"...Oh, thank goodness. It seems as though she was indeed right about being able to hold her own out there."
"yeah. she even impresses me, which is saying something."
"Is she...um...behaving out there? I know, it's a strange question. But you know as much as I do, as well as everyone else that humans are far stronger than we are. I suppose I'm just worried she might...you know...cause an accident? While trying to defend herself?"
"nothing's happened yet. and she's made it pretty obvious that she's got just as much mind as she does muscle; she's been wormin' her way out of pinches left and right. and the crazier part is that all of the folks she meets, uh...seem to like her. i guess she's got a way with people, eh?"
"Good. I'm...glad to hear that. Very glad."
"yeah, but she's, uh...a little rough around the edges, gotta admit. i've got a weird question now, lady; you didn't see any signs of, uh...foul play in there, didja?"
"You mean...Oh. Oh, no, no, no, I didn't, I promise you. If something happened to one of the monsters down here, I likely would have found out about it from the telltale pile of dust. And something of the sort would be hard to miss; I pass through every nook and cranny of these Ruins day to day checking everything."
"so she hasn't dusted any monsters...if that's the case, then...it makes me wonder what sorta things she was doin' on the surface."
"Why do you say that?"
"i can just...tell she's not one to be messed with. it's not exactly a gut feeling...because i don't have any guts. it's hard to explain, but something's tellin' me that her hands aren't the cleanest...in terms of violence, that is. and it's weird, cuz she's been pretty peachy with almost everyone she's come across...i dunno. guess we're both just worried about her a lot and it's gettin' to my head."
"Well...If you will, please continue to keep a watchful eye."
"eye've gotcha covered."
The monster in the Ruins snorted.
"you know...the kid's gotta taste for bad jokes too."
"Oh, DOES she now?"
"yeah...you should have seen her with this one guy; they were throwin' ice puns at each other like they were goin' out o' style."
"Oh, my goodness!"
She laughed.
"I never saw anything of the sort while she was here; did she get that from you, maybe?"
"willin' to bet. guess that's what's keepin' me from bein' even more suspicious. those rough edges seem to have, uh...smoothed out some, so to speak. she's able to tie her fists down, but she's almost always on guard. even i'm having trouble surprising her now."
"Well, it's a good thing she's faring well out there. Erm...How close is she to New Home?"
"gettin' there; passin' through hotland as we speak."
"She hasn't run into any trouble out there, either, I suppose?"
"if you want i can go head out there just in case."
"Alright, then. Thank you again for visiting, young man. And once again, I'm very grateful knowing you're protecting her."
"no problem, lady. she's probably fine, though; i mean, with all she's gotten through so far, what could happen?"
...
"What. Is happening?"
"WHAT'S HAPPENING? DARLING, I'LL TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT'S HAPPENING! YOU'VE JUST BECOME TODAY'S GUEST STAR ON THE UNDERGROUND'S PREMIER COOKING SHOW!"
"Oh, sprink me..." she groaned, bringing her free hand to her face.
"PRE-HEAT YOUR OVENS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A VERY SPECIAL RECIPE FOR YOU TODAY! WE'RE GOING TO BE MAKING A BEAUTIFUL, VELVETY WHITE CAKE, AND MY LOVELY ASSISTANT HERE WILL GATHER UP THE INGREDIENTS FOR US! EVERYONE, GIVE HER A BIG HAND!"
Ginger decided it was safe to assume she was on film again, knowing Mettaton. But he certainly hid his cameras well.
"ALRIGHT, DARLING. WE'LL NEED SUGAR, MILK AND EGGS TO MAKE THE MAGIC HAPPEN," the machine said to her, pointing over to the ingredients laid out on the counter. "GO FOR IT, SWEETHEART!"
"Can you not call me that?" she retorted. If she was going to be filmed, she could at least put him in his place in front of an audience and maybe pull him down a notch.
The human reluctantly gathered the ingredients laid out on the counter, then brought them over to the island.
"PERFECT! LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE EVERYTHING HERE! MILK, SUGAR, EGGS...OH! WAIT JUST A MAGNIFICENT MOMENT! HOW COULD I FORGET!"
"What?"
"WE'RE MISSING THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT!"
"...Flour?" she guessed.
"NO, YOU SILLY GOOSE!"
And that was when he pulled something out of the shelf in the island in front of him and faced the unsuspecting human with it.
A chainsaw.
"A HUMAN SOUL!"
The moment he revved the deadly contraption up, she stumbled backward with a yelp and dug into her pack to fetch her bow and arrows.
"Get yourself a new recipe, bud!"
"IT'S A BIT TOO LATE FOR THAT NOW! EVERYONE'S WAITING FOR-"
And that was when they both heard the sound of a phone ringing.
Though it wasn't Ginger's. It sounded more like it was coming from inside...Mettaton himself? Did Alphys install a phone directly into his system?
"YES? HELLO? WHO IS IT? I'M KIND OF IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING HERE."
"W-wait a second!"
"Alphys?"
Her voice was as clear as day coming from the robot's internal phone system.
"Couldn't you make a...Couldn't you use...Uh...C-couldn't you make a substitution in the recipe?"
"...A SUBSTITUTION? YOU MEAN, USE A DIFFERENT, NON-HUMAN INGREDIENT? FOR WHATEVER REASON?"
"Well, what if...Uh...What if someone's...vegan?"
"...VEGAN."
"Uh, well, I mean-"
"THAT'S A BRILLIANT IDEA, DR. ALPHYS! AS A MATTER OF FACT, I JUST SO HAPPEN TO HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE RIGHT HERE! MTT-BRAND ALWAYS-CONVENIENT HUMAN-SOUL-FLAVOR-SUBSTITUTE! A CAN OF WHICH IS JUST OVER THERE ON THAT COUNTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM!"
The human peered over; there was indeed a small counter there, and there was the can of...Human SOUL substitute...That unearthed a lot of questions.
"...How do you even know what a human SOUL tastes like? As far as I know, nobody's absorbed-"
"OH, LESS TALK, MORE STEP, DARLING! WHY DON'T YOU GO AHEAD AND BRING IT OVER?"
"Didn't I tell you to cut it with the pet names?"
"OH, COME NOW, IT ADDS A BIT OF SPARK TO THINGS, DOESN'T IT? BESIDES, WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN IF I DON'T?"
"What's gonna happen is you're gonna have a bad time!"
MEANWHILE
"ERM...ARE YOU ALRIGHT, SANS? YOU'RE EYES WENT DARK."
"...i dunno. i felt...a disturbance in the force. like...like someone just stole my catchphrase, somewhere...weird...oh well, probably nothing major happening. i'm goin' to hotland, 'kay, bro?"
"CAN YOU AT LEAST PICK UP YOUR SOCK FIRST?"
"get undyne to do it."
"I'm not picking up your smelly laundry! And now that you're back, I think it's about time you and I have a discussion about this whole-"
"that dog's back."
"Huh!?"
"WHERE!?"
They both diverted their attention to the kitchen, but found no dog.
"SANS! DID YOU SEE WHERE IT-"
He was no longer there.
"URGH! That slippery little snail! How does he DO that!?"
"MY BROTHER IS A CREATURE OF MUCH SPECULATION."
...
"WELL, I GUESS WE'LL HAVE TO SEE JUST WHAT HAPPENS, FOLKS. JUST GO ON AHEAD AND FETCH THAT."
"Egh...Fine...Alphys, you still there?" she asked over her own phone.
"Uh, yeah! I-I can make multiple calls at once with this thing."
"This whole cooking show shebang is making me hungry myself. Hey, maybe I should see what's in that fridge, huh?"
"D-do you really think now's a good time to be getting a snack...? Uh...Well...I guess I'm not in any place to judge you for that."
"Monster food's good, but it's not...you know, filling. I guess it reacts differently with humans."
"Yeah, y-you've got a point. B-besides, I'm the one sitting on my bed eatin' potato chips in my PJs!"
Ginger snorted.
"Sounds like you're busy," she mused.
"Uhh...Heh, uh...P-pretend I never said that, okay?"
"Don't sweat it, Alphy. Just let me bring this-"
She was just about to grab the can when the counter it was on recoiled...
Then sprang up out of the ground, revealing that there was perhaps a good dozens of dozens of feet of even more hiding away underneath it! Within a matter of seconds, it had almost reached the roof of the cavern, it'd gotten so high!
"BY THE WAY, WE RUN ON A FAIRLY STRICT PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE," Mettaton buzzed at her. "SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO HURRY UP, BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T GET THAT CAN WITHIN THE NEXT MINUTE, WE'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO STICK WITH THE ORIGINAL PLAN."
"Alphys, how am I going to to this!? AND I CAN'T EVEN CLIMB THIS THING, IT'S TOO RISKY AND THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME!"
"Uh, don't panic! I-I have an idea! Here, put it on speaker a-and I'll give you further directions from there!"
She followed her instruction in a hurry.
"Now what!?"
"Okay! Y-you see that big button o-on the side of the phone that says 'JETPACK?' Press it!"
"'Jetpack?'"
"I, uh...a-added a few, um...extra features when I was upgrading your phone. J-just press it! You'll see what I mean!"
Sure enough, there was an obvious, square red button on the side of the phone that had the word on it in stark white. She pushed it, and the phone began to make an odd whirring noise as it rose from her grasp into midair.
And then, it opened up, expanded tenfold, then divided into two sections before fastening itself onto her back and firing up.
"Uh...What's this thing do, huh?"
"I-it's capable of giving even the least aerodynamic creatures the ability to defy the force of gravity!"
"Defy gravity...? Wait. You mean-"
"Y-yeah! You know! Fly!"
Fly...
She never thought it'd be possible without wings. But if the jetpack could carry her as well as the former, she wouldn't have an issue. She knew all of the basic fundamentals of flight; takeoff, drag, lift, speed maneuvers, aerial combat. She had it all stored away for future use.
And the future is now, she marveled to herself.
"You should have just enough fuel to make it to the top! I-I would have tried to fit more in, but it would have taken too-"
"You did more than enough, Alphys. Let me handle this."
"Oh...Okay! Get on up there!"
All she had to do was jump...
And her buried instincts kicked in again.
She found herself being carried farther and farther up, almost as though she'd never lost her wings to begin with. She stiffened her form, and began to shoot like a needle up through the air and towards the dirt roof of the Underground.
She was just starting to form a confident smirk when she saw a familiar, rectangular figure hovering above, sporting his own jet function.
"Oh, no..."
"YOU THINK YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE AROUND HERE WITH A FEW TRICKS UP THEIR SLEEVE, HUMAN? YOU MUST REALLY THINK YOU'RE...EGGCELLENT!"
He pulled out the carton of eggs from the other counter as visual representation of the pun. Ginger would have snickered at it had he not begun to tip the carton down and let the eggs spill out and begin barreling towards her from above.
"So that's how you want to play, huh?" she remarked, tilting to the left to avoid some of the falling projectiles.
"AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? OH, MY. THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR, DOESN'T IT?"
He tossed one of the eggs down at her with his gloved hand, and she barely dodged it; it grazed her shoulder, leaving a small splatter of egg white on the sleeve. Ginger grimaced at the sensation, then emitted a nasty growl.
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do about it!"
"WHAT?" he retorted, now revealing the sugar and sending a barrage of it down.
"I'll do a barrel roll!"
And a barrel roll she did, using the swift spin maneuver to skillfully dodge the oncoming puffs as they hurdled downward in rows. It'd taken her a good two months to perfect when she first began her training, but her training had been well worth the while.
...If only Nyra could see me now.
"JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DO FANCY TRICKS, YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE EDGE? WELL, I'LL SEE TO THAT, HUMAN!"
"And another thing!" Ginger spat as she spun to the side again, eyeing the milk carton Mettaton had now armed himself with. "I have a name, and it's not 'Human'!"
"WHAT A SHAME."
That was when he tipped the carton over and let the milk spill out in a steady stream like a waterfall.
"URGH! Serpentine!" Ginger cried as she deployed the move to dodge the flowing obstacle. She made the mistake of letting it splash onto her by trying another barrel roll to avoid it as it began to spiral, and she could feel it push down on her, hindering her speed. Alphys had said there was only so much fuel in her jetpack; it seemed like she wasn't the only one here who knew this.
"I GOT SO USED TO CALLING YOU THAT. AND NOW IT'S JUST GOING TO BE AWKWARD. JUST LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE. YOU'VE EMBARRASSED YOURSELF!"
"Oh, if I can embarrass myself, then you better believe I can do it to other people, too!"
"REALLY, NOW! AND HOW-"
"Corkscrew!"
"PADRON ME?"
His confusion to the outburst was answered when he saw the human begin to spin again. But this was no barrel roll; she was going in a straight line upwards.
And she was getting faster every second, the maneuver allowing her to cut right up through the air like a drill...Right towards him!
The robot moved out of the way just in time to evade his guest star as she shot upwards past him.
"OH, DEAR ME! DON'T YOU REALIZE YOU COULD HAVE DENTED SOMETHING THERE?!"
"That was my plan!"
"OH, CHEEKY! JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"
To answer him, the human passed up the top of the extended counter just as the jetpack began to sputter, and she stopped mere feet away from the ceiling of the cavern, where she flipped forward to showboat and then fell to the top of the counter, bracing her fall with her knee and hand before looking to Mettaton again as he rose to face her, a confident gleam in her eyes as she rose back to her feet.
"I," she announced to him. "am General Ginger Wingren. And I've trained alongside some of the most elite fighters on the face of the surface world to put to rest the likes of the evil and impure. In my home country, I'm one of the most revered warriors our kind has ever boasted. I've traveled overseas and across the wilderness, fighting for our honor and expanding our forces. I am an explorer. I am a soldier. I. Am a Pure One. That is who I am."
Ooh...Nice monologue, Alphys said to herself, having heard everything.
"...MY, MY. WELL, GENERAL, IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOU'VE LIVED UP TO YOUR CLAIMS OF GREATNESS FOR THE TIME BEING. BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU HAD THE HELP OF THE BRILLIANT DR. ALPHYS! OH, HOW I LOATHE TO THINK OF WHAT MAY HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU WITHOUT HER ASSISTANCE."
"What are you? Jealous? It sounds that way. Boy, oh boy. Just think; she'd rather help out me than you. Doesn't that get on your nerves?" she teased him.
For a moment, Mettaton's facial grid flashed red, and she could have sworn she heard him growl, just a bit. But it wasn't long before it was yellow again.
"YOU KNOW WHAT? I TIP MY CHEF'S HAT TO YOU; YOU REALLY ARE SOMETHING SPECIAL. WELL...UNTIL NEXT TIME!"
"Yeah, good riddance..."
"OH. AND ONE MORE THING. ABOUT THE HUMAN SOUL SUBSTITUTION...HAVEN'T YOU EVER WATCHED A COOKING SHOW BEFORE?"
"No."
"OH...WELL, GUESS WHAT? I ALREADY BAKED THE CAKE AHEAD OF TIME! SO FORGET ABOUT IT!"
Before she could spit out another insult at him, he'd flown away and out of sight. The jetpack folded back into itself, then clattered to the top of the counter by Ginger's feet, where she picked it back up from, opening it again and giving Alphys another ring.
"H...hey. Y-you did it. We...We really did it!"
"Yeah...Thanks for installing that, Alphys. Uh...Now that he's gone, I can say it; he was right. If it hadn't been for your help, I'd be a bloody, mangled mess right now; bows and arrows can only do so much against a hunk of steel, you know? You really did go the extra mile with this thing, and it saved my skin. I owe you for that, too."
"...Oh, c-come on, you don't owe me anything. I..."
She paused for a moment, seeming a bit more nervous than usual.
"...I-I'm...just happy to b-be of help, is all."
"~Aww, what'd I do to deserve as great a friend as you, huh?"
"You...You didn't do anything," she mumbled.
"What'd you say?"
"Uh, n-nothing! Just...thinking about stuff, is all!"
As the countertop suddenly began to descend back into the ground, they continued their conversation. Alphys perked back up quickly, and was beyond impressed by what she'd just witnessed from the human.
"Anyways, that...Wow...Th-that was incredible! How'd you do all that?"
"What? The comebacks?"
"N-no, the stuff with the jetpack! The barrel rolls, the serpentine, th-the corkscrew move at the end! I've tried to use that thing before a-and all I did was get thrown around and crash. B-but you!? It's...almost like you've used one before! Uh...Have you?"
"Well...Not exactly, but you could say I have some experience in the air."
"Oh, wow. A-and the monologue at the end w-was super neat. Did you think that up right off the batt?"
"Well, uh...Yes. I, uh, wouldn't exactly call in a 'monologue', though. I was just giving that guy a piece of my mind."
"W-well, you did what you did well! Ah...P-pardon me, if it sounds like a weird question, but...Are you really an explorer, a-and all that stuff?"
"I've been almost six thousand miles south in the Amazon and eight thousand miles out to sea. It's no lie. I've been known for my ability to get around."
"...Dang. A-and you're...You're a general, too? In an army o-or something like that?"
"Well...Technically, I'm still a trainee, but I've gotten a lot done. And I AM the leader of my own squadron up on the surface, so it's still the truth."
"D-do you have, like, weapons and armor?"
"Heck, yeah we have weapons and armor! Although, what I have at home is a little different from this bow and Temmie Armor I have with me now. I've got a helmet with a row of spikes goin' down the face, and my weapons...Uh...They're called 'battleclaws'. Just picture a metal casing on the hand with pointed tips, and that's basically the idea. Good melee weapons; would have made some down here, but they're, uh...Not the best for this type of defensive combat. Heh."
"Whoa...I-it's like y-you're a-an anime protagonist, or something. That's amazing!"
"...A what protagonist?"
"U-uh...I-I'll have to explain it t-to you sometime, I-I guess, heh...Uh...W-well, let's keep moving f-forward, okay?"
"Got it."
"H-hey, keep me on for just a bit longer, okay? There's something up ahead I-I might need to explain, if you end up wondering about it."
"What's that?"
Curious, Ginger approached another Save Point up past the kitchen setup, and she looked out in the distance across the sea of magma. An ominous-looking structure loomed off in the distance, the image of it distorted ever so slightly by the heatwaves rising up from the molten rock. She brusher her foot through it, her eyes glued onto the edifice.
*Hotland-Core View
*File Saved
"...What is that thing?"
"Th-that's the CORE; the source of all of the electrical power of the Underground. It converts geothermal energy into magical electricity by...uh...I-it's kinda hard to explain w-without it sounding like I'm s-speaking some foreign language. But anyway, that's where we're going. The path through the CORE leads directly to the elevator system that'll take you up to Asgore's castle, and from...f-from there, you can...G-go home."
"Uh...You alright over there, Alphy? You sound a little choked up all of a sudden."
"Oh, heh, j-just my sinuses acting up again, that's all. Nothing serious."
"Well...Okay, then. Anything else?"
"Uh, n-no, that's it. Just letting you know what it is a-and why that's where we're headed. Uh...T-talk to you soon."
"Later, Alphys."
And then she was gone. Ginger kept going, but not without letting a skeptical eyebrow raise; there was definitely something bothering Alphys besides her sinuses.
She came up to an elevator at the end of the path, labeled "R1" in bold, glowing red letters right above the door. All she had to do was step closer and they opened right up for her, so she went ahead and stepped inside. The control panel before her had two different options for her to choose from.
"Please select a location.
-Left Floor 1
-Right Floor 2
That was when her phone rang again.
"Hello?"
"Hi! Uh, I just remembered! The elevator! Y-you gotta take it to Right Floor 2 to keep going! The left one will just bring you back to the western border b-by the lab."
"I got it. Thanks, pal."
"N-no problem."
*click...
She followed the instructions accordingly; the elevator vibrated a bit as it ascended, but overall, it was a smooth ride. When it finally stopped, the metal doors whooshed back open, revealing a new, unfamiliar part of Hotland for her to get past. She kept going; there was a wider section in the path ahead, and there, sitting at a sentry station, was what looked to be...
"Sans!"
"'ey, kid. how's it hangin'?"
"Oh, you know. Robot shenanigans, if you know what I mean. It's tiresome..."
"really? you don't look all that tired."
"Well, I did just get through a pretty exciting ordal; heartrate's still up there, and all...Alright, don't tell anyone this, but even though it gives me a workout, I've gotta admit; this whole ordeal is actually sorta fun. Hey, I just got to use a freakin' jetpack. That's not exactly what one might call 'boring.' Mettaton's weird about it, though; it's like he's not even TRYING to stop me. He had a CHAINSAW on him, and he decides he's gonna try to stop my flying by pouring his cake ingredients onto me? Wasted opportunity there, even if I AM glad he wasted it. Plus, I've got the doc helpin' me out, so this should be a breeze. But anyways, no, I'm not all that tired. If anything, I'm just hungry."
"you're in luck. i'm stocked and sellin'."
"Really?"
"yep."
"In that case, I wonder what's for dinner."
That was when the skeleton brought up something from inside his sentry station; a prepared tray of sausages, buns and condiments, all laid neatly out on the front desk.
"so whadaya say, pal? wanna buy a hot dog? it's only 30G."
She was about to ask what exactly they were, but when the sweet smell of meat wafted up from the sausage links, she decided then and there that it didn't matter.
"Deal...Maybe put some ketchup on that."
"heh...i like your style."
He whipped it up surprisingly quickly and handed it out to the human.
"thanks, kid. here's your dog."
"Alright..."
She veraciously bit into one end of the frankfurter and ripped the end right off like it was the first thing she'd eaten in weeks.
"...Mah boi," she exclaimed through a mouthful of hot dog. "This is what all true warriors strive for; some good freaking food!"
"wow...you weren't kiddin' about bein' hungry, huh?"
"Nope."
She swallowed.
"So, uh, how's it been? Fish-face destroy any furniture yet?"
"no. in fact, papyrus called just a bit ago; he says he and undyne are havin', like, a picnic or something outside. he wanted to show off his new cooking skills that you helped 'im out with, since he won't eat at grillby's...poor sap."
"Well, I hope he made lotsa spaghetti. Why don't you pop in there and serenade them with your trombone solo when they least expect it?"
"my god...papyrus'd prob'ly be confused."
"I know. That'd make it even more funny."
Sans let out a hiccuppy laugh.
"kid...honestly, i knew a human was gonna fall down here at some point that i was gonna have to deal with, but i didn't expect a wild card like you. i will say, though; for a wild card, you turned out to be a pretty good draw. just keep up what you've been doin' and things should turn out, you know what i'm sayin'?"
"Ha! That, ah...means a lot. Thanks."
"people down here really love ya. man, if they don't love you on the surface, something's wrong...do they?"
"Well...Yes, they do. But back where I'm from, I...saved the jokes for, you know, when me and my friends were in private. Just being friendly wouldn't have gotten me that far back home, so I...was kind of emotionally reserved. Since...since then, I guess...things changed a bit. One way of life doesn't always work in different places."
"well, good news is, it looks to me they've changed for the better."
"You think so?"
"pretty sure. but what do i know? i'm just some bonehead that sits around and cracks jokes all day, am i right?"
"...I see what you did there."
"heh. thought you would."
"So...uh...Mind if I just hang around here for a while? It's like, what?"
She checked the time on her phone.
"Holy racdrops, it's almost 11:30 at night up there."
That was when the exhaustion began to catch up to her.
"Uh...dude...Remember what I said about not being tuckered out?"
"yeah."
"...That just-" She yawned. "...changed. I think I'm gonna roost here for a while. not gonna drive away any customers, am I?"
"come on. who you gonna bother? not me."
"Heh...Thanks man."
"see you when ya come around."
Ginger set out her cloak on the ground away from the middle of the path and hunkered down on it. Sleep took her quickly, and the last thing she heard before it did was the seemingly distant ambiance of the volcanic sea below, overtaken, suddenly, by a bout of snoring coming from Sans.
...
"...What is this place?"
She was walking on wide, open terrain, save for a small, grass-covered mountain that loomed over head. The sky was overcast, the breeze was strong, and there was not a soul to be seen.
But there were ones to be heard.
Ginger heard what sounded to be a multitude of footsteps approaching from far off. She ran across the grassy ground and up the slope of the mountain to see what was happening. When she finally reached the top, she staggered to a screeching halt at what she witnessed.
A vast fleet of humans, armed and angry-looking, stood behind seven cloaked figures. Each of the cloaks were a different color: deep violet, dark indigo, sky blue, verdant green, sunny yellow, fiery orange and bright red.
...All the different colors of the rainbow, hidden by white until the light struck a prism and refracted.
But the striking colors of the cloaks could hardly distract her from the terrible sight that sat before the humans; monsters, young and old, big and small, of all different kinds, were cowering at their mercy, some only slightly scuffed and bruised, others bloodied, and some even missing entire limbs. One monster in particular caught her attention, who was at the front of his party. It was a young Boss Monster, she could tell, kneeling in submission to the humans; male, judging by his horns, each of which were a good seven inches long. But he was young; barely an adult, it looked like, despite his careworn face, the white fur on which was stained with the blood and grit of war.
"Prince Asgore," the human in the yellow addressed him, his tone harsh and grating. "You know full well why you are here, do you not?"
"Please..." the monster pleaded, tears streaming down his face and collecting dirt. "There doesn't need to be any more bloodshed. Mercy, I beg of you, please!"
"There will be no more bloodshed," the indigo one, with a female voice, added, her tone slightly more sympathetic. "After much debate, we have all decided what must be done with monsterkind, in order to protect humanity; through the combined power of my fellow mages, you will all be sealed away inside the caverns on this very mountain. Not only to protect the human race from your powers, but to prevent your genocide at the hands of those more cruel than us. That is the best we can do, for everyone."
"Now, get in there," the orange one urged, no remorse in her tone.
Prince Asgore complied, and Ginger watched as he gave the order for his people to enter into the cave opening. The monsters all trudged in. Some maintained their dignity. Others wept. But almost all of them took one last look up at the sun, which was just starting to peek out from the clouds, before they were sealed away from its light and warmth forever.
Ginger caught sight of another monster in particular among the multitude entering the cave; another Boss Monster; about as old as Asgore, but female; her horns, still covered in white velvet, were nothing but tiny, pointed nubs. After looking up at the sun one more time, she locked her gaze with Asgore, who had turned his head to face her. Each of them nodded solemnly to one another, and then the prince faced the mages again.
Perhaps that was his princess, and maybe soon-to-be queen; there were no king and queen in sight. Maybe they'd been killed.
"...Should mankind ever find a way to live alongside monsters again," the one in the green cloak told the prince. "We will provide a way to reverse the spell. Through a power equivalent to seven human SOULs, representing we, the ones who constructed it in the first place, the Barrier can be broken."
"Seven human SOULs. But...Wouldn't that require us to kill them?"
"Perhaps," the one in the blue cloak replied. "If the eventual humans give them willingly, that will be the era where you should regain your freedom."
"Anything will be able to pass through the Barrier from the outside," the violet cloaked human explained. "But only beings with a powerful enough SOUL can re-emerge."
"Now...Go join your brethren," the one in red finished. "But don't lose hope. Hold fast to the kingdom you still have. And above all, stay determined."
Prince Asgore entered the cavern, and then the seven mages revealed long, staff-like wands hidden away in their cloaks. There was a flash of blinding light, and it swamped the entire field. Ginger shut her eyes to prevent herself from being blinded.
And then, as suddenly as it appeared the light disappeared.
And, seemingly, so had the entrance to the cavern, along with all of the monsters.
In fact, EVERYTHING had disappeared, and the landscape had changed drastically. In fact, it felt as though even her own body had changed, yet her new sensations felt so familiar. To see for herself, Ginger looked down at her arms.
No longer were they arms, but they had turned back into wings. And black-clawed talons stuck out from her feet.
"...I'm an owl again? But...How? And where am I?"
She was no longer standing on the grassy top of Mount Ebott, but rather barren, dark, rocky ground. The sky above was blood red, streaked with crimson clouds, and the smoldering smell of smoke filled the atmosphere.
And there were now not one, but a tight collection of FIVE mountains in the near distance. Towering mountains that spewed great clouds of smoke and red hot streams of lava from the craters at each of their tops. Volcanoes; all of them. And these were no ordinary mounts.
This...This was the Sacred Ring. She'd never seen the volcanoes for herself, but there was no mistaking them. Dunmore, Morgan, Kiel, Stormfast, and Hrath'ghar loomed above in all their fiery glory, and the howl of the wolves of the Sacred Watch could be heard echoing for all to hear. But Dunmore looked different from the rest; it was transparent, and sparkled like crystal, almost as though it were made of...
Glass, she realized. The volcano Dunmore had turned to glass, revealing the lava and glowing coals inside of it. Along with...
The silhouette of an owl shot up out of the volcano's crater, carrying something in its talons. The owl rose to the sky, revealing himself. It was a young Spotted Owl, and the object in his talons was an ember. A brilliant ember, glowing red and orange with a lick of blue at its center, and in between the blue and the flaming orange was a thin ring of green. As thin as it was, it glowed as bright a green as the eyes of the Dire Wolves. Only one ember had that green ring.
"The Ember of Hoole," she whispered. "And...King Hoole himself!"
The howl of the wolves grew softer, and the smoky clouds settled on the ground into a smog, growing thicker, obscuring her vision. It wasn't long until everything went grey, but she still stood there, ever in awe of the sight of one of the most significant events in the entire history of owlkind.
As well as that of monsterkind.
And before the howling of the wolves completely subsided, Ginger heard a voice, whispering somewhere in the darkness. So hurt, so troubled, so familiar, yet...so vague.
"The Angel is coming, Ginger...Save him."
...
"The Legends...!"
She awoke with a bolt, still feeling the heat of the Sacred Ring about the atmosphere. But then came the sudden shock; one minute, her mind was perceiving her as a Tyto Alba, and the very next moment, BAM! Reality struck, and she found herself in a human's body again. Ginger held her head in her hands; the realization of what had just occurred not only caused a bout of shock, but also one of depression. And the heat wasn't from the Sacred Ring, but rather Hotland.
But the unpleasentness of what she'd just experienced faded quickly when she began to piece together her strange vision of a dream.
The war of Humans and Monsters. The aftermath. The mages. The first King Asgore. And then, the retrieval of the Ember of Hoole from a thousand years ago?
...Wait.
A thousand years ago...Wasn't that how long it'd been since the War of Humans and Monsters? But at the same time.
That was when she realized some of what it meant. At the exact moment the monsters were sealed underneath Mount Ebott, King Hoole, first rightful ruler of the Great Tree, retrieved the Ember of Hoole from the volcano Dunmore. An interesting coincidence, she realized...Was it significant in any way? Was there something tying the two events together?
...Is it me?
She'd come from the Owl Kingdoms and fallen into the mountain. Was she a part of the puzzle somehow? Where did she fit?
And the Angel was coming? The voice had addressed her by name; a young voice, one that she felt as though she should have known.
Save him, it said...Save HIM. So, then, she WASN'T the Angel.
"...That's a relief," she breathed.
But why did he need to be saved? Where was he? WHO was he? Was he human? Monster? Something else entirely?
Only time would tell. One thing was for sure, though; if she had to retrieve this Angel, she had to keep going.
She checked the time on her phone again; five in the morning. She'd slept a good six hours, but it did her good, she had to admit.
"up already?"
"Sans...!? You're still here!?"
"well, duh. what do you think i was doin' this whole time?"
"Uh...Well, judging by what I heard right before I conked out, I'd say you were doing the same as me?"
"man, you're good. i'm startin' to think i'm losin' my edge."
"Don't worry about it. You still do get me half the time, you know?"
"heh...if you say so."
"I guess I'll pack up and...Ugh. Hungry again. Mind if I have another one of them dogs?"
"whoops. sorry kid. all out of hot dogs. but if you want, i can give you a hot cat instead."
"A what?"
"check it."
He pulled something new out from inside his stand; it looked exactly like the hot dog she'd ordered earlier...except with little pointed pieces of meat on one end of the sausage that looked like cat ears sticking up out of it.
"oh, and the ketchup's gone, too...my bad. want some mustard instead? relish? kraut?"
"Sure. Give me the whole works, how 'bout it? I'll tip ya another 5G."
"deal."
The exchange was made, but Ginger just had to take one whiff of the sauerkraut on the hot cat to begin regretting her request for "the whole works". Sans noticed her face contort at the strange smell, and offered his input.
"trust me; it might smell kinda funky, but it goes good on the franks. go on 'n' give it a go, eh?"
"Well...You're the expert, I guess."
He really WAS the expert; it tasted strange, but it was the good kind of strange, and the hot cat was gone before either of them even knew it.
"You know, it's weird, Sans; pushin' four days ago I didn't even know any of you existed, and now here I am thinking you make the best doggone hot dogs on the face of the earth. Talk about a change of perspective, huh?"
"life's weird that way, ain't it?"
"Life's weird in a lot of ways...So, uh, I think I'm gonna take off. Thanks again for the grub, man."
"later."
The human started again down the path again, her mind still ablaze. What would the Underground throw at her next?
...The Angel, maybe? And if so, how would she help him?
Again, she reminded herself. If the prophecy is true, only time will tell.
A.N.: Here's a challenge for all y'all! See how many meme references you can spot in this fanfiction so far! A couple I feel were kind of forced in this chapter(e.g. the blatant Hotel Mario reference) but it's my fanfiction and I can do as I please with it, ya dinguses.
Well, see you guys next time. Happy Thanksgiving! :D