Chapter 6: Waterfall part I
And we're back with Ruby. I'm sorry if anyone appears out of character. I'm making mean old Weiss come back because I like her old attitude. It's kind of more fun to write XD. Anyways, without further ado, let's bring in warrior fish lady and continue this story! I still don't own either franchise.
Ruby and Chara were both in awe at the sight of Waterfall. Chara said something about it being almost 80 years since visiting Waterfall, but Ruby didn't pay much attention. She was using her semblance to speed boost before jumping into puddles.
"I swear you are five years old..." Chara sighed in disappointment. Ruby simply giggled as she kept walking. She looked over to her right and saw that the monster who called her short was there.
"Yo! Are you sneaking out to see her too?" He asked in excitement.
"See... who..?" Ruby asked, both awkwardly and in sheer confusion.
"Undyne of course! The coolest monster in the underground! How have you never heard of her?!"
"I, uh, don't get around much..." Ruby replied awkwardly. Chara said that was a good save.
"Yo, that's alright! But I want to be just like her when I grow up!" He smiled triumphantly. If he had arms, she would assume they'd be on his hips. Though his smile went into an awkward, nervous grin. "Hey, don't tell my parents I'm here, alright? Haha."
"Um, sure..?" Ruby replied with an equally awkward smile. Just who the hell is this kid anyways? Shrugging it off she walked over to Sans, pausing to stare at a glowing blue flower. "Strange... I could have sworn it just talked."
"It's an echo flower. It repeats the last thing it heard." Chara informed. Ruby perked up.
"That's so cool!" She beamed.
"That's so cool!" The flower repeated. Ruby continued her walk to the skeleton.
"Hey Sans!" She greeted.
"Hey kid. What's with that look? Never see a guy with two jobs before?" He asked with slight offense.
"Uh... no it's just that... uh..." Ruby stuttered. The skeleton started laughing.
"I'm just messing with ya squirt."
"I'm like, a half foot taller than you..." Ruby replied with a huff. Sans ignored her.
"Anyways, I'm actually about to go on break, you wanna head over to Grillby's with me?"
"Say no!" Chara demanded.
"Uh, yeah, sure, sounds great."
"I swear you're a moron." Chara sighed. Ruby ignored them.
"Great. Follow me, I know a short cut." He pointed his thumb towards the path leading deeper into Waterfall. Confused on what Sans had planning, she followed him. Suddenly it felt like her entire body was being torn apart molecule by molecule and reforming in a different location. The pain was near unbearable. How did Sans do this so often? She noticed the feint image of Grillby's until all there was, was darkness.
"Smells like she's coming to." A familiar, scruffy voice spoke. Ruby slowly opened her eyes to being surrounded by Grillby's patrons. Looking to see who spoke, she noticed a concerned Dogamy at her side. Dogaressa looked equally as frightened. Lesser Dog and Greater Dog were simply whimpering. Doggo wasn't even looking in the right direction. Sans was on the other side of her, looking probably the most panicked out of all of them.
"What happened? Is she awake? I can't see, because she isn't moving." Doggo huffed.
"Ruby, I'm so sorry. I should have considered the fact that you've never teleported before. It can be pretty intense at first, and I didn't even warn you." Sans apologized frantically. He was definitely worried for the huntress' well being. Ruby also noticed what looked like tear stains on his skull
"It's okay. I'm okay." She reassured, trying to get to her feet. She was a little unsteady. A glass of water was urged in her direction. She looked at the man who handed it to her and noticed that he was completely made of fire, but the water seemed to be cold, because the ice cubes were still intact. She took the cup.
"Thank you Mr..."
"That's Grillby." Sans replied. "Thanks Grillbz, but I think she's going to be alright.
"How long was I passed out on the floor?"
"Two hours. Like I said, I'm super sorry..."
"No worries, like I said, I'm okay."
Sans helped her walk. Instead of going to his normal seat on a stool at the counter, he had Ruby occupy a booth so she could rest a bit easier. He ordered the both of them fries, which arrived moments later.
"Out of curiosity..." he began, taking a sip from the ketchup bottle. Ruby tried her hardest not to gag. "What do you think of my brother?"
"He's... pretty cool." Ruby replied. Sans nodded.
"Of course he's cool. You would be too if you wore that every day. He'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to. Oh well. At least he washes it." He sighed. "And by that I mean he wears it in the shower." Both friends start laughing. Sans feels a bit more relaxed towards Ruby than he did before. He was just glad that this isn't a genocide run. Ruby is such a nice kid. "Anyways. Cool or not you have to agree that Papyrus tries really hard. Like how he keeps trying to be a part of the royal guard. One day he went to the house of the head of the royal guard and begged her to let him in it. Of course, she shut the door because it was midnight. But the next day she woke up to find him still there. Seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training. It's, uh, still a work in progress..."
"Wow. That's really-" Ruby began before Sans cut her off.
"Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you something." He began uncomfortably.
"Go ahead." Ruby assured. All humour was gone, and the lights dimmed. Ruby looked over to seeing Lesser Dog dimming the lights. She sighed and drew her attention back to Sans.
"Have you ever heard of a talking flower?"
"Um..." Ruby trailed off. This question was making her uncomfortable.
"Just say yes or no Ruby. It isn't a complex algorithm that converts soul energy into sustainable magic!" Sans sighed, clearly irritated.
"That's... oddly specific." Ruby pointed out. "And to answer your question, yes. I have heard of a talking flower."
"So you've heard of them. Echo flowers. They grow all over the marsh."
"Wait, you meant echo flowers?" Ruby asked in shock.
"Yeah..? Why? What do you think I meant?" Sans asked with a sly smile. Ruby was oddly fidgety about the question.
"It's just- I- never mind..." She sighed. Sans chuckled.
"Okay, if you say so. Anyways, the reason I bring this up, is because Papyrus told me something interesting the other day."
"Really? Like what?" Ruby asked, genuinely interested. Sans stared blankly at the table. Whatever he was about to talk about he takes extremely seriously.
"Sometimes, when no one else is around, a flower appears and whispers things to him. Flattery... advice... encouragement..." he hesitated to say the next part. "... predictions. Weird, huh? Someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him."
"Flowey..." Ruby whispered. Sans' head shot up.
"You know something about this, don't you?" He asked, scowling at the young teen.
"N-no! It's just a hunch! There was this flower that tried to kill me in the ruins. This sounds like something he'd do."
"Thanks for the tip Ruby. Keep an eye out, okay?" He requested; a calm smile on his face. Ruby smiled back and nodded.
"Thanks." He replied, checking his watch. (I don't care. Sans has a watch :p) "Whelp, that was a long break. I can't believe I let you pull me away from work that long." He sighed, standing up.
"Hey! You asked me to come along!" Ruby defended. The skeleton started laughing.
"I know; I'm just messing with ya. You run along now. Yo Grillbz! Put it on my tab!"
The fire man simply sighed. Ruby had a guess that Sans never pays his tab. She waved goodbye to the skeleton and headed back into Waterfall. Chara was staying strangely quiet. The reaper knew the ghost was still there because she could feel their presence.
"Chara, you doing okay?" She asked. The ghost simply shushed her. "Why did you-" Ruby cut herself off. She heard talking overhead. Quickly, she ducked into some tall grass.
"H-HELLO UNDYNE. I'M HERE WITH MY DAILY REPORT! REGARDING THE HUMAN I CALLED YOU ABOOUT EARLIER..."
"Did you fight them?" A scratchy, yet distinctly female voice responded. Papyrus seemed terrified of this monster, and Ruby could understand why.
"D-DID I FIGHT THEM? OF COURSE! I FOUGHT QUITE VALIENTLY TOO!"
"Good! Now, did you capture them?" She urged. Ruby did not like where this was going.
"N-NO... I TRIED VERY HARD UNDYNE... I REALLY DID, BUT IN THE END, I FAILED."
"Ugh, FINE! I guess if you want something done right, you do it yourself." The armoured monster sighed. Ruby grew more nervous by the minute. This monster didn't seem friendly. How was she gonna engage in combat and not have to kill her.
"WH-WHAT? YOU'RE GONNA TAKE THE SOUL YOURSELF? BUT, UNDYNE, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DESTROY THEM. YOU SEE-" Ruby saw the armoured figure turn to the tall skeleton. Papyrus backed away in fear.
"I guess if you don't want to help capture the human, the royal guard isn't for you."
"NO... I UNDERSTAND! I'LL HELP IN ANY WAY I CAN!"
"Good! Glad you see it my way Paps!" Undyne praised, rubbing her knuckles on Papyrus' skull.
"GAH! DON'T NOOGIE THE SKELETON!" Papyrus pleaded angrily. The armoured monster could be heard laughing. Before she could say anymore, Papyrus had walked away. Carefully, assuming the path was clear, Ruby took a step to the right. Suddenly the armoured soldier was fully engaged, ready to strike. She spawned an energy spear out of thin air (a.k.a. magic) and was ready to throw it at Ruby. The reaper tried her damn hardest not to move. Finally Undyne was gone and the coast was clear.
"Yo did you see that?"
Ruby jumped and pulled out Crescent Rose. She was ready to attack out of sheer reflexes. Then she realized that it was just the kid from earlier.
"Oh it's you." she sighed in relief, folding the scythe back up and placing it back on the harness.
"The way she was staring at you was so... AWESOME!" The dinosaur looking monster cheered, jumping in the air. His eyes were lighted up with excitement, similar to how Ruby looks when she sees new and exciting weapons. "I'm so jealous! What did you do to get her attention? Haha. Come on; let's go watch her beat up bad guys!" He gestured with his tail for her to follow. Ruby hesitated, which made the young monster feel hurt. "What's the matter?"
"I- uh... don't really want to meet Undyne, kid..."
"It's Monster Kid thanks. But that's cool. See ya later!" He cheered, waving goodbye with his tail before running off. He fell over, but was back on his feet momentarily so Ruby wasn't worried. She walked over to the save point nearby.
"A sense of dread hangs over you... but you stay determined." Chara narrated. Ruby smiled at the fact that her friend is talking again.
"Chara, how do I cross this?" Ruby asked. She tried walking across, but the water was too deep. She also tried using her semblance to jump across, she couldn't make the distance. Now she's soaking wet and out of ideas.
"There are bridge seeds in the groove in the wall. Four in a row will make a bridge." The ghost explained. Ruby nodded and placed the seeds in the water. They formed a bridge and Ruby was clear to cross. The next room wasn't so easy. Ruby noticed a sign and used the bridge seeds to get to it.
"Congratulations! You... failed the... puzzle..." Chara sighed. Ruby looked ready to scream.
"Aw! What's the point of the darn sign then!?" She yelled, pulling out her scythe and slicing the sign in half, panting with exhaustion.
"You can reset the puzzle you know." Chara sighed. Ruby turned her head to see a bell and ran over to it. She rang the bell and the seed appeared right back where they were. The bridge she made was gone now too. Ruby took the seeds and made another bridge, this time being able to cross over to the next cave entrance. She was about to enter through the cave's mouth when her phone rang.
"RUBY! I BET YOU'RE WONDERING HOW I GOT YOUR NUMBER! WELL IT WAS VERY SIMPLE! I DIALED EVERY NUMBER SYSTEMATICALLY UNTIL I FOUND YOURS!" Chara was chuckling.
"Wow. I gotta admit Papyrus, you're pretty determined." Ruby praised; genuine approval in her voice.
"THANK YOU! NOW... WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?"
"I... uh... what?" Ruby was baffled. A slight blush on her cheek from embarrassment.
"I'M SORRY FOR THE BRASH QUESTION! I WAS ASKING FOR A FRIEND! SHE SAID SHE SAW YOU IN A RED HOODIE AND BLACK SKIRT! ARE YOU WEARING THESE THINGS?"
"Lie dummy!" Chara demanded. Ruby didn't like the idea but agreed.
"No. I'm not wearing those things."
"SO YOU'RE NOT WEARING A RED SWEATER AND BLACK SKIRT HMM..?" Papyrus asked with distinct sarcasm. "OKAY, I'LL TELL HER, WINK WINK."
Ruby was speechless. Did Papyrus see right through her lie, Papyrus of all people? This made Chara laugh even harder. Ignoring the ghost, Ruby moved on to the next room. Inside were various luminescent stones in the ceiling of the room, dubbed the "wishing room" thanks to a sign on the wall. Ruby was about to walk towards a telescope when Chara directed her towards a dead end.
"What are you doing?" she asked, staring at the wall of stone and dried dirt. Maybe there was something under the dirt? Like a switch or something?
"Push on it!" Chara demanded. Ruby gulped and did just that, falling over as the wall gave way. She stood up and brushed the dirt off of herself. She quickly checked her scroll. No signal, oh well. If she needed to make a call she'll just simply return to Snowdin. She looked up and noticed a dock with some signs hanging above it. From what she could see, there was something titled 'The war of humans and monsters'.
"Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed that they had nothing to fear." The first sign read. "Humans are unbelievably strong. It would take the soul of nearly every monster in the underground to equal one human soul. And their semblances surpass that of a monster's." Now intrigued, Ruby kept reading the other signs. "But humans have one weakness. Ironically it is the strength of their soul. Its power allows it to persist outside the human body, even after death. If a monster defeats a human, they can take its soul. A monster with a human soul would be a horrible beast with an unfathomable amount of power."
"Whoa...´Ruby gasped at the next sign. I was an illustration of a strange creature. It had goat ears and horns, but the rest didn't even look like they belonged to a normal living thing. It almost looked like a Grimm. She had to walk away because it made her feel really uncomfortable.
She crossed the river by a small moving platform on the water. Once she was across however, the platform returned to the other side. So turning back wasn't an option. She was walking until she heard a growl in her stomach.
"Mmm... I guess it has been a while since I ate." She thought out loud, pulling a package of cookies from her pocket before practically inhaling them all. Felling better, she kept walking.
A sudden feeling of dread loomed over the young huntress as she entered the next area. Almost like she was being watched. Fortunately that dreading fear didn't last long as it quickly became reality. An energy spear was thrown at her feet, alerting her of the soldier from before. Ruby didn't waste time. Using her semblance she ran as fast as she could from the warrior.
"I don't know why Chara, but I think this lady is as fast as I am. She's still on our tail!"
"Watch out, dolt!" Chara scolded. Ruby quickly sidestepped, only being grazed by the spear. She was feeling exhausted. Her aura could only do so much, and she was reaching her limit. Completely exhausted, Ruby ran and hid in the tall grass nearby. Undyne trudged through the grass, looking for the escaped human. She drove her armoured hand into the long grass, only to pull up Monster Kid, holding him by the face. Realizing what she did, she gently placed the smiling child back down and turned and walked away. Ruby walked out of the grass, relieved that the ordeal had passed. She was clutching the wound on her arm. Undyne cut her worse than she originally thought.
"Yo did you see that?" Monster Kid asked excitedly. "Undyne just... TOUCHED ME! Yo, I'm never washing my face again haha! Boy did you miss out. If you had only been a tad to the right... but that's okay I'm sure we'll see her again." The kid seemed oblivious to the fact that Ruby was hurt. He just ran off.
"Eat food dummy! Monster food helps this sort of thing!" Chara directed. Wincing, Ruby agreed and reached in her pocket, pulling out a cinnamon bunny. She ate it, feeling the pain go away. Her aura was restored, and the gash quickly began to heal. Being on the safe side, Ruby used a bandage she kept in her pocket at all times to wrap it up. She wasn't going to take it off until she got home.
"If I go home..." she muttered to herself. Feeling adventurous she decided to look around, using Chara as her little guide. Waterfall was beautiful, but creepy at the same time. It was a lot emptier than Snowdin, so the ominous shadows were even creepier, and she wasn't sure when Undyne was going to show her armoured face again. She found Sans soon afterwards.
"Hey Sans." She greeted with a smile.
"Sup? Hey, what happened to your arm?"
"It's nothing. I just got into a close encounter with this monster named Undyne. She was throwing spears at me and I got cut by one."
Sans didn't respond to that. He almost seemed like he felt guilty. Ruby felt the need to change the subject.
"So what's with this?" she asked, pointing to the telescope beside him.
"I've been thinking about going into the telescope business. It's usually 50000g, but since I know you go ahead and use it for free."
Ruby looked in the telescope, but all she saw was red. Looking away, she noticed that the skeleton appeared to be suppressing a laugh. Naturally curious, she walked over to the nearest puddle. There was a red ring around her eye. Sighing, she used the water to clean the paint off her face and waved goodbye to the skeleton. Waterfall was a very beautiful area to visit, and the human and ghost was having a pleasant time.
*RING RING*
Ruby pulled out her phone and answered it. She didn't even need to ask who it was. He let her know immediately.
"HELLO! THIS IS PAPYRUS! REMEMBER WHEN I ASKED YOU ABOUT CLOTHES?"
"Yes. Why?"
"WELL, THE PERSON WHO WANTED TO KNOW... HER OPINION ON YOU IS VERY... MURDERY. WELL, DON'T WORRY DEAR HUMAN! PAPYRUS WOULD NEVER BETRAY YOU! I AM NOT A CRUEL PERSON! I STRIVE TO BE COMFORTING AND PLEASANT!"
"Get to the point bonehead..." Chara sighed. They knew Papyrus couldn't hear them but at that point they didn't care.
"PAPYRUS! HE SMELLS LIKE THE MOON!"
"Wait, what?" Ruby snickered, trying not to burst out laughing. "Papyrus, what are you talking about?
"SO, BECAUSE OF MY INHERIT GOODNESS, I TOLD HER YOU WERE INDEED WEARING A RED HOODIE AND SKIRT EVEN THOUGH YOU SAID YOU WEREN'T!"
"Wait... WHAT?" Ruby screamed into the phone.
"I KNOW! IT PAINED ME TO TELL SUCH A BOLDFACED LIE!" Papyrus cried dramatically. Ruby sighed and facepalmed. To say she was pissed was a dire understatement. "BUT YOUR SAFETY IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN ANYTHING! DANG... I JUST WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE..." Then he hung up. Ruby kinda felt bad for getting mad at him. Chara however wasn't.
"I say kill him the next time we meet up."
"No Chara. His heart was in the right place."
"Yeah. Too bad his brain wasn't."
"Does he even have a brain? " Ruby thought out loud. "I mean, he is a skeleton, so..."
"Is this really important right now?" Chara sighed.