to resort to such dirty tactics instead of facing us head-on.” Undyne’s frustration was obvious. Thanks to anime, she’d come to respect humans as formidable opponents but this…

“W-well, at least it’s fortunate that animals, since they lack souls, are quite vulnerable to magic.”

“But there are more and more of those things every day, and no matter how many we take down, they’ll never give us a human soul.” Undyne rubbed her forehead in frustration.

“I’m thinking of several alternatives to fix this,” Alphys quickly tried to cheer up her friend/crush. “I thought maybe electricity—fry them all in the water, then place filters where the water flows in, to stop more mutants from entering.”

“Sounds good,” Undyne said, somewhat relieved.

“However, there’s a problem…” Alphys continued, growing nervous again. “If we install the filter, human trash might not pass through anymore, and that means…”

“…No more anime?” Undyne closed her eyes, clenching her fists. “I’ll go back to Waterfall and won’t leave until this is under control… Next time a human falls down here, I’ll make sure to return this back to them.” She left the lab.

Alphys sighed, returning to her computer. “Oh right, the human. By now, they should’ve already reached Snowdin town.”

Snowdin Town.

“Thanks! That’s so kind of you!” Sophia said happily as she received a bag of ice marbles from a young deer girl.

“No problem! But… why do you need so many freezing marbles?” the deer girl asked curiously.

“I’m heading to Waterfall to kill some mons—uh, creatures.” Sophie almost slipped back into calling them cursed monsters, as she used to.

“Oh, in that case—WAIT, WHAT?!” the monster girl freaked out upon hearing that. “That’s way too dange—”

“Well, take care, Noelle! See you later, ho-ho-honey!” The human winks and quickly hurried off while Noelle called after her to come back.

Meanwhile, in the library... or LIBRABY, Joel scratched his head as he read a book—it looked like he was struggling to understand something. The librarian approached him kindly. “Homework for school, dear? Need help with something?” They asked sweetly.

“Th-thank you. There’s something I don’t get—hhh—how are monsters weaker than humans?” he asked, genuinely puzzled. “I mean, even here in town, there’s that werewolf guy whose job is to lift giant ice blocks all day. I haven’t seen—well, I don’t think any adult human could do that.” Or at least, not humans who hadn’t transformed, he almost added.

“That’s because of how different our souls are from those of humans,” they began explaining. “If a human attacks a monster with the intent to harm, we take more damage—and this is amplified by our emotions. If a monster faces a human, it’s likely they’re confused or scared, without any real intent to fight back. That makes us even more vulnerable and our magic even less effective.”

“But… that werewolf could throw a huge ice chunk and crush a human…” Joel still didn’t understand how the monsters hadn’t managed to claim a single human soul during the war. Even with that explanation, a spear or sword was just as deadly in the hands of a child as in an adult’s, if it hit true… right?

He then remembered all the punishment Sam and the others endured. Cuts, burns, bruises and yet they’d endured with bandages, tonics, and Choky Bars. The humans who fought the monsters had also seemed to wield magic.

“I don’t know many humans, but I’m sure they’re tougher than you think,” the librarian concluded.

Still, Joel felt something didn’t add up. Yes, monsters were weaker than humans—but so were Sam and himself compared to other beasts, and yet they’d managed to win.

The boy decided to keep researching souls—the very thing that seemed to be at the core of all this conflict.

Soon, the children arrived at Papyrus’s house, where he stood waiting with a cheerful expression.

“I HOPE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING READY, BECAUSE ONCE WE REACH WATERFALL, THERE’S NO TURNING BACK!”

The children nodded and began to follow Papyrus, who led the way.

Joel soon noticed Sophie’s hands trembling on the straps of her backpack. He knew there were things from the surface lurking in Waterfall, so he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder—to comfort her.

But he stopped midway when he saw her face—it wasn’t fear or nervousness as he expected. It was anticipation and excitement, the look of someone heading into an adventure.

Joel wasn’t the only one to notice. From afar, a golden stalker watched them with a grin. “For someone who describes the surface as hell, you seem awfully eager to return to it.”

Chapter Text

The sound of Waterfall’s cascades echoed throughout the area; the water flowed turbulently, indicating that it had rained heavily on the surface. The strong current made it harder to follow the movements of the cursed... and also made it more difficult for the Royal Guard to find anyone who might need help.

Shyren normally didn’t sing in public, yet this time she had to perform for her audience—not to entertain them, but to keep them at bay with her musical magic.

Musical notes began to strike against a swarm of fish crawling across the ground like worms, lunging toward the monster in groups like a swarm of biting insects.

When those things leapt to devour Shyren, a blue sword pierced through them, cutting down all those in motion—of which there were many.

“Are you alright?” asked Doggo, a member of the Royal Guard, as he jumped toward Shyren’s position, his blue magic sword floating around him and his two regular swords gripped in his hands.

Shyren gave a few “hmm”s in acknowledgment as she watched more and more of those things emerging again, leaping out of the water and crawling toward them.

“Lucky for us these things move too much when they walk. Pretty kind of them to make themselves visible,” he said, once again using his magic sword against the restless enemies. His blue attacks were highly effective, slicing rapidly.

At first, fighting even one of these creatures was difficult—Doggo had nearly died during his first encounter when all this began. But the more he killed, the easier it became. Now he could take them down with a single swing or two of his magic sword.

The creatures seemed to realize that even with their numbers, they couldn’t approach while that blue sword kept spinning around its wielder. So, they decided to retreat back into the water.

“Alright, that’s taken care of…” Doggo said, sheathing his weapons and dismissing his blue sword before turning toward the monster he’d just saved. “May I ask why you violated martial law, miss?”

“I–I was going to see B–Blooky,” she said timidly, barely understandable. “H–he lives nearby…”

“Hmm, very well, miss. I’ll escort you to your friend’s house, but you mustn’t go out again until further notice, understood?” said the Royal Guard, lighting a dog treat and putting it in his mouth.

///

A metal marble struck the eye of a mutant fish, making it cry out in pain as Joel lunged forward and bit into it, devouring it in one gulp. Papyrus watched as the little one chewed and swallowed the fish, which was twice the boy’s size, with ease.

“IF YOU’RE HUNGRY, YOU ONLY HAVE TO ASK ME TO MAKE YOU SOME SPAGHETTI, JOEL,” commented Papyrus, clearly weirded out by the scene.

“Oh, he gets stronger the more he eats,” said Sophie, firing another marble at another mutant approaching Joel. How did they know these were mutants and not just strange monsters? Simple, if neither Joel’s, the Rat Child’s, nor her soul became visible, it meant the creature likely came from the outside world and had to be killed.

“EITHER WAY, EATING RAW FISH COULD MAKE HIM SICK,” the skeleton replied, and the Rat Child looked at him with an expression that said, Are you serious? If it were up to the little rat, he’d rather eat raw food than anything cooked by the wannabe Royal Guard.

Speaking of the Rat Child, he was currently gutting another fish with his combat knife, splitting its belly open with ease.

“But they’re not that strong… hhh… I’d have to eat too many, and honestly, they taste bad,” Joel said, sounding disgusted as he began to cough. The rat glanced at him, wondering how he could be grossed out by this but not by all the other things he’d eaten back in the apartment—or the spaghetti.

“Okay, that is weird,” Sophie noticed the same thing. “I’ve never seen you complain about eating anything before—and I saw you eat toxic paint.”

“THE TOOTH BOY ATE WHAT?!!”

“W–what she said is out of context!” Joel said, flustered. “It’s like… eating a corpse? Something reanimated… hh–I don’t know how to explain it.”

“EVEN MORE REASON NOT TO EAT THEM, THEN,” insisted the skeleton, sounding genuinely worried for the boy’s health.

“Well, Joel fights using his teeth, either to bite or to shoot them, and shooting them hurts, so he’ll have to get used to the taste,” said the girl, tossing a bouncing marble after detecting a group of three fish. The rat quickly drew his gun and shot each one. “Nice shot, little guy~”

Before Papyrus could say anything, three creatures burst out of the water. Each was about five meters long, with a circular mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth like a lamprey. Their bodies were covered with pulsating orange eyes surrounded by red veins, all staring directly at the group of children.

The giant lampreys lunged to bite them. Sophie and the Rat Child managed to dodge, but Joel did not. One lamprey bit into his right side, sinking countless teeth into him.

But from Joel’s mouth, several new mouths suddenly formed, biting into the lamprey in an instant counterattack, as if each mouth had a life of its own. What finally made the creature let go of him, however, were the bones that erupted from the ground, impaling its belly. Blood poured from the beast, caused by both the boy and the skeleton. No souls appeared—proof that these things were not monsters.

“TOOTH BOY! FALL BACK!” Papyrus created multiple bone barriers between the children and the lampreys.

“I–I’m fine, Mr. Papyrus! –hhh– It’s nothing!” Joel’s gums soon spread over the wounded area, slowly healing it.

The girl and the rat didn’t waste any time. Taking advantage of the openings in the bone barriers, they aimed and fired through them. The Rat Child focused on the lamprey’s body, while Sophie targeted its large orange eyes, bursting them with her steel marbles.

Papyrus prepared more bones, and Joel grew new teeth in case the creatures managed to break through.

But instead of attacking again, the creatures decided to… roar? No, it was something else. They could see the sound waves of the roar rushing toward them—and somehow, those waves were orange.

The children covered their ears, but the damage didn’t hit there—it struck their chests. The three of them twisted in pain, a deep, searing agony that didn’t seem to come from anywhere in their bodies.

“!!! Aggh!” Joel remained standing, while the Rat Child squeaked in pain and fear—it was the first time it had ever felt pain like this.

But Sophie had felt something similar before—though never this strong. It was when she’d been hit by the magic of those monsters back in the Ruins.

“T–this makes no sense… These things bleed, they shouldn’t…” she said, looking down at her chest—or rather, at the light shining from it. Her soul was exposed—and it had taken damage.

Not just hers—the souls of the Rat Child and Joel were also visible. Somehow, these things were using magic.

“DO NOT FEAR, CHILDREN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL HANDLE THESE BEASTS MYSELF!!!” he declared heroically but there was a tone of seriousness behind his voice. The skeleton charged toward the lampreys, and they roared orange again.

“Papyrus!” Sophie tried to stop him—Sans had tasked them with protecting him—but she could only watch as the skeleton ran straight into the orange waves. Yet Papyrus didn’t flinch; not a scratch, not a mark. “Eh?”

Soon, Papyrus summoned a massive number of blue magic bones from beneath the water, impaling the lampreys as if they’d been skewered. Yet the creatures didn’t seem to react.

“...What?” Sophie looked even more confused. Neither side’s attacks seemed to affect the other.

Or so she thought until one lamprey suddenly convulsed in pain, letting out a scream that surely echoed throughout the entire area. Then the others began thrashing too, writhing in agony.

No matter how much they moved, part of their long bodies kept touching another blue bone, causing even more damage, until finally they all fell still. The head of one beast hit the ground with a heavy thud, while the others sank back into the water.

“That… was amazing!” Joel exclaimed, astonished. The Rat Child chirped approvingly, while Sophie remained puzzled.

“NYE HEH HEH HEH!!! I TOLD YOU THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, FUTURE MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD, COULD HANDLE THOSE CREATURES!!! BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE ONE AND ONLY PAPYRUS!!!” he declared triumphantly, striking a heroic pose with one hand on his chest, his red scarf fluttering in the wind—even though there was no wind.

“B–but how?! How did that attack not affect you?!” was the girl’s biggest question at that moment.

“VERY SIMPLE, HUMAN! IF THE ENEMY’S ATTACK IS ORANGE, YOU MUST MOVE, OTHERWISE IT WILL HURT YOU. IF THE ATTACK IS BLUE, YOU MUST STAY COMPLETELY STILL! LIKE A BLUE STOP SIGN AND AN ORANGE GO SIGN!” the skeleton explained.

Sophie nodded—this was valuable information in case she ever had to fight a monster—but then she looked back at the fallen lamprey. “That thing could use magic,” she thought aloud. It didn’t make sense. And it bled. “Wait a minute… Papyrus saw Joel bleed!”

She turned toward the two, chatting as if nothing had happened—Joel clearly admiring the skeleton even more now, and Papyrus basking in the boy’s praise. “Is he too dumb to realize it?... Or does he know and just not care? Maybe his brother told him something? These skeletons are a mystery…”

Sophie sighed, then noticed the lamprey’s flesh melting away. But that wasn’t the strangest part—once again, it was the magic.

“Let’s see… Was there any cursed that could attack the soul directly?” she tried to recall if any creature in the apartment had that ability. “The shadows? No, that pain wasn’t like pain’s magic… The Hellride that wanted to send us to hell? Well, we wouldn’t know unless we’d actually let it take us there… tsk, the only thing that comes to mind was that game we used to play with Lyle.”

///

Doggo said goodbye to Shyren after dropping her off at Napstablook’s house. He was once again walking his patrol route when he suddenly sensed movement ahead.

“Who’s there?” Doggo called out. The dog soon noticed that something—something with many moving parts—was shifting just a few meters in front of him. “Identify yourself. That’s an order from a member of the Royal Guard,” he repeated, summoning his magical blue sword.

The being raised what looked like two arms toward the monster. Even though Doggo could make out one of the arms—a detail that none of the previous creatures he’d fought had possessed—he didn’t lower his guard. The entity soon launched some kind of projectile from one arm, and from the other came the sound of a camera turning on.

Doggo barely dodged the projectile, realizing it was some kind of spine—like a fishbone. That left no doubt in his mind; he immediately counterattacked, sending his sword to slash at the creature.

But before the sword could hit its mark, the creature’s moving parts suddenly froze, causing the blade to pass through harmlessly.

“What the—?” The Royal Guard member quickly drew his two regular swords while pulling his magical one back toward him.

Then he heard the sound of a camera again—and something bright appeared before him, rushing toward him at high speed. Doggo raised his swords to block, but the thing passed right through his guard and through him as well… without causing any harm. The monster turned, noticing a faint blue glow—it looked exactly like his own sword. “That’s my attack.”

That brief moment of distraction was all it took for the creature to fire another spine, this one striking deep into Doggo’s calf.

“Argh! Damn it, I let my guard down,” he cursed, finally realizing the enemy’s strategy. “I get it now. You’re trying to make me move with those shots, so you can hit me with my own attack. Clever—but it won’t work.”

He readied himself seriously, though he noticed his hands growing sweatier than usual—so much so that his grip was starting to slip.

Doggo didn’t have time to worry about it. Another spine shot toward him, but this time he blocked it with a quick flick of his wrist, deflecting the projectile off his blade as the enemy’s blue sword passed harmlessly through him again.

“Don’t underestimate the Royal Guard!” he barked, moving his blades in a complex pattern that caused two magical blue blades to appear exactly where the creature stood. The twin blades began to spin, ensuring the opponent couldn’t move again. “Ha! You’ll be in big trouble once Undyne comes for you.”

Doggo felt proud—until he heard one of his swords hit the ground. “Eh? That’s odd… I was sure I was gripping that—” Then the other sword fell, and this time he saw what was wrong. It wasn’t that his grip had failed—the blade had slipped through his hand, like it was passing through water. He soon felt his whole body changing, his clothes clinging tightly to his skin, as though they were fusing with him. “W-what is this?! What’s happening?!”

Panic overtook him—and it only worsened when he saw the creature between his blue blades start moving again, slowly crawling out from between them. Doggo could tell his magic swords were hurting it… but not enough to make it care. Whether that was because the creature was too strong or because Doggo’s will to fight was fading into fear—he would never know.

The thing came closer. Now that it was near, Doggo could see that its face was split in two—one side human, the other belonging to a deep-sea fish, complete with a glowing lure on its forehead. Its right arm was fused with a camera, while the left was made from the head of one of the fish-like creatures he’d fought earlier.

The creature placed its fish-hand against its chest, and the saw-like tongue in its mouth began to open its own torso slowly, making sure Doggo saw everything—as its half-melted flesh mixed with blood. Once the saw had split its ribcage open, the jaws came next, their teeth digging into the meat to widen the gap further, cracking ribs apart and exposing what lay within—if it could be called organs at all.

Doggo was horrified, paralyzed. He didn’t know much about human anatomy, but he was certain there shouldn’t be thousands of fish eggs inside. He could see the embryos writhing within them.

But that wasn’t all—where the heart should have been, there was what looked like a soul. He hadn’t noticed it at first because it was pitch black, like a tiny black hole. But if he looked closely, he could see it twitching violently—as if in eternal torment.

“W-what are you…?”

The only answer came from the creature’s jaws, which took a few of those eggs and placed them on Doggo, pressing them into his half-melting body.

It didn’t take long before the monster felt something growing inside him—something splitting him apart into several pieces, spreading, expanding—and then he saw around him.

He felt multiple eyes opening all over his body, now able to see stationary objects clearly… and himself.

Doggo’s original body split into three parts, each one becoming a lamprey covered in eyes. He could see through every single one of them, from every angle. It was something he had never experienced in his life—it was the first time he could see his own blue eyes.

It was all so overwhelming for him…

...and he had never felt so wonderful before.

Chapter Text

Two bipedal dogs wielding axes swung their weapons at one of those lamprey-like things in perfect coordination, preventing the creature from reacting to both attacks at once and managing to carve deep cuts into its skin.

The thing let out screeches, releasing waves of blue attacks, but the Royal Guard dogs stayed perfectly still at the right moment so the attack would pass harmlessly through them, then retaliated with heart-shaped magic projectiles that surrounded the creature and struck it.

“You can’t win against the No. 2 Nuzzle Champs ’98!” Dogamy declared as his wife, Dogaressa, finished off the giant lamprey with eyes by slamming her axe into its head. “And before that we were first-place champions!” she replied.

Another one of those giant lampreys suddenly lunged to attack Dogamy from behind, though he had already sensed it by its scent. However, before the dog could do anything, a barrage of star-shaped projectiles crashed into the creature, forcing it to stagger back immediately.

“Grrr, this is our zone,” Dogamy growled as he saw two other Royal Guards interfering.

“Like, and let people keep saying you two are the best duo?” replied one of the guards, who looked pretty muscular in his black armor. Judging by the shape of his helmet, though, one could tell he was a rabbit monster. “If there’s a better battle couple here, it’s us.”

“… 01.” His partner turned to look at him, and the rabbit guard immediately became nervous.

“I-I mean a battle pair, bro! Haha! Ha…”

“What are you doing here?” Dogaressa asked, resting her axe on her shoulder. Guard 02, who looked more serious and wore a helmet resembling some kind of reptile/dragon, handed two swords to the dog couple. Even though the dogs had poor eyesight, they sensed a painfully familiar scent coming from the weapons. “No… Doggo…”

The dogs whimpered as they realized what this meant. “Did you see what happened?” Dogamy asked through doglike sobs.

“No. We went to investigate when more monsters started coming from the direction where he was supposed to be patrolling,” Guard 02 answered professionally, though there was a clear urgency in his tone.

“First Lesser Dog, and now Doggo. And those things won’t stop coming!” Dogamy slammed his axe into the dead lamprey. It was rare to see him angry—normally it was his wife who exploded first when dealing with injustices like this.

“Undyne called us to, like, regroup at the Garbage dump.”

“You two go ahead. We still need to clear the area or civilians could be in danger,” Dogaressa said, and both guards nodded.

“Good luck,” they said before leaving.

///

A blue marble froze a lamprey, and Joel tore off a chunk of flesh from the thing, causing it to collapse and die.

“Bleh! It turns to dust in my mouth!” the toothboy complained before coughing up a cloud of powder from his huge mouth.

“You’ve eaten worse!” Sophie replied as she dodged some orange waves by leaping straight toward them and then firing another marble.

“HUMAN! DO NOT STRAY TOO FAR!” Papyrus shouted, conjuring a bone barrier to block yet another of those things charging at her with its jaws wide open.

“P-paps,” the rat child stammered with a knife in hand, climbing onto one of the bones the skeleton had summoned from the ground.

“OF COURSE, LITTLE FRIEND!” Papyrus declared, enlarging the bone at high speed, launching the rat child like a projectile straight at one of the creatures. The kid buried his combat knife into one of the many eyes covering its body in a Jump Attack far more effective than the ones he usually imitate.

“Hey! Why can the BABY get that close to those things and I can’t?!” Sophie complained as she drove her carving fork into the forehead of one of those mutant fish.

“THAT IS QUITE SIMPLE, HUMAN! YOU HAVE A SLINGSHOT AND A FORK WHILE OUR RODENT FRIEND HAS A KNIFE AND A GUN!!!” Papyrus replied just before a freezing marble hit one of the fish lunging at him with open jaws, freezing it instantly.

“If you’re as cool as you say you are, then you should understand how cool marbles are!” Sophie shot back, annoyed but also having fun.

“EXACTLY, SOMEONE AS COOL AS I AM KNOWS JUST HOW COOL MARBLES ARE. THEY AREN’T!”

“Oh now you crossed the line! You stink!”

“Guys! Hhh… I think we have a problem,” Joel said as three more giant lampreys appeared. But these were different: taller, their bodies white and black, and the eyes protruding from them were a deep blue. More and more fish monsters appeared with them. “I think they’re surrounding us.”

“Papyrus! Do what you did last time and maybe you’ll stop stinking!” the girl said as she caught the rat child mid-air after he killed another creature on his own.

“OF COURSE, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL—”

“No wait!” Joel immediately warned as multiple blue attacks shot toward them. Giant blue magic swords impaled them, stabbing into the ground behind them—all of them skewered by the blades, though they caused no harm…

But the swords didn’t disappear. They remained lodged through them, waiting for them to move so they could deal real damage.

“Weee have a problem,” Sophie said anxiously as she watched the mutant fish circling them like they were playing with their food.

“OF COURSE WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!! THESE THINGS ARE STEALING MY MOVES!”

But before the fish monsters lunged to tear them apart with their sharp teeth, a barrage of heart-shaped projectiles struck them, and two enormous magical axes sliced through the super-lampreys.

The creatures writhed in pain, releasing the group from the blue swords as two dog-shaped monsters with axes stepped forward.

“Papyrus?! What are you doing here?! You’re supposed to be on human-watch duty in Snowdin!” Dogamy asked, surprised that he had disobeyed the Royal Guard Captain’s orders.

“THERE IS NO TIME!!! WE HAVE FAR MORE URGENT MATTERS NOW!” Papyrus said, pointing as the lampreys began to melt. The three soon merged into one.

Chunks of their bodies softened and dripped into the water, then reattached themselves, keeping the creature’s massive size intact. The multiple blue eyes were covered by melting flesh, and the three heads morphed into the head of an eyeless dog.

“I can… see,” a distorted voice rumbled from the thing, then its mouth opened to reveal a single, intensely glowing blue eye.

As everyone prepared to fight again, the eye began to shine brighter. “But… you no longer can.”

Suddenly Sophie’s vision went completely dark. She couldn’t even see the rat child in her arms. “J-Joel! Papyrus! Where are you?!” she yelled, truly frightened. She had been blinded before, but this time it felt like all light had vanished from the world.

“I-I can’t see anything!” Joel sounded equally alarmed and disoriented.

She hugged the baby tightly, expecting something to bite them at any second—but instead felt two arms lifting both of them.

“Hold on tight,” said the female canine guard.

“W-wait! What’s going on?!” Sophie heard Joel say, presumably being carried too.

“OWIE! DON’T SHAKE THE SKELETON TOO MUCH OR A BONE WILL FALL OFF!” Papyrus cried as he was also picked up.

All Sophie could hear were the footsteps of the canine guards and the growls of the creatures. She listened and listened… until light finally returned to her eyes and she could see again.

They were in some sort of cave, with multiple blue flowers on the ground and a ceiling covered in crystals or gems that made it look like the night sky. There was even a telescope to look at them better.

The dogs gently set them down. “Thanks for saving us,” Joel said. “How is it—hhh—that you guys weren’t blinded?”

“Oh, we were blind,” Dogaressa replied.

“But we navigate by our sense of smell,” Dogamy added, tapping his snout.

“Speaking of smell…” Dogaressa leaned close to Sophie and sniffed her. The girl glanced nervously at Papyrus, worried the guards would discover she was human. “Hm, I could’ve sworn you smelled strange, but nope, you’re just a weird rat.” The scent of the rat child had stuck to Sophie after holding him for so long.

“Sniff sniff… and this kid smells like toothpaste,” Dogamy said after sniffing Joel.

“M-my parents always said oral hygiene is important!” the toothpaste boy blurted out in embarrassment.

“Anyway, what are you doing here, Papyrus?” Dogamy asked again.

“I WAS TASKED WITH ESCORTING THESE CHILDREN TO HOTLAND… PLEASE DO NOT TELL UNDYNE.”

The two dogs exchanged a knowing smile.

“…Throw us some bones and we won’t mention this,” Dogaressa proposed.

“HMPH, VERY WELL.” He irritably tossed a bone to each of them.

Both dogs caught them and happily gnawed on them like puppies who had just received a treat—an amusing contrast to how fearsome and heroic they looked moments before.

To Sophie, the sight was a little disappointing… but more than disappointing, it was adorable. Adorable enough that she pet one of them without realizing. “O-oh, sorry!” she said, pulling her hand back, but the dog couple immediately sat in front of her like wagging puppies making big sparkly eyes.

“Pats! Pats! Pats!” they begged, and Sophie couldn’t help but smile and let her eyes sparkle with excitement as she continued petting them.

“H-hey! I wanna pet them too!” Joel quickly joined in.

“Heh, if this is the Royal Guard, maybe Undyne isn’t as dangerous as Papyrus says she is,” Sophie muttered to herself.

///

Hotland, Alphys’ Laboratory.

Alphys couldn’t stop staring at the large screen displaying the moment Doggo had been turned into… that thing.

“T-this makes no sense! W-what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do?!” she whispered frantically, shaken not only by the scene—more than enough reason to panic—but by the part where Doggo and the thing he became were melting.

She couldn’t help remembering the biggest mistake of her life.

“D-did humans try giving determination to animals a-and this was the result?! T-this is horrible! T-this could mean that—”

“That you’re not the only idiot who gave determination to something without a soul? That should make you happy.” A voice spoke behind her, making her jump in fright.

Alphys turned to her visitor, terror written all over her face. “Y-you’re back…”

“Just to catch up on what’s been happening,” the flower replied as one of its vines grabbed a folder from the pile Alphys used to keep her research. “Two weeks in the Ruins to get some me time, and that’s all it took for everything to go to hell.”

“Undyne is doing e-everything she can t-to solve this,” the yellow dinosaur stammered, glancing in every direction.

“It won’t be enough—not if she decides to go after the human in the middle of this disaster.” Flowey said, taking control of the screen and switching the camera feed to the one showing Sophie and Joel petting Dogamy and Dogaressa. “…They don’t look like it, but she and her friends are pretty dangerous.”

“W-well… if something happens I—I could call Asgore so he could absorb the human souls and—”

“You’d let Undyne fail like you did?” the flower interrupted.

“W-what?”

“You failed at researching the soul. Now you’d let her fail Asgore because she couldn’t keep her hatred of humans under control?” Flowey tilted his head. “What does it say about the Captain of the Royal Guard if the king has to do her job?”

Alphys swallowed loudly, a bundle of nerves. “W-what are you proposing w-we should do?”

“That you call Undyne and convince her to make a little truce with the human—at least until they fix this problem. That thing that did that to poor Doggo isn’t the only one lurking around~” he said cheerfully before sinking back into the ground.