King: I'll admit, I love this story. It's just dumb fun sometimes and I enjoy writing. Any who, I finally have my shipping answer. I'll put it at the bottom if you care enough. But let's get to it!

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After a nice slice of pie, Toriel and Jaune stood at the doorway to exit the ruins once more. All the while, Toriel was fussing over the dangerous trip he was about to embark on. "Do you have the snacks I gave you?"

"Yes." Jaune held up a small bag that could fit nicely in his hoodie' pockets. Toriel had made him a small bag of snacks to help heal him if something comes up. "And I really appreciate them."

"Good." Toriel smiled. It was bittersweet, like a mother having to watch her child leave home. "Be careful out there. Okay?"

"I will. And thank you." Jaune turned and placed his palm against the door. With a deep breath, he pushed the structure open. Entering another antechamber, he waved back to Toriel as the door closed. He looked off to the other side of the room, Determined to push forward.

The room gave him a pause given its similarity to the room where he met the flower, but there seemed to be no issues this time. He reached the door, expecting the flower to call out to him again. He seemed to be spared and pushed open the doors.

"Howdy~" Except he was behind the door. Waiting for him. As Jaune jumped back, Flowey laughed. "I bet you think you're real clever. A regular smooth operator."

"What are you-?"

But Flowey ignored him. "Well, I'm not falling for it! The fact that I can feel Chara's influence on your soul is all the proof I need!"

Who? Jaune thought. Then he remembered the girl in the mirror. Was that Chara, then?

Flowey growled before his grin returned to normal. "This world is kill or be killed. And I can see it in your eyes! It's only a matter of time before you finally snap and kill somebody, frustration getting the better of you. Toriel might have been spared, but what about the next Monster? What about one that won't just step aside and let you go?"

Jaune knew what he was up to. And had an answer. "If you think I'm a pacifist, you're wrong."

This seemed to confuse Flowey for a moment.

"I'll fight if I have to, but that doesn't mean I'll try to pick fights. I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to kill anyone. But I'll defend myself or anyone who needs it. That's the difference." Jaune huffed, and opened the door a bit more, allowing him to sidestep around the flower. "But I bet you were listening in when I was talking to Toriel, so you knew that anyway."

As he walked away, Flowey blinked in surprise for a moment. His eye twitched soon after as his grin spread. "He's a smart one… That could be a problem."

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As Jaune finally left the ruins, he became immediately thankful he had his hoodie. The area outside was cold, there was snow on the ground, and a light breeze could chill him to the bone. He felt like something nearby got a chuckle out of that, but was too distracted by making his way out of the forest he found himself in. As we walked down the path, he could swear something was following him. The sound of a snapping branch pulled his focus behind him as he spun to catch whatever it was. But there was just a broken branch. He let out a sigh before turning back around, nearly jumping out of his skin when he did.

Standing in front of him was what looked like a skeleton on a blue hoodie, sweatpants, and slippers. He had this huge grin on his face as he looked up toward Jaune, covering a foot tall height difference. "sup?"

Jaune wasn't sure what to expect, but at least it seemed willing to talk. "Nothing. I think."

"good to meet 'ya." The skeleton held out its hand, "the name's sans."

"I'm Jaune." Jaune reached out to shake the skeleton's hand before a fart-like sound rang out over the scene.

The skeleton chuckled before pulling his hand back, revealing a rubber item, "the ol' whoopee cushion in the hand gag. never gets old." He laughed and put his hand back in his pocket. "so, pleased to meet ya."

Jaune, now aware of the type of person he was working with, calmed down a bit. "Likewise."

Sans chuckled again. "i got to say, you're a weird one. not a lot of humans come down here, anyway, and you're probably the weirdest i've seen."

"Gee thanks…" Jaune responded with a touch of sarcasm.

"hey, don't be like that. they were all at least a little weird. anyway, whatcha up to down here anyway?"

"I fell in from a crack in the mountain. I'm trying to find my way out."

Sans tapped his toes on the ground for a moment as he listened. "ah, got ya."

Jaune decided to take a chance by asking, "Do you maybe know the way out of here? Where I have to go?"

Sans was quiet for a moment before nodding lightly. "yeah. you would just go down the main path and through snowdin. after that, you gotta cut through the swamp area. then make your way into hotland. after that, you should be in new home and right next to the barrier keeping us all trapped down here."

"That's another thing. I heard about the barrier, but I don't know why you're all down here."

Sans nodded slightly before pointing his thumb back behind him. "how's about we talk that over at my station? better than standing in the middle of a forest." Sans turned and waved him over, "come on kid. we can take a shortcut."

Jaune was old enough to be skeptical, lost enough to be desperate, and confused enough to just roll with it. Two out of three said to follow the skeleton. Besides, he seemed alright. But as he stepped passed a tree behind Sans, he found himself in a clearing that had certainly not been there. "What? How did we-?"

"like i said," Sans never lost that grin, "i knew a shortcut." The skeleton sat down behind what looked like an outpost station. "so, you wanted to know about the barrier."

"Yeah.' Jaune found a random chair nearby and pulled it over to sit down in front of the station. "When I talked to Toriel, we found that our histories didn't match up, so I don't know why you're all down here."

Sans was quiet for a moment before nodding. "that explains that weird distortion from those years back."

"What?"

"nothing." Sans seems to drift off for a moment before shaking his head. "listen, it's not a nice story, kid. you sure you want to hear it?"

Jaune nodded. "I'm sure."

Sans couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "alright. just don't say i didn't warn ya."

Sans proceeded to tall Jaune everything. From the easier days on the surface, to the growing divisions. The war between humans and Monsters up to their defeat. The seven human sages locking them beneath the mountain. It took a while to go over the details as Sans would occasionally go on a tangent to make some kind of joke. 'lightening the mood' he called it.

In turn, Jaune explained everything he knew about the history of Remnant. Admittedly, he could have payed more attention in school, but he knew the basics well enough. The kingdoms, the Grimm, the Faunus, the Great War, and the Revolution. All the big moments. All the while, Sans just sat there and smiled.

Once the stories were told, Sans sat back in his chair, looking up toward the roofing above his head. "that's a crazy story kid. i can tell you ain't lying, but it's still pretty out there."

The moment was cut off by a loud shouting in the distance, "Sans!"

"oh hey. that'll be my bro, papyrus. I think you'd like him. he's pretty cool. but he's also looking to capture a human so he can be a royal guard."

"What?" Jaune jumped up, a bit panicked now. He looked around for somewhere to hide, but couldn't find anything other than a weirdly shaped lamp.

Sans seemed to contemplate things for a moment before nodding. "okay. listen, kid. normally, I'd tell you to hide behind the lamp, but you're a little big for that. i'll give you a shortcut out of here and we can meet up with my bro later. give me some time to talk to him about all this crazy stuff."

Jaune turned to the skeleton, "I'd appreciate it."

"alright. just step over here."

Jaune made his way around the station and disappeared right as Papyrus reached the area. He'd gotten away this time.

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Jaune lost his footing after the shortcut and face-planted into the snow. After a slight groan, he picked himself up again and brushed off the excess snow. He looked around to find himself next to a big frozen lake. He walked over and found the surface solid enough to walk across, if he needed to, and reflective enough to see himself in it. After checking himself for injuries, he let out a held breath and let himself relax for a moment.

As he looked at himself in the ice, he couldn't help but think back to that girl he saw in the mirror. Who was she? What did she want? Questions he couldn't answer.

He took a breath and stood up away from the ice and looked around to figure out where he should go. He saw a faint glow off in the distance and decided that was a good place to start. As he stepped forward, he felt something hard under his foot. It felt to flat and smooth to be a rock. Lifting his foot, he looked down to find a small device. Small enough to fit in your pocket, but large enough to be obvious it's there. It kind of reminded him of an early version of a… scroll.

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"I'm telling you Sans!" A tall, thin skeleton in homemade costume armor shouted to his brother, "There's a human in the Underground! I'm certain of it!"

"let me guess," Sans grinned as he spoke, "you can feel it in your bones."

Papyrus groaned and turned away from Sans, "Honestly! Why must you make such awful jokes!"

"come on, bro. you're smiling."

"I am and I hate it!" Papyrus turned back toward Sans, stomping his foot. "Why must someone as great as me have to put up with such foolishness?!"

The echo of a frustrated scream rang out over the scene. It was faint, but audible.

"What was that?"

"sounds like someone who just had a realization about something they should've remembered hours ago." Sans shrugged. "that or somebody stubbed a toe."

Papyrus cringed a bit, "Ugh! I hate that!"

"the remembering later or the toe stubbing?"

"BOTH!"

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Once Jaune was done sxreeming out his frustration, he let out a sigh and pulled out his scroll. It was an older model, but still worked for what he needed. And right now, he needed it to make calls. Quickly unlocking the screen, his finger moved to the call button as fast as it could manage and typed out his home number. He held the device to his ear, hoping to hear something good.

"We're sorry. The number you are trying to reach is currently outside operating range."

Damn it. Wait, 'operating range'? Not 'no signal'? Jaune moved tabs on his screen to find the settings and used the signal tracker. Two types of signals are used for scrolls, long range CCT and short range inter-scroll communications. Turns out, there was a signal. Just not one he recognized.

Staring back at him was an option reading [Underground Communications Network]. In any other context, that would sound like a web of criminal carriers ferrying messages to bosses while they retained plausible deniability. Down here, though? Made it sound more literal than seedy.

Not important. What was important was that he had a connection. Which means someone down here had to have built it. Maybe they can boost the signal and I get a message to mom and dad. I know they'd help everyone down here if we asked.

Jaune sighed and put his scroll away from now. He returned his attention to the older looking device. It was blocky and had a physical screen rather than a retractable hard light screen. He found the power button and curiosity got the better of him. There was no lock beyond a simple drag of the finger over the screen. Not good for security, but helpful for his investigation. As he opened the phone, his eyes went wide at seeing the picture used as the background.

What caught his eye first was the multiple Monsters in a group for the photo, which included Toriel and Sans. Another skeleton in what looked like costume armor was next to the shorter skeleton, likely Papyrus. There was also what looked like a lizard woman, a shark woman, and a larger goat man in golden armor with a purple cape. But, Jaune's eyes found themselves flowing toward the center of the picture. At the center of the group was a young woman, maybe a year or two older than him at most, with long brown hair and wearing a striped sweater.

Jaune's mind tricked him for a moment to think this was the girl from the mirror, but he soon noticed key differences. In order of obviousness, first was the color of the sweater being blue and purple. Second was her hair, which was longer and better kept. Third was her eyes, which were a light brown instead of Chara's red. Fourth, however, was less of a contrast and more his seventeen year old brain messing with him.

She's really cute.

He shook his head and tried to get his brain back on track. He smacked his face on either side and spoke out loud to himself. "Focus! Now isn't the time to think about that."

Just saying. His traitorous mind retorted. Besides, it might be a good idea to figure out who she is anyway. She's surrounded by Monsters and they all seem happy enough. Plus we see Toriel and Sans look pretty much the same, so it has to have been recent.

Jaune conceded that his mind had a point. She at least gave him hope over the point that there didn't need to be violence between him and the Monsters. Assuming this was a good faith picture, anyway. Given Toriel was one of the Monsters in question, he had no reason to think it was a malicious act to lower her guard. It might be worth it to find out who she is and hopefully talk with her about this crazy situation.

Maybe over coffee and a nice cake?

Ignoring his brain, Jaune kept moving forward toward the glow on the horizon. He really hoped it was something more than the frozen land around him.

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"And that's the last of it." Jaune picked an old ornament off the branch and set it aside with the rest of the decorations.

The deer-like creature with trees for antlers shook its body and stretched its limbs. "Finally," It said. Learning it could talk was pretty out there for Jaune, but not the weirdest thing today. As the deer turned back to Jaune, it continued, "those brats'll get a beating if they try that again, I swear to you. Anyway, thanks for helping me out."

"No worries." Jaune paused a moment before remembering there was an important question he needed answered. "Oh hey! Do you maybe know the way to a place called Snowdin?"

The deer gave a dismissive grunt. "Down the main path that way." He shook his head to the side and back toward a pathway behind him. "Turn right at the top."

Jaune yelled toward the leaving deer, "Thank you!" Then he ran off down the path, hoping to find some civilization and maybe a hotel or something. He was getting tired and that wasn't something Toriel's snacks could fix. At the very least, he could really use a nap right about now.

After a while, he found himself on the cliffs again and making his way toward the glowing horizon. But something felt off. He looked around and found nothing out of the ordinary. No one around to be seen. And yet, he felt as though he were being watched. It was an eerie feeling that made him move slowly. Then, suddenly, it was gone.

Not giving it much thought, he decided it was best to just keep moving. But as he reached the end of a cliff, be stopped. "What the hell?"

Below the cliff wasn't the frozen lakeside he'd been, but a warm field with a small town resting by a river. He knew that place. It was Doremy, a small town outside Vale. His hometown. What was it doing down here?

Duh. His mind caught up to his situation fairly quickly. This is a dream. I must have fallen asleep suddenly. Crap, that means I passed out in the snow. … How long have I been down here that I'm tired enough to pass out?

Then that feeling was back. He wasn't alone. He turned, expecting to find nothing. But he found her, standing there in her green and yellow sweater. Her hands were behind her back as she smiled at him. Her red eyes fixed solely on him. She seemed perfectly normal and cheery. So why did he feel like he was in danger? She chuckled and stepped closer, not a word of sound escaping her. Some part of him thought she was about to throw him off the cliff, but she walked up next to him and looked out toward thr town.

Jaune was able to get a look at her niw that he wasn't in immediate danger or freaking out and… he'd be damned if she wasn't cute. It reminded him of the mystery girl from the picture, but different. They looked pretty similar, but in that weird way that you know they aren't related yet look like sisters.

Then she turned to him with the warmest smile possible, only to say, "They're all gonna die."

The juxtaposition between the harsh words and the light tone made Jaune step back. "What?"

"Them. The Monsters. The humans too if I get my way. Everything. I'll destroy it all."

Jaune, ever the kind soul, hoped he could talk her down. "Why would you want to do that?" He hoped this was all solely a dream, but deep down he could tell it was something else.

"Why?" She smiled, "because I can. That's the point. I can do whatever I want. All you have to do," she turned and took a step toward Jaune, "is let go and let me handle things for a while."

Jaune took a step back before he noticed something. That heart-soul thing was back, floating between them. He tried to back away, but felt an odd pressure keeping him in place.

"Don't you worry, handsome." She closed the distance on the soul and reached up to grab it, "I'll take good care of everyone~"

Jaune tried to figure out a way to stop her. He didn't know exactly what could happen, or if anything really would given it was a dream, but he felt a primal instinct telling him to prevent it. But how could he? Then, he registered what she called him. "You think I'm handsome?"

This caused her to pause. "What? Oh! Uh…" it was kind of weird seeing her suddenly freeze up, but she shook it off, seemingly having a realization. "Maybe I do." Her unnervingly warm smile shifted to a confident smirk as she regained control of the situation. She stepped forward, into his space as the soul floated between them. She could have just grabbed it, but the control she'd gain would be tenuous at best. But if she could get him to follow along, she could work with that. "Are you really that surprised?"

"Uh…" Jaune seemed to have trouble answering, or speaking in general.

"You've got a big future ahead of you. I can tell." She placed a hand on his chest, right over his heart. Meanwhile, her other hand was wrapping around the soul between them. It wasn't rejecting her. Good. Now I should be able to…

Her thoughts were interupted by Jaune grabbing her wrist and pushing her off of him. The shock of the situation actually made the soul slip from her hand and back to Jaune. "Uh… sorry. That just kind of…"

She blinked in surprise. His instincts must be quicker than his brain. Or, she noticed his eyes, keeping her hands in his peripheral vision without looking like he was deliberately doing so. He's smarter than he looks. Chara wasn't insulted or hurt. Rather, she was impressed. Excited, even. It was all the more reason to take his soul for her plans. "Until next time, then."

"Hold on a second!" Jaune felt everything fading around him. As the cliffs and fields gave way to a flurry of yellow flower petals.

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Jaune groaned as he started to stir. "What happened?" He shook off his sleep and stretched on instinct, starting to remember what happened. "And who was that anyway?" He remembered a green and yellow sweater… Resigning it to memory, he looked back to the glow and started to see the tops of buildings. He was close. He just had to…

"Oh good! You're awake!" The voice pulled Jaune's attention to a thin skeleton in what looked like costume armor with a red scarf. Sans was standing next to him as well. The tall one pointed toward Jaune, "Now human! Prepared to be captured by the Great Papyrus!"

Jaune was silent for a moment. The only word that could escape him was, "What?"

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King: So here's the deal, I first want to go over my headspace while I was deciding this. First things first, I am a contrarian shipper. If there's a canon ship or one a lot of people like, I like to imagine and see other options. At least for fan works. Fitting to theme, I can find plenty of Arkos works, but there's not a lot of say... Arc-Lightning (or whatever people call the Nora x Jaune ship). So, when people say not to ship something, I'll look into it. And if I like it, for any reason, I'll stick with it and look around.

Point is, I had a big think over this given the opinions of the readers who responded. You know the ones. But, I ultimately ended up picking a different ship anyway. Our winner(s) is / are Frisk and Chara. Long story. You'll just have to read it~ Ha hA!

...

Right. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and continue to enjoy the story.