I Know Your Name

by ShiningwingX

Seeking shelter from a storm, a blind child descends into a realm of monsters. A chance meeting grants him a companion in the form of a ghostly girl garbed in the colors of flowers. Yet, what seems but a simple adventure becomes much more as memories of dark pasts claw their way to the surface. Lives forsaken, a name unspoken... what does this new future hold in store?

26. Chapter 26

Pre-Chapter Notes: Hello again everyone! Here's another chapter for this story, and it is a long one. We hope you're all still holding strong amidst everything going on the world lately and that this might help ease that burden a little. Not much else to say in that regard, so let's not waste anymore time.

Please enjoy the chapter. :)

---

The Snowdin Library wasn't exactly a fount of learning. The small building with its simple decor, handful of bookshelves, and misspelled sign was rather lacking in ways to really facilitate the accumulation of knowledge. Organization too, did not seem as high a priority for those who maintained it, with the reptilian curator seeming more interested in making sure everything fit on the crowded shelves rather than the practicality of the set-up. This often resulted in multiple volumes of the same work winding up on complete opposite sides of one another, making it a chore to find the next entry in whatever series one was reading at the time. Without a doubt there would be better sources elsewhere… the Capital for instance most likely held a number of bookstores and archives with even more options for your typical bibliophile.

Still, it was the best (and only) place to even find books in this region of the Underground. There was a surprising level of variety crammed onto those few shelves too, and if one looked hard enough they may find something truly unique hidden amongst the creased pages and bent leather bindings.

After their brief jaunt to Twinrocks alongside Undyne, Frisk and Lily had come to realize that there was still a lot about the Underground that they still didn't know, despite having lived here for a little over a month by this point. That's why they were back here now, taking in what they could while everyone else was busy working (or slacking off somewhere, as was the more likely case for certain members. Then again, one could never be sure). Lily hovered in the air next to her friend who himself was seated at a table near the corner of the room with a book opened in front of him.

"'Ebott Starstone is a material that has seen widespread use throughout the Dreemurr Kingdom.'" She read the text on the page they were reading. "Named for its supposed resemblance to the stars shining above the surface, these gems are seen as sacred by many peoples of the Underground. Used primarily in crafting and artistry-' no surprise there '-certain varieties are known to be a potent focus for magical items. Though exact details are not well documented, it is believed that the CORE, the Underground's main source of power, utilizes these stones in some capacity.'"

"Huh. That's pretty neat." Frisk said. "I'm surprised they can do all of that."

"I guess they're not just pretty stones, huh…?" Lily added thoughtfully. "The CORE is that big glowing thing we saw in Hotland, right?"

"Yeah." Frisk answered, suppressing a shudder at the memory of that place. "I wonder how many Starstones it uses? Do you think they ever run out of power?"

"I wonder..." Lily muttered. "The book doesn't say, so either they forgot to add that part or they just don't. I guess I see why they're so important to the monsters now though."

"THERE YOU ARE!" The sudden shout, coupled with a loud slam against the wall of the library caused Frisk to nearly fall out of his chair.

The children turned sharply in the direction of the noise, wondering for a split second if some ambitious monster discovered who and what they were and had managed to track them down. They breathed a collective sigh of relief when their minds caught up to their instincts and realized that the source of the commotion was merely Undyne standing in the doorway of the Library. Looking around the room, Lily noticed that the other patrons as well as the librarian himself had barely moved from their own spots. Even the newspaper crew continued to write out their articles with hardly a break in their pace, stopping only to briefly look up at the new arrival.

"Please shut the door, Captain." The librarian said, adjusting his spectacles. "You're letting the cold air in."

"Sorry, I'll only be a few seconds." Undyne replied. "I just came here to get these two punks!"

In just three steps, she crossed the span of the room and quickly scooped Frisk up under her arm.

"Whwhawhoa! Umm, hi Undyne?" He cried before craning his neck upward as much as he could in the warrior's general direction. "What's up?"

Lily giggled a little watching as Frisk's arms and legs dangled in the air without purchase, his body held aloft by nothing save Undyne's arm tucked around his middle. It was a position that was quickly becoming quite familiar in her interactions with the boy. Of course, that didn't make it any less funny to see the look of confusion on Frisk's face.

"What's 'up' is that we're going out for some special training today!" The captain declared, pumping the fist of her free hand. "You guys've sat around enough. It's about time I make you work up a sweat now that I know you've been holding out on me!"

"H-holding out?" Frisk was confused. "What are you talking about, Undyne?"

"Your magic, Punk!" Undyne finally got to the point. "Ever since we talked to Alphy about it back at Twinrocks, I've been itching to find out what you can do. You better be ready to give a hundred-and-ten percent, because by the time we're done, I want to see something AWESOME!"

"Wh- wait, Undyne!" Frisk protested as the strong fish began to carry him toward the still-open door of the library. "D-don't you still need to patrol Waterfall today?!"

"Got some other dorks to do it." Undyne said simply. "I'm free for the whole day now!"

Lily held a hand over her mouth as she watched Frisk staring 'helplessly' at her from his position under Undyne's arm. The look on his face practically screamed 'do something!' which only made the situation even funnier in her opinion. Kicking her legs into the open air, the spirit raised a hand and gave a little wave in her friend's direction.

"Bye, Frisk…" She said in a sing-song voice as Undyne carried him by.

"What?! Nuh uh!" Frisk swiftly retorted.

His hand quickly shot out and managed to seize one of her legs. The girl made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a yelp as she was suddenly pulled from her reclining position and dragged along behind them. The laughter she'd been holding back immediately spilled out as she playfully struggled to free herself.

"Hey, l-let me go!" She demanded, her arms and one free leg flailing in the air.

"No way!" Frisk denied, also smiling now that the initial shock had worn off. "If I gotta do this, so do you!"

"Stop, I don't wanna!" the girl continued to 'fruitlessly' try to pull her leg away.

Honestly, she could have freed herself at any time. Frisk wasn't the strongest, physically and even then he wasn't exactly trying that hard. This fact wasn't lost on either of the children, but they were enjoying themselves too much to really care about that.

"Fufufufu!" Undyne's characteristic laugh added itself to their banter. "That's the spirit! Training's a hell of a lot more fun with more people!"

"Yup, so you're coming with, like it or not!" Frisk declared.

"Noooooo!" Lily's playful lament dragged on as she was dragged literally kicking and screaming from the once-quiet library and out through the frigid air of Snowdin proper.

"And she still didn't shut the door…" The librarian sighed, before continuing about his business.

---

"So, before we get started…" Undyne began. "How much do you punks actually know about how magic works?"

Undyne had managed to ferry the two children to the edge of town. Specifically, the strip of snow-covered plains that served as the border between Snowdin and Waterfall. Usually, the area was covered in a thick fog caused by the mingling air of the two areas, which made it rather difficult to see. Today however, it was surprisingly clear. What mist there was clung to the ground around their feet, allowing the multi-colored light of the stones above to reflect off the frozen surface of a distant lake. Lily would have preferred to stop and enjoy the scenery for a little while, but Undyne had insisted on starting immediately.

Sans and Papyrus were already there by the time they arrived, the former looking more disheveled than usual, as if he'd just been woken up from a nap. The latter on the other hand was wearing a very eager grin as he watched his Captain educating his two friends. Lily had since taken her usual spot within Frisk's SOUL. As much as she enjoyed being able to be seen by others in her normal form, communication was still a bit of an issue. It would be a while yet before she could communicate proficiently with hand motions alone, so this was simply easier for the time being.

"Well…" Frisk began. "There's the stuff you and Alphys told us the other day. It's normally white, but different colors have different properties. Like how Cyan magic can't affect you if you don't move."

"I think it also comes from SOULs too, doesn't it?" Lily asked. "So it's probably different for Humans than it is for Monsters, since their SOULs are different."

"Sort of. Yeah, SOULs are the main thing people draw on when casting spells but it's not the only way. Magic exists all over the place, so if you know how, you can draw it from pretty much anything. Really, it's probably closer to say that SOULs come from magic instead of the other way around." Undyne explained. "You are right about the other thing though. I don't know how it works for Humans but that's what we're here to find out!"

"What about me?" Lily asked.

"Fufufu… I was waiting for you to ask. Since you've already scratched the surface a little, we're gonna start building on that right now."

"Really?!" Lily was actually rather excited about that. "Okay, what do I do first?"

"Well, that should be obvious enough. Call up your bullets." Undyne said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"But… I don't know how to do that. I've only used magic a couple of times, and it was always when we were in danger." The girl couldn't help but cast a subtle glance in Sans' direction as she said that, something that didn't go unnoticed to the Skeleton. "I've never done it intentionally before."

"But that's the thing. It's less about 'knowing' how to do it and more about just doing it." Undyne insisted.

"Uhh… what?" Lily blinked in confusion. How was she supposed to do something without knowing how to?

"Okay, sounds like we're missing a few things here…" Undyne said, finally realizing what was going on and backing up a little. "See, Monster magic is instinctive. I can't tell you exactly how to do it, because just like everything else, it's different from person to person. It's always there though, you just have to find it."

"But how do I do that?" The specter asked, her excitement faltering in the wake of Undyne's rather unhelpful direction. "How do I find something if I don't even know what I'm looking for?"

The Captain of the Royal Guard sighed, and thought for a few moments. As hard as it was for Lily to understand, it was just as hard for her to explain it. This wasn't usually something that really 'needed' explaining most of the time. For monsters, magic was as natural as breathing. Each monster was born with the intrinsic knowledge necessary to perform magic, even if they needed to be taught to control it. This though… this was an attempt to artificially foster in one being what was second nature to another. It was like trying to take a fish out of the water, throwing it into the air, and hoping it would suddenly sprout wings and fly like a bird. Not the easiest thing to do.

Still, if someone had taught her how to do it before, then it had to be possible. Undyne just needed to figure out the right way to go about it. What if… maybe that would work? She'd never tried it before… never really had a need to. But this seemed like just the kind of scenario where it would be useful.

"Think of it like… a voice. A little voice speaking inside you." Undyne tried again, doing as she'd been taught and trying to phrase the process in a way her new student might better understand.

"A voice?" That was something the girl could understand. She and Frisk had both had experience with that kind of thing due to their connection.

"Right!" Undyne grinned, realizing that she seemed to be on the right track. "The voice is quiet, right? Like, so quiet that you have to really focus to hear what it's saying. Do that. Listen to it and then do what it tells you to do. That's how monster magic works. Since you've done it before, it shouldn't be that hard to find it again."

"Alright… I'll give it a try." Lily said, doing her best to clear the frustration that had been building in her mind.

"You got this." Frisk said with quiet confidence.

The girl nodded, grateful for the encouragement. She breathed slowly through her friend's nose, letting the brisk air fill her borrowed lungs and cool her building frustration. Like that, she attempted to clear her mind off of everything aside from listening for that 'voice'. The distant sounds of the town faded into the background along with the quietly whispering flurry around them. It felt peaceful… like she was far away from everything. And yet at the same time she didn't feel alone, as if all she had to do was take a single step and suddenly she would find a familiar face.

It was strange, really… these lessons, along with her feelings all felt so familiar. She followed that familiarity through the quiet of her spirit, listening. And then she heard it, calling out softly from within her being.

A voice… and a memory.

---

"I can't do it, teacher… I am not a monster. I can't do magic like Mom and Dad… or Rei. I am human, just like the people who trapped everyone here. Just like..." The voice hesitated. It was so much like her own, yet somehow different. "I'll never be like them."

"Yes ye can, and ye will, little'un." Another voice - another familiar voice - responded.

"How do you know?" She asked.

"I can hear it in ya…" The second voice responded sagaciously. "That teeny tiny voice wants to talk ta you. You can hear it too, can'tcha? So open those ears a yers and actually listen to what it's sayin'."

He was right. She could hear it. It was quiet, almost unnoticeable… but she knew it was there. There was no false encouragement in her teacher's voice. He believed in her… they all did. In that case...

"Okay…" She responded. "One more try."

"Wahahah! That's tha ticket!"

---

Lily gasped, eyes that she hadn't even realized she closed springing open as the memory faded from her sight.

"G-Gerson…?" She mumbled in confusion.

That was him. Wasn't it?

"Hell, yeah! See, what did I tell you?!" Undyne's voice called from along the way. "Man, I wasn't sure if that would work. I'll have to thank Sensei when I see him again..."

Sensei?

The girl blinked a few times in confusion before her eyes and thoughts were distracted by a strange feeling within her hands. Again, she had no idea when they'd even moved, but there hovering just above her palm was a formless mass of white magic. It was small, only about the size of a marble and had no real shape to speak of but it was visible, it was stable… it was there.

"YOU DID IT!" Papyrus cried out as well. "WELL DONE, LILY! I KNEW YOU COULD!"

"I… did." Lily said, mesmerized both by the little pearl of magic in her hand, along with the memory that came with it.

"heh." Sans chuckled, placing his hands in his pockets. "little puny if ya ask me."

"HOW RUDE, SANS!" The taller skeleton scolded his brother. "YOU SHOULD BE PROUD OF OUR FRIEND FOR THIS ACCOMPLISHMENT."

"i am, can't ya tell?" the older brother countered, still sporting the same grin he always wore.

"NO, I CAN'T BECAUSE YOUR FACE NEVER CHANGES! I SWEAR, YOU ARE TOO LAZY TO EVEN CHANGE YOUR EXPRESSION!" Papyrus shot back, though he didn't sound particularly annoyed by it.

"You okay, Lily?" Frisk asked her.

"Yeah… yeah, I think so." The girl said, still sounding a little shaken, but not in a bad way.

"You said 'Gerson'..." The boy pointed out. "Was it another memory?"

Lily didn't respond for a moment, still shaken by what she'd seen, brief though it might have been. Why was Gerson of all people in her memories? She barely even considered that question before the answer became glaringly obvious.

"Uh huh." She said finally. "I think… he might have been the one who trained me in magic before."

"He was?" Frisk was somewhat surprised by that. "Well, Undyne mentioned her old teacher just now… and Gerson did used to be in the Royal Guard."

"It was the same. The method Undyne just taught me, and the way I learned before. I… I heard him, Frisk." Lily described what she'd experienced. "I'm sure it was him."

Sans focused his eye sockets on the girl… or more specifically, on her presence within the kid. He'd been watching her closely ever since the revelation from Alphys about who she was. The way she got her memories back seemed more 'natural' than it was for Frisk, who's own seemed more layered and 'planned' than usual. Because of that, it was a lot harder for Sans to analyze them but now it seemed an awful lot like he'd just witnessed that phenomenon in the moment. From this distance, the blue garbed skeleton couldn't hear exactly what the two were saying to each other but from the movement of their lips, he was able to piece together the gist of their conversation.

'gerson, huh? guess it makes sense that the old turtle would've known her back then.' Sans considered, filing away that information for later.

"Anyways, this is a real good start." Undyne said, unaware of the revelation this training session of hers had yielded. "Gotta agree with Sans though on this one. You won't get too far with spells like that. Since you've figured out what to do though, we can work on strengthening that."

Lily nodded, and set her mind to the task at hand. That memory had given rise to a few new questions as well as rekindling some old ones, but there wasn't much she could do about those right now. More immediately, she'd now gained - or perhaps more accurately, recovered - the ability to use magic instinctively, unrefined though it was. This was a big step for the girl, who knew by this point how useful magic had been during the few instances she'd tapped into it in the past and wondered how much more it could be now that she had some level of control. There was sure to be more danger waiting for them, and Lily would take everything she could if it would help her protect Frisk.

"So what should I do?" Frisk asked, proud of his friend for her success but not wanting to be left behind.

"Well… like I said, I'm not sure how human magic works." Undyne rubbed the back of her head in a gesture that she seemed to adopt when she was feeling self conscious or apologetic. "I thought, since you punks are sharing a SOUL and everything that if we build up Lily's magic control that some of it might rub off on you too. I know it's a crappy plan, but it's the only thing I can really think of."

"Oh." Frisk said, unable to hide the disappointment in his voice. Ever since Alphys mentioned he might be able to expand what he was able to 'see', he'd been very interested in learning to use his magic.

"Sorry, Frisk…" Lily said, sensing his dejection and sympathizing with it.

"No, it's okay. Undyne's right… it's probably the only thing we can do." Frisk said honestly. "You're already doing so good, so don't worry about me okay?"

Despite his initial disappointment, there was a confidence in her friend's voice that Lily couldn't ignore. Frisk had resolved to find a way around this complication, and that alone made the girl more confident when it came to her own training. She knew how determined the boy could be when he put his mind to something. More than that though, he was smart. She knew that he would eventually be able to figure it out.

"Alright." She said before turning her attention back to Undyne. "What's next?"

---

The rest of the morning consisted of Lily working on sharpening her control over her magic. Once she'd gotten past that initial hurdle, that became much easier to accomplish and she'd been progressing rapidly in that regard. That she was essentially just relearning something that she'd already known in the past was likely the main cause for her speedy growth, though Undyne's coaching and encouragement surely helped. In just a few short hours, she'd managed to increase both the size, and number of bullets she was able to utilize at any one time. At around ten or so fist sized projectiles, it was certainly a far cry from the veritable tide of spears that the piscine captain had used against them during their fight, but it was still leagues beyond where she'd started.

Still, there was a ways to go before she could truly claim mastery. Monster magic was naturally tailored toward use by monsters, after all. It essentially worked by using the minimum amount of magic necessary to form a projectile, and then replicating that process for however much magic said monster was capable of using. Therefore, the number of bullets the caster could create at one time spoke to the strength of their SOUL. With Frisk's human SOUL, that meant that Lily, theoretically had a nigh limitless resource to tap into. However, having that potential and being able to use it effectively were two different things. Her control simply wasn't strong enough at this point to maintain much more than ten bullets at a time.

Instead, for the last hour or so, Undyne had her running drills on managing what she was currently able to use. She'd learned how to arrange her bullets into patterns or shapes, to release them individually or all at once, to create them from further away, or have them hover close by and follow her (or Frisk's) movements to be loosed later. All in all, it had been a productive time for her, and Lily was feeling a surge of confidence in her progress.

The same couldn't be said for Frisk, who was still struggling to figure out how to even begin using his own magic. He'd been attempting to emulate the method that Lily had used, feeling that maybe if he could get a grasp on Monster Magic it might help him in uncovering his own. Unfortunately, his numerous attempts to do so had, thus far, yielded no results.

Still, having observed Lily in her training he did indeed feel that he had a better understanding of magic in general… he just needed to figure out how to apply that.

"Alright, nice! You're doing pretty good!" Undyne complimented, as Lily successfully arranged her ten bullets into the shape of a diamond. "You can dispel those now. I think you're ready to try something else!"

Lily did so, closing her open hand into a fist and watching as the formless magic dissipated into the ether. "What's that?"

"Well, I'm you've probably figured it out by now but even though you've gotten better at creating bullets, there's one thing most of 'em have that yours don't." Undyne said.

Lily remained silent for a moment, waiting for the Captain to continue. When she didn't, it became pretty clear that she was expecting Lily herself to answer. Another test then… supposedly this was how Asgore had trained her back in the day. She claimed that it helped the lessons 'stick' more than if he'd just given her the answer. Lily thought for a moment before creating another of her bullets and looking it over. It was certainly bigger than the first one, and more solid but… Undyne was right. Something seemed to be missing. The answer came to her a few seconds later, as she watched it steadily roiling above her hand. It indeed felt like a bullet that a monster would create, only...

"It doesn't have a shape." She said finally.

"Right! Monster magic is supposed to form itself into a shape of some kind." Undyne explained. "But yours isn't doing that."

"How come?" Frisk asked curiously, watching the wobbling white form through his SOULsight.

"It's because you haven't found your Aspect yet. Every monster has one, a shape their magic is naturally meant to take, like my spears or the bones these two can make." Undyne explained, pointing a thumb back toward Sans and Papyrus. "But if you don't know what that is, neither will your magic. That's why it looks like that now."

"So… I'm still doing something wrong?" Lily asked, feeling the confidence she'd built up to this point wavering.

"Actually, something like this is pretty normal when you're just learning magic." Undyne explained. "It was the same for me when I was a kid."

"Oh…" The girl gave a relieved sigh, glad at least that this wasn't another thing monsters just 'knew'.

"But if you can create bullets without one, why do you need it?" Frisk broached the question. "Unless… do they improve the magic somehow?"

"That's right. See, without an Aspect your bullets just end up wasting a lot of energy." Undyne explained. "With 'em wobbling around like that, little bits of magic get lost and that adds up after a while. If you have an Aspect though, everything stays in one place, so you don't lose anything. It also makes it easier to control if it isn't bubbling around trying to figure itself out."

"How do I get it to do that, then?" Lily asked, eager to keep her current momentum going.

"Well, you know how I said using magic itself isn't really about thinking?" Undyne reminded them. Lily and Frisk nodded as one. "This is the opposite… at least the first time."

"So, I just have to think about what I want it to look like, and it will?" Lily asked.

"Not what you want it to look like, but what it should look like. There's a difference." Undyne clarified. "Picture that little wobble-ball thing in your head, and figure out what it's trying to be. Once you figure it out, then you'll have your Aspect."

Lily nodded and the light in Frisk's right eye faded as she shut out the visual world, and pictured the undulant collection of magic in her mind. It appeared there, a floating white speck within the darkness. She watched it, twisting and reshaping itself like a jellyfish swimming through a vast ocean. It was never the same, at times a part of it would stretch out while another compressed inward, all the while the center would vanish, causing it to take a ring-like shape an instant before collapsing back onto itself.

The more Lily watched it, the more she realized the purpose behind what once appeared to be little more than random shifting and quivering. There were instances where the jerky waves of magic would shape themselves into a form the girl almost recognized, before seemingly 'giving up' only to try something different next time. It was like clay attempting to mould itself into a desired shape, only to realize that it had no idea what it wanted to become. Clay simply cannot mould itself. It needs a sculptor, a hand to guide and shape it into its perfect form. But what form? That was the question Lily was struggling to answer.

It was as she considered this that she noticed something else. Even if the form it attempted to take was never the same, there were some elements that seemed to appear more often than not - The rounding of one part, the flattening and curving of another, the stretching and lengthening of the whole thing. There was a pattern there… things that felt 'right' but were always missing something. She focused on those, attempting to bring all of them together into a cohesive whole. The strain on her focus was intense as she tried to filter out all of the random clutter, leaving only the parts that fit. Yet, each time she pushed one imperfection away, two more would appear in its place.

'Just make up your mind…!' Her thoughts resonated through her mental space. 'Be something, anything! How many shapes could there possibly be?'

And it was that thought that caused the whole process to unravel. The moment her thoughts focused on that question, her mind was flooded with all manner of answers, from simple to complex. Those distracted thoughts were echoed onto her magic, causing it to quiver violently as it attempted to form into each one at once. With an audible 'pop' the spell that was attempting to take shape burst into particles of magic and faded into the air.

"Argh!" Lily growled in frustration, feeling strangely fatigued by the attempt.

"Huh. Not bad for a first try." Undyne's voice caused the girl to look up.

"Not bad?!" She repeated incredulously. "I totally screwed that up!"

"Yeah…" Undyne admitted. "But, you still got further than most people do when trying to find their Aspect. I could see it trying to get there before you got distracted. That's further than I got when I was at that stage."

"Wait… you mean you expected me to mess up?" The girl asked.

"Well, yeah… sort of. I didn't expect you to ace it, but I also didn't think you'd get that far." Undyne clarified. "This was mostly to see if you could figure out how to do it… and in that, you passed."

"Nice job, Lily!" Frisk praised her. "So maybe if you try it again, you'll get it this time?"

"Nope. Not right now." Undyne shot down that suggestion really quick.

"Huh? Why not?" Lily asked. "If I was that close, shouldn't I try again while I still remember what to do."

"It won't work." Undyne replied. "You're frustrated. If you come at it like that, you're just going to do worse. Better to let your head clear before giving it another go. Now that you've tried it once though, it shouldn't be hard to give it another shot on your own later."

"Fine…" Lily conceded, eager to get it down, but not foolhardy enough to pointlessly throw herself at a wall.

'Think of it as homework. For now, we're gonna work on something a little easier. Get over here, Bonehead!" Undyne grinned, turning to the two skeletons. Papyrus immediately perked up and began to make his way forward only for Undyne to stop him. "Not you, Papyrus. Sorry, but I need your bro for this one. Just sit tight for now, okay?"

Far from being disappointed by this, Papyrus' smile only grew, filled with pride for his older sibling. With a quick salute, he marched around behind Sans and proceeded to push him forward by the shoulders. Suddenly, Lily and Frisk were treated to the amusing sight of the superhero using his brother as an impromptu snow shovel as Sans' slippers dug twin grooves into the white powder that covered the ground. The short skeleton shrugged, the grin never leaving his face as Papyrus propped him back up on his feet before stepping aside.

"Alright Sans, all I need you to do is to use your magic to make a few targets." She said before turning back to Lily. "You're able to make bullets and control them pretty well. Now, we're gonna work on your accuracy a little."

"you're really workin' me to the bone here boss." Sans chuckled, stretching his limbs as if he was gearing up for some colossal undertaking. "i oughta file a complaint."

"SANS! STOP COMPLAINING AND/OR MAKING JOKES AND DO AS THE CAPTAIN ASKED, IF YOU PLEASE." Papyrus scolded his brother.

"meh, fine. but only 'cause ya said please." Sans replied, raising his left hand which was quickly surrounded by a bluish aura.

Directing his magic into the ground, Sans lifted a few mounds of snow into the air. The children watched as the four individual masses, guided by the skeleton's strange magic, began to reshape into something recognizable. To Frisk, it looked particularly odd as while he could see Sans' magic, he could not see the snow itself resulting in a bluish silhouette writhing about seemingly without purpose until its shape was complete. The boy had to take control of his head to shake off the dizziness the odd display created.

What that shape was was fairly uninteresting. It was a simple ring-target like one might find at a medieval archery course. Three uneven concentric circles with a blotchy 'bullseye' situated in the rough center.

"Guess they'll have to do… We'd normally use a training dummy but the only one I know has been in a really bad mood lately..." Undyne said.

Frisk held back a giggle and Lily couldn't help but smirk in morbid satisfaction. They had a pretty good idea who that particular training dummy was.

"Alright. See if you can hit those." Undyne gave them the go ahead, and Lily called up her magic again.

The ten formless projectiles appeared in an arc in front of Frisk's body. Focusing her sights on the targets, Lily let loose a single bullet that flew toward the topmost one. Her magic flew straight for a good couple of meters before suddenly shifting off to the side and missing the target completely.

"Umm… what?" She said, lifting a brow.

"Why'd it veer off like that?" Frisk asked.

"Yup. Thought so. You're magic's unstable since you don't have your Aspect yet. Makes it hard to fly in a straight line. But!" The last word was spoken hastily as she noticed the girl about to protest. "That's why we're doing this. In a way, it might be good that you didn't get it immediately. If you can learn to aim your magic when it's like this, then you won't have any problems once you do have it."

"That… actually makes a lot of sense." The girl admitted before taking aim once again.

The rest of her initial supply of summoned bullets yielded somewhat similar results, each one curving off, dropping to the ground, soaring overhead or otherwise missing the mark in various ways. The closest she got to an actual success was when one jolted to the side, only to be pulled back by a tug in the other direction as the magic, even now attempted to discover itself. Even that one only managed to brush the edge of one of the targets with barely enough force to knock a few flakes of snow loose.

However, either through influence of the SOUL whose power she was tapping into, or her own mindset, Lily was not the slightest bit deterred by these setbacks. She immediately created another wave and began the process anew, then another, and then a fourth. Undyne eventually moved over to her student, giving her a few tips on how to better her aim. By clearing her mind, Lily found she could mitigate the magic's roiling somewhat, while only creating a single bullet at a time allowed her to focus solely on directing it where to go, rather than dividing her focus between that, and keeping the others suspended. Even something as simple as changing the way she was standing seemed to help, if only minorly.

She'd lost track by now of how many she'd used but she could tell she was improving. Taking a breath, the aspiring magician released another bullet, this time at the bottom target. The awkward shifting it had been displaying before had been reduced significantly, and even though it still wasn't entirely straight, it was still on course to connect this time. Lily's heart soared as she watched it go, waiting anxiously for the moment when it would strike true…

...only for the snow to fall to the ground as the magic holding it vanished, causing the bullet to soar through the air where it had once been.

"WHAT?!" Lily cried incredulously before glaring at the grinning skeleton standing some ways away. "What the hell, Sans! That was about to hit!"

"oops, my bad." Sans said, waving his magic covered hand while still grinning from cheekbone to cheekbone. "my hand slipped."

"You're not even touching them!" Lily countered as she took another shot.

This time the target she aimed at transformed into a perfect simulacrum of a certain fluffy white dog and leapt out of the way.

"Dude." Undyne said flatly.

Lily gave the skeleton an annoyed glare as the snow-dog wagged its powdery tail, flicking a few flakes back and forth.

"Is that supposed to be Tobias?" Frisk asked, noticing the distinct shape of the magical silhouette.

"Huh? Tobias?" Lily asked, momentarily distracted by her friend's comment.

"I… felt like he needed a name." Frisk explained. "I wonder where he is right now…"

"Aaaaanyway… can you try to take training seriously, Sans?" Undyne asked, staring pointedly at the skeleton.

"aww, come on. i'm always serious." Sans grinned.

"Seriously getting on my nerves…" Lily mumbled, as the skeleton put the targets back in place.

With her remaining eight shots, Lily decided to aim two each at the four targets. It required a bit more focus to keep them flying in a straight line, but her goal wasn't to strike true with each one, only to see if she could get one or two to hit. At least, that would have been the plan if all eight weren't immediately seized by a cloak of blue the moment they got close.

"Oh, now what?!" Lily threw her arms up in frustration.

"SANS… WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Papyrus asked his brother.

Lily's captured magic drifted over to Sans, where they arranged in a circle and proceeded to spin. The entire group was rendered speechless as Sans moved his hands in time with them, making the whole display look like a juggling show. He changed it up here and there, shifting to one hand, tossing one up higher than the others before bringing it back into the pattern, even changing the trajectory into a figure-8 formation that would have been impossible without the aid of his gravity manipulation.

"CUT IT OUT!" Both Lily and Undyne shouted at the same time. Realizing their synchronicity, Undyne couldn't help but grin and offer the girl a fistbump which Lily happily accepted.

"tough crowd…" Sans shrugged and released his hold on the magic.

Lily smirked as that was just the opportunity she was waiting for. With her magic freed, she converged all eight bullets on a single point - namely, one of the four snow-targets that was currently hovering above the elder skeleton. At so close a range, there wasn't much possibility for error, and the eight bullets pierced the soft snow, and collided at the center. The resulting burst of magic wasn't dangerous in any way, but it did have the desired effect of unraveling Sans' blue magic, causing the now released snow to fall directly onto his head.

Uproarious laughter spilled from the budding magic user's mouth as she watched Sans standing in the middle of a pile of snow that buried him to the knee joints. Smaller piles settled on his shoulders as well as the top of his skull, making him look somewhat like a poorly formed snowman.

"You SO deserved that!" Lily crowed victoriously.

"HAHA! Nice going, punk!" Undyne agreed.

"You really should have seen that coming, Sans." Frisk pointed out, giggling along with them.

"really tough crowd." Sans corrected himself. "come on, bro. throw me a bone here."

"IGNORING THAT HORRIBLE PUN FOR A MOMENT…" Papyrus began, making his way over to Sans and attempting to clear the snow from his person. "I ALSO THINK YOU WERE ABOUT DUE FOR THAT ONE, SANS."

"et tu, papyrus…?" Sans replied, though the betrayal in his words didn't reach his voice. "that's cold."

Papyrus bristled instinctively, but couldn't help snickering a little at that one as he helped Sans climb his way out of the snowy trap he'd found himself in.

"Heh… well, you've definitely improved your aim at least." Undyne commented, getting her mind back on task. "What about you, Frisk? Anything yet?"

Frisk's mood was slightly soured by the question. It was true that watching Lily had given him some insight on how magic worked but insight was all he had. Through the course of the lessons, the boy had tried to use the same exercises Lily had in order to get his own grasp on it. Sadly, none of it had worked for him… he hadn't even managed to create a single bullet of his own. Finally he shook his head.

"No…" He sighed. "I thought if I was able to learn to use magic like you guys it might help but… it isn't working for me."

"Damn… I don't get it." Undyne scratched her cheek thoughtfully. "I get that Lily's done it before and she'd probably be quicker on the uptake, but I figured you'd have picked up something by now."

"i don't think it's that simple…" Sans, now cleared from the snow, spoke up. "human and monster magic are two different things. if it was that easy to translate one to the other, don't you think we'd have cracked the barrier a long time ago?"

"I'm able to do it though, why shouldn't Frisk?" Lily pointed out.

"dunno." Sans shrugged. "maybe you were younger when you first learned it so your magic was more 'malleable', or you've got a certain something that the other kid just doesn't. either way, i'm pretty sure you're the exception rather than the rule."

"So… what do I do then?" Frisk asked, hoping that Sans might have some ideas. However, the short skeleton simply shrugged.

"i guess… stop trying to think of it like a monster, and think about how a human would do it." Sans said. "or... how you would do it."

In truth, he did have some insight on how human magic worked. He'd discussed the matter with Alphys in the past. It was all theory though, and he had no idea rather or not that knowledge would even be useful to Frisk. What's more, Sans had the sneaking suspicion that the boy likely already had the answer buried within him somewhere. He's almost certainly even tapped into it before without realizing it, if those time-staggers during their trek through Waterfall were any indication. The analytical skeleton was interested to see if the boy could figure it out on his own.

"Alright. I'll keep trying." Frisk said.

'there it is…' Sans observed, noticing the look of determination on Frisk's face as he made his way over to a nearby tree and leaned against it, his part done.

"I guess all we can do is move on for now." Undyne said. "Since we've gone over how magic works, and Aspects, let's talk about Elements for a sec."

"Oh, we talked about those with Alphys the other day." Lily pointed out.

Frisk's interest was piqued. Monster and Human magic might be different but Elements were a common thread. Maybe something here would help him.

"Right, we talked about how Elements add their color to magic, and cause it to do different things. For example, I can use Yellow…" She demonstrated by calling one of the yellow spears she'd used during her fight to one hand before pointing the other at Frisk's SOUL, which quickly became encased in a green aura. However, this time he knew he was in no danger. "...and Green magic, whose Elements are Justice, and Kindness. Remember what they do?"

"Those yellow ones wouldn't stop coming when you sent them at us…" Lily remembered their less friendly experience with those spears. "All we could do was hold them off."

"And I can't move from this spot when my SOUL's like this." Frisk added. "I can still change where I'm facing, but if I try to go anywhere else, it won't let me."

"Right. Each element has different traits like that. It's pretty next level stuff, so I don't expect you to be able to use them right now. There is a reason I'm going over them though." Undyne said. "See, most monsters can only use the basic 'white' magic but some, usually stronger ones, can tap into one of the elements. A few big shots can use two, but it's pretty much unheard of for anyone to use more than that."

"But you can?" Frisk asked, wondering why she didn't do so before. However, Undyne simply shook her head.

"Nope, I've only got the two." Undyne clarified. "There is someone here who can use more than that though."

"Sans?" Lily asked, turning a questioning gaze to the lounging skeleton.

"nah." was his only response. "only blue here."

"Then that means…" Frisk began only to be cut off by the answer.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I BELIEVE THAT IS MY CUE!" Papyrus declared, striding forward with a proud grin on his face.

"Like I said, I don't expect you guys to be able to get these things right now." Undyne began. "But rather than talking about it, I think it'd be better for you to see it in action. That's where this dude comes in."

"W-what do you mean?" Frisk asked.

"What? You seriously haven't figured it out yet?" Undyne asked. "You guys are gonna spar."

""Huh?!"" Both children responded at the same time before Lily added. "You want us to fight?!"

"I CAN SEE YOU ARE BOTH BURSTING WITH ENTHUSIASM!" The lanky skeleton spoke up. "INDEED! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE YOUR OPPONENT!"

"But why?" Frisk asked, concerned.

"Fufufu… now that Lily's gotten a grasp on her magic, this is the perfect way to put all those muscles to use. As for you, since everything so far hasn't worked, we'll just have to drag it outta you by force! I said I was gonna toughen you punks up, and that's what we're gonna do!" Undyne declared with a toothy grin. "Don't you worry about Pap, here. I wasn't lying when I said he was tough."

"break a leg…" Sans said from his position resting against the tree.

The two children quickly turned to him. Though it didn't show in the casual tone of his voice, his eye-lights were fixed steadily on the four of them. Briefly, the children were reminded of back when they'd first met. Sans' protectiveness of his younger sibling had been firmly established even back then. It was hard to believe that he would agree to something like this so readily, even going so far as to wish them luck given what they knew.

The jokester's true feelings were as hard to read as ever, and yet his expression seemed more measured somehow than it had back then. There was nothing unsettling about it, compared to the first time before he learned of the rather complicated situation surrounding their memories. If anything he seemed less concerned and more… interested. Neither Frisk, nor Lily quite knew what to make of that look, especially since it vanished completely the moment he noticed them staring.

"Alright guys, let's get started!" Undyne called their attention back to the situation at hand. "Only magic, no physical blows. This is a training battle but I still expect you two to go all out."

"Okay…" Frisk said, still a little worried.

"Got it." Lily added, a little more confident than her friend after having developed a trust in Undyne's methods after how much she'd learned.

VERY WELL, HUMANS! LET US PUT ON A WORTHY PERFORMANCE!" Papyrus exclaimed without any hint of concern in his own voice.

"Alright, get ready… Hajime!" Undyne shouted, bringing down her arm in a signal to start the duel.

Papyrus' response was quicker than the children had been expecting, summoning up three bones in a fraction of a second and sending them in a line towards the children. Using his reflexes, Frisk swiftly pivoted to the side as Lily focused on drawing her own formless bullets from the aether. She fired four of them outward, hoping to catch their opponent off guard with the quick reprisal, but Papyrus seemed to be expecting that. He raised his right hand to the sky, causing more bones to erupt from the ground in the form of a wall between himself and the girl's shots. The Aspect-less magic scattered harmlessly over the ivory barrier, leaving Papyrus completely untouched by the counter attack.

"A FINE SHOT, LILY!" He called out. "YOUR MAGIC IS QUITE STRONG DESPITE ITS LACK OF SHAPE."

If it had been anyone other than Papyrus, the girl might have taken that as mockery, but the honesty in his voice simply couldn't be denied. She allowed herself a little smile, proud that he felt that way. The expression was short lived however, as Papyrus sent the wall of bones forward, causing the individual segments to scatter and trail across the ground in the children's direction.

They weren't moving particularly fast however, and it was easy enough for an observant Frisk to weave his way through them. However, just as he was about to step around the last of them, the bone suddenly deviated from its pattern and shifted to intercept him. The boy braced himself against the expected sting of a magical impact as the bone brushed against his arm, only to realize that what he felt was little more than a dull tingle. Confused, he quickly glanced at his and Lily's HP.

Frisk: HP - 20/20

Lily: HP - 17/17

"Huh…?" He said. "It… didn't hurt?"

"You're right…" Lily muttered, as puzzled by that as Frisk was.

"IT WOULD SEEM THAT I HAVE LANDED THE FIRST STRIKE!" Papyrus shouted, grinning resplendently as the wind caused his scarf to billow. "I'M AFRAID YOU MUST DO BETTER THAN THAT IF YOU WISH TO OVERCOME ME, FRISK AND LILY!"

The girl readied a full salvo of ten bullets before firing them toward Papyrus at a staggered pace, hoping to use the unpredictability to her advantage like he did. It didn't quite have the same level of success however. Most of the bullets went awry, missing him completely and the few that were on target were simply deflected by more of the skeleton's own magic.

After a few similar exchanges, Lily realized that her own attacks didn't seem to be getting through. So instead, she decided to focus on using her magic defensively, firing a bullet at anything that came a little too close. Though her bullets didn't seem strong enough to disperse Papyrus' bones, the impact was enough to divert their pathing.

"I don't get it…" She said. "He's not even moving, and his attacks don't seem to hurt us. Is he really as strong as Undyne says he is?"

"HMM… IT SEEMS YOU ARE GROWING ACCUSTOMED TO MY MAGIC. I AM PROUD OF BOTH OF YOU!" Papyrus continued his friendly banter. "PERHAPS IT IS ABOUT TIME I SHOWED YOU MY BLUE ATTACK!"

"Blue attack?" Lily responded. "That means he's gonna use an Element on us, right?"

"I think so, but…" Frisk began but hesitated. 'Why does this seem familiar…?'

Papyrus lifted his right hand to the sky (or at least the gem-filled simulacrum of it that the Underground was known for), and the children watched in awe as the orange mitt that covered it was suddenly overtaken by a cloud of soft, bluish magic. A number of bones sprang into existence behind him, forming what almost looked like the ranks of a company of soldiers. Each and everyone was colored in the same hue as the cloud which covered his hand. Cyan. The Element of Patience. Its glow pierced Frisk's SOUL-sight, manifesting its true nature upon the boy's mind. Papyrus stood there with his arm outstretched, a pearl statue within the ocean of his magic.

"NYEH HEH HEH!" He laughed. "HOW WILL YOU WITHSTAND THIS, I WONDER?"

With that, he gestured forward and the magic obeyed. Walls of cyan light closed in on the two humans, creating a maze-like structure as it moved slowly upon their position. A few of the bones flickered for a brief moment as they passed through one another unhindered.

"They're all Cyan…" Lily observed, as the osseous tide flowed toward them. "So we just hold still right?"

"I don't think so..." Frisk began as he stared at the approaching bones. "I don't think it's that simple."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked. "We've dealt with Cyan magic before. It's always been that way."

Frisk continued to stare at the bones. Lily was right, of course. Of all the Elements that they had experience with, Cyan was certainly the most common for whatever reason. Yet, something was off this time. That familiar hue should have filled Frisk with the sense of relief that comes with facing a challenge one has seen before. Instead, all he felt was unease, stemming from somewhere within his clouded memories.

He knew this attack…

"I- I'm not sure." He replied. "But something tells me we shouldn't touch those bones."

Lily could sense her friend's trepidation. She knew by now that whenever he got feelings like that, there was usually something to them and though she couldn't notice anything strange about the magic Papyrus was using, she knew it would probably be best to trust him. Thus, she summoned another salvo of her own magic and waited.

"Okay. Same thing we've been doing then. You work on dodging, I'll shoot anything that sneaks up on you." She said.

Frisk gave a short nod, and began to move just as the labyrinth of bones reached their position. Leave it to Papyrus to turn his own magic into a puzzle of its own. The Cyan walls closed around the boy as he stepped through a small opening, and set about looking for a way through. He ducked beneath a horizontal bone and slipped through an opening between two smaller ones before being forced to backpedal to avoid running headlong into a solid wall of them just beyond. He slipped his way around it only to be met by a bone trailing low to the ground that he didn't notice before. Fortunately, Lily was on point, and sent one of her bullets to knock the bone off course, causing it to miss her friend by mere centimeters before they continued on.

After a few moments of dodging and deflecting, the two children finally reached what seemed to be the end of the labyrinth, only to find it blocked completely by an ever advancing wall of cyan bones. Frisk staggered back slightly, barely managing to avoid an embarrassing and possibly disastrous pratfall.

"Over to the right!" Lily said. "I see a gap. It isn't wide, but leave that to me."

Frisk immediately did as she said, ducking beneath a few of the hovering bone stalactites as he moved himself into position. There, in the midst of what looked to be an impenetrable barricade, Lily could see a brief glimpse of the conifers that dotted the landscape. Focusing all of the magical control she could muster, Lily launched the remainder of her own bullets into that space. One after another they struck only to dissipate. And yet, with each impact the bones were forced further and further apart until a gap barely big enough for Frisk's small body to slip through was formed. The boy did so, freeing the two from the arcane labyrinth before drawing in a few much needed breaths of the cool Snowdin air.

"Phew…" Lily said, feeling somewhat winded herself due to their resonance. "It's times like this that I'm glad you're short, Frisk…"

"Thanks…" The boy said drily.

He couldn't deny that she had a point. Not that he would admit it though.

"OH HO! YOU SEEM TO HAVE AVOIDED MY ATTACK!" Papyrus shouted. "I AM QUITE IMPRESSED THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO PUZZLE OUT ITS TRUE NATURE! WELL DONE, HUMANS!"

"It was tough, but I'm just glad we were able to get through it!" Frisk called, praising him right back.

"WELL THEN, I'M… NOT ENTIRELY SURE HOW TO GO ON FROM HERE." Papyrus admitted, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "I NEVER EXPECTED YOU TO EVADE MY AZURE TRAP SO SUCCESSFULLY…"

"OH COME ON, PAPYRUS!" Undyne shouted from her place to the side. "What's with the kid gloves? I know you can do better than that!"

"B-BUT UNDYNE, THEY ARE…" Papyrus struggled to form a response.

"They are the ones that beat me, remember?!" Undyne continued to scold him. "So stop holding back and give this everything you've got. That's an order, soldier!"

"W-WELL, I SUPPOSE I DO STILL HAVE THAT…" Papyrus mused, glancing with a bit of uncertainty toward his opponents. "VERY WELL THEN, COUNT YOURSELVES LUCKY HUMANS. YOU ARE ABOUT TO WITNESS THE GREAT PAPYRUS' THOROUGHLY COOL SUPER SECRET TECHNIQUE!"

"Wait… he has more?!" Lily exclaimed.

Even as she said those words, Papyrus' right eyesocket flared for a brief moment. What was once a small pinprick of white light transformed into a flickering orange colored iris. Frisk took an instinctive step back as he was taken by surprise as the color cut once again through the monochrome of his limited sight.

"DO YOU REMEMBER THIS, HUMANS?" Papyrus asked them with the same friendly grin he always wore.

"That eye… he showed us that before." Frisk said, studying the flickering ring of orange within Papyrus' alabaster form.

"Yeah… It's like the one Sans has." Lily nodded.

They remembered when Papyrus had first shown them his Chromatis. It was shortly after their less-than-friendly encounter with Sans where he'd revealed his own, and the two had discovered Lily's ability to manifest herself through merging with his SOUL. It wasn't the best memory for either of them, but it had taught them a number of things and they'd grown a lot since then. Now, the appearance of the strange glowing iris, while still surprising, no longer immediately inspired fear.

"There's something different about it though." The boy observed. "Sans' seemed to cycle between colors. Papyrus' is just the one."

"It's not solid, and he doesn't have that fiery thing either." Lily added. "Does that mean his is weaker?"

"Maybe." Frisk speculated, still keeping his gaze sharply trained on Papyrus, waiting for what he'd do next. "We should probably still be careful though."

"ALRIGHT! That's what I'm talkin' about, Papyrus!" Undyne punched her fist into the palm of her other hand. "Hope you're ready, Punks, 'cause now it's time to really give you a workout!"

Lily couldn't help but grin, feeling somewhat fired up from this. "Bring it on!" She challenged, and called up another group of bullets, holding them in the air surrounding Frisk's head.

"VERY WELL THEN, LET THE THREE OF US GIVE IT OUR ALL!" Papyrus answered, raising his hand to cast another spell.

If the amount of bones that he'd summoned before were the equivalent of a company of men, then the number he created this time must have been tantamount to a whole legion. Unlike the first wave, they were not all the same color. Bones of magic, pure and white. mingled with the cyan of those infused with the Patience element along with a number of others as orange as the glow emitted from the skeleton's eye.

Without wasting a single moment, the Royal Guard hopeful swept his arm in a horizontal arc, sending his army forth. While still staggered in their pace, the bones moved significantly faster this time.

"Okay that… that's a lot." Lily said, the crimson glow of her presence in Frisk's own eye brightening with her surprise. "What do we do, Frisk?"

"I- I don't know!" Frisk said, completely at a loss.

'I've never seen this before…' He realized, as he looked upon the wave of magic and found his memories quiet.

"G-get out of the way!" He finally shouted, springing from his position and dashing to the side to avoid the initial onslaught of the multi-hued tide.

Channeling every instinct and reflex he had, Frisk weaved through the army of bones even as Lily desperately fired her magic to ward off anything that came too close. Try as they might however, there was simply too much for them to be able to avoid contact entirely. As Frisk moved to avoid a cyan bone moving at an accelerated rate through the wave, he ended up passing straight through an orange one that had managed to sneak up on his flank. The moment the bone slipped through his SOUL, harmlessly passing out of his back on the other side, he knew that something was different. In an instant, the skeletal legion vanished in a flash of light, dispersing into particles of magic that faded into the air.

Frisk instinctively looked down at his SOUL, only to watch as it was suddenly encased in an aura very similar to those he'd experienced before. However, rather than the blue of Sans, or the green of Undyne, this one was a radiant orange.

"Look out, Frisk!" Lily shouted.

The boy's head jolted up just in time to see the single white bone flying in his direction from afar. With a gasp, he instinctively made to avoid it. It was too late though. With the momentary distraction of his SOUL, there was no way even Frisk's reflexes would be enough to evade it entirely, nor was there time enough to call upon her own magic to deflect it. Thus Lily watched it come, bracing herself for the inevitable impact.

An impact that never came. Instead the girl's vision blurred in such a sudden way that it might have been nauseating if she had a working stomach. She had to blink a few times before she finally realized what had happened.

They'd moved.

And not just by a few steps either. Somehow they'd covered a good few meters in a fraction of a second.

"What…?" She managed to force out.

Frisk was confused too. He stood there silently, still sort of disoriented by what had happened. Without a full range of vision, it took him a bit longer to realize that his orientation compared to Papyrus and the others had changed. He was still as he attempted to process what had just happened. He knew he could be surprisingly fast when he needed to be, but that was far beyond anything he'd done before.

Addled as he was, it took him a few moments more to realize something else: they were still in Snowdin… the air around them was as crisp and cold as it always was.

So why did it feel like he was burning up?

"Frisk! Your HP!" Lily cried, bringing the boy to attention

Frisk: HP - 19/20

Frisk: HP - 18/20

"What's happening…?" He panted. It was very slow, but it was clearly going down.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I WOULDN'T STAY IN ONE SPOT FOR TOO LONG, HUMANS!" Papyrus called from across the way. "YOU'RE ORANGE NOW! YOU'D BETTER KEEP MOVING OR THINGS WILL SOON GET VERY HOT INDEED!"

So it was another SOUL influencing magic, like Undyne and Sans used before…

Frisk thought about that as he took another brief glance at his SOUL, still encased in an orange aura. He did as Papyrus instructed and tried to move his body again. Though the disorientation struck once again, he did feel the heat seem to ease off a little. He tested it again with the same result. It was surprisingly hard to move like this. His speed and reflexes were greatly increased as a result of Papyrus' magic, but his mind was having a hard time processing so drastic a change in what it had become accustomed to.

Speaking of the superhero, he hadn't moved nor had he fired any more bullets of his own since the last one that initially spurred them into movement. He was simply standing there on the other side of the field, watching them and waiting. He didn't use this technique often, as he much preferred the effect of his Blue attack. It was simply more elegant, and allowed him more freedom to create fun and interesting bullet patterns with which to test his opponents' wits. This was more direct much like the Gauntlet of Deadly Terror, there was no subtlety at all which was the reason he never finished that puzzle in the first place.

But… Undyne wanted to teach them about magic, and if Papyrus' less graceful abilities could help with that, then he was happy they could be of use.

Eventually, Frisk managed to get a decent amount of control over his new speed. He learned that 'moving' was a pretty loosely defined term. Shifting from one foot to the other seemed to have the same effect as running directly to the right or left, meaning they could technically stay in one place even if they couldn't stay still. What's more, walking, while still a little faster than the boy's normal running speed, was slow enough that it wasn't as disorienting, though doing so for too long caused the burning effect to creep back in, albeit at a slower pace.

"I SEE YOU HAVE ADAPTED RATHER QUICKLY TO BEING ORANGE. I AM QUITE PROUD OF YOU FRISK, AND LILY!" Papyrus complimented them. "ARE YOU READY TO CONTINUE OUR DUEL?"

"Duel?" Lily shot back with a slight grin. "You know there's three of us right?"

"ERR, WELL I SUPPOSE THAT'S TRUE BUT…" Papyrus struggled. "HMM… WHAT IS THE PROPER WORD FOR A DUEL BETWEEN THREE PEOPLE…? NO, WAIT, IT IS MORE LIKE TWO AGAINST ONE…"

The girl couldn't help but giggle as Papyrus attempted to search his vocabulary for the right word. "I'm just messing with you, Papyrus."

"WELL, IT WOULD SEEM YOUR JAPES RIVAL EVEN MY OWN, LILY!" Papyrus declared. "VERY WELL, SHALL WE CONTINUE?"

Frisk had to admit even he wasn't sure if there was a real term for that, especially given his and Lily's unique situation but he put his own curiosity aside and nodded. "Yeah. I think we're good to go. You ready, Lily."

"Yup. Let's do this!" The girl said.

Their battle resumed as Frisk utilized his magically boosted speed to weave around the skeleton's attacks. Lily meanwhile summoned more bullets of her own and fired them in Papyrus' general direction. The shots found little success however, diverting away from the Skeleton and dispersing into harmless particles soon after.

Her aggravation was clear from the cloying scent that assailed Frisk's nose. It was hard to aim in this state. Frisk's constant movements were disturbing her ability to direct her bullets to their intended destination. One managed a lucky strike against another of Papyrus' projectiles, knocking it askew, but it was just that… luck.

Even as he continued to dodge his way around Papyrus' attacks, Frisk could feel himself running low on energy. He wasn't quite ready to collapse, but his stamina was not infinite by a long shot. If this continued for much longer, he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up. That was simply if things remained as they were. Of course, Papyrus had proven time and again that he had more tricks to show them.

And that's exactly what he did. After remaining almost completely still for the entire battle, the tall skeleton suddenly began to move. His Chromatis flashed brightly for a moment before a bluish aura formed around his right hand. The children braced themselves for an attack, only to watch in awe as the aura formed itself into a bone nearly as tall as Papyrus himself.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Lily exclaimed. "He can do actual blue magic too?!"

Papyrus grinned, grasping the - quite solid by the look of things - cobalt bone in his hand before swinging it around to his left. Now gripping the bone like a martial artist with a bo-staff, he quickly closed the distance, and spun one end of the weapon down towards them. They knew Papyrus was no slouch in the speed department but this was something else. It was only by virtue of the orange magic still affecting Frisk's SOUL that he was able to avoid being struck by the ossein club.

Now that he was closer, Lily attempted to fire a few more bullets at him, but Papyrus simply turned the bone into a rapid spin, deflecting each and every one of them.

"This is nuts…" Lily said, in disbelief. "I can't even touch him."

'There's gotta be something I can do…' Frisk thought to himself, as Lily struck down another of Papyrus' bones with a close range shot. 'Maybe if I could use magic too… but how?'

'Sans said to stop trying to do it like a monster and think about how I can do it.' He considered, as Lily summoned another salvo of bullets to defend them. 'But what does that mean? Like a human, or…?'

A swift attack from Papyrus caused Frisk to quickly move to the side. The motion brought his gaze in line with his own SOUL. Though it was still encased in the Royal Guard hopeful's sunset colored magic, he could still see it's true carnelian hue pulsing beneath.

A thought crossed his mind.

'Undyne said that Elements are hard to use. Even Sans said he can only use one. But what if… what if it's different for humans? If human SOULs are defined by an Element, wouldn't it make sense that they could tap into that?' He mused. 'How can I use that? From what I can tell Elements all seem to be based around the characteristic they're named after. Integrity deals with gravity and space-time, and Kindness is support based stuff like healing or rooting.'

'Red… red is Determination. So how can I transform that into magic? One way is my SAVE points, I guess but those won't help me here. I still don't even know how they work- Wait…' He stopped short in that train of thought. 'Is it just that I don't know how the SAVE points work… or is it actually that I don't know how Determination itself works?'

'What is Determination, then? What does it mean to be determined?' Feeling like he might be onto something, he considered that. 'Well, it's what keeps you going even if things seem hopeless. It's the drive to succeed, no matter what. Determination is what allows someone to overcome odds that might seem impossible, simply because they never stop trying. Determination is what pushes one to their goal.'

"Goal…?" He muttered aloud.

"Huh?" Lily, momentarily caught off guard by the sudden statement, asked him. "What do you- whoa!"

Her question was cut off as she was forced to seize control of Frisk's body to duck under another wide swipe from Papyrus' 'bone-staff'.

"S-sorry!" Frisk hastily apologized, though his mind was still swimming with his current thoughts.

'That's right… a goal.' He realized. 'Determination for its own sake is impossible… it needs a goal to push towards, something to be focused on. When I make SAVE points, I'm always focused on the memory and what I'm feeling at the time… my goal is to… 'remember' those moments. So… wouldn't it make sense that the goal is what shapes magic fueled by Determination? If that's how it works, then…'

"Lily, stop casting your magic!" Frisk shouted.

"Wha- what do you mean?" The girl protested.

"When Papyrus attacks again, don't do anything." the boy reiterated.

"Are you crazy, Frisk?!" She scolded him. "I know Papyrus isn't trying to hurt us, but do you really want to just let him hit us? That kinda defeats the purpose of training, doesn't it?"

"I know that, but… I think I might have figured something out." He insisted. "I get that it's weird, but trust me."

Lily thought for a moment as her gaze turned back to Papyrus who was branching the distance between them again. It was taking everything they had just to keep pace with the lanky boneman and his ridiculous magic control. For Frisk to ask her to just stop doing that was a little hard to accept. Either her best friend had something truly incredible planned, or his big brain had finally reached its limit. Either way, after a few seconds she nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay. I don't know what you're thinking, but I'll support you, Frisk." She said, smiling within his SOUL. "Whatever it is, give it all you got, okay."

"HMM… ARE YOU OKAY, FRISK?" Papyrus asked, somehow identifying which of them was in control. "I CAN SEE… SOMETHING ABOUT YOU THAT WASN'T THERE BEFORE."

"Yeah. I'm okay Papyrus." The boy stated. "Let's keep going, just a little more."

"NYEH HEH HEH! VERY WELL, THEN!" The younger sibling cried, and Frisk braced himself for whatever he was going to do next. "THEN LET US SEE THIS DUEL-PLUS-ONE TO ITS CONCLUSION, SHALL WE?"

What he'd expected was for the skeleton to charge them in melee again. What he'd hoped for was that he'd send another bone barrage their way. What he got was neither of those things. Instead, Papyrus transferred the bone of blue magic into his right hand, shifted his grip, and then hurled it directly at them. The powerful melee weapon was transformed into a spinning projectile the moment it left his hand, its form blurring from the speed of its rotation to the point that it looked more like a disk than a rod.

Though the sudden change in Papyrus' attack pattern momentarily caught him off guard, Frisk had come to expect his opponent to have more than a few tricks up his sleeve. He quickly recovered, and planted his feet firmly upon the ground, feeling the heat from the orange aura quickly beginning to rise once more. He ignored it, focusing only on the bone flying toward himself and Lily. Towards that bone, he channeled all of the determination he could muster.

He raised his hand, a singular goal filling his mind, and spoke.

"STOP!"

The word was carried upon an echo not entirely borne of the volume in the boy's voice. A flash of crimson light emanated from his SOUL in response to that single word. It surged out in a wave, dispersing the orange aura around it like a gust of wind clearing a fog, leaving only the shining carnelian heart in its wake. As the wave passed over the spinning bone, it suddenly halted in its approach, stopping mere centimeters before its target. There it hovered, still spinning, in front of the red child and his spectral companion, held in place by the former's command.

"It… listened?" Lily spoke dumbly as she stared at the phenomenon in front of her.

Frisk didn't respond… he couldn't. It was taking every scrap of his concentration just to hold the blue projectile in place. Yet, even as he continued to hold it back, feeling the last of his energy ebbing away from the effort he found himself distracted by something else - a pain quite unlike that of the now dispelled orange magic… a familiar pain spreading from behind his left eye.

"Why… why now?" He mumbled, even as his mind was swept away into the fog of memories.

"No!"

"No!"

Two voices, male and female. Two sounds, thunder and flame.

"H-how?!"

"What?!"

Two more voices… clear, but unrecognized.

"Don't stand in our way! These… freaks need to pay for what they've done!"

"I'd heard there was a race-traitor here. Didn't expect a sorcerer though."

Two sentiments, fiery hatred, and frigid disdain.

"Call them what you want..."

"Call me what you want…"

Two familiar voices, male and female.

"But I won't let you…"

"But you will not…"

Two familiar feelings, anger and fear

"...hurt the ones I love!"
"...hurt the ones I love!"

Frisk immediately fell to his knees, gasping for breath as the memory vanished even quicker than it had come. Papyrus' indigo bone continued on its course as if it had never stopped, now perfectly aligned with the boy's head…

"Frisk!" Lily shouted.

...only to be halted a second time.

She sat there, confused for a moment before turning her crimson gaze to Papyrus. However, their opponent seemed just as confused as she was. Eventually, her eyes turned to Sans, who was still leaning against that same tree… only now, his left arm was raised, a deep blue aura enveloping his metacarpals.

"I…" The boy stammered, reeling from the strange experience to the point that all of this went completely unnoticed.

"A-ARE YOU OKAY, FRISK?!" Papyrus called out before the boy could answer.

"Uhh, maybe we overdid it a little?" Undyne sheepishly suggested, moving over to the fallen boy and looking him over.

"close one..." Sans sighed, snapping his phalanges which caused the projectile to vanish into the ether.

Frisk's mind was swimming. That wasn't like the other memories he'd seen… it wasn't a straight, easy to follow path through a previous experience. At the same time, it didn't feel fragmented. It was like listening to a radio, only his mind was split in half and each one was tuned to a different station. Yet through it all, there was one constant: the same feeling he'd experienced when he'd stopped Papyrus' attack… the feeling of magic coursing through him.

"Frisk, hey…" Lily cooed, her concerned voice served to ground him a little. "Was that too much?"

She didn't seem aware of what had just happened to him. Understandable though, given the last sixty seconds. His recent use of magic had indeed left him feeling exhausted, but it was the memory that had broken his focus.

"Sorry…" He responded breathily. "Is it okay if we stop for now?"

"That's probably a good idea." Lily agreed. "But still, Frisk. You did it! I'm not really sure what you did, but you just used magic!"

"Yeah… I really did, huh?" The boy said, the reminder of that tempering his unease a little.

"Well, ya don't seem like you're hurt anywhere." Undyne declared, standing up after looking him over. "You punks really are something else, you know that?"

"INDEED. THAT WAS MOST IMPRESSIVE HUMANS." Papyrus added. "I AM PROUD OF BOTH OF YOU!"

"not bad." Sans added his own simple reply as he strolled up to the group.

"There's some room for improvement. Looks like we gotta work on Frisk's stamina, and Lily you still need to find your Aspect and work on controlling more bullets." Undyne said. "Later though. Magic exhaustion can be a real pain, and you guys have made good progress. That's enough for today."

Everyone agreed with that, including Undyne's evaluation. She may have been impressed with their rapid progress but she was still training them, and wasn't about to ignore their shortcomings. The children both recognized and appreciated that. Thus the five of them decided to take the remainder of the day to rest and recover after the intense training session. Making their way back to Snowdin, they allowed themselves to bask in the pride of their accomplishments so far, but looking forward to the opportunity to relax.

---

Frisk sat on a bench near the center of town, still feeling somewhat sore in both body and SOUL. They'd all decided to grab a late lunch from Grilby's upon returning to town, and afterwards Lily had decided to remove herself from his SOUL in order to move around a little on her own. She was currently interacting with Papyrus and Undyne a little ways away, near the giant decorated tree. Though she couldn't speak to them in that state, the little bit she'd learned of the skeletons' language of hands, along with general miming allowed them to communicate well enough.

He hadn't told anyone about his memory yet. Not out of any real desire to keep it secret, but simply due to the fact that everyone had been in high spirits and he didn't want to put a damper on that. It was likely that Lily had the same idea when it came to her own memory about Gerson, as she continued to banter in her silent way with her two fellow balls of energy.

"that's a pretty sour expression." a voice spoke from nearby. "goes pretty good with sweet, don'tcha think?"

Frisk was about to respond when he caught the scent of something just in front of his nose. It was cool, icy like the air around them, but with just a hint of fruit… strawberries, specifically. He heard a faint sound, like something brittle snapping in half before something was placed in his hand. It took him a moment of rolling it around in his fingers, touching the cold part that took up most of it to realize what he was holding. At last, he popped the half of the Bisicle (which really just made it a normal popsicle) into his mouth, savoring the sweetness for a moment.

"Thanks, Sans." The boy addressed him as the skeleton shuffled around to the front of the bench and sat down next to him.

"no prob. thought you might need a little dessert after all that." Sans said, punctuating the sentence with a loud crunch which the boy guessed came from the other half of the treat.

"Not just for that." Frisk began. "Lily told me you're the one that stopped Papyrus' last attack. I know it probably wouldn't have hurt very bad, since none of the other ones did. Still, I didn't mean to lose focus like that..."

"don't worry about it." Sans waved him off with a flick of his (already missing a chunk) popsicle. "about that, though… wanna talk about it? looks like you both found something out there."

"Uhh, yeah." Frisk said, turning away from the skeleton and focusing on his own lap.

Of course Sans would have noticed. He had to be the single most observant monster in the Underground by far. That might have been aggravating if the boy really intended to keep any secrets, but this wasn't one of those times. Besides, if he already knew there was no harm in confiding in the short skeleton about this. Therefore, Frisk decided to tell him of what he'd seen/remembered the moment he'd used his magic for the first time. It wasn't a very long explanation, but by the end of it, Sans looked pretty thoughtful.

"huh. almost sounds like a layered memory or something." He said.

"Yeah… it's like I was seeing two things at the same time." Frisk nodded. "It was… kinda creepy how similar they were though."

"you tell your SOULmate about it yet?" He asked, and Frisk blinked in confusion at the use of that term.

"Uh, you mean Lily?" The boy asked. "No… not yet. I wasn't hiding it, I just didn't want to ruin the moment. I'm gonna tell her about it after we get home.

"fair enough. next question, then." Sans nodded, and left it at that. "you said you recognized some of those people. any idea who they are?"

"Just one. It… was me. Or, maybe I should say it was the 'me' from before… this happened." He gestured around him, in a way that became clear that he was referring to the Underground and their situation. "I was older… I know that much, but it was still too vague for me to really understand what was going on… that might have had something to do with the other memory confusing things a little - that one's even harder for me to understand. But… one thing stood out - what I felt in that memory."

"oh yeah?" Sans said. "what's that?"

The boy sighed, trying his best to properly form what he wanted to say.

"I've come to love everyone so much over the time I've been here. The monsters in the Ruins, Waterfall, and here, Kidd and the other children, Napstablook, Miss Lapin, Grillby, Toriel, Undyne, Papyrus, Lily… and you, Sans. I know we started rough but everyone here has become so special to me." Frisk admitted, smiling as he turned the popsicle in his hands. "But as strongly as I feel about that… it's just a shadow compared to how I - how 'he' - felt in that memory. It… actually made me kind of jealous."

Frisk chuckled a little at the idea of being envious of himself. Amnesia and time travel made for some really strange feelings. His expression quickly turned serious again though, as that train of thought led him to his original point.

"And that's why… I don't understand." He continued. "With just my own feelings - the ones that've grown since I came here a month ago - I can't imagine ever doing anything to hurt any of you… you all mean too much to me. So… why would he - why would I - hurt the people I'd come to love that strongly? And… why would I have put everyone back here, Underground, after going through the effort of getting us all out. It just doesn't make sense…"

Sans sat there, listening as the boy unloaded what had been weighing on his mind and his heart. His expression remained as unreadable as ever, but inside he was starting to get even more of a picture of who Frisk 'was'. He was the type to dwell on things a lot… it was a facet of him that much reminded the skeleton of himself. The kid had been wrestling with the knowledge of what he'd done for a while now, ever since Sans had first revealed it to him and Lily. It was clear that the thought was never far from his mind, and this recent memory was only adding fuel to his unease over it. That, along with the addition of that 'lower layer' was only making things more confusing for him.

Though he'd become quite good at reading the emotions and expressions of others, Sans wasn't very good at expressing his own feelings. They'd been deadened a long time ago. Or at least, he'd thought they had. He still wasn't quite sure why he'd stepped in to stop Papyrus' attack. Like Frisk said, it wasn't even dangerous. Yet, somehow, that protectiveness that he'd previously thought existed only for his brother came out… for this kid. This was a person who had been the source of much grief for him in the previous timeline, and yet Sans couldn't help but feel a sort of kinship there somehow.

After all, he was far from a saint himself.

With some reluctance, he placed his bony hand on top of Frisk's head and proceeded to ruffle his hair. It felt… different from the first time he'd done that. When the boy hugged him outside the door to his workshop. It had been awkward then… more a means to ease the situation than to show any real affection. This time though… he honestly wanted to reassure the struggling boy in some way. Sans was not good at expressing his feelings… but this, at least, was something he could do.

Frisk was startled. He might have expected a joke or quip from the short skeleton. Maybe even a small pearl of wisdom if he was feeling somewhat serious. He hadn't expected… this. It was a simple gesture, but powerful. In his own way, Sans was trying to comfort him… and for the first time ever, the boy could tell that he wasn't trying to hide that.

"you're a good kid, frisk…" he said. As the boy turned to regard him, he closed his left eye in one of his trademark winks. "just... remember that for me, 'kay?"

Frisk was silent for a few seconds before finally nodding his head.

"I will."

---

Authors' Notes: As was said at the beginning: Long chapter. Sorry if it seemed to drag on, but there just didn't seem to be a good place to end it before. However, at this point we're probably only about one chapter away from heading into Hotland. With the kids now learning to use magic, things are probably going to change fairly significantly both in terms of how fights will be approached, as well as other things.

The fact that Gerson was the one to teach Lily magic when she was alive means that he, a non-boss monster, is in fact over a thousand years old. Turtles live a really long time… magic turtles, even longer.

What do you all think about how magic works between Monsters and Humans? It makes sense that the rules would differ significantly between them. That's pretty clear when it comes to Elements: for monsters it's an advanced step in 'fine tuning' their magic, while it's intrinsic for humans to even be able to utilize their own.

Frisk's magic is interesting. You can consider Determination based magic to be a form of reality warping focused on accomplishing 'goals'. Frisk's abilities are still unrefined, so it takes up a lot of energy and he can't do anything too complicated. The exception is the SAVE points, but there's a reason for that.

Character development between Frisk and Sans at the end there. This honestly feels like something of a turning point in their relationship. Up until now things have always been somewhat tense and awkward, but this scene really shows that there's a rapport forming between them now.

Anyways, again, sorry for the lengthy chapter. This one ended up a little bigger than the last one even. This trend probably won't continue for the next one, but hopefully that's okay.

As always, please share your thoughts with us. We love seeing you all in the comments and reading what you have to say.

Also, our discord server has been steadily growing. If you want to talk to us more directly there, follow this link and say hi: /jfYHvw2

See you all in the next chapter!