"Okay...So, I just gotta pass through the resort again, and...No, no, Mettaton won't try that again...will he? Ugh...you stupid oaf, he's probably not even conscious right now."
She muttered to herself as she went, deep in thought as she passed back through the MTT Resort, and made her way back to Hotland through the CORE, trying to plan her next move. But, being honest with herself, she wasn't entirely sure how she was going to handle things.
"Alright...First, I gotta hit the Lab and talk things out with Alphys. Hope that goes alright...Hope she's there and not at..."
She didn't want to finish the thought, but seeing that she was still alive over a month after she'd left in the last timeline, she figured it safe to assume she was still here. But if she didn't find her at the lab, the Trash Zone would definitely be the next place she would check.
"Okay, I'll do that...Then what? Maybe go visit Sans and Papyrus again? Ugh...Undyne's gonna be there. How am I gonna deal with that one? And what am I gonna tell them? That I came to say goodbye forever before I-"
It was at that moment, she heard her phone ring. Papyrus, she hoped. Now she could tell him to expect her.
"Hello?"
"Uh, hey, bud! It's Undyne!"
...WHAT?
'Hey, bud'? That didn't sound like her at ALL, especially seeing who it was directed at.
"So, I've got somethin' I need to ask of you, is that okay?"
"Alright. Who are you and what have you done with the REAL Undyne?"
"WHAAAAT? What are you talkin' about, pal?"
"Well, for starters, the REAL Undyne doesn't call me pal; she calls me punk, nerd, scumbag, dirty little 'F' and so on."
"Oh...I see what you're getting at. I don't remember using that last one recently, though...But come on, all that's in the past! Hey, listen; how 'bout you come on down to Snowdin and see us? I got a special job for ya!"
"You trying to brutally murder me like, five times is something to just be swept under the r-"
"Look, just get your a-...uh...your butt over here so we can get this over with, okay!?" she snapped.
Okay. That WAS the real Undyne. But why the friendly ruse?
"...What's this about?"
"It's not much. I, uh...just need you to deliver something for me, is all."
"NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH..."
"Shut up, Papyrus, this was you're idea!" she rasped to him. "Anyway, just run on down here, it shouldn't take you long. Especially since the Riverperson's ferry goes right from here to the lab, you know what I mean? Less walking for you!"
Ginger sighed.
"...Fine. But only because I've got nothing better to do."
"Aw, thanks a million! See ya there!"
And with that, she was gone.
"...That was actually kind of disturbing," Ginger said to herself as she made her way back through Hotland; the elevators were all functioning again, so it took a lot less time to get to the western border. She passed by the lab on her way back to the ferry, and she stopped to stare at the door for a few seconds, debating whether or not she should talk things out with Alphys first before going to deliver...whatever Undyne wanted her to deliver, or if she should get the latter out of the way first.
Upon sorting out her priorities, she approached the lab doors to see if they would slide open. They didn't; Alphys must have locked them. So gave them a small knock, then pressed her ear up against them to see if the telltale clicking of the raptor's claws against the tile floor would sound as she approached.
*But nobody came.
Maybe she was upstairs, and couldn't hear her. Maybe she was busy tending to Mettaton; in this timeline, it'd only been about an hour and a half since they battled. Either that or she was still too upset with herself to answer to anyone. Or both, for that matter.
...Poor thing...
But if she wasn't going to answer now, she might as well head back to Snowdin.
Besides, the thought of seeing a more cheery environment, as well as her tall skeleton friend again over standing in the heat and waiting prompted her to get done whatever she needed done.
...
"Tra la la...The waters are calm today...That's bad luck."
"Really?" she asked, slipping her sweater back on in place of the armor she'd just stowed away, her faint smile fading.
"Indeed. I sense conflict on the horizon...Well...Here we are."
She stepped off of he boat and onto snowy terrain once again.
"Come again soon. Tra la la..."
She headed south, then east towards the skeleton residence; sure enough, Papyrus and Undyne were standing just outside the door, waiting for her. The skeleton waved, sporting a friendly smile, and Undyne tried to do the same.
"SHE'S HERE! WELCOME BACK, HUMAN!"
"S-s'up, buddy?"
Her grin came off as more of a shaky grimace, however, and she blew on her hands. Sans was right when he said she couldn't handle the extremes.
"Don't you have, like, a coat or something? I mean, look at me."
"You can only pull so many clothes from a house fire! DUH!"
The fish monster sighed.
"...Look, I-I got somethin' f-for you to deliver to D-Doctor Alphys, okay?" she chattered through clenched teeth. "H-here, take it."
She held out a sealed envelope for the human to take; the Royal Scientist's name was written on the back of it in blue ink.
"You're gonna freeze you're gills off out here," Ginger remarked. "Any reason you couldn't just take this to Hotland yourself?"
"U-uh..."
Her blue-scaled face turned puce again.
"W-well...D-didn't you see what happened th-the last time I went there, you dunce!? Hotland sucks!"
"While I agree, it'd do you better than standing out in the snow waiting to catch cold like an idiot."
"What!? You're ridiculous! I'm the C-captain of the Royal Guard! I don't get...I...Ah...A-CHOO!"
The sneeze could have been heard all the way from the Ruins to the CORE.
"I don't get sick," she insisted, wiping a disgusting amount of green snot off her face with her arm. Ginger's face scrunched up at the sight of it.
"HERE, UNDYNE. G-GO IN AND GET YOURSELF A TISSUE OR TWO...OR FIVE."
"Ugh...Fine. Just, kid, d-do me a solid? Don't t-take the ferry back, I don't want that thing getting wet," she finished as she went into the log house.
"I'LL GIVE YOU THE REAL REASON, HUMAN," Papyrus explained. "WHENEVER SHE TRIES TO DELIVER ONE OF THOSE LETTERS, SHE ALWAYS GOES BACK TO REWRITE IT, THINKING IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH."
"Well, knowing her, it's probably not," she joked. "And isn't there a mailman around here? Gerson said something about one once."
"OH, WE DO HAVE A MAIL SERVICE. SHE'S JUST AFRAID OF HER LETTERS GETTING LOST."
"I don't think the odds of that are very high...Whatever. At least I get a nice walk through Waterfall."
"ONE MORE THING BEFORE YOU LEAVE, HUMAN," he said to her, pulling something he'd been keeping in his scarf out to hand her.
It was the movie they watched.
"I KNOW YOU TOLD ME TO KEEP IT AS A MEMENTO, BUT I JUST COULDN'T STAND HOLDING ONTO IT NOT KNOWING WHEN YOU'D BE BACK FOR IT. AND SEEING YOU'RE HERE NOW, I THOUGHT I MIGHT RETURN IT WHILE I HAD STILL THE-"
He was cut off when the human suddenly flung her arms around him in a warm embrace.
"...NY'OH, HUMAN. I MISS YOU ALREADY, AND YOU'RE NOT EVEN GONE YET."
He knelt down and squeezed her right back, tears forming in his eye sockets.
"If everything goes alright," the human told him. "I'll probably be back sooner than you might think."
"B-BUT AREN'T YOU GOING TO LEAVE? WHAT ABOUT ASGORE? WHAT IF HE TRIES TO STOP YOU?"
"I...spoke to him for a bit, actually. Not about the super important stuff, just...chitchat, sort of. And I have a few more things left to take care of before I cross over to the other side, so I thought maybe it'd give him some more time to think it over."
"R-REALLY? YOU SPOKE TO ASGORE YOURSELF?" he asked, letting go of her.
"We say down for tea, and he sent me on my way," she grinned.
"WOWIE...WELL, THEN...I MUST SAY, MY HOPES ARE RETURNING! GO ON AHEAD AND COMPLETE YOUR MISSION, HUMAN! THE SOONER YOU LEAVE, THE SOONER YOU'LL GET BACK, AND THE SOONER YOU GET BACK, THE SOONER WE'LL BE ABLE TO HANG OUT LIKE THE COOL FRIENDS WE ARE AGAIN! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"
"I'll go. See you 'round, Papyrus!"
"HIKE SAFELY!"
"Hey! Kid! One more thing!"
Undyne stuck her head out the door again, and before Ginger could dash off, the fish monster had her full attention.
"What is it?"
"Just gonna say this once. If you read that thing...I'll KILL you," she snarled. "Understand?"
"...Yeah. Understood."
"Great!"
The fake smile instantly returned to the captain's face.
"Get on out there, okay? See ya later, punk!"
The human rolled her eyes, stuffed the letter in the flat compartment on the front of her messenger bag, waved to Papyrus one more time, then turned east again and headed for the spot that she and him battled. The snow was falling there again, though less heavily than what it'd been that day.
It was time to begin the long trek through Waterfall back to the lab.
...
*Waterfall-Crystal
*File Saved
"Okay..."
She kept going, passing the telescope that Sans used to stand by and one of the boxes she hadn't used. Up ahead, there was a small break in the path, water separating each side; she hadn't taken this particular route before, so she had been unaware of the gap until now.
"...Hm," she hummed, not particularly annoyed by the obstruction, but also noting it as an obstacle. Fortunately for her, the gap was small, disproportionately so, even, and it could easily be cleared with one of her powerful jumps. She was just about to back away from the break in the path, when...
She heard a whistling sound coming from down at her feet. Not just any whistle...A bird's whistle. She looked down.
And there, rising no higher than her foot, was a teeny, tiny yellow bird, looking up at her with curious little black eyes.
"...Oh, hey there. Where'd you come from, huh?" she asked it.
The bird chippered at her, but she couldn't understand it. Maybe if she were still an owl, she would have.
"Hm...How'd you get in the Underground? You...don't exactly look like a bird monster."
It looked very much like something from above; something like a small finch. What were they called? Canaries? Yes, maybe that was what it was. She heard that some humans kept them as pets; maybe this one escaped its old home, and somehow ended up flying down the mountain, like she did, only to get stuck.
But if this was the case, the little canary could consider itself lucky to STILL be a canary.
The bird flapped its wings and spiraled up to perch on her head, its tiny talons grasping it firmly.
"Um...Not sure that's the best place to sit, little guy. I've gotta jump over this gap in the road, and I don't want you getting flung around and-"
Before she could finish, the bird began to flap its wings, still holding fast onto her head.
Something was DEFINITELY weird about this situation. Especially considering that she was finding her legs being lifted clean off the ground by the tiny animal as it flew!
She would have protested against the bird's help, but she was just so amazed by its impossible strength; how had a tiny canary like this one gotten so strong!? Was it magic? Even if the bird itself wasn't a monster, she wouldn't be surprised if there was magic involved for it to be so potent. Besides, if she argued against its help, it might decide to drop her into the water, which was now right below them.
After just under a minute, the bird began its descent, lowering her onto the other side of the path, and then fluttering off of her head and back onto the ground at her feet.
"...How...How'd you do that?"
The bird shrugged, knowing that Ginger wouldn't be able to comprehend its answer.
"How long have you been down here?"
Now this was a question it COULD answer for her. The bird let out a series on chirps, the number of which it emitted gave her the answer.
"NINE years!? Did...Did you fly down here?"
It nodded.
"...You've been stuck down here for that long? Really?"
It nodded, but then smiled to let her know it was content.
"What you just did...Do you do that to everyone that comes down this way?"
She was answered with yet another nod.
"Wow...Is it magic that allows you to do that?"
Another nod.
"...Hey. I like you. You're neat," she said to the bird, sitting down beside it. "...You got a name?"
This time, it shook its head 'no.'
"...Did you fly down into the Ruins when you first came here?"
It nodded yes.
"Do you...know Toriel?"
Yes.
"Was she nice to you?"
Yes.
"Did, uh...She make you butterscotch-cinnamon pie?"
Yes, and the bird pinched the air with its inner and back talons.
"A TINY pie? Or pie slice?"
Yes.
"Heh. I'd like to imagine that...I had some of that stuff once. It's pretty good, isn't it?"
Yes.
"...Are you happy here where you're at?"
Yes.
"...Do you ever miss her?"
Yes. She was getting a lot of yeses.
"Me too; I was only with her a few hours, but she taught me everything I need to know down here; puzzles, mercy, worming my way out of battles, all that. You were a lot safer down here than me, since you're a bird, and all; they won't be coming after your SOUL any time soon...And really, I've gotten pretty popular down here myself, so I don't think anyone else is coming after me...Well...Except maybe the king, but...I just got done talking to him about a few things not too long ago. He doesn't want to have to do it, but it's the only way to break the Barrier...Unless, maybe, if I can convince him otherwise. But I don't know what the odds of that are. Worse comes to worse, it...it'll be either him or me."
The bird patted her knee with its little yellow wing in sympathy, and she responded by scritching the top of its head with the tip of her forefinger.
"Heh...Good fella...Say...I have an idea, you know?"
The bird looked up at her, all ears.
"How would you like to pay Toriel another visit?"
It deflated at the offer.
"Why not? Oh...The doors. Well, maybe if she knows its you, she'd be willing to let you back in? You'd have to wait until evening, though; that's when Sans goes over there to tell her jokes and stuff through the door, so you won't have to wait for her in the cold snow. In fact, just in case, you might consider hanging around him until he decides to go there."
The little canary cocked its head curiously.
"...You're wondering why I'm giving you the idea, huh?...Well, you see, there are a few things I'd like to tell her myself, now that I'm a little wiser about this whole situation, but I don't have the time to show up there in person."
She pulled out the letter Undyne had for her from her pack and showed it off.
"I'm on a mission to take this thing to Hotland. It's a special delivery, sort of thing, you know?"
It nodded.
"And if you're willing to accept it, I've got a job for you," she said to it as she put the letter back.
The bird twittered at her, very excited by the idea; it'd been carrying people across the gap for so long, the thought of something different for a change sounded fun.
"Here, let me just...write something first."
Ginger took out all of her remaining pieces of paper and began to write on the top one, the sheets beneath it forming something sturdy to lean against. The canary watched her scribble on the paper for a long while. It seemed intrigued by her writing, keeping its eyes focused heavily in her pencil, watching it swoop and curl, and it cocked its head every time she erased something, be it as small as a sloppy letter or as big as an entire two sentences.
It was odd, though; it was very focused on Ginger's busy pencil, but seemed to pay no attention to just WHAT she was writing. Seemed to the human that it preferred not to stick its beak where it didn't think it belonged. While she wouldn't have minded much if it did, she could at least appreciate the bird's formality.
As well as its patience; it felt like she was writing for quite some time.
Finally, she finished, and she straightened the paper out and rolled it up tightly into a neat little scroll before taking the paper that'd been beneath it, tearing a strip from it and wrapping it loosely around the message to hold it shut.
"Perfect," she remarked. "Now, can you pick this up? I made sure to roll it tightly so it can fit in your talons, but I just want to make sure."
She handed the scroll to the little bird, and it wrapped its delicate little claws securely around it, flashing a proud smile across its beak as it flapped its wings, took to the air and flew a circle around her.
"Excellent! Ha...Hey. I think I have a name for you."
It's eyes widened in anticipation.
"Joss. Messenger Joss. Do you like that?"
It nodded ecstatically.
"It's something to be proud of. You see, where I'm from, Messenger Joss is famous in the history and legends of our kindred. He served under both King H'rath and his son Hoole as a Royal Messenger. Just by carrying information, he saved so many lives and stopped so many evil forces. Hagsfiends, Lord Arrin, the worst of the worst. Carry your title with your head raised, Joss. You're named after a hero."
Joss puffed out his chest.
"Now you go down to the Ruins and live up to that title. You've got this."
He nodded, then with a pump of his wings, was off in a hurry, the scroll clutched tightly in his little claws.
"Glauxspeed, Joss!" she called to him as he disappeared through the air. "Glauxspeed!"
...
"Okay, I THINK I remember everything clearly now...So, it was the monthly address at the castle, and the queen was giving her part on the current events. So, when she finished with that, she hands the microphone over to Asgore...Thing is, though, she didn't realize the thing was still on, and she says to him, 'Your turn, Fluffybuns.'"
"Oh, my gosh...!" Ginger wheezed. "What'd the crowd think of that?"
"They went bonkers with laughter!" the old tortoise monster exclaimed. "And when she realized just what'd happened, she started laughing along with 'em! But then, the king held up his arms, and the crowd was shrouded in silence. He leaned towards the microphone, expression...stern, and then he says, 'Dear citizens. Thank you for coming here today. I...King Fluffybuns..."
The human burst out laughing herself; what she would have given to see that with her own two eyes...
"And the rest is history. Heh heh...I've got plenty o' crazy stories tucked away somewhere deep down in this ol' brain. Now, I'm just a wee bit curious. You ain't no old geezer like me, but...You got any yourself? Been a while since any of us have seen the surface, you know what I mean?"
"Me? Stories? Uh...Well..."
She thought for a moment; she figured she'd have something of the sort to share with him, but she found herself blanking. And for some reason, the first thing she ended up remembering was the little canary, now aptly named Messenger Joss, that she'd just sent to the Ruins.
But it was that thought that finally gave her a suggestion.
"...Care to hear about the time I snuck into the main base of our greatest enemies?"
"Lay it on me, why don'tcha?"
"So, this was just over a year ago. I'd only been a member of my organization for a handful of months, but I was killing the training regiments. Heck; since she thought I had so much potential, the Ablah General even made me the leader of our little youth squadron!"
"Ablah General? Never heard o' that title before..."
"Neither did I until I met her. I think it has something to do with this other place she runs...But she's technically the queen, where I'm from. Anyways, one day when me and my four fellow trainees were all outside playin' a round of Nootie Ball, she pulls me aside...Well...INSIDE, and brings me to none other than the High Tyto himself...Or king, as you might refer to him down here. Now I hadn't met the guy until that point, but he's a lot different from Asgore, let me tell you that. Dark, tough, battleworn; he wears a metal mask as his crown to conceal all of the scars on his face...Even still, underneath all that wear, tear and hardiness, he's actually a pretty high-spirited guy. But anyway, I'm thinkin' I did something wrong, because why else would the king and queen themselves call me to a private meeting in their private chamber? Well, it turns out, they actually called me in to tell me just how much I'd done RIGHT. And that was when they dropped the bombshell and told me about the mission they had for me."
"And did you accept?"
"Well, I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter, so you could say I did. So pretty soon after that, the queen's flying me over the sea to the island base the enemy has. And I just lay low until I hear bustling going on, then I throw myself into the water to feign drowning to get their attention and have them pull me out. Lo and behold, it worked, and the next thing I know, I'm standing before the ENEMY king! He looks a lot different from the High Tyto; lighter colors and not quite as old, but he's insane, I tell you; he's bent over backwards trying to destroy us for who knows how long now! Not to mention all of the controversial decisions he'd made for his own people as of late..."
"Sounds like the dangerous kind..."
"Not the brightest, though; he bought pretty much my entire cover story right off the bat. All he really did was ask me a few extra questions to be cautious, but other than that, I was in and approved for their training in no time flat. And the following night, I get a visit from one of my force's fellow spies, Valdimore; now his job was to get the information I'd picked up and deliver it to the monarchs, so it was like a messenger-type thing, you know? And it gets better; the NEXT day, I find out there's ANOTHER guy at the enemy base we have on our side serving spy duty...I, uh, kinda found that part out by accident, but it still turned out fine."
"And what was that one's name?"
"Allomere; he'd actually been part of the enemy force for a while, but decided he wanted to...you know...switch over when he found out about all of the twisted stuff their king was doing. Anyway, now I've got BOTH of them helpin' me out, and since Allomere can get into the meetings the Parliament have, he could make sure no one caught me doing my little spy business. So with that said, I head down to this secret compartment the next morning-everyone calls it 'the Roots,' the compartment,-and I get the full extent of their plans. They were going to try to use these...weapons against us. It's hard to explain them, but basically, they hinder one's sense of navigation while ALSO impairing your insides, rendering any enemy useless. Something to do with magnetics and stuff. Anyway, I pass that on to Valdimore the next time I see him. Now I did think it was good that I had both Valdimore and Allomere helping me out, but I guess three turned out to be a crowd, because pretty soon thereafter, King Boron(the enemy king) starts getting suspicious of a few things and starts making all these little comments about it. Like, he doesn't know for SURE at this point, but he's got a hunch."
"What'd ya do?"
"Well, the following morning, I get a written message from the High Tyto telling me to report back to home base immediately so we can prepare for the big fight, so me and Valdimore geddup and GO, and we don't stop until we're back home! And once we get there, it's prep, prep, prep! Nothing but preparing for the enemy attack! Setting up squadrons, acolytes, traps, everything. And when they finally showed up, they got DEMOLISHED! I can't even count how many bodies there were! Boron got away, though, and so did a lot of the other veteran members of his fleet. They still pose a threat, but they took a beating that day."
"Heh! Sounds like you fellers had more luck than we monsters did in the war! Good on ya!"
Ginger sighed.
"Wish you guys had been as well of as we were that day. Well, to conclude, when everything was said and done, a ceremony was organized for me and Valdimore for our work. That was how I got my title as general; General Ginger. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"
"I'd say! Not a bad war story; I like it."
"Thank you, Mr. Gerson. Uh...I hate to leave in such a hurry, but I've got somewhere to be. I've got a message to deliver."
"Well, I won't keep ya. Pleasure seein' you 'gain, kiddo."
"Yeah..." she nodded as she headed back out of the small den, still looking back at him. She might never see him again.
"...Bye, Mr. Gerson."
"So long..."
She turned and left the cave.
"...General."
She tensed a moment, then let it out with a sigh and a smile before finally finding the will to leave. She was glad she got to see him one more time before she left; she liked the old tortoise. She really did. A lot, actually. He reminded her so much of her own dear Metal Beak.
Another reason, she realized, why she had chosen that particular story.
...
"Heh heh...Yeah, I remember this place."
Ginger was passing under the jagged rock spire where she and Undyne began their battle. One of the torn pieces of her cloak was impaled on one of the spikes at the base.
That cloak...
She had it in her bag; it'd seen better days, but it was in better shape than how she last saw it, with her wilderness travel and all. A lot of things had reappeared in her pack, actually, since returning to her last Save Point; a few arrows, the last bit of Papyrus' first spaghetti batch, the butterscotch pie(even though she had given it to Asgore upon returning instead of eating it herself) It wasn't a surprise that some of the damage to her cloak had been undone.
The human passed the giant Hotland sign, then approached the water cooler and got herself a quick drink before going up to the lab doors yet again. They were still locked, but this time, when she put her head up against them, she could hear a faint noise coming from inside.
It turned out to be a series of soft sniffles, accompanied by the occasional hiccup.
Poor Alphys; all she wanted was to protect her and Asgore and get out of her slum. She just hadn't known how to go about it right. If the monster would just unlock the doors and come out to face her, she would be able to hear all of this for herself. How was she going to...
She found herself looking down at the bottom of the doors by her feet, and she noticed that the tiny space in between the doors and the ground was just big enough to slide the letter she'd delivered underneath. Maybe if she saw that someone had sent her something, she might decide to open the doors.
Not wanting to waste anymore time, Ginger reached into the front pouch and pulled out the envelope, and was just about to slide the letter under when...
An odd pit formed in her gut; a similar feeling an owl's gizzard developed when one knew something was wrong. But it was a deeper, duller feeling. Not as clear. Not quite as specific and detailed on what she should do. Almost like it was just screaming "NO!" at her. No to what...?
She looked down at the letter in her hand, and the uneasy sensation intensified.
"...Why not?" she whispered. But her gut feeling failed to give her an answer.
She had no gizzard anymore, but she knew an owl's gizzuition was by far more reliable and clear than a human's gut feeling. maybe it was just the fact of WHO wrote the letter that was giving her an uneasy feeling.
"If you read that thing...I'll KILL you."
It must have been something remotely important, seeing that Undyne was not only concerned with it getting wet, but also so serious about the contents of it being kept a mystery to her. What could be inside that was supposed to be so private? Was it, perhaps, about her? Was she unwittingly delivering an invitation to plot against her and take her SOUL without the interference of the king? Was it a warning? Did Undyne know anything else the human didn't? Was it an urgent message? Had something happened? She was so curious that she was extremely tempted to go ahead and rip the envelope open and find out for herself.
Although she knew Undyne would fail if she tried to fulfill her threat, Ginger ultimately resisted the urge; odds were she'd find out she opened the letter before Alphys got it SOMEHOW, and although she knew how to win against her, she REALLY didn't want to have to go through something like that again right now.
"Oh, well..."
Trying to ignore the screaming of her intuition to not do it, she bent down the rest of the way and slid the letter underneath the door with one quick swoop. It disappeared into the lab in an instant, far enough through that she couldn't pull it back out. To finish, she gave the doors another knock.
From the other side of the doors, she could now hear Alphys speaking.
"Oh...Oh, n-no, is...I-is this another letter?" she squeaked out. "I-I don't want to open it. Can't I just...S-slide it b-back out?"
Come on, Alphys, don't shut everyone out. Not now...
It was almost as though she had heard her thoughts.
"...N-no...I-I can't keep putting it off," she admitted to herself. "I've b-been doing this for too long. I...I'll read this one."
She heard the little raptor monster begin to tear the envelope from inside. It sounded like she was having a bit of difficulty, with the slow tearing and occasional grunt.
"Heh...It's, uh...shut k-kinda strongly, isn't it?" she remarked, finally unfolding the paper inside to read.
"...Wait."
Everything went silent for a moment. Ginger was just about to knock again when she heard the Royal Scientist's breathing pattern grow uneasy from outside.
"...Wh...M...M-me...!? B-but...Who...Oh...Oh, wow, oh...M-my gosh, I...This is...I don't know what to say."
She didn't know what it was that Alphys was reading, but from the tone of her voice, it sounded like good news.
"Heh...No one's ever...This is crazy, this...This is amazing. This...this..."
There was a pause, and the human could practically see the smile fade away from her face.
"...This is too good to be true."
She heard a series of mechanical whirrs and clicks coming from inside the walls around the doors, and the next thing she knew, they'd slid open, and Dr. Alphys was standing there at the door, still looking down at the letter in her hands with red, puffy eyes.
"Hey, if..." she started, slowly turning her gaze up to meet whoever came knocking at her door with the letter. "...If this is a joke of some sort, it's not..."
And then she saw who she was actually looking at.
"F...F-funny...Wh...What...!?"
"Hi, Alphys. I, uh...Came back. King Asgore said that if there was anything left I had to do to go ahead and do it now," Ginger explained, stooping down to match her height.
"...Are you okay?"
Alphys brown eyes went from worn with sadness to wide with shock.
"Oh...Oh my God...?! D-did..."
"Asgore's fine. And he told me to send you his condolence-"
"Did...YOU write this?"
"...Uh..."
"I-it wasn't signed, so, I d-don't know who could've..."
It seemed as though Alphys had misinterpreted a couple of things.
"Well, you see-"
"Oh...Oh, my God...Me? O-oh, no. That's..." she uttered, scanning and rescanning the written text, her bright yellow-scaled face growing more and more pink. She brought up one of her small clawed hands up to her warm cheek, managing a bit of a smile.
"Heh...Th-that's adorable," she remarked before looking back up at the human. "I...I h-had no idea you, um...wrote that way!"
"That's the thing, Alphys. I d-"
"It's...It's surprising, too...After all the gross stuff I pulled, I..."
Her eyes began to gloss over again.
"...I don't really deserve to be forgiven."
"Aw, come on, Alphy. Of course you do," the young human soothed, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Look. You might not have done a perfect job of showing it, but it proves that you really do care about what happens to me and Asgore, you know that?"
"B-but, I...I-I s-sent Mettaton to d-do all that stuff to you. I lied to your face. I-I got you hurt, I..."
Her breathing grew heavier.
"I...B-because of me, it's...It's g-gonna be you o-or him," she whimpered, hanging her head in shame.
Ginger took her hand off her shoulder and used her forefinger to lift the monster's head back up to face her.
"It's not your fault, Alphys. If you hadn't have been around to do all that, I would have ended up facing the king anyway. And you know what else?"
"Wh-what?"
"If you hadn't been there, I would've never had the pleasure of knowing you."
Alphys' face grew redder still, and she glanced back down at the letter still in her hands. She sniffed, then blinked rapidly to try and expel the tears forming in her eyes, a tiny smile slowly inching its way across her face.
"Heh...Besides, looking back on all that, it was actually sorta fun," the Huntress mused. "With all the crazy puzzles and T.V. hijinks, and glorious final battle broadcasted for the whole Underground to witness live...! Ha! It was actually kind of awesome, gotta admit. And..."
The human's smile fell, and she huffed out a sigh.
"I'm sorry about what happened in the CORE. I don't know how much of it you heard, but I remember saying some...kinda nasty things directed at you."
"Th-the whole traitor thing, and ab-bout me leaving you in the dust..." Alphys choked up a little. "I-I deserved that, though."
"Doesn't give me an excuse. Guess we were both sorta screwed up, huh?"
"M-me more than you..." she squeaked, looking down again as she shed a tear. The human gently brushed it away, giving her a sympathetic look.
"It's okay, Al'. It'll all work out," she assured her, reaching up to lightly pat the top of her head. "I forgive ya..."
The raptor monster looked her in the eye for a moment, her dark brown ones meeting blue, then looked down at the letter again, then back to Ginger.
"Y-you know what?" the monster said as she looked back up at her. "Okay. I...I-I'll do it! Heh...It's the least I can do to make it up to you, isn't it?"
"Um, actually, that thing came-"
"J-just give me a minute or two! I shouldn't do something like this is in a dirty old lab coat!"
Before the Huntress could say anything else, the little dinosaur had shut the lab doors again and disappeared. The letter fluttered onto the dry ground; she'd dropped it when she left to go back in, and now it was stuck outside with its deliverer, opened and unfurled. Ginger raised a confused eyebrow.
"...Sprink what you said, Undyne," she muttered. "What the heck is this all about?"
She snatched the piece of paper up off the ground, flapped it open and began to read over the blue ink.
Her eyes immediately narrowed.
"...What the..."
"Dear friend,
Too long have I waited to tell you just how much
you mean to me, and I intend to change that now.
Ever since I first laid eye on you, I've been caught
in your passionate inferno and hooked on every
aspect of you. Everything you say and everything
you do reminds me yet again that there is still
something worth fighting for down here in this
wretched, thousand-year prison. That something
is you. You've captured my heart and soul, and if
I had only one wish, it would be to stand on the
surface world, underneath the stars we've longed
to see for so long, and hold you in my arms until
the end of time itself. I can hardly wait till next
we meet, because then I will be able to tell you
all of this in person, and more. Let's not wait.
Let's do it now, the moment you receive this.
Until then, to put it short and sweetly, I love you."
Each word she read, it became more and more clear what she'd delivered. It made her head swim; bits and pieces of things that she'd seen and heard came back to join the puzzle, and everything snapped together quickly.
Too quickly.
"Heh...She's really cute."
"What'd you say?"
"I said she's really cool! She's awesome! Aside from Papyrus, she and I are, like, besties!"
"Hey, back off, pal! She's mi...friend. My friend."
"WHENEVER SHE TRIES TO DELIVER ONE OF THOSE LETTERS, SHE ALWAYS GOES BACK TO REWRITE IT, THINKING IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH."
"WHO DOES DR. ALPHYS HAVE A CRUSH ON?"
"claws haven't shook like that since undyne called me to ask about the weather..."
"WAIT THERE'S NO WEATHER DOWN HERE WHY'D SHE CALL ME"
Ginger's eyes bugged out in shock. How had she not seen this earlier?
To put it plainly in her mind, it turned out that Undyne wanted a lot more than just friendship with Alphys.
"But..." she stuttered. "But that's...Isn't that...They're both..."
Her legs slowly caved in on themselves, and she was soon to find herself sitting on the dusty ground, a hand coming up to her face.
This...This was why her gut screamed at her not to slide that letter under.
And she'd refused to listen to it.
"Dear Hoole, Siv and H'rath," she uttered. "...What HAVE I done?!"
A.N.: You know what I like doing? Making normally insignificant characters more relevant to the story/plot through fanfiction. Like the bird that carries you over the disproportionately small gap(a.k.a. Messenger Joss) or Gerson and the Temmies in one an earlier chapter. Didja like the role I gave our little bird friend? I know I did!
Oh, and, um, a quick heads up, concerning the next chapter.
Chapter 33 will discuss sensitive topics/scenarios, so read it at your own risk.
"'Read it at my own risk'? At risk of what?"
At risk of being offended. XD
As for those of you with the BRAVERY and DETERMINATION to do so, do you still wanna read the next chapter?
Yes?
Okie-dokie, then.
Yoooouv'e beeeen waaaaaaaarned...