In which things change, if only slightly.
The small fish monster tugged Sans around with strength he didn't expect her to have. She didn't seem keen on having a conversation with her prisoner, but she was, apparently, pretty excited. Sans hadn't ever seen someone, monster or human, act this excited. Granted he also had never been kidnapped.
It was a day of firsts all around.
Sans was hesitant to fight back against the fish child. She looked strong, and that was concerning. On one hand, he might be able to make a run for it. On the other, she'd just kill him. It was on odd thought, imagining a child killing Sans, but based on his previous experience with the royal guard, he wouldn't put it past her.
For a while now, the monster and the human had been trudging through the reedy and wet Waterfall. Sans huffed out in a mixture of annoyance and fear, but his captor was still glowing with pride. He looked up at her, hair sticking to his face in the damp air.
"So..." Sans started, trying to ignore the steadily growing headache spreading upwards from the base of neck, "Are you kidnapping me on ofishial business? Or cod you just be doing this for fun?"
The fish monster's mouth twitched, but Sans was pretty sure it wasn't in happiness at his jokes. She spoke anyway, "If you must know, I'm taking you to King Asgore! Once he sees that I caught the human all by myself, he'll definitely let me join the royal guard!"
The fallen human frowned, but masked it quickly. She wanted to join the guard? "You look a little young to be joining the guard, kid? But anyfin is possible, I guess."
She was positively shaking with rage. Sans wasn't sure of why. "Would you stop with those stupid puns already?!" That certainly cleared things up. "Can't you, like, just shut up while I take you to the king?"
They were quiet for a long time after that, walking in silence through the marshy cave. In silent companionship, the monster led Sans over a series of bridges and through many reeds that left Sans soaked down to the bone. However, after a few more minutes of silence, an old, cracked voice called out, "Undyne!"
The fish monster beside Sans jumped. Undyne? Was that her name?
"Oh! Gerson!" Undyne gripped Sans' shoulder harder and ran toward what Sans could now identify as a turtle. She looked up at him, pride sparkling in her eyes, "I caught the human! I kicked their ass!"
Gerson laughed heartily, seemingly not put off by the child's language. With an aged stare, the turtle turned to look at Sans. There was a distant twinkle in his eyes that Sans did not understand, but vaguely recognized. He turned to Undyne and they had a brief, hushed conversation that Sans couldn't hear. Whatever it was they talked about, Undyne didn't appear to be upset at all, so Sans figured it couldn't be all that bad.
After their brief conversation, Gerson locked eyes with Sans again. The human could technically run now if need be, but he was curious, and also slightly embarrassed to have been captured by a small fish child where man-eating dogs could not catch him. "So you must be the human." It wasn't a question and Sans didn't respond,"How are you enjoying the underground, child?"
Sans frowned, thinking about the doctor. He had asked the same question earlier, hadn't he? The fallen child shrugged internally, thinking back to his non-answer the last time he'd been asked. Instead, he settled on, "Everything has been going pretty shell, I'd like to think." He left out the part about being burned by his goat mom, having another monster inhabit his mind, being chased by bloodthirsty dogs, and being kidnapped by another kid.
Gerson laughed, throat making odd, crackling noises. He seemed pleased with the puns, though Sans couldn't be certain. "Undyne been treatin' you well?"
Sans almost laughed. Almost. Instead, he threw up some more puns, "Oh, she's been a finastic host."
Gerson laughed again, though when Sans focused, he got the feeling that the humor was more out of consideration for the captured human. Sans shrugged in answer to the question that wasn't asked. Undyne, off somewhere to Sans' right, was bouncing on her heels, looking eager. Gerson waved them off, no hostility in his eyes, but also not the saving grace Sans needed.
And Undyne led him on.
(-)
Sans wondered where the doctor was.
(-)
Undyne pulled him forward on a path Sans had hoped to take anyway. He thought about how even if the fish monster hadn't caught him, the fallen human would still be walking down the road to the king. Except then he would have been walking it alone and also without the threat of death. He couldn't decide if this was the better option.
At one point, the terrain had changed beneath Sans' feet without him really noticing it. The floor had changed from cool and blue beneath his shoes to warm and orange. It wasn't just the stone that changed color, but the temperature appeared to change to. He went from shivering from the cold to sweating in just a few moments. It was odd, but Undyne seemed content, if not a little put off by the sudden heat. She marched him forward nonetheless.
After crossing a bridge that stood over what Sans assumed was lava, Undyne paused to get something out of a small water cooler. It looked refreshing, but she didn't offer him any. More out of fear than anything else, Sans was inclined to not protest.
He was inclined, however, to contemplate the lack of people he'd seen throughout the underground so far. He understood Snowdin and the path to it. In the snowy town, the citizens had been evacuated because he was reckless and obvious. Still, he wasn't sure why he'd only seen the two monsters in Waterfall. Had they been evacuated too? Wasn't that a bit overkill? The human with one dark eye didn't voice his questions aloud.
The road split apart from there. Undyne looked to know where she was going, however. One path led down, to where Sans could make out another sudden change in stone color. To his left, the path was blocked by some guards that sent them looks of trepidation. The path directly in front of Sans led to a lab.
Seeing such a strange laboratory in a place like this filled Sans with hate.
Looking down, Sans realized he'd nearly stepped on one of the doctor's save points.
(...)
Undyne was both eager to move forward and ignorant to Sans' drifting glances toward the laboratory. It looked empty and dusty. He could nearly see the cobwebs building off of the door from where he stood near the shimmering save.
"Hey!" Undyne yelled as she pulled Sans up to her by the hood of his blue jacket. Her face was pulled up tight in the image of anger. "You see this!? This is the human! Now let me pass! I've got to get to Asgore!" It was in that moment that Sans learned how much the young fish liked to yell.
The guard on the right spoke slowly, explaining a variety of reasons why he couldn't just let Undyne pass. They were valid and mostly seemed to center around the fact that she was a child and that Sans was a dangerous human hellbent on spilling monster blood. They argued and Sans drowned them out, searching his mind for the doctor. A rising sense of dread filled him, but he'd have to speak with the king eventually, wouldn't he?
In the end, the guards decided to just escort Undyne and Sans to the king. None of parties were happy with the compromise, but no one was inherently put off by it either. Sans was really the only one screwed no matter what. The guard led them to a hotel, by the looks of it, and into an elevator.
As the elevator trudged reluctantly forward, the thrumming in Sans' head built up exponentially. The world went wobbly and his vision smudged and the elevator was still buzzing along its path. The human realized too late that he let out a mewl of pain.
Undyne flashed him a quick look and the elevator door chimed open.
(-)
The guards seemed to know their way around the underground. They made short work of the path before them, walking straight through a gray world and skirting around other gray blotches in a world that should have more color. His companions were silent, as if sensing a tension that didn't exist. One way or another, the group passed through a golden hallway that left Sans' blood feeling cold in his veins, but no less prepared for meeting the king.
As it turned out, the king wasn't prepared to meet him, either.
"Oh? Is someone there?" The large goat monster hummed from his spot among rows of countless golden flowers that left Sans' skin crawling for no apparent reason. Sans' initial reaction to the king was to wonder just how similar he looked to Toriel. He also wondered if they knew each other and if the king was just as likely to set him on fire.
"The human has been capture, your highness."
King Asgore didn't react, save for looking a bit embarrassed by the use of formalities.
"I captured the human, Asgore!" Undyne interjected, looking proud.
The King sighed heavily, equal parts resignation and pride, "You are truly talented, child. May I ask your name?" Undyne supplied, and the king smiled forlornly, "You have done a wonderful job, Undyne."
And then he promptly kicked all the other monsters out of the room.
Sans would have been lying if he had said he wasn't scared. For his part, silence had been the best answer thus far. He looked at the king and saw steely determination flaming within their depths.
The king attacked and the world skipped back a few paces.
[RELOAD]
"Let's aim for a better ending this time, Sans."
I lied. Apparently there are only 11 chapters to this first part. crapppp
Anyway! I'll start working on the next batch of chapters when I get the chance. Hopefully I can squeeze some more chapters out of this piece of garbage. Of course this means the schedule might be off for a bit unless I can finally get my act together ''''
Also! I just got a tumblr account and I haven't got a clue how to use it. Please send help:
jeeze i'm hopeless
Thanks to sonicxjones for being better at spelling than I am 3