Chapter 14

"I honestly cannot believe you," Chara was saying, leading Frisk to think to herself how Chara talked more than anyone she knew. "First you ignore every opportunity presented to you with a red ribbon to run, and now you're basically walking towards your execution. I would say you went willingly like a lamb to the slaughter, but I don't think even the lamb was as dumb as you."

If Frisk was honest with herself, Chara did have a point. Papyrus didn't tie Frisk up again, allowing the human to walk behind him on her own with hands unbound. There was nothing stopping Frisk from running or attacking Papyrus from behind.

Of course, Frisk wasn't interested in being honest with herself.

Instead, she wanted to try something more on the pacifist side. The plan, Frisk knew, would sound stupid if she said it aloud, but she had to try. If any Red would be somewhat receptive to her, it would be Papyrus.

"So, Papyrus," Frisk said slowly and cautiously. She noticed Chara raise an eyebrow, listening to what she was about to say.

"Yes, human?" Papyrus questioned, turning his head slightly to look at her. He and Frisk walked side-by-side. If he thought it was strange for captor and captee to walk casually alongside each other, he didn't lead on.

"I was thinking . . . ," Frisk pressed her lips together, "do you want to be friends?"

"Friends?" Papyrus then repeated louder, "Friends?! Why, human, I would love to be-"

Stopping himself, Papyrus shook his head and said, "I-I cannot be friends with you, human!"

Chara, the frustrating creature he was, began crackling. "Getting rejected by him of all people must really sting," he snickered. "Stripes, why would anyone be friends with you?"

Frisk glared at Chara before asking Papyrus, "Why not?"

"I can't."

"That's not an answer."

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it isn't."

With a sigh, Papyrus answered, "I don't do long-distance relationships."

There was no stopping Frisk's eyebrows from shooting up her forehead. "What do you mean, Papyrus?"

"I mean it would be hard to be friends with you while you're in the capital."

"I'm afraid to say I'm a little confused. . . ."

"Once I take you to Undyne," Papyrus began, "you'll be sent away to the king. It would be very hard to be friends with someone who lives so far away, wouldn't it?"

"Hard, but not impossible," Frisk replied, "but I don't see why I have to be, uh, 'sent away' in the first place. Why can't I just stay here?"

Papyrus seemed to consider it. "You know, that is a very valid point."

He thought some more. "I got it! Instead of sending you to the capital, I can convince Undyne to keep you here. That way you get to stay, and I get to become a royal guardsman again. Everyone wins! Oh, the ideas of the Great Papyrus."

"'Sent away'?" Chara muttered while Papyrus went on about how great his ideas were. "Is he joking, or does he really not know what's going on?"

I'm willing to bet on the second one, Frisk thought. She couldn't bring herself to believe someone as innocent as Papyrus really knew the true reason why the Reds were so eager to capture a human.


It was as if the whole world gave way beneath Undyne's feet. Dogamy and Dogaressa, dead. Killed in the line of duty. The only suspect: the human.

Undyne gently – far, far too gently – set down her cell phone. Trista phoned her to give the news. An anonymous monster found the dog couple's ashes and had called to have them collected. The funeral would be at the end of the week. As for the current location of the murderer: unknown.

The location wouldn't be unknown for long if Undyne had anything to do about it.

"Please tell me that you have found Papyrus," Undyne told Sans when he walked into the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" Sans asked, posture unnaturally rigid for someone as lax as he.

"The human that has somehow found its way into the Underground is confirmed dangerous," Undyne answered. "It killed Dogamy and Dogaressa. If it finds Papyrus . . ."

Now Undyne picked up her cell and flung it across the room. The device shattered and fell apart in a dozen pieces. "If that measly human so much as dares to hurt Papyrus, I will personally rip it apart limb from limb!"

Dumbstruck, Sans stood speechless. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but he uttered no sound. Perhaps he was just as shocked as Undyne. Perhaps he didn't want to think about what could happen to his brother yet the thoughts kept coming anyway. Perhaps a lot of things. Undyne had always found Sans a little hard to read even though he seemed to wear his thoughts on his sleeves.

"Why didn't you do what you were supposed to do?" Undyne asked quietly. At Sans's confusion, she explained, "All you had to freaking do was meet us at Grillby's. Why was that so hard, Sans? Had you simply showed up, Papyrus wouldn't have ran off looking for you. If he didn't do that, neither of us would be worrying what that human would do to him. I swear, Sans," at this, Undyne allowed her blue spears to appear, surrounding the stunned Sans, "if anything – anything at all – happens to Papyrus, I will make you regret the day you were born."

Recomposing himself, Sans used a single finger to lower the tip of one of the magical weapons. "Don't you think I'm already worried what would happen if he and the human met?" His tone grew louder. "Don't you think I care about him as much as you do?" In preparation for his last question, Sans smiled as his eye glowed red. "Don't you think I already regret the day I was born?"

Before Undyne could even think to react, Sans destroyed her spears and used his telekinesis to throw her across the room and against the wall. Undyne sat up, regaining the breath knocked from her lungs. She looked in time to see Sans hurling furniture her way. It was by seconds alone she recovered enough to cut the tables and chairs in half with a spear she materialized in her hand.

Spears shot from beneath Sans's feet, but he teleported before they could do him harm. In retaliation, he hurled femurs at her. Undyne sliced each bone into pieces. Again Sans used his telekinesis to toss Undyne, but she dug her spear into the wooden floors, the friction slowing her down as the tip of the spear tore through the flooring.

"Enough games!" Undyne exclaimed. A green aura outlined Sans, keeping him in place. Powerless to go anywhere while Undyne used her green attack on him, Sans had to summon a bone to stop Undyne's bullets from stabbing him in the front, back, and sides. From where he stood, Sans threw Undyne towards the ceiling. While she was up there, Undyne used her spear cut the fan at its base.

Undyne's magic vanished in time for Sans to teleport out of the way of the ceiling fan dropping onto him. This distraction caused him to lose focus on Undyne, who fell towards the ground but summersaulted to land softly on the balls of her feet. Taking no time to recover, Undyne turned Sans green again and surrounded him with spears and bullets, all the weapons pointing at him.

"Let's face it, Sans," Undyne began, watching the skeleton monster breathe heavily while she had yet to break a sweat, "you know you can't win against me. I'm better trained than you, better skilled than you, and overall stronger than you."

"But why are we fighting?" Sans asked, glaring at Undyne. "It doesn't change that Papyrus is out there, potentially with the human."

"No," Undyne answered, "but I did want to give you a taste of the mercy you shall not receive if things don't end well for your brother."

At that, Undyne waved her weapons away and released Sans from her magic. "We're friends because of Papyrus, not because you and I particularly like each other. If anything happens to Papyrus and I have any reason to blame you, don't think I won't hesitate to kill you."

Before Sans could respond, there was a knock on the door.


Frisk could not stop her jaw from dropping in wonder as she beheld Ice Capital. True to its name, the buildings and skyscrapers were all made of ice. In some angles, the light reflected off the buildings, creating beautiful rainbows in the sky.

The streets – also made with ice, and also as beautiful – where filled with monsters. Most greeted Papyrus, and some even greeted Frisk. All were dressed in red, but they didn't look at Frisk more than twice. As with the residents of Snowdin Two, these monsters didn't even know that Frisk was human. As far as they were aware, she was simply a mostly hairless monster.

"This place has really changed," Chara muttered so quietly that when Frisk looked at him and he raised his eyebrows in surprise, she knew he didn't mean for her to hear.

"I came to Ice Capital many times when I was alive," he explained, answering Frisk's unasked question. "I was once good friends with a girl who lived here, and we visited each other often."

Frisk wanted to hear more. She tried to tell Chara that with her eyes, but he was done speaking. The way Chara frowned, she knew he wasn't pleased with himself for sharing so much with her.

It took all Frisk had to not bite her lip. Nothing about her and Chara's relationship made sense. Chara abused her, yet she missed him whenever they were apart. There were times when Frisk would be happy to never see him again, but then Chara would tell her something personal, and she found herself wanting to know more about him. Chara was a puzzle Frisk wanted desperately to solve, and she knew this want, if left unchecked, would be the end of her.

"Here it is!" Papyrus exclaimed, pulling Frisk back to reality. "My humble home."

They stood before, true to Papyrus's words, a humble log cabin a decent distance away from the ice buildings. A reef hung on the door, and smoke rose from the chimney. Also, a full-on war seemed to come from the inside. There were sounds of crashing and cursing. Frisk flinched when what sounded like something heavy falling to the floor echoed outside the cabin walls.

"Sounds to me that Sans and Undyne are here!" Papyrus sounded so happy at the thought while color drained from Frisk's face. Whom she feared more to see, Sans or Undyne, Frisk didn't know. "Shall we make them aware of our presence?"

"I think we should-" Frisk began only to learn Papyrus probably didn't plan to hear her answer the question.

He knocked on the door, and Frisk's heart melted out from her ribs and onto the snow.

When a blue-scaled, red-headed monster with pointed teeth answered the door, a growl reverberating in her throat, Frisk's knees nearly gave out from under her.