A/N: THIS IS A REWRITE! The previous version has since been deleted, this is the new version of this story, and yes, there ought to be a couple differences. We do still hope that you enjoy this as much as we enjoyed writing it. ~Kas

Quiet groaning and mutters of pain filled the air before Jo pushed herself up with a wince. "Well… Nothing seems to be broken." What had just happened, though? She had been up near the top of the mountain, yeah, but she didn't remember tripping over anything. She was walking and then she was falling. Looking back up, Jo felt her eyes go wide. How had she fallen so far down without being hurt more than she already had been? Taking stock of all her limbs, she confirmed that yes, she really was alright, and nothing was broken. Guess those flowers were softer than they looked.

"Thanks for the help," Jo mumbled, tone more bitter than she would have thought. Still… Still. "Right. Guess that's that." Maybe there was a way back up to the top. Maybe she could land on her head…? No, that wouldn't work, not with these flowers. Maybe if she aimed away from them-

"Howdy!" Jerking to a stop, Jo looked around wildly, swallowing sharply.

"I don't need help and I'm going home right now!" The last thing she needed was for someone to find her and call her parents.

"Hey, kid! I'm Flowey, the Flower!" The… Flower? Jo slowly looked down and… There was a flower. With a face. Talking to her. There was a flower with a face that was talking to her.

"H… Hi, Flowey." That fall had done some damage to her, then. Great. "Do you, uh… Do you know the way out of here?"

"Well sure I do, but to get there, you need to go all through the Underground! If you want any hope of that, someone oughta teach you how things work around here!"

"And I suppose that would be you, huh?" Jo crossed her arms, staring down at the hallucination. "The imaginary flower that can talk. Can you even move?"

"Well sure I can! And I'm not imaginary. Here, I'll show you!" Jo startled as the flower started to glow white, and she was… She was glowing, too. Why was she glowing? "See that glow? That's your SOUL! Your SOUL gets stronger and stronger with LV!"

"L-V? What's that? And what do you mean this is my soul? You can't see the soul of a human or anything like that." Hers was a different color, too, than that white of 'Flowey's.'

"Well sure, you can't see the core part of the SOUL, but you can see it shining through! And LV stands for LOVE! Your SOUL wants lots of it! I can help you, there!"

"My soul… wants lots of love." Right. Jo didn't need a hallucination to tell her that. "You can't help me with that. No one can. I'm going to walk away, now, and find my own way out, but thanks for the lesson."

"Wait- You won't survive on your own!" The glowing was fading but Jo saw a tall figure approaching from the only path available.

"Hello?" Oh, great. An adult.

"I, uh, hi? I'm a bit lost. Do you know the way back up to the top of the mountain?" What was an adult doing down here, though? Cave exploring?

"Oh, dear child, have you fallen?" That was not an adult. Jo didn't know what that was but that was not a human- All the old stories couldn't be true. There was no way this mountain was full of…

"You're- You're a-" Monster. Without even pausing to consider it, Jo ran. What else was she supposed to do? That was a monster in front of her! She ran but the first door she got to was closed! "Only the fearless may proceed, the brave and the foolish-!" There was no time for a puzzle!

Looking around wildly, Jo's gaze finally fell to the rocks that looked more like buttons than anything else. Not taking the time to try and figure out which one solved the puzzle, Jo instead started jumping on all of them. Hearing the door open, she quickly ran through and into the next room.

There was just puzzle after puzzle and monsters started coming forward to attack her! Why were the monsters attacking her? She wanted to go home, anywhere was better than here!

It felt like she was running and stumbling her way through everything until she suddenly found herself falling once again and hitting a pile of leaves that weren't as soft as the flowers she had first landed on. Looking around, Jo only saw a small door. She curled up on the ground and brought her knees to her chest. Was this punishment? She had just wanted everything to go away. Was that really so bad to deserve this?

Maybe it really had worked when she fell down the mountain and this was what death was like. It would explain all the monsters. Was she so bad as to deserve hell, though? Sniffling, Jo curled up even more, shaking her head until her red ribbon fell out. This couldn't be the end of it all.

Jo wasn't sure how long she stayed there until she heard a yell above her and leaves flew up as something landed in them. "Ow. Wrong one."

Scrambling to her feet and almost falling back over with how shaky she felt, Jo tried to shake off the wave of cold she felt in her chest as she stared at whatever monster had fallen down into her hiding spot. Oh god. It was another kid. Another human. She wasn't alone down here, anymore! "Um… Hi?"

"Hi- Hi! Oh my gosh, are you okay? Did you hurt anything falling down?" Jo might not have been alone, but this kid looked young.

"No. I'm okay. Are you okay? How long have you been down here?" The kid held her hands out to Jo to help her stand. Jo was careful not to let the kid take too much of her weight, but it was a sweet gesture.

"I'm… I think I'm okay. I'm not sure how long I've been down here." She had spent so much time running from all those fights and monsters. "A day? Maybe two?"

"I'm Frisk." The girl smiled up at her. "We should go."

"Right. Hi, Frisk. So, tell me, you do realize that there are monsters up there, don't you? Monsters that probably want to kill us!"

"I don't think they want to kill us. And how else are we going to get home unless we keep going?"

"I'm sorry, are you not understanding the part about monsters?" Little kids have no concept of danger or fear, it seemed. Maybe Jo could just look the other way and let Frisk leave by herself?

"Toriel is a monster, and she's been really nice," she said as though Jo was supposed to understand in some way what that meant.

"You… know a monster's name- Did they tell you or did you just give the monster a name?" Jo wasn't sure all the monsters could talk, but she had been running a lot.

"She told me. I thought you'd know her. She said she checks every day for people that fall down Mt. Ebott. She's really tall and white with this long flowy purple robe, and fur around her mouth-"

"You mean the giant goat monster?!" How on earth had Frisk managed to talk to 'Toriel' without getting eaten or something?

"I guess she kinda does look like a goat. So yeah. She saved me. Flowey I think tricked me because those friendliness pellets didn't feel like love. They felt like they hurt."

"Friendliness pellets?" Wait. "Wait- You said Flowey? Like a talking sunflower Flowey?"

"I think he was a buttercup," Frisk said with a small huff. Okay, that wasn't a hallucination, then, but that still didn't explain how another human child was down here. Two children falling down in one day? Unlikely.

"How do I know you're not some monster here to trick me or something?"

"How am I supposed to prove I'm not a monster? Why don't you prove you're a human?"

"I-" That was a good point, actually. Looking around, Jo held back a frustrated sigh at not seeing anything she could use before she pinched at her skin until a drop of blood came out. "There, see? Humans bleed and monsters don't."

"Hey, don't do that- Hang on, I have a band-aid." Frisk nodded and took a bandaid… Off her thumb and put it on Jo. "There."

"Ah… Thanks?" Jo was almost certain that Frisk couldn't be a monster, now. She seemed too nice. "Okay, neither of us are monsters, but we can't just walk out of here. It's dangerous!"

"A little, but it's okay. Most of the monsters don't really want to fight." But she really must have hit her head hard on that fall.

"Right. You just keep believing that." Rubbing at the back of her neck, Jo sighed as she tried to gather her thoughts. One thing was sure, she needed to get out of here before she died from starvation or something else. Grabbing her fallen ribbon, and noticing that it was dirty and worn from having fallen on the floor, Jo used it to tie her hair back. They had to get out of here.

The two of them didn't get very far before some monster that looked like a frog was jumping out at them, Jo yelping and jumping back. "G- Go away!"

"No, hang on," Frisk said, stepping in front of Jo and glowing red. Why was she red? "That's a really pretty green."

"Ribbet." Maybe it was just a normal frog and not a monster frog? That still didn't explain why Frisk was glowing red, though. But… But that frog was glowing white. And blushing? He looked like he was blushing. And now there were little white flies around them…

"Uh, Frisk?" Jo found herself whispering even when she wasn't really sure why. "What's happening right now?"

"Don't let them touch you. It hurts," Frisk told her.

"The- The flies hurt if they touch me?" Jo didn't really remember the last few days all that well, but she figured she had a good reason.

"Anything white and glowy like that in a fight."

"Great. Nice to know." They were going to end up dying down here, weren't they? God, Jo didn't want to see a small child like Frisk die down here, that was for sure. "Right. How do we beat this guy, then?"

"And your eyes match your green really nicely," Frisk said with a small nod. "We need to go, though, okay?"

There was another ribbet before the frog seemed to lose all interest in them and hop away. Jo was trying to understand if Frisk had really just complimented her way to victory. Frisk just looked back at Jo. "Come on!"

"Yeah. Okay." Jo nervously tightened her ribbon before swallowing and following after Frisk. Jo hadn't exactly taken notice of her location when she had been running, but it felt like they were going the right way.

"I think I still have to check two more for the right switch."

"Switch? What switch?" Jo was willing to bet Frisk was trying to get past one of the crazy puzzles or riddles. Frisk pointed over towards the spikes that blocked the way to the next room.

"Wait here, I'll find it." As Frisk ran off, Jo looked around the room and… There were four - five holes in the floor. As far as she knew, she only made one.

"Right. I'll just wait here and talk to myself while I'm surrounded by evil monsters who want to try and kill us." Just as she spoke, a loud thud sounded in the room- Oh. The spikes were down. "Hey, Frisk? Whatever you did just now worked!"

Oh, there she was! "Okay, found the switch!" Frisk looked over at the spikes and beamed. "Great! Let's go!"

"Whoa, hey, do you even know where we're going? I mean, this place felt like a maze when I was running through it."

"I mean… It's kind of mostly one straight line, it feels like," she said with a shrug. "How come you're down here? Did you fall trying to make a wish, too?"

"You fell when trying to make a wish?" That was oddly sweet and had Jo feeling guilty. "No, I just slipped when I was out walking."

"Oh. My big brother, Josh, he's in high school. He said that all the big kids always say that if you go to the top of Mt. Ebott and make a wish and you come back home, then it'll come true. But I didn't mean to fall in the mountain."

"Oh." Jo hadn't really heard that rumor, but she supposed she had been hoping for her own wish to come true, in a way. "Well, let's get you out of here and back home and then your wish will come true. Right?"

"Right! But until it comes true, I can't tell you," she said as she examined the layout of the new room they were in. "Hm…"

"I hate this place," Jo muttered, looking around the room herself. "It's a maze full of monsters and nightmares."

"It's a maze! Isn't that fun?"

"I think we have different definitions of fun, kid."

"Come on, let's flip the switches." Frisk began to make for the first switch before pausing and walking towards one of the walls.

"Uh, Frisk? What are you doing?"

"Come read this."

"Why can't you read it," Jo grumbled, walking over anyways to where Frisk was. "'The far door is not an exit, it simply marks a rotation in perspective.' What is that supposed to mean?"

"Rotate means spinning around, right? But what's perspective?" Frisk seemed to puzzle over the words before nodding. "Guess we should go see."

"Better than letting a monster get us, I guess," Jo grumbled, letting Frisk lead the way in whatever they were doing. Though when they entered the next room, Jo immediately ran into the girl. Frisk had just stopped in the doorway.

"Hang on-!" She spun around and went back into the previous room.

"What are you doing? We're supposed to be going this way, aren't we?"

"Jo, I think the room made itself spin around!"

"What? Frisk, there's no way the room spun itself around."

"Okay okay, look inside the new room. Can you see the switches?"

"Fine, fine, I'm looking." Jo crossed her arms and looked into the new room. "It's a different room. See? Different plaques or whatever."

Frisk slid back into the room. "Look, it's the same! The switches are all the same!"

"There's no… way." This place was cursed. That was the only explanation.

"Okay. It says 'if you can see this, press the blue switch.' Oh, this is easy!"

"I'll take your word for it." Jo trailed after Frisk, surprised that the child seemed to be so good at puzzles. The girl couldn't be any older than ten - maybe eight, even - and she was doing a lot better than Jo had been. They passed through two more identical rooms, Frisk reading each plaque and flicking the switches that had all the spikes lowering and allowing them to progress.

"I really like puzzles," she said when she saw the look on Jo's face.

"I… can see that. You're good at them." Ridiculously good, really. "Think we're almost out?"

"I think so! Look, there's a tree!"

"Are you sure that's a tree, Frisk? I mean, we're underground." Jo trailed after Frisk a bit slower, frowning at seeing there was another way they could go. "Hey, what about this way? Past the leaf pile." Why were there leaves down here?

"Oh!" Oh? Who… "I did not expect to see you here, my child! And you as well, I thought you had become lost within the Ruins!" Jo saw out of the corner of her eye Frisk was smiling, but…

"Frisk," Jo whispered as quietly as she could. "I really think we should run right now." Because apparently this monster remembered her and probably wanted to kill them.

Frisk just kept smiling. "This is Jo."

"H- Hi?" Jo gave a little wave, getting ready to grab Frisk's hand and run the second she saw any sign of trouble. "Um, sorry, I guess, for running away from you."

"I apologize for any scare I may have given you. And you I had asked to stay put, though I suppose I have only myself to blame, as I had only wanted-" She stopped as though she'd let too much slip. "Well. We may as well go inside, shall we?"

"Inside where?" Jo looked around, starting to frown. "We're under a mountain, right now, aren't we technically already inside?"

Toriel walked towards… Towards a little house. "This is Home."

"It's nice?" That was a good thing to say when seeing the home of a monster, right?

Frisk followed after her before staring up at the little house. "I like it."

"I still think we should run away," Jo muttered quietly. "She's a monster. How do we know we can trust her?"

"She helped me through a bunch of the puzzles, at the beginning. And she gave me this," Frisk said, taking an old phone out of her pocket.

"She gave you a phone. Where did she even get a phone- How does a phone work down here? There's no way a phone should work down here." Frisk shrugged.

"I can't call anyone from town, but I could call Toriel."

"That's just suspicious." Jo slowed down as they got to the house, looking around the 'yard.' It looks the same as up above, just no sunlight."

"Hey, do you see that?" See what? Frisk was staring at something in front of the house, but Jo for the life of her couldn't see what. "It feels safe, here."

"Uh, Frisk? What am I supposed to be looking at, here?" Frisk just kept staring before looking back at Jo.

"Come on." Sighing and following after Frisk, Jo carefully walked into the house. It was… pretty nice. It reminded her of something that her grandmother might live in. The monster, Toriel, at least didn't seem so threatening when she was sitting down and reading a book.

"The pie is cooling, right now," she told the two of them. "For now, feel free to play, or read." Right, Jo was definitely going to run around and play in a monster house. Huh. Would she even be able to read a monster book? Tilting her head to read the spine, she found that yes, they were in English. Some were history books, some were cookbooks, and a lot were books about… Snails.

Jo definitely needed to get her and Frisk out of here. Toriel was watching the front door, now, but maybe there was another way out of the house. Some backdoor exit. Like… Like those stairs. Huh. Frisk was still in the other room reading, but for now, Jo would keep exploring until she found something.

Walking down the hallway, Jo counted the number of doors before blinking at herself in front of the mirror that was placed on the wall. It was the same old image - brown hair that was unevenly cut and just barely passed her ears, bangs held back with an old red ribbon, and a faded Nirvana shirt that covered the palms of her hands and almost sunk down to her thighs. "Hey, where'd you go?" Frisk came and found Jo, and stared into the mirror as well. She was a bit shorter than Jo, but not by much. Her hair looked like Jo's, though her bangs were shorter, and her sweater also looked too big for her. Odd that she was wearing a sweater in this weather, but some people got cold easily.

"I was just looking around," Jo finally shrugged, doubling back to the first door she had seen and pushing it open.

Frisk followed her, peeking into the room. "Oh, this is nice."

"Does Toriel have a kid of her own?" Jo pushed the door all the way open before walking in and looking around the bedroom of a child.

"I dunno. It kinda looks like it." Jo looked around and there were toys of all different kinds, and… Shoes. A strange amount of shoes for one kid. And all different kinds, in all different sizes…

"Frisk. We need to leave. Right now." This was a horror movie opening that Jo wanted no part of, thank you very much.

"What? Why? How come?"

"Because it's dangerous here and I'm older so you have to listen to what I say. So let's go."

"What- Just because you're older than me doesn't make you the boss of me!"

"It does in this case. Frisk, look at those shoes. What is Toriel doing with so many different sizes and types of shoes?"

Frisk looked at the shoes, frowning. "I dunno. She really likes shoes. Or maybe her kid grew out of shoes really fast."

"Those look like human shoes. Why would a goat monster need shoes? They probably have hooves!"

"Well… I dunno. Maybe they have fur feet?"

"Then you wouldn't need shoes if you had fur feet! C'mon, Frisk, we need to go. What if that pie that's 'cooling' is really poisoned!"

"How are we gonna go?"

"Just follow my lead." Jo took Frisk's hand and tugged her along, putting on a smile. "Hey, Toriel? We're gonna go play out in the yard a little bit, okay?"

"Be safe, my children." Her children? Definitely the crazy killer in a horror movie. They were so getting out.

"Yeah, sure, be back later!" Jo pulled Frisk out the door, looking around. "Come on. There was this other path over there."

"Uh, okay…" Frisk followed her and they got down the other path- Oh boy. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea, going into a big town like that.

"Let's just look around the edge a little bit, first," Jo finally muttered, looking around where they were before pausing at the sight of a small toy knife. Quickly checking her pockets, Jo realized it was her toy knife. "How- How did that get all the way over here?"

"Um… Why do you have a knife?" Looking over, Jo startled at seeing Frisk looked… Scared. Of her.

"It's not a real knife." Jo went over to pick it up, holding her hand out and poking herself with the toy. "It's just made of rubber and stuff. It's a toy my parents got me."

"Oh… Um, alright…" Frisk looked around again. "We should go back."

"Yeah." Tucking the knife away, Jo gave an uneasy look to the city behind them. Just how many monsters were down with them. "Maybe there's another way out through that house."

"Maybe. Mom will be upset if I'm not home for dinner."

"We'll get you home, Frisk." And then Jo could maybe go to the river instead of the mountain, next time. "We just have to be… PATIENT."