A/N- Me: Sorry for the wait guys! Life got hectic!

Muse Kitty: ...

Me: Awww. Kitty, I wasn't ignoring you promise. C'me here girl.

Muse Kitty: Purr

Me: That's right, we've got lotsa chapters done, just need them looked over by the beta

Many thanks to TheFlameRose for betaing!

Disclaimer- I don't own Undertale


Chapter 4

Chara tried to keep their breathe steady, curling around Frisk as best they could to try and stop the other child from shivering. The fever they both had made the usually warm area feel almost as cold as Snowdin. Chara cursed themself for not recognizing the signs earlier, having headed their panic of being around a skeleton monster, letting it take over their ability to think rationally, and now Frisk would pay the price for it.

They tried to tell themselves that they had done the best they could, but they knew, and felt their heart sink in realization, they should have stayed with the skeleton monsters. They could have played up the weakness until Frisk was better and then made a break for it. Now they were both going to die and end up right back in Gaster's hands.

They could hear the clinking of armor grow closer, and Chara bit down on the inside of their cheeks to keep from making any noise. Maybe if they were really quiet and still, the monster would walk by and Chara could delay the inevitable a little while longer.

"They were over here!" the voice from the monster kid before echoed in Chara's ears, and they fought the urge to groan. Another mistake they could probably blame on their fever, they should have stayed far, far away from any monster despite how nice they seemed at first. Everyone wanted something, and monsters wanted to break the barrier using human souls.

The sound of armor grew closer and Chara tensed, readying themself for whatever they would have to do to protect Frisk. Death was unacceptable, they knew that, but Frisk's death was even more unacceptable.

"There!" the monster kid said, and Chara watched the silver boots move steadily closer, dogged by yellow feet.

They stopped just to the side of Chara, who studied them through half lidded eyes. As the armor-wearing monster crouched down to check the humans out, Chara launched themselves upward with as much strength as they could muster. Their hands landed hard on more metal, and Chara thought they felt a bone snap against it, but they had felt much worse.

The armor bent under the force of the blow, and Chara's desire to hurt the monster wearing it. The monster stumbled back, struggling to keep its feet, and the monster kid watched with wide eyes from the side.

"What-?" a female voice could be heard from underneath the metal helmet, and Chara bared their teeth in a snarl.

"Calm down punk," the monster snarled back, "No one wants to hurt you. We stopped hunting humans years ago."

Chara didn't back down, feeling their body sway as they struggled to stay standing.

"Look," the armored monster said, "Whatever that bastard claiming to be a scientist did was illegal, and I'll see him as dust myself for it. Don't you dare give him another chance to win by dying here and now when you could get help."

Chara stared at them, before letting out a dry chuckle.

"Why would you help me?" Chara protested, "You get nothing from it. Unless you need us healthy to take our souls to break the barrier, in which case you can go screw yourself."

The pain was catching up to Chara, black spots dancing around their vision for the second time in they didn't know how long. They knew they only had moments before the went crashing to the ground and they had to make it count.

Chara took a deep breath, and fell into the stance that Gaster had taught them. From there it was letting muscle memory, and the echos of Frisk's screams guide them forward. If they didn't Fight Frisk would be the one hurt, and that wasn't ok. It would never be ok.

Their feet shot forward first, a scissor kick that Chara didn't even need full vision to aim.

The armored monster surged backwards, eyes widening behind the helmet. Chara kept the attack going, landing on the foot they had kicked with and used that momentum to spin and kick with the other one, ignoring the pain that caused in their injured leg. This one was blocked with a forearm, Chara's shin meeting metal. It buckled under the force and the monster kid made a startled sound.

Still running on instinct, Chara dropped down, and turned to the kid. The easiest target should be taken out first, they could still hear the Doctor's voice, because it could mentally weaken the others as well as lessen the number of people they had to keep track of.

Chara stumbled as they tried to take a step in the kid's direction, vision almost black at this point, but they knew that if they stopped before they passed out then the next battle would be even harder as punishment. Or Frisk would be taken for another round of experimentation instead.

A hand landed on their shoulder, stopping their movements, but keeping them steady.

"What do you think you're doing?" the monster's voice dropped to a deadly octave, and Chara wished they knew how to do that, maybe then everyone would leave the two humans alone.

They opened their mouth to answer, questions that went unanswered were punished, and blacked out.


Undyne was furious. At herself, at the kids she had just found, but mostly at the Bastard that had started it all.

When she had heard from Sans that there was a couple of human kids running around Snowdin Forest, she almost didn't believe him. It had been years since a human had fallen down into the Underground, and the couple that were still hanging around were adamant that there were legends and later barriers set up to keep people away from the mountain. They shouldn't had to deal with another human, to struggle with keeping the idea of just killing the humans to get out from the kingdom's head.

When Sans told her that they had likely had a run in with Gaster, Undyne may have broken a few things in her anger. The Bastard just couldn't keep his hands away from anything. Even if they hadn't been humans, which Undyne had sworn to protect to make up for the Underground's mistakes; and children, who should never have to go through something like that. Should never have to deal with the nightmares her best friends still had on a regular basis.

The Captain of the Guard had been heading to Gerson to get his thoughts on the Bastard and on the possible paths the humans could take. She would have prefered to talk to one of the humans that were around New Home, but it was too far, and she was running low on time. The guard was taking too long to locate the kids already.

On her way to the old man's shop, a young kid came running up to her shouting about someone needing help, so she hadn't hesitated to follow after them. Her armor slowed her down more than she had liked, but since she didn't know what situation she was going into she was going to keep it on.

Undyne didn't expect to find the humans she had been looking for curled up on the ground. She definitely didn't expect one of the shivering children to launch upward into a near lethal attack, one that probably would have killed her if she hadn't been wearing her armor.

"What-?" she said in surprise, wondering why the human's first reaction was to attack when they obviously didn't have the strength for it. She tried to reassure the kid that everything would be alright, tried to encourage them to keep living so that Gaster wouldn't have an indirect victory in their death, but from the glassy-eyed, distrustful stare, she wasn't going to get anywhere with them.

The response she got sent a brand new shot of anger down her spine. What sort of horrid person teaches, a child no less, that help only comes if someone gets something out of it?!

The kid seemed to zone out as they slipped into a stance that Undyne only vaguely recognized, and shot forward with terrifying speed. The Captain of the Guard found that she could only just keep up with the kid, which was made even worse by the idea that the human seemed out of it and wasn't focusing on the fight in front of them.

Monster Kid startled, and the human turned to them as their attention was drawn. Undyne felt like a bucket of ice had been dumped over her as the human staggered towards Kid with obvious intent to attack them as well.

Undyne reached out to stop, as well as steady the kid, who looked like they were going to keel over at any moment.

"What do you think you're doing?" she warned. She wouldn't hurt the kid, she taken a oath about it, but her duty to the kingdom always came first. Undyne would attack if it came down to it. Which was why it was a relief that the kid collapsed when they did.

She grabbed the kid in one arm, and the other one still on the ground in the other, carrying the two of them easily. Monster Kid was staring at her with a mix of terror, hero worship, and worry.

"What- What's going to happen to them?" the kid whispered, and Undyne admired the fact that they looked ready to leap to the human's defence if they needed to.

"Nothing!" Undyne reassured with one of her sharp-tooth grins. "What happened here wasn't their fault! We can blame it all on the Bast- Gaster," Undyne corrected herself quickly, "So they'll be taken some place they can recover, and then integrated into the kingdom."

Monster Kid bounced up and down on their feet. "So I could visit them later?"

"Sure kid!" Undyne agreed, and watched in amusement as the kid took off, tripped, and got right back up to keep going.

She readjusted her grip on the children, and wondered at how hard it was going to be to keep them safe as they recovered as well as help them learn to trust again. She set off back to her house, making a mental note to call Alphys as soon as she had gotten the humans settled into some makeshift beds. The scientist would want the latest update on the situation, and would be the best bet for helping cure the kids.

After that, Undyne would have to inform the skeleton brothers.

And then Asgore.