Chapter Text
It's been five days of wandering around on this godforsaken mountain. You can't tell which way leads to town anymore, which is--in your humble opinion--bullshit, since you grew up in the town at the base of Mt. Ebott and therefore have been scrambling your way up and down it for well over a decade.
You had made your way to your favorite clearing to watch the meteor shower, a cozy place encircled mostly by trees aside from a shallow pond overlooking a rocky slope, not steep enough to be called a cliff, but not gradual enough to be climable. You had brought one of your thickest blankets as extra cushioning against the already soft grass, a few bottles of water, some granola bars, and your grandfather's Polaroid camera, safely tucked away in your weatherproof backpack. You knew the pathway to the clearing like the back of your hand, though the random passerby would overlook it. You laid out while the sun was setting and enjoyed the peace and quiet around you. Just as with the other times you had done this, you were amazed and contented by the streaks of light caressing the sky. Before you knew it, you had fallen asleep under the dripping stars.
That wasn't the first time you had fallen asleep out there, and not the first time you had been awoken by rain, but it was the first time that said rain had come in the form of a torrential downpour. You sputtered awake, the half-mouthful of rainwater you had collected flowing out and dribbling down your chin, the sensation of water on your skin losing singularity somewhere near the middle of your throat and blending in with the rest of the rain. Blinded by the water and hair in your eyes you began grabbing wildly for your things. Your blanket was absolutely sodden, weighing heavily in your arms. You turned for what you believed to be the break in the trees, and made to begin making your way back home. As misfortune would have it, the moment your foot got wound in the blanket was the moment you stepped along the slick edge of the pond. You careened forward, tumbling over the edge and rolling down the rocky slope you had never dared traverse.
By the time you rolled to a stop you were covered in mud, and your blanket, which had somewhat wrapped around you during your descent, had ripped in multiple places. Shifting to stand left you feeling pretty sure your wrist was sprained, or worse. Groaning, you stood shakily on your feet. You couldn't go back the way you came, that much was certain. Dizzy from the fall, and unable to see through the rain, you knew that you wouldn't be able to get your bearings. You wadded your blanket up in your arms and made your way towards the shadows of what you hoped were trees.
That was five days ago. When the rain finally stopped, your shivering form emerged from underneath a particularly wide fir. You knew that you had fallen into the partial crater along Mt. Ebott's northern face, and the town was at the base on the southern side. You just had to find a way to get to the base of the mountain and then follow it around. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. Your phone was nowhere to be found, you ran out of granola bars after two days, and this morning had seen the last of your water. Dehydrated and starving, the sunset of your fifth day was shining upon you, promising another cold, dreary, night. Your head was pounding, your lips cracked and tongue thick from lack of water. Your stomach was tearing itself apart, and every stumble aggravated your injuries. The blanket had been abandoned during either day two or three, having not dried properly it was beginning to mildew and mold; the smell made you wretch. The bright orange of the sun glinted off a scraggly rockface.
Your foot caught on a rock, and down you went. You knew you needed to stand, but couldn't bring yourself to do so.
Maybe I'll just... take a nap here. I can keep going once some of my strength comes back.
"-INALLY MEETING THE SUN!"
What... was that? Was that a voice? It was faint, and there seemed to be other voices. Adrenaline began coursing through your veins. If I can just get to them... they can help me get home. You pushed yourself to your feet, and began moving towards the sounds you desperately hoped belonged to people. As you neared them, you were able to make more out.
"-ST MASCOT! I'LL GO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION!"
You knew you had to be getting close. You rounded a corner and almost ran into a.... a.......
You had to be hallucinating. That's it. That's the only logical explanation as to why a skeleton would have just skidded to a stop, orange gloved hands slowly reaching up to rest on either side of... their (???) jaw. Somehow, the skeleton's eyesockets grew in size and lights began twinkling from deep within the darkness. A high pitched noise was filling your ears and eventually you realized it was coming from the skeleton.
"WOWIE!" Oh wow, okay. That is one loud hallucination. "YOU ARE THE VERY FIRST SURFACE HUMAN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE COME ACROSS!" The hallucination strode quickly towards you, and grabbed your injured arm with both hands, shaking it vigorously up and down. "YOU ARE HONORED TO MAKE MY ACQUAINTANCE! PLEASE, CAN YOU TELL- SURFACE HUMAN? SURFACE HUMAN, ARE YOU ALRIGHT? I DO NOT MEAN TO FRIGHTEN YOU, PLEASE, LET ME HELP YOU BACK UP!" You were staring up at it from the ground, having flinched back so hard when your injured wrist was jostled that you stumbled and fell. The fall had started up a ringing in your head, and everything was spinning dangerously. You vaguely noticed a blue, fish-like hallucination joining the skeleton.
This is it, I'm going to die out here. There wasn't ever anyone nearby.
"Hey! You! What'ya keep gawkin' at? We're just monsters!"
I'm alone on this mountain and now I'm seeing things. You only dimly registered the grit of rock against your cheek.
"UM... HUMAN?"
"Hey, punk, this isn't funny. You need to stand up."
"U-um, U-Undyne?"
Oh look, another one. Yellow this time. Yellow is a nice color.
"Alphys!"
"WE THINK SOMETHING MAY BE WRONG WITH THE HUMAN!"
"Oh, u-um... l-let me take a l-look at th-them."
Heh. Huh. So this is how my brain wants to send me off. I guess there are worse things to hallucinate.
"I th-think th-they're sick. I'm g-going to pull out th-their SOUL to take a l-look at th-their HP."
Soul? I didn't know I really believed in souls.
Your vision grew dark around the edges, around most of your field of vision, actually. All you could clearly see was a white dinosaur, wearing glasses and a lab coat. Where did the yellow one go? Did the sun set? The ringing in your ears was deafening now. You felt a tightness in your chest, and tried to sit up, or cough? Coughing helped heart attacks, right? Was this a heart attack? Was your body shutting down? You thought the human body could last longer than five days without food and water. A dim shimmer of color caught your eye. A shimmery, light periwinkle cartoon heart was floating in the darkness between you and the white dinosaur. The dinosaur raised a taloned hand and twisted it like they were screwing in a light bulb. The heart grew a bit brighter, and underneath it something akin to a loading bar appeared. It was mostly empty, save for a slim bar of that same periwinkle color at the end. There were words underneath, but you were too dazed to try and read them.
"Oh no..." The dinosaur made a shoving motion and the periwinkle heart disappeared. The darkness slowly regressed, the white dinosaur slowly fading into a yellow and white blob. The ringing was back in full force, and you couldn't make out what the raised voices were saying. You felt yourself being moved, but couldn't keep your eyes open long enough to register more than a bit of white against a field of purple. You finally lost conciousness, surrounded by the smell of butterscotch and cinnamon.
~~~~~
The darkness surrounding you was comforting. Gently you floated through the emptiness, feet never really connecting to any kind of surface. You didn't feel the relentless scrape of air against your parched throat, the ringing in your ears simply a painful memory. Faintly, you heard whispers amidst the inky depths. They grew closer, and circled you, though no source was to be seen. They hissed. They took on a tint of curiosity. A disfigured skeletal hand emerged in front of you, the fused-together bones of the palm marred by a gaping hole. As the hand grew closer to you, all you felt was apathy. Slowly the whispers grew to something you could faintly make out, but not understand. Though the whispers were clear, they were nonsense, sounds that may have once been considered syllables run through a blender and half-burnt. You tried to focus on them.
"Way cup, deer. Mice unwieghts four youth owe heed us knot no wit." The hand floated ever closer, pressing against your forehead with a warmth that took you by surprise. The whisper's touch rekindled your emotions, a sense of urgency growing as you realized that you weren't floating in the darkness, you were stuck in it. You tried pulling yourself free to no avail, you cried out without making a sound. Another hand appeared, a mirror image of the first, and laid itself over your heart. The extra warmth gave you the strength to press against the blackness weighing down on you.
"Way cup." The whispers said, louder this time. "Way cup!"
~~~~~
You gasped into awareness in a brightly lit room. The tile ceiling far above your head, the yellow walls unfamiliar. You were covered by a pink blanket, and sat up gingerly, swinging your feet down to rest on the grid-marked floor.
"hey." A new weight on your shoulder, paired with the unexpected voice and unfamiliar surroundings, sent you lurching off the bed and tumbling to the cool, smooth floor. "you should probably stay in bed, buddy. you've been asleep for a-tile."
When you registered the pun, the noise that you made was somewhere between a laugh and a groan.
"heh, that's what i like to hear. now, c'mon. me and the kid'll help you up." A pair of fuzzy slippers shuffled into your line of vision, followed quickly by a much smaller pair of boots. Looking up, you were more than surprised to see another skeleton! Not the same from before, no, this one was shorter, more sturdy looking. A frizzy-haired child stood next to it, a child you recognized.
"Frisk!" You swept them into your arms, holding them close to you and snuffling your nose into their brown hair. "Frisk! Oh, let me look at you. Are you hurt? Where have you been?" You pulled back to check them over for injuries, but they pushed your hands away and began signing.
I'm alright, I made some new friends! They turned to partially face the skeleton. Sans kept on eye on me while I was underground!
"heh, good one, kiddo." You assumed Frisk made an inside joke, since you couldn't discern one. "but yeah, i'm sans. sans the skeleton."
He helped me. You looked briefly between the two of them. Then smiled at Sans.
"Thank you, Sans, for looking out for them."
"frisk is a good kid, so it wasn't any skin off my nose." You rolled your eyes good-naturedly. Puns and jokes seemed to be his thing.
Come on! I want you to meet everybody! The excited child grabbed your hand and pulled you off the bed. Still a bit dizzy you almost toppled over and into Sans, thankfully you caught yourself before you actually fell on him. You made sure your feet were firmly planted on the floor before looking up at Sans to apologize for almost crushing him. But, he wasn't there? He was actually about three feet to the left, completely out of the way of your uncoordinated self. Weird. Before you could think much more on that, Frisk tugged at your hand again, bypassing a nearby moving sidewalk and heading for a set of stairs.
Okay. So. The real question. Am I still hallucinating?Or worse, am I dead? Frisk held onto your hand all the way downstairs, where the creatures from before, as well as a few extras, were gathered. The tapping of Frisk's feet against the tile drew everyone's attention as the two of you descended. As soon as you reached them, Frisk began signing rapidly. Everybody can relax now! She's awake! It seemed like everyone present unleashed a collective breath. A large (Very large, hoo boy.) anthropomorphic goat with a golden beard and a crown shuffled forward.
"How are you feeling?" His deep voice had a slight accent to it, one you couldn't place. Concern dripped from his words, and you immediately felt guilty for inconveniencing everyone. "Are you recovered? Frisk did not wake you up too early, did they?"
"Aside from some initial dizziness, I feel better than I have in years. And, if I'm being completely honest, that feeling... paired with seeing Frisk? And seeing all of you? I really don't mean to be rude, but a part of me is worried I'm still on the mountainside and this is all a dream my mind is creating to distract me from a failing body."
"I can assure you, my child, that this is all quite real." The soft-spoken words came from another goat-creature. Slightly smaller than the first but still much much taller than you. "Your HP was nearly depleted. We brought you back here and healed you." She gestured to the yellow dinosaur somewhat hiding behind the blue fish woman from before. "Doctor Alphys here recognized the signs of, what was it Alphys?"
"Dehyd-dration and ma-malnutrition." The poor thing had one hand wound tight in her lab coat, and with the other she was somehow managing to chew at her talons while holding the red-headed fish woman's hand.
"We are a race of creatures know as Monsters," the golden-bearded goat spoke again. "More centuries ago than I care to count, humans and monsters engaged in a vicious war. Humanity won, and seven of the most powerful mages created a barrier sealing all Monsters underground." He turned and looked fondly at Frisk, unshed tears shining in his eyes. "This brave, determined child helped break the barrier so that we may finally be free." It was impossible not to be moved by the emotions in his voice. "However, when you collapsed we did not know where to take you on the surface, so we brought you back Underground."
"We're in the Underground right now?" You asked, a sense of horror growing in your chest. The panic was evidently apparent on your face, for just about every monster present shifted in some way.
"Why in the world did you bring me down here?" The words came out before you really had a chance to think about them. The fish monster shifted into an aggressive stance.
"Yeah, well, we could'a just left you there!"
Oh no, you didn't mean to offend her, you just...
"That's.... that's not what I meant."
"well, uh, how exactly did you mean it buddy?" Sans' voice came from directly behind you, you hadn't realized he had come downstairs.
"You all have been trapped down here for.... centuries?" You look quickly to the crowned goat, who nods gently. "And you were free? And I come along and pass out because I don't know how to walk around in a rainstorm and so you go back underground?!" You were feeling exquisitely guilty now. "How many of you are there? Did everyone have to come back?"
"Our group is the only one to have actually been to the surface, but there are thousands upon thousands of monsters waiting for their chance." The lady goat said softly. "We have not let anyone pass, since Asgore and I will be needed to make diplomatic talks with humanity's leaders. And Frisk, who is our monster-human ambassador, has not been willing to leave your side. We did not want any well-meaning monsters to panic the humans and cause another war."
"We have to leave right now!" You practically yelled. "Like, right now right now!"
But I need to introduce you to everybody!
"Frisk, sweetie. We can do introductions when everybody has permission to see the sunshine, okay." You thought for a moment. "Or moon...shine... I'm not quite sure how long I was out for." The tall skeleton, you recall him introducing himself as The Great Papyrus, raised a gloved finger, inhaling deeply to speak but you stopped him before he got a word out. "Tell me on the surface, okay?"
"My child, are you sure you are completely well?" The lady goat seemed amused.
"Yep! Just dandy!" You jumped and clicked your heels together. "See? Perfectly fine, full mobility, let's go let's go!" With that, you took off at a brisk pace, but almost immediately stopped to turn sheepishly around. "I... Um... I don't actually know how to get to the surface from here..."
"I KNOW HOW!" Papyrus struck a pose, and you couldn't help but smile. Frisk clapped twice to get everyone's attention. They had a mischievous glint in their eye.
Let's have a race!
"Aw heck yeah!" The blue fish monster had a manic grin on her face. "I'm gonna leave all of you in the dirt!" Papyrus, the fish monster, Frisk and yourself all ran to line up in front of a metal door that slid open as the four of you approached. "Alphy, you wanna see me beat these nerds?"
"I'll be ch-cheering you on, U-Undyne!" Her excitement pushed her volume louder than you had previously heard her speak. "I-I'll watch from the monitors th-though, I still have to finish p-programming the alert l-letting everyone know it's okay to l-leave, and I'd n-never be able to k-keep u-up anyw-way." Her stuttering grew worse and her volume lessened as she realized how loud she had gotten.
"We will stay behind momentarily to help record the alerts, and will join you all on the surface shortly." The crowned goat monster said, you were assuming this was the Asgore that the lady goat monster mentioned, since, you know, crown. People with crowns usually are the ones to talk to other diplomatic leaders and what have you.
"SANS ARE YOU GOING TO RACE?"
"nah paps, you're gonna win anyways."
"THANK YOU BROTH-"
"i feel it in my sole."
"UGH SANS, I RETRACT MY REQUEST FOR YOU TO PARTICIPATE." You snicker at their antics.
"Alright, nerds! Let's get this race moving!" Undyne's grin was razor sharp. "Last one to MTT Resort is a rotten Temmie flake! On your mark! Get set! Go!"
The four of you took off out of the doors, the intense heat taking you by surprise, it didn't seem this hot while you were standing next to the open door. Everyone made a sharp right turn and continued along a narrower path. Undyne was far ahead of everyone, Papyrus was between Undyne and Frisk, running backwards and shouting encouragements. Frisk wasn't far behind him, but you were trailing. And the distance just kept getting longer and longer.
"YOU CAN DO IT HUMAN!" His enthusiasm was boundless it seemed, and you didn't want to let him down. You picked up the pace. If only you could endure this a little bit longer, the resort Undyne mentioned had to be coming up. As you followed them around another corner you saw Undyne jogging in place next to an elevator, talking to... Sans? By the time you reached them all at the elevator, it was dinging it's arrival and Papyrus was groaning at something Sans had said that you didn't catch over your own ragged breaths. Wow. Okay. Out of shape. Really out of shape.
For a few moments all that could be heard was your heavy breathing. Thankfully, Sans decided to break the silence.
"how do you know the kiddo?"
They're my babysitter! Frisk was beaming. Yesterday we watched Finding Nemo! Wait a second. Did you see that sign correctly?
"Frisk, honey... It wasn't yest-" You were cut off as the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open. Unbeknownst to everyone, the pinpricks of light that served as Sans' pupils disappeared at the tone in your voice. Undyne was off like a bullet but Papyrus and Frisk stayed to run with you.
"hey, i'll show her how to get to the resort. you two catch up to undyne." Papryus didn't even groan this time, he simply bent at the waist like he was slumping over, but his legs were still jogging in place. Frisk winked at you, as flirtatious as ever, and the two of them took off. Sans slid his gaze over to you. "so. how long has the kid actually been missin'?"
You sighed deeply, wringing your hands.
"Three years."