"People... They're getting ripped from their timelines. It's... Unnatural. The timelines, of course, they reject them. Almost nobody gets away without a scrape, without something being taken away from them. And... Most of them, they end up dead or barely alive the second that they come out into their new timeline. But at least I'm here to try to keep them alive."
"... Where am I?" Undyne whispered, sitting up slowly and nearly screaming out of pure agony. She gritted her teeth, suppressing it as much as possible, and holding out her arm, lighting up the nearly impenetrable darkness with the glow of a light blue spear. She held it high, waving it around to take a look at everything. It appeared to Undyne that she was deep in a cave, water dripping all around her. Huh... Her light illuminated something a sickly white color, standing out from the pale cream and brown of the dripping cave walls around her. As she moved it, she felt a shiver run up her spine. It was a human skull, rolled long off of its main body. Usually, Undyne would be happy to see a skeleton, but this definitely wasn't Papyrus or Sans. Undyne stood up shakily, commanding herself to shut up and stay calm, standing the pain. She drew the light down to her legs, and she took a deep breath upon seeing both of her legs, gashed and sliced. Hell, one of them looked like it was about ready to fall off. Apart from her own condition, Undyne realized something else. This water wasn't clear at all. Instead, it was a murky white, and bits of dust flew through the air. Other human skeletons decorated the cave, and Undyne stepped out of the water. "Okay, lets see here..." She muttered to herself, stepping onto a path of oddly smooth stones that stood out of the dullness of the regular cave landscape. Undyne bent down slowly and carefully, dipping her hand into the water and bringing it even closer to the light. "... This is... This is filled with the dust of monsters. By the Angel, I'm... In a death trap. For humans and monsters!" She realized, stumbling farther onto the path.
Her heart thumping, Undyne took a shaky breath, glancing at the arm that wasn't holding the spear that lit her path. At least it wasn't mangled like her legs. But then again, you can't walk on your arms, can you? Actually, Undyne figured, she probably could walk on her arms but that was a completely ridiculous notion, especially in this situation. "... Guess I should follow the path." She breathed, staring down at the path as she walked, lecturing to herself to keep moving. These stones all looked almost exactly the same, and that disturbed her. What disturbed her more was the amount of dust floating through the air, obviously from dead monsters, and the mangled remains of long dead humans. Huh. If she survived this and was able to come back, she might be able to catch a human and bring more SOUL's to Asgore. Undyne knew that she was at least underground, but that didn't mean she was in the Underground, which pissed her off. Undyne shook her head to clear her thoughts and just focus on getting out of here. She swept the spear in front of her, her thoughts pinpointing only the sound of her own footprints, her breathing, and her heart... So it wasn't much of a surprise when Undyne became acutely aware of animalistic growling echoing around her. Undyne sighed in mere frustration. Why. Why now? She sped up her pace, attempting to outrun whatever seemed like it wanted to have her for lunch. "Not today, not today, not today..." Undyne whispered to herself.
And the something decided that it was today. Out of the shadows, it slammed into the stones jutting from the cave floor, and Undyne let out a yelp of surprise. It turned on her, its gray weaved fur sparking. Its eyes were an odd combination of blue and yellow, and a beady pupil stared at her. It cracked open its jaws to roar right in Undyne's face, and she got a good look at its long rusted and jagged teeth, and abyss black maw. "Okay, hello there!" She yelled to it, and it snapped its mouth shut, narrowly missing her. She raised her good arm, attempting to slam the spear into its maw, and it disappeared with a crack of magic. Channeling what she had left in her, Undyne lit up the tunnels with spears, shooting towards the beast. It honestly looked like a huge wolf to Undyne at the moment, but she didn't have time to think about what the thing she was fighting was, just the fact that she was fighting. It stabbed straight into the beast, and it howled in pain for only a moment. It turned on Undyne, whose eyes widened in surprise, and it raised a paw, slamming it into her. She flew into the cave wall, letting out a yell that echoed around the halls. It snarled, opening its massive mouth again and clamping down onto Undyne's bad arm, lifting her into the air like a rag doll. It flung her into the opposite wall, and Undyne was dead silent, rolling onto the ground. "You're going to have to try harder than th-" Undyne started, but two beams of light pierced through the cave, completely illuminating everything in front of the lights.
"Stop. Don't do that." A clear voice said, and Undyne immediately shut up, gritting her teeth. "Lay still. Don't let the Errim see you. " The beast, apparently an 'Errim', turned towards the light, and snarled, prowling towards it. The lights shut off and on, as if the thing behind them were blinking. "... H-Hey there buddy." It whispered. "Come over here... Come over here towards the light... There ya go..." Lines of drool flecked the Errim's face, and it opened its jaws to snarl as it leaped forward. Undyne was about to get up, to help the person who had saved her, when suddenly, a bright arc of light sliced through the Errim. It snapped its jaws again, reaching a paw out towards the lights, and that was the last move it made. It was split clean in half by whatever that person was wielding, and its split sides disintegrated into black dust. All was silent, until the click of claws on the floor from the person walking towards Undyne rang through the cave. "A-Are you still alive? I really hope so. You'd be the first one... And, uhm, m-maybe... I wouldn't be alone anymore?" It asked politely. Undyne's ragged breathing was enough to answer its question. "Still kicking... Uhm... Just as a warning... When you wake up... E-Expect... Numbing, or loss of feeling in your limbs or other parts of your body. Sorry." It said, and a needle came into the light, quickly piercing Undyne's scales and pressing some green colored liquid into her. And before Undyne could ask any questions, she was out.
Undyne hadn't remembered much after being teleported into that place, of twisting endless caverns, with the paths of smooth, round stones. But one of the things she had remembered... Maniacal laughter Undyne had heard pierced her thoughts, and she opened her eyes, to find herself standing in front of a human child, wearing what appeared to be an extremely formal suit and a top hat, decorated with stripes. What Undyne noticed the most about that, was the amount of metal on this child. What did it remind her of? Oh, yes, Steampunk, she thought the name was. "Like my new outfit, Undyne?" They asked, pointing a huge butcher's knife at her. "Don't answer that, I know I look better than you." They shrugged. "Anyways, I hope you had fun with... Huh. What did she call them? Oh, my 'Errim' puppy. I've got many more of them, so just because that one's dead doesn't mean you're completely off the hook! But off the topic of that, nice job living through the timeline switch!"
"Timeline switch? What?" She exclaimed in surprise.
"That's right! I ripped you out of that normal, boring place like you were a sticker, and slapped you into here! As you may or may not have noticed from my decorations, I've tried it before, but... Only a few people have survived. And even then, barely." They shrugged. "Aw well. I mean, the good thing is is that, you lived, huh? Anyways, the point is, is that I'm gonna tell you something before I'll be forced to be cut off from bugging you for quite a while."
"Cut off? Wait, what do you mean?" Undyne questioned them, and they took a deep breath.
"Mmm, due to a few things that will happen to you... I won't be able to contact you. And besides, I might let information slip! And that's no good to the fun. Anyways, the thing is... Is what I just wanna tell you... You're never ever going to be able to get back into your home timeline, and if you try, you'll be ripped apart. Feel free to toy around with other timelines though. After all, I made this place for fun! And that would be really fun!" They laughed. "But good luck finding out how to move timelines. But until then, you're stuck here. Sit back and have a good time, Undyne. I'll be watching you." They raised their knife, and that was when Undyne realized that she was unable to move. But of course, there was nothing she could do, because the knife was sliced down onto her, and her sight slammed back into the darkness.
Now there was nothing she could do but wait and hope to wake up.
The black was suddenly pierced through with a slice of light, not dissimilar to the one used to kill the Errim earlier. Undyne jolted up in surprise, her head colliding with someone else's. Obviously, they let out a yelp of surprise, falling onto the floor with a clang of metal on dull stones. Undyne blinked, clearing the light and raising her hand to rub them. Instead of her own hand, she felt metal against her eyelid, and stopped in a panic. "What happened?!" She exclaimed to nobody in particular, throwing off the sheets that had been used to cover her. Her vision now clear, she realized that something was very, very wrong. The arm that the Errim had mangled was now no longer flesh and blood, but metal. Undyne raised her other arm, sighing in relief upon seeing her own blue scales. Thank goodness she had that left. Speaking of seeing, she also noticed that her left eye, the one that she had always worn an eyepatch over, had some odd modifications as well. But she could have depth perception again, so that was nice. On top of all of that, both of her legs had been replaced in the same way her arm had. "... You, what did you do?" She turned to the figure, who was currently dusting themselves off and rubbing their head. It was too dark in here to see who it was perfectly, but Undyne could tell that it was short and its arms looked rather flimsy. AKA, easy to beat into dust if necessary.
"I'm really happy you're awake, I was, uhm, r-really worried that maybe only your heart was beating... I mean, I kept winding you up, and uhm, the heart monitor was on, but maybe it was tricking me because I don't think that the tech I've got down here is very reliable..." Undyne could tell that the voice was female, and she decided to stand up. On new legs, that was probably a very bad idea, and she stumbled, nearly falling if it wasn't for the little thing running over and catching her. "Sit down, o-okay? Sorry that it's so dark, the Errim, they're attracted by the light... I wasn't sure if you'd be okay, with, you know, both of your eyes being replaced, so I just fixed the bad one."
"Wait, you did this to me? And, winding up?" Undyne asked her incredulously, sitting back down.
"Yeah, I did. An Errim's bite almost immediately surges poison through your body, therefore rendering your limbs completely useless. And if, y-you somehow survive the initial bite, and get away, the poison from the bite will spread through your entire body stunning you permanently. And that's why I replaced your arm. And, uhm, your legs too. Because, they weren't... Doing too well. And, about the stunning permanently thing... Sorry."
"What do you mean, 'sorry'? What else did you do to me?"
"The poison had already gotten to your heart, so... I... Had to replace that too. So, uhm, the complete list of what I did to you would be... Replacing your eye, your arm, your heart, and your legs." She explained to Undyne, nervously. "I, uhm, d-d-didn't know if you wanted to live or not so, uhm, I did it anyways. There's, uhm, something special about your new heart that I should probably tell you, but maybe we should save that until you're a little more settled in... It has to do with one of your, uhm, p-previous questions."
"... By the Angel you're a life saver." Undyne said. "In normal circumstances I would be furious, but seeing as this basically saved my life... Thanks. I'm Undyne. Who are you?" She introduced herself. The person scuttled off for a few moments, tapping something in the stones, which suddenly lit up the entire room. Undyne squinted to adjust to the sudden light, giving the person time to walk back up to her. And Undyne saw a reptile monster of sorts, except about the only organic part of her was her head and one of her arms. However, the hand on the regular arm was replaced to be robotic. Her eyes were modified to be electric, her arm reminding Undyne slightly of the way Mettaton's arms worked. Her body was pure metal, with a simple heart rate displayed on her chest, with a yellow heart and line tracking her heartbeat, which meant that she hadn't replaced her heart. Her legs were, again, robotic, and her tail was made up of many flexing parts, making her tail probably deadly in a pinch.
"Oh, an Undyne!" She said like there had been many more of her that had fallen into this place. "Hi there, Undyne number 18!" That confirmed her suspicion. "But th-that's probably too formal. I'll just call you Undyne, and since we're gonna be informal, I might as say my informal name too..." She took a deep breath, raising up her flesh and bone hand for Undyne to shake.
"My name is Alphys!"