Traipsing around in Snowdin, playing music in Waterfall, avoiding or running through Hotland as quickly as possible, throwing rocks far away into the distant streets of New Home. Stealing food, buying food, playing keep-away with the meager and temporary possessions she had to her name, patching up her clothes, playing hide and seek with monsters that wanted her dead. Constantly telling herself that today was the last day she was going to wait, that tomorrow she would go out and try for the barrier. These were her memories of the last several weeks. Some of them were also the memories of the last couple days.
She couldn't help but feel restless.
In the early afternoon Frisk woke up in Sans' room again, hanging off his mattress and with the coat she'd been using for a blanket tossed aside. She squinted at the wall until the cracks in it became visible, and she counted the tallies that she had marked there earlier. Below them were dead tendrils, markers that her coward flower friend had been a fly on the wall while she slept. She didn't know if it made her feel happy or something worse to find him looking out for her; happy was definitely not the mood that she would describe herself in right now.
Blue Sans was still working in the shed. He hadn't stopped since last night, and probably wouldn't stop until it was finished; some time before she fell asleep she had heard an awful lot of squawking, too, probably meaning that Alphys was working overtime as well.
Rubbing her eyes of sleep and running her fingers through her hair- the closest thing that she had to a comb- the child spat in a corner and felt nothing but sorry for herself.
The terrible mood refused to lift, even when she got up and put on her sweater, even when she ate a crunchy Spider Muffin she snagged from Papyrus' pantry. Wiping her mouth of crumbs she stared at the tally marks again, and thought of all the planks of wood in her burrow gathering frost. Undyne's was due for more marking.
And... She squinted bitterly at the wall. If the marks that she made were supposed to count the times that these monsters "broke her heart," then in a brief moment she considered that maybe Blue Sans had earned one after all. Or maybe it was her Sans that had (definitely her Sans that had.) Maybe it was everyone that had. She didn't expect anything different, of course. But as she was thinking as much, a thought intruded into her head and almost made Frisk hide her face in shame.
You act overdramatic like the bad type of queen.
Regardless, she was suddenly uncomfortable in his house. She wanted to go back in and add those four marks to where they belonged. She wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere but this austere and dusty house.
Nobody would notice if she left.
Even though it was impossible to restore her sweater collar what it once was, she tugged it over her shoulder and picked up her things from the floor. The collar crept back into place while she wandered outside into the big room, seeing nobody around. Papyrus was in the worst mood that she had ever seen, constantly trying to call his brother's cell phone and finding no response and then getting angrier each time. So that was probably a good thing, that he wasn't in sight right now. Frisk wasn't really interested in watching any more of that.
Again, she couldn't call Sans on her own phone because she didn't have his number. And Papyrus refused to give it to her. Frisk sighed and walked into the kitchen, for one more raid of the fridge. She'd almost eaten everything in it, but stuffed in the back she did find a sandwich and a leg of something that she assumed was chicken. She didn't have room for the leg along with her other possessions, so she ended up eating it.
It tasted like fish. Maybe that was an omen; she wandered to the front door and opened it up, and when she did she saw Undyne staring at her with her piercing single eye.
"HEY!"
"Eep!" The first thing she did was slam the door shut, the color scared out of her face, and if she could have locked it she would have done that too.
It groaned from Undyne pounding her fist against it, and the child stiffened her back. She already determined that this door could withstand a lot of horrific abuse, but even so it was Undyne that was behind it. For a crazy moment she even considered calling to Papyrus for help, even though she'd already learned that he was friends with this psycho.
She shouted from outside, "LET ME IN YOU LITTLE TWERP! You think if I really wanted to I couldn't bust this thing down!?"
Shaking her head and wrinkling up her nose, Frisk took a step away into the living room with her hands mangling each other. Through the window she saw Undyne's single eye glaring at her, the pupil retracting like a cat's. The growling monster threw her weight against the door, and in that moment the child pulled her weapon out with a snarl on her lips.
But before anything could happen she saw a flash of red and black from the corner of her eye, and Papyrus walked into her field of vision with his hands on his hips and a scowl on his face. "RUDE," he barked at Frisk, before marching to the door.
"D-don't-" she tried to say, but before she could finish her protest he had thrown the door open.
Undyne stepped in and sneered at Frisk while she did, her chipped razor teeth huge as always. She rested a palm on her hip, flipping her long red hair back- she was in her civilian clothes again. "So, Papyrus was telling the truth. You really are staying with him."
"Get back," Frisk hissed, once more backing away herself, "I'll kill you."
Undyne threw back her head, barking out laughter. "Fwahahahaha!" Taking a deep breath, she looked down upon the little child. "Relax, loser. I've got too much class to fight someone else's houseguest."
Undyne unimaginably shows some class, went a thought in Frisk's head, and for once she agreed with it. She still kept on holding tight to her pan, and instead of talking to the fish monster she glared at Papyrus instead. "Why is she here?"
Looking at them both Papyrus coughed, "WELL OBVIOUSLY SINCE MY BROTHER IS BEING SO DIFFICULT I- I FIGURED WE WOULD NEED HELP GETTING HIM BACK."
Like an accusing finger Frisk flung her pan out to point at the fish monster. "With her? She'll kill him! She'll kill me too!"
"Oh I will not," Undyne snapped. And then sneered. "Unless you want another rematch right now, punk? Someday I will beat the shit out of you for making such a big mess of my house." And then, when Papyrus cleared his- throat?- she added quickly, "Just not today."
"UNDYNE IS THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD!" The skeleton added, with a defensive sniff, folding his arms. "OF COURSE SHE KNOWS RESTRAINT AND PROFESSIONALISM!"
The yellow eye flickered in his direction and Undyne grinned even wider. "Look at you, sucking up to me," she crowed, and she pulled him down into a headlock. The skeleton let out a yelp as she rubbed her fist on his skull. "Fuhuhuhu! That's exactly why a little maggot like you is the vice-captain!"
"OW! STOP PROVING ME WRONG IN FRONT OF THE HUMAN!" Her vice-captain screeched, struggling desperately in her grip. Frisk didn't know if she should laugh or not, but her lips curled up in spite of herself. The scowl had returned to her face, at any rate, by the time Papyrus had pulled free and rigidly straightened his outfit back out, skull changing color.
Undyne's barking laughter began anew. "Boy, it's just too bad that you don't have any hair to mess up."
"UGH."
Sneering, Frisk unconsciously took out a Spider Donut and started munching. "What makes you guys think that Blue Sans will let you come with him, anyway?"
The two monsters glanced her way and frowned, Undyne in particular before bursting out laughing again- Papyrus always, or almost always, had a sour expression on his face anyway. "Well it's not like it matters if he LETS us come with him. We can always strong-arm the issue."
"WELL-" Papyrus said, and the Captain of the Royal Guard glared in his direction. "THIS SANS ISN'T LIKE MY BROTHER. HE CAN FIGHT BACK."
"Not well, I'll bet." Undyne sneered.
"ACTUALLY-"
All parties were silenced by Undyne pounding her fist into her palm. "The point is," she snarled, "We're doing him a favor, right? There's no reason he'll object to that, right?
"Or, plan B," she continued, and suddenly she was bending down to gather the collar of Frisk's sweater into her fist. The child's eyes went wide as she yanked her up off the floor, and she could feel that collar stretch again, just a little. "This human is your brother's pet, aren't they? We could just tell him to come back or we'll cut their head off. Ha!"
It won't work, he knows you already cut my head off five times, Frisk thought to herself, squirming in Undyne's grasp. No use in protesting that she was not a pet, even if Sans did occasionally feed her and take her on walks through the forest when he was still there. The next moment, the fish monster dropped her and she fell down on her back, shouting, "Fuck!" on impact and choking on what remained of the Spider Donut. Papyrus was eyeing her, expression inscrutable, while she stood and brushed herself off with a growl.
Once she appeared unharmed he clenched his teeth before saying, "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE. HE ISN'T ANSWERING HIS PHONE."
"Eh, it was a long shot. Don't worry Paps, we'll figure something out." Undyne shrugged, and Papyrus made a whooshing "huff" of breath while grumbling into the floor. With another sneer Undyne punched his shoulder, and he nearly staggered. "Say, while we're waiting, have you got something to eat? I'm starving."
"THAT DEPENDS ON WHETHER OR NOT THE HUMAN ATE EVERYTHING ALREADY," Papyrus growled, and Frisk rubbed her backside without affirming or denying the truth. The contents of his fridge were still in her pocket, after all. No way she would share.
Without another word, save for a bit of laughter, Undyne marched into the kitchen. Doors opened and slammed while she searched through the pantry, through the fridge, and through the cupboards. While she ravaged his stores, Papyrus and Frisk traded glances in the living room. Frisk scratched her itchy head of tangled hair and stared at her feet after a while, and Papyrus did the same, squinting his eyesockets. His skull hadn't quite returned to its normal color.
"Don't bet on Plan B," Frisk said at last, quietly. Papyrus stiffened. "I'm going out."
His brows raised. "OUT? OUT WHERE?"
"Out of here," said the child. "I did what I promised Blue Sans I'd do. Helped him out. So I'm going back into hiding now."
Expression changing, Papyrus looked like he was about to say something, but Undyne entered the room laughing. "Hiding? You're not exactly great at that, human. You're just lucky you're a celebrity around here."
"What do you-" Frisk began to say, but the door opened and again precious words were lost.
Alphys, her glasses swirling in a daze, pushed the door open and wiped her sweaty forehead. Her coat was fully unbuttoned and her dress was a mess, covered in grease and tears. She was muttering to herself, "Flower always getting in the way, I did not make him f- AAAGH!"
The scream was preceded by her eyes lighting on Undyne, whose eye had gone wide with shock at such a loud sound. Slowly, and with a face still startled, she waved one gloved hand at Alphys. "Uh... hey?"
There was a silence, one which was filled with something Frisk did not understand. She didn't understand why Undyne had gone so suddenly rigid, and she did not understand why Alphys had turned such a bright color of crimson, or why she had begun to sweat and shake so desperately. There was an electricity in the living room that certainly she was too young to feel. It was making Undyne's hair stand up, at least at the base of her ponytail.
Alphys broke it by screaming, "Hi Undyne! Bye! Bye Undyne!"
And then she turned and ran out of the house- much faster than Frisk thought she was capable of running.
The silence that ensued lasted for a short time, and even though Frisk didn't know how scales could turn red- just as she didn't really know how a skull could turn red- Undyne's face changed color and she pounded her fist into her palm, first once and then even harder a second time. She laughed, a little weakly, "That was weird?"
Papyrus put a hand to his jawline. "ALPHYS IS ACTING STRANGE. DID YOU DO SOMETHING TO HER?"
"ANYWAY," she barked, and Papyrus flinched. "I'm going out to buy some food, because all you have is crap. I'll be back in a sec."
Rather than wait for a reply, she dashed out the door as well, and Papyrus blinked. Frisk coughed. The door was left wide open, and yet in spite of that neither of them moved to close it.
It occurred to the child that this was as good an opportunity as any. She rubbed her face and said, "I don't wanna wait for you to kill me, so I'm going now."
As if on instinct, her host immediately replied, "OH PLEASE, LIKE I NEED YOU TO WAIT-" Frisk walked onto the front step and grabbed the doorknob. "WAIT!" She slammed the door as hard as her little body could slam it, and faintly she heard his shout on the other side, "...FINE!"
Shivering once outdoors, she was surprised by how that put an end to it, expecting Papyrus to come walking out after her and seeing nothing. Did he not care? Maybe he wanted to clean up all the messes she had made, now that she would be making no more. He seemed to hate a dirty house. It was an immense kindness that Sans' room got to be as filthy as it was without him nuking it, she was sure.
Rolling her eyes, and without thinking, Frisk next walked to the entrance of the shed. There was no sign of Alphys outside; she must have fled back to the safety of this little wooden shack, from whatever it was that spooked her. She might be talking to Blue Sans about the machine again. Flowey might be in there watching them, if Alphys was speaking from the present. Frisk took a deep breath and raised her fist.
Then, the child discarded the fist and grabbed the knob forcefully, trying to rip the door open. Unlike last time she came in, however, it was locked.
Did he think that she, even now, was going to...? Asshole.
Frisk wiped her face and released the knob.
Fine, she would leave him alone. Leave them all be. Stretch her legs. Go add the marks. Go steal food from Grillby's trash cans. Wait until Flowey was ready to start paying attention to her again. Plan her future, something she hadn't been doing in a long time. Hope that Blue Sans noticed she wasn't around to say goodbye to, and that he felt bad about it.
Like the bad type of queen.
Her stomach felt like a black pit.
Sighing heavily, Frisk took out her pan- in case sneaking out of Snowdin town ended in a worst-case scenario- and walked away from the locked door.
It was, fortunately, a quick trip sneaking through the town and into the woods again; this time, since it was during the day, and was a little strange to not see a lot of monsters out, but she didn't care. She was on a mission, and didn't stop or lighten her pace until she made it into the deepest part of the forest, even beyond Sans' outpost which she took a bit of pains to avoid.
She recalled these woods, and how they looked at the start. Over the weeks that she stayed in Snowdin the terrifying appearance of the trees gradually softened, even if the weather was still pretty sharp. But at the beginning, it looked bigger and meaner than the whole world, was colder than any weather she'd experienced on the surface, and there were no friendly faces to save her (except for perhaps Flowey.)
Back then she was just a kid weeping bitterly, without any words to substitute for her noisy tears. That must've been how she looked when Sans met her first, the girl trudging through the snow and wiping her eyes- pitiful and small, noisy and obnoxious. Easy prey for anybody. That must've been how he thought of her while he quietly stalked her through the forest. She was freshly injured, maybe not in body but in other, nonetheless noticeable ways. And despite her suspicions, despite her already rough edges, back then she was weak to a smile and outstretched hand.
With a killer joy buzzer inside it.
That was his first tally mark.
Later, when the smile- much like the trees- lost its frightening edge, he would ask her over and over to tell him what the mark was from. But she would never tell him that story. She didn't know why she didn't.
Frisk squeezed through the broken set of wooden bars that had beforehand kept her from progressing, seeing the door to the Ruins not so far away. The sight filled her with a little anxiety, but she knew it was unwarranted. All she had to do was turn right and have Flowey help her across the river, if he was even paying attention to her anymore- that was where her burrow was.
But there was something in front of the door that wasn't there before. Frisk frowned and forgot her mission for just a moment, running along the path. There was a lot of snow pushed over it recently that she had to trek through, soaking her ankles and sneaking into her shoes, but she didn't notice. Her heartbeat raced, but at times it seemed as if she was a slave to her own curiosity. That small little shape at the entrance to the Ruins, giving off wafting steam into the cold air, captured her attention too quickly.
Maybe it was because she was always looking after food.
Deposited practically on Toriel's doorstep was a small orange pie that smelled like cinnamon and pumpkin, a small dab of whipped cream smothered over the wet and squishy surface. Next to it was a note, written in old-fashioned script, that said Enjoy.
Frisk took one smell of it and began to gag and choke, covering her mouth as it uttered the most wretched of noises. She spat on the ground and scooted away from where she had been kneeling, eyeing the pie like it was a bomb.
From the Ruins door there was a voice. It should have been evident that she would be waiting there, waiting to see who might take the bait. Her voice turned her blood cold. "...My... child...?"
Frisk didn't dare to breathe or speak, sitting perfectly still in the snow.
But that didn't stop the voice from talking again, and she thought she heard the stone of the door creak. As always the voice was slow and difficult to hear from where she was, but she wouldn't move closer. "Was that you...? Human...?" Silence between them both. "Did you finally... come back? I have been waiting for ages... for you... and your new... Sans... I made the pie, as promised..." Toriel whispered, her speech gently rising and falling.
Still the child said nothing, although breeze made her smell the pie again and she couldn't help but gag and cough. At that sound, the voice behind the door became re-encouraged. "You must be there. You have finally returned. Let me see you once more..."
To Frisk's absolute horror, the door did creak and grate as stone slid across the stone. It started to move. A thrill shot down her body. "Don't come out!" She screamed at last, staggering back to her feet. "Stay there!"
The grating stopped.
The child held her pan out in front of her, as she did so often, yet her hands trembling unlike all other times. No licks of flame traveled under the door, no resumed sliding of stone on stone to signal the door opening, and there was no low voice for several minutes; slowly, she lowered her hands. But eventually she did hear the speaking resume, and she nonetheless trembled. "My sweet... human... why did you come back?"
"I didn't come back for you, I-I'm going to leave soon," Frisk said.
There was a sigh. "Yes, I believed so. In that case, take the pie with you. It's your... it's your favorite..."
"I don't want your nasty-ass pie," snapped the child, wrapping her arms around her middle.
A moment of hesitation, and then the speaking resumed again, "Then, take it for your new Sans."
The thought of him eating it, dissolving into dust after only a few bites, turned her stomach. "He doesn't want your nasty-ass pie either."
The silence that followed became prolonged, and Frisk looked self-consciously around the rest of the forest. It almost sounded like something was moving among the trees, even though few monsters came to this part of the woods. (After all, there was the whole reason why she stuck around there for so long.) She would have preferred an encounter with an enemy monster to having another conversation across the door, however.
Toriel sighed, and then chuckled, "You're such a noisy little child. All I want is to help you."
"You want to kill me!" Frisk shouted, slamming her pan against the stone, the volume of her own words bouncing back and hitting her.
By contrast, the monster she spoke to was always soft. "All... I want... is to help you."
"... If you really wanted to help me, you'd take me home instead of giving me deadly pies," said the child.
"Children seldom understand the intentions of their parents," Toriel said, and it startled her how clearly and quickly she said it. "You don't understand, either, human child..." She breathed in and out loudly. "In this place there is no... is no... home. There is no home on the surface... there is no home here... so you die, instead. And you're happy."
Uttering a grunt Frisk slid down to the ground, rubbing her bangs off her forehead with one hand. "You all seem to like your home here well enough."
Toriel laughed, a shrill and shrieking laugh that frightened Frisk. "Like it here? We like it here? Here? ...Do you... like it here?"
"Of course I don't," said Frisk without thinking. "I hate this place."
Laughing again, she heard, "Then why do you stay?"
"I can't..." She frowned. "Can't... get out right now."
"...Exactly," Toriel hissed. "My... my child, no monster wants to be here. This cavern is home to no one."
That sent Frisk back into silence, her back and butt getting cold. It was such an obvious point- for, after all, when had she ever seen a monster happy Underground?- but maybe it was because of everything that had happened recently that this obvious point gave her so much pause now. She rubbed her face and resisted inhaling too deeply, thought of Sans and how far away he went just because he also couldn't stand this world any longer. She thought about Flowey, too, who was following her just for a ghost of a chance to escape, himself. All the mocking cries of the echo flowers.
All of this time she was trapped in a world where she didn't fit in. It never occurred to her before that the monsters didn't fit in either.
Frisk stood up, squinting at the pie again. It still made her nauseous, but she picked it up, holding her nose, and stowed it away. "I'll take your goddamn pie, fine, if it'll shut you up."
"I will miss you, human," Toriel warbled. "I will miss the new Sans too. He seemed like such a nice boy..."
"I'll tell him that," said Frisk with a sigh. "Goodbye Toriel." Suddenly she didn't feel like going back to the planks of tallies. A feeling in her gut, which she hadn't heard from in days, told her to go back instead. With Papyrus, Flowey, and Blue Sans in mind she left the Ruins door behind. She kept walking until she even passed Sans' sentry station, without an urge to vandalize it.
Strangely enough that was when she felt its presence where she never felt it before, just beside the path and just outside of the thick trees. A small miracle. It would have saved her so much heartbreak and time if she had found it any time before now, that just to feel it here made the hair on the back of the child's neck rose with suspicion. Why find it now?
But, even suspicious, she was one to take full advantage. She sat in the snow and clasped her hands, mustering everything within her heart. Thoughts of the last few days, of the last several hours, almost clogged her mind, but in the end she was able to grasp this world again into a SAVE File, each muscle in her body trembling with cold and energy.
The cold wind and creepy trees loom over everything in this forest.
Nonetheless you are filled with determination.
Your game has been SAVED
... You SAVED something else, too.
There that thought was again, even though she still didn't know what that "something else" was. Frisk stood and rubbed her chest, frowning at the sensation- a sensation of the world being archived in her SOUL. For the first time, she wondered if Blue Sans was right- if she was a god, or something like it, not a time traveler at all.
Some god, if she couldn't do anything more than this. If she was really a god, she would force her Sans to come back. She would make everyone in this world be nice to her, make everyone love her. She would be able to just walk back to her home.
But Frisk knew she could not do any of those things. Tears pricked the backs of her eyes, and wiping her face with her sleeve the child stalked down the path, wishing that Sans would just keep his theories and ideas to himself sometimes. He's such a fucking idiot, who does he think he's kidding?
Stomping her foot repeatedly didn't produce any Flowey, so Frisk gave up and began her journey through Snowdin Forest again. Her thoughts remained dark and full of curses until she got too tired of it, and then she just stared ahead on the blustery path with barely any thoughts at all. At some point during her walk, her phone rang- almost scaring the life out of the child- but she turned it off rather than answer.
She glanced over at Papyrus' guard station when she passed it, raising a brow at how it was also gathering frost from neglect, left untouched for days. Doggo's station wasn't far, so she would have to slip into the trees or risk being noticed by that movement-sensitive wolf.
However, the child wouldn't get the chance to hide before a large shape came barreling down the path, appearing to her out of the blizzarding snow.
Frisk let out a shriek and prepared for battle, seeing the light glint off of the dark, spiked armor of one of the Canine Unit members. Greater Dog.
He came to a stop shortly before he barreled her over, baring his fangs at her, and she bared her own while her pale red SOUL glowed visibly before her chest. But it quickly became apparent that the wolfish dog was not alone; standing out from behind him, and then beginning to encircle her, were several other of the smaller dogs in the unit. Dogamy and Dogaressa in particular stepped even closer to Frisk, sniffing and muttering to themselves while she shivered lightly.
Barking like crazy at Dogamy's feet, there was also a small little white dog that snapped its sharp fangs in her direction.
Frisk had faced each of these enemies before, but all of them individually- with the exception of the wedded couple, who stood on either side of her in their black hoods, growling low and threatening. Never before had she been forced to face them all as one group, the subordinates of Greater Dog moving behind her and blocking off her exit. It was a scenario that she had feared for a long time, and she could only be grateful for all the food she'd stolen beforehand as she flourished her weapon.
All of the Canine Unit blocks the way.
You don't know how they found you. You've only just been clodding all over town in loud and smelly shoes.
She wasn't going to waste any time talking, but to her surprise Doggo spoke to her instead, brandishing his knife. He stepped a little too close and Frisk backed up, almost bumping into a shivering Lesser Dog. "It's been fun but it has to end now." He swiped at her with his knife, missing by a mile, and the child swatted his face with her pan.
While he was whimpering in pain she looked to one of the other dogs; the circle was gradually tightening around her, greater Dog in particular casting the largest shadow and pointing his sword directly at her throat. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's over for us if you keep living," said Dogamy, sampling the scent of her sweat and days old bloodstains on her shirt. "We have to do it now."
There was a general murmur and whine through the group, their sharp teeth white as the snow. "It's not like killing a puppy," Dogaressa barked at her husband, and the two of them pounced forward on the human with no other warning, their snarls filling her ears. Frisk screamed again and struck them, as she had done their fellow Doggo, hearing their yelps as the metal connected with fur. Nonetheless she could feel their sharp claws raking against her legs and shirt, the axe held by Dogaressa just narrowly missing her head.
"You try and kill me and I'll kill you!" Frisk choked, but it was drowned out because now Lesser Dog and a newly recovered Doggo were joining in on the fight. Their claws hooked into her clothes, and then their teeth dug deep into her skin. Frisk's screams rose in pitch. Swords, axes, dual-wielded knives, they tore her apart and she dropped everything.
She lost consciousness, lost everything really, just as the annoying little white dog dug into her pockets and pulled out the pie. He ate it all up greedily and then her SOUL burst into pieces.
Once her vision shot down into black, Frisk heard:
You are not allowed to leave us yet!
Become determined!
That's a tally mark for all of them. ...Later.
The second time, she half-ran a wide arc around the whole path. They didn't find her then.
Instead, and not too far from town, it was Flowey that did. This was much to her surprise, despite remembering a second later that he would of course realize when something like this happened; he pushed out of the snow with a blanched expression on his face.
"Frisk, something really really bad happened!"
She stomped her foot, "I know, I know! I had to reset! The Canine Unit was-"
"No, no no no, it's not that!" Flowey cried. "I mean I-I was wondering about that, but there's something more important-!" He raised some of his roots out of the ground, latching on to Frisk's pant leg and tugging frantically. "You have to follow me, hurry!"
Without even asking she looked towards the buildings in the distance and, taking a deep breath, she began to run. Without missing a beat Flowey's root wrapped around her leg and he too was ripped out of the ground, using tendrils to climb up her back and coiling around her shoulder. "Please be careful, please, it's-it's-"
"Just stop stammering and tell me what it is!" Frisk said as she ran past the Snowdin Inn, pretending that she didn't see all the rabbits and bears who stopped on their doorsteps to stare at her. Unlike the stupid Canine Unit they were no match for her and they knew it, even as low a LV as she was, and it was clear that hiding wouldn't do her a lot of good now.
Particularly when Flowey said into her ear, "It's Asgore. He's here."
It came as a shock to her system, like a punch, and she felt sick. Frisk came to a stop outside of Grillby'z. "Where?"
"S-someone led him here-"
"I asked where he was you fuckwad!"
The flower stammered, his prickly thorns raking against her body, and she grabbed at his stalk with one hand. "I-i-I-it's in Papyrus' house, he's in- looking for you-"
She remembered Alphys lab and flinched. "He called him...?"
"No! He had no idea!" Flowey said, his voice at a wailing pitch. Just as suddenly Frisk began to run again, the whiplash throwing his stem back briefly. "Wait wait wait where are we going now-"
"Papyrus' house!" Said Frisk. "You see, uh, I just had a thought."
"Wh-what kind of thought?"
Papyrus' front door had finally given way, lying on the front porch a cracked and splintered mess, and some of the doorframe was cracked up and missing as well. As if someone with a big temper and a large frame had forced their way inside. The front steps were split down the center and crumbling into themselves, and Frisk had to jump over them to keep her foot from getting stuck. "I-I'll tell you later," she said breathlessly, her previously colorless face turning bright red instead.
"I hope it's not that you have a death wish." With a strained whimper Flowey dived down into her sweater, and Frisk stepped through the wide doorway.
The living room in front of her eyes was also a mess, the TV screen shattered and the couch punctured. Beyond that, the railing had been freshly divided into pieces, those pieces littering the floor, and Undyne was sprawled on the stairs with a huge slash across her middle, her one eye open and creased with agony while she was rolling onto her stomach. In spite of everything Frisk started to run to her, on a gut instinct, but stopped when babbling and shouting from the other end of the house reached her ears.
The whole world started to black out. What's happening? She was here only a little while ago.
Asgore's cloaked form was unmistakable, and if the upper floor were not included in the living room he would have surely been too big for the house. His bloodshot eyes looked crazed, and he had his glowing trident in hand while he roared at Papyrus, who was as of yet still conscious. He always towered over her and definitely over Sans, so Frisk never noticed how small Papyrus actually was before.
His voice sounded completely different while he was begging for mercy, too.
"-where he got that idea I haven't seen the human since they took my brother, of course I wouldn't let them stay here-" he was saying, and Frisk barely could catch her breath.
She screamed over him, over Asgore's incessant growling, "I'm right here fuckwads!"
Asgore stiffened and Papyrus stopped talking, head tilting in her direction and eyes bulging. The furious king also looked at the human child, and his jaw was set in a snarl, one wholly different from that of the Canine Unit. His own angry eyes were bulging now, and he whipped his head back to Papyrus as though in preparation to literally eat his head off.
Frisk took out the first thing she could get her hands on- which was the bag of bonemeal- and threw it at his head. "No! I'm not over there! I'm right here! Are you blind?"
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?" Flowey screamed from under her sweater, and Frisk turned and ran.
Thunderous footsteps followed behind her and were followed by a roar. She barely got to the doorway before something hit her backside and sent her flying face-first into the hard stone street, snow coming up to her ears. From behind her, and still in the house, Asgore said, not loudly enough, "To be absolutely clear, you two are both fired."
Head spinning, the child rolled over and sat up, trying to summon the presence of mind to stand while Asgore squeezed through the broken doorframe. Flowey's tendrils were curling around her arms and legs, the thorns pricking sensation back into her ice-cold limbs and wrenching her into movement as well, as though she were a puppet. She could hear him making all kinds of noises at her back, no doubt wishing he could slip into the ground as in every other fight.
King Asgore approaches you. He looks really pissed, good job.
Frisk's hands felt too weak when she held out her weapon, not at all for the first time today. Her back was still stinging, the sting going slowly to a dull point.
"And when I'm finished with the human..." said the king, his trident filling with orange magic before her and light flashing in his eyes. Barely had he spoken, with the rest left in the air, than had he brought his trident down upon Frisk.
Blue Sans' words returned to her- orange means move. Crying out, she dodged to the left, and the speared tips passed harmlessly through her body like a ghost. Roaring he swung again in her direction, and the child dodged backwards this time, almost tripping, and stumbled forward instead to take her turn. With the tip of her pan, Frisk struck Asgore across his front before bailing.
Causing only the tiniest, tiniest chip in his health.
You're going to die again.
She couldn't let her intrusive thoughts take over, she absolutely could not. Even if it was probably true. Asgore thundered forward and did something new, something terrifying and yet so expected. Red flames blossomed from his hand and singed the air around them, spiraling towards her with percussive speed. The intense heat hit her first before the actual magic attack, and stunned Frisk could only stumble and feel it burn through her. - 9 HP
She screamed, and more spirals of fire coursed around their makeshift battlefield in reds and oranges, flashing her back to her very first fight with a boss monster. Her clothes grew black with soot. It was all she could do to run, uselessly, in screaming circles while Asgore pursued her, wreathed in flame. If she looked carefully it almost was as if Asgore was spitting smoke himself. - 5 HP
She didn't even have time to eat, the fire cheating and streaming over the space between them. - 5 HP
Weak, healed slowly by the Temmie Armor, she stumbled and fell down.
Yes, you're going to die.
It's your fault.
Asgore switched to his trident, towering over her. "Goodbye now, human."
Desperately, vaguely aware of how tightly Flowey was holding onto her, she shouted with a hoarse throat, "I don't understand!"
Miraculously it stayed his hand for a moment, making another moment of health. "You do not understand what?"
"If-if-if you want me dead so much, then why, why do you keep calling me back?" She said, voice cracking and rising at a whim. "Why do you keep doing that?"
Trident poised over her head, Asgore blinked at Frisk. "Now I do not understand."
"You'll do it this time, too," the child said, struggling to move. "You'll call me back, like that, like you keep doing, how come you...?"
For yet another moment, making three so far, his hand was stayed, and little by little her burns were healing. But the confusion on his face clouded back over into something nasty, and she knew she was out of time. "Goodbye, human."
The next thing in her line of sight, bizarrely, was a beaten up placard that said "LIEBRARY". Frisk was whipped off into the air, and for a second time the trident shattered the ground where she lay. Asgore let out a sound between a roar and a whine, snatching sight of her just out of his reach. "What the hell is it this time!?"
It was Flowey.
Frisk could see him beneath her, roots digging into the ground, his face sculpted into a shape she never saw it make before. Vines were budding off his stem and wrapping tightly around her limbs to keep her hovering above the snow. In all her time here, not once had he ever demonstrated such strength in that tiny plant body. In that instant Frisk had no more breath in her lungs, and she took a gulp of air.
The gulp was over with when he whipped her continually left, traveling through the earth in a speed he had also never demonstrated before. Asgore, naturally, bounded after them, this time running on all fours.
Passing the Grillby'z sign, watching Grillby calmly putting a "closed" sign against the window inside, Frisk struggled against the tendrils that held her motionless. They dug into her and hurt by no small amount. "Flowey-!"
"Shh!" They passed the town tree covered in toilet paper and shoes.
"Flowey, where are we going!?"
"Shut up!"
Then, suddenly, they were going right.
She whipped past Asgore and the king was making that whining roar again, scrambling to turn and failing in the momentum he built for himself. Flowey was almost dragging Frisk along the ground at this point, kicking up snow and unswept dust, but it was no less fast than it was before.
Past Grillby'z again, past the library, Flowey brought them right back to Papyrus' house. And then he dragged the child around it instead, towards the shed that she had so uneasily avoided. They stopped only for a second, and Frisk struggled in that second to no avail at all.
Flowey's face was like Asgore's, and that terrified her more than anything else. Like a smaller horned, beardless, younger little Asgore. The same fangs she always saw on his flower face fit in perfectly on his lips now, fangs Toriel had as well. With a heavy vine, and without even trying to meet her eyes, he broke open the shed door and threw her inside.
By then, his plan became obvious.
He heard the door banging violently, and that finally jerked him out of his utter work-induced daze, since the loud noises that had been happening in the last several minutes were not enough. ...Then of course the door to the shed was destroyed and he really had no chance of finishing up his work, of screwing the covering over the engine.
With a face like a boss monster, the flower moved like a serpent as he entered and flung Frisk harshly onto the floor. There was shouting from outside; Sans didn't think, and apparently neither did Alphys, both of them rushing to check on the child whose clothes were covered in burns and whose eyes were streaming with tears.
But doing so, they left the machine alone, and it became overrun with plant growth, vines and roots fiddling with the engine and switches lined along the control panel. The uncovered engine crackled and whirred to life, and it was only that noise that alerted him to what Flowey was doing. "hey, get away from that!"
Flowey was not looking at him. He was looking at Frisk, petaled head rapidly dissolving into the likeness of a skull with two tiny pinpricks for pupils. Frisk's own pale and wide-eyed face matched, in its way. "You said that if you had a way to get out of this hellhole, you would take it without a second thought, right?"
Instinctively Sans clutched Frisk's arm, holding the child down rather than helping them up. "wait a minute-"
But there were gigantic footsteps just outside. Sans knew that the kid didn't have a minute.
They shoved him and Alphys aside, looking at him just once with eyes crazed by fear, and darted into the booth of the machine.
Flowey laughed, a laugh that was shrieking and strained, and dipped inside after them. The door slammed, and his extra overgrowth all over the tiny lab grew brown in an instant- but before it did, there was a flash from the machine.
"kid!"
That was all he could say before both he and Alphys were blinded by the light. And when the light was gone, the booth was empty and the engine was still sparking and whirring dangerously, although nowhere near as noisily as the creature suddenly standing just outside the shed. He understood what it was what sent the child running into that booth, and they weren't the only one to feel jumpstarted by fear- or shock, whichever.
Asgore's large face seemed to fill the doorway. Alphys screamed and pressed into a corner, but his gaze fixed first on Sans. "You," he breathed, his voice nowhere near the calm that it once held. "You are not him."
does it show? "nah," Sans said, with little air left in his body.
"The human," Asgore huffed. "Is gone."
He glanced towards the machine, and the boss monster caught his glance. "yep."
"Then I will kill you." The monster said, and he stabbed into the entrance with his red, shining trident.
At first, Sans felt something that he could call fear- if only he had felt it a little more often in his life to be able to tell. But then, as he stared at the mad king of this horrible little world, it was taken over by something colder, something oppressive, and his body gathered with magical energy.
"goodness, grandma," he said, facing him with a stone smile. "what a high LV you have."
Author's Note: Not a whole lot of things came easily to me this chapter, ;w; hopefully the next isn't like that.
But regardless, this is the first of the big chapters, and I hope it doesn't disappoint OOO/ Next one should probably be done within a week. As always, I'm supremely grateful for your reviews and comments on my story!
Someone else had a review question I'll answer real quick, the reason why Sans can't just teleport home is mostly that I figure his ability doesn't extend as far as going between worlds.
Happy Saturday! 0O0
Next Chapter: Co-Op Mode
