Ignoring the strange encounter with the dog, Frisk and The Guardian return to the statue and they stand there, listening to its soothing tune. The Guardian takes a deep, calming breath as the world seems to slow down in this peaceful room. After what seems like several minutes, The Guardian is the first one to speak.
"As… Relaxing this room is… If we don't want to get found by Undyne once again, we should continue on." He places a hand on Frisk's shoulder, giving them a warm smile. They slowly nod and give the statue a wave before following The Guardian out of the room.
Back at the umbrellas and seeing the water raining from the ceiling ahead, Frisk takes one and hands it to The Guardian, who politely declines.
"Do not worry about me, Frisk. While I am an android, I am waterproof. I'll be fine. Besides, I like the rain." He smiles at Frisk as they open the umbrella over their own head and smiling back.
Walking through the rain, The Guardian's pace slow and he reaches outward, palms up, feeling the water drift down his metallic arms. With a content sigh, he catches back up with Frisk in time to see Monster Kid sitting in a small alcove, hiding from the rain. The armless monster can't carry an umbrella.
"Yo, you got an umbrella? Awesome!" He walks over to Frisk, who gives him a welcoming smile, and stands with them under the umbrella. "Let's go!" He doesn't even seem to notice the android until after he gets to Frisk. His eyes widen in excitement.
"Yo! That's so awesome!" He turns to Frisk. "Why didn't you tell me you had a robot? It's so cool! Also, what happened to that other guy?" The Guardian looks at him, confused, and clears his throat.
"Uh, I'm right here. I'm 'that other guy'." He chuckles. "I'm called 'The Guardian'. Nice to meet you… In my actual form." He reaches a hand out before realizing his mistake. But before he can pull away and apologize, Monster Kid shakes his hand with his tail.
"Nice to meet you too, sir!" He says, still in awe.
As the three near a corner, Monster Kid begins to speak about his idol once more.
"Man, Undyne is soooo cool. She beats up bad guys and never loses. If I was a human, I would wet the bed every night knowing she was gonna beat me up! Ha ha." The Guardian can tell that Frisk's smile is a little forced now. He can't really blame them either.
"So, one time." Monster Kid starts again. "We had a school project where we had to take care of a flower. 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 got me thinking… Yo! How cool would it be if Undyne came to school!? She could beat up all the teachers!"
Frisk is getting a little uncomfortable with a talk about Undyne. They just give him a thumbs-up and a forced smile. He doesn't seem to notice their discomfort.
"Um, maybe she wouldn't beat up the teachers… She's too cool to ever hurt an innocent person!" He says with confidence.
"If only you knew what she's doing now…" The Guardian murmurs, too quietly for Monster Kid to hear, but Frisk catches it.
Soon, they get a nice view of a large castle in the distance and all of the sparkling crystals on the ceiling. Between them and the castle is a large body of water, shimmering in the blue glow.
Reaching the end of the path, they find another bucket of umbrellas, in which Frisk returns theirs. Ahead is an eight foot wall, a path continuing ahead. The Guardian walks up to it, examining it. He looks to Frisk.
"Here, I'll lift you up." Frisk nods and he picks them up by the waist and sets them down atop the wall. He turns to Monster Kid, offering to lift him up as well.
"Yo, you go on ahead. Don't worry about me. I'll head another way." He waves with his tail before running off in the opposite direction and face-planting. A quiet 'I'm fine!' could be heard as he got up and left.
From where they now stand, a music box could be heard in the distance, echoing through the caves. Ahead is a SAVE point.
"Alright, go SAVE. I'm willing to bet quite a lot of gold that we haven't seen the last of Undyne." He motions toward it and Frisk approaches the sparkling star.
The serene sound of a distant music box… It fills Frisk with determination.
They approach a very long, wooden pathway. The Guardian Raises his guard and, to his satisfaction, a significant amount of his magic has returned to him… He puts a hand on Frisk's shoulder and stops them.
"Hold on. Last time we went onto a platform like this, Undyne showed up. Let me prepare." Spike extend from his elbows and knees, he begins to glow a dim green with defensive magic, and he turns around, away from Frisk.
"Time to test out another weapon." He grins, almost maniacally, but Frisk can't see it. He cracks his knuckles… Somehow… He takes a deep breath in and breaths out as hard as he can, producing a large jet of flames from his mouth.
"Oh, hell yeah! Fire-breathing!" Frisk looks at him, eyes widened, half shocked, half in awe. The Guardian snaps his fingers and his shields activate. He starts towards the platform, but stops and turns to Frisk.
"Stay behind me. We don't know how she'll attack us this time. Stay alert." He slowly walks out onto the platform, Frisk right behind him. After walking for a short while, they notice a second, lower, platform. They stop as they start to hear something… Loud, rhythmic, clanking… Sure enough, the armored captain steps onto the second platform from the darkness.
The Guardian turns to face her, shadows covering his intimidating stare.
"… Took you long enough… You're not very subtle with your ambushes…" His voice is low, a threatening, slightly mocking tone. He lets out a chuckle that could send a chill up even the toughest of spines.
"Y'know, I'm not very appreciative of how you've been treating us." Once Undyne can get a good look at his new appearance, she takes a half-step back and tilts her head in confusion, but says nothing.
"Like my new look? I know I do…" His stare turns to a glare. "We're going to continue on our way. You will not stop us, Undyne. I will not harm you if you try, but know that your attempt will be unsuccessful." He turns away and positions Frisk on his left, shielding them from Undyne. He begins to walk forward, but stops as multiple spots on the ground begin to glow blue before large spears stab upward, disappearing a second later.
"I see how it is… Can't let us leave? It's your 'Duty' to capture a human?" He mocks her, turning to face his adversary.
"Heh… Good luck." There's an unspoken challenge in his words, one that Undyne does not intend to fail. Before she can react, The Guardian retracts his spikes and shields, lifting Frisk up and taking off sprinting, even faster than last time as his second set of knees give him an extra boost with each step.
As The Guardian jumps and dodges out of the way of dozens of spears, he also has to figure out what path to take in the many branching pathways on the platform. Luckily, while he dodges, his scanners show a map of the platform, highlighting a clear path through. Undyne is barely able to keep up.
Unfortunately, soon they reach the end of the path, a long drop ahead.
"Goddamnit! A dead-end!" The Guardian practically screeches to a halt. He sets Frisk down before turning around to face Undyne, who's now in front of them. "Stay behind me."
He takes a few steps towards the captain. His dim green glow shifts to a dark red. His expression turns sinister in an attempt to ward Undyne off.
… It doesn't work…
"So… This is it, huh? No more running from you." He almost sounds excited, as though he was just waiting for an excuse to break a few bones…
He cracks his neck.
Before he's able to do anything though, his attention is drawn to the sound of a materializing spear to the right. He's unable to stop it from slicing through most of the wooden path several feet ahead of him. His eyes widen in shock as he realizes what she was trying to do.
He reacts quickly, turning around to grab Frisk just as the pathway drops. They both fall into the darkness below, their surroundings becoming darker, darker, yet darker as they continue to fall into the unknown… Time seems to slow down drastically and Frisk's screams of terror are drowned out by the emptiness.
The Guardian spins so that he's underneath Frisk, planning to soften the impact.
The shadows seem to fade slightly, enough for The Guardian to be able to see where they're landing. Below them is a pile of trash, but The Guardian can see large sheets of scrap metal throughout it. Landing on that, even from on top of him, would almost certainly kill or seriously injure Frisk.
He's not willing to take that risk.
He sees that there is water around the scrap pile and he tosses Frisk away from them, despite their struggles to return to him.
Time seems to return to normal speed and Frisk, luckily, fell into water with soft garbage at the bottom, dislodging it and floating Frisk back to the surface. They were knocked unconscious.
The Guardian… Was not so lucky.
He smashed into a large, sharp pile of metal, several pieces stabbing straight through his body. Being an android, he wasn't able to be knocked out, only shut down when he wanted to be. He cried out in pain as he slowly dislodged himself from multiple chunks of metal and climbed off of the pile, only to fall face-first onto rocks.
He slowly and carefully gets up, limping over to Frisk.
"Frisk! Are you alri-" He coughs loudly and painfully, some sparks and green fluid coming out of his mouth.
"Frisk?" He shakes them, but they don't get up.
"Oh, shit! Frisk!" He checks to make sure their still breathing and, fortunately, they are. He lightly taps their cheek. "Frisk, wake up. Come on, wake up. You have to get up!"
They begin to stir.
"Come on… Come on… Yes, that's it, wake up." He checks them for injuries… But other than small cuts and bruises, they're mostly fine. He lifts their head to check for any fractures and they only have some cuts on the back of their head, which are bleeding, but those can heal.
They open their eyes.
"W-What happened…? Where a-am I…?" Frisk groans and wipes their face with their hands.
"Frisk! You're alright. You're fine. We fell… A long way. You might have a concussion." He lets out a relieved sigh before they look at him and they stare in shock.
Confused, The Guardian looks at himself and sees several holes through his arms, legs, and torso, all sparking slightly.
"I'm fine… Don't worry about me. I can repair myself." He carefully helps them stand back up. Once they can stand on their own, he steps away and runs a diagnostics on himself. Luckily, no vital systems were damaged.
Frisk stumbles slightly, but they prop themself against a wall. When they look back at The Guardian, who's now looking to their left, they gasp in surprise as they see a ghostly figure wielding a knife behind him.
He turns to look at them, worried, and the ghost stays hidden from his view.
"What happened? Are you alright?" They point over his shoulder, fear spread across their face.
He slowly turns around and sees what Frisk was scared of. A ghost that looks similar to them, but with red, glowing eyes and a maniacal grin on their face. It has a large, black knife that has black smoke drifting off of it. The Guardian takes a step back and takes a defensive stance.
"Look, I don't know who the hell you are, but we've had a pretty crappy day and would rather not get attacked again. So if you would leave us alone…" He reaches out and tries to put a hand on their shoulder to lead them away, but his hand just phases through it.
"What the hell?" He looks at his hand with a shocked expression, then to Frisk. When he looks back to the phantom, there is a sudden, immense pain that erupts from his chest.
He slowly looks down to see the black knife impaled straight through his chest…
… Right into his SOUL Containment Matrix…
"Warning! Critical Damage To SOUL Containment Matrix! Dimensional SOUL Portal Breached! SOUL Exposed To Extreme Levels Of Void!" The voice seems to come from his chest.
"Void-infused knife… Fun… Isn't it?" The ghost laughs. "I'm Chara… Nice to meet'cha!"
"Destroying Portal To Prevent Further Damage!" Terror spreads across The Guardian's face.
"NO!" He screams as the pain increases exponentially and the room is bathed in a blinding white light from his chest before an explosion catapults everything away, throwing Frisk into a wall.
They are plunged into darkness as they lose consciousness once again…
Author's Note: Yay! Cliffhangers!