Ruby threw on her coat and took a deep breath. Not for the first time, she questioned whether what she had on would be enough to stay warm. Either way, this was not going to be pleasant, but she would put up with anything if it meant a chance at seeing a human fight with magic. She stood in front of the door of her father's house. It was still pretty early, but the monster had already left to start opening the restaurant. She could explain to him where she went later. Hesitating only a moment longer, she opened the door and stepped out into frigid world beyond.

She hated this town, if only because of the temperature, but could anyone really blame her? She hated the fact that this was the place the human decided to take up residence. What could he find so appealing about this place? Aside from the cold, it was too quiet. After living in the city, the silence was practically maddening some nights.

It was all her fault, she thought to herself. Perhaps if she could push him away from her enough he would come back with her to someplace more tolerable. No, she should not justify it like that. Shaking her head, Ruby wrapped her jacket around her tighter, already wishing she had brought another. She had not intended to spend so much time outside when she decided to stay there, but that was unfortunately where he was most of the day, if he was even in town at all.

She checked to make sure no one who would question where she was off to was around before heading in the direction of the forest. She barely made it to the cliff before she realized she had no idea where she was going. She looked out over the forest, suddenly seeming much larger to her, and gulped. Then, a voice made her jump. "And just where are you going?" The voice said.

Ruby turned and found two of the monsters that always seemed to not be far behind Ryan's heels standing behind her. Snowy and MK, if she remembered correctly. They were almost her age, apparently, although they were barely half her height. The drake, Snowy, looked up at her with an eyebrow raised. The other simply seemed excited by something and did not seem to be fully paying attention. He practically bounced up and down and his tail shifted back and forth rhythmically. "You sneaking off to watch them too?" he asked animatedly.

Ruby smiled to herself, this was exactly what she was looking for. "I might be," she said. "You wouldn't happen to know the way, would you?"

"Sure do!" MK said excitedly.

"No," the other chimed in. "She is not coming with us. Sallie said no one should go near the place while they're training."

"Then why are you going?" Ruby inquired.

Snowy rolled his eyes. "Because stopping this one is impossible." He gestured to the lizard with his head. "I'm simply making sure all he does is watch."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah; I'll behave. Now, come on. We're missing it!" MK stomped his feet in the snow while he whined.

"Fine, let's go." Snowy groaned. He pointed a wing at Ruby. "You stay here."

"Are you sure about that?" The fire monster asked.

"Yes." He maintained, turning to follow his companion who was already halfway down to the bridge.

"Because it sounds to me like you two are going to do something you shouldn't be." Ruby went on as if the drake had not spoken. "It would be a shame if I were to tell a certain rabbit what you were up to."

The drake froze in his tracks and Ruby smiled to herself again. The small monster turned to glare up at her. "Fine, you can come with. But no one learns about this. I could hardly bare to live if anyone found out I was willing spending time with that one. Hey, wait up!" He shouted before gliding off down the path after the lizard. Ruby stepped quickly to catch up herself, and her smile grew. Horrid weather or not, this place at least had a way of keeping things interesting.

When she did catch up with the drake, she asked, "So, I thought the skeleton was supposed to be watching you two."

Snowy let out a chuckle. "Watch him you mean." He corrected, glaring at the monster still a bit ahead of them. "I can go wherever I want. Problem is if I did, the town would get destroyed with him in it."

Ruby somehow doubted that was the actual case. "How did you manage to get away from him?" She asked next.

The drake looked up at her with a measure of amusement. "Well…"

.

Papyrus paced back and forth through the snow as he tried to collect his thoughts. After a moment, he stopped and resumed speaking. "Now children, it is important that when using magic in a fight you only use that which is well practiced." He explained. "Trying to use a spell you are unfamiliar with could be disastrous at best."

The skeleton was looking out over the river behind his house as he lectured. At his back were what he thought was Snowy and MK, however the only things listening to him that morning were two mounds of snow Snowy had crafted before the two of them ran off. Papyrus, in his uncertainty as to whether he was giving the right advice, had not been able to turn to face them and so had not noticed for over forty five minutes already.

A sound from his pocket almost made him jump. "Excuse me one second," he said to the nonexistent monsters. He went over to the side a bit and answered his phone. "Yes, Undyne?"

"How's the kid doing?" The guardswoman's voice came over the phone.

"Just fine." The skeleton assured her. "Listening intently as always."

"And the other one? Is he still with you? I know he's there on his own accord, but if something happened to him I would never hear the end of it from Ryan and Sallie."

Papyrus looked around a tree to where he thought the two younger monsters still sat. In the darkness of the forest, they only looked like shadows from where he stood. "He's still there. The two of them seem to be getting along better than ever too." He ducked back behind the tree, smiling to himself. "How is everything going on your end?"

.

"It's horrible…" Sallie said as she threw her head into her hands. She and Alphys were in Grillby's once more. Alphys sat in silence, unsure how to console the other monster. "I've caught her trying to sneak after Ryan twice so far, and now she's finally managed to slip past me. That girl does not know when to quit!"

Alphys took a sip of her tea before saying. "Well, I've only met her a couple of times myself now and she seems nice. Is she really trying to… get with him?"

Sallie glared at the doctor before she could stop herself. The other monster shrunk back a little and Sallie looked away, embarrassed. "She said as much to face… What do I do? Pretty soon she'll be spreading lies about me, setting up situations that make her look good and me look horrible, showing up randomly practically half-naked, and God knows what else." Sallie slammed her head down on the table in misery.

"How do you know she'll do any of that?" Alphys asked.

Sallie raised her head just enough to look at her. "My family is messed up, okay?"

"Well, I'm not exactly an expert on this kind of stuff, but couldn't you just tell him what's going on? That always seems to be what I'm screaming at the TV whenever something like this comes up in a show, which is a lot, and they never seem to take that route for one excuse or another."

"I can't tell him!" Sallie defended. "He has enough on his mind as is without having to worry about some wannabe love triangle." She crossed her arms and looked away, adding quietly, "Besides, he'd think it's childish."

"Is it?" The other monster inquired.

"I don't know anymore! I just want to keep him away from her."

.

"Tied him to a chair?" Ruby suggested.

"Tried, chewed his way out." Snowy told her, and the fire monster nearly gaped.

"You're joking."

"I wish I was joking. That one is like the embodiment of a spell: he'll just keep going until he accomplishes his goal or just burns himself out." The monster they were referring to still walked a short distance ahead of them, eyes straight ahead and not hearing a word they were saying. "If nothing else, I should at least get a few interesting stories for a comedy routine out of him." Snowy went on.

"You do comedy?" Ruby inquired if only to make conversation.

"I try to," Snowy said. He could not stop a smirk from forming.

"I have you ever done any shows in the capital? I think I've seen a Snowdrake perform in there before."

"That was probably my dad." He said half-heartedly.

Ruby nodded. "That would make sense, I remember him talking about his kids a lot."

"Really? Does he talk about how much of an embarrassment he thinks I am?"

"No, most of the time he just make fun of himself. I don't think he thinks he's a very good father."

"Hmph, well, he isn't."

Ruby looked down at the monster curiously. "Is that why you're living with Ryan?"

Snowy nodded. "Ryan's more family than my dad ever was. Although, Ryan's more of an older brother than a father."

"What about your mother?"

The young drake looked down at the snow. "She died…"

Ruby flinched, wishing she had not brought it up. "Oh… I'm sorry."

"We're here!" MK announced, though not overly loud. They were next to a cliff. Peering over the edge, Ruby could see a wide clearing below them about an eighth of a mile distant from the cliff. She could just make out three figures standing near the center, one far taller than the other two. She thought it could only be Ryan. Another was barely more than a speck.

"Surely we could get closer than this." She said. The other two both shook their heads.

"They'd know." MK explained.

"We tried." Snowy added

Ruby rolled her eyes. "I seriously doubt they could know we're here from all the way down there. I can hardly make them out myself!"

.

"We have company." Froggit announced looking up at the cliff not far from the clearing.

Ryan turned follow the monster's gaze he could not see anything himself. "You sure?" he asked.

"Positive." His friend answered. "Three; one's hot, one's cold and one is… erratic."

"Turns out our frog friend has quite the above-average perception." Whimsalot explained as he fluttered up to land on Ryan's shoulder. "Helped him get quite high marks during training."

"What do you want to do about them?" Froggit asked, turning back to the pair.

Ryan thought for a moment, based on the description his friend gave, he had a pretty good guess of who it was. "I say we invite them down." Whimsalot suggested. "I always did like having an audience."

"We'd probably scare them off before we got close." Froggit countered. "They obviously don't want us knowing they're there."

"Oh, they won't get away." Ryan told them. "Not if I can help it."

.

"I can't tell if they're not doing anything or if I just can't see it." Ruby complained.

"I thought this would be more exciting…" MK agreed. "Maybe not up to Undyne's standards, but they're supposed to be guards too, right?"

"We've been sitting here for like two minutes!" Snowy countered. "They're probably just taking a break."

"I swear they're looking up here." MK mused.

"No way," Snowy trotted up next to the armless monster who was on his belly as close to the edge of the cliff as he could get without leaning over it. At first he saw that no one had moved. Then, right before his eyes, the three figures below disappeared as the snow in the center of the clearing exploded into the air. An instant later, Ryan was standing in front of him and both he and MK fell back in shock.

"Howdy," Ryan said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Ryan! How unexpected." Ruby said standing up from the tree she was sitting against. "We weren't expecting to run into you out here." She went on.

Ryan arched an eye brow at the monster. "Oh really? You three weren't trying to spy on us at all?"

The fire monster shook her head. "Of course not. I had heard you had been going to Dr. Alphys's lab more often than not to train lately. I didn't expect you to be out here today." She gestured to Snowy and MK who had frozen half way from getting back to their feet. "These two were just showing me around the forest a bit. They tell me there are a lot of interesting things out here."

Ryan's gaze lingered on Ruby a moment longer before switching to the other two. The smaller monsters' daze had broken enough for them to be standing up now. They nervously shook snow from themselves as they looked back up at him. "Is that the story you're going with?" He asked them.

"Yes." They both said, not all too convincingly.

"So if I go back and ask Sallie what she thinks you're doing, she'll tell me out showing Ruby around and not with Papyrus like you told us you would be last night?" he directed at Snowy.

Snowy's eyes dropped to the snow. "No…" he admitted.

Ruby opened her mouth to say something else, but another look from Ryan held her tongue. He let out a breath. "If you guys wanted to watch, you could have just asked."

"But Sallie said-" Snowy began.

"If I listened to everything Sallie told me to do and not do I would be chained to the wall in the basement." Ryan told him.

"We have a basement?" he asked next.

"No, that wasn't really my point. My point is we have very differing opinions on what's dangerous. If you had asked me a few months ago, I probably would have said no too. But now, I don't really see the harm in it."

"Really?" MK said excitedly.

Ryan shrugged and turned to the path that would lead them all safely to the bottom of the cliff. "Yeah sure, why not? There's just one thing I want to know though, how did you get away from Papyrus?"

"Would you believe it if I told you we fooled him with snowmonsters?" MK said as he followed after.

"Yes I would," Ryan said through laughter.

The two were soon a good deal ahead of Ruby and Snowy who had yet to move themselves. "You think quick on your feet." The drake told her.

"Thanks, though it did little good." Ruby admitted. "Sorry about that."

"Well, it worked out in the end." Snowy stepped in front of her and gestured to the other two as the disappeared behind a tree. The young monster smiled up at her. "Come on, I don't want to miss anything."

.

"Well, well, so these are our spies?" Whimsalot said as he floated up to the arriving group.

"Not very surprising, really." Ryan commented.

"Maybe next time you'll think twice before trying to slip past our notice." The monster went on."

"Our notice, ribbit?" Froggit questioned from the ground below him.

"Quit being rude." Ryan told the Whimsun as he tried to bat him out of the air unsuccessfully.

Ryan made a gesture with his hand and three short pillars of ice rose from the snow next to the group of tagalongs. Taking the cue, Snowy took a seat on one and the other two followed suit soon after.

Whimsalot buzzed back over to them once more. "Now, we're doing you a favor by letting you stay and watch," he told them as he wagged his finger at the other monsters. "So keep quiet. This kind of training requires a lot of concentration, and you don't want to ruin your chances of ever being allowed back again, do you?" The three monsters remained silent and the Whimsun nodded. "I didn't think so."

Ryan came up behind him and flicked him back over to Froggit. "What did I just say about being rude? And exactly what kind of training are we going to be doing today anyway? Or would you rather just have a repeat of the last few days?"

"I was getting to that, and no." Whimsalot grumbled as he rubbed his forehead.

"Undyne informed us that you were having some difficulties with magic, so we were thinking about seeing if we could help with that… instead of fighting… ribbit." Froggit added.

"I said I was getting to that!" The insectoid monster complained.

"I'm not the one having difficulties with magic," Ryan corrected, "it's Undyne. She's been demanding I learn some sort of new magic for weeks now. If you ask me, I have enough under my belt as is."

"That makes sense." Froggit began. "Undyne is not known for her prowess in magic, let alone her ability to teach it to others. In the guard, that teaching is usually left to others." The frog monster hopped up to him before going on. "Let's begin with the basics, how do you form a spell, ribbit?"

Ryan closed his eyes and let out a breath, trying to remember exactly how Toriel had worded it for him so long ago. "Energy is gathered at the point where you wish the spell to form." He began, holding up his hand. "Picturing in your mind every aspect of the spell, you use a small amount of your own power to create the seed and then feed the gathered energy to give it its form and strength." A fire sprung to life above his hand as a demonstration. "At that point different aspects of the spell can be altered depending on what it is, the only extremes are set by how much power you are able feed into it." The fire in his hand cycled from red to green to blue before winking out of existence.

"For me though it works a little differently." Ryan went on. "Unlike monsters, who are able to maintain spells with external energy once they're formed, I use solely my own."

"That's really dangerous…" Whimsalot interjected.

"So I've been told. It was dangerous until I discovered something: some power that makes it seem like I have and endless supply of the stuff, or near as makes no difference. I have yet to come close to the point where I feel like I'm using more than I'm getting. According to Undyne, that will come back to bite me if I'm not careful."

"True," Froggit agreed. "But there's a way around that, ribbit."

Ryan looked down at the frog monster quizzically. "There is?"

"You mean she never told you?" Whimsalot asked as he floated over to join them.

"Told me what?" He questioned, looking between the two monsters.

"Spells can be set with certain conditions." Froggit explained. "You've seen examples of this in the ruins, ribbit."

"If a spell is tied off you can decide what triggers or ends it effects," Whimsalot went on. "You can choose what a spell does and does not react to, stuff like that."

"Observe, ribbit." The Froggit bounded a little ways away from Ryan and Whimsalot. A square of ice rose behind the monster as he turned back to face the two. He nodded to Whimsalot.

"Check it," The tiny monster said as he flew in front of Ryan. Snapping his fingers, a number of double-ended spears appeared around the monster, almost as long as Ryan was tall, as one more suited to his size appeared in his hand. As he threw the spear in his grasp, the rest followed with it, flying straight at Froggit.

Froggit made no move at all as the weapons flew at him and Ryan could not help but flinch as they hit. The ice sheet behind the monster shattered and the spears all impacted in the snow behind it, but Froggit stood completely unharmed. The monster laughed and said, "That tickled, ribbit."

"See what we mean?" Whimsun asked as he turned back to Ryan and Froggit bounded up behind him.

Ryan thought for another moment. He remembered Papyrus using something similar at one point. He also had the sneaking suspicion that this trick was how Undyne was still able to beat him so often. It wasn't that she was too quick, she was just prepared with already set up traps. "So it's basically it's selectively permeable magic?" he asked.

The two monsters looked at each other. "I have no idea what you just said, but sure let's go with that." The Whimsun agreed.

Ryan let out another breath. "That's all well and good, but I don't think something like that will satisfy Undyne, not unless it's incredibly hard to do."

"It's pretty easy, actually." Whimsalot admitted.

"Which means, as useful as it may be, it won't really help." Ryan finished. After a moment more he kicked at the snow in frustration, while it was in the air the flakes burst into flame before fading away. "If I just understood how this freaking power worked!" He exclaimed. "But it's been months now and I'm no closer than I was in the beginning."

"I don't get it," Froggit said. "It's your spell, right? Surely you should know what you yourself are doing, ribbit."

"You'd think, but this spell is the most complex thing I can even imagine. I've tried to figure out what it does, but trying to trace its origins just gets me lost in a web that seems almost unending."

"That shouldn't matter." Whimsalot argued. "A magic spell can still be wielded without knowing every finite detail of it. You just need to have a firm grasping on what it should and shouldn't do."

Ryan shook his head. "Even then I'm at a loss." He explained. "I'm discovering more and more ways it's affecting me every day. And then trying to rationalize it all is another problem all together." He began to pace back and forth in the snow. "At first I thought, because of the energy thing, that it was just doing something like creating reserves of ATP."

"ATP?" The Whimsun questioned.

"Not important, because that can't be it." Ryan went on. "It only covers that one change. It doesn't explain things like the not needing to sleep. Sleep for a human is required because of recovery functions that only work when we sleep. If I'm not sleeping then they must be working anyway or I no longer need them. Add in the recovery speed, no longer needing to eat or replace things like protein, water or even oxygen, and countless other things, and it makes no sense. But the only way I can think of any of that being possible is if it were messing with my…" he trailed off as his eyes went wide.

"With your what?" The monster probed.

"That's it!" Ryan exclaimed instead.

"Wait, what's it?" The monster went on in his confusion.

Ryan still did not answer. He smiled down at the monster looking jittery from excitement. "I gotta go." He told them.

A moment later he was gone, a gust of snow falling where he once stood. The two monsters looked after where he had run off back towards town. Whimsalot threw up his arms in exasperation. "Okay," he said. He turned to the three monsters still seated nearby. They all looked as confused as he felt. "Do any of you know what that was about?"

Ruby and Snowy slowly shook their heads.

MK looked between all of them for a moment. "Does this mean they're not gonna fight?" he asked, more than a little disappointed. Snowy smacked him on the back of the head with his wing.

.

Ruby's first thought upon waking a few days later was trying to figure out who could possibly be at the door so early in the morning. Throwing off her blankets with a groan, she slowly made her way to the front door since the bell had already decided it would not stop ringing until somebody answered. When she opened it, she saw the last person she would have expected. "Ryan?"

"Hey," Ryan said awkwardly. "Did I wake you up?"

"No," she lied, wishing she wasn't still wearing pajamas. "What's up?"

The human scratched the back of his head before asking, "Are you busy today?"

The question made Ruby blink. "No, why?"

"You seemed in a pretty poor mood when we were out in the forest the other day, so I wanted to try and change that. Also I wanted to make it up for skipping out on you guys, but I can't find Snowy or MK anywhere so they get to miss out. So what do you say?"

The fire monster took a second to make sure she had heard him right, and then she still could not believe it. "I am awake, right?" She asked before she could help herself.

"I'm pretty sure," Ryan told her. "Unless I figured out a way to project myself into others' dreams without knowing it, but I doubt that. That's not a yes." He added after.

"Sure," Ruby said unhesitatingly that time. "Where are we going?"

He grinned at her and asked. "Ever been to Waterfall?"

.

"I'm not really the biggest fan of water…" Ruby admitted as they first stepped into the caves beyond Snowdin. "Or even humidity for that matter."

"Understandable," Ryan began, "but I wouldn't worry too much about it. I have more than one trick up my sleeve that will make it so water won't get anywhere near you. But we can still go somewhere else of you'd like."

"No, I trust you." She told him, regretting it immediately but still adding, "I should really be fine as long as we stay at least a little bit away from the bottom of any falls, and if I don't fall in myself."

"You sure?" He asked again.

Ruby nodded despite her discomfort. She did trust him, and she felt like whatever he wanted to show her would be worth it.

They descended quickly through the caves. Ruby watched every source of water carefully, but whenever they had to cross close to anything that might have been an issue, Ryan was able to use his shields to keep any potential dangers at bay. The warmth of the caverns in comparison to the forest also help to keep her calm as well and eventually she was able to feel at ease enough to ask, "So why did you disappear the other day?"

"I don't want to say anything yet." He told her. "I'm not one hundred percent sure if I'm on to something or not."

"Oh…" The two kept going deeper into the caves. They passed many sights that practically took Ruby's breath away, but they kept on going. The fire monster had had no idea this part of the Underground could look so different from the rest. She had always taken the river boat to and from her home in the capital whenever she visited her father. She had no idea how much within it could even exist!

They came upon a bin in the middle of one of the tunnels, clearly placed there on purpose. Ryan reached into it and pulled out an Umbrella. He opened it over their heads as he said, "We're gonna need this up ahead."

"Why, what's up ahead?" Ruby asked, suddenly very nervous once more.

"The way Undyne explained it to me," he began, "there's the huge underground river above us that runs over Waterfall. Cracks in the rock along its path eventually created everything down here. And in some places that running water has the effect of rain."

"Rain?" Ruby asked.

"On the surface, due to a number of factors that I'm sure I'll get wrong, water can, at times, fall from the sky. We call that rain." Ryan explained.

"I don't think I want to go to the surface anymore." The fire monster declared.

Ryan chuckled to himself. "It's not all that bad, come on."

Ruby grabbed him by the arm before he could walk ahead. "I'm not so sure about this anymore." She admitted.

Ryan turned back to her and smiled. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." He assured. "Just stay close. I wouldn't do anything to actually put you in danger."

After a moment, Ruby nodded. She kept a hold of Ryan's arm as he put the umbrella over both their heads and kept going. A bit further down the tunnel, Ruby began to hear something hitting the umbrella from above them. The glow of her form revealed thin lines that dropped to the ground around them, falling onto the stone or into small puddles. Ruby held on to Ryan tighter, though nothing hit her. Ryan let out another chuckle.

They emerged from the tunnel and into a cave with a large blue lake occupying most of it. The rain continued above their heads, hitting the surface of the water to break its mirror surface and scatter their reflected image along thousands of tiny ripples. They stepped to the edge of the shore. "Amazing, isn't it?" Ryan said absently.

"Yeah," Ruby admitted, her fear all but forgotten.

Ryan shifted next to her and she turned to look at him. He pulled his arm free and held out the umbrella handle to her. "Here," he said. She took it without a word and watched as he stepped out of its protection and let the rain fall down on him. "I always liked the rain." He said. "Everyone always associates it with sadness, but it always made me happy." He closed his eyes and raised his head. His too-long hair was already dripping and his clothes were all but soaked. "It's refreshing." He went on. "Makes me feel like there's still something to work towards tomorrow." He smiled to himself. "I'm probably not making much sense, am I?" he added as he turned back to her.

"No, I get it, I think." Ruby told him. "I may just be biased though."

"Do you want to feel it?" He asked suddenly.

"What?" Ruby said quizzically. Instinctively, she held the umbrella tighter.

"The rain, do you want to feel it?" He clarified.

"Ryan, I can't-"

"Sure you can." He interrupted. "This is a world of magic for Pete sake."

"It's not that simple…" The fire monster was cut off again as he started to walk back up to her. She hated that he had that effect on her.

"Trust me," he told her. "One more time."

He took the umbrella back from her; she offered little resistance in that regard. "I don't know…" she said softly.

"If I'm wrong about this, I'll do whatever you want. But you won't be hurt, I promise."

Ruby was not sure what she was thinking, but after taking a breath, she nodded.

"Here, take my hand and close your eyes." She did as she was told, trying her best to stay still. "On three, ready? One, two, three!"

Ruby braced herself for the pain, but there was none. There was something, it was hitting her, but it did not hurt. It… tickled. She opened her eyes to see Ryan with the umbrella folded at his side and smiling down at her. She looked down at herself and was amazed. Water ran off her arms in tiny drips as it gathered on their surface. She could feel it, it was cool, but it did not hurt.

She looked back up at him. "How did you…?"

"Selectively permeable shields." He said triumphantly. "Figured those out last night. So, what do you think?"

"This is amazing," she said breathlessly, still hardly able to believe she was able to stand in water. The fire monster raised her head in mimic to what he had done before and let the water hit her face. She could not help but laugh to herself.

"You can let go of my hand now, Ruby." Ryan said, breaking her out of her trance.

"Oh," she said as she let him go and hastily took a step back. She looked away as she tried to clear her head. When she looked back at him again she nearly let out a squeak as she saw he was taking his shirt off.

"You want to go for a swim?" he asked.

Ruby blinked, still having a miniature panic attack. "A what?" she managed.

"A swim." He said again as he gestured to the lake with his head. She must have stood there silently longer than she thought because next thing she knew he shrugged and said, "Suit yourself."

Before she could say anything, he ran to the water's edge and jumped in head first, disappearing beneath the blue surface. He popped back up a ways in and laughed. "I haven't swum in what fells like years. Although I guess you could count the times monsters have chased me off a cliff. You sure you don't want to join? The water's pretty shallow." To demonstrate, he rose from the water to the point where it barely went past his waist. "The spell's foolproof, I swear."

Ruby looked back down at the rain trailing down her arms and she felt the last of her fear wash away with the water. She took a deep breath and ran into the lake. The monster made it two steps before she stopped, finding it hard to move at all. She looked down at her legs. They were still there. She tried to take another step, slower that time, and found it a bit easier to move.

"Trying to run in water is a bit tricky." Ryan said, suddenly in front of her. "It's a lot thicker than air."

"So I've noticed." She told him her voice shaking with what she hoped was just excitement. She felt happier than she could ever remember being. This was all… impossible. Her, a fire monster, standing in water like it was nothing!

"Well, at least I think it's safe to say we know the spell works in all cases now." Ryan added.

Ruby's eyes shot up to him angrily. "You mean you weren't really sure?"

Ryan took a step back from the flaring monster. "I was sure, but you're a scientist, so you know how it works. There always has to be that chance that something else will happen until it's proven otherwise."

"I can't believe you!" The monster tried to kick him but only succeeded in splashing water in his face.

The act only served to widen his grin. "Oh, so that's how it is, huh?" He reached down to the water and cut his hand through it, sending up a torrent of water that almost knocked Ruby off her feet. When she recovered he said, "You really shouldn't mess with someone who knows water magic in water."

"That's cheating!" The monster exclaimed, for some reason not the least bit mad by his actions.

"There are no rules in this war." He said before diving to disappear in the water again. Ruby tried to spot him in the glow of the lake, but there was nothing to see. Likely he was also using magic to hide himself in some way. "Over here," his voice came from below her. She barely had time to turn her head before he grabbed her hand and pulled her down. The rest of her crashed into the water before he let go and she shot back up. Perhaps that was going a bit far so quickly.

Ryan popped up in front of her again. "Don't do that again." She told him.

"Fair, sorry." He said awkwardly. "Do you want to head back?"

She answered him by splashing more water in his face. "Oh, I haven't given up yet!"

The two went on for what felt to her like forever, and every time Ruby looked at Ryan she could feel something growing inside of her. She tried to stop herself, but she could not. How could she? She realized. With someone like him how could she not fall in love, as wrong as it was? She had not been wholly honest when she had told Sallie she'd already fallen for him; she just wanted to piss the monster off, but now? There was no chance, she told herself, but with everything they had already done today that defied the impossible, how could she not hope?

One thing solidified itself into certainty in her mind that day, however: with Ryan around, she never had to be afraid of anything.

.

Sallie watched Ryan return to town from her window a few hours later. That accursed fire monster looking like she was attached to him by the hip. She watched as he dropped her off at Grillby's and began to make his way to Papyrus's house to pick up Snowy.

The monster dug her nails into her arm in frustration. She had no idea what they had done together, but she did not need to. Whatever it was, it would be something the girl would hold over her and use against her until the end of time. She had had enough; it was time to do something about her.

Pulling out her phone, she dialed the number she had gotten from Whimsalot a couple of days ago. It rung a few times before the line picked up and an unfamiliar voice answered. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this the Royal Guard's Hall?" Sallie asked the monster.

"It is. How can I help you?" The voice on the other line sounded more curious than anything. Likely they did not get many calls.

"Can I speak to Undyne, please?"

"Undyne?" The monster questioned, clearly shocked by the request. "… Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Sallie snapped, letting some of her frustration through. She took a moment to calm herself before going on. "Just tell her it's Sallie."

"Okay, suit yourself." The voice said before disappearing.

A moment later in was Undyne's voice that answered. "This is a surprise," the monster began, "What do you want? And it better be important, I'm pretty busy."

Sallie took a breath before asking, "Remember how you said you owed me one for knocking me down in the bar?"

"I remember saying no such thing." She told her.

"Well, either way, I need your help." Sallie professed. "When are you coming back?"

The monster was quiet a moment. "I'm still supposed to be in the city a few more days. Why, did Ryan start something with the town or something?"

"No, nothing like that." Sallie assured her. "Is there no way you can get back sooner?"

"Not unless it's an emergency." Undyne maintained. "Is it?"

Sallie wanted to tell her it was, but the monster would likely laugh at her. "No," she said finally. "I'll tell you about it when you get back. It can wait until then."

As she ended the call, she certainly hoped she was not wrong.

.

"I am so sick of that girl!" The rabbit screamed. Slamming her glass back down on the table. "There seems to be no line she isn't willing to cross." On the other side of the table, Undyne and Alphys sat awkwardly away from one another and were both awkwardly looking at the monster across from them. Sallie knew the two of them weren't getting along the best at the moment, but she needed both of their help in this matter. In all honesty, they were probably the only two she could think of to help her.

She had just finished explaining the situation between her and Ruby, regretfully needing more than one drink to do it, although having Alphys know most of it already made it a little easier. In the last few days, while waiting for Undyne to return, the matter had only gotten worse. The monster seemed to be all over Ryan to the point where even he had to tell her to calm down. She wished he would just finally tell her to back off, but that was not the kind of guy he was, so it fell to her, and she was more than glad to do it.

The problem was she did not know how. She already failed to intimidate the monster more than once, that's where her help came in.

Unfortunately her help did not seem like it was going to be much. As Sallie finished her tale Undyne burst out laughing and Alphys looked like she simply wanted to be back in her lab.

"You can't handle keeping a freaking high schooler away from your man?" Undyne squealed through her amusement. "This is too good!"

"I'm being serious here." Sallie maintained. "That girl is evil!"

"She is not evil, though she has been a bit… much at times lately, especially in regards to Ryan." Alphys agreed.

Undyne's laughter kept going. The monster was practically falling out of her chair now. "Are you going to help or not?" Sallie demanded.

"Oh, I'll help." Undyne told her. "If for no other reason than this is sure to be entertaining.

Alphys nodded as well. "What should we do?" she asked.

"Let's break her legs!" Undyne suggested, slamming her hands down on the table and making the other two jump.

"While I could argue why that would most likely be impossible," Alphys said as she pushed her glassed back up her nose, "I don't think we need to go that far." As the doctor spoke, Sallie cut off her agreement with the warrior's plans. Alphys turned her attention to the other monster. "How about we all just talk to her? She needs to understand that what she's doing is wrong and it's rude to both you and him. Maybe if we all tell her she'll be more inclined to believe it."

Undyne chuckled. "Alphys suggests talking as a way to solve a problem? Now I'm afraid the mountain's going to fall on our heads."

The doctor looked up at the guardswoman nervously. "Why, am I wrong?"

"No," Sallie jumped in before Undyne could say anything. "You're right, we should talk to her and the sooner the better."

.

They decided the lab would be the best place to set things up. Out of the three of them, Alphys had the best chance of getting the fire monster to them by a good deal, Sallie had reasoned. After that, it was simply a matter of waiting.

In less than an hour, their target walked through the door, but it was not Alphys that met her, much to Ruby's shock. It was Undyne. The guardswoman stood just inside the door, cutting off her easiest exit as soon as she was in the lab. Undyne clapped her hands to turn on the lights and the fire monster turned at the noise. "Oh, hello," Ruby said, trying to hide her nerves behind courteousness. "Is Doctor Alphys around?"

Undyne continued to stand by the door, picking at her nails with a knife. "She'll be out in a minute." She said without looking at the other monster. "Why don't you take a seat?" The monster gestured with the weapon to the only chair in the room.

Ruby did as she was told, sitting stiffly in the chair as she waited, trying her best not to look at the other monster. "So, what brings you here today?" she tried to make conversation.

"Oh, you know," was all Undyne said, still examining her nails.

"I… I see." Ruby turned to look at the computer on the desk behind her. It was off, and the notes surrounding the monitor were about nothing she could decipher. A whooshing sound made her turn back around in time to see Doctor Alphys emerge from a doorway before another whoosh came as the door closed behind her. "Hello, Doctor," Ruby greeted. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

Alphys rubbed her hands together nervously as she walked up to her. "Well, it's not exactly what I wanted to talk to you about…" she admitted.

"What do you…?" Ruby cut herself off as Sallie walked up from behind her seemingly out of nowhere and went to stand besides Alphys. "What do you want now?" She said to Sallie, forgetting to mask her anger in her surprise. "What is this Alphys?"

"Consider this an intervention." Sallie told the fire monster. "I've had quite enough of you and how you behave around Ryan, so I think it's time I made something abundantly clear: he will never be yours." Ruby opened her mouth, but Sallie cut her off. "And before you go telling me that it's not up to me this time, allow me to explain that it has nothing to do with what I think or what I want." Sallie stepped up close to the monster and made sure she was looking her in the eye. "You are a child, still in school; you know nothing and yet walk around like you have all the answers in the universe. And despite all of your questions, you still know nothing about Ryan, about who he is or how he feels. He is under an unbelievable amount of stress because of the position he is in, and you constantly trying to pointlessly get in his pants is not helping."

"Sallie, I think that's enough…" Alphys said, nervously putting a hand to the rabbit's elbow. Sallie looked like she was going to say more, but backed off to calm down. The doctor took up her place. "Um… Sallie kind of explained most of what's been going on between you three, and I'm inclined to agree with her." The monster scratched her cheek and could not bring herself to look at Ruby. "You trying to drive a wedge in their relationship isn't very nice, and… Um… Undyne could you help me here?"

"He's too old for you." The warrior said, still not looking up at any of them. "Don't know why any more than that needs to be said."

"Right, there is that…" Alphys went on.

Sallie stepped up to the fire monster once again. "Look, I don't care what you do, or where you go, but this has to stop. I've kept our little dispute away from Ryan so far, but if it continues then I'll just get him to tell you off. Up until now he's just thought he was being nice to you, but I'm sure the truth will make him view that differently."

Ruby had not tried to say a word during the whole thing, which surprised Sallie. Probably in preparation for some pompous comeback, but she was ready to shoot that down as well with Undyne as backup.

Contrary to how Sallie thought the other monster would respond, however, she seemed to relax. "So I guess that's the end of it, huh?" Ruby sighed. "I'm sorry, Sallie. I didn't mean for things to get like this. At first I just wanted to study Ryan, I swear, but… over time I grew to realize that I liked him a lot. And I told myself it was dumb, and that it would never work, and tried to tell myself that it wasn't how I really felt and that it was all just scientific fascination! And he had you, but that only made things worse."

Ruby reached up and wiped her eyes. Sallie had no idea if the fire monster could cry, but if she could, she definitely seemed to be. Her voice shook slightly as she went on. "I don't take challenges very well. The capital has grown… very competitive in a lot of areas as the crowding gets worse. Plus, growing up nowadays and saying you want to be a scientist gets met with a bit of backlash. In that position, I learned that if you really want something, you have to go for it with everything you've got, even if it means stepping on some toes and taking advantage of some monsters. I know that's wrong, I just…" The monster broke down burying her face in her hands. "I screwed everything up, didn't I?"

"It's okay, Ruby. You'll find someone eventually." Alphys said comfortingly.

Sallie looked away and wanted to grind her teeth. She was angrier at herself now than at the other monster. "I guess I didn't really help either…" she admitted. "I wasn't exactly nice to you from the get-go."

"You had every right to be though." Ruby told her. "You were right that first day we met. I do have a tendency to act like I own everything." Sallie looked up at the monster in surprise and Ruby smiled at her. "Despite my actions, I'm pretty self-aware, and I hate the way I behave sometimes. It's just… it's how I learned to adapt. And I'm sorry for bringing my bad habits to Snowdin. None of you deserved that. Can you forgive me?"

A large part of Sallie wanted to say no, and she almost did, but Alphys's look added to the fire monster's did not help. Eventually she let out a breath and said, "Fine, but there's one thing you have to do first."

.

Early the next morning Ruby found who she was looking for at the base of the cliff that held the town of Snowdin. Ryan sat cross-legged beneath the frozen falls that loomed at the edge forest with his sword over his knees and his head down. For a moment the fire monster was not sure if she should disturb him.

"What can I do for you, Ruby?" He said without moving.

"Um…" Ruby began, suddenly very much wanting to be anywhere else. She had told Sallie she would do anything if it meant forgiveness, but she was not sure she could bring herself to do what she was about to do. "I'm sorry." The fire monster said meekly.

"For what?" Ryan asked, still not looking up from the sword in his lap.

"For how I've been acting towards you since I got here." she clarified.

Ryan chuckled and stood up from his spot on the snow, sheathing the sword at his side. "You mean like a teenager?" he mused. "You don't need to apologize for that. What brought this up all of the sudden?" The monster did not look up at him. She stared at the ground and shuffled awkwardly with her hands behind her back. "Wait, did Sallie put you up to this?"

"Not really…"

Groaning, Ryan stepped around the living flame and started to walk away while mumbling to himself, "can't let something like that go for five minutes?"

"Wait! Ryan, she is right. How I was acting towards you and her was wrong. I'll try to stop but, it'll be hard. The problem is that I really, really, really like you."

"I know," Ryan said without turning.

Ruby's head snapped to the back of his. "You did?"

"It was pretty obvious, even for someone like me." He admitted. "I let it go for the most part because I was trying to be nice, but that probably wasn't very fair, was it?" He turned to look down at her with that awkward smile before adding, "I guess in that case I should be the one apologizing, huh?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, it's my fault," she maintained. "I should have had better control over myself from the beginning… I just couldn't help myself, you know? The easiest thing to do would be to leave, but I've come to realize why my dad likes this place so much, and I've come to like a lot of the people here. I think it's time I tried to be with them not as a nuisance but as a friend. I'll try to get over you as fast as possible too, but I make no promises."

Ryan chuckled again. "Well, there are a lot of monsters out there that are a much better pick than me, so I'm sure it won't take long. In fact, I could point you towards a few candidates right now, if you want."

Ruby smiled. "If you say Papyrus, I will slap you." They both laughed at that thought.

"Now that that's smoothed over, how about we go to the lab?" Ryan suggested. "I hear Undyne's back. You may get a chance to see something interesting."

.

Ruby watched on the screen a video of what was going on in the room next to her. Ryan had insisted Alphys set up a camera in the room again despite her protests and cites to all of the previous attempts to do so ending badly. He had promised her that it would not get destroyed this time. Undyne seemed to look like she took that as a challenge and Ruby had wondered how long it would truly last.

"Is it still working?" Alphys asked from behind her.

"I don't think they've even started yet." She told the other monster. Both of the figures on the screen had yet to move since they had stepped into the center of the room and the fire monster was beginning to question what it was Ryan wanted her to see.

Meanwhile in the room, Ryan and Undyne continued to stare each other down, both of them waiting for the other to make the first move. "You manage to come up with anything while I was gone?" Undyne asked him.

"Nothing new, no." he admitted. "Whimsalot and Froggit were very helpful in other respects though, before you go blaming them."

"You know what that means then." She said sounding all too excited. "So what will it be this time?"

"How about today I won't use illusion or shields?" Ryan suggested.

"Are you sure? Those seem to be your favorites as of late."

Ryan shrugged. "I have a feeling I won't need them."

"Oh? Are you hiding something from me?"

He smirked. "You'll just have to see."

Ryan charged at the monster, sword suddenly in his hand. Undyne blocked with her vambrace as a spear appeared in her other hand. "I see you've gotten better at least one thing." She commented referring to his magic wrought sword which had managed not to shatter in response to the blow. "But you're gonna need more than that!" The monster roared as she swung her spear at him.

Expecting Ryan to jump back, she was surprised when he blocked the attack the same way she had his own. Ryan smirked as the monster looked at him questioningly. "I thought you said you wouldn't use shields?" She examined.

"I didn't." Ryan said simply. He pushed the weapon away and pulled back his sleeve revealing his forearm. The top half of it shone like steel.

Undyne's eye widened. "How did…?" she began before it came together. "You figured it out?"

Ryan's smile grew. "I figured it out."

Undyne let out a bout of excited laughter and then the fight resumed.


Chapter song: Raindance by Anzo.

Chara next week, I promise.

Also, happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate.