Adventures In Waterfall, Part Two

Hey guys! Sorry for the wait on this! I hope you enjoy! Tina has returned, and Frisk is continuing to make her journey. Undyne and a certain yellow flower still lurk, and a new friend is made while old memories are revisited.

There are three new OCs in Tina's part of the story, with Tina's mother being introduced for the first time as well as two other OCs who will be very minor, but may come back further along the line if people like them.

Monster Kid identifies as male here.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think of the story!

...

"Here we go." Frisk said to herself a little bit nervously as they continued down the long hallway. She again wondered how Tina was doing, desperately hoping her baby sister was okay.

...

"Look both ways before you cross the street."

"Stay to the main roads where there's lots of people. It's safest that way."

"Don't approach any strangers on the street or talk to them."

Frisk's instructions ran through Tina's head as the little girl walked down the street, the change she had taken from her piggy bank in her pocket. It wasn't too much, but it might be enough to buy her a box of crackers. Food was running a bit low again, and while she still had some, she knew it would be a good idea to get some more, especially something she could hide in her room so the scary people her parents invited over couldn't eat it all. And if-when! Frisk got home, her big sister might be hungry. Frisk always made sure to give her food when she was hungry, so she wanted to the same for her.

Tina carefully looked both ways before crossing the street. As she started towards the little supermarket, she passed the little church nearby, then saw a sign reading Food Pantry. She remembered Frisk saying she had gotten some food at a food pantry a year ago, so she pushed open the heavy door and headed inside.

Inside there was the fresh smell of baked bread and the even sweeter smell of cookies. Several grownups were sitting at long tables that were covered with loaves of bread, bags of bagels, some canned goods and plates of cookies.

Tina glanced longingly at the cookies, but she knew she probably couldn't afford them and needed something more substantial, so she picked up a loaf of bread. She approached a middle lady sitting at the table who had curly brown hair running down to her shoulders and was wearing a pretty purple top who was sitting at one of the tables. She had a name tag that read Marianne. "How much is this, please?" Tina asked, holding up the bread. Frisk had said it was okay to talk to salespeople, just not to go with anyone in the store alone.

The lady smiled at her. "That's free, sweetie. We're giving them away and you and your family can have a bag of bagels to go with them as well as this food package." She set out a bag containing two family sized boxes of mac and cheese, a can of mixed veggies, some little cans of tuna, and some of those plastic containers of sliced peaches.

Tina gave her a wide grin. "That's really nice! Thank you!"

"You're welcome, little one. And just for being so sweet, you can have a bag of these chocolate chip cookies too. Miss Donna baked them, and just between you and me, she's the best baker in all of Ebott City." Marianne whispered in a playful conspiratorial tone. She then looked around, searching for the little girl's parents who she had thought might have let the little one get the bread "all by herself." She frowned when she saw no one. "Where are your parents, honey?"

"Daddy's out working and Mommy's not feeling well, so I decided to come here to get food." Tina said and her tummy twisted a little at the partial lie. Daddy had went out, and she didn't know where he went(though she hoped he was working) and Mommy was passed out on the couch and had briefly awoken, but only groaned and told her to go away when Tina had tried to speak to her, then went right back to sleep. The bad pills always made Mommy tired the next day.

Marianne frowned as she heard this and then caught sight of the child's thin frame and worn out pink dress. "I know you were trying to help, sweetie, but you shouldn't wander off on your own. Your mommy's probably worried sick about you. What's your name?"

Tina felt nervous. Miss Marianne seemed nice, but she didn't know her at all. Then she remembered another piece of advice from Frisk. If someone you don't know very well or don't trust asks for your name and you can't get out of the conversation, give them a fake one. "I'm...Amy. Amy White." Tina said and though she tried to keep a straight face, her tummy twisted painfully at the lie again.

Marianne noticed the child's strange tone, but decided not to comment on it. "Tell you what, Amy, why don't I walk you home. I don't want you to get hurt crossing the street, plus it looks like it's about to rain." she offered, not wanting the little girl to get lost or hurt. "Just let me tell Miss Donna where I'm going. She walked away for a minute to tell the church leader where she was going, but when she went back, the little girl was gone. "Where'd she...Hey, David, did you see where that little girl went?" she called across the room to the other volunteer.

David, a younger man with brownish red hair in a green polo T-shirt, looked up from the elderly woman he was giving bread to. "The little girl you were talking to? I just saw her run outside. I assumed her family was out there." He hadn't heard the conversation and didn't know the little one was there completely alone.

Marianne's heart skipped a beat and she ran to the door, but couldn't catch sight of the little girl anywhere.

"What's wrong?" David asked her.

"She was here alone. She said her dad was off working and her mom was sick. And I offered to walk her home, but she ran off when my back was turned. And now that I think about it, I'm not sure she told me the truth about what her name was. I'm worried about her. She can't be any more than five or six. She shouldn't be wandering the streets alone."

David frowned in worry. "It's possible she's from a poorer family and is afraid we'll call CPS and have her taken away or something. She also could be worried about getting in trouble or just got nervous because you're a stranger and thought you'd kidnap her or something. Of course you wouldn't but she doesn't know you well and wouldn't know that."

"I feel like there's something more going on though. She's such a thin little thing and she's wandering around by herself in the rain. What should I do? I don't want to scare her, but I don't want her to get hurt either. She doesn't look like she's in good shape and she could get hit by a car or something." Marianne said softly, still worried about the child.

"There's not much we can do." David told her. "We could look into it further, but the police might not do much unless we have solid evidence that she's in danger, and right now, we don't even know that she is. The best thing we can do is wait. The good thing is that she knows there's free food here, so she might come back if food is hard to come by where she lives. Someone here can talk to her then. We can tell the leaders here about her and see about getting her the help she needs if she does need help, but that's all we can do for now."

Marianne nodded with a frown, and did go back to her work, but her mind was occupied for the rest of the day about the little girl who had come in and then vanished like a ghost. She hoped there would be something she could do to help.

...

Once the lady had gone back inside, Tina stepped out from her hiding place at the side of the building, having not been able to run as fast as she liked due to the heavy bags. Her heart was pounding. She had barely made it to her hiding spot in time. Adjusting the bags and making sure she wasn't being followed, she ran all the way home, stumbling at times due to the weight of the bags. It was starting to rain, but she got to her door before the worst of it struck. That had been a close one. She didn't know what would have happened if the lady had walked her home. She had seemed nice, but though Tina was pretty sure she wouldn't have hurt her, she didn't know for sure. The Stranger Danger person at school said some kidnappers would act nice to get kids to trust them, so she had to be extra careful, especially since Frisk wasn't there to protect her. And if she had let Marianne bring her home, she didn't know what the lady would have done, or if it would have upset Mommy. And she knew her home wasn't as nice as that of some of the other kids, and that her home life wasn't the best, so what if the lady had called someone to take her away, and she never got to see Frisk again? Little Andrew in kindergarten had been placed in a separate foster home from two of his five brothers and sisters, and he hadn't seen them since. She didn't want to never see Frisk again!

Tears filled her eyes. Frisk had been gone for over three days. She had never been gone this long. She desperately hoped Frisk had come home while she had been at the church, but saw no one except her mommy, who was sitting at the table and staring into space, dark circles around her eyes. Like Frisk, she had short brown hair, though she had blue eyes rather than Frisk's brown and she was thin and wiry, and she wore an old, baggy, stained shirt. She didn't even look up when Tina opened the door. Tina slipped upstairs to her room and hid the food under her bed. This would last her a while and if..when! Frisk came back home, she would have something nice to eat.

But she was still worried about Frisk. And though Mommy and Daddy had brushed it off yesterday and the day before when Tina had told them Frisk hadn't come home, maybe Mommy would listen this time.

Tina went downstairs and approached her mom cautiously. "Mommy?"

Her mother sighed. "What do you need, Tina?"

"Frisk still isn't home yet. I'm worried about her."

"She probably just ran off with a friend or something. She'll be fine."

"But she might be hurt!" Tina protested.

Her mom just rolled her eyes and sighed. "She'll be okay. She's a tough kid and can take care of herself. I did all the time at her age. Now...just go to your room and play or something. I have a headache."

"But..."

"Just go to your room, Tina!" her mother snapped, irritable from drug withdrawal.

Tina finally nodded and ran to her room, tears in her eyes. There was a crack of thunder and she yelped and trembled. She was absolutely terrified of thunderstorms, and it was even worse with no Frisk to hold her. She grabbed her stuffed puppy and her sketchpad she had been given for art class, and whenever she heard another boom, she ducked under her bed with a whimper, sticking her thumb in her mouth as tears filled her eyes. "I want Frisk." she whispered to herself, her throat feeling a little sore, probably from all the crying she had done over the past few days. All she wanted was her big sister back, to know Frisk was safe, to be held by her again.

She shivered. She was cold from the rain. Once the storm had slowed down a bit, she summoned enough bravery to crawl out from under the bed and go to her closet, where she had a pink sweater. It was old and had a few small holes, but it was warm at least. She pulled it over her head and sniffled a little, then went back to her safe hiding spot under the bed. Her stomach growled hungrily and she took a bagel from her stash and bit into it. It had fresh blueberries in it and was the tastiest thing she had had in the last few days. She tried to eat it slowly to make it last longer. Once she was finished, she felt a little better.

She knew she needed to do something though to help find Frisk. Her mom and dad wouldn't help, and Tina was afraid the police would send her some place else, but maybe her teacher could help. Miss Brown was super nice and really smart. She would understand that Tina didn't want to be taken away from her sister, and she might be able to help find Frisk.

School would start again the day after tomorrow. If Frisk didn't return by then, Tina would talk to Miss Brown. They would find Frisk and everything would be okay. She'd have her sister back soon.

...

As Frisk headed down the corridor with Chara, she walked up to the first plaque she saw. Like the ones she had read yesterday, it was about the human/monster war. "This power has no counter. Indeed, a human cannot take a monster's soul. When a monster dies, its soul disappears. And an incredible power would be needed to take the soul of a living monster." She was confused for a second until she remembered that the last sign she had seen had been about what would happen if a monster took a human's soul. She moved to the next sign. "There is only one exception. The soul of a special species of monster known as a Boss Monster. A Boss Monster's soul is strong enough to persist after death, if only for a few moments. A human could absorb this soul. But this has never happened. And now it never will." she read. She looked at Chara in confusion. "If it's never happened, how do they know a human could absorb a boss monster soul?" she asked.

Chara shrugged. "Don't know. And honestly don't want to." She shivered at the thought of a human taking Toriel or Asgore's soul. She knew Frisk wouldn't, but if someone like the human who hurt Undyne fell again...

"You okay?" Frisk asked her.

"I'm fine. That's just not a fun thing to think about when your parents are boss monsters." Chara replied.

Frisk shuddered at the thought of Toriel's soul being taken. "Definitely not."

They moved on down the hallway. Frisk encountered yet another Woshua, who said they were the cousin of the one who always hung out with Aaron when Frisk asked. Apparently everyone in their family was named Woshua. The little monster said it "avoided confusion," though Frisk was more confused than before. Chara just laughed and said that at least they never forgot their names.

Thankfully, this Woshua was just as easy to placate as the rest of their family and waddled away happily after scrubbing Frisk down with hot soapy water.

"Ugh, this one got soap in my eyes." Frisk complained to Chara as she tried to rub the soap away from her face, then ended up bumping into something. She looked up, squinting through the soap to barely make out the silhouette of a huge monster with a bulky frame and horns in front of her, hunched over. She had to close her eyes again to try to keep the soap out, but she could feel water dripping on them. "Oops, sorry about that. I got soap in my eyes and couldn't see where I was going." she told them.

No response. Maybe they were sleeping. At least she hoped they were sleeping.

"Okaay...I'll just be heading off now." she said. She didn't see Chara holding back laughter.

She felt her way into the next room, still trying to rub the soap out of her eyes, she heard the sound of a waterfall. Making her way over to it, watching where she was stepping, she found that the area was all wet stone with no drop-off and the water smelled clean enough, so she dunked her head briefly under the waterfall, rinsing off her face and hair and cleaning the soap out of her eyes. Once she had gotten it out and her vision cleared, she took a look around the room. The room seemed empty except for a basket of colorful umbrellas and a sign reading "Please take one." She shrugged and picked up a red umbrella, then as a gesture of apology and wanting to spread the kindness many monsters had given her down here around(as well as let the monster know that even though she was a human, it didn't mean she was evil and needed to be destroyed painfully by Undyne), she took the umbrella to the monster in the rain. Starting to lift the umbrella over the monster, she started to say. "Here. I brought you an..." then stopped short.

She was talking to a statue. She turned bright red in embarrassment as Chara started laughing.

"You know, if people hear you talking to statues, they're going to think you're crazy." Chara teased her.

"Hey, I had soap in my eyes and it was a very realistic looking statue! Plus, you knew and didn't..." Frisk started to protest when she heard the sound of beautiful music coming from the statue. Above it, circles and arrows glowed in time with the song. "Wow...It must be some sort of puzzle...or test of kindness or something..." She looked at Chara, only to see that the ghost had tears in her eyes. "Chara, what's wrong?"

"This is Azzy's song." Chara whispered. "He loved to play the piano, and he even wrote his own song. This is it. This-This must be his memorial, Frisk." She gave a sad smile, tears still in her eyes. "I should have guessed. This whole thing is like him. You know, he actually was the one who suggested setting out those baskets of umbrellas since surface water always rains down in the rooms up ahead and monsters always got wet walking through. Asriel thought everyone deserved an umbrella to keep them out of the rain." She was quiet for a few minutes and Frisk just stood there by her, wanting to hug her friend but knowing she physically couldn't. "You know, Asriel was my umbrella, protected me from the rain in life, or at least he tried. I-I just wish I could have been the same for him..."

Chara didn't say anything more, instead just looking at the statue. Frisk couldn't think of what to say to comfort her, so she just moved closer silently. After a little while, Chara drifted off, and Frisk followed her.

...

Frisk picked up another umbrella for herself from the bucket, leaving the first at Asriel's memorial. It was the only way she could think of right now to honor Chara's brother, who she would never know, but who reminded her so much of Tina just from what she knew about him. Her heart ached at the thought of ever losing Tina, and she hurt for her friend as well. The walk from the room was quiet and morose as they entered an area dripping with water with numerous clear waterfalls lining the right side of the path. The only sound was the the patter of rain, the rushing waterfalls, and Frisk's shoes lightly splashing through the puddles. Neither girl felt like talking.

But soon a cheery voice broke the silence. "Yo, you got an umbrella?" Frisk looked up and saw the monster kid she had met a few days ago, standing in a section that was out of the rain. He shook water off his scales and ran to join her, stepping through Chara to get under the umbrella and causing the ghost girl to let out an indignant "Hey!" that was of course unheard by Monster Kid. "Awesome! Let's go!" he said, ignoring the fact that she hadn't invited him to join her under the umbrella. Not sure what else to do, Frisk just nodded and walked off with him, a bit annoyed by her personal space being suddenly invaded especially when she had her mind on a million other things, but she melted a little and held the umbrella over him more when he turned to her and gave her a cute grin. Chara gave some half-hearted grumbles, but just moved to Frisk's other side as she couldn't feel the rain anyway.

They walked for a few minutes, and Frisk had to admit that Monster Kid's presence and cheerful smile made her feel a bit less down, at least until he said. "Man, Undyne is sooo cool! She beats up bad guys and never loses!" Frisk gave a non committal hum, not wanting to say what she felt about Undyne currently when she had two Undyne fans on either side of her. "If I was a human, I'd wet the bed every night knowing she was going to beat me up. Ha ha!" he added. Frisk shivered a bit and he frowned in worry. "Yo, you okay?"

"Just cold from the rain." Frisk lied, not wanting him to know that she was in fact human.

He moved the umbrella more over her. "Here you go."

She smiled a little. He was pretty nice and very cheerful. "Thanks."

They walked a little more in silence before he spoke again, trying to make conversation with his quiet companion. "So one time, we had a school project where we had to take care of a flower." he told her. Frisk smiled and listened, remembering how Tina once had to take care of a tomato plant. Tina had been so enthusiastic about that project, but had accidentally killed her tomato plant by over-watering it and had been very sad about it, so Frisk had sneaked out late at night and carefully switched it out with a tomato plant from a neighbor's garden before her sister woke the next morning, so Tina was thrilled and thought her plant had miraculously come back to life. Frisk quickly snapped out of memory lane in time to hear Monster Kid's next words "The king...we had to call him Mr. Dreemurr- volunteered to donate his own flowers. He ended up coming to school and teaching the class about responsibility and stuff."

"That sounds like Dad. He loved to garden and was always very involved with his subjects. Not like the cold kings in human history books that only cared about themselves and people close to their station." Chara said quietly, glad at least that part of her dad hadn't changed.

"That got me thinking... Yo! How COOL would it be if UNDYNE came to school?! She could beat up all the teachers!" Monster Kid was saying excitedly, bringing Frisk's attention back to him.

"Undyne wouldn't beat up a teacher...actually, scratch that. She did challenge my math tutor to a wrestling match..." Chara mused. Frisk wasn't sure whether to laugh at this or not. She kind of felt bad for the teachers of the Underground now...

"Umm...maybe she wouldn't beat up the teachers. She's too cool to ever hurt an innocent person." Monster Kid said after a few minutes thought. Frisk held back what she wanted to say about that and reminded herself that Undyne had attacked because she thought that Frisk had been a genuine threat. It didn't make Frisk feel much better about her own safety though...

They entered the next room and Frisk caught sight of a beautiful castle in the distance, gray stone with plenty of windows, the coned roofs on the pillars glowing a luminous blue.

"That's Dad's castle. My old home." Chara whispered.

The three continued to walk on into the next room. Another basket full of wet umbrellas was waiting, and Frisk returned her umbrella to the basket, guessing they were going to be out of the rainy area soon.

They soon came to a high ledge. Frisk tried to climb it or jump and grab hold of the edge, but she couldn't reach.

"Yo! That ledge is way too steep..." the monster Kid mused as he looked at the ledge. "Yo, you wanna see Undyne, right? Climb on my shoulders." Under no circumstance did Frisk want to see Undyne, but this was the only way she could go if she wanted to get out of here, so she thanked Monster Kid and climbed on his shoulders, grabbing hold of the ledge and pulling herself up. She then reached her hand down so he could grab it to pull himself up, then wanted to smack herself as she remembered he didn't have arms. She tried to figure out how to get him up there.

"Yo, you go on ahead. Don't worry about me. I always find a way to get through." he reassured her. He gave her another cheerful smile which made her smile back, then turned and walked away. He tripped and fell, but got back up again on his own and wandered off.

Frisk moved on and saw another sign up ahead and read it. "The humans, afraid of our power, declared war on us. They attacked suddenly and without mercy." She went to the next sign. "In the end, it could hardly be called a war. United, the humans were too powerful, and us monsters too weak. Not a single soul was taken, and countless monsters turned to dust." She shivered at this. Humans did fear things they didn't understand, but she wondered what had started all this in the first place. Had there been a bad seed in the monsters, like the ones who had tried to kill Chara in the flashback Chara had shown her, and had they tried to take a soul and the humans thought all monsters were like this, or did a human or group of humans spread cruel rumors like they had in the Salem Witch Hunts she had heard about in history this year and sent the other humans into a panic? Either way, it clearly had been a horrible massacre, and now monsters feared and hated humans greatly. She needed to watch her step. And she needed to show monsters not all humans were bad. Maybe it would get Undyne to stop hunting her down, and for Monster Kid to not want her beaten up if he ever found out what she really was. She didn't want fights, she just wanted to get home safely to Tina.

She moved on, stepping onto the bridge. Like the other one, it was dark and shadowy. A feeling of dread and of being watched came over her, and she knew what that meant, even before a blue spot glowed in front of her on the bridge. She was about to step back when two blue glowing holes appeared from behind her as well, then all around her.

Glowing jagged spears shot up all around her, and her terrified hazy mind wondered far back whether Undyne had enough honor to give her a fighting chance, wanted her to know that she was going to die, or just had terrible aim. But most of that was covered up by "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit..."

As soon as the spears disappeared, Frisk ran for it with Chara right beside her. Chara might have said something, but Frisk couldn't hear her over the sound of her heartbeat pounding in her ears and mind. Glowing spots appeared on the bridge, and Frisk dodged them before the spears popped up, but some missed her by only a hair.

She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. All she could do was run. Left...Right...Up...Down...Dead end...run back...All the while, Undyne ran right under her, shooting spears through the bridge. Frisk could hear the menacing clanking of her armor on the bridge underneath her, and though she tried to lose her, Undyne was pretty damn fast, even in a heavy suit of armor, and Frisk was so panicked she had no clue where she was going as the bridge was a maze of turns and dead ends. Chara called out warnings when a new spear was about to come out, which helped Frisk dodge most, but one Frisk couldn't quite avoid still scratched her leg, though thankfully not deeply. She couldn't feel the pain through how terrified she was. She yelled out to Undyne to please stop at one point, but either Undyne didn't hear her or didn't care, and there was nothing she could do but keep running.

"Frisk! This way!" Chara called as she went high enough to see the other end of the bridge maze. Frisk ran that way, but she was slowing, and the spears were getting harder to avoid...

And then she heard a new voice.

...

"Hey, Undyne." Sans said, popping right up in front of her. "Whoa!" He had landed just a little close to the edge of the bridge and started to fall off. He let himself in order to distract Undyne, knowing he could teleport again or catch himself with blue magic if he had to.

Frisk had heard Sans yelp and turned to glance to see what was happening, only to see him start to fall. Chara screamed, and Frisk gasped and took a few steps to try to get to him, but knew there was no way she could make it on time even if Undyne wouldn't kill her before she got to him, but thankfully Undyne grabbed Sans's wrist and pulled him up to safety, having stopped short and looked down when she heard Sans's voice and seen him fall.

"Sans! You've got to be more careful with those damn shortcut things! You could have dusted yourself! What are you even doing here?!" Undyne scolded him, having momentarily forgotten Frisk in the shock of almost seeing one of her friend almost fall off a bridge.

Sans winked, making a subtle hand motion for Frisk to run for it, which she did. "Sorry, Undyne. Just decided to DROP IN and give you my daily report. Jerry's annoying people again and there's a Gyfttrot pileup on..."

"Now's not the time Sans! I'm trying to finish off the...human." Undyne realized what she was supposed to be doing and turned to look for the human, but of course Frisk had run off. She let out a stream of curse words as she ran to go catch up to the human.

Sans ran next to her. "Chill, 'Dyne. The kid's got no EXP or LOVE. You don't need to make the bridge more divine hunting her down. It's HOLE'Y enough."

"Nggahh! This is not the time for your stupid puns!" Undyne growled, having only been half paying attention to him. She put on a burst of speed and passed Sans up, forcing him to run after her. Being more athletic than Sans, she quickly left him in the dust.

...

With Chara's directions, Frisk had managed to make it onto the wider section of bridge at the south east side of the room, and just as Undyne had realized she was gone and come after her again, ran into the next room. She continued to run along the bridge, but came to a dead end, seeing what looked like a garbage dump twenty feet below her. She tried to turn back but there was the familiar and terrifying sound of clanking armor behind her. She turned to see Undyne looking at her coldly about ten feet away from her. Frisk opened her mouth to speak, to beg Undyne not to kill her, but before she could, Undyne threw a spear. It missed Frisk by a long shot, but struck the bridge right in between the slats of the boards. Before Frisk could run back to safety, the bridge split apart, the section Frisk was on falling towards the ground twenty feet below. She screamed and tried to grab onto something, but couldn't stop her fall. Chara was screaming right along with her and she could have sworn her ghostly friend had tried to grab and catch her in a panic, but of course was unable to. She felt herself slam against something and blacked out.

...

Why wasn't she dead?

Everything hurt when she came back to consciousness on the hard dirt ground. When she tried to move her right arm to push herself up, a bolt of white hot pain shot through it, making her whimper. Stars filled her vision.

She tried again, but even when she managed to push herself up with her left arm, another bolt of pain shot through her body when she tried to put weight on her left ankle and she crumpled back to the ground.

"Help! Please, someone help!" she called weakly. She thought she had wanted to die, but it hurt so much, like fire through her body. She knew she would die slowly here, of dehydration or exposure or whatever came first. She would die in pain, cold, and alone, because no one would come...No one would help her...No one ever did...

But somebody came.

"It sounds like it came from over here!" she faintly heard a young male voice say and footsteps came running up to her. She managed to turn and look up, and to her shock, saw a furry white monster. His face was similar to a goat's with long floppy ears, though his hands were five fingered and had claws at the end. He wore a striped shirt and looked to be about her height. At first she thought it had to be a costume, but he moved so fluidly and easily as he walked over to her and it looked so real that either it had to be either the world's best designed costume or..."

"Oh! You've fallen down, haven't you? Are you okay?" the young monster asked. His mouth moved easily as he talked, and she could see his teeth and tongue. No mask could move like this... He reached out his hand for her, and she instinctively flinched away, wincing in pain as she did.

"Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you! Not ever!" he promised and moved more slowly. "Here, let me help you up. I can take you home and my mom and dad can heal you."

She was still scared, but looked up into his eyes, trying to figure out what he was about to do, but she couldn't help but relax just a tiny bit when she looked into them. They may have been red, and he may be a monster, but he had the kindest eyes she had ever seen. He held out his hand for her with a soft smile. He didn't grab her, just waited patiently with his hand still held out for her.

She had no choice, not unless she wanted to die out here. If he had wanted to hurt or capture her, he would have already done it as she couldn't do anything back, just like THEY would have done to her. He wasn't Them. He wasn't even human, and with what humans were capable of doing, she was okay with that. Finally, she nodded and placed her hand into his.

He smiled and took it, using his other arm to carefully lift her up, trying as best he could not to hurt her. Only a few times in her life had she been so gently touched. She was still prepared to run(or at least try since she didn't think she'd get very far) if he hurt her, but he didn't.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

"I'm Chara." she replied.

"Chara, huh? That's a nice name. My name is..."

...

Frisk groaned as she came back to consciousness and out of the memory. She opened her eyes only to find another face staring at her, just like it had in the memory she had obviously gotten from Chara. But instead of the gentle face of Asriel, she started into the beady black eyes of a smirking yellow flower.

"Howdy! Aww, you've fallen down again, haven't you?"

...

Since Flowey's right there, I didn't think this rather short chapter needed a Flowey's perspective ending. Frisk will be interacting with Flowey(not by her own will) off and on throughout the story. Papyrus and Sans will be helping Frisk a lot more often as well.

My theory on Sans's shortcuts is that they have limits. He can go from Snowdin to his Waterfall base, but going all the way from Snowdin to the captiol is too far for him to shortcut without dangerously draining his magic. He also needs to know the area well or risk a mistake that could cause him to get hurt. In this story he never just took Frisk through shortcut to Hotland because his station is too near the lava, and a mistake on that shortcut would be fatal for both of them.

My idea on Frisk's mother is that she was neglected when she was a child as well and ran away from home, getting hooked on drugs to cope with the pain inside. Frisk's father had a better home life, but had mental or emotional problems and got into a bad crowd as well as getting himself hooked on drugs as well to self treat his disorder, which went misdiagnosed.

I hope you guys enjoyed! Please leave a review and let me know what you think!