Whoa! Guys, the amount of attention this has gotten is insane. Across everywhere this is posted, at least sixty people like this, over thirty people are following this...it might not seem like big numbers, but to me that's absolutely crazy. I don't usually get that much attention on anything. And I really appreciate it! Thank you all so much, whether you just decided to glance at it for a minute or you're following this really closely! It means a lot!

I've also gotten a lot of positive comments too, and I haven't really responded to much, but I appreciate it all the same! You guys are great! I'm way too shy to really say anything back though, so if you actually want me to say something back, you're more likely to catch me on tumblr. But otherwise, you're definitely free to keep commenting here if you want! And if you don't want to say anything, that's fine too! I appreciate you all the same.

I'm really sorry this one took so long, and then after all that time it ended up being pretty short. A lot of stuff's come up; an unexpected family emergency, I was sick for awhile, I was also busy for quite awhile, and even now, I have no energy and I really need to go to the doctor. Between all of that and the chapter itself, it just took way too long. I'm not great at writing chapters like this. But hopefully it won't take so long next time, and I'll have a little to show for myself.

At the very least, I've done the math, and the way I have this planned this story should have somewhere around eight chapters.


"Are you sure it'll be okay?" Asriel frowned. "I don't want you to get hurt..."

Jasper grinned at him. "I'll be fine, kid, honest. I've been itching for a fight, and like I said, I was made for this stuff. I've rested more than enough, I'm ready."

Some time had passed since Undyne had come for the training session. If the cycles between the Dreemurrs being awake and being asleep were anything to go by, it had been several days. (Of course, Jasper had slept during quite a few of those 'nights', too, but that wasn't something she'd openly admit to.) Toriel, Asgore, Jasper, and Asriel had spent most of those days quietly at the house. However, Jasper was getting close to her full strength again, and she was getting anxious to get out. She was ready to take up Undyne's offer on a training session.

"Well, okay...Mom and Dad said that it was fine, so I guess it's okay..." Asriel muttered. "But Mom said I have to go with you, so you don't get lost. Is that okay?"

"It's not like I know where Undyne lives, so I guess," she shrugged. "Besides, kid, you'll get to see me fight. I'm sure you'll have fun, too."

He nodded. "Undyne knows we're coming, so she'll be expecting us at any minute. We shouldn't make her wait too long!"

He ran out the front door, and she was close behind him.

The first time she had been out here, she'd only went out to the front yard, but it had been enough to form a first impression. Walking through the area with Asriel, however, was changing her opinion. What seemed dull, dreary, and dead before was now busy, full of life, and held a little too much excitement. There were monsters everywhere, from vendors selling food and plants to some just walking through the place, like the kid and herself. Practically everyone was talking to someone else. It was much louder here than it had been at the house. It was almost a bit much, and she wasn't sure she'd want to deal with all this without the promise of a training session.

That is to say, she did enjoy all this activity. Nothing ever happened at the Dreemurr home, and she was a gem of action more than anything else. It had just been a long time since she'd been somewhere like this, somewhere this... populated. It'd take awhile to readjust to it again.

Jasper surely would've gotten lost if she'd been on her own, but it was a good thing Asriel tagged along, if just for this purpose. He seemed to know all the routes possible, and every shortcut that would minimize travel time. It wasn't all that long before they left that place and went somewhere new.

The new area was warm. Extremely warm. Lava could be seen bubbling around as far as her eyes could see, and there was a lot of technology in place to help navigate around that. It seemed to be less populated here, but whereas the previous area had all kinds of monsters, the monsters in this place ('Hotland', Asriel told her) followed more of a theme. Many of the monsters were made of fire, or at the very least parts of them were. A few looked like walking, talking volcanoes. They all seemed to have the 'hot' part down. It was quieter here too, which Jasper appreciated. At least right now, she preferred this, just a little bit.

Something in her thoughts noted Peridot would like this place, too, but she really didn't care what Peridot liked.

The trip through Hotland was even shorter, since there was a shortcut that went from one end to the other. Just as soon as they were in, they were out again, and Jasper found herself someplace new once more.

This place was calmer, and darker. It wasn't hard to see at all, though, since just about everything here seemed to be luminescent. Even the water, which was weird, but it looked nice, she supposed. There was a lot of water, too, way more of it than there were any monsters around. In fact, through this part of the trek she didn't see any monsters at all. That explained the calm feeling, and how quiet it was. This would probably be a good spot to be by herself and just relax, if she wanted to. But she didn't now, and doubted she would in the future.

Something in her thoughts noted Lazuli might like this place, but she cared even less what Lazuli thought.

Getting through here (she was told by Asriel this was 'Waterfall) took just as little time as with Hotland. They didn't have to go far, since this was where Undyne lived. It wasn't long before her house was in sight, and they were at the door.

"A training dummy, huh?" Jasper noted the dummy to the side of the yard. "I like her style."

Asriel knocked on the door, which was quickly opened. Undyne looked down at him, smiled, then looked up at Jasper. Her smile grew.

"Good to see you made it! You ready to do this?" Undyne asked.

"Of course." Jasper frowned. "Can the kid stay, though? I don't know my way back."

"Definitely! Kids love deadly weapons!"

From there, there was little talk. Both warriors were focused on the impending battle. They squared off at opposite sides of the yard; Undyne in front of her house, and Jasper opposite of her. Asriel was left to decide where he could watch from that would still be safe. He thought about going by the training dummy, and even started to hide behind it, before thinking better of it. He hesitated for a moment, then ran inside Undyne's house and peeked out the window. He still didn't feel safe there, but it was his best option.

"Even if we're just training, I won't go easy on you," Undyne warned.

Jasper smiled. "Don't worry, I plan on giving it all I've got."

"Good. I wouldn't accept any less. But before we get into it, I want to see how good you are at defense." She chuckled. "I don't wanna go overboard."

"Fine by me."

Undyne's hands twitched. When Jasper looked up, there were spears up in the air, all over the yard, pointing directly at her. A single spear rested in Undyne's hands. Jasper had about a second to look at them all before they all flew at her at once. It was on.

She may have been a bit bulky, but she could still be agile. Dodging the spears was easy for Jasper. After all, she'd faced much worse many times before. Multiple enemies facing her at once, with far more dangerous weapons hitting at her faster. She could keep up with a few spears. Though, she had to admit, she could be doing a little better. At one point, she only let her guard up for one minute, and Undyne had her cornered. But even then she could handle the situation fine. All she had to do was use a short spindash, up the wall and around her attack, and she was back in the game. Undyne seemed impressed.

She'd been at war, fought on the battlefield countless times. Practice was nothing.

"Not bad," Undyne commented. "But let's see how you handle this."

With her spear in hand, she dashed forward faster than Jasper could react. Undyne slashed, and Jasper braced herself for the pain. But it never came. She looked down, and there wasn't any sign that she'd been hit. It made her wonder if Undyne had missed, but when she looked up, Undyne looked triumphant. Whatever happened, she must have succeeded. But what?

Spears appeared all around her again, temporarily suspended in the air. Jasper went to move in order to dodge, but she couldn't. She was frozen in place. She tried to move again, to go anywhere, but she was stuck. Undyne laughed.

"As long as your soul is green, you can't dodge my attacks! You'll have to take them head on. Though..." She frowned, her eyes focused on Jasper's face. "I don't think I've seen this before. ...No, this is definitely a new one."

Jasper blinked. A green light was shining right in her face. It was really bright, and almost a little distracting. She couldn't see it, but it was actually her nose causing the light by glowing green. She looked at the light for a moment, then shook her head. There wasn't time to let herself get distracted now.

Undyne shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, I guess." Lifting up her spear, she threw it directly at her opponent. Once again, Jasper braced herself for the hit, and once again, it never came. Instead, it landed at her feet. She picked it up and held it in both hands, preparing to use it to block spears pointed directly at her. She was ready.

Undyne held her hand out in front of her, as if signaling to her own spears. The spears began flying once more.

Her body was stuck standing where she was, but Jasper quickly discovered she could swivel and even turn small amounts in place. (Of course, this wasn't until after she'd taken a couple of hits, but she could handle it.) The spears came at her faster and faster. She quickly adjusted, however, and moved her spear around to block them and hit them away. Jasper only moved faster with Undyne's magic. She certainly preferred an offensive approach, but that didn't mean she couldn't do defense. She could handle this.

After some time of this, it stopped. Undyne waved her spears away and released Jasper from her green magic. "Alright, you can dodge and you can block. No point in doing more of that." She grinned, summoning a spear into her hands. "Now give me everything you've got."

Jasper smiled. She could move again, she still had one of Undyne's spears gripped in her hand, and she still had her own weapon to use as well. It was finally time to show what she could really do.

She took the first move. With her free hand, she wound up her fist for a punch and rushed at Undyne. Undyne jumped back, and with no target in front of her, Jasper's fist met with the ground instead. She couldn't stay there, though, she had to get up and move fast. Undyne had wasted no time in taking advantage of this window, and had launched a few spears that Jasper avoided with ease. Running at Undyne once again, Jasper swung with the spear this time. Rather than dodge again, Undyne blocked with her own spear. For a couple of minutes, they both traded blows with their spears.

As they fought, Jasper thought she could see something around Undyne. Something gray, and barely visible... it almost looked like a shape that she would later learn, from Asriel, was called a heart, but upside-down. She kept looking at it, trying to make it out and figure out if it was really there. It was distracting. So distracting, in fact, that she almost let Undyne get a hit in because of it. After that, she tried not to pay much attention to it.

Eventually, Jasper ended that by knocking away Undyne's spear. She summoned her helmet and attempted to headbutt Undyne in the face, but she missed. Undyne rolled away and summoned another spear into her hands. She swung at Jasper's feet, trying to knock her over. The attack connected, but not with enough force for Jasper to fall. Jasper tried to kick her, but Undyne rolled away once more.

And it went on.

The fight continued for some time. Ever once in awhile, one of them would gain the upper hand, before the other struck back. Overall, it seemed to be somewhat even. Once Jasper overpowered Undyne for the last time, Undyne stood up and got rid of both of the spears.

"Alright, I think that's enough for today," she told Jasper.

"Really?" Jasper broke into a stretch, a frown on her face. "I could keep going you know."

"So could I, but I've seen enough." Undyne flashed a toothy smile. "You're way better than I expected."

"Heh, I could say the same for you. I'm impressed."

"So, to thank you for such a great training session..." Undyne's pause was merely for dramatic effect. "...I'm gonna make you an honorary member of the Royal Guard!"

"The Royal Guard?" Jasper blinked. "Really?"

Undyne laughed. "Absolutely. I'd be a bonehead not to. Of course, it's honorary so it's pretty much all just in name. This isn't your place to protect, and I wouldn't force that on you. But if you do want to help out, we could definitely use it. You're honestly a better fighter than most of the Guard."

"Are you kidding?" Jasper asked. "I've been itching for excitement since I woke up down here. There's no way I'm gonna pass this up, I'll definitely work with you guys."

"Great! You'll get tomorrow's assignment in the morning, then. For now, you and Asriel should go home and rest, I think. I'll be giving orders and all, but...really, you don't have to do everything I say."


Later on, Asriel and Jasper made it back to their own house. It was time for dinner by this point. The Dreemurrs started eating almost immediately, and had a nice and pleasant meal together. Jasper, of course, passed on it once again. She didn't have any interest in trying food, and preferred to stay on the couch she'd been using to rest.

After dinner was over, Asriel was sitting on the floor by Jasper's couch, coloring. She looked down at him, frowning.

"'Coloring' again?" she asked.

"Uh huh!" He grinned, pausing to look up at her. "Do you want to color?"

"No thanks, not interested," she responded. Though, she said that, but it wasn't entirely true. She wasn't interested in coloring herself, but she was interested in what he was coloring. "What're you drawing, kid?"

A second later, the paper he was drawing on was an inch from her face. Asriel was beaming. "It's our family!" he told her. He pointed at the two purple blobs, which were fairly big. "That's Mom and Dad!" His hand shifted to point at a small green blob. "That's me." Once again, his hand moved to point at the last blob. This one was orange, and the tallest one. "And that's you!"

"I still don't think that- wait." Jasper blinked, squinting at the paper. "Me? You drew me there?"

"Yeah!" Asriel pulled the paper away. "Of course. You're part of the family too, Jasper!"

She snorted. "Yeah, right. I'm a stranger your parents let stay on your couch out of pity. I'm not even a monster like you three. I'm not part of your 'family' thing."

"No, you are," he insisted. "You're family as long as you want to stay here. We care about you. You can ask Mom and Dad, they'll say the same thing."

"Whatever, kid."


Well, this is probably going to be the worst chapter in the whole thing, it's going to be one of the shorter ones, but at the very least it's over. We can only go up from here.

Next chapter, Jasper'll get to meet someone new! If you pay close attention to Undyne, she'll drop a hint for you.

Update: If you're seeing this, I'm super sorry, this story's going on a short break. Doesn't mean I won't work on it, just that it might not update for a bit. I was planning on updating Hardtale before getting to this anyway, but... I really need to get to the doctor and until I can I'm just barely functioning and I feel absolutely terrible. Hopefully it'll all get resolved soon and I can get back to this!