Faster update this time, because why not. Make up for the last chapter (I still hate it lol) and the idea just flew for me in this one. I knew what I wanted to do so I did it :D I enjoyed writing this one!

Had films on the brain methinks, so many film references in this chapter. So many films. All the famous ones, obvs.

More plot things!~ My God this story has plot somewhere, sweet Jesus.

Not got a lot else to say this time so, hope you enjoy this update :D


Chapter 12 Staring the Lion Down

We arrived at the Garbage Dump without any more trouble. It was... yeah, it pretty much looked like the local tip, smelt like it too. I scrunched my nose, it stank of damp more than anything. The smell of rotting food and rubbish didn't really stick out too much, I imagined that the bugs or something that lived in these underground tunnels must've been feeding off the rubbish that somehow made its way here. It was the only explanation that I could come up with, I wasn't exactly well versed in biology or any sciences really. It wasn't quite like how a human dump was run, at least from what I saw from TV. There wasn't a huge hole where they just dumped everything, no this place clearly got ransacked on a daily basis as there were clear paths to get from hill to hill of rubbish. Sans had mentioned, before I was giving him the silent treatment, that monsters came here regularly, especially those adept with technology, to scrounge off any tech that could be repaired that humans threw away. He mentioned that was how he got Papyrus' computer, the casing had been destroyed but the CPU and everything else inside had managed to hold out somehow.

Oh yeah, Sans was getting silent treatment. That did make the walk here pretty awkward when Sans tried at any point to initiate a conversation with me, yet a single glare from me shut him up quickly and sweat to appear on his skull. He lowered his head into his parka hood, like a tortoise trying to avoid getting eaten by a dog. Well, I was being a bit of a bitch, but there were pranks and then there was endangering my life and those around me. Not to mention, himself! Did he not care about himself? He seemed to in the pub brawl where he almost got cut in half by the axe and ran away, I don't blame him, he wasn't trained for that sort of combat. He teleported when he was about to fall down the cliff and saved himself, but unable to save me or Papyrus, for whatever reason. I haven't asked yet. Maybe when I've stopped seething. In that moment of being tired, him looking at me with his big black eyes and white pupils staring at me, tilting his head slightly, he did look adorable. Haven't told him about the picture on my phone, it was my background now, looking a lot nicer than a picture of myself giving the victory symbol. Damn, I was a dumb teenager.

"welp, this is the dump." Sans said, almost a yawn in his voice, like he was uninterested, but I knew better. He was tapping his foot a little bit, he had his hands stuffed in his pockets a little more forcefully than normal, but more obvious was that he was still sweating on his bald skull. It still amazed me that a skeleton can sweat, whilst a pig cannot, but what do I know? "it's... yeah."

There was an air of awkwardness in the air, tension. It, uh yeah. I was waiting for Sans to apologise, but he won't. He's that type of person, believed he was doing right. Even if he did, he probably wouldn't mean it. So, here we are.

"CANINE FRIEND, PERHAPS WE COULD GO SNIFF OUT SOMETHING COOL HERE TODAY?" Papyrus turned to look at Shadow, Shadow wagging his tail having not a clue what Papyrus was actually saying. But, when Papyrus started patting his, uh, where his knees would be, Shadow suddenly knew what he was talking about and bounded after him. The pair of them turned the corner and were suddenly gone, hunting inside the dump somewhere for... something.

"so... about earlier..." I glared at Sans as he tried bringing up an apology.

"Don't bother wasting your breath, I know if you'd been given that chance to do it again, you would. You meant to cuff to me, sure is easier than following, right?"

Sans looked like he wanted to be offended, but couldn't muster up the energy to look offended, or act offended. "look, lady, i didn't just cuff to ya just for shits and giggles, 'kay? i had my reasons."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, I'd love to hear your reasons, go on. I've heard it all before." Okay, maybe I was being a bit harsh, I even felt it, but the words just tumbled out of my mouth before I could shut it.

Sans didn't look at me, like he was... I'm not sure. His eyes seemed less harsh, less annoyed somehow, and yet- "i can't say, it's better you don't know, kid."

I could punch him in the face, I swear to God. "Sans, it's not like I'm a grown adult or anything, not like I work with the police, I've seen a dead body before, woman died in her sleep nobody knew she was there for days. Flies covering the house, it was grim as fuck. So, you know, forgive my poor fragile mind, I couldn't give a shit, just tell me."

Sans looked at me, finally able to force his pupil to look at me. He stared, for a long time. Then his grin was back. "sure pal, if ya think your mind can take it. cuz mine couldn't." he began, looking away from me and up at the cave ceiling. I kept my eye on him, not out of distrust, but more to see his reaction. "you think a person has a tiny bit of bad in them, like a little devil on their shoulder that they listen to sometimes, no matter how good of a person they appear to be?"

It was an odd question, I thought, to start explaining anything he had going on in his head. "Of course, we can't be perfect, there is always going to be something that pisses someone else off."

Sans smiled, his grin lessening into a sadder version of its normal self. "nah, i ain't talking 'bout that. i'm talking about good and evil, jekyll and hyde." I didn't question how he knew of the book Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but I imagined he got it from here. "cuz hyde was a nice guy, scientist, helped others in need, good local man. then there is hyde, nobody knows about him, goes around tearing the town apart, raping women, stealing from stores, punching guys, causing fights. gonna bet that story was somewhat based on a true story. cuz i think you are like jekyll." Of course, maybe that was the time to be outraged, to spit out that he was nuts, insane, a twat for saying such a thing. What, is he calling me bipolar or something? Christ no! Except... it laid heavy on my soul, something seemed extremely bothered by this, weighing on my soul, that didn't feel right. I couldn't reply to him, couldn't repute his statement. "ya got a little devil on your shoulder, babe? it telling you things you shouldn't know?"

Shut up, you fucking sack of shit. I flinched, that voice sounded lethal, deadly, angry. Turn my head, looking over my shoulder. Freakthefuckout. It was leaning forward, right into my face, massive fanged grin, way more creepier than Sans' could ever be, red eyes glowing, with blood red pupils staring at me. Their figure was entirely black, as in pitch black, I could see nothing of their body, facial expression, anything, even when this close up to the demon. I admit it, first time I screamed in my life (apart from when I was an infant, but I don't count that). I fell backwards, landing on my arse. The demon laughed, it echoed in my head, it's teeth separated as it roared out in laughter, I didn't see a tongue, that was probably for the best I couldn't imagine it having an ectoplasmic tongue to go with this horrifying thing, or an Alien tongue. God no.

I blinked and it was gone, as was the laughter, the slightly darkened area around where the demon had been. Just gone, like that, in a blink of an eye, like it never happened. Fuck, I must be suffering some weird PTSD or something. But what Sans said, it clung to me, bothered me a lot, freaked me out. A little devil on my shoulder? More like a big demon having a piggy back ride with my shadow.

"i can't see what you see, i don't know what causes you to act the way ya do." Sans continues talking, as if the whole demon incident hadn't happened, as if I hadn't been scared shitless. "but i know one thing, when you were a kid, first few RESETS you were great, a lovely kid, smiling, happy, a joy to the world. then, slowly, summat happened, not sure what, but you weren't smiling nicely anymore. you smiled, but it was different, nasty, greedy, fanged. you walked funny, you held a knife close to ya, covered in dust, your grin was worse than mine. you forgot how to laugh, forgot your friends, turned nasty, very nasty. well... someone had to put you in your place." When I turned around to look at him, he looked... his eye sockets were blank, dark, staring at me, he still had a grin on his face, it freaked me out, caused me to shiver. "that's why I can't let ya go." His pupils came back and he winked with his right eye, his eyes and grin back to normal again, shrugging with his hands out of his pockets for once. "someone's gotta look out for ya, doll. since you ain't doing it, guess i gotta do it myself."

What he was saying... dust on my clothes, a knife to my hand, a nasty smile, walking funny... "Are... are you saying...?"

Sans just stared at me, for a little while. "i'm saying hyde went to town on us monsters, couldn't wake you up. you couldn't remember us, so i had to stop you. after that, i didn't see you again, until i knocked on the door and you answered. when i heard your voice, i knew it was you." He closed his eyes, as he began leaning on the wall nearby, I could hear Shadow barking in the distance along with Papyrus' "nyeh heh heh!" but I paid it little mind. "shads is a smart friend ya got. the way you were walking, ready to fight if you saw someone, even though you didn't have a knife, i thought you were hyde, yet at the same time you were much bigger than i remember. you were shorter than me before." Sans had a strange smile on his face, it reminded me of nostalgia, like he was remember something fond from a timeline that no longer existed. That nobody but he remembered anymore. "it's a good thing shads was with you. or else our first time meeting again was gonna be a little... different." He didn't clarify what he meant by that. I already knew what he meant by that, it did cause me to shiver, to lean away from Sans slightly. But. I didn't blame him. I remember seeing a lot of horror movies when I was a teenager, proving to myself I was an adult by watching films that were 18+ when I was fifteen. I don't regret it, I didn't get scared by them, just a little jumpy. A lot of the protagonists in horror films like Friday 13th do fight back against the murderer, celebrating when they believed they had killed him not because they had killed him, but because they have lived and saved others and themselves from death.

Here I was, comparing myself to Jason Voorhees and imagining Sans as a hormonal teenager out camping and saving himself from a hockey mask wearing maniac. I am now getting worried that my sense of humour is passing dark, darker than cop humour already was.

Why not arrest the dick right where he stood? Well. He's not expressly saying he had murdered anyone, sure he said he thought of doing it, had planned on it. Though, law forbids it, planning and thinking it is not against the law, you actually have to attempt it. Minority Report was not a reality, you can't arrest someone for that, that's where a lot of misunderstandings happen and you mostly all suffer with that misunderstanding. Not to mention, isn't that the most hypocritical thing? He was only going to defend himself from me, because I was going to flip, arresting him seemed like the worst idea.

Also, my cuffs were still on my wrist, the other side hanging uselessly now that Sans pulled some Who Framed Roger Rabbit bullshit. Well, on the floor. Until I struggled to get up off the floor, I must've been spooked more than I thought but, how else do I take the thought of being possessed or followed by some demon? Suddenly, baggy trousers in front of me, trainers on the floor, if I looked up, oh. Then again, skeleton, pretty sure he has no crotch really to speak of, who cares, what's to look at? Look straight up to see Sans' smug grin.

"good view down there?" How he was still able to throw these out after I had been scared to death, he told me he planned on murdering me, that I had murdered him before in a past life was just insane.

"Do you just always deflect everything with innuendos or am I just special?" I grumbled rather annoyed, but Sans' sudden hesitance surprised me. It wasn't long, but long enough I took notice. You learn these things, having to interrogate people, hesitance spoke a lot of words. So, one of those is true. One he didn't want to admit. Fifty fifty on which one though.

"you do keep cumming back for more." He even winked and, was that a nudge of his hips!? How funny would it be if I punched him right now at this level? With a huff, I struggle to one knee, but suddenly I saw Sans move, or lean, and there was a heavy weight on my back as Sans just collapses on top of me. What the fuck?

"Dude, what the fuck?" He had just collapsed on top of my back, his feet almost off the ground, pushing me to the floor. Like a dog would dogpile on someone.

"i saw that look in your eyes, i'm protecting myself. i don't wanna be on the other side of that fist."

"Seriously, knock it off." For a bag of bones, I'd say Sans was pretty heavy. That wasn't the problem. My limbs just refused to move, not paralysed but stiff as hell. Like I had Lurgy or something. "Are you using fucking magic or some bullshit Hogwarts crap?"

"dunno 'bout pigs, i'm just using what i got. pretty sansational, eh?"

"I'd show you a fucking sansational time if you let me go."

"heh, kinky." He refused to move and I was growing tired physically. I don't think I really fully recovered from everything that had happened and this was just proving it. Can't even throw off a lazy skeleton off my back.

"OH MY GOD, SANS AND HUMAN ARE YOU PLAYING A GAME?" Oh get the fuck away from me, Papyrus, don't you dare.

"sure bro, it's called dog pile. shads loves this game." Maybe the demon had a point, Sans is very lucky to be alive.

"DOGPILE!" I didn't see it happen, that made it all the more worse, when Papyrus and Shadow joined in and jumped on top of Sans and myself. Somehow, I was still breathing, but barely. I was now lying flat on the ground with two skeletons and a dog on top of me. How ridiculous did that sound? Something dropped in front of me, with my barely working body, I managed to turn my head to see a knife fall to the floor. It wasn't real, it was clearly made of plastic, completely useless, +3 Attack what a joke.

... what did I care about that though? How was it useless? It was a children's toy, it is meant merely for entertainment.

After Sans took pity on me and heard my gasping for help, he got Shadow and Papyrus off of me and helped me to my feet. As soon as I could, I did punch him in the shoulder, all the good it did was make Sans laugh.

"OH HUMAN. I FOUND THIS WEAPON AND CAME TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT." Papyrus picked up the plastic knife, holding it carefully as if it were a real weapon able to damage him. "IT SEEMS STRANGE, WHO WOULD MAKE A PLASTIC WEAPON? THAT SEEMS LIKE A WASTE."

Wait. "Pap, don't monsters make these for their children to play with?"

Papyrus looked like I asked him to stab a squirrel out of a tree. He looked beyond horrified. "GIVE A WEAPON TO A CHILD? WHO WOULD DO THAT?"

"coughundynecough." I heard quietly from Sans. I couldn't tell by his grin if he was serious or not.

"WHAT WAS THAT BROTHER?"

"nothing. hayfever."

"IN WATERFALL?"

"i blame the echo flowers."

"YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A NOSE TO GET HAYFEVER."

"miracles happen bro."

It was like listening to the twins Diddy and Dilan Holdsworth. They were a pair of trouble makers that liked to cause all sorts of problems, usually graffiti and shop lifting penny sweets (yup you heard that right) and whenever they were brought into the station, they would argue immediately about how it was the others fault for getting caught. We called them the Terrible Two. Because, really, they were terrible at crime. Still not as bad as Sticky Mickey. Nobody was as bad as that guy, he was fond of big girls, strong girls, but didn't think about that when trying to get a feel of them. Needless to say, the girls always managed to punch him, slap him hard or their boyfriends did, but Mickey never knows no. That's when we get called in, groan, instantly rock paper scissors who gets to handcuff him and back into a days' work.

"Uh, Pap, back on the surface, those aren't weapons, they couldn't really hurt you even if you really tried with us humans." I explained, but that made me realise that this didn't belong to a monster. But, then again, we were at the dump where most things here are actually human made. "Where did you get that sword from?"

"OH, THIS WAY." Papyrus then made a mad dash towards the area where he found the sword. "IT WAS HERE. THERE IS A RIBBON HERE NEXT TO SOME GLASSES AND A BOOK. WHO WOULD THROW THESE THINGS OUT? AREN'T THEY PRECIOUS TO SOME?"

It did seem strange. Strange that they seemed rather... neat, for being in a pile of rubbish. Like they were left there recently. "Let's see if the notebook says anything." And there it was, in writing:

Dear Diary,

Godfrey and me miss Toriel, we'd love to go back there for a day and ask her to help us, but she looked really upset when we left. We're moving on from Snowdin now, it's too cold there and we haven't got any coats on or nothing. Waterfall looks lovely, everyone here is so nice as well. I loved singing with Shyren, and the Riverperson reminded me of that Grim Reaper from Grim's Adventures. I miss TV. I miss mum and dad. We'll be there soon! Toriel says we have to look out and not run into Undyne, a big fish lady with a spear. She's scary and doesn't like humans. I don't get why, but maybe humans hurt her before? Or her family? We promised Toriel we'd be careful.

The Nice Cream Guy was nice and gave us Nice Creams when we didn't have any gold on us. He heard our tummies rumbling, laughed and gave us a free Nice Cream. He was awesome! There was a nice song playing from the statue before the cave where it rains, me and Godfrey stayed there a little while, before we had to move because we couldn't sleep here. Undyne was too close, we gotta run.

I don't like Undyne. She scares me. Hope me and Godfrey get home soon.

Bruce Walters and Godfrey Walters.

The next page was blank, I had trouble trying to open the next few pages, as the pages were sticky with what I could see was dried blood. Jesus Christ, they were children. They can't have been older than teenagers, ten or so maybe from what I remembered on my file, harmless, trying to get home and Undyne came along and gutted them like fish, simply because they were the same species as those that trapped her and her people down here. That was fucked up. Truly fucked up. All he had wanted was him and his brother to return home. He wanted to leave in peace, leave the monsters alone, hell, he made friends with the monsters and this is what she did!

Could kill that bitch.

I was sad to say that that voice was tempting. How could a let a child killer scott free? But, I would be as bad as them, if I didn't give them a trial. That was just not the way we work. Something seemed to huff at the back of my head. I ignored it.

"These belonged to two children. Bruce and Godfrey Walters. They were brothers, they were playing a game on the mountain when they fell down here into the Underground. Allan Baker only came down here because he was trying to find his friends, looks like they made it further than he did. Undyne must've caught up to them, that was their last entry. they were running from Undyne, trying to escape, trying to live and she killed them in cold blood."

There was an awkward silence, before Papyrus tried to speak up. "Human, maybe there was a reason-"

"Pap, nobody kills children, not unless it was self defence. I don't care if Undyne is your friend, how could anyone kill a child?" Papyrus wasn't sure what to say, he did look like I kicked a kitten. I felt bad. This wasn't fair. I didn't like Undyne by the sounds of her, did I mention she killed me twice?, but Papyrus seemed to think that she was his best friend. And Papyrus was lovely, probably wouldn't be able to find a fault in a person, even if there was, he'd try his best to make them feel good about themselves. I wasn't sure how he managed it, he just seemed to be so filled with hope, he hadn't been exposed to all the horrible things that the world has, somehow Sans had kept him shielded from it all.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't glare at Papyrus, there was no way to tell him that his best friend was a cold blooded killer to his face. There was just no way. It couldn't be done.

I sighed. "Okay. Like we do on the surface, I will listen to what Undyne has to say for herself. She will have to explain why she did what she did, then we can see what to do."

Papyrus seemed to be satisfied with that, his eyes began sparkling and he rushed to give me a crushing hug. My ribs protested. His didn't. "OH HUMAN, THANK YOU! YOU WON'T REGRET IT, YOU AND UNDYNE WILL GET ON LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE. PROBABLY LITERALLY." What. "AFTER ALL. EVEN THE MOST HORRIBLE PERSON MUST LIKE SOMETHING, RIGHT HUMAN?"

Huh, that was oddly clever of Papyrus. Not that I thought he wasn't clever, he just didn't seem like the type to get particularly philosophical. He seemed to be a simple person, but that is what made him so likable, he was straight forward and to the point. No messing around with Papyrus.

After looking around for any more clues, we take Godfrey and Bruce's items of a faded ribbon, toy knife, cloudy glasses and torn notebook and continue on our way. The further we went, the warmer it became, it felt like it was becoming warmer quickly, considering it had been very chilly near Snowdin. Perhaps it seemed we were finally getting closer to Hotland. It became hot enough that I took my jacket off, tying it around my waist and that left my short sleeved shirt on show. Sans seemed to turn his head away at first, then turned back to look, intrigued. Not in a perverted sense, but more of wonder, poor guy had probably never seen breasts on a skinny person before, they must've stood out so much. That was the problem working in the police, most of the criminals had no pride, didn't care if they were caught staring. Sans was different, he didn't seem to be staring aroused (that was bizarre considering his many comments, again I wondered if he really thought what he said) but like he had never seen them before. Like a child would. Interesting. Papyrus seemed to be doing the same, but he quickly grew bored, as his attention didn't seem to last on many things. Interesting, that the brothers seemed to be so different. Sans was short, Papyrus tall, Sans quiet, Papyrus loud, Sans liking his own space, Papyrus lonely and wanting more friends. It was like they both complimented each other. It was nice to see.

We made it through the caverns, thankfully the lights stayed on long enough that we could get further on. Sans told me to ignore Temmie village. When I asked why, he just said to trust him. Um. Okay. So, we didn't visit Temmie village. Relief finally hit us when we were walking through a long straight path, exhaustion starting to creep up on me when a huge sign saying 'WELCOME TO HOTLAND' appeared. Yes! Oh my God, we finally made it! It only took half a day or so to make it to Hotland. We made it past Sans' other patrol station, before we came to a bridge. I was about to cross, panting like a hot dog, sweating everywhere, when I looked down, hearing bubbling underneath me.

And freaked the fuck out.

JESUS CHRIST LAVA. LAVA. FUCKING LAVA. GET OUT OF TOWN.

"Sans! When you said Hotland, I didn't think you meant volcano!"

"hey what did you expect? we're deep in the underground, besides lava is great for energy. It magmars dreams."

"I couldn't give a shit about your stupid Pokemon puns and how do you even know Pokémon?"

"got a gameboy with pokemon red in it. these pokemon real up on the surface?" I didn't want to tell him that they weren't, I wanted to see the look of disappointment on his face to realise that Pokémon was just that, a video game.

"Get me off this bridge, this isn't happening, I refuse!"

"but you're already halfway."

"Don't care! That half is safer!"

"i can see alphys' lab from here, just look there and don't look down."

I looked down. "No. No. I'm done. Done. I didn't sign up for this, I'm no doing it!"

Sans sighed. Papyrus looked between the both of us. Shadow tilted his head, looking at Papyrus. They both seemed to shrug almost simultaneously. Dogs shrug? Sans walked forward, coming across the bridge. I stood still, terrified because LAVA HELLO. "look, if you aren't gonna move forward, at least move so we can get past."

"Are you serious? I ain't moving! If I move the bridge might collapse!" Was now a good time to say I don't like heights? Or lava? Mostly lava.

"hey babe, wanna hear a joke?"

"I got one, you know what the joke is here? That I'm on a rickety bridge over LAVA!"

"knock knock."

I could kill him. "Who's there?"

"lava."

I could kill him. "Lava who?"

"babe, i lava you a lot."

"Get me off this fucking bridge, Sans." Sans just shrugs, how was he still wearing his parka when there is LAVA below us!? With a sigh, he bends down and- "Oh my God! I changed my mind! I'll get off myself!" He picked me up, over his shoulder, don't know how he has the strength in his bones, as my feet were kicking, then I clung to him like a limpet because I was looking down. "Jesus Christ. This view is gonna kill me."

"dunno about that, my view is pretty good here." Smug little shit! That was definitely a pinch to the arse. These trousers for work were not padded that well. "though, don't get it, what's with the flesh around here anyhow?"

"Comfort. Mostly comfort, honestly. But apparently men find them attractive."

"don't have an arse so i can't comment really. it looks more funny actually, what i could make you do when i pinched it." He wasn't wrong, I did flinch pretty bad and even almost went to slap him when he pinched my arse, but to hear that he didn't find it arousing... that was a shocker and, dare I say, a bit of a downer. Well, he is a skeleton. And hey, I may be the least girly person around, but I still had my self esteem. But my pride. Yeah, that disappeared, my pride has gone.

So, Sans carried me the whole way, ignoring my protests and I was too frightened to want to struggle out of the grasp that Sans had me in. As soon as we made it across the bridge (apparently Papyrus and Shadow had no trouble at all) Sans dropped me to the floor, so I landed on my arse right away.

"Gee, thanks." I grumbled as I struggled to get to my feet.

"no probs." Sans still had that grin on his face, looking at me like he hadn't done anything wrong at all. Of course, though at the same time it was half a breath of fresh air. None of that 'milady' or 'maam' nonsense. I was never one for upper class talk, upper class also seemed like a society I wanted no part in. To have to wear a dress or a skirt? No thanks.

Looked up and there it was, The Labs. It seemed like a huge building, factory, with the word 'LAB' written on top of the only entrance. It was a white building and I was baffled that the building had a chimney. It did make me realise, though, that I hadn't the entire time had trouble breathing in this area. With this amount of magma around, surely I should be suffering lack of oxygen, trouble breathing, breathing in Carbon Monoxide or something? Dioxide or something, I'm not a scientist. So, maybe the chimney was significant somehow else, since there appear to be monsters living here.

Papyrus jogged over, rushing to the door and knocked on the door with such enthusiasm that surely, Alphys must've known who was knocking on the door right away without looking. That is, if Alphys knew who Papyrus was, I didn't doubt though.

"DOCTOR ALPHYS, IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, COME TO GRACE YOU WITH MY PRESENCE." Well. There was no way she hadn't heard that. For a long time, nothing happened, nobody replied and nothing moved. I was about to ask if she was even home, or in a close radius of her home, when the Lab door opened by lifting up. This was reminding me of some horror film, several of them. With a dramatic flick of his scarf, Papyrus made his way into the lab without waiting for my recovery, or Sans to say a word. I looked to Sans, he just shrugs, Shadow whines and tilts his head at me. I sigh. In we go. We were the masters of silent communication when Papyrus wasn't around.

Inside, it was certainly a lab, it looked rather modern compared to what I was expecting. Every horror film ever told me to expect glass everywhere, tubes filled with liquid, dirty walls, rusting ceiling, broken shit everywhere, papers flown all over the place. Well, that was still true, there was a trail of papers around the place, some with angry pen marks that reminded me of my doctor's writing; illegible.

There, in front of us, stood two figures. The first one was one I didn't recognise. A yellow dinosaur leaning forward in their seat looking at the massive TV screen the size of me that had me on it, wearing a scientist lab coat, a pen in the pocket and wearing glasses. She was about the size of Sans, so up to my shoulder, or so. She had a small tail as well from what I saw. That. That's cool. Dinosaurs were the thing back when I was a kid, though not so much anymore. Dinosaur scientist was having me imagining a reverse Jurassic Park, and I quickly tried to get that image out of my head.

It didn't take long when I realised who was nearby the dinosaur. It took me a little while to recognise her, as she always wore armour whenever I was nearby, but today she was not wearing any. She was wearing a simple gym shirt and wearing track suit bottoms with big boots, like she was going out to train her soldiers. She wasn't carrying a spear right now, but I recognised her quickly by her hair, it was hard to not recognise. Red, long, tied in a pony tail, reaching her lower back and I could guarantee that it looked dramatic when blowing in the wind. I remembered what she was like, attacking me like a trained warrior, aiming to kill quickly rather than show her strength or impress her opponent. The way she attacked, quickly where I had no chance, exterminating me, it made me shiver, seeing her standing there, as she turned around and appeared shocked. She straightened up, having been bending upwards slightly to see what was on the big TV screen, when she heard us come in.

"UNDYNE! WE DID NOT EXPECT YOU HERE. WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE!" Papyrus rushed forward, wrapping an arm around Undyne's shoulder, though she didn't seem that bothered, too busy staring at me with an expression I couldn't define. I must've been looking at her the same way, staring her down, like she were a danger to me. She was.

She killed you; what are you, a moron? Kill the bitch!

"WE HAVE BROUGHT A FRIEND FOR YOU TO MEET. UNDYNE, THIS IS FRISK. FRISK, THIS IS UNDYNE. SHE IS MY BEST FRIEND AND CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD." Then he put a hand on the dinosaur's shoulder. "AND THIS IS DOCTOR ALPHYS, THE ROYAL SCIENTIST."

Silence.

"UM. HERE." Papyrus grabbed Undyne's hand, pulling it forward and walked towards me, bringing Undyne with him. I flinched, taking a step back, though Papyrus didn't notice and grabbed for my hand. He grabbed it, pulling it towards Undyne's and got our palms to touch. Her hand wasn't slimy, it was actually slightly slippery, yet at the same time rough on my skin. I could feel her claws dig into my skin slightly, not hurting, but rather almost a threat. It worried me a little, I was already feeling stiff and stuck in fight or flight, but instead remaining paralysed trying to stand my ground and appear threatening. Undyne appeared to be doing the same. She was scared of me? Was that what her reaction was? She was scared? Scared of me? She had killed me without much trouble before, why was she scared of some poor human when her only weapon is useless against her?

"YOU CAN SHAKE YOUR HANDS NOW." Silence.

Undyne coughs, "So. You're a human."

Well thank fuck Undyne was the master of observational skills. "Last I checked."

Undyne dropped her hand, almost eagerly, before running a hand through her red hair claws going through the hair slightly touching her scalp. "Look, you seem like a nice person, but you're still a human, and I made a promise to the King so..." I stared at her, crossing my arms to my chest, looking sternly at her. Her toothed smile seemed to waver, I could see her begin to sweat. Alphys didn't seem at all bothered by my presence, somehow. She was watching, silently, looking between Undyne and I. Sans, dunno what he was doing. Papyrus was close by, wondering what we were doing. Shadow was doing the same, confused by my reaction. Of course, Shadow didn't remember the RESETS, otherwise he would be ripping Undyne's throat out right now.

"Oh please, do tell how a promise to your King is worth the lives of six dead children. I'd love to hear it." My tone of voice was ice cold, unkind, bad cop mode.

Undyne flinched, though not entirely out of fear, more at the viciousness of my tone of voice, the sternness of it. She probably felt guilty. Good. "Ah gee man, c'mon lady, you know the story. The Skelebros told you." She looked to Sans and Papyrus, but they said nothing. She sighed. "Humans killed us, none of them died in the war, not one. We were slaughtered, one human is stronger than a thousand of us, we stood no chance. You realise how fucking terrifying that is?" I faltered slightly. She... she had a point. "I'm the best there is, I trained everyday to keep my friends and family safe from humans attacking. Six humans have fallen down and died in numerous ways, some our fault, some not. We had one human, the child of hope, Chara was going to fix relations with the humans. Asgore told me, he thought with Chara, we could be friends with the humans, that it was possible because Chara loved us. When she died, we lost hope. When Asriel died, we gave up. "That was what Asgore told me, to kill any human that entered here, before they kill us. Humans will never change, they'd kill us on sight. That's what I was told, that's what I believed."

"But you. You're weird. You didn't freak out when you saw Sans. Alphys showed me the video, when you first met him. When your buddy here tackled bonehead here, you apologised, felt sorry instead of freaking out. What gives?"

Wow. Undyne sure had a lot to say, for a person who was very physical instead of talking a lot. She had passion, I could tell that much, she was undyingly loyal to Asgore, by the sounds of it, the way she spoke of him. That didn't surprise me, being Captain of the Royal Guard, she must be close to him. She genuinely believed that humans were dangerous, I didn't blame her now. Hearing her side of the story, she was genuinely frightened for her life from humans. With the monster's past, I suppose it didn't seem entirely unreasonable.

But she still killed children, hadn't she?

"Maybe you should try not to lump all people in the same basket? Just because most dogs hate cats and that's a stereotype, doesn't mean that all dogs hate cats. Some prefer the company of cats, some are raised with cats. That doesn't mean that all cats would try if they could to kill all dogs because one day a random dog might come along to eat them."

Undyne huffed. "What, let it kill someone before I do something about it? What good is that shit? Those two smaller humans, one was throwing his weapon about like a maniac! He was going to kill someone with it! I can't let humans like that live, he was laughing with his brother, I assumed they were brothers. How could I?"

"Maybe, instead of swinging your spear around and just throwing it at anything that looks even remotely dangerous, you'd think first before just shooting and not bothering with questions." I shook my head, getting frustrated. "I haven't attacked a single monster whilst here, but you wouldn't have hesitated to kill me anyway. I was talking fine with monsters, Sans and Papyrus accepted me into their homes and let me stay with them, eat with them, travel with them and you couldn't care, because I'm human. Obviously, I can't be anything other than a killer." Undyne didn't say anything, knowing that what I was saying was true. "I get that you're scared, I was scared when I came here. But, I knew that if I killed anyone, that would just make what you said true, that all humans are just killers, attack first and don't bother with questions. I don't want to be like that, even when I was attacked by other monsters, I still tried to defend myself without harming the other. As a police officer, we are always taught to disarm. If we disarm, they won't be able to hurt us and we can find out why they did what they did."

Undyne seemed like she wanted to speak, but I stopped her. "Look, humans are shit, I know that. My work revolves around trying to solve that issue and trying to make people better people, punishing bad behaviour and trying to lead their life to a new brighter road. Just, most of the time we don't manage it. That's why I'm a cop. I protect my people, but I don't do it through killing, Undyne, I do it through disarm."

Undyne shook her head, she seemed conflicted. "I-I get it. But I promised Asgore. He is my King." That's why I couldn't blame her entirely, even if I wanted to. She was following orders, that was a little messy in terms of the law, as if she ignored his orders, at least in our country it would have resulted in her disobeying orders, which could eventually lead to court marshal. That is, if their military system worked any at all like ours did. But her feeling good about killing those children, as she seemed to. That. That I couldn't forgive.

"Do you really, Undyne? I've met plenty of hate before, us cops are used to hate being thrown at us, I've seen plenty thrown in for racist crimes white people beating up black people. What's the difference really?"

Undyne shook her head. "It ain't like that. Asgore declared war, we're at war with ya. I thought I was doing good. I thought I was saving my people, I didn't know those humans weren't dangerous!"

At this, I took out Bruce's torn notebook, handing it to Undyne. "Read that. Read it all. Understand who you have killed. At least do the kid a good thing and feel remorse for who you killed. For the time being." I didn't want to tell her that that was probably the worst I could do right now, without being in control of the situation all that much, this was the worst I could do. Maybe give her the chance to repent, to truly take in what she had done. Maybe give Bruce and Godfrey peace of mind. It was the most I feel I could do, for now. Until I could get to Asgore. "Anyway, Alphys."

The dinosaur almost seemed to squeak, flinching slightly as I said her name. My voice was still pretty icy, I didn't blame her for being worried, or even scared of me. Considering what Undyne believed, I wouldn't blame her for her reaction either. "Y-y-yes?"

Huh, she had a stutter, was I that frightening? I tried to calm down, good cop mode. "Sorry about that, but Sans was telling me that you're the Royal Scientist. I got a bit of a problem." I raised my arm, the cuffs dangling there uselessly.

"O-oh! I've seen those before!" Alphys suddenly seemed excited, walking right up to me without a care in the world and grabbed my arm. Wow, her hand felt a lot like Undyne's, actually. Just more dry. "They use these to apprehend bad guys, r-right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"S-so. Sans t-totally thinks you're a-a-a bad guy, right?" Where was she going with this?

"I, uh, don't think it works that way?"

She had a sheepish grin on her face, putting her hands to her mouth as she shook slightly, a blush to her cheeks. What on earth? "it'ssoadorableohmygodishipitishipitsohard." I didn't catch a word of that. I had no idea what she said.

"Right." I coughed. "So, can you get these cuffs off for me?"

She smiled brightly, excited to be asked for help it appeared, or that she loved her science that much. "O-o-of course! Right this w-way!"


I'm still pondering if Frisk went too easy on Undyne, because she did kill kids. I mean, they were still children. But she did think the kids were going to murder an entire village so. This is messy. Life is messy. It's never easy. Never black and white.

I kinda mumbled I think a bit towards the end, sorry about that. I was getting so close to the end I couldn't wait but then I kept writing. Dangit Undyne and Alphys are interesting to write, because they are so different. They are going to be difficult xD in the future lol

Not much else to say, other than hope you enjoyed this chapter~ Cuz I had fun writing it c: let me know if you think Frisk did the right thing, it took a lot of thinking to think what Frisk should do in that situation considering everything she had to think of. I think this was appropriate, but lemmi know if you think otherwise :P

Hope you enjoyed! ^^ Until Next time! When I eventually get the next chapter written up xD

~Blackie