Yo! It's The Author, so~ if you had no idea what the Kanji meant in the last chapter, the one with (1) next to it said "Suzumiya haruhi" and the second one was "Konata Izumi" from Lucky star. With that said, see ya!

Chapter 11

After hanging out with Sans for a short period, Mary constantly trying to balance 30 hot dogs but failing after 13 every time, it was time to move on. There were numerous laser traps, but were easy to get through. None of them got into any trouble with a single laser. Considering all they had to do to not get hurt was move and not move it was not difficult by any means. They arrived at a few steam vents.

"What are these things?" Ib asked.

Frisk called Undyne and Papyrus so they could give an explanation.

"Ring… Ring... " the phone buzzed

"Steam vents?" Undyne had answered. "I think Alphys told me about those. The CORE cools off by releasing steam through those, and at the same time, it doubles as transport! Pretty cool! If you aren't wearing a dress."

Both Ib and Mary looked at each other then looked back at the Frisk and Chara.

"What?" Chara asked, then realizing that: A, Ib was wearing a skirt, and no pants underneath and Mary was wearing a dress. "This… could be an issue…"

"I um… I can just wait or something heheh," Mary said chuckling nervously. She seemed to not want to even try. "I'm not to good with fire or lava."

Frisk gestured to go back, implying that maybe Sans would be able to help them.

"His lazy butt won't be moving anywhere any time soon. He just stands at those sentries with the same dopey smile."

Then suddenly.

"You called?" Sans had appeared only a few centimeters away from the critic formerly known as Chara

"Gyah! Sans! Don't do that you piece of-"

"Woah woah kid, calm down with the words there. I'm just here to help."

"...since when do you do anything?"

"When two things happen, when things out of the ordinary occur, and when you do stuff." he rebuttaled swiftly.

"That's!..." Chara was at a loss for words.

"Anyway, Kid, I'm sure you got this?" Sans said looking at Frisk. Frisk nodded with a smile.

"Alright, you two, come with me." Sans turned around and raised his hand signaling to follow. Ib and Mary ran to his sides as they were going to have a quick skip past the vents.

Frisk and Chara, alone again, jumped across the vents above the sea of lava. It didn't take long. But on the other side, Sans wasn't there, nor were Ib and Mary. there was a note on the ground.

"I'm taken the girls out, see you at the next usual place. -sans… p.s. "

"Let's keep going."

In front of the two look-alikes, was more lasers and more steam vents. On top of that, there was going to be another Mettaton episode and an encounter with a few spiders.

(I got things out of order, but hey, I don't remember plot point for plot point of this ocean of story.)

Where did Ib, Mary, and Sans go off to? Why, MTT resort restaurant. Rather spacious, tables were a murky purple, ground was checkered blueish and reddish purple. Everything was purple. Ib and Mary were on one side of the table while Sans was on the other.

"Well," Sans started, "Here we are. So, your journey's almost over. You must really wanna go home." he said smiling.

"Of course we wanna get to the surface!" Mary exclaimed happily. "But, I wouldn't call it home."

"Neither would I really," Ib said quietly.

"Really, care to explain?"

"Well~" Mary said sheepishly, trying not to mention she wasn't human. She wasn't a fan of that fact, but since she was already in a spot, she had to answer. "I don't come from the surface. I come from a place called the Gallery, a fabricated world made by my father. But he died right after creating me. He believed in putting life into his art. I was his last work. For I think years, maybe decades or even over a hundred years, my only goal was to escape, It was so lonely there with only the other arts. Then I met Ib and g- I mean Ib, Chara, and Frisk. I want to escape with everyone now." she smiled. A warm smile.

"Ib?" Sans asked.

"..." Before Ib started, she took a long breath. She had a level of sadness in her eyes, it seemed that she'd seen many horrible things.

"I, am an only child. My parents weren't the best. Mother wanted a boy, Father was always away... People at my school always thought my eyes looked creepy. at first they thought because I had red eyes and was quiet that I'd become some type of comic book hero, but when they realized I was just some random kid that didn't have their expectations, they thought of me as a freak. I spent a lot of my school life secluded from others. after a while, I tried to stop coming to school, and then my parents took me to this art gallery called "Art Gallery of Guertena" to try to cheer me up. One of the murals on the ground became a bottomless pit. That's where I fell and met Frisk and Chara. After a little exploring we met Mary, I felt better knowing I wasn't alone. Others were like I was."

"What would you do when you get to the surface? Anywhere in particular you want to go?" he asked curious about the two. In all the runs and experiences he had, he'd never encountered these two. Two similar but different from monsters and humans.

"I want to first feel the real sunshine. What about you Ib?" Mary stated firmly and asked. Ib was silent, just listening to Mary.

"Um, well. I don't have any places really."

"Really? Don't you want to get to the surface?" both Sans and Mary asked.

"Yeah but, I mean, I didn't really fall. I walked in."

"I didn't expect to survive the fall so I didn't make any plans"

Both of the listeners stared with much pity in their eyes.

"Kid…"

"Ib…"

"I'm okay, it's okay guys, I just. I just want to follow my friends wherever they go." she said trying to hold back a tear in her right eye.

"Don't cry Ib!" Mary cried out wrapping her arms around the surprised Ib. "you'll be okay! We're all here." Even mary was crying, ironically, after hearing about Ib's story

"I-it's okay Mary, I'm fine, honest." Ib said struggling to catch what little air she could. Mary loosened her grip, but since she was hugging Ib she held on for a bit longer. Once she let go, Sans cleared his "Throat"

"Hey, listen. I know how it feels. Though, maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you."

"? what do you means Sans?" Ib asked.

"Down here, You've already got food, friends, drinks… is what you have to do… really worth it?"

No explanation was needed because they both knew what he was inferring. They remained silent, waiting for the next sentence before any response.

"...ah, forget it. I'm rootin' for ya kids."

Their bodies relaxed.

"Hey, let me tell you a story. So I'm a sentry in snowdin forest right? I sit out there and watch for humans. It's kind of boring. Fortunately, deep in the forest there's this HUGE locked door and it's perfect for practicing knock knock jokes."

Sans continued on with his story about how he was talked to by a woman behind a massive door leading to snowdin. Ib and Mary had zero idea that Sans had relived the same several days countless times, seen his own friends and his brother die before him, and he himself fell in battle trying to avenge his people. But Sans isn't the type to spoil things, or he's just too lazy to. Then he mentioned the promise he made with the woman behind the door.

"That promise I made to her. You know what would happen if she hadn't said anything? ...girls."

Sans closed his eyes, then reopened them. They were pitch black. No pupils, not even the back of his skeleton head, two pure voids that threatened to consume whatever he saw.

"You'd be dead where you stand"

It felt like the music stopped and they were the only three people in the entire world. An intense fear amassed within the two young girls. Ib's legs were shaking. Suddenly his pupils returned, the pressure the two once felt was gone without a trace.

"Hey, lighten up! I'm just joking with you. Besides, haven't I done a great job protecting you guys already? I mean, you guys haven't died a single time."

Sans stood up and walked to the left, but turned to face Ib and Mary.

"Well, that's all, take care of yourselves. 'Cause someone really cares about you."

He suddenly disappeared. Then a monster in formal attire stopped at their table. They were humanoid from the waist up, but had spider legs, like a cross between a centaur and spider.

"Are you ready to order young ones?" the monster asked

"Oh! Uh" Ib frantically looked through the menu that had just so happened to be on the table the entire time. Flipping through the pages searching for something she fixed her eyes upon a familiar dish.

"Can I uh, have the… Yakisoba please?" she asked. (tastes great actually)

"Ya-ki-so-ba… and you?" he asked Mary

"Um, I'll have what they're having." she replied.

"Okay, two orders for Yakisoba. I will be back shortly." the monster walked away.

"Hey Ib? What's Yakisoba?" Mary asked

"It's fried noodles. It's common where I come from."

"Oh cool! Hey, I'm gonna go to the bathroom really quick. I'll be back" she left waving her hand.

"Alright, see ya!"

Mary walked to the side where there was a Female bathroom sign and walked in. it was empty, but in between two sinks was a square patch of dirt. Like someone removed the tile. In the middle, was a single flower, a buttercup. Flowey.

"...oh… it's you huh?" Flowey said frowning.

Mary didn't know how to respond. Other than,

"This… is the girl's room. Please leave before I call security."

"Hey, don't get cheeky with me kid! I'm a freakin flower anyway! Besides, I know about you. About who you are." Flowey had a sadistic grin on his small face.

"What?"

"I got a little tip that you aren't from anywhere near here. I also heard about what you've done, but I wasn't told how exactly you were able to RESET. Wanna tell me how-"

"Shut up!" Mary screamed swinging her hand at the small flower. But Flowey wasn't a pushover, he sunk into the ground briefly to avoid damage.

"Hey, watch it! And shut it will ya? You're gonna get someone's attention. AS I WAS SAYING, I'd like to know how you RESET."

"I… don't have any idea what you're talking about."

"Oh please, why would you lie to a friend?"

"You are most certainly NOT a friend of mine, you tried to KILL us remember?"

"Aw pshh, forget about that. I mean, we have a lot in common you know. We both have yellow on our heads, bodies covered in green, both have RESET before, and most importantly…" but Flowey was cut off by a surprise. A small palette knife.

"Don't. You dare. Say. another. Word." she said quietly and coldly.

"...hmph! You're worst than Chara used to be, but that's also interesting, I'll be seeing you all later." and Flowey disappeared into the ground.

Mary put away the knife just moments before Ib walked into the bathroom. She looked somewhat worried, but smiled when she saw Mary

"Mary, you okay? You were gone for awhile, the foods here, and the others just got here too"

"Oh, okay!" both left the bathroom

Mary saw at the table, Frisk and Chara sitting across from where they were sitting earlier. Chara seemed livid about something, as they were picking some white substance off of their clothes and hair. Frisk was doing the same, but without the unhappy attitude.

"I remember why I don't like spiders" Chara commented, "don't even know how to clean up their guests. Hey, Ib, where's Sans?"

"He left earlier."

"Okay."

Frisk tapped Chara's shoulder three times trying to get their attention.

"? what"

Frisk was pointing to a menu, on the menu was a number of things, Frisk apparently wanted a GlamBurger.

"Are you crazy? That costs 120 G"

Frisk still insisted on getting it, showing an inventory screen box next to them. The black box shown in white letters and numbers,

PARTY

LV 1/1/1/1

HP 20/20

G 1902

They had plenty of time to gain massive amounts of money since somehow even after sparing monsters, they were still able to fight them and get more G from battle. Surely 120 G would be more than affordable.

"Alright fine, I'll order it. After this we're leaving."

Frisk nodded.

"I sometimes hate being alive again…"