Alright, out of the Ruins and into the rest of the underground! Before you begin, this chapter is somewhat long and has an optional theme called "Tears in the rain" [Undertale concepted Neutral Run]. When you see a (1) that's where it plays, and when you see (0), that's where it stops. Hope you enjoy!

Bittersweet Wintry Mix

Skyler steps foot into the cold, damp, winter wonderland known as Snowdin forest. The wind is freezing and relentless, blowing the strings on his hoodie and the hood part itself to the left side of his body. He wasn't expecting such a sudden change in both temperature and climate, and he shivers a little as he looks up, feeling a cold but gentle rain pelt his face along with an even colder feeling snow mixing into it, landing gently on his face and quickly melting from his body heat. He frowns, confused at this interesting phenomena since he is underground and it should be physically impossible for it to precipitate in any form unless there's some sort of machine that keeps the whole forest in the cold and sometimes creates snowstorms. He feels it's best to not question it otherwise he might be here all day and with both hands, grabs and pulls up the hood of his hoodie over his head. This messes his hair up and causes it to cover both his eyes partially, but he pushes it back and nestles it perfectly inside the hood to keep it out of his way even though part of it is close to covering half of his right eye most of the time. With each breath he takes, a foggy cloud puffs itself into existence a few inches from his mouth. The temperature outside is close to or is exactly 32 degrees Fahrenheit, which explains why he can see his breath alongside the wintry mix, and this cold runs up and down his spine despite the fact that his hoodie is quite comfy, somewhat oversized, and should easily retain his body heat to keep him warm. Perhaps it isn't the cold of Snowdin forest that's getting to him. A grim thought comes to mind, making him shudder slightly in response, he really doesn't want to think about it, but his own mind is subconsciously fixated on it. To try and move his mind away from said thought, he starts walking along the path, tall leafless trees lining both sides for what looks like miles on end, casting equally tall yet deeply intimidating shadows across the land. He'd surely get lost in there if he deviated from the path to explore since everything would end up looking the same. His shoes make a distinct crunching sound as they press into the slushy snow below him. Little flakes land on his green fleece hoodie, sticking to it as if it was a magnet of sorts and not melting upon contact unlike before with his face. An hour or so out in these conditions would soak him from head to toe since it's raining as well. In the distance, there's an interesting looking structure that blocks the way. He can just make it out through the fog and visible wind whipping the snow and rain around. The structure appears to be made of wood and from the distance he's at, it might not be possible for him to get past it. He does have the toy knife though, and if he's lucky, he might be able to use it to cut the structure down, he might not even need to use it and can simply break it with his two hands. He quickly reaches into the left front pocket of his hoodie with his left hand and partially pulls out the knife. It still has a bit of dust on the blade from his fight with Toriel. Once again he shudders at the thought of what he did, he doesn't believe he killed her but the dust on the knife is proof enough that he did. Without any warning, the sound of a stick snapping behind him grabs his attention. He whips the knife out and turns around, ready to fight if need be but hoping heavily in his heart that he wouldn't have to fight anyone again. He stands still and listens closely for any movement but doesn't hear anything and can't see anyone or anything that could've broken the stick. Perhaps it was a monster deep in the woods that broke it and the sound echoed all the way over to where he is. His nerves are touched and he's on alert for anything now as he slowly turns around and puts the knife back in the left front pocket of his hoodie, continuing to walk closer to the wooden structure. He walks for a few more seconds before the sound of someone else walking behind him makes him stop dead in his tracks. Unlike his footsteps which were somewhat light, these footsteps are heavy and loud, making him believe that the person or monster they belong to is big and heavy as well. A gut wrenching feeling of fear glues him in place despite the fact that he doesn't want to stick around and find out who or what those footsteps belong to, but his fear says otherwise.

The footsteps get closer and closer and closer… stopping right behind him with a shadow of someone BIG falling over his entire body, bigger than his own shadow even. He dares not turn around to see what it is, holding his breath in and silently gulping down saliva, hoping that whatever it is will simply go away and leave him alone, but this isn't the case. The being behind him takes an audible deep breath in, holds it for 3 seconds, and exhales long and hard before speaking. His tone is low and gruff, almost monotone but not quite. It also carries a hint of sadness in it alongside a bit of depression. "kid… i'm not sure what to say to you at all... but i know one thing to ask for certain." He reaches out with his right hand and places it on Skyler's right shoulder, giving an extremely firm and strong grip that shocks him. His fear intensifies as the corner of his eyes reveal this person's hand to not have any skin on it at all. "why?" His voice nearly breaks upon saying this. "why…? i thought we were friends. i gave you everything, WE gave you everything to see you smile, and i know you smiled at some point… but why?" What he's saying is not only confusing to him, but it makes no sense. He's too afraid to respond so he stays silent. This person's grip somehow intensifies, Skyler's right shoulder feels like it might pop off and it hurts him quite badly but his fear stops him from flinching in response. "... nothing to say huh? i figured." His grip loosens up and he drops his hand off his shoulder. "heh heh… to think we were friends… to think any of us were your friend and this is how you repay us? i think i finally got it." he starts to laugh, but this laugh isn't the average everyday laugh of happiness or joy, it is the laugh of someone on the verge of breaking. This laugh is sarcastic, a response to pure disappointment. He stops, his voice somehow getting deeper. "you've been getting better at making jokes. do you remember the joke where you promised to free everyone? i have to say, i think that one's my favorite out of all the others." Skyler finally turns around, pushing his fear back, quite determined to see just exactly who this is that's slandering him for some promise he never made to them. Standing roughly 10 feet in front of him is a skeleton about 1 foot shorter than him wearing a zipped up solid blue hoodie, black shorts with a vertical white stripe on the side, and blue shoes. His eyes are pitch black and have a small white pupil in the center, he has a wide smile despite the fact he sounded disappointed and upset with him, and he has both of his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie. He's much scarier than he appears and half of his face is covered in a dark shadow, giving him an even more intimidating look. The skeleton's head tilts up slightly in response to him turning around, his voice returning to normal. "heh… you've finally got the guts to look me straight in the eye? well, i won't judge you for giving me the cold shoulder verbally, but at the very least you're looking at me." he winks with his left eye. "let's just get straight to the point." He closes both eyes. "i've got a question for ya, and i want you to answer me even if you think your answer is terrible." he waits for a moment and then asks his question. "are you proud of what you've done?" His eyes open and his pupils are completely black as he speaks. Skyler wants to speak, he really does so he can tell this skeleton that he's misunderstanding him and he's not proud of what he's done, but he's afraid. He doesn't utter a single sound, the only thing heard between these two is the sound of rain and snow mixed together rapidly pelting the ground and trees around them, slowly picking up in intensity. Both his and the skeleton's clothes are starting to get damp, the skeleton's clothes significantly more damp than Skyler's most likely due to being out in the forest for much longer than he has. The skeleton sighs. "silent treatment again… alright, that's hilarious." he closes his eyes once again. "well, here's a better question, and perhaps you can answer this one…" He opens both of his eyes and his left eye glows a blue and yellow hue while his right is pitch black, and his voice gets deep again. "have you come back to make the hell we're living in become even worse?" He stands there, scared out of his mind. He doesn't know what this skeleton is talking about. Jokes, freeing everyone, making hell worse, none of it makes sense. They chuckle a couple of times at his silence before speaking again. "well… this is one reason why i dislike making promises that i can't keep." his eyes gain their pupils back and he tenses himself up slightly. "you know, it's quite hard to distinguish tears from the rain when they're falling together." he sighs, closing his eyes. "today isn't a great day. the sky's grey, flowers are soaked, and birds are drying their feathers out. on days such as these, when the rain falls…" for a moment, the entire world goes pitch black before coming back with the skeleton's eyes open and completely pitch black. "SO WILL YOUR TEARS." Without warning, he quickly takes his left hand out of his pocket and into the air pointed at him, causing 10 bones to come flying out from behind them at a rapid pace towards him, barely grazing his skin as he attempts to dodge it by jumping out of the way. This is immediately followed up with more bones in a roller coaster pattern that he isn't able to completely dodge as he gets tripped up by them, though it doesn't hurt him too much. The skeleton then raises his left hand into the air above his head, causing his left eye to glow a bright blue, using a strange power to grab him and move him into the air where he swings it down towards the ground, slams him, and pins him there. He follows this up by taking his right hand out of his pocket and lifting it up towards the sky and 8 strange creepy smiling skulls that resemble dog heads known as 'Gaster Blasters' appear in the air around him. He chuckles before speaking. "now, kid, give me one good reason… one really solid reason why i shouldn't kill you right here and now." Skyler slowly lifts his head up against the strange gravitational pull attack the skeleton is using on him and his pained green eyes open up to see what might be his last living moments.

In a last ditch effort, he tries to reason with him, his tone pained and desperate. "P-please don't… I-I don't know who you are or what you're talking about… I-I'm sorry that someone broke their promise to you, but that person… they're not me..."

The skeleton doesn't realize that the person they're attacking isn't the same person he was talking about and simply shrugs it off. He snaps his fingers with his right hand and the 8 Gaster blaster mouths open up to charge up a laser beam attack. Skyler doesn't want to die here and he puts his best effort forward to roll out of the way of this and the gravitational attack at the last possible second, a bit of snow and water getting on his clothes. A bunch of blue lasers blast out of their mouths and melt a hole into the concrete, frozen ground. If he stayed there, he surely would've been killed. Against his own wishes, he pulls out the toy knife from the front left pocket of his hoodie and grips the handle tightly with his left hand while standing up. This time, he plans on using it for defensive purposes, not making a single move towards the skeleton on the off-chance he might accidentally strike him down. They shrug, holding up both hands in the process again. "i'm surprised that you got out of that… then again…" his eyes go black. "that wasn't my strongest attack." he puts his hands back in his pockets and his eyes return to normal. (1) Skyler flips the knife around in his left hand quickly a couple of times, holding it in a non-threatening, defensive stance to show that he means no harm to the skeleton. He wishes he knew the intentions behind why he decided to attack him, but he can only attribute it to someone that might look a bit like him from the past. He doesn't move and waits patiently for the next attack they use. The wintry mix has rapidly picked up in intensity during this short period of time to the point where it's impossible to see the door to the Ruins from where he is now, and the only sound besides his own breathing he can hear is the aggressive sound of ice cold rain and half melted snow pelting the ground and trees furiously.

"you know, i really thought that you'd be the one. i was rooting for ya, kid. i did my best to protect you from anyone and prevent an untimely demise from being bestowed upon you." he says while shooting more bones at him, albeit, they move a bit slower than the ones he used in his first attack. Skyler uses the toy knife to block and divert their course by slashing at them. A little 'tink' sound is heard as the plastic blade makes contact with the bones, who can just taste the glory of their real, deadly counterpart, yet falling short due to being made of plastic. The skeleton raises his head up slightly in response, he looks a bit surprised at the utilization of the weapon. He manages to overcome this surprise, take his right hand out of his pocket, and raises it up to point the palm at him, sending a dark blue bone at the boy. He tries to strike this bone down but it goes right through the knife and hits him in the chest, bouncing off of him from the impact. It was a very light hit that stings with pain more than it did actual harm. He rubs his chest with his right hand in the spot the bone hit him. He can walk it off and stand his ground as it didn't really do anything to him. The skeleton looks over at the trees on the left. "you had everyone's hopes and dreams in your hands. we were all rooting for you. i just don't get it… how could you have died to the king? you made friends with my brother, survived against the spear of justice, overcame the rising star of the underground, donated tons of gold to a baker, and even helped the royal scientist face their mistakes to become a better person. you faced trials that were… well… let's just say they required more effort than it takes to get out of bed in the morning." he lets out a disappointed sigh before looking back at him. "guess we should've put more faith in our own before we put faith in YOU." he raises his right hand into the sky again, summoning another gaster blaster. He doesn't snap his fingers this time and the blaster automatically charges itself up. Skyler is able to easily avoid it as the attack's charge time is somewhat long and the blue laser misses its mark by a mile, a bright blue hue being cast across the land and on the boy's clothes. The skeleton notices something about him in this moment, his eyes momentarily going black, not in an intimidating way, but more of a shocked way. This is momentary as he speaks again. "you're the type of person to manipulate others, but strangely, not use them for your own gain. letting us believe that you'd save us from this wretched place... i'd say this is worse than being a murderer, but honestly… to hell with that for all i care. if someone killed us all, at LEAST we'd be freed from this prison under the surface." he swings both of his hands forwards and a whole bunch of dark blue bones fly at him. This time, he tries to move out of their way, but the way the skeleton launched them causes his leg to clip one of them and it trips him and he falls onto the ground. Again, it was an extremely light hit that caused more pain in the form of a stinging sensation as opposed to any real harm. He quickly stands up off the ground, the front of his hoodie now soaked with ice cold water. His open eyes reflect a strange empathy for the skeleton, he feels their pain and wishes for them to stop but doesn't want to say something that might anger them further. He continues to hold his defensive stance. The skeleton's eyes close. As he talks, his voice hints a bit of fatigue within. "all i know, is that if i allow the same mistake to happen again, we'll simply continue to be trapped down here for all eternity. i can't afford not to do something for once. one more is all that's needed, one more and we'll all be free. it doesn't have to be this way, but you chose to die." their eyes open up again, sadness contained within. "it pains me to have to do this to such an old friend, but hey… at least we all won't be fools to a false prophet again. as much as i hate doing any sort of work, sometimes, you've just gotta do it and get it over with yourself." He raises his right hand into the air and 3 gaster blasters appear. They all charge up at slightly different times and this allows him to run away from their lasers with ease. 3 more appear and the same thing goes down. He then swings his right hand forward and more bones fly at him. He cuts them down with the toy knife and then a massive gaster blaster appears and fires off almost instantly. He manages to dive and roll to the right to avoid the attack, his entire body now being covered in snow and ice cold water. During this roll, his hood slips off of his head, exposing his face to the elements. He doesn't bother putting it back on as he's too focused on not dying to the attacks of this monster. They look over at him and notice he's starting to look very tired. He speaks, even his voice is sounding tired now. "ugh… with that being said… you're… uh… very good at swinging that thing around, pushing my bone attack away to defend yourself. i don't know where you learned THAT from, but uhh, i'm getting really tired of fighting… if you just stop defending and let me beat you, you'll make my job a whole lot easier." he raises his left hand and uses the gravitational attack again. He raises him into the sky and a bunch of bones rapidly fly at him but he's able to cut them down. He's sent flying even higher over the trees and more bones come at him from all angles and he continues to cut them down as they come along. He's then sent careening into the ground in front of him, slamming him into a slightly deep pile of snow and following it up with a blue bone being sent flying at him. He picks his head up out of the snow and sees it coming but does nothing and it passes right through him, leaving him unharmed. He stands up out of the snow, ready to defend against whatever is next. The skeleton slowly puts his left hand back in his pocket, his movements carrying a strong, fatigued weariness to them. "if you keep defending like this… i'll be forced to use my special attack. doesn't sound fun, huh? yeah… i suggest giving up before i use it." He raises his right hand up into the air slowly and more gaster blasters appear. As usual, he simply runs away from them and avoids them with ease. He huffs and pants a little before speaking, his voice very tired sounding now. "well, here goes nothing… defend against THIS and i'll show you my special attack." He raises his right hand into the air and a big gaster blaster appears. It doesn't fire off instantly and he swings his right hand forward, a bunch of bones following suit. He cuts them down and jumps out of the way of the blaster beam, barely avoiding it and feeling the heat from the blue laser attack. He gets picked up by the gravitational attack and sent flying into the air where a whole bunch of gaster blasters await him. He looks down and tries to force himself to fall down and manages to move himself away far enough from the blasters so their attack misses. He gets flung back into the ground and a whole bunch of blue and normal bones fly at him. He lands on his feet and prepares to strike down the normal bones and stand still to allow the blue ones to pass through him. This part of the attack takes a whole minute to finish and at his feet lay enough bones to build a small bridge. For the final part of this attack, the skeleton summons more gaster blasters in a circle around him. There's gaps in the direction of the blasters' attacks and he uses these to avoid them. 16 seconds of this attack and the skeleton falls to his knees, panting and completely out of breath (0). Skyler puts his knife back in his front left hoodie pocket and cautiously approaches them. They're in no shape to attack anymore and he's managed to survive their attacks. The skeleton slowly picks their head up to look at him as he approaches. He speaks, his voice tired and breathy. "so… guess that's it, huh? well… here's my special attack…" nothing happens which doesn't phase him at all ironically. "yep… i've got nothing… and it's not going to be anything." He exhales deeply and drops his head, prepared for a finishing blow to kill him and remove him from this mortal coil.

Skyler finally finds the courage to speak up. "You know, I feel bad for what you've gone through. Whoever that person was that promised you and a bunch of other monsters that they'd free you from here must've been someone you really trusted. I know what it's like to be betrayed, people back at home did that to me too." he walks right up to them and stands over the skeleton. "I'm not going to hurt you, it won't make anything better, nor will it fix what's happened to you and everyone else. Here…" He extends his left hand out for him to grab onto. He looks up at him, weary and confused. He thought he was about to get struck down but instead, even after all he did to him, he's being spared. It is also at this moment that he realizes that this human boy isn't the person he thought they were. He had completely mistaken them for someone else and feels a bit silly for doing so. He reaches out with their left hand and grabs hold, allowing him to be pulled up. "Even if you did attack me, I forgive you.." Looking into their stunning, vivid green eyes, they realize just exactly who they're dealing with, not someone who broke their promise to him, but someone whose heart is in the right place.

Things are playing out differently now. I bet you all know who this skeleton is, but the true intentions for why he attacked are a story for later on... I also know someone is going to comment about a major lack of proper capitalization, but that's actually done on purpose. Sorry for not uploading last week btw, I was busy with other stuff and couldn't do anything. Expect another chapter this week like I promised. ANYWAY, hope you enjoyed and I'll seeya in the next chapter!