Me: Welp. I dunno how well this chapter has worked itself out.

Shamir: Looks good enough for me.

Me: Thanks for the vote of confidence. I hope the readers will like it...And a small edit, I have refurbished some wording in here!

Journey...Start!


CHAPTER EIGHT: FEARS AND FIGHTS

Roger looked in desperation at the huge mountain before him - he ran with all his force towards the base of the mountain - and one thought was running through his head, 'Frisk...why did you run away?' while his face betrayed deep sadness. He left out a heavy breath he wasn't aware he withheld, and resumed his climb up the mountain, trying his best to reach the top as fast as he could. In the meantime, Frisk was still unconscious as they laid on the bed of golden flowers, and the faint light that came from above was gently touching the petals of said flowers. And there was nobody to help them, right now.

Meanwhile, Roger looked at the sun that began to slowly set, and knew it was dangerous to climb a mountain during the night - besides, he couldn't light his way with the silver lighter he carried in one of his pants' pocket. 'I have to hurry up. I hope Frisk isn't hurt...or dead.' he mentally deadpanned, as his brows furrowed in anger and went much more careful about his climb, given the fact moonlight wasn't yet enough to shine on the path ahead. There was no way he would give up on the kid that they promised to protect.

Frisk awoke slowly, their head hurting and their hands full of small wounds. Groggily, they lifted themselves up, dusted their clothes, and looked around in a vague attempt to catch on their bearings. 'Where am I?' Frisk was thinking as they went in circles, trying to figure out a way, while outside, Roger was still climbing the mountain. It took one more hour for the young man to finish the climb - by that time, moonlight was shining brilliantly, and Roger felt relieved he was on the mountain's peak, while still huffing in exhaustion from the rather hasty and hurting climb.

Frisk was finally finding their way out of this darkened room, and then ended up in front of a heavy stone door they pushed with some effort, reaching in another darkened room like the first. Outside, Roger was admiring the view, and wondered why would Frisk just decide - he stopped when he saw the child's footprints - and hoped to God above they weren't dead. Then, steeling his nerves, decided to jump down.

Roger fell down, and while the fall was enough to render Frisk unconscious for a while, the young man was strong enough to recover from the fall much faster. 'Ngh...Frisk! I must find Frisk...' But just as he was thinking like that, sounds of battle could be heard somewhere deep down the corridor. 'What the hell? What is going on out there?'

"WE NEED THIS LITTLE FELLA DOWN HERE. HE WILL RUIN EVERYTHING IF WE DON'T STOP HIM." Flowey said, his glitched voice a bit sarcastic.

"look at how defiant...they seem to be..." the ghost like figure floated next to the glitched flower. "let's see how can they...fare against papyrus..." and, in a few seconds, the ghostly figure entered Papyrus's SOUL, making the skeleton's eyes hollow, and demeanour completely changed.

"HUMAN...I WILL RESET OVER YOUR OWN DEATH." the possessed Papyrus said as he began enveloping the child's SOUL in his signature blue magic, tossing the child around.

Screams of pain were heard, and Roger hurried down the darkened corridor, his trusty lighter guiding the way, while the sounds were getting louder. 'If anyone dares to hurt Frisk...' the young man said as he pushed the large stone door, noticing a tossed around and injured Frisk, who was bleeding a lot - and, looking around for the child's attacker, the possessed skeleton was trying to impale them with an array of bones. He picked up Frisk and dodged the attack as fast as he could, and was surprised to notice the one aiming to kill them was a large...dressed skeleton?

"Hey prick! Take on someone of your size!" Roger bellowed as he squinted his eyes towards the skeleton.

"ANOTHER HUMAN? THIS CERTAINLY LOOKS VERY INTERESTING." the glitched flower said. "TOO BAD YOU CAN'T DEFEND YOURSELF AT ALL." he added as a maniacal laughter echoed through the darkness and aimed for Roger with his spiky, monstrous vines, as if thinking he could grasp the man. For some reason, he felt a bit more powerful in this room, there was something pulsing within him.

A faint purple aura began surrounding Roger as his eyes were squinted, and brought up his lighter.

Flick. Flick. Flick!

"Weeds get burned down!" he roared as the gentle flame of the lighter became a violent one, and threw it towards the vines that were threatening to take him away.

The possessed Papyrus didn't waste a chance to surround the two humans with his array of sharp, blue-coated magic bones, and Roger sweatdropped. He didn't have any defense right now, but at least, he found Frisk. He stood protectively in front of the child, gritting his teeth - and thought just how stupid this might've looked, given the fact he was out of any way to protect himself and Frisk. No gun, no baton, the lighter was gone...He gulped.

"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT. HE HAS NOTHING TO PROTECT HIMSELF AGAINST PAPYRUS'S ATTACK, BUT WILL PROTECT THE CHILD. CURIOUS. HE WILL END UP DEAD ANYWAY!"

Outside, Shamir was patrolling the Ruins area, when he felt something curious in the air, as the wind just shifted its' course. 'Hmph. I wonder...the wind is usually calmer in these parts. I should explore the Ruins, just to be sure.' he thought as he pushed the large door and walked down the basement, the Old Home - as he dubbed it, even if his father was bad at names - and saw a scared Froggit running until the latter bumped into the large feline.

"What is wrong? Why are you running like that?" Shamir asked, curiosity written all over his face.

"Rib-ribbit, rib-rib ribbit!" the Froggit uttered as their eyes were widened in panic.

"What? Two humans fell down and Papyrus is attacking them?!" Shamir's eyes glazed red at the thought.

"Ribbit." the Froggit said, sweatdropping.

'Damn. Either the humans provoked Papyrus...or something else is going on.' the Royal Guard Captain thought as he began dashing through the Ruins to reach the beginning of the Underground. While he was on the run, in that very cave, Roger tried to stall for time as much as he could, hoping someone would save them.

"Before you kill me..." Roger said, "I want to know who I'm dealing with. Just so I know in the afterlife."

"ARE YOU JOKING, HUMAN? I AM FLOWEY. FLOWEY THE FABULOUS FLOWER. AND THIS IS MY GOOD BROTHER, NAPSTABLOOK. WHO CURRENTLY HAS AHOLD OF PAPYRUS, THE SKELETON STAR OF THE UNDERGROUND. Flowey's glitchy voice said, as he manifested a somewhat robotic face on himself.

"What's the Underground?" the researcher said, trying to get more information, while he was on the brink of death. He couldn't help musing that he must've looked like the Batman while tied up and still asking questions.

"PFT. YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF THE UNDERGROUND?" the possessed Papyrus said. "YOU MUST BE FAKING STUPIDITY, SINCE IT'S YOUR KIND THAT GOT US TRAPPED IN HERE!" he added as the bones were nearing the two humans. Frisk was still unconscious for most of the time.

"ARE YOU DUMB, NAPSTABLOOK? HE'S STALLING FOR TIME. LOOK AT HIS PATHETIC FACE." Flowey said as he summoned another set of vines. "NOBODY WILL SAVE YOU FROM BEING MURDERED BY OUR DUAL ATTACK!" he added as his vines were fastly approaching Roger, while the bones of Papyrus threatened Frisk.

'We're dead. We're dead. We're de-' Roger could only think, when he heard a loud, menacing growl and faint whirrs of electricity around him.

"CHARGER SHOCK!" a male voice bellowed in the darkness, and sets of blue lightning strikes zapped Flowey's vines, the latter yelling in pain. The approaching sillhouette then threw two lightning-coated sabres that broke the bones surrounding the two humans, forcing Napstablook's control over Papyrus away.

"let's run...brother...they are saved...for now." Napstablook faded away, while Flowey dug himself out from the room.

Roger, exhaling in full relief that someone actually saved them, ran towards the unconscious Frisk and held them in his arms, while examining the wounds. 'Don't worry, buddy. I have some bandage to cover those bad wounds...now...come on, wake up..' he thought with worry as the child wasn't opening their eyes. Looking around, the sillhouette that saved them earlier seemed to retreat in the darkness, almost as if watching them from afar. Roger still didn't understand why whoever that was saved them, but he was grateful that they did.

Shamir knew first hand that not all humans are to be trusted, yet for the moment, he postponed on killing them. They seemed to be in danger, by the looks of it - but for what it was worth, they could've also brought this upon themselves. He noticed that, out of the two humans, one was a child. There was something nagging at him when he saw the child, but couldn't place his paw on it - he then decided not to dawdle around - humans have fallen down in the Underground, and the course of action was set. If they acted with extreme hostility towards the monsters, or outright attempted to kill them, there will be no hesitation on his side to go for a kill. He looked a bit relieved that Papyrus was safe, too - whatever may have gotten into him.

Papyrus was now laying on the cold ground, a bit confused at what he saw before him. "H-HUMANS?! WHAT ARE YOU-"

"You look confused. Don't you remember you were attacking us just now?" Roger shot him an annoyed glare.

"I WAS ATTACKING YOU? THAT IS VERY, VERY UNLIKE ME. FOR YOU SEE-" Papyrus began to lift himself up and dust his tuxedo.

"You are the star of the Underground, whatever the Underground means." Roger huffed as he looked back to Frisk. "You did a number on them, and if they're dead..."

"I AM TRULY SORRY." Papyrus said as he approached the two. "I AM A STAR, NOT A WARRIOR. I DO NOT WISH TO KILL POTENTIAL FANS."

Frisk finally awoke, their whole body hurt and wincing as they wanted to speak. They looked with scared eyes at the hovering skeleton above them and put their hands in defense, shivering, as if they didn't want to be a victim of the skeleton's might. Roger gently let the kid's hands down and smiled at them weakly, while reassuring the skeleton won't hurt them, but the man wasn't going to let his guard down - after what he saw, there wasn't one-hundred-percent trust between him and Papyrus.

"I'm going to be straight with you, Papyrus. I still do not trust you, but I don't want to start on a bad foot with anyone I meet. I'm Roger, and the kid you pulled a stunt on just a few moments ago is Frisk." he said as he extended his right hand, expecting Papyrus to shake back, which the skeleton did.

"I THINK I HAVE HEARD A FEW PUNS IN THAT SENTENCE," Papyrus huffed. "I AM NOT A FAN OF PUNS."

"No, no. I assure you, no puns. They are merely expressions." Roger assured the tall skeleton. "Frisk, can you walk?" he asked the small child, who shaked his head in strong denial. "No worries, I'll carry you. And you, Papyrus? Are you okay?" he turned towards the still-somewhat-confused skeleton.

"YES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONCERN." Papyrus replied. "I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE UNDERGROUND - I'M NOT A FAN OF HISTORY, BUT SOMEONE ELSE DOES. AND HE'S SOMEWHAT OF A FANATIC WHEN IT COMES TO HUNTING HUMANS."

"That begins to reassure me a lot." Roger sweatdropped, while holding Frisk tighter. "Still, you can tell me what you know about the Underground. I like to hear stories even from those who have little knowledge about something."

They began walking through the Ruins, while Papyrus was telling Roger what he knew, and Frisk looked with curiosity at the exchanges between the two. Roger would often stop the skeleton and try making out his own conclusions about what he was saying - while Papyrus often corrected with what he knew from Sans. They must've been talking like that until they reached the first room full of conundrums, Frisk stating that they can walk now, while Papyrus took the liberty to see what colours the humans' SOULS were. Roger's was purple, and Frisk's was red - and he recalled something his brother would often mumble in his sleep.

[Purple...Perseverent human...logical...they will solve everything...Red...Determined human...will not stop until the goal...is reached...]

Roger looked at the first conundrum before them - three levers in three different positions and at the end of the corridor, a large wall of spikes was barring the way. He looked at Frisk and Papyrus, then he gestured towards two of the levers. "I will take the middle one. Frisk, you take the leftmost one, and Papyrus, the rightmost one. Be careful, their position is distinct. Either we need to pull them all down, or all them up. I am not sure if this needs to be done simultaneously-"

"What do you mean b-by that w-word?" Frisk asked, a bit confused at the word.

"I mean- I'm not sure if we need to pull on the levers at the same time, but I think it would be best if we try that first." Roger explained. "Okay, we pull them down on three."

One.

Two.

Three.

Click!

The spike wall was now gone, and the three looked with relief towards one another, thankful they didn't have to go through too much trial and error. Roger took Frisk's hand, while Papyrus tried to stay close to the two humans. He could've left them down here with no guidance, but he wasn't a bad monster at his core - and besides, he knew the place like it was the back of his bony hand. A nagging thought was, however, going in his skull as they went forward in the Ruins, 'WHAT HAPPENED TO ME SO BAD THAT THE HUMAN NAMED ROGER INSISTED I WAS JUST ATTACKING THEM?', because he could only remember seeing Flowey and a strange ghost before him, the former screeching about dust...The line of thoughts stopped the moment Frisk asked him something, something Papyrus didn't seem to hear, as his eyesockets were narrowed in concentration, while Roger looked ahead for any dangers or puzzles that might've shown up in any of the rooms they passed by.

"YES, FRISK?" Papyrus finally answered, regaining some focus as he shook his head from the weird thoughts.

"I asked you where you live." Frisk said, looking at the skeleton with curiosity.

"NOT FAR FROM HERE, LITTLE HUMAN," Papyrus smiled towards Frisk, "I LIVE IN SNOWDIN."

In front of the three, stood a room with three columns, and a large sign written in something gibberish - Roger couldn't read a letter from that - and asked Papyrus to read for him, while the latter looked a bit confused, before figuring Monsters' language had to be foreign to them by now. He sighed and began reading the text on the wall, pausing each time so Roger could learn the alphabet, at least. The Monsters' language was easy to learn after one knew the alphabet, and Roger felt indebted to the tall skeleton.
'So, if we find the blue switch, we can pass.' Roger mused as he asked his two friends - well one of them was really his friend - to look for a blue switch, until Frisk sat on something that looked like a blue chair. "I'm just tired..." they said while a faint click was heard in the distance, and then sounds of a moving wall.

"Looks like you are lucky today, Frisk." Roger couldn't help chuckling, while also sweatdropping.

"Lucky Frisk, lucky risk." Frisk laughed back.

"NOW THAT...WAS A PUN." Papyrus huffed in annoyance.

"You really dislike puns, it seems." the young researcher looked in curiosity at the annoyed skeleton. "They're just child's play, nothing harmful in them..."

"YOU SAY THAT BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT SUBJECTED TO PUNS EACH DAY." the tall skeleton said, his bony arms folded.

["bro, my cellbone has no signal here", Sans grinned as he checked his phone.

"MY PHONE HAS-, Papyrus stops mid-sentence, realizing the pun, SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANS!"

"bro, can you guess my favourite instrument?" Sans asked his brother one day.

"...THE GUITAR?" Papyrus answered, after some thinking.

"no, trombone!" Sans said with his bony hands outward.

"...DAMNIT, SANS."

"bro, c'mon..."

"FINISH THAT PUN AND I WILL POUR THE HOT PASTA ON YOUR SKULL AND THEN...AND THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S NEXT."

"...smile and stop skullking..." Papyrus, in his anger, pours the hot pasta on Sans' skull.]

"I'm sorry, I found Frisk's pun really hilarious." Roger sweatdropped. "Please, don't kill Frisk or anything. Let's just...continue on."

The three carried on through the next two rooms, which they solved easily - puzzle was similar - and then reached a rather large room with a pathway drawn on the floor, a thing Frisk found curious, and on the rightmost wall of the room, laid a careful instruction that Roger wanted to read this time. He wanted to show Papyrus just how inquisitive humans can be. "So...it says... T-H-E...W-E-S-T...W-E-S-T-E-R-N...R-O-O-M..." Roger began reading, trying to carefully match the letters in the Monsters' alphabet,..."I-S...T-H-E...E-A-S-T...E-A-S-T-E-R-N...R-O-O-M-S...B-L-U-E-P-R...BLUEPRINT!" he finished reading the text, grinning happily as he did this feat. "It seems only in writing, the Monsters' alphabet is different. In speech, you can understand us and we can understand you..."

"YES, IT IS TRUE." Papyrus nodded.

Roger took Frisk and ventured in the next room, looking with horror as the ground before them was full of spikes. 'Great. So, I must remember the pattern on the left, in order to progress in here? Shit.' He then returned to the left room, where Papyrus looked with curiosity as the older human was adamant on solving the puzzle by themselves.

"HUMAN. I CAN ACTUALLY HELP-" the dashing skeleton said, only to be silenced by Roger's lifted right hand.

"No, I can handle it. I'm no child, like Frisk here." Roger said as he was tracing back and forth over the white pattern.

'Three steps forward, three left, hm...exactly ten steps right...three down, and three right.' Roger repeated this over and over in his head, aware that one mis-step could be really unpleasant for him. "Frisk, I can see the spikes are not very big, and just for your safety - you should stay on my back. And hold tight." he told the small child, who did exactly that, and then Roger waved for Papyrus to follow him. The skeleton looked with immense curiosity as the human's retaining of the pattern and how well they passed over the spiked puzzle, 'THE TALL HUMAN LOVES PUZZLES A LOT...' and then, our trio went deeper in the Ruins.

It must've taken them some good ten-fifteen more minutes until they reached the old house. Papyrus's mind was trying to chase away old memories, while Roger and Frisk looked in awe of how well the house looked like, despite the fact that nobody seemed to live in here for a very, very long time. The three entered the house, and Papyrus showed them the way towards the basement. "Why should we go down there?" Frisk asked, a bit scared by the prospect, while Roger wanted to explore more of the house.

"TH- THERE'S NOTHING FOR YOU TO SEE IN HERE." Papyrus said, sweatdropping.

"More like, you don't want us to see what is in here." Roger scoffed.

"PL-PLEASE. DO NOT INSIST." Papyrus said, his bony hands shaking.

"If you want me to trust you more, I want to see you trusting me. Whatever is or isn't here, we won't be telling."

Papyrus stood on the large carpet in the main hall of the house, while softly...crying? 'Whatever the hell got into him?' Roger mused as he saw the skeleton shaking under his cries. Frisk went to hug the crying skeleton, while Roger was doubting whether or not to leave the kid alone with Papyrus - and Frisk broke the silence by saying, "I'll be ok. He needs help.", leaving the young researcher some freedom to look around the house. In one of the rooms, the shelves were empty, as if someone took great care to take whatever books were in here. His gaze stopped on the table opposite of the shelves - a picture was standing there, a picture that didn't look extremely old - a picture of Papyrus and someone else that seemed to be...a human? A human girl...

He then returned to his two companions, and noticed Papyrus wasn't crying anymore - he wondered what could've Frisk told him so he would be fine. In truth, while Roger was looking around the house, Frisk listened to what Papyrus had to say, how they lost someone they cared about - and Frisk could only say what Roger told them the day Sam died on the Surface. That whoever Frisk lost was probably hiding right now, but Papyrus didn't buy that. He appreciated though that the kid took their time to listen.

"Frisk, I'm really impressed." Roger could say, smiling. "Let's just go, Papyrus was right."

The three went away from the Ruins and stepped into the chilly atmosphere of Snowdin Forest, and while Roger didn't have anything to cover Frisk with - he didn't regret his decision of giving away his blue shirt, while he stood just in his undershirt. Both Papyrus and Frisk looked at him with worry, but he shrugged away the cold and started walking down the snowy pathway ahead.

"IS YOUR FRIEND ALWAYS LIKE THAT?" Papyrus asked, while he walked with Frisk.

"I think so." Frisk could only say, looking at the undershirted man before them. "Roger, wait up!"

The three friends, human and monster, were now walking through the great forest of Snowdin, and the two humans wondered if there was anyone else living in the Underground. It would be really curious if Papyrus was the sole inhabitant of the Underground - and quite scary, Frisk could think - but Roger was more interested in hearing about what was Papyrus doing, exactly, in his quality as a star of the Underground.

"WELL, I AM MOSTLY TOURING THE UNDERGROUND IN MY CAR." Papyrus said, "BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IS IT NOW."

"What? Your car tends to disappear? Or you just forget where you parked it?" Roger inquired.

"IT IS MOSTLY THE FIRST. IT DISAPPEARS QUITE OFTEN. I SUSPECT MY BROTHER IS BEHIND THIS." Papyrus could huff, his expression a bit annoyed.

"Is he that 'someone' who is a human-hunting fanatic?" Frisk asked, with a bit of worry in their voice.

"YES." Papyrus deadpanned. "BUT HE WON'T ACTUALLY DO THAT. IT'S JUST A FIGURE OF SPEECH."

The remainder of their journey was filled with a lot of jokes, small talk, and sometimes snow fights as Frisk enjoyed seeing so much snow, while Roger was beginning to feel a little chilly. His bravado might not be a good thing, after all...but he is just trying to see the child well taken care of - they stopped at a moment, seeing a bird-like monster trying to dish out jokes, and Frisk laughed at the small puns the bird made.

"THAT IS SNOWDRAKE." Papyrus squinted his eyes. "HE TRIES TO BE A COMEDIAN, JUST LIKE MY BROTHER."

"Chill out, Papyrus, your brother's puns are snow problem for me." Snowdrake said, as he ruffled his feathers.

"...THE MORE I HEAR YOUR PUNS, THE LESS I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND." Papyrus folded his arms, shooting a glare towards the bird-like monster.

"Your friends look like they aren't bothered at all. Well, fine, I'm going elsewhere for practice." Snowdrake said, as he flew away.

After meeting another monster, the certainty that Papyrus was the only monster living here was slowly fading away, in the two humans' minds. It looked like the monsters were quite nice...and they didn't really want to harm them. 'Maybe not just yet,' Roger could muse, 'but who knows when a monster won't be just as friendly as these two?'

It was a thought Roger was about to take back, when he saw a white leopard guarding the passage ahead, roaring aloud "Who goes there? If the one going there is a human...THEY WON'T GET OUT...ALIVE." and instantly, the three felt their SOULS tugged out, prompting a battle ahead. One thing was certain for Roger - if this fight was going to be anything like the first one - they would be in big trouble. Frisk was impressed with the leopard before them, while Papyrus nonchalantly greeted the monster before him.

"PARVOS, NICE TO SEE YOU HERE!" the dashing skeleton said, adopting his famous pose.

"What the HELL are you doing with these two HUMANS?!" the leopard roared as he was only thinking of the Guard's goal.

"THEY MEAN US NO HARM-" Papyrus said, only to be cut off by a violent dash that Parvos initiated.

The skeleton, out of pure fear, managed to form a defensive shield from his blue magic bones, enveloping himself and his friends in. Roger was thankful that, this time, Papyrus' force was on their side, and Frisk kept themselves near Roger, fear also written in their eyes. 'WHY WOULD PARVOS ATTACK US AT ALL?' Papyrus thought as his wall of bone deflected the leopard's attack, and then fought back with an array of bones - even though Roger could see this wasn't the skeleton's intention at all - which the leopard evaded with ease.

"Surrender those HUMANS, Papyrus! Do not make me use my entire force!" Parvos taunted the skeleton.

"THEY HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG!" Papyrus said, enveloping the leopard's SOUL in his signature blue magic. "LET US PASS!" he yelled as he tossed away the leopard in a few trees, snow falling on top of him.

Flowey and Napstablook were watching the short fight, hoping that the leopard would win - but somehow, both monsters were restraining one another - and the former huffed in annoyance over the result, "TCH. AND HERE I THOUGHT THE FREAKING FELINE WILL KILL THE SKELETON. NO MATTER, NO MATTER...SOMEONE ELSE WILL DO THE DIRTY JOB...", while Napstablook restrained himself from saying anything. Instead, the corrupted ghost had a plan of its' own...