Sans looked over towards the elevator as it opened. Nafi stepped out, expression almost unreadable, and trudged towards him. Reaching Sans' sentry station, she sat down, using the side of the station as a backrest.

"why the long face?" Sans asked.

Nafi didn't respond, just picked up a pebble and chucked it off the edge of the rock formation.

Sans watched as it flew into the lava, before turning back to Nafi as she did it again. Silently, he reached under his station for his hotdog supplies, grabbing a water sausage and dropping it into a bun.

"here kid," he said, "have some food."

Grabbing the faux hotdog, she set it beside her but didn't do much else.

Sans' phone received a new text from his brother.

"HAVE YOU SEEN METTATON'S NEW EPISODE YET?"

"no" he replied.

Papyrus sent him a link to UnderTube. The video was only one minute long and titled 'Mettaton the robotic catapult'.

It started with Mettaton rising out of the floor, Nafi standing stiffly off to the side, phone in hand.

"OH YES!" the recorded robot exclaimed, "WELCOME, BEAUTIES, TO THE- ACK!"

Interrupting him, Nafi exploded into action, using him as a springboard to get over and away. The muffled "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope," overshadowed by an obviously edited BOING noise.

Nafi jumping was then repeated at a slower speed, the video zooming in on Mettaton's front as he was tipped over by Nafi's foot, the surprised exclamation funnier in slow-mo.

Sans glanced down at Nafi, but she didn't seem to have moved more than to find more pebbles. He looked back to his phone when another text came in.

"I TRIED TO CALL HER TO CONGRATULATE HER FOR GETTING ON TV, BUT SHE DIDN'T PICK UP. I THINK I MAY HAVE ACCIDENTALLY INSULTED THE HUMAN SOMEHOW."

"i'll talk with her"

Sans sighed, running a hand down his face. How was he going to approach this topic? He looked down at Nafi.

She wasn't there, only the untouched hotdog sitting there showed any semblance that she had been there at all.

Sighing, Sans dropped his head into his hands.


Nafi ignored her phone as it kept ringing every few steps. She wanted out of this place and she wanted out now.

Sure, she avoided getting yelled at for embarrassing the celebrity for now, but eventually she was going to have to pick up the phone to help solve a puzzle.

If there wasn't a mob of monsters coming to lynch her right now anyway.

Either way, two puzzles in and she was doing well. Up ahead were two royal guards, but a thrown pebble was a simple enough distraction that she was able to slip past. Soon, she was confronted by another dark room.

Going by what happened last time she came upon a dark room, it was most certainly a trap. She stared into the dark opening, thinking of how to go about getting through this one. Facepalming, she realized she has a console with ways that could get her through this. She looked around, making sure no one was watching, before summoning it and inputting two commands.

/effect give Nafriskenta invisibility 120

/effect give Nafriskenta night_vision 120

Nafi held up her hand and could see right through it and her arm into the not dark room. Taking a second to check all of her was invisible, she stepped into the room and silently made her way through to the other side. Once out of the room, the dark behind her became dark to her eyes once more and a glance at her hand confirmed the invisibility wore off too.

That probably wouldn't work against multiple monsters but good to know it worked against robots.

Ducking into the next elevator, she took a moment to relax before hitting the button for the next floor.

Her phone rang, again.

She buried it deeper in her cape pockets.

The elevator opened and she stepped out into an area that, compared to the sweltering heat of the rest of Hotland, felt like the border between Snowdin and Waterfall. The path she was on led to a small table before continuing. Nafi headed over to the table, noticing a monster holding some sort of baked good. On the table was more baked goods and behind the table was what looked like a human crossed with a spider.

"Welcome to our parlor dearie~" the spider person said, "Interested in one of our spider pastries? All Proceeds go to real spiders~"

Nafi looked at the prices for the treats and stared at the gigantic numbers.

"Uh, no thanks. I'm good."

She hurried away onto the next puzzle as her phone rang again.


After another double block puzzle, she came up to a large purple building. Sniffing the air, Nafi was reminded of the one time she explored an abandoned mineshaft. It may have been many, many years ago, but she never forgot the smell of spiderwebs.

She shook off the bad memories, palmed an arrow in her good hand, and headed inside.

Suddenly a voice sounded from around her, echoing above the sound of spiders moving around, "Ahuhuhuhu… Did you hear what they just said?"

Even in the darkened room, Nafi could see her path ahead. She hurried forward, trying to ignore the soft voices coming from all around.

"They said a human wearing a striped shirt will come through."

She stepped into a web and almost fell forward onto her face.

"I heard that they hate spiders."

She stepped into more webs, the arrow not doing much to cut her free.

"I heard that they love to stomp on them."

She stepped into even more webs, slowing down considerably. Her rising panic didn't stop her from wondering how you were supposed to stomp on a spider.

"I heard they like to tear their legs off."

She stepped through so many webs that she was barely moving now, panic preventing her from even questioning how someone would even go about tearing spiders' legs off.

"I heard…"

She couldn't move as the spider person from earlier stepped next to her.

"... that they are awfully stingy with their money. Ahuhuhuhu."

Nafi whipped her head around, searching for the spider's glowing red eyes in the darkness. Where were they?!

"You think your tastes are too refined for our pastries, don't you dearie?"

Nafi, desperate to see how many spiders she was dealing with, interrupted the spider person, "Where are your spiders then?"

The soft sound of scuttling stopped abruptly, terrifying Nafi even more. The spider person deadpanned, "Are you blind?"

Nafi looked back, panicked and confused in equal measures, "No? I just don't see any spiders?"

The spider person was now also confused, "You- How do you not see any spiders? They're all around you."

Nafi looked around again ignoring the tiny monsters sitting in the webs, "Then where are the glowing red eyes?"

"Glowing eyes? Why would we need glowing eyes? We can see perfectly fine in the dark."

"Well obviously you can't because there are no spiders here."

"Of course, there is! Right here! Practically on top of you!"

"Even without the glowing eyes, I think I would be able to spot two-yard-long spiders on me."

"Two yards? I think you mean two inches."

"Where are you getting that? Have you ever seen a spider before or does inch mean something different?"

"I am a spider! We are surrounded by spiders! What are you talking about?!"

"Spiders of course! They're gigantic, have glowing eyes, and want to eat my face off!"

"Your face doesn't even look tasty?"

"Tell that to a spider!"

The spider person buried her face in her many hands and screamed in frustration. "Just, just go. I can no longer deal with you."

The webs let Nafi go and she ran out the door, dodging the tiny spider-look-a-like monsters on her way out.

She sprinted so fast Mettaton never even had a chance to start his cameras before she was past his vantage point.

Once out onto the normal rocky pathways of Hotland, Nafi stopped just long enough to quietly say, "Monster plants, skeletons and spiders. Just need the zombies and we'll have the whole set."

She took the next left up some stairs and up to a building obviously created in honor of the robot after her. Standing next to the building was Sans.

Nafi slowed to a stop next to the doors, and because he was standing next to them, also Sans.

"hey kid, what's the rush?"

Nafi glanced at him. Her phone rang. She ignored it.

Sans sighed, "you know everyone is worried about you."

"Shouldn't you be more worried about the celebrity?" she scoffed.

"celebrity? metta has maybe 20 people watching him on a good day. besides, he needs the pin in his ego sometimes."

Nafi gave him a more thorough look.

Sans held out his hand, "how about grabbing some dinner with me, tori, pap, undyne, and alphys first, then you can keep going."

Sans was calling to make things right.

Nafi answered the call.


Nafi dutifully ignored the fact that Sans teleported her through a wall, and took in the sight of Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys clustered around a table.

She observed each one as they interacted.

Toriel seemed to be silently laughing at something, or maybe it was a slight concern. She had the same hand to the mouth gesture for both emotions.

Papyrus was angry, but it was the anger he had at Sans's puns, so not actually angry.

Undyne and Alphys were looking away from each other, Alphys even going the extra mile and hiding his face in his hands. Nafi couldn't see Undyne's face as she was looking away, so whatever was going on there she couldn't say.

"so, I found her," Sans said from beside her.

Everyone looked over and Nafi, even with Sans's reassurances, expected to see anger or resentment. Although now that she could see Alphys's and Undyne's faces the blushes were readily apparent, wonder what they had been talking about?

There was anger nowhere to be seen, in fact the most common emotion was joy. Toriel and Papyrus both even jumped up and ran over for a hug with a cry of "Nafi!" / "HUMAN!" respectively.

Nafi braced herself as the two monsters slammed into her, locking her jaw to quiet the twinge of pain from her bad shoulder. That didn't stop Toriel from noticing the bandages. "Your hurt!" she cried.

Undyne spoke up in the background, "Uh, that's my fault."

Nafi replied, "I saved you from a burning building, I'd say we're even."

Alphys asked "Is that why your home is on fire?" as Toriel carefully dragged Nafi over to the table, Sans and Papyrus followed close behind.

Nafi sat down and Toriel got to work on healing her shoulder, stopping just long enough for Nafi to pull out some food bars. Between bites, she asked, "So what were you talking about?"

Papyrus answered first, "TORIEL IS JUST AS FULL OF PUNS AS MY BROTHER! AND THE FACT ALPHYS THOUGHT THIS WAS A DATE WITH UNDYNE."

Nafi blinked as Alphys and Undyne blushed, swallowed what was in her mouth and said, "Have fun then."

Everyone looked at her and she continued eating, until she asked, "Is that not what you say when someone is getting married?"

About three people all said "No?" at the same time.

Papyrus shook off his confusion first, "HUMAN, DID I OFFEND YOU?"

Now it was Nafi's turn to ask, "No?" Although it came out more like "Mnu?" as her mouth was full.

"WHY DID YOU NEVER PICK UP?"

"I expected yelling and screaming and didn't want to stop to listen."

Alphys spoke up, "About what?"

"The general offended yelling when someone embarrasses a celebrity. Though Sans said he isn't so…" Toriel finished healing Nafi's arm, allowing her to shrug.

Alphys blinked. "He's the underground's only celebrity. H-humans actually react like that?"

The other monsters at the table voiced similar disbelief.

"I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE A CELEBRITY THEN. I WANT TO DEFEND MYSELF."

"seriously? i found it funny."

"Chara didn't mention anything like that. Then again maybe he didn't know."

"Humans must have bigger heads than I thought! Embarrassment is funny!"

Nafi scoffed, "Have as long as I've been alive, and I was born in 42XX."

"F-f-f-42XX! The current year is 20XX," Alphys exclaimed, "W-what the heck happened!"

Nafi looked at Alphys in shock and everyone looked at Nafi in shock.

The silence stretched out for almost a minute before Sans finally found his voice, "how long ago was the last earthquake?"

Alphys looked at Sans and pulled out a notebook, flipping through frantically as Nafi answered, "2200 years, the anniversary was just a few days ago. What does this have to do with me going back in time?"

Alphys answered before Sans did, "Because you didn't go backwards, we went forwards."

The silence came back for one more beat before Toriel shakily asked, "Explanation please?"

Alphys rambled out an answer, "The earthquake was 20 years ago our time and 2200 years her time and when the earthquake happened the Core went into flux and I could never find out what it did because we never got more energy or lost power but multiple other machines went absolutely crazy including a few that the previous royal scientist made that I have no idea what they do but if we all got put into time stop then that makes so much more sense because nothing has been falling down into the trash pit since the earthquake and OH MY GOSH I need to get back to my lab and write this down!"

He dashed from the table, everyone else calling out for him to stop. Nafi stuffed the rest of her food into her mouth and took off after him.

She saw him entering an elevator in the corner just as it closed behind him. She ran over and pried open the doors, jumping onto the opposite wall and letting the doors slam shut behind her. Sliding down after the quickly moving elevator, she realized the consequences of her rash decision.

Thinking quickly, she pushed off the wall, wrapped the ends of her cape around her hands, and grabbed the cable holding the elevator.

Her hands didn't exactly escape unscathed, but she was lowering and much more controlled speed.

And now that she had a moment to think, she realized that she didn't remember an elevator anywhere near Alphys's lab, much less one that led straight to the top.

The elevator stopped and Nafi lowered herself down to the roof hatch and opened it to get inside. Dropping down, she hit the button for the doors to open and stepped out into a dark and ominous medical room.

Alphys was nowhere in sight

"Son of a Creeper's spore sack."