Chapter Text
Alone Forever More
A few days ago, if Susie had saw Kris and Noelle floating on the lake, face-down, she would’ve thought that they were just pulling a harmless prank, or it was just Kris being an absolute weirdo.
But now?
As she stands in the cold of the night, pounding on Toriel’s door, a haunting thought snakes around in her mind…
“I… am I… alone… again?”
(A non-canon/A.U fic that is a what-if tied to the ending of the Chapter 5 Weird Route, inspired by art from @konvalia on Twitter/X)
“Wait til she sees that I got her an eggnog flavor…” Susie’s smile was tender, yet, it was also something of a confident smirk as she was finally trundling down the dirt path to the lake. She wasn’t sure why it had taken Mr. Sans as long as it did to prepare the cones – it probably didn’t help that she had him make three on the fly while he tried to tell jokes…
But that didn’t matter to her. Her heart was fluttering – a feeling that had started to become familiar whenever she was around Noelle.
If you had told Susie a few days ago that she’d become a hero destined to save the world, make friends and even get a girlfriend in the timespan between then and now… she would’ve laughed at and called you an idiot. Maybe swore at whoever said it and told them to get the hell out of her way.
But now?
She’d brag about it… humbly, of course.
“Wonder if… they’ll tell me what they’ve been up to.” Susie wasn’t blind to the fact that something was going on between Noelle and Kris. Sure, they’d known eachother a hell of a lot longer than she’d known either of them…
But she and Kris were a team! You’d think she’d get some kinda clue-in… if it was at least relevant to the Dark World.
“Maybe Kris is trying to get the Shelter Codes outta Noelle…” She still hadn’t quite figured out when or how she was gonna bring THAT up with them – ever since Undyne had been taken a couple nights ago, the thought of them getting more help had been on her mind; yeah, she was the toughest around…
But things were getting serious. Hell, they just fought a TITAN last night – who knew what else The Knight had up their sleeves…
“We won’t let it happen… we’ll stop them…” Susie muttered to herself, quickly trying to shift her thoughts to Kris and Noelle. They should’ve been done talking by now – sitting at the benches, maybe laughing a little. “This’d be the perfect time to tell Noelle, actually…!” That idea flew into Susie’s head and, with a smile, she darted forward and towards the benches…
…
But no one was there. No one was sat at the table.
“Umm… guys?” Susie called out loud. “If you’re uh, not done or hiding in the trees, just shout or something?” She called out again, trying to ignore the cold of the ice cream slowly melting and dripping onto her claws.
All Susie heard over the next few minutes was the sound of water gently lapping on the lake’s shore and the occasional gust of wind rustling the trees.
“HELLOOOOOO?” She called out much louder this time, waiting to see if there was any response. “If you’re pulling some kinda prank, your ice cream is gonna melt!” She started squinting into the trees around her, craning her neck here and there to see if maybe her friends were hiding or trying to jump out at her.
…but then, something compelled Susie to look out towards the lake. A sudden tug in the pit of her stomach that began screaming ‘something ain’t right’.
At first, it looked normal. Almost without her input, she moved a few steps forward; maybe they were hiding along the shore…?
“Kris, I’m gonna get brain freeze from yours if you don’t…”
Floating.
She saw them floating.
Almost at the horizon, far out from the shore…
Floating, face down…
…
All three cones fell out of her hands. Susie’s breathing hitched, her eyes going from a squint to wide with panic in less than a second, the girl nearly stumbling backwards.
“What the hell…!?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. Dread began to dig at Susie. Why were they… what did they…
“GUYS!” Instantly, the brave-hearted Hero jumped to action. Ignoring the bitter cold bite of the lakes’ water, Susie surged forward into its embrace, willing herself to practically try and run in it.
“I’M COMING! HANG ON!” Susie yelled to Kris and Noelle, neither of them making any attempt to move.
Floating…
Lifeless…
Cold…
Susie tried to shove those thoughts down as she continued pushing forward towards her friends as fast as she could. The water was up to her waist, but she didn’t let that stop her.
“C’mon… you were more weighed down fighting that TITAN last night… c’mon…” Susie pushed even harder, despite the cold of the water against her, she refused to relent.
Not moving.
Cold.
How long?
“They can still… CPR stuff… they can still…” Susie continued her shoving match against the lake, getting even closer to them. The water was getting deeper; above her lower abdomen now, and climbing up her torso, but she hid her fear.
Depths…
Is this what they were hiding…?
Secrets…
Almost too many thoughts were swirling around in Susie’s head about what could’ve led to this, but she refused to give them stock; Kris and Noelle needed her, damnit!
She pushed harder, her arms protesting from the cold as she was now just a few feet away from Noelle and Kris. Their arms were interlocked, as if they had been holding onto one another.
“Guys… C’MON!” Susie’s neck was starting to go under. The pressure of the water, the cold, it was biting at her. “I’m not… I’m not gonna lose them…!”
An idea came to her mind; it was the only one she had that’d keep her from going under completely. Despite her own fear…
Susie sucked in a breath and plunged down, kicking as hard as she could with her legs and swimming up behind Kris and Noelle. The cold stung her eyes and weariness ate at her limbs, but she started pushing.
She pushed her friends forward, not letting herself re-emerge from the water until she could stand again, the monster girl gasping for breath before quickly grabbing at her friends shirts and trying to run towards the shore.
“Please… please be okay… please…” She kept muttering to herself, teeth chattering as the sun drew closer to setting. There were still no attempted movements from Noelle nor Kris, and if Susie had looked harder, she’d have seen there wasn’t even movement to indicate that they were still drawing breath.
Finally… she got them to land, reaching the lakes’ shore and nearly falling down to the ground herself, heaving several large breaths as her soaked clothes clung to her body, the cold stabbing at her like daggers, as if angry she escaped the grasp of the depths…
“I can’t… I can’t fix this on… on my own…” The monster girl managed to rationalize. The hospital was too far – Castle Town was too far-
Toriel.
Despite her reservations, her feelings in regards to her, given the night before… Susie shoved all that away. She had made things better then… surely, she could now too, right?!
It took a ton of effort, but she lifted both Kris and Noelle into her burly arms, not taking any time to pull their arms or hands apart. Between her recent adventures and the effort of getting them both to shore, Susie’s body was more than feeling worn, but she refused to drop either of them, finding a second wind in herself.
Noelle against her chest and kris in her extended arms, Susie pushed herself as fast as she could. One soaked foot in front of the other, tears of worry slowly leaking out of her eyes and down her wet snout and face.
Two sides of her were fighting; that nasty, intrusive one telling her it was too late, that this wasn’t fixable, and that side filled with hope that had blossomed only recently, telling her that it WOULD be okay.
She just had to get to Toriel’s, she HAD to…
She trudged faster, getting past the Flower King – the lights off and Asgore nowhere to be seen. Past the still decorated houses she pushed herself harder. Silently, she was grateful that there was no one to get in her way.
Susie’s body ached as she made the turn onto Kris’s street, but she didn’t stop. She proceeded onward, the Dreemur house quickly coming into view, the girl finally reaching the door just moments later.
Almost losing her grip on her friends, Susie started pounding the door with a single hand.
“TORIEL!” Her voice was shrill; the fear she’d been trying to hold in finally escaping as she felt no warmth from either of her friends. “MISS TORIEL!”
Inside the home, as of a few hours ago, Toriel had managed to make herself presentable after the night she’d had before. The mother of two knew she owed Kris a better apology than the one she’d given that morning.
But seemingly, it’d have to wait. She knew it was Susie’s voice at the door, but the sound of it scared her. Quickly she rushed to open the door, and the sight immediately made her heart feel like shattering.
Susie’s arms were shaking from strain, her faced stained with tears and still damp from the lake, Kris and Noelle lifeless in her arms.
“Miss Toriel…?” She barely managed to look the older woman in the eyes, the brave monster of the prophecy barely holding herself together anymore.
“P… please… help…”
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Sooo… yeah. That’s where I’ll keep it for now. If you want the fallout, want more of this, my take on what happens next, leave a comment n’ tell me. I LOVE ANGST.