Snowdust
As Frisk steps through the archway, she feels the air grow suddenly chill. She shivers, her air puffing out in front of her as she steps with a crunch into thick snow.
She follows the straight path, aware of Sans behind her. The crack of the stick booms percussively in her ears, and his shadow looms in the corner of her eye. She stops when she gets to the bridge, shuffling her feet nervously.
"Human," he finally says, and she turns, unable to bear it any longer. Sans' brow twitches, but he offers his hand. She takes it, and the sound of the whoopie cushion breaks the tense silence.
Frisk's face stays blank. She doesn't find a trick like that funny, not now.
"heheh… the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny…" He pauses, searching Frisk's face intently, but she just stares wearily back. "that's, uh. your cue to laugh. or, uh, to emote at all?"
He pauses again, then mutters to himself, "gee, lady, you really know how to pick 'em, huh?"
"ok, that's fine," he continues at a normal volume. "everyone's got their own sense of humor. I'm sans. Sans the skeleton."
Frisk listens to him explain how he is on watch, then goes through the gate when hen Sans tells her to hide behind the conveniently-shaped lamp, however, she refuses, legs heavy.
"Uh, ok." Sans shrugs. "I guess you don't have to."
Papyrus strides up quickly. "Sans!" he barks, "Have you found a human yet?!"
"Yeah." Sans winks.
"Really!?" Papyrus asks. "Wowie! Guess that's settled!" He strides off, and Frisk chokes on something that it half-laugh, half-sob. Poor, innocent Papyrus.
"That worked out, huh?" Sans says nonchalantly, but his eyes bore into Frisk. She quickly and stiffly follows the path away. Somehow, it seems that Sans knows what she is planning - at least to a point. She doesn't think he understands why.
As she is about to move out of earshot, Sans speaks up, stopping her cold in her tracks.
"Well, I'll be straightforward with you," he says. "My brother'd really like to see a human… So, y'know, it'd really help me out… if you kept pretending to be one."
A chill shudders through Frisk that has nothing to do with the snow. She hears his footsteps receding, and unnerved, starts walking again.
Frisk saves a little further down the path, and the familiar voice has something new to say.
"16 left," it says expressionlessly, and she quails suddenly. She picks up the tough glove in the box with shaking hands, her skin warm in blotchy patches.
She encounters Snowdrake, and punches him hard - left right left - three times. He is still standing, and Frisk barely hears his bad ice puns as she easily dodges his attack and hits him again. He turns to dust, and Frisk turns away, heading farther down the path.
The Icecaps she runs into she kills easily, at least physically. Her throat still tightens, and the sick thread that winds through her chest, though smaller, still remains. She continues, however.
Finally, she runs into Lesser Dog, and her stomach turns, nearly making her throw up. He's a dog, she thinks, as he pants and wags his tail, happily oblivious to her intentions. She hits it, one two three, and its ears go down, it's tail tucking between its legs with a cowed expression on its face. It jumps towards her half-heartedly, and she dodges, hitting it again once. It turns to dust, spreading outward from the impact, coating her arm.
Frisk wants to fall to her knees, but she forces herself to keep going. This is not the first awful thing she has done, and its not going to be the last.
She continues to kill the monsters she comes across. Finally, she continues down the path, meeting Sans and Papyrus.
"So Sans!" Papyrus is saying, and Frisk finds his voice grating on her ears. "When is the human showing up? I want to look my Sunday best…" he gives Sans a sideways glance, "or at least my Tuesday pretty good."
They continue bantering, and Frisk waits dully for Papyrus to spot her. She can at least give him that before she kills him.
Unlike before, Papyrus notices the rock before he notices her, and berates Sans for pointing out such a mundane object.
"Hey, what's that in front of the rock?" Sans asks.
"Oh my god!" Papyrus exclaims, then "I have no idea what that is." He looks slightly distressed.
"Well," Sans says. "it's not a rock.
"Not a rock…?" Papyrus looks thoughtful. "Oh no! By process of elimination! That means it's a human!"
Frisk feels sick to her stomach. Is she already not even recognizable? Maybe it's the hardened look in her eyes, or the dust coating her skin. She knows that she no longer feels completely human. She feels like a monster, in the traditional sense of the word.
Papyrus laughs, and Frisk pulls herself back together as he storms off excitedly.
"And you don't even bat an eye, huh?" Sans asks, and Frisk forces herself to stare right back at him. He walks away.
You walk right past Papyrus's royal guard station. Her footsteps echo loud in her ears, so she is surprised that Doggo doesn't hear her. She strikes before she can think about it, one two three, pause, one two three, and walks on.
Though she never before consumed the snowman piece, she knows that it has strong regenerative abilities. She goes to the snowman and takes three pieces, though the snowman begs her not to. "A useless pile of snow," the voice in the back of her head remarks.
Frisk comes across Sans and Papyrus again. Papyrus's loud voice makes her grimace. It is muted, however, not in volume, but in diction, as if the words are blurred. She walks forward quickly, and Papyrus looks distinctly rattled.
He starts dripping, then his shoulders settle as he sighs and his face assumes an expression of disappointment. He turns and walks away.
Frisk moves past the disabled ball game. At Sans' puzzle, she indistinctly catches the words Junior Jumble, and this time, Papyrus doesn't argue with Sans.
When she saves by the spaghetti "trap", all she hears is, Determination.
The puzzle near the snow switch is disabled.
Dogamy and Dogaressa show up. Frisk attacks Dogamy first. One two three. Dodge the hearts, staying still as the blue ones float through her. One two three. They are both trying to shield each other, wielding their axes protectively. They both attack with their axes, and they slice painful gashes across your arm and leg.
One two three. Dogamy turns to dust.
A wild gleam appears in Dogaressa's eye. Frisk idly wonders how Dogamy would have reacted had she killed her first, then her heart swoops down into her stomach as she realizes how horrible that is. The guilt is not as overwhelming as it used to be, though.
Dogaressa's axe moves twice as fast. A slash across Frisk's face, her side. She kills her slightly more easily. Though she was angry, despair must have weakened her.
Frisk continues.
The next two puzzles are disabled.
She starts crossing the color tiles, and Papyrus looks exasperated. He and Sans seem to be arguing.
He asks Frisk a question, but it doesn't register. Frisk stares straight ahead robotically, and Papyrus narrows his eyes, still talking. He drops a paper in the snow, throws his hands in the air, and stalks off.
Lesser Doggo's snow sculptures are replaced by a mushy pile of snow in the path. It looks like dust.
The snow poff at the end of the snow poff area turns into Greater Doggo. Frisk attacks once, and again. Greater Doggo pants slowly, seeming to be badly injured. She finishes him off with a final hard blow, feeling slightly more than a twinge of remorse.
As she crosses the narrow stone that's been painted to look like a wooden bridge, Frisk shakes some dust off of the tough glove. Papyrus is waiting for her on the other side. He rambles on about the "gauntlet of deadly terror" but doesn't activate it. The buzzing in Frisk's ears has diminished, but the quieting lowing of the wind obscures some of their words.
"Maybe you were right to be lazy about puzzles," she hears Papyrus say, and though it doesn't provoke any emotion, something in her chest tightens. He looks crushed for a second, then laughs it off. His high-pitched voice drives the ache in her chest away.
At the end of the bridge, Sans motions for her to walk over. She does, intrigued.
"I'll spare the formalities," he says, and Frisk feels a slight hitch, like a ripple in reality. She's felt it once before, with Flowey, after killing Toriel, but she didn't pay much attention to it then. She was, after all, racked with the useless emotion grief.
Sans snaps his fingers in her face, prompting a surge of anger from her.
"So it seems you're gonna fight my brother. You wanna have a bad time? No? Then word of advice:" his eyes go blank, "Don't."
He vanishes, and Frisk raises an eyebrow, continuing on.
She enters Snowdin Town. The shop is deserted, and Frisk takes the manly bandana, as many cinnamon bunnies as she can carry, and 758 gold from behind the counter. She's not worried about her fight with Papyrus, knowing how weak he is, but she senses it is a good idea anyway. On the counter she spies a note: "Please don't hurt my family." Frisk scoffs.
In town, she spies Monster Kid and walks up to him, clenching her hand into a fist.
"Yo, everyone ran away and hid somewhere. Man, adults can be so dumb sometimes, haha… Don't they know we've got Undyne to protect us?!" He talks quickly, and seems nervous, darting his eyes from side to side. Frisk starts to draw her hand back to strike, but the world hitches, and she stumbles. Monster Kid doesn't seem to notice.
She breathes out hard, brushing off her knees, and walks to the edge of town, where she knows she will find Papyrus. The town itself is eerily silent, and it seems as if everyone has left.
The air near the river grows thick with fog, and as she pushes through it, a silhouette takes form.
"Halt, human!" Papyrus said, and Frisk marched forward.
"Hey, quit moving while I'm talking to you," he shrieks, and Frisk stops, tapping her foot. She is willing to humor him, wondering what his last words will be. Besides, this is new.
"I, the Great Papyrus, have some things to say." Frisk grits her teeth. "First: you're a freaking weirdo!" At this she grins nastily. "Not only do you not like puzzles. But the way you shamble about from place to place… The way your hands are always covered in dusty powder. It feels… like your life is going down a dangerous path. However! I, Papyrus, see great potential within you! Everyone can be a great person if they try!"
Is he really this dense? Frisk wonders, as a wave of uncomfortable feeling passes over her - some kind of pain, though surely it can't be because of anything she's done.
"And me, I hardly have to try at all!" The smile slips off of her face, to be replaced by a snarl. "Nyeh heh heh heh heh heh!"
Frisk starts forward again as he pauses.
"Hey, quit moving," he says, stamping his foot on the slushy ground. "This is exactly what I am talking about! Human, I think you are in need of guidance!" A low growl escapes Frisk's lips. "Someone needs to keep you on the straight and narrow."
"And that's you," Frisk scoffs.
"Exactly!" Papyrus exclaims, missing the sarcasm entirely. "Worry not, human! I, Papyrus, will gladly be your friend and tutor. I will turn your life right around!"
She continues forward, tugging on her glove.
"I see you are approaching," Papyrus says, but his voice wavers. "Are you offering a hug of acceptance?" He really is this dense, Frisk thinks, and for some reason, a choked sob bursts from her like a punch to the stomach.
"Wowie!" Papyrus continues, oblivious. "My lessons are already working! I welcome you with open arms!"
She punches him, cracking his 'battle body' and his vertebrae. His skull falls, landing in his outstretched hand.
"W-well, that's not what I expected," Papyrus says, speaking with difficulty. His body turns to dust. "But… St...still! I believe in you! You can do a little better! Even if you don't think so! I … I promise…" His head turns to dust.
Frisk starts to laugh, hysterically, uncontrollably. Her laughter turns into a growl, a scream, rising from deep, deep within and tearing through her small frame. She lets it out, then steps through the just, stamping it into the snow.
Edge of the Abyss
Frisk stalks through waterfall, searching every tiny crack for the monsters who hide away at the sound of her footfalls. When she finds them, she kills them. She feels nothing, except perhaps a dark mass writhing against the wall around her heart. She cannot feel, not now.
Some time though her journey, in the normally featureless blue walls of Waterfall, Frisk spots a grey door. Curious, she opens it.
Inside the small grey monster kid waits.
"Frisk," she says, in her sweet, quiet voice, and Frisk pales, a feeling of guilt washing over her.
"Frisk, you must remember why you do this. For life, not for the death."
Tears run unbidden down her face. How could she have started to enjoy this - this genocide she was committing?
"Frisk, you are the hope of the underground. Stay determined!" She fades away, and Frisk clutches the hem of her sweater, sobs quaking her chest as remorse shoots through her veins like acid. She has to remember why.
Her hands shake as she continues to murder every monster, picking up a tutu and ballet shoes among the reeds, then buying a torn notebook and cloudy glasses from Gerson, who eyes her with disgust. She wants to apologize, over and over, but instead just bows her head and accepts his judgment.
She recognizes the items as having once belonged to humans - humans children. How scared they must have been. How much like the monsters before her and the dust behind her they were. How could she - for gaster for gaster for gaster
Shyren lets out a strangled yelp as she is silenced for good. Frisk remembers the haunting melody she sang, and tears spring to her eyes.
Mad Dummy incorporates, and he smiles. Frisk had never seen that before. He is so happy … He was.
The Echo Flowers are silent.
Monster Kid runs up behind her, and Frisk's heart freezes. Not Monster Kid, please, no…
"Yo," he said in a subdued voice. "Undyne told me to stay away from you. She said you… you hurt a lot of people. … But, yo, that's not true, right?! …"
Frisk is silent, struggling to keep from bursting into tears or laughing from sheer overwhelming grief, she isn't sure which.
"...yo… why won't you answer me? A… a… and what's with that weird expression?"
Frisk turns, heart trying to burst from her chest. She steps forward, forcing Monster Kid to back up.
"Oh…" he breathes. "Oh man… Man, my heart's pounding right out of my chest… what would Undyne do?"
He squares his shoulders, facing Frisk defiantly. "Yo. Y-you'd b-better st-stop r-right where you are… Cause if you w-wanna hurt anyone else ...you're… You're gonna have to get through me, first."
Despair cracks through Frisk's soul, threatening to break it and send her plunging into the void of death. He's so young, so selfless and brave.
"A… and...and…"
She raises the torn notebook, unable to put it off any longer.
As she throws it at him, a large shape takes the blow. Undyne stands before him, a gaping gash across her chest cutting straight through her armor.
Monster Kid's eyes are wide, terrified.
"Undyne…" he quavers. "You're… you're hurt…"
"Hurt? It's nothing." Undyne manages half a grin as Frisk takes deep, shuddering breaths of relief. The choice is taken from her, she doesn't have to kill him. Oh, god.
"Next time," she continues, "listen when I tell you to leave, okay?"
"Undyne… I…" Monster Kid whimpers.
"I'll take care of this," Undyne insists, her expression becoming fierce. "Get out of here!"
Monster Kid edges away, then scuttles off, crying.
"...heh… 'It's nothing'..." Undyne rasps, dust beginning to waver from her legs. "No… s-somehow, with just one hit...I'm already...already...D...damn it… Papyrus…" Frisk heart drops like a stone. "Alphys… ASGORE… "Just like that, I… I've failed you."
The dusting spreads, and Frisk turns away.
"No…" Undyne says, her trembling voice steadying. Frisk turns back to see her solidifying. "My body… It feels like it's splitting apart." Her legs still waver. "Like any instant, I'll scatter into a million pieces. "But… Deep, deep in my soul. There's a burning feeling I can't describe. A burning feeling that WON'T let me die. This isn't just about monsters, is it? If you get past me, you'll… You'll destroy them all, won't you?"
No! Frisk cries with every corner of her broken, bleeding soul, but it is that very cry which keeps her silent.
"Monsters… Humans… Everyone… Everyone's hopes. Everyone's dreams. Vanquished in an instant." Her voice begins to rise, growing louder, booming across the empty silence. "But I WON'T let you do that. Right now, everyone in the world…" She looks up, a determination staining her face fiercely beautiful. "I can feel their hearts beating as one. And we all have ONE goal. To defeat YOU. "
Her smile grows, filling her face. "Human. No, whatever you are. For the sake of the whole world… I, UNDYNE, will strike you down."
Her smile turns into a grinning snarl and light shoots out from her. Frisk blinks, tearstruck by the light. Undyne reappears, no longer wavering, clad in black armor with a purple soul on the front.
"You're gonna have to try a little harder than THAT," she shouts, and the battle begins.
She threw the notebook, drawing a gash across Undyne's spear arm. Three slow-moving arrows approached her from the front in return. She held her soul-shield, trembling. Then she spun, as arrows cascaded at her from every direction.
Arrows slipped past her defense, striking her in the soul. They struck like shards of ice and fire, burning away her hope.
She attacked. Spun. Attacked. Spun. White spears targeted her, flying at her from every direction. Her soul cracked, crushed under the weight of mountains on her chest. It is like being ravished by burning hellfire along every inch of every limb that by right, she should no longer be able to feel, while her insides crumple like tissue, shards of her soul tearing them to pieces. She reloads,
Panting, crying, she dry heaves at the save point just before the bridge. When she is finished choking on the memory of death, she stands, hand against the wall for support. Is this what she is doing to them. Oh, oh god, oh - they won't be able to remember it - oh god, she has to remember that.
She waits at the bridge, knowing Undyne will come. But as she stands, awkwardly, staring Monster Kid down, Undyne doesn't show up.
Frisk starts to panic. She has to come, she is set in the timeline - oh. The trigger.
She slashes at Monster Kid. Undyne reappears, repeated her speech. Frisk shakes her head. So much courage. So much stupid, beautiful, useless courage.
This time Frisk eats a cinnamon bunny and makes it past the spears shooting up from the ground and she hops from foot to foot, past more hails of arrows, until the arrows reverse, striking her in the back.
Every bone in her body turns to powder, to dust, shooting out through her skin in tiny spears. It is unendurable, exquisite agony, as the pain increases towards infinity,
She is on the ground before the ominously twinkling save point. She narrows her eyes, glaring at it, and pushes herself to her feet.
This time she does not hesitate before striking at Monster Kid, knowing that no matter what, Undyne will take the blow. Though Undyne is one of her closest friends, next to Alphys, it is still better to strike her. She is strong. She can take it. She will defy her and endure until Frisk permanently strikes her soul.
She attacks, dodges, blocks, and dies. Halos of spears surround her, and she dives through the gaps. Spinning, moving faster. Farther each time, Undyne growing weaker, then reappearing refreshed, as Frisk's soul aches, throbbing with each pulse with the memory of breaking. Multiple halos surround her at once, the spears driving the pieces of her soul apart. Acid spirals through her every vein and vessel, disintegrating her. She reloads.
This is the time. She strikes a hard blow, driving Undyne's HP down. She dodges spears, flying thickly as the snow in Snowdin. Her soul trembles, held together with cinnamon bunny glaze and desperate hope.
She strikes. Undyne shakes, squeezing her good eye shut. "Damn… it…" she chokes. "So even THAT power… It wasn't enough?... Heh…" she smiles sadly, "Heheheh…"
Her grin brightens her face as she smiles as widely as she can. "If you… If you think I'm gonna give up hope, you're wrong. 'Cause I've… Got my friends behind me."
Undyne starts to drip. "Alphys told me that she would watch me fight you...And if anything went wrong, she would… evacuate everyone."
Frisk heart swoops down with a feeling like traveling in a super-fast elevator.
"By now she's called ASGORE and told him to absorb the six human souls," Undyne continues, "And with that power…"
She falls to her knees, melting. "This world will live on…"
Frisk lets out a cry, running to catch her as she falls, but instead is engulfed in a cloud of dust. She coughs, choking on it, eyes watering.
As she rubs the particles out of her crusted eyes, Frisk knows she cannot stop now. She uses her determination to put one foot in front of the other, her footsteps echoing loudly in the empty cavern. There is no one to hear them, no sound but the distant rushing of water and the growing hiss of steam.
Hellfire and Ruin
Frisk strides through Hotlands. She uses her mantra - Gaster. Gaster. Gaster. - to deflect the wounds every murder reflects back onto her own soul. She cannot completely avoid the remorse - instead she stores it away, to always remember the cost of what she has set out to do.
"Ahuhuhuhu," Muffet giggles, as she walks into the spider's lair. "Did you hear what she said?"
She pauses. "They said a human wearing a striped shirt will come through here."
She pauses again. "I heard they hate spiders."
Frisk lets out a hard breath as her chest tightens.
"I heard that they love to stomp on them." Not true.
She wades through the thick webs.
"I heard that they like to tear their legs off.
She gradually becomes enmired.
"I heard…" Muffet says, scuttling out of the darkness, "...that they have some awful taste. What a shame. A human comes through and they aren't even fit to be eaten. ~" Her voice is sing-song. "Oh well! Rotten ingredients can always be discarded. ~"
With a single blow from Frisk's frying pan, Muffet's eyes widen, and she poofs into dust. A single, brave spider comes forward, laying a flower on her dust.
Frisk fights back tears. Gaster. Gaster. GASTER.
It seems that no time passes until she arrives on Mettaton's stage. She blinks, not remembering how she got there,
"My, my. So you've finally arrived," he says, in a bold voice. "After our first meeting, I realized… something ghastly. You're not just a threat to monsters… but humanity as well."
Frisk just stares at him, too weary to even protest in her mind.
"Oh my," he continues. "That's an issue. You see, I can't be a star without an audience. And besides… There are some people… I want to protect."
Don't be stupid, Frisk thinks. Please, don't make me do this. Blooky is incorporeal, he'll be fine, and mad dummy is already… al- You mean Alphys, don't you? Oh, no. Please…
She steps forward, and Mettaton laughs.
"Ah ha ha. Eager, as always, eh?" No. "But don't touch that dial. There's something you haven't accounted for. As any true fan would know, I was first created as a human eradication robot. It was only after becoming a star that I was given a more… photogenic body. However. Those original functions have never been fully removed."
Frisk takes a deep, tired breath. Is she even truly human anymore?
"Come any closer, and I'll be forced to show you… My true form!"
Even Mettaton is afraid to fight. Blustery, forceful Mettaton… She steps forward.
"Fine then!" Mettaton crows, but his voice falters. "Rrrrready? Iiiiiiit's showtime!"
Spotlights shine, dazzling Frisk, and Mettaton in a new, armored form appears through the blinking shadows.
One hit, and he closes his eyes, smoking and clattering as he shakes.
"Gh… Guess you don't wanna join my fan club…?" he quips, then explodes.
Frisk is pushed back by the force of the blast, but steps through the smoke, into the waiting elevator. Her heart lightens just a little bit. At least the deaths are clean, one hit. One and done. And Her EXP is rising considerably. She won't have to kill Alphys, or the all of other monsters. Asgore will be enough.
