AN: Again, apologies for the late update.

I walked, frustrated, down the roads of Hotland.

I'd searched the area over and over again. I'd looked for anything vaguely out of place. And there was no bloody trace of the bird. None at all.

Where the hell was he? It wasn't like he had many places to hide. I'd already done more than enough runs to know every single nook and cranny of the Underground. Yet wherever I'd looked, he wasn't there.

I growled in anger and prepared to search again. There's got to be something, I thought. No bloody way there wasn't.

So I searched. Again. And again, I found nothing.

Just… what the hell.

I stomped the ground. Fighting the comedian wasn't half this frustrating. Back then, I'd had a clear objective and a good idea of how to achieve it. Now? Now, I was trying to fight an enemy I couldn't even find. It was hard to do something if I didn't have the first clue what to do.

Well, nothing else to do. I just searched the area once more. Felt like bashing my head against a brick wall.

Nothing. Again.

I hissed in anger and pounded my frying pan on the rocks. At least when there was a hard fight, I had some sense of progress. Some sense that, every time, I got closer and closer to finally winning. Here? All it felt like I was accomplishing was giving myself a migraine.

Maybe he wasn't in Hotland. Maybe he'd doubled back while I wasn't looking and made his way to Waterfall, or even Snowdin. Maybe I wasn't finding anything here because there wasn't anything here.

Well, some sort of plan was better than nothing. I turned and headed back towards Waterfall.

By the time I'd gotten there, I'd calmed down a bit. The sudden blast of cool air as I stepped into the mountain expelled the last traces of the rage from my mind, and I stopped for a moment to clear my head.

Now that I thought about it, it seemed obvious. If I hadn't found him in Hotland, it was foolish to assume he'd be there. I should've come here sooner.

Ah well. What was done was done. I stepped forward into Waterfall, a new feeling of vigor within me.

I kept my eyes open as I moved, looking around everywhere. I needed any clue I could find. Even then, though, I found nothing for a while. But that was alright. Now that I'd stopped thinking exclusively about Hotland, there were quite a lot of places to search. No point in jumping to conclusions early.

And so, I walked on, looking around as I did. Really, Waterfall seemed rather peaceful now that there wasn't a fish lady trying to kill me. It was actually oddly pleasant. Just walking through the place, taking in the sights… I had to admit, it was nice.

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted as I felt myself step in… something. Whatever it was, it was grainy and gritty and in general not a pleasant thing to be in.

I thought I had a pretty good idea of what it was.

I stopped, took a step back, and looked down. As I thought, a pile of white dust lay upon the path.

Hm. Well, that was interesting.

So the bird had killed someone. Or maybe it was that figure from before. Either way, it didn't matter. Someone was dead, and I was willing to bet anything the bird was responsible in one way or another.

At the very least, that meant I was on the right track. He was in Waterfall, and most likely somewhere in the vicinity. Excellent.

I knelt down and took a closer look at the dust. There was nothing to identify who it once was – at least, not that I could see. Unfortunate. If I'd known who it was, maybe I could've figured out the motive. That'd get me one step closer to knowing what the bird was plotting.

Ah well. I didn't need to know what went through his feathery little head. All I needed to know was how to make sure nothing ever did again. And that meant, first of all, tracking him down.

A small smirk appeared on my face at that thought. After all, he'd given me exactly what I needed to do just that.

I stood back up and looked around. There were no other clues in the vicinity that immediately jumped out at me, but he had to be somewhere nearby. After all, this pile of dust wasn't scattered to the four winds yet, and that meant this monster had died pretty recently.

Well, in that case, no time for standing around. I took off at a sprint further into Waterfall.

But he was still nowhere to be seen. Damn. Must've fled already. And as much as I hated to admit it, I was just a small child with short legs trying to chase a winged bird-person. If he wanted to flee, I wouldn't be able to catch up with him.

So I needed to trap him, I thought. Run him into Snowdin Town or someplace like that. Somewhere with a bunch of monsters. He wouldn't want to go into someplace like that – and that'd leave him with nowhere to run away.

Of course, I still needed to find him first. That was annoying, but perfectly doable. After all, I'd done plenty of monster hunting in my previous runs. Obviously, this was a bit different – this time, I needed to find a specific monster, not just a monster in general – but with any luck, I'd manage eventually.

I made sure to keep a sharp eye out as I proceeded down the twisting paths of Waterfall. Unfortunately, I didn't find any other clues. That wasn't too unexpected – it wasn't like a monster would've left footprints on hard rock. It did, however, mean that my only real option was to just keep wandering until I ran into him.

So I did. I walked, more or less at random, down the twisting paths of Waterfall, keeping a sharp eye out for anything suspicious as I did. I didn't see the bird – because of course, nothing could ever be easy – and neither did I see any overt clues to his presence. But I did notice something – the monsters.

Of course, monsters were hardly an uncommon sight in Waterfall, even if seeing them on a return trip was a bit unusual to me. But what was odd wasn't their presence. It was how they acted. Many of them were huddled together, frantically whispering to each other about something. Others stood alone in a corner somewhere, silently sulking about something. A few were shouting at each other, clearly arguing about something.

Whatever was going on, I wasn't willing to believe it had nothing to do with the bird. He decides to reveal himself, and right at that moment everyone starts behaving oddly? I refused to believe that that was a coincidence.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get as much information as I'd like. The whispers were drowned out by the shouts, which in turn blurred together into a mess of noise that I couldn't pick anything out of. Maybe if I got closer, I'd be able to hear something, but when the monsters were already so agitated, I doubted they'd take kindly to me trying to overhear them.

Here, however, the twisting nature of the caverns worked in my favor. After a bit of searching around while trying my best to look inconspicuous, I found a pair of monsters having a little shouting match near a wall. I hid behind it, leaned back, and tried my best to drown out everything other than what the two were saying. After all, they couldn't complain about me listening in if they never found out I was doing so.

"Well, let's see your proof, then!" one of the monsters yelled. Judging by the voice, it was probably female.

"You think they were lying?!" the other – definitely male – shouted back at her. They? Were they talking about me? Not necessarily – there were still a few other possibilities – but it seemed likely.

But they were talking about someone who may or may not have lied to them. And as I recalled, I'd never even talked to either of those monsters.

"Of course they were!" the female one snapped. "You-"

But before she could finish, the male one cut her off. "Why?!" he yelled. "What possible reason could they have?!"

"I don't bloody well know!" the female yelled. "Attention, like as not!"

"The hell?!" the other one shouted back. "You think they'd lie about someone DYING just for attention?!"

A metaphorical lightbulb went off in my head. Someone dying? I knew a bit about that. And I'd have bet anything that whoever they were talking about was the same one whose dust I found.

Also, that confirmed that they weren't talking about me. After all, I sure as hell hadn't told anyone about that. Which meant that, given the they and where we were, they were almost certainly talking about the monster kid.

Which meant they were the first one to discover the murder. Which meant that maybe I ought to go talk to them. The thought was unpleasant, but anything to find the bird.

And it was a murder. That much, I was absolutely certain of. If the bird showed up and a monster died soon after, then knowing the bird, there was really just about one reasonable conclusion to draw.

But I still didn't know much about it. All I'd really found out was that the monster kid might've known something about it – everything else was just what I already knew. That wasn't exactly a lot of new information. But perhaps if I stuck around and listened, I'd discover something else.

"And why not?! Especially at their age!" the woman yelled, and I couldn't help but find myself getting a bit worked up about that last part. "You just know kids will do anything for attention these days!"

Again, I couldn't help but get a bit upset.

"Like lie about a murder?!" the other one shouted at her. "Come on, Carge! I know you hate our youth and how they're always at fault for everything and blah blah blah, but seriously?!"

"Pah!" the female monster scoffed. "You think you can trust these young'uns?! You're deluded, boy!"

"What'd you say?!" the male one yelled in response.

"The truth, boy!" the female shouted. "You're too naïve for your own good!"

"You little-!" the other one screamed before degenerating into gibberish.

Right, clearly this was going nowhere. I made myself scarce as discreetly as I could, and thankfully, the two monsters didn't seem to notice me leaving. That done, I tried to get my thoughts in order.

The monster kid. Judging by their conversation, the monster kid was the one I needed to see if I wanted to get to the bottom of this. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but it seemed I had to talk to him once more.

And so, I sprinted down the winding paths of Waterfall, keeping an eye out for them as I went. It took a while of running down featureless paths of cold blue stone, but eventually, my diligence paid off. I spotted them a good distance away, frantically explaining something to a monster. The monster looked shocked, but what, exactly, the nature of their conversation was, I couldn't make out. I was too far away.

I ran as fast as my legs would take me to the spot where I'd seen him. By the time I caught up, their talk with the other monster was over and they were already quite a distance away.

"Hey! Hold on!" I breathlessly gasped after them.

The monster kid stopped in their tracks, stumbling and nearly falling over as they did. They whirled around to face me.

For a moment, their face was surprised and quizzical. Then, I saw a brief pause of realization.

And then they ran towards me with rage in their eyes. "YOU!"

I felt I knew why they felt that way. "Look, I'm so-"

And I didn't get to finish that sentence, because they slammed into me. We were about the same size, but they were a monster and I was a human. I was almost certainly stronger than them, and I knew a bit about fighting. I should've been able to dig in and stand my ground.

Should've. And under normal circumstances, would've. But I wasn't expecting that. And that made all the difference.

We tumbled to the ground in a heap. I scrambled to get out from under them, but suddenly, I felt something pierce my shoulder. I turned my head to find their teeth digging into my flesh.

It was hardly an effective attack. At best, it was a mild annoyance. I grabbed their head with both hands and pried them off me, then shoved them away from me and stood up before they could recover. In the heat of the action, I nearly drew my pan, but then, thankfully, I remembered that I needed to talk to them, not fight. Escalating would do me no good.

They pushed themselves off the ground, the furious look still in their eyes. With a high-pitched growl, they ran at me once more.

I held my hands up in front of me and shouted, "Calm down!" But they didn't listen. This time, though, I was prepared. I hopped to the side and stuck out a foot in their path. I saw their eyes go wide, but they had a bit too much momentum to stop. They tripped on my foot and tumbled down to the ground.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" I said. I reached down, wrapped my arms around them, and tried to help them up. "I just want to talk."

"What is there to talk about?!" they shouted, stumbling to their feet. "You… you little… you!"

"The dead monster," I said, trying to keep as calm as possible. I wasn't doing excellently at that, but I hoped it'd be enough. "Someone said you saw their death."

"You… you! How… how dare you!" they yelled, tears forming in their eyes. "She… she…!" A few hiccupping sobs came from them.

She. And they clearly weren't comfortable talking about it. And they seemed especially aggravated about what I'd said about the fish. And it'd make sense for the bird's first strike to take out someone important…

The pieces fell into place. And the conclusion I came to was oddly sobering.

I placed a gentle hand on their shoulder. "It was the Captain. Wasn't it?"

They bit their lip and raised their teary eyes at me. That was all the confirmation I needed.

The fish was too big a loss to tolerate. She could still be a valuable ally in the fight against the bird. And people would notice her disappearance, which could cause all sorts of issues. And besides all that, I wanted that rematch.

And… the idea of her being dead felt wrong, somehow. I wanted her to be alive. Maybe I was just being a perfectionist about the whole no killing thing. Maybe I'd just subconsciously decided that, in general, no one should be killing her other than me. But whatever the reason, the thought of her being dead just felt wrong.

Well, one thing to do when something like that happened – just try again. All I had to do was load back to before she'd been killed and stop it from ever happening.

But not yet. First, I wanted to know everything surrounding the event. How it'd happened, whether it was the bird or the figure in black, maybe even why. And that meant that before I got to messing with the timeline, I first needed to finish talking with the kid.

"I'm sorry," I said, closing my eyes.

"You… you…" they said between sobs. "I'll… I'll never forgive you."

"I know," I told them, and inclined my head slightly.

"It's… it's all your fault," they said. "If… if you… if you hadn't…" And then they broke down crying again.

Really? They were saying I was somehow responsible for her death? That was just stupid. But in the interest of not being just as stupid myself, I didn't say anything. I just calmly accepted their scorn.

"Look. I'm sorry. I really am." I finally opened my eyes once more. "But please. I didn't want this any more than you did. I just… I just want to know what happened."

Their eyes went wide and I saw the flow of tears abate. "R… really?"

"I promise," I said, as solemnly as I could manage.

"O… okay…" they said. Their eyes were still misty and a tear still fell occasionally, but at least they weren't crying me a river anymore. "I… I… She…"

I squeezed their shoulder in what I hoped was a reassuring way. It seemed to have worked, even if not too well. "She was… she was just… she was walking, uh, on patrol, I think…" They paused for a moment, and then looked down, as if ashamed. "I… I was watching her… And then… Then…"

"Go on," I said. "There was another monster, right?"

They nodded. "It… it was like… some sort of knight…"

A knight? Come to think of it, the fish had mentioned something like that back at her house. But I still refused to believe the bird wasn't behind this…

Then that meant the knight was most likely with the bird too. So he had two allies, at the very least. Unfortunate, but at least I was aware.

"And then?" I asked.

"He… he just…" They paused for a moment. "He just a-attacked her. J-just like that. She… she t-tried to fight back, b-but… H-he… he just…"

"Killed her," I supplied.

Their tears started flowing once more. "It… it was… he just… h-he just…"

Clearly, they weren't going to talk about that particular part. "What happened afterwards?" I asked.

"I… I thought she was..." they said, and then stopped. I nodded in understanding. "B-but… s-something happened… s-she…"

Once again, I felt I knew what they were talking about. Rather intimately, in fact. "Changed," I finished for them.

"Y-yeah."

The Undying, huh. The form I'd fought her in back in all my previous runs. Fueled by the one thing monsters could never have. Determination.

I'd always quite enjoyed fighting her like that. Not just because it was challenging, though that was a big part of it – but also, there was just something that felt so great about fighting someone I knew was using the same ability as me.

But she'd only gone into that form because she thought I could kill all of monsterkind if she didn't stop me. If she did the same against the knight, then more than likely, she thought the same of him. I was certainly dealing with a powerful foe.

Well, that'd never stopped me before.

"And then?" I asked.

"S-she… she tried to fight him a-again…" they said. "B-but… i-it was like he… he didn't… he didn't even n-notice…"

I raised an eyebrow at that. A monster powerful enough that he could just ignore the Undying's attacks? That would be a very powerful foe indeed. Most likely stronger than any I'd fought before.

Or, I reminded myself, it could just be the monster kid's hyperactive imagination. But somehow, I doubted that. Besides, I didn't really want that, either. After all this time searching for the bird and his companions, it'd be frankly disappointing if they were easy to defeat.

"A-and then… h-he… h-he…" they stammered, before breaking down crying once more.

"I understand," I said. "Can you remember anything else?"

"There… there was a-a m-monster… I, I think…" they said. "I m-mean, a-another one…"

Curious. So the knight wasn't alone. Then, most likely, either the bird or the figure was with him. If that was true, it'd at least confirm beyond all doubt that he was with the bird.

"Can you tell me anything about them?" I asked, as gently as I could.

They shook their head. "N-no… T-they just… just appeared a-after she was… she was…"

I nodded.

"I-I didn't see them too well. I-I don't k-know who it was."

If they just appeared, then that meant they could probably teleport. And in that case, I had a feeling I knew who they were. "Were they dressed in black?" I asked.

"Uh-huh," they nodded.

Gotcha. So whoever the mysterious figure was, he or she had showed up to the fight. No, that wasn't quite right – they'd showed up after the fight, which meant…

It was a wild guess, but I had an idea. "And did the two of them disappear soon after?"

The monster kid looked up at me with some confusion. "U-um… y-yeah…"

Ah-ha. So I was right – the figure was a transport service, of sorts. They could teleport not only themselves, but others too. That explained a few things. It explained how the bird had showed up to greet me at the start of this run. It explained how he'd showed up again in Hotland, too – though, to be fair, he could've gotten over there the normal way too.

It also complicated my task severely. Clearly, the bird did not want to be found. That meant that if there was someone who could teleport helping him hide, finding him would be nigh impossible. He could be hiding just about anywhere, maybe even places I couldn't access – and if I did come close to finding him, he could always just teleport away and I'd never have a clue.

Damn it. At least I knew, but still...

Well, that wasn't necessarily the end. I could still figure something out. Maybe I could sneak up on him, or figure out a way to make him come to me.

I'd think about it later. For now, I was pretty sure I'd gotten just about everything I'd get out of the monster kid, and that meant it was time to reload.

"Alright. Thanks," I told them, just because it felt wrong to leave the conversation without an ending.

Then, I gathered up my determination. I thought back to my save point, to where I was going to go back to. With that image in mind, I shaped my determination into something of a force – a will to return to that point, a will so strong even the universe itself could not ignore it.

It sounded more complicated than it was. Really, after how much I'd done it, most of it happened on a subconscious level.

For a moment, I felt a pressure on my mind, the world trying to resist the change I imposed upon it. And then it was gone, and for the briefest fraction of a second, everything warped around me. And then I stood on the red rocks of Hotland.

But there was something else, this time. When I'd done that load, for that moment when I'd felt the world try to resist me, I'd felt a second pressure too. Something completely different from the first one, something just out of reach of my consciousness…

And, I noticed with a start, I wasn't standing where I'd last saved. I was standing somewhere else in Hotland, in an area without any features that instantly stood out. I recalled passing by that area a few times during my investigation, but my last save was before I'd started doing that...

A cold panic shot through me. Sweat pooled on my forehead.

No. I couldn't be too hasty. I needed to make sure.

I ran, ran as fast as my legs would take me. I ran to Waterfall. I ran to where I'd found the dust.

It was still there.

I stared down at it, my eyes wide, my mouth agape. My last save was before the bird had showed up, and thus at a time when I knew the fish was alive. If she was still dead…

Desperately, quietly praying that something had just gone wrong, I loaded my save file once more. And once more, I felt that second pressure. It felt different, different from anything I'd ever felt before…

And then it was gone. And I was standing in the same point my previous load had put me.

I fell to my knees.

Holy hell. Holy hell.

So he wasn't just bluffing. He really had something.

God.

And all of a sudden, I felt something, something I hadn't really felt in a long, long time. I felt fear. He could kill me. He could kill me, and I wouldn't be able to go back.

I felt myself tremble. If… if that happened…

No. I couldn't think about that. I couldn't let myself. I still had things to do. I still had to find the bird.

Did I want to find the bird?

Just to check, just in case, I rose to my feet and wandered over to where the dust was. And it was still there.

I'd at least hoped the long walk would get rid of some of the hopelessness, the despair… the fear. It didn't. Anxiety still festered in my gut, a sickening feeling that I just couldn't turn away from.

"Heh," I said, looking down at the pile of dust. "I guess we'll never have…"

…that rematch, was what I planned to say. It was meant as a snide little remark, a bit of black humor to distract myself from my situation.

Instead, as I said it, the weight of that word crashed down upon me like a mountain.

Never.

I'd never have that rematch. Hell, I'd never fight the fish again. The option was gone. Sealed away forever.

She was one of the only two people with whom I had any fun anymore. And now she wasn't there anymore. I'd never feel the thrill of facing her again.

And something else clawed at me too. What if I had acted differently? What if I'd done a bit better back at her house? What if I managed to get her to stop hating me? Hell, we'd had an alliance just before this. What would've that worked out to be?

Those questions never seemed important before. I was always just doing the same old thing. But back then, it felt like I had an eternity to explore them. Back then, I DID have an eternity to explore them. If I ever wanted to, I could always just go back and see what would've happened.

And now she was gone. And suddenly, the curiosity dug at me. I wanted, desperately, to know what would've happened. What would've happened if I didn't make her hate me back at her house. What would've happened if we actually worked together. What would've happened if I'd actually tried and befriended her.

What would've happened if she hadn't died.

And I'd never know.

That realization mixed together with the despair and the terror I already felt. It was too much.

For a moment, I stood there, frozen. My lips quivered. A mist came over my eyes.

And then, I ran. I didn't know where. I didn't know why. But I ran.

And tears fell from my eyes.