"...You gonna say something else, or just keep standing there 'dramatically?'" Undyne's silhouette stood vibrant against the cool red backdrop, wind whistling between the prodigious rock spires.

"Both," she hissed. The wind sputtered and died out, cowering from the venom in her voice. Deafening silence stole its place, left untouched just long enough to give me second thoughts before they were scattered by the knight. "Seven human souls, and King Asgore will become a god." She paused, no doubt reveling in the spotlight. "Six. That's how many we've collected thus far." A single yellow eye flashed in the eye socket of her helmet, staring me down with that same burning intensity it always possessed. Looking for some kind of weakness. "Understand, Human?"

I nodded slowly and folded my arms over my chest, patience waning, focused on keeping my voice and posture free of any tension Undyne could catch. "Yes, I believe I understand how to count to seven."

"Through your seventh and final soul," she droned on, rigid as a board, as if reading her speech off a script, "this world will be transformed. First, however, as is customary for those who make it this far, I shall tell you the tragic tale of our people-"

"How about," I snarled, "we skip the history lesson, and the annoying babble, and move ahead to the part that actually matters?" I used the very brief moment of Undyne's stunned silence as an opportunity to get the lay of the land for our battle. Assuming she would eventually make the first move, we would be fighting on the only leveled plane of flat stone amidst the jagged mountains. I kicked at the ground to ensure it remained flat, pleasantly surprised to find it smooth. It allowed us more than enough room to keep our footing, but getting forced off the edge would almost certainly lead to a painful impalement on the sharp crag below. Impaled on a spear or impaled on a rock? The possibilities seem endless...

"Okay, you know what, SCREW IT!" Undyne bellowed, and the wind picked up to a deafening howl. I raised my arm to shielded my eyes from the storm, while Undyne seemed totally unphased. "Why should I tell scum like you that story when you're about to DIE!?"

In one, swift motion, Undyne grabbed hold of the base of her helmet and rolled it off, sending it tumbling down the spire, taking any loose earth it crashed into with it, until it finally rolled to a stop at my feet beside a few pebbles. Ignoring the thousand-yard-stare the empty hunk of metal was giving me, I attempted to get a good look at the knight despite the wind's protests. "Wait, you're...you're a fish?"

"YOU!" Undyne wore an overconfident smirk filled with bright yellow teeth to match her one good eye. An eye patch rested over the other one, darker than even the navy blue tone of her skin. What I had assumed was a feather sticking out of the back of her helmet was actually a ponytail of blood red hair flowing behind her, a flame flickering in the wind. A pair of fins stretched from either side of her head where ears should have been, the only real notable fish-like features that I could make out. Before I could decide whether the helmet had made her more or less intimidating, she shouted to the gale, "You're standing in the way of everyone's hopes and dreams!"

A lame, "H-huh?" passed through my lips before I could process her blather.

"Alphys' history books made me think humans were cool, with their giant robots and flowery swordsmen...but you..." A sneer of abhorrence ate the bottom half of her face, and her eye narrowed to a slit sharper than any one of her spears. "You're just a coward! Hiding behind that kid so you could run from me again..."

Hearing Fish Lips bring up the Monster Kid finally snapped me out of my shock. "I'm the coward?" A sharp kick from myself sent Undyne's helmet careening into the abyss below. I didn't notice the pain in my toes until later, and the wind suddenly seemed a distant fog. "You've got a messed up sense of justice, lady. You're the one running around playing the hero while I'm saving the people you're oh-so-keen on protecting!" I jammed my thumb into my chest, my soul, as I spoke again. "I stuck my neck out for that kid while you were prepared to slit my throat and watch him fall! And for what? So your king can slaughter the entire human race to get back at us for doing the same thing an eternity ago? Why don't you swim off and give him my congrats on conceiving the most backwards-ass goals of all time!"

"How dare you!?" she spat, veins popping out of their flesh, curling her armored fingers into a fist with an exaggerated flourish. "I'll crush your body into millions of tiny fragments for speaking out against the King of Monsters like that! You humans really are all the same impudent fools." She ground the word between her teeth, vomited it out in a cesspool of bile and hate. She held a glare that carried generations of fiery scorn, as one carries the blood of an ancestor. "Your continued existence is nothing short of a crime! Your life is all that stands between us and our freedom!" A spear materialized in her palm, immediately snapped in two from how hard she was clenching it, and was quickly replaced with another. "Right now, I can feel everyone's hearts pounding together! They've all been waiting their entire lives for this moment!" The anger vanished from Undyne's composure, replaced with rigid conviction. "But we're not nervous at all. When everyone puts their hearts together, they can't lose!"

"You finished talking to yourself yet?" I snorted, taking a fighting stance of my own. This is it, make or break. No more time for any doubts. As if I'd lose to some crazy, vengeful flounder...

My eyes darted to the red and orange horizon for a split second, all the swirling colors of autumn leaves, or a quiet bonfire chasing away cold winds. "And, Undyne? You're wrong about those hearts. Because I know there are least a couple out there somewhere beating for mine!"

Now it was the fish's turn to snort. "Yeah? Then prove it! I'll show you how determined monsters can be!" She launched off the top of her perch with a battle cry that rang louder than anything a thousand soldiers could have mustered. "Here! I! COOOOOOME!"

As Undyne plummeted towards me with a spear pointed at my chest, I waited for time to slow down and my first move to become painfully clear. When that moment never came, I promptly panicked, stumbling away as the knight smashed into the earth with enough force to shake the planet, throwing shards of stone large and sharp as knives through the air. She hardly took any time to recover from the impact and had thrust another spear-point in my general direction before I could even begin to consider blinking, let alone planning any retaliation. The strike passed inches from my head, probably taking out a few loose hairs in the process, and distracted me long enough for Undyne to deliver a heavy kick to my stomach.

"Hurgh!" I gurgled, the air sapped from my lungs. I tried to keep my footing as best I could as my vision dipped into blackness, pain seared in my abdomen, and Undyne forced me back with another wide swipe of her lance. Back towards the ledge, I realized. If I didn't attempt to fight back soon, she would have me beaten before the battle even began. I wonder if she still gets the soul if I jump...

I pushed the thought out of my mind as Fish Lips prepared another blow, a sinister combination of concentration and calmness in that single yellow eye, as though this were something she did every day. A soldier with potential years of training and experience under her belt, pitted against some punk city kid who had observed plenty of fights and hardly ever participated in any of them. Tough odds to beat, to put it lightly. As if I hadn't known that to begin with. Seriously though, jumping is always an option.

Instead, I refocused my efforts on dodging the knight's ceaseless attacks. I had the endurance to keep up with her, but Undyne was no slouch herself, and I would be pressured into some stupid move sooner or later. Lets see...she's tougher than me, more experienced than me, has pointier weaponry, and is nearly just as quick as me while wearing a suit of armor. I'll have to figure some other way to wear her down.

"You...uh," I hacked between breaths and pauses in her assault, "You're pretty light on your feet, for a fish." She feinted an attack on my right and swung upwards instead, a half-step away from slicing me in half. I managed to throw a punch, but she recovered her balance and leaped back well beyond where I could hit her. At the very least, she gave me a moment to gather myself. "Ever consider ballet or tap dancing? Think they might be a better fit for you."

She groaned her contempt. "Speak for yourself, Twinkle Toes."

I darted under her spear as she struck again, putting her back to the rocky cliffs and allowing me a well deserved breather. We began circling the distance between us as though the earth would crumble if either of us took a step forward. Undyne seemed triumphant as ever, eyes and spear glowing with confidence, without a single red hair out of place. On the opposite side of the coin, I struggled to catch my breath and appear the slightest bit menacing, scraggly strands of black hairs damp with sweat disrupting my vision. As if the harsh winds tearing at my eyes weren't enough already.

"I bet I can guess what you're thinking, human," Undyne began cruelly, and she smiled her sinister yet jubilant grin. "You're thinking about how stupid you are for choosing to fight, wishing you could go back and choose differently. Maybe if you kneel down and beg, I'll consider making it end quickly for you. Just maybe."

And she's a mind reader. Fortunate that she outclasses me in every way. God forbid I have a single, solitary advantage.

Begging was an option long since passed, which left only one response. "I think I'd rather you chop me up and serve me medium-rare to your damned king than go down pleading for my life, lady," I sneered. "You should've guessed that by now."

She merely shrugged in response to my obstinacy, casually using her spear as an absurdly oversized toothpick. "Suit yourself. It's more fun this way, anyhow."

The flash in her eye was well concealed, but not well enough for me to miss it. A moment later and I heard the whizzing of spears piercing the air, spun around and saw the points of them rapidly approaching, a few arms length away at most. I jerked out of the path of one, nearly got stabbed in the face by another, and the third caught me across the arm, leaving behind a mess of torn fabric and a nasty bright red gash. Biting my lip to distract from the pain, I began to fall into the rhythm of dodging the projectiles, springing back and forth over the plateau as though the fight were a lopsided dance. Shame my partner's jewelry keeps digging into my skin.

Undyne was up and moving again the instant the assault ended, but the effort of conjuring so many weapons must have left her fatigued. She stepped forward so sluggishly that I had the time to react even with my back turned, and as she shoved her spear towards me I easily sidestepped and grabbed its shaft, throwing the knight off balance. Her look of bewilderment was speedily helped by a gloved fist straight to her good eye, the flesh curling beneath my knuckles giving off a strangely satisfying feeling, accompanied beautifully by her shriek of "NGAHHH!" I reared back to lay into her again, but she jerked her spear free and wrenched it from my grasp, buying herself space.

"Ugh..." she muttered through clenched teeth, arm twitching as though she were fighting the urge to massage her rapidly swelling eye. "I let you hit me...?" A few specks of my blood had somehow found their way onto her gauntlet, blood I could have sworn was sizzling like eggs on a stove. Suddenly, she straightened up with a wince, returning to her usual stance. "Out with it, human! What hardened warrior trained you to dodge like that?"

I would've attempted to stare smugly back at her, had she actually decided to wait for response. Instead she crashed down on me again like a wave at high tide, with all the same poise and ferocity as before. I became fixated on her calculated movements, learning from the strict intensity of the battle while it was happening. My head was soon filled with the intense pounding of blood through my veins. There is something strangely exciting about being a swipe away from death at any moment.

It was increasingly obvious the blow to her eye had impaired her perception more than she let on. With one totally covered and the other nearly forced shut, she couldn't have seen the fists coming until they were inches from her face. She squinted feverishly through the dim light, the fearlessness of her glare lost, trapped behind a wall of bruised and twisted flesh.

"Never had any training, unless you count dodging 'round people and cars on the street," I finally responded as Undyne fell back to catch her breath. My knuckles had begun to sting, my lungs were burning from the kick she had delivered, and the severe cut on my arm certainly wasn't getting any better, but I somehow still came out looking better than the knight. Weird. Maybe the king's one-eyed lackey is all talk after all. "But you clearly need a few more minutes on the grill if you're losing to me, cyclops."

She growled at my jab, taking an lunging step forward with her spear pointed at my head. I avoided it with about as much effort as I'd take pedaling a bicycle downhill and swung wildly, connecting with the side of her head with enough power to send her sprawling to the ground like a fish flopping against a port deck. "If it's any consolation," I spoke through the corner of my mouth, face scrunched up from the pain, "I think that last blow hurt my hand just as much, if not more than it hurt your face."

"ENOUGH!"

There was a blinding flash of green light brilliant enough to make a supernova blush, and the battleground vanished into oblivion. An incessant ringing permeated the air, like the chorus of white noise that follows a gunshot, sent me recoiling backwards. I threw my hands over my ears in a futile attempt to block out the sound as it grew to a deafening, triumphant roar, although I might as well have been attempting to catch bullets in the gaps between my fingers. Just as everything became too much to bear, I felt my legs snag on something, and the awful ringing and brightness were carried away on the wind's shrieks.

Cautiously, I ventured to lower my arms and inch my eyelids open, waiting for them to readjust to the dull caverns, listening for hints that Undyne had begun to attack again. None came at first, which only made me more suspicious.

"That's it? Hardly worth the theatric shouting of 'ENOUGH' if you ask me," I scoffed, choosing to ignore the salty sea of sweat pooling on my skin. "Your big trump card was really a laser light show? I mean, it was loud and irritating as any, but that pretty much goes without saying..."

The knight spat a thick glob of blood out onto the stone out on the stone floor, smiling a set of stained pink teeth condescendingly, as though she had suddenly gained the upper hand. "Then come at me again, Human."

"My plea-"

The words snagged in my throat, along with all my forward momentum. I threw a glance downward to spot the obstruction, an action that immediately became a panicked stare. A bunch of ivy, the same dignified shade of green as Undyne's spark from before, had wound their way between my legs. The color of my soul had even changed to match. I blinked stupidly in stunned disbelief, then began to struggle against them, pulling and slicing at them with all the energy I could muster, helpless as a wild animal snared in a bear trap. No matter how I tried to move, they tugged back with twice as much force. The bastards were thin as wisps of air, and yet tough as thick steel cables. Whaddya know. She suddenly gained the upper hand.

"It's over then, human," Undyne feigned lament, dragging her thumb slowly across the skin on her neck. "Unless you learn to stop running from your problems and face danger head on, you're good as dead already. Not like you ever stood much of a chance to begin with..." she laughed at herself, as though our entire confrontation until now had been nothing but a joke, and my inevitable defeat the sad, predictable, chronically unfunny punchline.

I considered what she had said a moment. Stop running from your problems and learn to face dangers head on.

How fucking poetic.

The first wave of spears came at my front, Undyne choosing to remain at a distance while she concentrated and regained her composure. I was able to avoid them by the skin of teeth for a spell, shifting my body back and forth as if I were balancing on stilts, leaning as far as I could in either direction, hearing them whiz by my ears, feeling them pass under my arms and tear through the fabric of my coat like putty. For a while I had myself convinced I could withstand the onslaught, but I was only kidding myself. Undyne and I both knew it was only a matter of time before one found its rather painful mark, and it came as no surprise when a spear point sunk into my knee with a stomach lurching slice before vanishing, leaving a steady trail of fresh blood in its wake. Knowing its coming doesn't make it any less painful though, I noted, clutching at the wound as though I could somehow contain the pain by squeezing it until it went numb. The entire damn leg would've buckled had I not been held up by those vines.

"Honestly, I'm doing you a favor," Undyne assured me, content with watching me struggle for the time being. "No one human has ever made it past King Asgore. Killing you is an act of mercy."

"As nice as you and your king sound, I think I'll pass." The pause in the barrage had given me just enough time to shove the remainder of a space food bar in my mouth and force it down with a pained swallow. As the familiar flood of relief kissed at broken skin and mended my tattered clothes, Undyne shot me a look of pure bewilderment, as if I had suddenly sprouted wings and flew out of her trap.

"You seriously brought monster food to a fight?" she spat incredulously. "Damn craven."

"Not my fault you decided to fight dirty," I grunted, gesturing carelessly towards my entangled friends down south. "The hardware store run out of super glue or something?"

She flashed me her award winning grin, so overblown and self-important I could imagine it perfectly catching the sunlight, glimmering like a little row of gemstones. And what an inspiring image it is. "Spare me your pathetic attempts at insults, and spare yourself the effort it takes to fabricate them." She jerked her thumb at her breastplate. "I don't know how you humans do it up on the surface, but down here, we've no need to buy our skills."

"Investing a few bucks certainly couldn't have hurt..."

An aggravated spear flung through the air that nicked the top of my ear was her response, and the battle was back in full swing. It was then, when my morale had situated itself at what I thought was its absolute lowest point, that it dawned on me just how utterly and undoubtedly screwed I really was. Unless Undyne got the sudden desire to throw her life away, which given the circumstance and the evidence didn't seem all too likely, then she could effortlessly wait well outside my range for me to tire of her constant assault. Sure, she could run out of gas sooner than me, but I only had so many bits of monster food to heal myself with, and one spear in the wrong place could end the fight instantly. I felt like an ant, slowly being smoldered by the sun's harsh rays from under a magnifying glass, completely at the mercy of something out of my control, too tiny and helpless to defend myself. Good thing that last part is only half true.

Everything had been going swimmingly, or at least as good as someone being relentless pummeled by some crazy fish could be, until one harpoon shot out of the corner of my eye, and a sharp pained stabbed below my ribcage. The world shuddered and lurched like a boat being thrown by the ocean's violent current, and I let loose a sound that was something caught between a whimper and a pained cry for help, feeling my flesh twist as though it were being pulled through a meat grinder while everything else went numb. I dared to place a hand over the wound for no sane reason, as if stuck in a trance, yanking it back to find it glistening from palm to finger tip with fresh blood. As if I should have been expecting anything else.

Undyne didn't leave me a moment to recover, or even to think on the pain, let it sink in just how badly I was losing. More spears flanked my right side, nipping at my skin with all the delicateness of a cobra's bite. Another sank into the back of my leg, cold as an icicle, staggering me to the floor. I bit my lip to keep from sinking to my knees and sobbing, but the defiance did nothing to encourage me.

Especially not when staring death in its eyes.

I raised my head to a cluster of the damn spears flashed just a few meters from my face, close enough that I could see the tips gleaming, tearing at my eyes. There was no time to dodge, as if I could move my leg, or grab a bit of monster food and shove it my mouth, let alone have the healing take place. I shut my eyes and threw my arms up in some half-assed last defense, as though the weapons sharp enough to tear me in half could somehow be stopped by the same flesh they'd been cutting through all along-

-A loud "clang!" sounded through the air, out of place as a circus performer at a funeral.

...Wait a minute, that's not what I expected dying to sound like at all. Weak.

I inched my eyes open, the image of the spears hovering in front of me still fresh in my mind, feeling my heart catch in my throat when I realized...the spears were still hovering in front of me. They hung suspended in front of me, surrounded by a hazy green glow that seemed to curl around my arms, almost like a shield of some kind.

"What!? No!" Undyne screeched, gaping at my equally-if-not-more-confused stare, pounding her fist into the ground. "How the hell are you managing that?"

"Even if I knew, why the hell would I tell you?" I muttered back, surprised I had found the words at all. I let my arms drop back and the force field disappeared along with it, spears collapsing uselessly to the ground. My soul seemed to be popping out of my chest, shining with...whatever power had aided me. You know what, I'll roll with it. If Ms. Captain of the Royal Guard wants to go around tossing out super powers to her greatest rival, that's fine by me. I chomped down on another space food bar, put my fists up as though stepping into a boxing ring, and let out an ill-confident sigh. "Okay...okay, round two."

Undyne growled and brandished her weapon furiously. "There shouldn't be a round two!"

Spears began appearing faster than they ever had before, crossing from all sides in rapid succession. I kept my arms curled in front of me and peered anxiously over the tops of my fists for the oncoming projectiles, concentrating intently, moving to block whenever one came into my vision. Before long the stab of fear that came every time one drew close was on the back of my mind, and the process became second nature.

Undyne, realizing that her attack patterns were becoming absolutely worthless, took to the offensive. She leapt into the air and brought her spear down hard enough to crush asphalt, and yet it bounced off my arms as though she were whacking at a mountainside with an old pool noodle. "For years, we've dreamed of a happy ending..." She swung again and again, and every time I met the blow as best I could, keeping her at bay with less than half the effort it took her to keep plowing away. "And now, sunlight is just within our reach!" I pivoted around to block an attempted strike at my back, managing it with hardly a sweat. "I won't let you snatch it away from us!"

"Yeah, sounds great and all, 'cept for the part where you'll step over anyone and everyone in your way, like a bunch of...cockroaches until you can get your damn 'sunlight,'" I retorted, eyeing her near breathless form with a sense of satisfaction. She's struggling, and trying desperately to hide it. "I'd be having second thoughts about this whole business if I were you. Fish don't tend to last too long once they surface, and you look like you'd burn easy with that precious skin of yours."

"Shut it!"

I blinked at her. "First 'enough' and now 'shut it'...You ran out of comebacks, didn't you? Why don't you swim off and ask your King for more, since you're so obligated to regurgitate everything he says anyway."

I deflected her next attack as easily as I would have brushed off a pesky mosquito. "It takes more to win a fight than some petty comebacks!" she cried, throwing herself at me for the umpteenth time. "It takes dedication! It takes years of training your patience and perseverance! It takes-

"-So the warrior's code outlaws comebacks, but rambling like an old fart is fine?"

"NGAHHH! Die already, you little brat!"

It all happened in an instant. There was a wave of heat nausea tugging at my skull and at my stomach. My soul faded back to its dull red color. The vines holding me still ceased to exist along with the barrier protecting my arms and body from harm. Although I was seeing double, I could still make out the shaking image of a spear cutting towards me.

I slogged out of the way, legs feeling heavy as the armor coating Undyne's skin, brought my fist up and brushed the air where her face had been milliseconds before. We moved in a chaotic blur around each other, thrashing at the slightest chances for either of us to land a blow. She jabbed me in the arm with the butt of her spear while I punched at an opening in her armor, giving us both a reason to back off. I stumbled towards the opening in the rock face Undyne had perched on before, leaning against the wall for support. God damn. Why is the air so hot here? First the wind was making it impossible to fight, now I feel like I would kill for a breeze...

My eyelids shot open. The warm air was seeping from out of the darkness further down the tunnel. My eyes darted back to Undyne, who was already preparing to launch at me again. Undyne, plus hot dry air, equals...fish out of water.

I started down the path before I could debate the option of staying and fighting, let alone come up with some alluring insult to get her to chase me. "W-Where are you going, coward!?" Undyne hollered after me, and the heavy pounded of her footsteps followed. I heard the spears flying at my head before I saw them, and ducked just in time to see them whisk by the top of my head. Everything had quieted to a pitch black, the thick layer of heat threatening to suffocate me like a thick plastic bag. A wall appeared as if for no other purpose than for me to run into it, and I turned right down the corridor. Light trickled in through what I could make out to be the exit, maybe fifty strides away at the most. I gave a sideways glance to a bright neon sign that extended across the wall to my left, bright scrolling letters spelling out "W-E-L-C-O-M-E—T-O—H-O-T-L-A-N-D."

I swear these names just keep getting lazier and lazier as I go.

"Stop running and fight me!" Undyne huffed, her exhaustion becoming evident in her shallow breaths.

"Sometimes running is just the easiest choice."

The heat from inside the cave had been a cool autumn day compared to the blaze that hit me once I broke out into the blindingly bright light. I shielded my eyes and kept running, almost barreling off a cliff in the process. And what a tragic fall that would've been.

"S-Shit!" I gasped, tripping over myself until I was as far away from the edge as I could be without backing right into my pursuer. I stood on an earthy plateau red as desert sand, suspended what felt like miles above what I could only assume was either the Center of the Earth, or Hell itself. Rivers of molten magma raged against the base of it, an infinite supply of it spilling over and over itself, roaring furiously enough to make the breath catch in my lungs and stay there until I choked on it. Actually, you know what, Undyne? How 'bout we go finish things like gentlemen back over in Waterfall, maybe with a game of cards?

It was a nice thought, but the sound of her drawing close behind me seemed much more real at the moment. I started forward again, the sands beneath my feet feeling alien to me after so much time spent in Waterfall. My attention was concentrated mostly on not dying, so it came as no surprise when I hardly noticed the skeleton dozing off behind a guard post until I was already past him. "Sans! Give me a hand!" I yelled over my shoulder, although if he had heard me, he didn't show it. If not for his grizzly bear snores, I would have thought him dead. He is a skeleton after all... "Sans! WAKE UP!" Still no response. "Oh, you mother fu-"

"-Heh...heh...HUMAN!"

I'll deal with him later.

As seemed to always be the case in dire situations like this, my only means of escape was to cross a rickety rope bridge hanging over certain death. I sprinted across it, choosing not to fret over the sea of fiery rock below. The threat of Undyne had become nothing more than a few sudden wheezes and the sound of her half walking, half crawling along the boards behind me. I wanted to sigh in relief when my feet touched solid ground, but I still had my teeth clenched tight in anxiousness. I slowed to a halt, wiped at the sweat flowing freely down my forehead and turned to find out just how well my plan had worked.

The knight lumbered up, appearing to have aged twenty years during the chase. Her skin was cracked and dry, not a speck of sweat to be found. There was a strained desperation to her eyes that seemed alien beside her unyielding resolve. A gaping mouth choking on dry air accompanied them. As she made her way toward me, her legs shook and trembled as though they were supporting a mountain. I stared in awed silence as a final strangled gasp escaped Undyne, and the immovable titan crashed to the ground in a heap of blazing metal and reeking flesh.

Everything went silent, save for the uninterruptible crashing of lava below us. She's breathing. Barely, but she's breathing.

Should I stop her?

I glanced down at my gloved hand, back at the helpless form of the knight and shuddered in disgust. Can't do it, dammit.

Just when I had thought I mustered up the courage to walk away from the soon-to-be corpse, I noticed something that would've have been hilariously out of place under any different circumstances. A water cooler, the kind you'd find in any office building on the planet, was placed all too conveniently a few feet away, cups and all. My eyes darted back and forth between it and the fish out of water, brain threatening to explode.

She tried to kill you.

She'll die if I just stand here.

She'll try it again.

I promised I wouldn't kill anyone.

So what? She got herself here by her own will. Plus she's nuts.

I can't let that damn flower get his way...

By the time I had made up my mind, I already stood over Undyne's withering body with two cups filled to the brim with water, one ice cold and the other warm as blood. I bent over and tilted her ugly mug up, pouring as much of the warm water between her lips as I could. Once she had her fill, I carelessly tossed the remaining cold water onto her face.

Undyne bolted upright with what little energy she had left, eyes wide open in desperate confusion. "Huh? Wha-"

She came face to face with the sight of me, probably her most hated person in the universe, standing over her with two empty cups and no more patience left in a single bone in my body. I chucked the cups away, not bothering to check where they landed, and looked back at her. Challenging her to attack me. Daring her to throw her life away.

She did neither. Instead, she slowly climbed to her feet and started backing away, refusing to break eye contact for even a second. Refusing to admit defeat even after being resurrected from the dead. It wasn't until she was halfway across the bridge that she finally turned around and stalked off, brisk as ever.

I let out the breath I'd been holding. "Good riddance."

Somehow, standing there, surrounded on all sides by smoldering fires, still a long way away from anything close to home, I allowed myself to feel the slightest bit safe for the first time since leaving Snowdin. Snowdin...Papyrus. I fought with my pockets 'till I could find the phone I'd gotten from The Ruins. Sixty-three messages, huh? Guess I owe the guy a minute of my time...