Undertale 2: Forgiven

Chapter Two

Alex stepped away from the door, and his shoes crunched on freshly packed snow. On the other side of the door was a snowy forest and a just barely visible trail leading away from it. Alex could see lightly pressed flat footprints leading away from the door. The snow was falling lightly. Although their was no sun, natural light beamed down everywhere. It wasn't as cold as it looked, so Alex simply put his hoodie on and started down the trail, hands in his coat pockets...

Fight. Act. Item. Mercy.

These were the options that appeared in front of Alex as his surroundings darkened, and his SOUL appeared on his chest. Just a little bit down the path, a creature was blocking the way forward. It looked like a snowflake with the face of a bird. A box with text appeared above its head that read:

*Snowdrake is preparing an ice pun...

Alex looked through his options. Item: had only Butterscotch pie in it. He didn't want to choose Fight. Act: he was give the options 'Heckle' and 'Joke'. Alex read Snowdrake's box again. To Alex, it felt as if these interactions that he was taking part of with Flowey and now Snowdrake functioned like that of a video game. Alex chose Joke.

"Alright buddy, let's snow." Alex said, shaking his arms as if about to fight. Snowdrake chuckled, but proceeded to fire snowflakes composed of frozen solid ice at Alex. He didn't hesitate to jump out of the way. "There's snow way you can defeat me." Snowdrake said in a low voice. Alex chuckled. "Wow, that's snow bad." Alex laughed.

His four options appeared before him again. Alex took a look at Mercy this time: he could either choose 'Flee' or 'Spare'. Spare was in yellow text. None of Alex's other options were yellow before. Alex chose it. His surroundings normalized, his SOUL disappeared, and Snowdrake went on his way. "He laughed. He actually laughed. Take that, Dad!"

Alex shrugged. "I guess that's over then."

Alex took a step forward to continue, and felt something jingle in his coat pocket. He reached into it, and pulled out four gold coins. Alex hummed in confusion. He hadn't had those before. He pocketed the coins again, shrugged, and kept walking...

Alex reached a point in the trail where their was nothing but a big, long line of trees on either continued on, his hands still in his pockets. He tried to use his iPhone again, but still no service. That was why Toriel had given him her phone. "Guess there's no coverage for the center of the Earth." Alex muttered to himself.

*shuffle shuffle*

Alex spun around quickly. He'd heard a noise behind him, but there was nothing there, other than the snow and trees that he had already passed by. Alex shrugged and continued on, stepping over a fallen branch in the trail. Alex stretched out his shoulders, and yawned a bit.

CRACK!

Alex turned again. He blinked a few times; a shadow had flickered in his eye. Alex looked down at the branch he'd stepped over. It was broken in the center. Alex swallowed uneasily. "Whose there? Is someone there?" Alex called out. His voice echoed across the frozen forest, but no answer came. Alex turned again, and walked into a clearing.

To his right: a line of evergreen trees. To his left: a shack made of wood and a child-sized lamp. Up ahead: someone was coming down the trail, towards him.

Alex panicked, and ran to the shack before he could be seen by the approaching figure. Alex jumped over the front counter of the shack, hiding behind the other side.

"Sans! Sans, where are you? Stop hiding, Sans! You need to recalibrate your puzzles! Ugh, of course. He's probably out on another 'break'. I swear. he gets lazier and lazier every single day."

Alex adjusted how he was kneeling, and slowly looked over the counter. Out on the trail stood a tall skeleton wearing shorts, boots, and some kind of shell armor over its arms and chest, along with a long red scarf around its neck. It placed its fists on his hips, still looking left and right down the trail. Alex watched him carefully, and waited until it was gone. Once the skeleton had left, Alex came back out, and looked down where it had walked.

"Hey."

Alex turned around. He found a smaller skeleton standing behind him. It's head went up to about Alex's collar bones. It had on a blue hoodie, a white shirt, black shorts, and white bathroom slippers. Alex nodded.

"Sup?" Alex held out his hand, but the skeleton did not hold out its hand to him. "I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton." He introduced himself. Alex awkwardly put his hand back in his coat pocket. "I'm Alex. Nice to meet ya." "Alex, huh? Nice name." "Yours too, I guess. Thanks." Alex said.

"So, Alex, what brings ya to Snowdin Forest?" Sans asked. "I'm lookin to get home. The surface." Alex answered. "Ah. You're lookin to get through the barrier too, huh?" "Barrier?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yup. The barrier's the way back to the surface for you, buddy. It's over at Asgore's castle. He's the king of all us monsters here in the Underground. You wanna get to the surface? You're gonna have to go through him." Sans explained. "Ah." Alex nodded, contemplating this. "Is it far from here?" Sans nodded. "It sure ain't close." "Right. And Asgore? What about him?" Alex asked.

"Well, in case you haven't been told before, Asgore's got this plan to get us all up on the surface again. See, a long time ago, the humans sealed us down here after this big war, and the barrier they created is what's stopping us from getting up there again. It takes 7 human SOULs to open it, and so far, he's got 6. He almost had 7, but I think you already know what happened with the last human that fell down here." Alex nodded. "Yeah..."

"Oh! There was another skeleton here a second ago, looking for you." Alex exclaimed, remembering suddenly. "Right. That was my younger brother Papyrus. He's a human hunting fanatic by the way. He's harmless though, even if he tries not to be..." Sans said with a chuckle.

"... I, however, am not as nice as he is." Sans added. His left eye suddenly began to glow blue. Alex backed away slowly. "Woah man, I don't want any trouble, okay?" "Uhuh. You watch yourself around my brother, got it? I will personally hand to you the worst time of your life if you harm him." Sans threatened. "I won't." Alex said firmly.

Sans calmed, and his eye disappeared. "Good. I'm choosing to trust you. Don't give me reason to regret it." "Of course." Alex said, holding his hand out. "We've already gone through introductions, kid." Sans said, eyeing his hand. "I know. This is a trust handshake. An assurance that I mean what I say." Sans shrugged and shook his hand. "It's also a 'thank you' for the helpful heads up." Alex added.

Sans shrugged. "No problem. I'll be up ahead with my brother. See you then." Sans said, going down the trail, back the way Alex had come. Alex looked to where Papyrus had gone, then called back to Sans. "Yo, that's the wrong way." "I know a shortcut." Sans called back. Alex turned and started down the trail. He sneaked a glance behind him, but Sans was already gone...

This was it. After an encounter with a glowing golden star, which, according to his Stats, had 'filled him with Determination', Alex was coming up the path and approaching Sans and Papyrus. He saw them from down the path, talking, and he saw no way around them. He took a deep breath and approached them. They turned towards Alex.

"Sans! Oh. My. God. Is that...is that a human?" Papyrus asked excitedly. Sans shrugged. "I think the cold's gettin to ya, bro." "No! There's one right there! See? Right in front of that rock!" Papyrus pointed at Alex, who was calmly waiting. Sans nodded. "Hey, look at that. You're right. Nice job spottin him bro. He would've snuck right under my nose." Sans complimented. "We don't have noses, Sans." Papyrus pointed out. "Exactly." Sans said with a wink.

Papyrus stepped forward, standing firmly. "Human! You shall not pass this area! I, the Great Papyrus, will stop you! I will then proceed to capture you! I will take you to the capitol! Then, I will get all of the things that I utterly deserve, the most prominent of which is membership into the Royal Guard, and the respect of Undyne! But I digress. Continue, human, if you dare." Papyrus ran off, cackling confidently.

Alex shrugged awkwardly, wondering where the hell Papyrus was going. He walked to Sans, who was waiting for him. "Okay then?" Alex said. "He's excited, somehow. Nice job playing the part for him." Sans said, giving him a thumbs up. "I did absolutely nothing." Alex pointed out. "Exactly! It was perfect. That's why I do it." Sans chuckled. Alex rolled his eyes, slightly amused. He continued after Papyrus. He looked back at Sans; he still had one more thing to say to him:

"I can't humor him forever."

Alex walked into a clearing, where Papyrus was waiting for him. Papyrus stood next to a clearing in the snow, with giant snow piles and blue X's on the floor. He had been idly standing there, humming to himself and tapping his foot as he waited. Once Alex came into his view, his posture straightened.

"Ah! Human! At last, you arrive! Took you long enough." Papyrus said as Alex approached the clearing of X's. "Yeah. My name's Alex by the way. You can call me Alex." "Very well." Papyrus nodded. "Whatcha got for me here?" Alex asked.

"Nyeheheh! Funny you should ask, hu- I mean Alex. This is a dastardly puzzle of my very own design. Its purpose? Why, to stump you of course! And trap you! Nyeheheh!" Papyrus cackled. "But, unfortunately, there is a slight problem. You see, heh, you were taking a long time, so I decided to improve this puzzle by making it look more like my face. But, now, the solution is different!" Papyrus explained.

Alex hummed in thought, walking around the puzzle. "Hey, Papyrus, can you give me a boost?" Alex asked. "You mean like a boost of confidence? Would 'I'm rooting for you, kid' suffice? My brother used to say that to me." "No, I mean lift me onto your shoulder so I can get a better view of the puzzle." Alex elaborated. "Oh! Right!"

Papyrus walked to Alex and carefully lifted him onto his shoulders. He stumbled a bit as Alex's full weight fell on him, but he stayed upright. "Woah! You're stronger than you look." Alex said once he had regained his own balance. "Of course I am! Just look at my biceps. I'm not all skin and bones you know. Nyeheheh!" Alex chuckled, then studied the puzzle for a bit. "Hmm...no...maybe...nah...let's try that. Okay, I think I got it!"

Alex rolled off of Papyrus' shoulders in a backflip, behind him, landing on his feet. Alex stood and clapped eagerly. "Alright." Alex went through the puzzle, skipping around a space but never jumping over. As he stepped on the X's, they changed to red O's. Once they were all red O's, Papyrus pressed a switch, and the puzzle was solved. Papyrus clapped a few times.

"Excellent! You solved it so quickly! And you didn't even require my assistance. You must have a keen mind when it comes to puzzle something." Papyrus observed. Alex nodded. "Yeah, growing up, I loved playing puzzle games and solving mazes." "Hey, me too! That's cool, and you're pretty cool too, though not quite as cool as myself.

"However! The next puzzle won't be as easy this one. Let's hope you are prepared for the danger up ahead as you take on this next puzzle. I wonder if you'll be able to solve it. Nyeheheh!" Papyrus quickly cackled away. It was then that Alex noticed Sans waiting for him on the other side of the puzzle. Alex walked to him.

"Not bad. My brother seems to connect with you more than the other humans. The last one wasn't much of a talker." Sans said. "Yeah. He's cool, I suppose. A little odd." "Aren't most cool people? Besides, he's just enthusiastic, what with his dream and all. Me, I'm just the complacent with the way things are." Sans rambled. "Why complacent?" Alex asked. Sans simply shrugged. "Better get going. There's more in store up ahead." Sans said.

Alex nodded and continued down the path...