Frisk snapped her head towards the voice and gaped. "Un-n-… you… huh?"
"Now don't speak gibberish at me. Use your big girl words."
"What are you doing here!?"
"Rude much?" Undyne pouted. "It's a free Underground and I expected more from you after I just saved your sorry butt." The cage of red spears that had sent the monsters flying dispersed with a snap of the royal guard's fingers as she approached the human girl and dragged her to her feet without warning.
Just then the monsters began to rise, drawing the women's attention. They were all injured, but still more than ready to fight.
They glared at Undyne and an icecap uttered. "What's the big idea, Nydeun?"
"Do you know what she is!?" a snowdrake demanded.
"The better question here…" Undyne began calmly. "Is, if you have to fight me to get to her, do you really want to keep going the way you are?"
"Heh. Thinking you're so tough because you can hide behind your sister, Undyne?" a gyftrot scoffed.
"Oh, honey…" Undyne laid her spear over the back of her neck, gripping it on either side of her head as she smiled sweetly. "You have no idea."
As Undyne was drawn into battle, she spoke under her breath to Frisk without looking back. "Go. Now." Her tone lacked the eased drawl it did before and Frisk blinked, speechless and trying to come up with a response through her fatigue addled mind.
"What?" Frisk replied numbly in confusion.
"Don't just stand there. You bolted the moment you had a chance when we fought and it took me forever to chase you down. Where did that human go?" she asked snidely.
"You're… helping me?" she frowned.
"Look, I can hold most of them off and stall, but I can't protect you while I fight them all. If it's one or two you should be able to lose them, right? Now run along like a good human."
"But… why?"
Undyne sighed with a groan. "Ugh. Always with you and the talking. Do I really have to spell it out for you, honey? Fine." She turned to the girl as the other monsters grew impatient for Undyne to take her turn. "I'm not usually straight with people, but I don't like owing them either. With this, we're even and that's that," she said strictly. Her humiliation at being saved by a human was officially finished. "So next time you see me, you better hope you can run faster than you did the last time."
With that, Undyne faced her opponents once more and threw her arm back with her spear poised to launch. Several others materialized in the air at the same moment in multiple places in respect to the horde of monsters and they all shot forth as one when her arm swiped forward like a blur.
"Now no more talking! Go!" she shouted. Frisk jumped, but the message finally got through to her and incited the human to step back.
"Thank you. I won't forget this," she told the fish woman earnestly before sprinting into the woods once more.
"What did I just say about next ti-!?" Undyne trailed with an annoyed huff when the girl either ignored or couldn't hear her anymore. When she turned back around, she could see several of the monsters following the human with their eyes and knew that they'd try to flee and follow the moment they had the chance. This only enticed the royal guard to increase the rate of her attacks.
"Eyes over here, boys!" she called, glancing back to note with satisfaction that the human was gone.
Facing her opponents, Undyne materialized another spear into her hand and stretched her neck to the side until it cracked, hands on her hips as she gave a toothy smile upon seeing the monsters eagerly waiting to attack her. "Bring it on, punks."
…
Sans slammed the gyftrot into a nearby tree once more. It didn't get him the answer he'd wanted but neither had interrogating the monster, who'd weakly uttered pure gibberish in their dazed state from flying into the tree the first time. At least this made him feel better, if only momentarily.
Leaving it behind, he drudged towards the battlefield littered with bodies in the wake of the royal guard. His hunch was weak, but it was there and honestly all he had. No one ever attacked "Nydeun" like this, so she had to have done something reckless to bring this mass attack upon her. Reckless like protecting a human; or so he hoped.
"Where is she?" he growled as the fish woman kicked a groaning monster lying face down in the snow onto their back, giving another swing with her boot just for the hell of it.
"Gonna have to be more specific, honey," she retorted nonchalantly as she sat upon a pile of bodies. Most had fled when she'd gotten serious and the rest were knocked out. It wouldn't really do for her to kill them as a royal guard, but pummeling them nearly to 1 HP did no harm in her book.
"Frisk. The kid. The human. I know you know." Sans' eye sockets narrowed at her. He could really do without her coy act for once.
"A human? What could you want with one of those?" Undyne gave him a pointed look. "Last time I checked, you were too lazy to even tie your own shoes."
"Cut the crap and just tell me. Now," Sans demanded, clenching his glowing fist with all the patience he could muster.
"Oh? And what are you gonna do if I don't, honey?" Undyne materialized a spear and jammed it into the snowy ground as she tilted her head at him with a blank expression.
"Do not. Fucking. Test me." Sans eye lit up bright red in warning. Undyne was really pushing it and if not for the fact that Frisk was still in danger, he'd be more than inclined to take her on just to let out some built up steam from his wild goose chase.
Undyne frowned silently. "Why do you want to know?" she asked sternly with a hint of suspicion. She'd just gotten that human out of danger (for the most part). No way was she about to slap herself in the face and render her effort to fight off the monsters redundant by sicing an angry skeleton on the girl.
"She needs my help. Unless these are all of them?" he implied expectantly as he swept his gaze around with slight hope.
"… No," Undyne admitted sourly. She couldn't have left the battle to chase after the ones that fled right away without fleeing herself. One, she didn't flee, and two, she honestly thought that the girl could make it if she held off the bulk of the mob.
Meeting his gaze straight on, she sighed and pointed in the direction Frisk had run. "She went that way, but make sure you watch out for the cl-"
Sans was gone in an instant, causing the woman to scowl. "Rude!" she shouted at thin air and huffed. Well, her work was done at least.
Reaching into her pocket, she hit speed dial on her phone, resting it against her ear and idly twirled one of her spears as she waited for the person on the other line to pick up.
"You watching?" she asked with the slightest hint of anticipation. Her shoulders immediately sagged.
"What do you mean you got bored then hungry!?" the blonde roared.
"Seriously? You missed it all?" Undyne ran her hand down her face with a groan.
"Okay. Fine! Recap. I found her, let her run off while I fought this whole horde of monsters like a boss and just now Edgy Mc My Chemical Romance came looking for her and zapped away the moment I told him where she went," she relayed with a grin before it faded thoughtfully.
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" Sans had had no more inclination to help the human in her recent memory and she highly doubted he was doing it out of the goodness of his heart. So why would Sans care if Frisk was in danger? Hell, he'd been the one to tip Undyne off about the human a time or two.
Undyne's eyes widened and she nearly dropped the phone at the answer she received. "D-D-Date-Dating? THEY'RE DATING!?"
As Undyne ranted to herself, shooting off one question after another to try and come to terms with how this happened, the person on the other end was silent, no doubt holding the phone at arm's length to not be deafened by the fish monster's exclamations.
"… Yeah… yeah, I'm done," Undyne confirmed, still stunned as her mind whirred at the news. She'd be more annoyed that none of her questions had been answered, but she was sure she'd hear all about it from Papyrus later whether she wanted to or not, so she didn't press her companion on the phone.
"I gotta say though, your call surprised me, Alph." Undyne seemed to have collected herself. "I mean, why send me in to help her?" Undyne knew that Alphys watched the human. The scientist watched everyone. And while she'd like the think the yellow monster had called her to let her settle the score with the human, she suspected that something else had been going through her mind.
"It's nothing you need to worry about." Without a goodbye or even listening for a reply from the royal guard, Alphys unceremoniously hung up. However, she didn't need to see it on her monitors to know that Undyne was staring at her phone with a jaw dropping look of outrage at the scientist cutting their call short.
"Why do I even bother?" Alphys watched Undyne mutter under her breath in Snowdin, taking a hold of the spear she'd been playing with in her hand to hurl it at a tree in frustration.
Alphys snorted in amusement. Undyne could be so cute. Like a kitten. Only, in her case, a kitten that definitely had claws which she'd maul you with at the drop of a hat if you made her pissed. The female monster shrugged it off and went back to her desk where her instant noodles sat.
The food was still warm and she took an idle slurp before flipping through the spy cameras idly like the channels of a television. Which is what the cameras practically were to her. There were such a limited number of channels on Underground television. Because she could only stand small amounts of Mettaton, which were whenever she actually saw him around the lab, Alphys was practically always resorting to the cameras or anime she'd found to kill time when she wasn't working. But even her anime was limited, so the cameras offered the most variety. However, it was still the same Underground with all the same monsters. Fortunately for her, the human's recent appearance suddenly made watching the cameras a whole lot more interesting. Not that she had ever admitted it to said human.
"Oh? You're finally here, huh?" Alphys said with mild surprise. To the untrained eye, the scientist might have appeared sarcastic. Probably because she sort of was. "It sure took you long enough to get here. I thought you'd laze about the rest of the Underground forever," she said snidely.
The human frowned in confusion, her expression nearly matching her flower companion's whose own demeanor was steeped with suspicion. Not surprising.
"Do… Do I know you?" Frisk shuffled in that awkward way someone did when they felt embarrassment arising in a situation. Alphys sucked at reading people, but even she could tell the girl was being sincere.
"Are you stupid? Of course you don't." Alphys rolled her eyes. The girl stopped to talk to everyone who wouldn't attack her on the spot (and even then, some still did) and was willing to listen to the monster's life story if they gave her the time of day. If they'd met, the girl would've remembered.
"Then-"
Anticipating her next question, Alphys interrupted. "Let's cut the chitchat. I've been spying on you since you got out of the Ruins. There're cameras everywhere and I can have them because I'm the royal scientist."
Both the girl and sentient flower stared at Alphys, who just crossed her arms and raised a brow at them as if to say "What?"
"That's… not super creepy or anything…" Flowey was the first to speak, averting his gaze to the side.
Frisk reacted after a moment. "You've… been watching us?" She blinked, cocking her head.
"Are you deaf? That's what I just said." Alphys knew this human was stupid, but she didn't anticipate they were this slow in person too.
"The whole time though?" she clarified.
This time Alphys didn't even dignify that with a reply, giving Frisk an impatient look as if to urge her to continue like she was wasting Alphys' time.
"I-It's just… that's a long time. And we've been here..." Frisk trailed, looking at Flowey. "A long time?"
Flowey did his impression of a shrug. Without a watch, there was no telling, but it certainly felt like a long time.
"You'd be surprised how much time I have to watch you trying to avoid getting killed by everyone." Alphys smirked.
"Actually, I'm not," Flowey muttered under his breath, looking around the messy place that screamed "rat nest," earning a scolding look from Frisk. The scientist likely never left the place with how much crap was scattered everywhere and probably didn't have many guests. She'd probably rarely have to worry about cleaning up for visitors, though he also suspected that she wouldn't, even if she did have any. The amount of damns she seemed to give was approximately zero.
"Are you here all alone? Looks pretty… empty." Frisk glanced around the large lab, catching the giant screen locked onto her. It was a bit disconcerting, but unlike Flowey, she kept her thoughts to herself.
"Well, I can't have this place bustling with people. Do you know how hard it would be to get any work done with annoying people like you constantly waltzing in?" Her thoughts suddenly went to a certain royal guard, the only one of who actually did such a thing, but Alphys wasn't about to tell the human that.
"You are here all alone. Aren't you?" Frisk frowned sadly, catching that the scientist hadn't actually answered her inquiry. "It must get lonely in here."
"Pfft. So what? Are you gonna try to befriend me like everyone else? Pity me and try to make my come to some epic self-epiphany about myself or fill some gap in my life that I didn't even know I had so that I'll help you through your journey and somewhere along the line realize that you aren't so bad despite my misgivings in the beginning and prove that everyone has some inherent good in them?"
Frisk and Flowey stared at her, dumbfounded and puzzled by her reaction.
"What? It's the oldest heel-face turn trick in the book." Alphys placed her hands on her hips, giving Frisk a look as if she were making total sense.
"Back away slowly," Flowey advised Frisk just above a whisper. He had a feeling that the solitary lifestyle of the female monster had gotten to her in ways that weren't visible on the surface but no less dangerous.
"Wh-? Uh, no. I just want to get along." Frisk rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "I mean, I'd like to be friends if you wanted, but I'm not gonna make you-"
"Oh, god. 'Not gonna make you make friends with me so that we'll slowly come to like each other on our own through random little "bonding" moments on the side when the pressure is off' cliché." Alphys made a disgusted face.
"I'm sorry. Am I supposed to say something else?" Frisk was floundered as she tried to think of something to say that the scientist wouldn't find fault in.
"Probably, but I'm not about to let myself fall into the predictable traps of anime. Nice try though."
"But-"
"Yeah, just hold that thought, will you? I think I can hear my unstoppable killing machine with a thirst for human blood about to break through this wall."
Alphys scowled at the fact that she'd sort of given in in the end, pulling an "old enemy helps you out in times of desperation for their own personal reasons" move, but at least consoled herself that the fact that it was for good reason that she did so. Now it was all up to the human and Alphys had a front row seat. She stopped flipping through the cameras when she found the human girl again and sat back, slurping her noodles.
She couldn't help musing that if the human girl had left Undyne stuck in that water pool cavern, the scientist never would have called Undyne to help out the girl.
Well. That and another reason.
Extra:
"I LIKE YOU!"
Half melted ice cream dropped to the floor and Alphys gaped, staring in astonishment. A deep blush spread over her face which she'd loathe for anyone to see. Thankfully, she was within the privacy of her lab where there would be no audience except for one. It was so unexpected. Her heart pounded in her chest and she blushed deeply, covering her mouth as she scrambled to think of what to say. How did one respond to something so out of left field?
"U-Undyne…" Alphys began, swallowing thickly. "I… I really…" She needed to think fast otherwise it would be over.
"I really need to tell someone about this! Anyone! Even Undyne!" Alphys gushed and flailed her arms in frustration at the screen before her. Fight scenes weren't always her thing, but she'd sat down to watch the battle between Sans and Frisk since she'd come this far. She'd observed Frisk throughout her entire journey through the Underground, save for the Ruins (which she really wished she could have watched), and needed to know what became of the pacifist human with a heart of gold and her sentient flower sidekick in the face of the seemingly lazy but actually terrifyingly strong skeleton brother. It was the chance of a lifetime that she simply couldn't pass up.
Things had been looking rough for the human and Sans had been completely unaffected by anything Frisk said or did to try and make him stop fighting her. But then, just when all seemed lost and the human was about to meet their tragic demise, she gave a sudden declaration of love! Alphys hadn't seen it coming at all, despite her reading between the lines of their past interactions, but now there was no doubt.
She watched nervously as Sans seemed to process the heartfelt confession. One tsundere moment and a bone pic later, he was grasping her hand and they were going on a date.
"I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!" Alphys cheered to herself, celebrating with her Mew Mew Kissy Cutie figurine. Her OTP was now canon! "Nothing will ruin this for me," Alphys decided then. She would keep this ship afloat at all costs.
Author's Note: Phew! Finally done! I gotta admit, this is a guilt chapter. Because I couldn't go through with putting out a new story from an entirely different fandom without giving this story its long awaited update. I promise, I will be giving this a conclusion of sorts (even if not a definite one), but I have been drawn to a new obsession as of late and was itching to write about it.
I also apologize that the plot wasn't moved forward much this chapter, but no big cliffhangers for once! That's good, right? :D
Once again, thank you all for your support and comments! And guest reviewers, though I'm sorry I can't reply to your wonderful comments (as I make a point to reply to all my reviewers), I still read and love every single one of them, so thank you! :)