PART ONE - Daughter of the Streets

The inside of Mount Ebott always made for a great roller rink, as long as you avoided the hole in the middle. Lunar adored roller-skating, especially way up here. No one else came all the way up Mount Ebott – no one wanted to risk disappearing.

Lunar had heard the legends, of course – "travelers who climb the mountain never return." But she'd been up here plenty of times, and she'd never disappeared. Sometimes, though, she wished she did. A world without Lunar would be a world without the demon girl.

Yes, the demon girl. That was Lunar. The girl with naturally purple hair and the weird eyes: one neon green, and one that appeared to be made of metal. Of course, since Lunar didn't have parents, she couldn't get it checked, but it often seemed to glitch or flicker.

Lunar didn't remember her parents. They'd abandoned her when she was very young – maybe two or three – probably because of her eyes. Since then, she'd enjoyed roller skating, going to the library and . . . well, other stuff. She couldn't actually remember much of her childhood. She had vague memories of being four or five and hugging a stuffed bunny (she still had it, actually; its name was Mr. Cuddlesworth), and one of being about seven and stabbing someone with a spear. She figured that had just been a nightmare (though where it had come from, she had no idea), but it scared her whenever she thought of it. She was only nine years old, after all.

Only nine, and not incredible at skating yet. Lost in her thoughts, Lunar forgot to slow at a turn and hit her head on the side of the cave wall. She landed on her back, dazed and teetering on the edge of the gaping hole in the center of the mountain.

She lay there for a moment before coming to her senses. As she put her hand on the ground to push herself up, she heard a cracking noise and froze.

"Oh, god." Lunar scrambled to get up before something broke – her roller skates were no great help to this task. They caught on a vine and Lunar found herself hanging precariously over the cavern. All she could think about was how pretty those yellow flowers at the bottom looked.

The vine snapped. Lunar fell. Most of her body had landed on the flowers, but her head hit the cave floor and for all she knew, she was dead.

Lunar woke on a smelly couch in what looked like a laboratory. Her left leg appeared to be broken, and a woman was standing over her, looking sort of confused. "It's awake," she called to someone behind her.

Lunar blinked and squinted at the woman. Her skin was completely blue, her hair was completely red, and . . . were those gills? What was this lady trying to be, a fish? "She's awake, thanks, and she can hear," Lunar muttered.

Two more people appeared behind the lady – a pink robot and a skeleton.

A pink robot and a skeleton?

I'm definitely dead.

The robot appeared to be concerned. "Would you like some food, darling?" it asked, in a deep voice that completely betrayed its feminine appearance.

"I—yeah, I guess," said Lunar.

The fish woman looked at the plate that the robot was holding out. "Is that a steak . . . shaped like your face?"

The robot didn't say anything, but the skeleton piped up. "YEAH UNDYNE! IT'S CALLED A FACE STEAK!"

The fish lady (Undyne?) appeared to be thinking this through as the robot handed the plate to Lunar. "Here you go, darling."

While the steak didn't look anything like the robot's face – more like a calculator – Lunar was hungry. She downed the steak, surprised at how good it tasted. "Holy Hephaestus, this stuff is amazing."

Undyne nudged the skeleton. "Hey, Papyrus. What does 'hephaestus' mean?"

"Hephaestus? He's the Greek god of blacksmiths. When he was a baby, his dad, Zeus, threw him off of Mount Olympus because he looked weird," Lunar explained. How could someone not have heard of Hephaestus? Didn't they go over Greek mythology in real schools? "I personally like him because he likes to build things, like me, and his parents rejected him because of his appearance . . . like mine . . ."

Undyne didn't appear to hear that last remark. She snorted. "Pfft! That's no reason to throw someone off a MOUNTAIN!"

Lunar finished the steak and set the plate to one side. "Have you even read the stories?"

"There are books about this stuff?" Undyne asked, pulling a manga out of her pocket. "The only books I've ever read are this human history stuff."

Lunar put a hand to her forehead. "That's not histor—did you say human?"

Undyne waved the manga. "Yeah, it's the history of the humans. You know, like you?"

"Are you not human?" Lunar asked. "Well, I mean, obviously you don't look human, but . . . you're talking to me and stuff, but you say 'human' like you're not."

Papyrus, the skeleton, rolled his eyes. "OBVIOUSLY SHE DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT MONSTERS! YOU REMEMBER HOW FRISK HAD TO BE TAUGHT ABOUT HOW MONSTERS WORK. HUMANS DON'T KNOW ABOUT US."

Lunar decided to save the questions for later. She searched up World War II on her phone – there was surprisingly good wifi down here – and showed it to Undyne. "See? This is real history."

Undyne snatched the phone like a lifeline. "Whoa. . . THAT'S AWESOME! It's like the War of Humans and Monsters, but cooler!" she yelled.

Lunar thought of the history books at the library that she was always checking out. "That's not the worst. I have better pictures back home . . . or I used to, I guess . . ."

Undyne was too excited to notice Lunar's sudden despondency, but Papyrus seemed concerned. "HUMAN? ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?"

Lunar cleared her throat. "I'm fine."

Papyrus was unconvinced. "WELL, I SUPPOSE. . . IF YOU SAY SO. . . HEY! I KNOW! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE YOU SOME SPAGHETTI! THAT ALWAYS MAKES MY BROTHER FEEL BETTER WHEN HE'S DOWN!"

"YEAH! THAT'S A GREAT IDEA!" Undyne yelled. "TO MY HOUSE! NGAAAAAAHHH!"

Lunar fell off the couch, surprised by the sudden loud noise (she'd always been sensitive to yelling - it was a sort of PTSD from living on the streets for so long), and cried out as her leg hit the floor. The robot quickly helped her up and handed her a pair of crutches. "Here, darling, you'll need these. And remember, it's dangerous for a human to be alone down here."

Lunar smiled shakily. "Th-thanks . . . for your h-h-help."

"Of course, darling," said the robot. "By the way, I'm Mettaton."

"L-Lunar. It's a p-pleasure to meet you."