The enormous door slammed shut behind the two children, locking them out into the rest of the world. Chara turned slightly, brushing their hand against the dusty, cold, unfeeling stone. How tempting it truly was to try and turn back. But there was nothing left for them back there…. Frisk made sure of that.

The human sucked in a breath, allowing the frigid air to flood their lungs and permeate their already cold body. A thin, crunchy layer of snow coated the ground before being cut off by a distinct path through the forest ahead. Indeed, all around them stood hundreds of tightly packed, nearly pitch black trees that reached up endlessly into the dark abyss of the cavern ceiling. The human shook their head slightly before waving Chara over and pushing forward down the path.

The path stretched out endlessly, leading the two into a claustrophobic tunnel of trees. You could hardly see if there even was an end in sight, and it almost provided an optical illusion, making it seem as if it went on forever, like a looping image. Nothing spackled the path, nothing distinguished start from end or a change of segment. The only thing of note throughout the entire walkway was a single, rather large tree branch. It was so out of place in the otherwise blank locale that you had to wonder if someone placed it there intentionally.

That idea became much more valid to Chara when the two stepped over it, walked a few feet, and immediately heard an extremely loud crack. When Chara turned to look back, the branch was shattered into splinters, and their heart was on the verge of exploding.

The human pushed forward for a moment, seemingly ignoring the obvious ominousness. But then, they paused, jolted around, and walked back to inspect the branch.

"It's been smashed like it was nothing…"

"Ah- ahaha- that is- that's not terrifying at all!" Chara couldn't stop the nervous laugh bubbling out of them.

The human stood up, straightening their body like one would straighten a bug they were pinning to a board. They stared blankly at the branch for a moment, before pivoting once again and pressing onward without a second thought.

Chara clung to the human's arm, nearly crushing down on it in their nervousness. They felt as if something was following them; they swore they heard an extra set of footsteps, but every time they turned around, there was nothing in sight. But- but that didn't mean whoever was stalking them couldn't hide in the treeline, or turn themself invisible! A dry stickiness settled in their throat that even the cold snowy air didn't help. After what felt like hours of walking, but could have only been a few seconds, Chara paused and asked something.

"You… surely you feel that too? You must hear something following us!"

"Of course I do."

"ARE- Are you not going to do something about it?!"

The human shrugged and lowered their gaze to the ground. Chara suddenly realized that they had reached a strange bridge. It stretched over a rather small, but infinitely deep gap, and had weird diagonally-placed bars stretching over it. The human paused at the line just between the ground and the bridge.

"Why aren't we crossing?"

"Because someone's behind us."

"That is all the more reason to cross- I- they're coming right now, I can hear it!"

"I know." The human grabbed Chara's hand and squeezed tight. "Just don't speak, and don't move."

The footsteps grew louder and heavier with every second. It had the same sound as crunching down on snow, despite the fact that the path was frozen solid ground… which meant they were truly that weighty and methodical. The human felt the steps stop just a few inches behind them, and they waited for some sort of physical contact. Maybe a hand on the shoulder or a knife through the back… If they were fast enough, they might be able to catch whoever it was off guard by convincing them that they were just a scared, frail kid.

But then, the entity spoke. Their voice was crisp, low, and hollow.

"Human. Don't you know… how to greet a new pal?" The speed at which they spoke was almost agonizingly slow. "Turn around… and shake my hand…"

The human's body twitched slightly, and their neck cracked as it turned before their body. Pivoting around like a poorly animated puppet, they reached their hand towards the shadowed figure, trying to ignore the feeling of Chara digging their nails into their skin.

PHBBBBBBBBBBBT

Haeh?

The human jerked their hand back, and the moment they blinked, the shadows disappeared from the figure in front of them. Though it was perhaps more grotesque without the darkness.

The figure had a bizarre, gaunt face, with skeletal features aside from the mouth, which was plastered across, frozen in a haunting smile. Thankfully, the face was the most unsettling thing about it, as it wore a casual outfit consisting of a white turtleneck, a blue winter jacket, and a pair of black gym shorts. It was about the same height as Chara. The human took an awkward step back, now standing side to side with their companion.

The creature spoke once more, though now it seemed to have a far more accented dialect.

"Heh, the ol' whoopee cushion in the hand trick. It's always funny…"

Thoroughly caught off guard by this, Chara suddenly burst out laughing. Perhaps it was partially out of nerves but the striking realization of what happened certainly didn't help. Ah- ahaha… maybe it was for the best. They needed a quick laugh in these trying times.

The creature let out a low chuckle. "Seems like I'm getting a bit of a mixed reaction."

The human tilted their head, narrowing their eyes, and the creature gestured to where Chara would be if it could see them.

"Well, at least you're little inviso-pal has a sense've humor."

The human froze solid and Chara immediately clapped their hands over their mouth. How did…. Could it actually hear them?

After an awkward silence, the creature continued, shrugging to themself. "...Whatever. You're a human, right? That's hilarious. I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton."

Ah, so that's what he was supposed to be… It was both understandable and completely unbelievable. But then again, neither Chara nor the human had ever seen a human skeleton in person, so who were they to judge.

"I'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. But… y'know…" He vaguely waved his hand in a circle, the other still resting in his pocket. "I don't really care about capturing anybody."

Chara had noted that his mouth had barely moved at all during his entire monologue. It didn't open when he spoke, and the corners only barely twitched when he changed emotions. At least his eye sockets were somewhat expressive… Speaking of which.

The man's eyes seemed to light up slightly. "Now my brother, Papyrus… he's a human hunting FANATIC. Hey, actually…" Sans pointed behind the human, who turned and spotted a vague looking humanoid a ways past the bridge, at the edge of a nearby clearing. "I think that's him over there. I have an idea. Go through this gate thingy."

The human turned back to glare at Sans in suspicion.

"Go on, go right through. My bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone."

"Why would I go towards someone who wants to capture me."

Sans lifted an eyebrow (or at least, the ridge where an eyebrow would be if he had skin.) "Huh. Not what I thought y'd sound like. Anyways, y'got nothing to worry about." Without further explanation, he pushed the human forward, dragging Chara along for the ride.

The trio awkwardly shoved into the clearing, revealing a small space filled with oddly specifically placed piles of snow, a lopsided, gaudy colored lamp, and a wooden burger stand.

Sans shoved the human towards the ugly, disgusting lamp. "Quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp."

Upon closer inspection, the lamp was in fact shaped in such a way that if the human walked behind it, they would be completely hidden from most angles. They couldn't exactly argue with that so…

Chara just flopped down on the ground, curled up as best they could behind the human. Just as the two fell into position, the other (presumably) skeleton brother trounced into the clearing.

He wore a mismatched, indescribable outfit that looked more like something out of a comic book than an actual set of clothes people would wear. The only thing that looked vaguely "correct" was the tattered red scarf around his bony neck. At least his skull was more resembling something skeletal than his shorter brother's. Indeed, this one seemed to be about the same height as the human, making the two pairs oddly symmetrical.

"Sup, bro?"

"You know what "sup," brother!" Agh- wow, his voice was as bizarre as his appearance. It was also accented, but in the same way that a cartoon tv villain from decades ago is accented. "It's been eight days and you still haven't… RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!" The man swung his fists in an overly animated fashion. "You just hang around outside your station; what are you even doing?!"

"Staring at this lamp. It's really cool. Do you wanna look?"

The human's pulse jumped up for a moment. What, was this supposed to be some sort of betrayal? Were they supposed to be upset at this?

"No! I don't have time for that! What if a human comes through here?! I want to be ready! I will be the one- I MUST BE THE ONE!"

Sans let out a tired sigh, his smile shifting to something more genuine and eyes lightening as Papyrus fell into his own loud monologue.

"I will capture a human! Then, I, the Great Papyrus… will get all the things I utterly deserve! Respect, recognition! I will finally be able to join the royal guard! People will ask, to, be my, 'friend?'"

At this point, Chara had rolled over onto their stomach and out from the human's shadow. Their chin rested in their hands and a smile slowly creeped on to their face as Papyrus continued his tirade. Ah, so that's why Sans said not to worry… this guy was… silly! Almost like a hero Chara'd read about in their books! Um… they don't remember reading any books though-

"~I will bathe in a shower of kisses every morning~."

A humorous tone filled Sans' voice. "Hmm. Maybe this lamp will help you."

"SANS! You are NOT helping! You lazybones! All you do is sit and boondoggle! You get lazier and lazier every day!"

"Hey, take it easy. I've gotten a ton of work done today…."

A strange pause hung in the a-

"A skele-ton."

"SANS! Don't interrupt the narration with your jokes!"

"Come on, you're smiling."

"I AM AND I HATE IT. Sigh…" Papyrus raised a hand to his head in a dramatic manner. "Why does someone like me… have to do so much just to get some recognition…

"Wow, sounds like you're really working yourself… down to the bone."

"Ugh! I will attend to my puzzles. As for YOUR work? Put a little more… 'backbone' into it!"

Chara accidentally let out a snort, which was thankfully muffled by Papyrus' own maniacal(?) laughter. The skeleton made a swift exit, though not before letting out one final "heh" for good measure.

"Ok, you can come out now."

The human still made sure that the sound of Papyrus' footsteps had fully faded before exiting their hiding spot. They shot an incomprehensible look at Sans, who simply returned it with a snide smile. Then they helped Chara to their feet before heading to the edge of the clearing. Unfortunately, Sans stopped them before they could ditch him.

"Actually, hey… hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor?"

The human titled their head, waiting for him to continue.

"I was thinking… my brother's been kinda down lately… He's never seen a human before. And seeing you might just make his day." Before the human could preemptively argue, Sans tacked on "Don't worry, he's not dangerous. Even if he tries to be."

Chara could already tell that Frisk was about to say no, so they tugged at their sleeve. They shot up a smile at them, as a reminder that they promised to be kinder, and give the monsters a chance. A skeptical look still floated in their eyes, so Chara jerked them a little closer to whisper in their ear. After all, Sans could apparently hear them.

"There's no harm in it! After all, that Papyrus character doesn't seem too scary at all… and I don't think Sans will harm us if we just play along…"

Also… they kind of owed Chara after… everything that happened with Toriel. But they did not vocalize such cruel thoughts.

The human groaned a little, but responded with a curt "fine" to Sans.

"Thanks a million. I'll be up ahead."

With that, he walked in the opposite direction. The human muttered "moron" under their breath before moving on to the next area of the forest.

The trees had cleared up and shrunken significantly, now barely being twice the kids' heights. A sign next to an out of place box sat in front of one of the branching paths. But, once more, the human was more concerned with the glowing point at the foot of one of those trees.

Reflecting back on it, they were extremely lucky that the previous encounter had worked out so well. Almost as if the universe was bending around them to guarantee success.

The convenience of that lamp still filled them with determination.

The feeling of approximately 1/4th maximum LOVE. The feeling of strength coursing through their veins and the path to victory widening.

Straightening themself back up, the human rolled their head and cracked their neck. The cold air flooded their lungs. They turned to observe the two branching paths, and the wooden box.

"Where do you propose we go?" Chara prodded. They very much wished to explore this frigid wonderland, and not just to find some warmth.

The human hummed in thought, before walking over to read the sign next to the box.

"This is a box-"

"Fascinating!"

"...You can put an item inside or take an item out. The same box will appear later, so don't worry about coming back. Sincerely, a box lover…" The human twitched slightly. "How does that work?"

"It's likely a temporal-space spell. Is there anything you wish to rid yourself of?" Chara had a sudden intrusive thought of making a quip like "you" or "me" something, but they brushed it aside.

Unclicking the golden latch, the human heaved the surprisingly heavy lid open. Oddly enough, there was already a compressed item inside. Laying at the bottom, in the corner, was a large glowing green ball… One could interpret it as a shivering, afraid animal, if they had the inclination.

As soon as the item left the inner area of the box, it transformed into a roughened pink leather glove. The human mulled over the belongings taking up space in their pocket in consideration of what to trade. They could drop some of their stuff, or place it in the box. After all, one never knows when one needs a non-licorice candy.

The toy knife wasn't actually that useful in the end, considering it was made of plastic. It was only the human's own force of will that allowed it to kill. But considering they were back in a state of apathy, there was no point to it anymore. The human put the leather glove on their left hand, and placed the now-compressed knife in the box.

Chara frowned slightly. What a shame. They liked that shade of blue, and the glove was much uglier and older looking than the knife… But at least it would keep the human's hand warm, or something. The child grimaced as their companion began heading towards the northern path, and they dragged their feet to follow. Perhaps it was a silly thing to be grumpy over, but it was hard to blame them for being in a more rotten mood than before, now that they were alone with their Frisk.

Unfortunately, though at this point, rather unsurprisingly, the human hardly made it past the tree line before they nearly tripped over an approaching monster. Some sort of freakish, enormous bird barreled into them from the side, causing them to crash into the snowy ground.

The human reacted instinctively and immediately, shoving themself off the ground and spinning to kick the monster away. The bird let out a screech as it soared in an arc, though it also sounded vaguely similar to it making an ice pun..? Once it landed, some discus-like pieces of ice rose out of the ground and swooped towards the human, though they were very easily avoidable.

The human sighed, forcing their body to relax. It was just a bird. Though large, it wasn't as if it was the height of a crane or ostrich or anything. Reaching their arm forward in a rather unenthused gesture of comradery, they asked, "Are you sure you want to fight me? I don't think either of us want that."

The bird simply cackled cheekily, like a child pretending to be an evil mastermind while playing. More ice blades swirled past the human's head, but all they had to do was shift slightly to the left to avoid it.

"Alright. You asked for this."

Chara bit their lip and dug their nails into their palms as the human rushed forward, their fist poised for impact.

It's funny, how the snow hid the dust so deceptively. You wouldn't even know someone lived or died in this place. Chara sighed, knowing that any beration they gave their partner would just lead to another circular discussion.

A thought suddenly occurred to the twelve year old. Perhaps, if they let their anger stew for long enough, it would eventually explode out and actually be enough to harm Frisk. Not physically of course, but maybe this would actually get them to listen later down the line. Um… it was probably selfish to sacrifice others for their own manipulation… to get their own desired results. Even if it might save people- monster's lives…

Hm.

Chara's shadow looked a little more present.

The detour did not appear to be worth that Snowdrake's life (why did they know it's name, they still had to wonder), seeing as the path led to a rather sudden dead end at the bank of a river. The only thing of note, and possibly deliberately so, was a fishing rod affixed to the ground. Chara poked at the bottom.

"It looks like they just stuck it into the ground and let it freeze over?"

The human pulled the string out of the water, only to find a soggy polaroid photo with a caption stating 'Call Me! Here's my number!' Chara snickered sharply at the human's baffled reaction.

"I don't think I will."

"What, you're telling me you're not going for that hot dish? That tall glass of water?"

"I didn't take you for a flirt, Chara."

Chara merely hummed in amusement as the duo turned around. But such joviality was rather impermanent. The phone number seemed to remind the human of something, and they suddenly pulled their phone out of their pocket. They dialed a number, and let the phone ring.

There was only one number the human knew, and Chara was rather unsure as to why they would call her. But still… Chara slunk behind Frisk and stated in a monotone voice, "But nobody came. Why would you call her? When you were the one that made it impossible?"

"Just wanted to make sure."

Chara twitched, taken aback by the answer. "What..?"

"Nothing. Let's keep going."

The emotional variation Chara felt in the past five minutes was not very appreciated.

The duo walked back to the branching path and moved to the east, deeper into the forest. The snow crunched loudly beneath the two's feet. After a few meters, the skeleton brothers came into view, and they could pick up on a conversation they'd been having.

"So, as I was saying about Undyne-"

Papyrus cut himself off to jerk his head 90 degrees to the left, and stared at the human with a shocked look on his face. The human's lack of reaction made for an amusing contrast.

Papyrus turned to look at his brother, who at the same time had turned to look at the human. Noticing this, Sans turned to look back at Papyrus, who had turned to look back at the human. Noticing this, Papyrus turned to look back at Sans, who had turned to look back at the human. Noticing this-

The brothers spun in place for a good ten seconds at exponentially rapid rates before stopping on a dime and facing away from the human, whispering to each other like excited school boys.

"Sans! Oh my God! Is that… a human?!"

Well, whispering as quietly as Papyrus could anyway.

"Actually…"

The two turned back to face the human, though their gaze fell on something beyond them. "I think that's a rock."

"Oh."

"Hey, what's that in front of the rock?"

"...OH MY GOD! Is… is that a human?"

"Yes."

"OH MY GOD!" Papyrus jumped in the air, and Chara half expected him to click his heels. "Sans, I finally DID IT! Undyne will… I'm gonna… I'll be so… POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR!"

Papyrus suddenly straightened himself up, and cleared his nonexistent throat. "Human! You shall not pass this area! I, the Great Papyrus, will stop you! I will then capture you! You will be delivered to the Capital! Then… THEN! I'm not sure what's next."

The human narrowed their eyes at the skeleton, who thankfully did not interpret it in any negative manner.

"In any case! Continue… only if you dare! NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!"

As he laughed, Papyrus zoomed away faster than a hedgehog. Sans merely shrugged as he turned to follow.

"Well, that went well. Don't sweat it kid. I'll keep an eyesocket out for ya."

And with that, he was gone.

…..

Sans chuckled to himself as he hung up the phone. Ah, the classic refrigerator prank. You see, it was actually rather clever, as anyone who has prerequisite knowledge of the joke will walk away with a life lesson regardless, and be thoroughly surprised. And anyone who doesn't, get's prank'd.

Speaking of which, there were probably some ways to exploit that weird thing following the human. For jokes that is. Something about it seemed vaguely familiar, but, whatever. Who cares if it's familiar or not. There was no way for him to tell what was familiar cuz he actually met it in the past or what was familiar because another version of him that no longer existed met it in the past/alternate present. Ugh. It's fine. It doesn't matter.

Speaking of which again… well, maybe it was too early to tell but he hadn't felt any weird blips. For the past half day. Usually he felt something. Something that told him that he had lost some memory that no longer existed. That he was now a different Sans than what he was "meant" to be. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to actually keep what happened. To know what he lost. He might be a different person. Well, even more different than he was, given he knew WHY he felt these things.

It sure would be nice if it stopped just like that one day, and he never had to worry about something didn't know he had. Not having to worry about whether someone died without him knowing, or whether he lost some sort of unimaginable happiness.

The blips weren't happening. So maybe what he had now, would stay that way. That'd be cool. Although… what if he was turning into one of the Sans' that didn't exist anymore? What if, for once, he was stuck on a terminated path, instead of the "main" one? What if-

Ah, thank god, the human walked up and interrupted his thought process. We can't be getting existential right now, it's too early in the morning for this. What time was it anyhow?

The human walked up to him and stared him down once more. They had a weird habit of doing that. They also made a habit of talking to that invisible person rather often. If Sans had an invisible person following him around, he wouldn't talk to them out in the open like that, because it makes you look insane. Of course, the fact that he could very barely hear a voice and see very faint footsteps helped the human look a little less crazy. But everything else about them kinda negated that.

They walked strange, they talked strange, they didn't emote, they didn't even bother wiping off the dust on their hands. Yeah. Don't think he didn't notice that. And hey, maybe it was self defense or something. Maybe he wouldn't even have to bother keeping an eye out for them. That'd be pretty great honestly, and not just cuz he couldn't be bothered.

The human wasn't moving, so Sans took a stab in the dark and started talking.

"Hey, here's something important to remember. My brother has a very special attack. If you see a blue attack, don't move and-"

"I know."

Sans paused. That wasn't supposed to- "Oh, really?" Wait… were they..?

"Yeah, there was a dog back there that tried to stab me. It didn't work." The footprints behind them shuffled around slightly.

Oh. Nevermind then. "Well, good for you. Just gotta remember the blue stop signs, amirite?"

The human nodded, and skidded across the ice to read the sign in the center of the nearby lake. After that, they headed north, disappearing for a few moments. They returned with fuller pockets and some sort of residue in their hands, and headed east. Huh.

Well, that was his cue.

Sans took a step forward, and appeared in front of his brother, who had always been speaking to him of course. As had he. The conversation felt oddly tiring, so even though he knew he was responding, he wasn't quite there at all. But once Papyrus noticed the human, he didn't have to care about that anymore either.

It wasn't that Papyrus tired him. Quite the opposite, really. But something was certainly off today. It… was probably to do with the human honestly. He should have come to that conclusion a bit ago, probably. Heh.

Papyrus snapped to attention and began presenting his first devious trap. And it was rather devious, in Sans' opinion. Devious as in clever, not devious as in evil. But he shouldn't have to point that out because there was no one in the whole universe who could possibly misinterpret Papyrus as evil.

"My brother and I have created some puzzles! I think you will find this one… quite shocking!" And at that, Papyrus ribbed Sans, causing both to snicker loudly. "FOR YOU SEE, this is the invisible… electricity maze!"

The human showed little reaction at all besides a raised eyebrow.

"When you touch the walls of this maze-" Papyrus dug a very large glass orb out of his back pocket- "This orb will administer a hearty zap! Sound like fun? BECAUSE! The amount of fun you will probably have, is actually rather small I think."

The human nodded in agreement.

"Ok, you can go ahead now."

Sans realized a second before the human stepped forward the mistake that Papyrus made, but he didn't exactly have time to warn him. Would he even warn him if he did have time? Because when Papyrus smoked up like that, it was pretty damn funny. Even the human had to stifle a laugh as he began stomping his foot, the soot already having crumbled off him.

"SANS! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"I think the human has to hold the orb."

"Oh, okay."

Papyrus trekked his way through the maze perfectly, leaving sooty prints in the snow, before slam dunking the orb onto the human's head. It made a coconut sound. Papyrus made his way back to the exit of the maze and called for the human to try their hand at the puzzle.

It would be a mistake to say that Papyrus was an idiot. He just had an excellent sense of comedic timing. Indeed, Sans thought he was better than him at such jokes. He went through so much planning and clever and hilarious line delivery. He wondered if he'd ever get to that level of genius some day.

The human made their way through the puzzle with ease, right up until the end. Even though they had escaped the maze, something touched the boundaries anyway, and the human got zapped. They whirled around and for the first time, Sans saw a modicum of expression on their face.

"What the hell are you doing?"

….

"Well it was a stupid one."

"Whatever."

Papyrus was undeterred by this odd interruption, and continued with the bit.

"Incredible! You slippery snail! You solved it so easily… TOO EASILY! HOWEVER! The next puzzle will not be easy! It is designed by my brother, Sans! You will surely be confounded! I know I am! NYEHEHEHEHEHEH!"

And with that he moonwalked away.

The human walked up to Sans again. Sigh. Even though he didn't like 'em much at all, he had to at least be grateful for their cooperation. He guessed.

"Hey, thanks… My brother seems like he's having fun."

"No problem."

Is it now? "By the way, did you see that weird outfit he's wearing?"

"Yeah."

"We made that a few weeks ago for a costume party. He hasn't worn anything else since… Keeps calling it his 'battle body.' Man."

….

"Isn't my brother cool?"

….

The human popped the non-licorice candy in their mouth as they stuffed the Nice Cream into their pockets. The healing pooled through their veins, clashing strangely against the chill of the outside.

"You can feel it too, right? When I heal?"

Chara nodded.

"Does it feel good?"

"Wouldn't you know?"

The human shook their head. "I don't know what this feeling is."

Chara stared at the ground as they walked onward, observing the little deviations in the snow. "I think it feels nice. Like drinking honey… Smooth, soothing, and… sweet."

The human nodded, pausing only to take a passing glance at Sans. It seems he'd stopped to watch them. His piercing stare was rather frustrating, so the human chose to ignore him, instead walking past without speaking to him.

The ground fell away somewhat into an isolated cliff edge with two more sentry stations paired onto it. The stations were decorated with cute little dog patterns, and were lightly dusted with snow. In between the two stations sat a sign giving out smell ratings. Chara actually felt rather smart for realizing why the GREEN was colored red.

The two stations were labeled his and hers.

"Frisk, are you a dog person?"

"No, I'm a human."

"Ha, ha. But do you like dogs?" Chara was actually rather curious to their answer, seeing as they knew very few personal opinions of their partner's.

"I've never met a dog before. So I don't know."

Chara halted in place. "WHAT?! How have you never seen a dog before?"

The human merely shrugged. "I know what they look like, I guess. But I've never seen one."

"Um. Okay, that's rather weird. But… oh, oh well."

The two headed back to the main path, blatantly ignoring Sans' stare.

"Well, I am- I'm actually a cat person, I think. There was this very cute little cat that lived on the streets. It used to come visit me when I was locked outside, and we would feed each other treats. It got taken away though, but I still really like cats… Dogs are cute too though."

The human noticed that the path carved out of the snow formed into a sort of field, and a large hold with a mechanism inside lay at the end… It was a game.

They couldn't have their partner feeling miserable this whole time. Contrary to an outsider's view, they weren't entirely unaware of their Chara's sad mood. And they could not be blamed for such a thing. They had a goal in mind, to reach the exit of the Underground. But a secondary, and perhaps more important goal was to keep Chara happy. They did not know why they felt this, but it should be done.

The human tugged on Chara's sleeve. "Hey, do you wanna play a game?" And they gestured to the snow field.

Chara scanned the sight, before realization lit up their eyes. With a childish joy that many people would kill to have again, Chara rushed up to the surprisingly sturdy snowball and started kicking it around. The human moved to stand in the center of the field, so as to give their partner more room to play. It took several minutes, and the snowball nearly crumbled into nothingness, but eventually, they scored a goal. (Is that the correct term for this game? What game even is this, they wondered, they wondered.)

A purple flag sprung up from the hole, with a little note tied to it, almost like the kind inside a fortune cookie. Chara squinted and read it aloud.

"Purple - Even when you felt trapped, you took notes and achieved the end of 'Ball.'"

The human crouched down and picked up 2G that had been dispensed from the pit. "Huh. Neat."

"Very neat!" Chara clapped their hands together. "That was quite enjoyable. You should play it if it resets!"

"Nah, I'm good. I just thought you'd enjoy it."

"Oh… really?" Chara wasn't quite sure what to think of that. But it was a nice sentiment. Perhaps this was their partner's way of making things up to them. So even if they were still feeling somewhat spiteful about certain things, they still appreciated it. "Well, that's very nice of you."

The two continued east, but not before Chara made a pun about a snowdecahedron.

The next chunk of the path led them right back to the skeleton brothers, and most remaining tension between the duo released. It was hard to be upset around those wacky bois.

"HUMAN!" Papyrus shouted across the path. "I hope you're ready for…"

It could just be a trick, but the human duo saw nothing but a piece of paper on the ground.

"SANS! Where's the puzzle!"

"It's right there. On the ground. Trust me. There's no way they can get past this one."

Chara smirked up at the human. "Well, it technically is a puzzle. I think I see a crossword on it."

The human snorted a short laugh, before very deliberately stepping over the paper.

"SANS. THEY DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT IT!"

"Whoops. I knew I should have used today's crossword instead."

"WHAT?! CROSSWORD?! I can't believe you said that! In my opinion… Junior Jumble is easily the hardest."

It was very hard for Chara to keep quiet as the skeleton's started bickering again. It reminded them of some vague memory, but to what they were unsure.

"What? Really, dude? That easy-peasy word scramble? That's for baby bones."

"Un. Believable." Both brothers suddenly pivoted to face the human, nearly jumpscaring them. "HUMAN! Solve this dispute! Jumble or crossword?"

The human furrowed their eyebrows. After all, they had played neither before. Time to divert back to Chara, just like last time.

"What do you think?" they whispered.

"Hm… I suppose Jumble, since the words aren't immediately obvious…. I guess."

"Jumble."

Papyrus punched the air. "HA. HA. YES! Humans must be very intelligent, if they also find Junior Jumble so difficult! Nyeh! Heh! Heh heh!"

And off he goes again.

"Thanks for saying Junior Jumble just to appease my brother. Yesterday he got stumped trying to 'solve' the horoscope."

And Sans also disappeared from view. So the two had no choice but to move on as well.

Oh.

Another glowing point. Nothing else in this location mattered to the human. There was a vague awareness of a table with spaghetti on it, a table with a microwave on it, and a large piece of paper on the ground, but all the human felt was the point. The determination.

That rush. That push. Keep going and going and going and-

"Human! Please enjoy this spaghetti!" Chara began reading the note aloud. "(Little do you know, this spaghetti is a trap… designed to entice you!"

The human immediately shot a look of vague annoyance at the spaghetti upon this revelation.

"You'll be so busy eating it… that you won't realize that you aren't progressing! Thoroughly japed again by the Great Papyrus! Nyeheheh, Papyrus."

"I believe we're in agreement that we won't eat the spaghetti," said the human.

Chara walked over to the plate to inspect it. "Hm. It doesn't matter anyways. It's stuck to the table. What a shame…"

"Why is that a shame? He literally said that it's meant to stop us from progressing."

"Well, yes…" Chara waved their hands vaguely as the two began east again. "But… well these two skeletons… they aren't really blocking our way, are they? As in, they're rather harmless."

"True. But we don't know if it will stay that way. Toriel was 'rather harmless' too, and she tried to kill us."

That was exactly what Chara was trying to avoid. They hoped that they could manipulate their partner's view, to avoid a potential death of one of these skeletons should they actually get the spine (heh) to attack them. But it seemed that was already out the window…

The human shot a glance at their partner, and made an effort to concede. "Look, I'm not going to hurt them if they don't hurt me. The only issue is removal of what gets in my way. And… you're right. They aren't really in my way. So… if you're worried about them, for whatever reason… then don't be." The human still didn't understand Chara's excessive altruism towards their enemy, but they had to keep their promise. They had to keep their partner happy.

"Anyway," they continued, "I'd rather get out of this snowy area as fast as possible. Something about the air is kinda off. So an unnecessary fight would just impede that."

"Hm?" Chara stepped in front of the human, blocking their path. "Are you… alright? You're not hurting, are you?"

"Didn't you just try to electrocute me."

"As a joke! Anyway, you didn't answer my question."

"I don't know. I've never felt like this before."

Chara sat down, pulling the human to the snowy ground as well. "We have some time. Describe it to me." They tacked on a hurried 'please' at the end.

"Anywhere the air touches my skin feels like it's being stabbed. With very small… icicles. Like it's stabbing a doll that I'm stuck inside."

"Oh. Oh, so you are cold. Why didn't you just say so?"

The human shrugged, and offered their arms to Chara when they were grabbed. As their partner inspected their graying skin, they suddenly stiffened, and stared at the human in distress.

"What."

"The tips of your fingers are blue!"

"Oh."

"That's- that's not a good thing! We- that's a sign of frostbite, I believe! We have to keep you warm- how have you not mentioned this before? Doesn't it hurt?"

The human stared down at their fingertips, and for the first time in a while, Chara saw another glimpse of something genuine in their eyes. A sensation of… sadness. Their face portrayed nothing but an emptiness, as they ran their fingers over each other.

"It doesn't hurt. I can still feel them. But it doesn't really hurt. Not really. Not like it's supposed to, I don't think."

Chara rolled down the human's sleeves, covering their forearms. Then they clasped their hands over their partners. As an incorporeal presence, Chara was unsure if their body produced tangible warmth, but…. It was worth a try.

"There… that should at least help a little. Let's keep moving."

The duo roamed the snowy cliff face, searching for the next way forward… But the only path forward was blocked by a spike mechanism. Chara swung their head around, searching for a nearby switch or sign, like there had been in the Ruins. But the answer didn't seem so readily available this time. Hmmst.

The human trailed about, hunting for a possible solution as well. Unbeknownst to them, an armored dog was about to barrel into them at mach speeds, with the chance it could skewer them with the business end of a sword. Chara spotted it about two seconds before impact, and shouted a warning before rushing over to join their partner's side.

Stumbling out of the way, the human swirled their fist around in an arc, ramming it straight into the dog's chestplate. Both parties let out a whimper, since punching metal hurts quite a lot. But the dog seemed to realize it was way in over its head, as it started backing away anxiously, a golden gleam in its eye.

"Oh, thank goodness," Chara sighed. "I was not looking forward to killing another dog."

The human reached their hand forward, and awkwardly rubbed between the dog's ears. "You don't really want to fight me, do you?" It was meant to come off warm, but ended up rather menacing.

The dog shook its head, and slunked away, somewhat downtrodden. As a member of the royal guard, it was ashamed to have failed so easily. But what could one expect from a Lesser Dog?

It was rather cruel, but Chara couldn't help giggling at the sight of a warrior dog dragging his tail along as he skulked his way home. Ugh- no no, what was wrong with them? Think nice thoughts, just… ugh…

Enough of this nonsense. Enough of these quickly fluctuating moods. Just be normal, idiot, and feel normal things. And everything will be fine.

While Chara was mentally rambling to themself, the human had already discovered a solution. Buried beneath a particularly oddly colored patch of snow lay a map that pointed out the hidden switch. Dragging their partner along by the tether, the human clawed at the ground between two trees until it revealed a hidden button.

Click.

Excellent. The duo proceeded past the now-spikeless metal and over a small wooden bridge. But, of course, the universe is not so keen on letting them proceed easily. Before they could continue down their path, loud, heavy footsteps started to approach. The human froze. These monsters sounded much larger than the others they'd encountered…

Two enormous, hooded, bipedal dogs marched up the path. Each carried a gargantuan axe that dragged across the ground, leaving a mound of churned up dirt and snow in its wake. The only thing that could be seen from beyond the darkness of their hoods was their large snouts, which held rows of sharp canines.

And then they started talking.

Oh boy.

"What's that smell? (Where's that smell?) If you're a smell… (Identify yoursmellf!)"

The dogs circled around the human wildly. The sounds of their footsteps, the sounds of them sniffing, it was all just as large as them. The human pulled Chara closer, and tensed up their body in preparation for a fight.

Finally, the dogs stopped, inches from the human's face. They could smell the dogs' own breath and stench teeming off of them.

"Hmm… Here's that weird smell… It makes me want to eliminate…."

Thud thud thud.

"(Eliminate YOU!)"

Down came the chill of battle, and the human sprung backwards before the dogs had a chance to attack. They both pulled back their hoods to reveal their faces. Al…right… that was a little less menacing than expected. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it could be like the Lesser Dog, and they could simply scare them off before anyone got seriously hurt.

The human rushed forward, ducking under the swinging axes, and landed a solid hit on Dogamy's jaw. It stumbled away for a moment before retaliating. The axe very barely nicked their arm, carving a sliver into their sleeve and skin. Chara jumped in, shoving them away from Dogaressa's axe and avoiding another hit. The human let out a rough sigh.

"Okay… I'll try 'n hit a little softer." Wouldn't wanna risk anything.

The human loosened their fist a little bit, and ran towards Dogamy once again. Hopping over Dogaressa's axe swing this time, they landed on Dogamy's shoulders and grabbed him by the head. Tilting forward, they slammed his head into the ground before hopping off once more.

It did some damage, and he looked worn out… but he wasn't giving up either. Maybe just a little more? They sent an uncertain glance at Chara.

"Be careful…"

The human raced forward, and aimed straight for Dogamy's chest. It would knock the wind out of him, send him to the ground again, and then he'd realize that he shouldn't fight them!

But instead, the fist punched straight through him, and he crumbled into nothingness, melting into the snow.

Everyone froze for a moment, staring at the sight before them. The human clenched their fists in annoyance at such finicky fragility. Chara clenched their jaw, disturbed by how easily something so big had died. And Dogaressa…

"I'LL CUT YOU IN HALF!"

The human whipped around, their eyes widening as the axe filled their vision. Scrambling away at the last minute wasn't nearly enough to avoid harm. The axe crashed down on their leg, digging deep enough to carve into their bone before Dogaressa jerked it out roughly. The human stifled a furious scream, and scooted backwards, trying to force themself to their feet. They weren't going to be able to-

Chara dashed past Dogaressa and scooped their arms under Frisk's, helping them to their feet. "Come on! We have to run!"

But the human ignored them. They let out a scream of rage and wriggled out of Chara's arms. Their fist landed directly in Dogaressa's chest, sending her stumbling backwards. Her stagger didn't last long though, and as the human spun around to retreat and wind up another attack, she landed a deep slice diagonally along their back. The human went sprawling to the ground, their body covered in snow, dirt, and blood. Their body shook violently as they pushed up, and it took all their power to not let out a high pitched screech.

"Oh… please please, let's just go!" Chara cried out.

"I'm- not- giving up-" The human coughed as they steadied one more time. This was the last hit, they could feel it in their bones.

Duck under the axe, aim the blow right in the center of the chest, and…

Nothing but dust. Both axes lay on the ground, staining the snow with blood and dust. The chill of battle fluttered away, and with it, any feeling at all.

The human sighed deeply, and stared at the ground, watching as their blood dripped. Pitter patter. They only arose from their haze once they heard Chara start coughing.

"Are you okay?"

Chara's face twisted up as they tried to speak through their coughs. "Why- why are YOU- a- asking me that? Are you okay?"

The human shrugged, and Chara groaned. "You can't just go 'I don't know' every time I ask you that! How can you not know?! Doesn't it hurt?"

"It should."

"UGH! Forget it!" Chara's coughing finally died down. It was strange. As soon as the battle ended, the cold air suddenly felt a lot more real in their lungs. But that wasn't what they were most worried about. "I can't believe we just- They just died so easily! How were we so careless! How were YOU-"

"I'M TRYING!"

Chara flinched back, hung in place by the sudden outburst. Frisk's expression held a deep, unsettling hatred. But… one blink, and their expression was back to its normal indifference. Whatever expression Chara made seemed to have an effect on them though, as their face softened a little, even after they returned to flatness. Chara swallowed, forcing their body to relax.

"I- I'm sorry… You're trying… I am sorry. I-"

They'd been too pushy. What on earth were they thinking? How could they assume that… that just because Frisk was kind to them, that meant they could just do whatever they wanted? They were such an obedient child before, how could they have become so…

"I'll stop…"

The human shook their head, and moved silently forward. Even though they were trailing blood, they seemed disturbingly undeterred.

Well… let us continue.

The duo trekked down the path until they came across yet another barricaded area. This one was much more obvious in its solution. So much so that they didn't even need to read the sign telling them to turn all the x's into o's and then press the switch. The human circled around the puzzle, taking it in to make sure there wasn't any trickery. But as they were doing so, someone noticed them from beyond the spike wall.

"What!? How did you avoid my trap?" yelled Papyrus in surprise. "And, more importantly… is there any left for me?"

The human stared blankly, not at all registering what he was talking about. Indeed, it even took Chara a moment before they realized. "He's talking about the spaghetti."

"The spaghetti."

The spaghetti. "What are you going to tell him?"

The human didn't even think before responding, "I left it." Why lie?

"REALLY?! Wowie… You resisted the flavor of my homecooked pasta… just so you could share it with me?"

"Sure."

"Well, fret not human! I, Master Chef Papyrus… will make you all the pasta you could ever want! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHENYEH!"

And he backflipped all the way to work.

"Well," Chara clasped their hands together, "We are rather lucky he took that so well." And of course, in the time it took for them to say that, the human already solved the puzzle. "Hopefully the rest of the puzzles are this simple. We really should get you fixed up."

"Yeah. Hopefully."

Papyrus evidently did not get much farther along in the path, as it only took a few feet for him to come into view again. Though his body language showed that of disorientation, as soon as he noticed the human's approach, he stood at attention. The human cocked their head to the side, but the skeleton remained tight-lipped.

Lipped?

As the duo approached the next puzzle, Papyrus zipped up behind them, and it became rather evident why he was still here.

"HUMAN! Hmmm…. How do I say this… You were taking a long time to arrive earlier, so… I decided to improve this puzzle, by arranging the snow to look more like my face. Unfortunately, the snow froze to the ground. Now the solution is different!"

It was a rather charitable interpretation of the snow to say it looked anything like his face, but neither human chose to remark on such things.

"And, as usual, my lazy brother is nowhere around. I suppose what I am saying is…" Papyrus threw his scarf over his shoulder, allowing it to flutter in the breeze, "Worry not, human! I, the Great Papyrus, will solve this conundrum! Then we can both proceed!" His eyes shifted slightly, creating a cheeky expression. "Meanwhile, feel free to try the puzzle yourself! I'll try not to give away the answer!"

The human took a few steps back, inspecting the puzzle. After tapping on one of the x's a few times, they discovered that they could only tap it once before the puzzle ruled itself impossible. Any more times than that would turn the "o" into a triangle, and they would have to start all over. Still, this shouldn't be that hard.

The human circled through the path but then… oh, they'd manage to trap themself within a set of o's. Now they had to start over. They would crawl over the snow, but it was a bit too high and a bit too solid and a bit too steep to simply crawl over.

The human walked through the path again… and made a very similar mistake. How frustrating. Chara, observing from the side, noticed that they'd come rather close to solving it too, and was about to tell them.

"If you had just walked over-"

The human didn't seem to hear them, and started the puzzle over again. This time, they didn't even finish three x's before starting over, seemingly realizing that they'd doomed this path from the start.

"You know, we can ask Papyrus for help if…"

Another attempt was made, this one also short-lived, although not as short as the last. At this point, both Chara and Papyrus had to question if the human was even thinking at all. If any thought process at all was running behind those eyes.

Another failed attempt. This one was even closer to being completed than before, yet somehow they took a wrong turn at the very last minute. Chara groaned and tugged on their hair, while Papyrus tried his best to appear as inviting as possible. He couldn't be scaring the human away from seeking his much-needed assistance!

The human took one step into the maze and then immediately walked back and started the puzzle over again. Perhaps the blood loss was affecting their mental capacity.

Now they were just standing there, staring at the puzzle. Their eyes weren't even moving. Not a hint of anything at all. That wasn't any good… at least before they were moving, which is important in such a cold environment. At this rate, they might just get themself stuck frozen to the ground.

Chara walked over to the human and tugged on their sleeve.

"Hey, are you figuring it out?"

The human did not respond. They weren't even blinking. It was hard to tell if they were even breathing, and Chara suddenly felt a jolt of anxiety shoot through them. Crap… oh crap, were they okay? Did they just….?

….

..

.

The human walked into the maze and solved the puzzle flawlessly.

Ah- Ahaha! Of course, how silly it was to worry. That didn't even make any sense… ehehehe….

"Wow! You solved it!" exclaimed Papyrus with a little more enthusiasm than was warranted. "Incredible! I'm impressed! You must care about puzzles like I do!"

"I don't."

Papyrus' eyes and grin widened at that. "Well, I'm sure you'll LOVE the next puzzle then! It might even be too easy for you!"

With a nyeh, a heh, and another heheheh, he whisked himself away, churning up a fine powder of snow in his wake. The human clawed aimlessly at the sleeve of their undershirt as Chara made their way around the maze and over to them.

"What was… that about, exactly?"

"What?"

"Well… you just froze up there for a while, and you're not usually so…" Well, maybe it was foolish to assert some sort of "default" on their partner. They'd only known them for about half a day, so maybe they weren't actually that good at puzzle solving. But still… "I don't know, I'm just worried. That blood loss cannot be good for your head, and it must hurt an awful lot."

"It doesn't."

"What?" Chara stared incredulously at their partner. "But- but you- I heard you screaming! In agony! How can you say it doesn't hurt?! You're- you trailed blood for a good five minutes!" They gestured to the slightly reddened maze.

The human stared at their fingers again. The same ones that had turned blue, but hadn't hurt as they should.

"It… did hurt. During the fight. But it stopped as soon as the Battle ended. I don't think I need to heal it. Yet."

"Yet…"

"...Is it hurting you too?"

"Not… not physically, no."

"Then don't worry about it. It's a waste."

"You could at least eat some food to restore yourself!"

"I don't need to."

Before Chara could argue, the human grabbed their hand and pulled them along. Their hand… cold as a block of ice. Was it really not bothering them? It wasn't as if they could force Frisk to heal themself if they didn't want to… Chara prayed that it meant Frisk really was fine, and not a symptom of About-to-freaking-die disease. Who knows what would happen to them if their partner died. What if they disappeared? Or worse, what if they were left all alone, with no one to talk to anymore?

Chara knocked on their skull. Selfish selfish selfish! Why is THAT what you're worried about? But you can't hardly focus on anything else, you stupid stupid child. Ugh. Just… just…..

The human walked past the now lowered spikes and noticed Sans standing behind them. Strange. You'd think they'd have seen him before now. Maybe he wasn't actually there until observed. They stepped in front of him, waiting for another snark.

"Hey, why didn't you ask for help? I was right here."

That look on his face… that's the look of someone who knows exactly what they're doing. Chara suddenly felt a strange urge to try and talk to him, though it likely wouldn't result in much. The human squinted suspiciously, then pivoted on their heel and walked away robotically. Chara trailed behind, still slightly fixated on the skeleton, before jogging to join back up with their partner.

After a short stroll down an empty pathway, the cliff face started to narrow a bit more. The snowy grounds below that had previously been dotted with short coniferous trees were now shrouded in darkness. Out of that darkness sprouted enormous, thin trunks that spread out above the two's heads, forming a sort of rooftop as they pressed further into the landscape.

Chara tapped their chin with their finger. "It's funny is it not?"

"What is."

"I thought this whole area would be far more wooded. But it seems to be much rockier than I remember. Perhaps it's been carved out."

"Remember?"

Chara's brain stuttered for a second. "I don't know why I said that. I meant… ah, what is the word…. I suppose it's just different than I thought it would be. I do not know. I thought it would be… lusher."

"It's underground. Why is anything growing."

"An excellent point."

The two's conversation carried them to the next puzzle, and the human stopped dead in their tracks. The snow was jarringly interrupted by a pattern of grayed out tiles, with the skeleton brothers on the other end of the pattern, standing next to a strange machine. Papyrus jolted to attention as soon as they stepped up, and one had to wonder how those two kept getting ahead of the humans considering there was only one path. At least only one evident path.

"Hey! It's the human!" he announced to all three of them. "You're gonna LOVE this puzzle! It was made by the GREAT. DOCTOR. ALPHYS." At every pause, he struck a different, unique pose, before instantly falling back into his previous ramrod straight stance.

"You see these tiles?! Once I throw this switch…" he rested his gloved hand on a lever protruding from the machine. "They will begin to change color! Each color has a different function! AHEM-"

Papyrus pulled out a scroll from his back pocket and unfurled it, letting it roll to the ground. The scroll was deliberately overly worn, and most of the paper was covered in gibberish to give the illusion of overly long and complicated instructions. Papyrus began reading out the rules in an even more dramatic tone.

"RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE. You cannot walk on them. YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC. They will electrocute you! GREEN TILES ARE ALARM TILES. If you step on them, you will have to fight a monster. ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE-SCENTED. They will make you smell delicious! BLUE TILES ARE WATER TILES. Swim through if you like, but… if you smell like oranges, the piranhas will bite you. Also-" inhale- "if a blue tile is next to a… yellow tile, the water will also zap you! PURPLE TILES ARE SLIPPERY. You will slide to the next tile. However, the slippery soap… smells like lemons! Which piranhas do not like! Purple and blue are okay. FINALLY. PINK TILES. They don't do anything. Step on them all you like."

Papyrus threw the scroll backwards, sending it into the abyss. "How was that? UNDERSTAND?"

The human suddenly jerked awake, their eyes opening again. Evidently they'd fallen asleep during the explanation, or at least pretended to. "Hm? I wasn't here."

Papyrus's jaw (almost literally) dropped and Sans snorted out a laugh. "WHAT?! O- okay… I guess I'll… repeat myself…"

Papyrus began rambling off again, and his voice immediately faded into the background. Chara turned to the human, and asked, "Did you actually fall asleep?"

The human shrugged. "I dunno what he's saying now, but it's not gonna help me solve the puzzle." And then they clenched their sleeve. "Or help me move forward faster. It's a waste of time."

"Oh come now," Chara waved their hand flippantly. "It's not as if we are under a time limit. At least not beyond healing you."

"Mm…"

"OKAY!" Papyrus announced. "Do you understand better now?!"

"Wasn't listening."

"...Ooooookay… you know what? How about… you just… do this puzzle… on your own… I'll leave the instructions." Papyrus suddenly realized that he'd thrown them away, and produced another, far smaller piece of paper and started frantically scribbling on it. He threw it to the ground like it had personally wronged him.

"Just… read them, then when you understand it; you can throw the switch yourself. And do it at your own pace. Good luck."

The man slumped away, his body language so overly-depressed that you had to wonder if he was guilt tripping them. The duo's shoes clacked against the tiles as they made their way over, and they split to look at the surroundings. Chara observed that the machine's switch was locked fast in place, and it was cold as ice. The paper Papyrus had left behind was covered in illegible scribbles, which made sense considering he wrote it in two seconds using his glove as stability.

The human walked over to Sans. There was little to be accomplished in terms of progression by talking to him, and yet they continued to do it anyway. Maybe it was out of some sort of spite or curiosity. Or boredom.

"Actually, that spaghetti from earlier? It wasn't too bad for my brother."

"Ah, I wouldn't know. I didn't touch it." Perhaps that would accrue a unique reaction, since he seemed to care about his 'bro.'

Sans snorted, and shrugged. "Don't blame ya. Might've saved your skin."

The human tensed up, and their face twisted into a weird, annoyed expression. Sans shot them a nervous look and elaborated.

"Since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot. If he keeps it up, next year he'll even make something edible."

In response to this, the human made an extremely odd tilting motion, cracked their neck, and immediately spun on their heel to leave. Sans had to question whether they were trying to intentionally unsettle him (it wasn't working) or if they just held very very alien behaviors.

As they moved forward, the trees just seemed to spiral higher and higher into the 'sky.' The roof-branches grew denser, and with it, the surrounding darkness. It wasn't ominous or menacing though. It was more akin to a blanket crushing down on you during a cold winter night. At least it prevented any winds from coming through, though if this cavern was large enough to have its own wind flow, that was a problem in and of itself.

The next area held few things of note besides the Glow. Chara sighed as the human rushed for it, and that sigh held a mixture of feelings. On one hand, the glowing point would heal both of them, so at least they wouldn't have to continually pester their partner to not die. But on the other hand, they wished their partner were less single-minded whenever the points showed up. Several locations with the points were rather lovely, but they never seemed to notice.

Indeed, it seemed only Chara took notice of the Lesser Dog, slaving away in the snow. It whimpered quietly as it pawed at the ground, trying to form the snow into some sort of shape. Chara kneeled next to it, knowing it couldn't possibly acknowledge their presence, but choosing to join it anyway.

Lesser Dog's ears perked up slightly when the child joined it, but upon realizing that it could not see anything, it returned to its fruitless artistic efforts. A snowdog would be very adorable… Chara felt like they had a memory of seeing a snowdog before, maybe on the computer. But that couldn't be possible, because they didn't have access to the internet before they fell. Must have been a nice, desperate dream they had once.

Knowing that the dog will never give up trying to make the perfect snowdog… It filled them with determination.

Wait… what? Was that… Chara's will, and not Frisk's?

The two flipped around and stared at each other in confusion. That… was strange. They could definitely feel who's will had gathered that time around. Well, it made a bizarre sense. They shared a soul after all… So… so it was normal, for Chara to be able to do that, right?

The human shuddered out a cold breath, and waited for their partner to join them by their side. Even if their wills could be used interchangeably, that shouldn't matter. Their Chara held the same goal as themself. There was nothing to worry about. This would not impede the goal.

The human noticed, for the first time, someone else in the locale besides themself, the Dog, and Chara. A bipedal deer monster stood in the corner, pondering the Dog. Upon approaching them, the deer barely acknowledged them, still enraptured by the Dog.

"That dog considers itself an artist, but doesn't ever know what to create. It probably doesn't help that its brain is the size of a piece of kibble."

"Still better at that than as a guard."

The deer nodded solemnly. "I think they only let it in because it's well trained. And its nose ain't half bad either."

It was such a casual conversation. Just a discussion about another being between two strangers. No explanations or ulterior motives… A chill started crawling its way up Frisk's spine, and they asked a probing question.

"Why… aren't you attacking me?"

The deer gave the human a baffled look, halfway between confusion and laughter. "Why would I do that?"

"Because-" I'm a human? I'm a child? I'm vulnerable? All very good reasons for this monster to attack them. Especially in tandem. But…

The human turned on their heel and bolted, not even bothering to grab Chara. The tether dragged the younger child across the ground, coating them with snow and dirt until the human got far enough away that the deer was out of sight. They leaned over, balancing their hands on their knees, and stared despondently at the ground.

Was that the first time someone had truly been granted a peek into their thoughts? Frisk was unsure, and they wished to push it away. Push it away, push it away, get out, there was nothing to be seen here, there was nothing to be felt here-

Was that the first time we were granted a peek into the human's thoughts? The human likely did not enjoy such a sensation, though it was hard for anyone to say.

The human straightened up robotically, and their eyes closed. Air exuded itself from their lungs. Chara pushed themself from the ground, spitting out specks of dirt and trying to brush their shirt clean.

"Would you please give me some warning next time? Goodness gracious hell!" At the very least they could take comfort in the fact that they churned up the earth, meaning their presence wasn't entirely incorporeal. They knew this logically already, but it was nice to reassure their paranoia.

"Sure."

"What?"

"I'll warn you next time." The human opened their eyes and stared at the sight in front of them, which had only now come into their reality. A vast expanse of ice punctuated by a few more of those X tiles. In the center lay a large button on the ground, and there was a sheer drop on all other sides of the ice. The human gazed blankly at the rink, their thoughts unreadable once more.

Chara walked next to the human, brushing away the last bits of dirt and mud, and analyzed the puzzle in front of them. After mentally tracing many possible paths, it became evident that the route to success came in a sort of spiral motion. If they started in the lowest corner and worked their way inwards, they would end up on the button after pressing all of the tiles. Elated by their own cleverness, they tugged at their partner's sleeve.

"I believe I have the solution!"

The human gestured vaguely ahead. "Lead the way."

Chara grabbed the human's wrist in much the same way they did to them, and stepped forward, dragging them along in an exact pattern. They slid inwards slowly, tapping against the tiles before shooting off again. Chara was tempted to emulate the stance of a professional ice skater, though as soon as that thought entered their mind, they remembered they should have no way of knowing what such a thing looks like.

The duo landed on the button and slid to halt. A loud, mechanical clicking noise sounded off, and a piece of falsified ground unfurled itself from the eastern edge of the rink. It connected itself to a previously unreachable tunnel through a dense grove of trees.

"Fascinating!"

"Yeah. Never seen anything like that before."

"To be fair, you had never seen a dog before either."

Nodding in consent, the human allowed Chara to pull them forward into the tunnel, and they slid all the way through. The branch ceiling was closer than ever before, so much so that the human had to duck to avoid their hair catching. Such a thing may be claustrophobic to some people, but again, Chara found it calming. Protective. If someone needed to hide away from all the troubles of the world, this would be a perfect place. The harsh angles of the branches formed into hands of a dual nature. They clawed away the outside, tearing them to bloody pieces. But they also clamped down on the inside, choking away everything.

Beautiful.

Unfortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel drew near, and the exit was fast approaching. At the last moment, the human knocked their head on an errant branch, which caused a ripple effect reaching all the way to the top, and causing an enormous clump of snow to land on their head. The duo stumbled out of the tunnel onto a new segment of the cliff face. Chara held back laughter as the human brushed away the snow. At least things were in better spirits than they were before. In fact, Chara was almost back to the point they were in at Toriel's house.

The path split off in two directions. One part of the cliff continued east, while another sloped downwards while moving south.

"Well, where to next, my intrepid adventurer?"

The human loosely pointed down the southern path, and they began their slide. The ground flattened out after about 40 feet into solid ground. But as soon as they turned to move west, they were immediately jumpscared by Sans. The human stumbled backwards, with Chara being the only thing stopping them from landing in the snow.

"What's up? Somethin' bothering you?"

The human groaned in irritation and shoved past him. Their storming didn't last long though, as something immediately caught their eye, and they were jumpscared for the second time in thirty seconds.

Above the human's head, three large holes were carved into the cliff wall. Pure darkness oozed out of them, save for a single oddity. Inside that darkness…. eyes. Large, white, almost glowing eyes. They floated around as if in sludgy water, and they bobbed in and out of sight. Not like blinking, like receding into and out of the darkness. The two humans stared at the sight, unable to look away. A guttural, liquidous noise sloshed around behind the wall.

Eventually, the human pulled their sights away, and found themself staring face to face with Sans again.

"Wait- how did-"

The human flipped around at where Sans had stood before- But he was still there! Or- or wait, no, he was there, but then when they looked back around again, he was there instead. But… No, no no, he wasn't in two places at once. Chara stared at the empty space where he had been, because right now he was in front of Frisk. But when Frisk turned around, he showed up again.

"Say, bud. Are you following me?"

The human whirled around and pointed a finger at him. "No. Shut up. Don't move a muscle."

"I don't have any muscles, pal."

"Don't. Move."

The human turned around again. He was currently near the slope. The human kept their finger pointed at Sans, and began walking backwards, past the point where Sans had appeared before. They kept their eyes plastered on him, as he stared outward into nothing.

Blink.

Sans appeared right next to the human.

Instantly, the human grabbed Sans' collar and lifted him to his toes. "What are you trying to pull."

Sans tilted his head back, his eye sockets narrowing but his smile staying as wide as ever. "I'm not doin' anything. Pal. I think you're a little paranoid. Maybe you need'ta go lie down. Relax. Take a load off your feet."

"I'm not paranoid. I'm alive."

Sans paused for a moment, seemingly caught off guard. "Oddly specific denial."

"Maybe you're the one who's paranoid." The human dropped Sans, their body visibly unwinding. "I don't know what I was worried about. In fact, I wasn't worried."

"You're a bit of a weirdo, you know that?"

"Hm."

The human turned around and continued walking west. Chara passed Sans, hiding their face from him in embarrassment. What a bizarre interaction that made for. Unfortunately, neither made it very far, as an enormous, quadrupedal, deer-like monster barreled past Sans and skidded around in front of the human. The first thing Chara noticed was that its antlers were like trees growing out of its skull, which split open like the gaping maw of a venus fly trap.

The human acted on impulse, immediately cracking their fist against the beast. It stumbled away, teetering on its spindly legs. Sans raised an 'eyebrow,' but didn't move from his post.

Gyftrot hunched over, its jaw lolling open. Drool oozed out of its mouth, before crystallizing into dozens of very solid bullets. The human slipped aside, easily avoiding any damage, and wheeled back to sock the monster in the jaw again. It whimpered… and something resembling human speech ebbed from it.

"Get this off of me…"

Chara bit down the sympathy bubbling up in their chest, knowing it wouldn't change anything. They watched passively as their partner avoided the next attack. They didn't need their help to avoid such easy bullet patterns.

But to their surprise, the human didn't attack again. They halted, and held out their non-gloved hand. The Gyftrot tilted its head, before realizing what was happening. It lowered its head in defeat, and shook its head, causing gold to tumble out of its tree antlers, before skulking away.

Chara stared in utter silence. Their partner had, of their own choice and without their guidance, spared a monster. In fact, they had noticed the glow before Chara did.

Failure.

The human turned around, looking back at Sans, Chara, and the retreating Gyftrot. Whatever expression Chara was making couldn't have been pleasant, as they stared back at the younger teen in muffled concern. They shot one final glare at Sans before grabbing Chara's hand and dragging them westward.

The cliff dropped off suddenly, producing a dead end save for a tunnel leading northward into the cliff face. The view was nice at least. If Chara squinted hard enough, they thought they could almost see a tiny little house off in the distance. Someone was in the front yard, shoveling snow in a fruitless effort to clean their path. But it was always going to snow again the next day. What a waste of time.

How cute…

The human studied the entrance to the northern tunnel. A shadow dropped harshly down, hiding any contents inside behind a veil. For all they knew, it would lead towards that bizarre eyeball creature (or creatures.)

The human and Chara walked into the tunnel.

Their eyes adjusted to the light. A cool, but not freezing, blue light flooded their sight, bathing everything in the tunnel, the room, in a soft glow. The air inside the cave was not harsh and piercing. It resembled that of a forest more than anything else. A forest on a warm summer day. The grass beneath their feet smelled of morning dew; the walls were soft, compact dirt.

After a few moments of walking, the tunnel widened out into a very deliberately carved out room. An enormous stone door, not unlike several in the Ruins, stood in the center. In each corner of the room were a cluster of mushrooms, perhaps as some strange form of a garden. Maybe this was someone's home? Or maybe…

Entering into this tunnel was as if walking into another world. Something stirred in Chara's chest. An urge, a will, an overwhelming desire to open that door filled their heart. Their SOUL. Frisk felt it flood them as well. Their shared soul wanted to reach past that door. Wanted to haul it open, and if they couldn't do that, they would smash it down. Crush it to bits.

The human locked their fingers in the tiny gap between the door, and tried to pull backward. To no avail. The door felt as solid as any other part of the wall. Perhaps even more so. The human pulled and pulled and pulled until they felt that their fingers may snap off, but nothing changed.

"What the hell?" They slammed their fist against the door. "Why can't we get in?"

Chara bit their lip and clawed aimlessly at the door. "We can… always come back later. We'll come back later. We'll open it later."

"We'll open it later."

"We'll open it later."

They said it in unison. In that very moment, the human could have been convinced that Chara's theory of their own existence might be true. But that moment passed. And the desire clawed itself down into the depths of both their soul.

The two left the tunnel. Since they had seen all that could be seen down this path, they returned back to the slope. They passed Sans, actively ignoring him as he managed to appear next to them in two locations. They climbed back up the slope, and headed east.

The cliff's path had widened out a bit, making for a less tenuous stroll. The path was dotted about with large, noticeably separate piles of snow. Almost as if someone had dumped snow in from another continent and placed it in here. As they passed it, Chara kneeled down and pressed their hand against it. The texture was soft, almost whipped cream-like. And it certainly wasn't normal snow. A name for this sensation spilled out of Chara's mouth without much thought.

"It's a snow poff."

"Hm?"

"And that, as well, is a snow poff." They pointed ahead to the nearest one.

"What's a snow poff."

"A snow poff is… a snow poff."

"Are you just saying 'poff' because it sounds nice."

"Don't be ridiculous. I would never simply say snow poff for the sake of saying snow poff. I am saying snow poff because that is exactly what snow poffs are. Snow poff."

The human snorted, and pointed to the next pile. "Then what's that?"

"This too, is a snow poff."

"And this?"

"I do believe this is a snow poff as well."

The human and Chara pinballed back and forth, observing each pile individually, and determining that (for the most part) all of them were snow poffs. Except for one.

"This is- Wait…" Chara reached their hand inside the pile, and clenched their fist around something. They could grasp it, but it wouldn't last long before it phased out of their hands, so they jerked it out and dropped it in their partner's hand. Well, it was better than before at least.

"Eh? There was 30 G inside this… what is this?"

The human shrugged and stuffed the gold in their pocket. "Well, we're richer now."

"Come back when you're a little… richer," Chara mumbled under their breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. I think I just remembered something…." A thought suddenly occurred to Chara. Something that might clear a few things up. "What year is it, by the way? The date too, if you can remember." It might be a new day now, depending on how long they'd been down here and when they fell. And again, Chara was certain there was a gap in their memory. This might answer how large a gap it truly was.

"I don't know."

Chara nearly stomped their foot in frustration. How could they not know what YEAR it was?! God, they- UGH, they could just STRANGLE THEM-

"Really now?" They plastered on a smile, trying not to get too angry. They shouldn't get upset. There are several circumstances that might lead to this sort of thing. None of them good. They shouldn't get annoyed. "Pray tell, how is that the case?"

The human just shrugged. And Chara couldn't hold it back anymore. They let out a groan, and rolled their head back, burying their face in their hands. "IS THERE ANYTHING YOU DO KNOW?!"

The human turned around, looking back at their partner with an uneasy expression. "Excuse me?"

That sentence with that tone shouldn't have set Chara off. There was nothing inherently aggressive about what the human said. But something about it sent a chill down the preteen's spine, and they instinctively took a step back.

"I- I'm sorry, I'm sorry- It's just- I'm so confused, I- I just want to- Nothing makes sense and- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled." Their breath wavered for a moment, but the shiver passed, and they calmed themself. They weren't mad. They weren't mad. They were not mad. It's fine.

"I'm sorry. Let's just keep going. I think I see some lights in the distance. We might be able to find somewhere to rest for the night. I think… I think we'll both feel better after that."

"Yeah. We will."

The human stepped forward, and that chill tried to claw its way back into Chara's torso. But before it could, the human simply patted them on the head. And smiled. It wasn't a very warm one, but… it eased Chara's nerves a bit. Yes, everything is okay. It is okay. There's nothing to be upset about. If they were upset about something, they were simply being irrational. So far, Frisk had gotten them through everything. Even if it hurt.

It hurt a bit, but at least they weren't alone. It only hurt a little bit.

The human's voice rumbled in Chara's head, they were so close. "Come on. We'll figure it out eventually. I'll make sure of it."

Their hands clasped together, their fingers intertwining, and they continued eastward.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, they reached one final snow poff at the end of the pathway. The human smiled slightly, and gestured for Chara to make their determination.

"This, is a sn-"

*BARK*

"Eh..?" Chara tilted their head, and crouched down. They reached for the poff tentatively. A dog poff, perhaps? Their hand pressed softly against the surface, then plunged in slowly. The texture changed suddenly from soft snow to a fluffy, yet solid mass of fur. A gasp escaped their lips, and a dog head burst from the pile.

"Ahahaha! Oh, how adorable!" Chara rubbed their hands against the dog's neck, fluffing up its fur. Even if it couldn't see them, they could still provide the pets! The dog's tail wagged fast and wide, thumping against the ground wildly.

The human narrowed their eyes. "That's an awfully large dog."

"There are several different breeds, you know. Some are quite large indeed!"

The dog's body was practically vibrating with joy. It bounced up and down, shaking the snow off bit by bit, revealing more and more of itself. More and more of its… armor..? Oh no.

The human jerked Chara backwards and threw themself in front of the smaller child. That was no ordinary dog, and it was definitely stronger than Lesser Dog. This was..!

Greater Dog towered over the two humans, the goofy smile still lingering on its face contrasting sharply with the menacing posture and hefty armor. Chara's stomach dropped as they realized that they'd have to fight this one too. Dammit! Can't they have anything nice!? They weren't even sure if they could pierce armor like that with their fists- Maybe with something else, but at the most they would just make a dent.

Chara thrust their hand into the human's pocket and began frantically hunting for another, sharper weapon. Come on, come on… Mostly just healing items; that plastic knife wouldn't do any good; wait…

Of course!

Chara pulled out the stick and handed it over to the human. "Perfect! We can use this to get by!"

"What?"

Ah, of course. Their partner had never seen a dog above ground, let alone played with one. "Here, just… wave it in front of them and then throw it! They'll go after it and catch it! Like a game!"

The human hesitantly turned back towards the poff path, making sure to still keep their sights on Greater Dog. They chucked the branch as far as they could throw it. In an instant, the Dog haphazardly burst forward on all fours, churning up snow into the two's faces. It chomped down on the stick and started tugging and gnawing at it playfully. Now was their chance! The human spun on their heel, holding their partner close behind them, and rushed away, further down the path.

Greater Dog turned from its play to watch the human flee. Its ears lowered and it whimpered. Why was the human running away..? It wanted to play some more… In a move it considered quite brilliant, Greater Dog sent forth a bullet pattern to spring forth from the ground. It wasn't very obvious, rather subtle in fact. But it did its job. The human tripped over a horizontally laying blue spear, and face planted into the dirt and snow. Shit-

Greater Dog drew nearer, and their heart rate increased. Dammit, they should have paid closer attention! Now they were gonna get torn to shreds by a giant animal! Chara stood in front of the human, desperate to put something in the way of the Dog but knowing that it was a rather fruitless effort. Dammit dammit damn-

….it?

Greater Dog lowered its head for pets. The dog's eyes glowed a soft gold, and both humans instantly relaxed. Chara slowly ran their fingers through its scruff, and the human stood, brushing the dirt from their clothes.

"See? That wasn't too bad at all."

Greater Dog backed away after a few more moments. Digging its paws into its pockets, it pressed a small pile of gold coins into the human's hand, before trotting away to continue its post.

"Yeah… Not… too bad."

"My! I say we'll be absolutely rich at this rate."

"Yeah. Rich." The human stared at the Dog's retreating back. Something unquantifiable stirred in their dead chest. Wriggled around like a scared, starving, snake.

But the moment passed, and the two turned eastward once more.

The cliff finally ended. An unsettlingly long and narrow rope bridge was the only way forward now. Sweat beaded Chara's forehead as they became painfully aware of how far the ground had receded from them since they'd first entered the forest.

"Can we really… cross this? It does not look structurally stable."

"If it's not, then I'll find a way. But we can't go anywhere else."

Chara swallowed, forcing down their fears, and gripped their partner's hand as tight as they could. "Alright… Let us… Let's go."

The bridge was surprisingly unwavering, considering that there was hardly any support to be seen. It was only held up by the two ends and a taut rope. By all means, it should be sagging somewhat, no matter how tight the rope was. Maybe it was magic? The wooden planks didn't seem to be held together by anything either. No nails, no screws… The precariousness was so disproportionately intense compared to the reality that the anxiety had a stack overflow error, and Chara was utterly relaxed as they walked across.

It was a lovely view. Many places in the Underground seemed to have a lovely view, on the rare instances where it actually opened itself up and exposed its heart for all to see. Its innards made a beautiful sight. That enormous underground lake in the distance, surrounded by snow-frosted coniferous trees… Chara wished they lived here, and not-

The human halted a few meters from the end of the bridge, and Chara nearly slammed into their back. Ah, of course.

Papyrus and Sans stood guard at the end of the bridge, unnerving smiles plastering across their jaws. The human tensed up, still unsure of how seriously they needed to take these two. Papyrus threw forth his pointer finger and began his newest speech.

"HUMAN! This is your final and most dangerous challenge! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!"

At the snap of his fingers, mechanical whirring and the sound of snapping ropes rang out. Three holes opened up in the cliff face beneath the skeletons, and three large ropes swung down from high above, their origins obscured by the distance. Out of the holes, a cannon, a large spear, and a flamethrower poked out. From the ropes hung an enormous mace, another large spear, and a…. dog. It sort of just dangled there, its tail wagging carelessly.

Still, this was nothing to sneeze at. Instantly, the human's face sharpened, and they began calculating exactly how to survive this scenario, hardly paying mind to the rest of Papyrus' speech. Which meant that responsibility fell to Chara.

"When I say the word, it will fully activate! Cannons will fire! Spikes will swing! Blades will slice! Each part will swing violently up and down! Only the tiniest chance of victory will remain! ARE YOU READY!?"

Chara let out an unintentional whimper, and wondered if they just backed away far enough, they could survive.

"BECAUSE!

I!

AM!

ABOUT!

TO DO IT!"

Everything stood still for far longer than it should have. After about thirty seconds, Sans broke the silence.

"Well? What's the holdup?"

"HOLDUP?! WHAT HOLDUP?! I'm… I'm about to activate it now!"

Ten more seconds.

Sans made a gesture that resembled sticking your pinky finger in your ear, but he didn't have ears. "That, uh, doesn't look very activated."

"WELL! THIS CHALLENGE! It seems… maybe…" Papyrus lightly kicked a small pile of snow by his feet. "...too easy to defeat the human with. Y-YEAH! We can't use this one! I am a skeleton with STANDARDS!" He placed his hands firmly on his hips, his normal demeanor returning. "My puzzles are very fair, and my traps are expertly cooked! But this method is too direct! No class at all! AWAY IT GOES!"

The human, having barely paid attention, flinched away at the sudden movement of the Gauntlet retreating. But even upon realizing that the danger was gone, they didn't unwind their body. Still, they did shoot a confused glance at Papyrus, who stared accusingly back.

"What are YOU looking at?! This was another decisive victory for Papyrus! NYEH! HEH! …..heh..?"

Papyrus' body language flattened a bit, and he walked away with an unsettlingly normal gait. The human waited for the sound of his footsteps to fade completely before finally reaching the end of the bridge. A small puff of air escaped their lungs, and their eyelids drooped slightly. What a (miserable? baffling? difficult? interesting?) day.

Their head was pulled towards Sans, and they walked over to him one final time. Maybe there would be something. Anything at all.

"Why did he do that."

Sans shrugged, not really looking the human in the eye. More through them than at them.

"Is he still going to try and kill me."

"He's not going to kill you."

"Right." A small smile quirked their lips. "He won't kill me."

"Yeah… I dunno what he's gonna do now though. I guess…" Sans did still have to keep his promise. This is the very very least he could do. "If I were you, I'd make sure I understood blue attacks."

"Mm."

The human turned to leave, beckoning their partner to follow. They could hear people talking in the distance. See lights warming the horizon and smoke wafting up from chimneys. Smell the scent of food permeating nearby. A town. A real town, with real, living people. That could see them.

A cold sweat enveloped the human. This would be… difficult. They looked back at Sans once more, and for a moment, he seemed as if he wanted to say something. But then he turned away, and started walking back down the bridge. Seems they would have no help there. Not… not that they really wanted help from the likes of him.

The forest parted itself for the two, revealing an extremely quaint town. While there were a few pathways in and out leading to separate parts, the town seemed to be made up of only one main street. All the main buildings sat here. A general store, a hotel, a restaurant, a library, and at the very end, an extremely large house. Larger than even the hotel… Monsters were running or walking about, speckling the street with their bustle. Not much hustle though, no one seemed to be in much of a hurry at all. It made sense of course. With such a tiny town (probably more of a hamlet), there likely wasn't any need to rush. Everything was within walking distance, and everyone probably knew everyone.

The human paused right at the edge of town. Their feet hadn't even reached past the welcome sign. Chara studied their face, concern slowly creeping into their own.

"We'll be okay, right?" Chara asked.

"Um…" The human's throat dried up. "If… they decided to attack us all at once… I can… still survive. I can… protect us."

"R- right! Um, and if they attack us, and they see that you are capable of fighting back… they may stop. If even one of them is dusted, surely they will see the danger and leave us alone. So… so only one person, has to get hurt…" A small price to pay, right? Frisk was at least slowly convincing them to value their own safety.

The human pondered this thought for a moment, before nodding.

"Yes. You're right. We don't have to worry about anything."

And they pushed onwards.

As they walked past the welcome sign, a few monster residents turned to stare, but they quickly averted their gaze. No one seemed too antagonistic at once, and a few were even flashing them somewhat nervous smiles. They were strained, but they were at least making an effort to make them comfortable. That was more than either of them could have expected. And…

A glowing point! The human rushed forward, almost tackling the incorporeal light. A sense of relief and safety flooded the two of them as they touched it. Maybe… maybe it wasn't so bad at all, they both thought. Maybe they could live just a little longer without fear.

The sight of such a friendly town filled them with determination.

Chara suddenly clapped their hands together, and pointed out something next to the Glow.

"The box has returned!" They hastily shoved it open and, lo and behold, the compressed knife was still there! The human looked between the box, the nearby general store, and their pockets. There was hardly any room left for more compressed items in their pocket, but there may be something they desired to own in the store… The human removed the remaining monster candies, and placed them in the box.

The doorbell jingled as the two entered, and their skin was flooded with warmth. A fireplace crackled in the right wall of the store, illuminating the whole room with a pleasant glow. Dozens of knick knacks and parcels hung on the wall or cluttered the shelves. Chara took the opportunity to inspect every single little item, while the human walked up to the counter and glanced at the easier to carry items. A glass container was between them and the items labeled with compression spells.

The store clerk noticed her customers, and hopped up to the counter. Literally, as she was an anthropomorphic rabbit.

"Hello, traveller. How can I help you?"

"How did you know I'm a traveller?"

"I know everyone in this town, and I haven't seen any humans around these parts in a long time."

The human tensed up slightly, and hunched their body over a bit. But the clerk seemed to notice this, and raised her paw in reassurance. "Relax, relax. I'm not plannin' on calling the guards. A customer's a customer, and you seem alright. I think if you were someone to worry about, I would've heard it already."

"Right."

The human pulled their coins out of their pocket, and counted their amount. 230 G. Not bad… They ran their fingers against the glass, calculating in their head what they wanted to buy and what they could afford.

That bandanna looked rather solid. If they placed it around their mouth, it could protect from inhalants. And then that bisicle… it could easily be used twice, essentially making it a two in one. And then… The human looked back at their partner, who was still perusing the wares. Chara would probably like that cinnamon bunny. They'd find it 'cute.'

They human made their order and placed the items in their pocket. They could surprise their partner with the bunny once they left.

The shopkeeper flicked her ear. "Where'd you come from anyhow? You meet with anyone else in the town yet? We're always eager for new neighbors."

The human froze for a moment, utterly still. Then, in a single swift motion, and without giving the shopkeeper a moment to react, they grabbed their partner and dragged them out the room, slamming the door shut behind them.

"Oh, I was in the middle of something!"

"I- Um… Hey, look at this thing I bought." The human thrust the cinnabunny in front of Chara's face.

"Awwww… That's so adorable! It reminds me of-"

The human tore the ribbon from their hair and tied the bandanna around their mouth and nose. At least then they might be less recognizable as a human. Though, maybe not. But it was better than nothing. They stared at the bright red ribbon spilling from their hands like blood.

Chara liked the ribbon.

The human stuffed the ribbon in their pocket, and gestured for their partner to follow them into the inn next door. Maybe they could have a moment of rest before moving forward.

The inside had a fluffy carpeted floor, and was sparsely decorated with homely pieces of furniture. Another bunny monster was at the counter, with her hands folded over a guestbook. Next to her stood a very very short little monster, so tiny that their eyes barely poked over the top of the desk. The human and Chara walked up to the desk.

"Ah! Welcome to Snowed Inn! Snowdin's premier hotel! One night is 80G."

The human laid the gold coins on the desk. "Two-person room."

The innkeeper tilted her head. "Oh, are you waiting for someone?"

"No."

"Well… alright then! You can have room 2C. It's three doors down on the right." She handed them the key, keeping her eye on them as they walked upstairs.

A dream state. A dark, empty void. Very quiet, very still. Not a single disturbance in sight. The only thing of note was the three entities sitting in the center. Very quiet, very polite, very well-behaved creature.

Chara's translucent body sat up straight, their eyes closed and mouth pulled into a serene, almost archaic smile. They appeared more like a statue or monument to a religious figure than a real person. Their legs and hands were folded, and they hardly moved at all in their slumber.

Behind Chara slumped the human's body. It leaned against the other, utterly unmoving. Not like Chara was unmoving, not like a statue. Like a corpse. The body curled in on itself, like it had dropped suddenly, collapsing on top of the statue, having died in their sleep.

Between the two, the soul floated. It beat and pulsated and glowed in the rhythm of the universe. It bathed the two in a soft blood-red light.

A song of seasons played in the background. A song of distributing time and control.

The human's eyes fluttered open, their waking being less a jarring jump and more a slow rise. What an odd dream. They didn't dream it, but… something did.

A warmth was curled next to them. Chara… They tilted their head down, resting their chin on the younger child's head. Chara was still asleep, clinging to the human's shirt as if in distress. Perhaps a nightmare. What a lovely thought. The human wrapped their free arm around Chara, and waited silently for them to wake up. It didn't matter how long it took. After all, they weren't tired anymore. They had nothing left to do but wait.

"You'll be alright," they whispered. "I'm still here."

….

Chara waved goodbye to the innkeeper as they left the hotel, and they could have sworn they saw the little child behind the counter wave back. But that was a mere delusion, obviously.

The duo felt refreshed, clean, and brilliant as the glowing dawn. Which they wouldn't see again unless they kept moving forward, so they didn't dwell too much in the entryway.

The human's stomach curled a little as they stared down the Main Street of Snowdin. People, monsters, were still bustling about, still out and about, and rather alert. They really… really really really didn't want to risk being spotted by a hostile enemy. Their partner made a logical assumption that they could fend them all off, but… but if they didn't….

They didn't come all this way and kill so many monsters just to be offed in the middle of a rural town.

"There has to be a way around here, right?"

Chara narrowed their eyes, searching for some sort of solution. The town was seemingly surrounded by a sheer drop, at least to the north. But the south held more residencies, which wasn't all too great either. But… AHA!

Chara walked over to a nearby sign they spotted and began reading aloud.

"Don't want to walk to the other side of town? Try the undersnow tunnels! They're efficiently laid out."

"Well. That's… convenient. Too convenient."

"I can check on them if you want. If anyone's inside, they shouldn't be able to see me, so… you know."

The human nodded, and Chara crawled into the igloo-like structure. They tumbled down a small, few-inch-deep hole, like Alice in the rabbit hole, before reaching the actual tunnel. The ceiling inside had pleasant, magical lights strewn along on a string, allowing for a good view of everything inside.

"I do not think anyone's in here! Come on down!"

The human hopped in after their partner, and the two began their crawl. It was surprisingly dry in the tunnel, despite the snow above ground. The tightly packed dirt made for a very solid floor. Monsters (and their footsteps) could be heard stumbling about above, sending tremors through the tunnel and shaking loose bits of soil down. They were so… alive. So aware. A very solid, real society was directly above their heads; living, breathing… hunting.

These 'people' wanted the human dead, didn't they.

The two managed to scramble their way out the other side, and the human kept low to the ground for a few more feet after exiting. Just in case. They kept Chara close to them, and managed to edge past the town limits after a few more seconds. They were almost out of the woods now, literally! They could spot the edge of the treeline!

The human tightened their grip on Chara and turned back to them, a stilted smile cracking across their face. "We're almost out! Come on!" They rushed forward, undeterred and ready to escape this frozen hell!

But something forced them to a halt. Or rather, froze them in place.

The air suddenly crystalized, then began swirling around in a methodical, yet violent spiral. It created the visual effect of a blizzard formed of exact patterns. Suspiciously perfect in their formation. Chara reached forward, attempting to brush their hand against the swirling snow. But it wasn't physical, it was just an effect.

The human let out a shuddering sigh, and pushed forward once more, much slower than before. Who knows who, or what, was causing this… Best be careful.

With every step, the false blizzard grew harder and harder to see through. What started as a white, but still translucent effect turned into something utterly blinding. The human couldn't even see their own body, couldn't see their hand in front of their face. The only thing that told them their partner was still there was the grip they still had on their hand. Ironically, in a cave deep underground, this was the opposite of pitch darkness. Perhaps Snowdin would not let them go so easily.

A loud and perhaps deliberate footstep sounded out from… somewhere in front of them. The duo paused, and waited. Something was waiting for them in this storm. Of course it was. This had to be a deliberate setup, some sort of trap. Well, whoever was waiting for them when the snow cleared, they wouldn't go down that easily.

A silhouette started to form itself in their vision, and the blizzard began to swirl around them, rather than in front of them. The two were visible to each other once more. As was their dedicated opponent.

"I knew it…" the human muttered scathingly. "I knew I couldn't trust him."

"Human," began Papyrus. "Allow me to tell you about some complex feelings. Feelings like… the joy of finding another pasta lover. The admiration for another's puzzle-solving skills. The desire to have a cool, smart person think you are cool."

Chara loosened their grip slightly. Maybe… he was being sincere? Maybe he just set up this weird blizzard so no one could see, because he was… self conscious? Maybe they wouldn't have to fight?

"These feelings…" Papyrus' silhouette pointed his finger forward violently. "THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!"

Okay, maybe he's still tsundere, but STILL.

"I can hardly imagine what it must be like to feel that way. After all, I am very great. I don't ever wonder what having lots of friends is like! I pity you… lonely human…" Said human simply growled in irritation. After all, they were not alone. What a fool. "I, the Great Papyrus, will gladly be your…!"

A silence permeated the blizzard. Uh oh.

"No… NO, this is all wrong!"

UH OH.

"I can't be your friend! You are a human! I must capture you! Then, I can fulfill my lifelong dream! Powerful! Popular! Prestigious! THAT'S PAPYRUS! The newest member…. OF THE ROYAL GUARD!"

The blizzard cleared with a rush of wind, and was replaced with the chill of battle. Papyrus blocked the two's way, hand on his hip and scarf blowing in the breeze. His smug smile was frozen on his face despite the glare the human was boring into him. Dammit… he was probably going to die….

Chara gripped their stomach, a potion of dread brewing inside them. This wouldn't end well, no matter what side won. With a heavy breath, they locked their limbs and prepared to dodge whatever might come next.

The human started first, with a fist aimed squarely at the man's chest. The plasticine armor cracked and distended slightly, like a tv screen broken in shipping, and he stumbled backwards. Chara couldn't tell whether he was surprised or not, as his expression remained enigmatic. He might actually rival their partner for unreadability….

"So, you're serious about this…" he sighed, before slowly raising his arms. "Then, let's see if you can handle my fabled 'Blue Attack!'"

It had been several hours since that initial conversation with Sans, so the human had nearly forgotten that Papyrus' blue attack was supposed to be anything special. They braced themself for impact, ready to alternate properly between dodging and standing still.

But… perhaps unsurprisingly, Papyrus' attack was incredibly simple and easy to avoid. He sent forth about a dozen light blue bones, all of which did absolutely nothing to the frozen human. They narrowed their eyes. Papyrus was simple, but even that felt too-

THUD

The human gasped as they felt their chest collide with the ground. Gravity was amplified, and they struggled to even stand! Wh- what was…

Chara cried out as they tried to push past the weight and make it over to their partner. "Frisk! Our… soul..!"

The human looked down at their chest. Indeed, although the soul was brought out every battle, they'd hardly paid any mind to it. But… but it was supposed to be red! WHY WAS IT DARK BLUE!? The human's red eyes were now tainted blue as well, producing an even colder glare than before as they refocused on their opponent.

"You're blue now. That's my attack! NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!"

The human readjusted their body, struggling to even breath under the weight of the universe.

"That… lying… piece of shit!"

In a rage, the human rushed forward for another barrage, this time landing a blow to Papyrus' spine as he twisted dramatically preparing for his next attack.

"Be- behold!"

A few normal colored bones came up from behind the human, and they tried their best to jump over them. However, the weight made that nigh impossible! They tripped over the attack and cracked their knee against the hard frozen dirt. Dammit, dammit! Another attack was coming their way, and here they were, face planted on the ground! And because of such a simple attack too! Shit!

Thankfully, before they could ponder the impending pain, Chara swooped in and jerked the human to their feet. With a shocking amount of maintained momentum, they lifted their partner into the air, who, almost on instinct, kicked off and hurtled themself over the bone. Using the force from the kickoff, Chara rolled backwards, dodging it as well.

"Ha! We did it!" Chara celebrated. "We can still- we can make it!"

The human nodded, and rushed to hit once more. Right in the shoulder!

The next attack wasn't any less obvious than the first, but they were far more prepared. Three sets of bones this time, and not a single scrape! A smile cracked across the two's faces. They were starting to get used to this!

Another barrage, another dodge, and with every step, the world felt lighter. Was it just the fact that the pressure made them stronger? Papyrus was trying to say something to them, but it didn't matter. They could feel themselves progressing. The human grinned back at Chara, who was actually smiling! They'd gotten them to ENJOY a fight! Yeah… yeah, this was perfect. Maybe they actually had Papyrus to thank for something. An ironic thought to have while they socked him in the jaw.

"YEAH! Don't make me use my Special Attack!"

Wait, what?

The excitement drained a little. Was this bastard actually going to try and kill them? Well, not like he hadn't already been doing that, but it had been so pitiable that they'd nearly forgotten. How time flies…?

Ugh, whatever. The human shook their head and readied for the next attack. Everything was mostly the same until

"Watch out!" Chara jerked the human to the ground. A bone seemed to hang down from a nonexistent ceiling, nearly smacking them right in the face. Shit, it actually WAS getting harder! This wasn't like Toriel. Even if she was wrong, she still didn't want to kill them. This creature… Papyrus needed them dead if he wanted to get what he wanted.

Well, what a shame that the feeling was mutual.

The human cracked their fist against his chest again, ignoring his boasts about future popularity. He rattled his bones as he tried to shake off the pain, and set forth another attack.

This one was easy; just keep kicking upwards! Unfortunately, Chara had thrown their partner a little too high. A light blue attack was approaching, and it was gonna hit the human before they hit the ground-

Through the power of kinetic energy, the bone solidified and cracked right against the human's face, shattering on impact. The shards spilt across the ground like broken glass, and the human gripped their bleeding nose.

"Dammit… dammit all… I am going to kill him."

"W- wait-" Chara stuttered. "He might still give up! We don't know if…"

"Yeah. He might." They tightened their clenched fist.

Chara watched as their partner slammed another punch into the skeleton's chest, before helping them avoid another, even more complicated attack. But they didn't seem to be having any problem with it… Chara just felt tired, but Frisk looked so… energized wasn't quite the right word. Vivid. Not like they were enjoying it per se, because they certainly weren't. Chara certainly wasn't. It was like watching your friend punch the class clown who, up until now, had been friends with everyone else. It was awkward, almost uncomfortable, seeing the excitable skeleton wincing in pain.

Something tightened in their throat, and they tried to swallow it. They couldn't do this again. It hurt every time, but with the ones that were like people, that were indistinguishable mentally from humans (no, they were better than humans, let's be honest), it really felt like murder.

Papyrus was talking about how proud his mentor would be of him…

Murderer.

In all the time Chara had spent in their head, hardly doing anything besides functioning as Frisk's nimble footstool, they had taken minimal damage. There was only a slight stab wound in their partner's left leg. Hardly even bleeding. They were so good at this.

Papyrus spread out his arms with a dramatic flair, which had the side effect of exposing his cracked, damaged body. "BEHOLD, MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

The two tightened up. Oh crap, already?! That was too fast, they couldn't possibly prepare for-

A little white dog, the same one from the trap in fact, trotted between the two parties, an excessively luminous bone in its mouth.

….

"WHAT THE HECK?! That's my Special Attack! Hey! You stupid dog! Do you hear me?! Stop munching on that bone!"

The dog froze, its eyes bulging out of its skull, before it instantly bolted away.

Papyrus shook his fist at it like a rambling old man. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! COME BACK HERE WITH MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

Chara could help it. It was an objectively funny sight. Even if it would be better to not laugh, because this man might very well be dead soon (God, what a chilling thought, talking to a walking corpse, ehehe), it was just… too charming. Too funny. Chara giggled, a hand clasped over their mouth.

"Oh well, I'll just use a really cool regular attack."

The human, a little caught off guard by the whole debacle, landed a rather weak kick to his shins before cautiously backing away. This could go any way honestly. Papyrus was terribly unreadable.

The man pointed his finger to the sky, the same smug smile on his face as always, even if he might meet his demise in a few moments. He was still… playing the part.

"Here's an absolutely normal attack."

The human felt something in their chest that told them this was it. This was all. They turned to their partner, and motioned for them to get on their back. They hooked their arms around Chara's legs, and prepared for anything. It didn't matter if it made things a little harder. If they were going to face everything, they were doing it locked together.

The attack started out simple, just a few bones that were easily jumped over. But it quickly became more sporadic. The bones jutted out from above and below, shrinking and growing in size as if they were alive and sentient! One grazed against Chara's back, another stabbed into the human's foot. At one point the dog rushed back in just to trip them up. A set of bones spelling out "Cool Dude" as well as a bone on a skateboard flew past them, nearly causing Chara to fall off from sheer surprise!

But then, here it was. The magnum opus.

An enormous, impassable field of bones sprung forth from the ground, with an utterly gargantuan bone to finish it off in the back. The humans had no hope of crossing this normally, let alone with the extra gravity.

But they still had to try. It was certain death either way, so they might as well push forward.

The human stepped back as the field approached, then took a running LEAP forwards! At first, it was just as if they'd made a particularly impressive jump. But… as the seconds ticked on… they kept rising. And rising. And rising….! Chara clenched their partner's shirt as the ground disappeared beneath them! How the hell was this possible?!

Papyrus wouldn't ever finish someone off with such an easy method after all. But neither of them needed to know that.

The human landed heavily on the ground, kicking up a cloud of snow from the impact. They gently set Chara down, and waited for Papyrus' next move. But he just stood there, huffing in exhaustion. Perhaps… this was their chance.

Truth be told, such an enormous attack, as well as the skill needed to discreetly levitate the human had sapped Papyrus' already weakened body.

"Well…! It's clear… you can't… defeat me! Y- yeah! I can see you shaking in your boots! Therefore I, the Great Papyrus, elect to grant you pity! I will Spare you, human. Now's your chance to accept my Mercy!"

The human stared back in utter shock. Their blue eyes darted back and forth between Chara and Papyrus, unsure of what to do. On one hand… they had promised to try and spare anyone who… but… they couldn't trust him! The others hadn't ever come back! And they didn't have a vested interest in hurting them! If they let Papyrus go now, he might just come back once he's healed up! Y- yeah! He was only SPARING them because he knew he was outclassed! Because he was scared! Or- or what if- what if…

What if they spared him, and as soon as they turned their back, he finished them off with a fatal attack?

No. They couldn't take the risk. They wouldn't. They. Would. Not.

They cast an apologetic glance at their partner.

"I'm sorry Chara. We can't do this."

"W- wait- WAIT FRISK NO-"

…..

Hidden in the trees, Sans watched his brother's head fly off his body, and land in the snow.

When the blizzard cleared, there wasn't any evidence that he had ever existed.

Why didn't this feel real? This should… be the most… horrific thing he'd ever seen in his entire life. Tears were streaming from his eye sockets. Why wasn't he….

Why couldn't he feel anything at all?

Had this happened before? Was this meant to happen? Was this going to stay this way, forever? Was his brother gone forever? Was he… in a doomed reality?

He should have tried harder. He knew what the kid was capable of. And now it didn't even matter anymore. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered what he did. Maybe it was going to be this way forever and always and he should just stand there and watch the world turn from snow to dust.

A tree branch snapped, and he fell back into reality a little bit. Oh. It was him. He broke the branch he was holding on to. What kinda idiot doesn't even realize they're holding something like that in the first place.

Whatever.

Sans bored a glare into the kid's skull. Their eyes were red again. Piece of shit. They were about to leave for Waterfall… No…. no, they turned back around, and kneeled down slightly. They were talking to someone. That other kid. The one who got more solid when Papyrus died. He could almost make out a vague shape now.

What was the kid saying?

"I told you… it had to be this way."

"Look, I know. I know. It can't be helped."

"You can't cry every time this happens. You have to get used to it."

"It… doesn't benefit me. To care about them. It just gets in the way of our freedom. I don't know why you don't understand that."

"Yeah, see?"

"Good."

'Doesn't benefit you' to care?

Godammit. DAMMIT!

There's no way they were the same. That was a fucking lie. That couldn't be what they said. He heard them wrong.

Sans sighed, laid his back against a tree, and slid to the ground, burying his face in his sleeves.

…..

Chara really hated how easily their s- their brother cried. It just… didn't feel fair.

Back where they came from, they weren't allowed to cry, ESPECIALLY after the incident. Aside from the mess, it was also just a sign of how awful they were. How they couldn't control themself, how they were loud and an annoyance, how obnoxious and pathetic and whiny they were. They couldn't cry about ANYTHING, no matter how much it hurt.

And… their brother cried about everything. He cried when he broke his toy. He cried when their pet got sick. Not even died, got sick. He cried when Chara cried. He cried about EVERY. LAST. LITTLE. THING.

It was infuriating. He was allowed to cry all the time. He got to get away with it with absolutely no consequences, no PUNISHMENT. If Chara was caught crying about HALF the things he cried about, they probably wouldn't even be alive now! It wasn't FAIR!

Why did he get to cry while they didn't?! Why did HE get to be a massive baby all the time, and he would just get nothing but love and hugs and kisses and reassurances and-

Chara got that now too. It wasn't any different between the two. They reminded themself how lucky they were, to be saved by this family.

They should be grateful. They should be happy. Think nice thoughts. Think nice thoughts. Think nice thoughts.

Still, he shouldn't be such a crybaby.