Chapter 10
Hope waited by the River Person impatiently. Sans agreed to meet her here at 7:00 AM sharp, and it was now 7:25. She huffed impatiently and paced, forming a little circular path in the snow.
"Where is he?" she demanded out loud.
"Tra la la. Where could he be. Tra la la." the River Person sang, and Hope glanced back. They were swaying back and forth serenely. She smiled.
"sup kid." Sans greeted as he appeared behind Hope. She jumped about ten feet in the air, whirling around.
"Sans! You can't just sneak up on me like that!" she lectured, her heart pounding. He'd scared the daylights out of her. He shrugged, his grin widening.
"what? i'm too lazy to walk." he replied, and Hope glared at him.
"You're also too lazy to be punctual."
"exactly." Hope sighed exaggeratedly, and Sans winked. Huffing, she climbed on the boat.
"Coming Sans?" she called over her shoulder, and Sans raised his nonexistent skeletal eyebrows.
"we're not taking the boat."
"What?" Hope stared, starting to get annoyed, "Why are we here, then?" Sans shrugged again.
"it seemed like a good place to meet." Sans pointed out, and Hope sighed. She climbed out of the boat, almost falling in the water in the process, and onto the snowy ground. The skeleton held out his hand and Hope reluctantly took it. Everything was a whir of light and sound for a couple seconds until they arrived inside a metal building. Releasing Sans' hand, Hope stumbled forward and caught herself.
There was a weird screen to her left, and Hope found her eyes drawn to it. In the center was Frisk. Her Frisk. Hope's jaw dropped. Her little sister was travelling through a blue-tinted area right now, seeming surprisingly carefree.
"Oh, Sans? I-Is that you?" Alphys called from an upstairs area.
"yup." Sans replied simply.
"O-Okay. I'll be down in a second." Hope heard the sound of Alphys nervously scrambling downstairs (on an escalator...?) before she came stopped in front of Sans. She froze when she saw Hope.
"She's h-here?" Alphys asked nervously, suddenly afraid. Sans quirked a skeletal eyebrow.
"Who's here?" a familiar voice called down, and Hope stiffened. That wasn't really Undyne... right? In reply to her thoughts, the fish woman skidded down the escalator behind Alphys and glanced around suspiciously. Her unpatched eye narrowed when she saw Hope and Sans.
"What are you two doing here?" she growled menacingly, making Hope's eyes widen. Crap crap crap crap crap. Sans stepped protectively between the girl and warrior.
"undyne, it's fine. she doesn't want any harm." Sans said in a dangerously low voice. For some reason, this frightened Hope even more.
"Sans, you little TRAITOR!" Undyne yelled, taking a step forward. Alphys squeaked and watched with wide eyes. "She's a human! We need her soul!" Hope's eyes widened even more. Her soul? Why did they want her soul? Something inside her stirred, like it knew the answer, then backed down again. Sans' eyes narrowed.
"she's innocent, undyne." he countered coolly. Undyne growled again, flicking her hand. A few dozen magical, blue spears formed in a tight circle around Hope. She stiffened even more than she already had been and crossed her arms in a protective X over her chest. Sans' eye glowed blue, his other pupil vanishing. "undyne." he demanded, his tone warning. She snarled at him.
Hope's breathing became fast and irregular, and the world started to spin. Tears formed in her eyes as the warrior woman glared between her and Sans. Just as she raised her arms to release the spears, Sans teleported right next to Hope and grabbed hold of her arm before the world was color and sound again.
The two appeared next to the sitting statue of a monster. It's arms were folded neatly in its lap, and a red umbrella was perched carefully in between. A calming music box melody echoed from somewhere inside it.
"i'm really sorry kid." Sans murmured, rubbing the back of his skull. Hope said nothing. The skeleton sighed.
"if you want, i can take you back to the house." Hope slowly shook her head, still not taking her eyes off the statue. Sans' pupils flicked between the statue and her once. "heh. welp, i'm going to head back to the lab and try to straighten things out. you okay with staying here?" Sans questioned, concern etching his voice. Hope nodded absently, and she heard him teleport away.
"Hope, statue!" Frisk squealed excitedly, and I grinned. In front of us stood a stone angel, kneeling on her pedestal. She looked down, her kind, unseeing eyes watching those who were shorter than four feet tall. I always thought that statue was nice.
I heard a legend once about her watching over neighborhood children and keeping them safe. My smile saddened. Too bad the legends weren't true.
"Yeah, that's a statue. You like it?" I asked, and Frisk nodded enthusiastically. She ran over to it and I chased her, careful to keep the umbrella over her head. The little girl placed a gentle hand on it.
"Wet." she remarked sadly, her big, brown eyes staring into its stone ones. I smiled.
"Yeah, she always gets wet in the rain." Frisk frowned.
"Sad." she replied, then perked up.
"Oh! Idea!" she exclaimed, bouncing up and down in the rain, "Give umbrella?" She pointed to the red umbrella in Hope's hand.
"I don't know..." I replied, considering, "Then we'd have to walk home in the rain." Frisk pouted.
"But wet!" she protested, "Please?" I smiled lightly.
"Okay, fine," I caved, scooping her up, "but I'm gonna make you do it." Frisk giggled, then took the umbrella from me. She propped it carefully over the statue, taking care to cover the angel's head, then admired her handiwork. She began to squirm in my grip.
"Down!" she commanded, and I laughed. I lowered her to the ground and she grabbed my sleeve. The smile on my face widened a little.
A sob escaped Hope after the memory passed. Her sister was still... well, her sister. She was still doing what she does. Hope leaned against the statue and felt comforted. The music box played on, its tune like a soothing lullaby. Tears clouded her vision, and Hope curled into a little, softly crying ball. Where could Frisk be?
Sans teleported back to the lab, his magic eye glowing bright blue and yellow. He really hoped he didn't have to fight Undyne, but if it came down to it, he may have to dodge some spears. Alphys jumped a mile.
"Sans!" she exclaimed, looking relieved and nervous at the same time. "You j-just missed her." Sans' eyes widened.
"where'd she go?" he questioned, worry starting to pool inside him. If she found the kid before he found her...
"I don't kn-know." Alphys admitted, looking down at her toes, "She just stormed out s-saying that she was going to 'hunt them d-down'." Sans froze. Definitely not good.
"how long ago did she leave?"
"R-Right after you left." Crap. That means she had at least five minutes on him, and Undyne was fast when she was mad. She wasn't wearing her armor either, so she would probably be sprinting. She'd be to Hope in no time flat.
"welp, guess i gotta go then." Sans replied quickly, and Alphys nervously nodded. The skeleton teleported to the bridge before the Hotland entrance. No sign of her. He checked the place right before that, with the echo flowers. She wasn't there either.
He visited the room with a single echo flower. No Undyne.
As Sans continued to teleport from room to room, he felt his energy drain. He was using too much magical energy too fast. He knew he needed to find Undyne, but he could no longer teleport more than ten feet. If he kept this up, he might dust himself, and that was a risk he could not take. Looks like he'd be running.
"Hey punk!" Hope's head jerked up with a start at the sound of someone yelling at her. She stared in terror at Undyne, who loomed menacingly above. "Yea, that's right! I found your sorry butt!" Undyne stomped her foot and Hope shot to her feet, bumping the umbrella and sending it flying in the process. It hit the warrior in the face, and she growled.
"No more games!" she shouted, and Hope trembled, "We fight right here, right now. No running away!" Hope's heart turned green and Undyne tossed her a spear, which she caught clumsily. Undyne raised her hand and about a dozen spears materialized. Hope held up the spear defensively as the weapons flew at her, one shattering after hitting her side and the other her leg. She winced in pain and watched her HP bar drop to 10. Hot panic seared in her stomach like a knife, as well as real pain, as she did her best to dodge another wave of weapons. Only one hit her this time, in the arm, lowering her HP to 4. Nononono.
Hope remembered the spider donut in her pocket and pulled it out. She basically shoved the whole thing in her face and sighed in relief as her HP bar returned to 16. Spears flew at her again, and she just barely dodged them all. Undyne laughed.
"Nice job, but I bet you can't dodge this!" she gloated, hurling a bunch of golden spears at Hope. Noticing they were backwards, Hope cursed to herself. She tried her best to block them all, but ended up getting hit three times. Burning pain filled every inch of her body as her HP lowered to 4 again. Undyne launched another wave of spears, and Hope tirelessly blocked. She'd just thought she was in the clear when she saw Sans run toward her.
"Sans!" she called desperately, then felt a spear shatter aginst her body. She froze in shock. Her HP bar drained to 0, and Hope felt everything start to spin.
"kid!" Sans called out to her, running forward. The last thing she saw was Undyne's triumphant smile.
"Gah!" Hope cried out with a start when she was suddenly in the lab again. The world was still spinning, and she collapsed onto her hands and knees. The shaking she felt was uncontrollable, and her limbs threatened to give. She sensed spears surrounding her, and panic swelled within her. Not again, not again!
"Sans, you little TRAITOR!" Hope heard Undyne yell.
"she's innocent undyne." Sans countered coolly, and the strongest sense of Deja vu washed over Hope. Wait, where had she been before now?
All she remembered was blackness, not even to the point of dark anymore. She had felt a deep peace, deeper than she had ever felt in life. Then she remembered.
That's because she wasn't alive.
Hope shivered. She had died again, and her sister had too, somehow. They both died, then appeared back in the world at a certain, hand-picked time. And now Hope was here. Being threatened by spears. Again.
Ugh.
Sans teleported to her side, crouching, and grabbed her arm. They were suddenly in the little cave with the statue again. Hope stumbled from Sans' grasp and landed on her hands and knees again. She panted for a few seconds before she turned to Sans, her eyes wide. He stared, shock and concern lingering in his gaze.
"Go. Now." she commanded, and he continued to stare.
"what? kid, look-"
"Go now!" she urged, ignoring him. His gaze was skeptical, so she elaborated. "Go find Undyne. Otherwise she's gonna find me and I'll die again." Sans' eyes widened.
"you di-"
"Yes I died! Now go!" Hope was on the verge of panic. If he didn't go now, she might die again, and who knows if she would come back this time. Sans nodded quickly and was gone. Hope sighed in relief.
She settled back into the statue, tiredness weighing at her limbs. It almost felt like the statue was watching over her. It was comforting, in a way. The girl smiled and was quickly asleep.
(A/N Hello everyone! I looked back on my writing and realized that Hope hadn't actually died in a while. Last time she died was back in the Ruins, so I obviously had to kill her again. Obviously. You know, just another author traumatizing their characters.
Anyway, thank all of you guys for your support. It's been really great. Every time I see that someone favorite or followed my story, that feeling... it's amazing. Really, just amazing. Oh, and also, thank you Asriel, Minerva Arhedes, and KarmicRetribution for your amazing reviews, and thanks to everyone to just decided to take time out of their day to read my story. I really appreciate it.
Like always, any suggestions are much appreciated (I'll also take ideas for little shorts. I've been wanting to make a few of those for a little while now...), and please feel free to review. The next update should be on Wednesday the 6th. Happy reading!)