Tenebris breathed as he tried to calm himself from his sudden panic attack. It was the first one he's had in a long time; he hasn't had one since becoming friends with Frisk and Selendis. However, what the one guard called him brought back... painful memories.
Selendis had stayed by Tenebris' side ever since he had his panic attack and Frisk managed to get the royal guards to call off their attack in the most absurd way: cleaning one of the guard's armor of its cooling dirt and telling the other one, who had the hots for his partner, to be honest with himself. They decided to relent after, but they stayed behind to watch over the trio of humans until Tenebris recovered.
When the shadow-eyed human finally re-regulated his breathing, one shook his head. "I'm, like, totally sorry about causing you a panic attack there, dude. It's just... the way to looked and the way you approached us reminded me of the Grim Reaper and... well, I'm willing to bet I caused some painful memories to resurface."
Tenebris shook his head, still shaken up. "More th-than you know, but it's fine. It's... probably for the best anyways..."
Selendis supported him as he stood back up, worried. "Tenebris, are you positively sure you're fit to continue like this? I mean... ever since we left Snowdin again, you've become a lot more irritable than before. I mean... at the beginning if this happened, you would have tried to find a way to get them to relent peacefully... but now you're acting a lot more aggressive..."
"I... honestly don't know. Things that normally don't bother me started irritating me as well. Is... my patience running thin or something?"
Frisk shook her head. "You're normally a very patient person, Tenny. Maybe the lack of sunlight is starting to get to you? I know some people react more adversely to that than others."
RG1 waved and got the trio's attention. "Well if it's, like, a problem with irritability, I think we can help. The king actually teaches us ways of calming ourselves should we become irritated or stressed, especially in situations like the one you three were just in. Besides, we're going to... take a rain check on, um, killing you guys, so don't tell Undyne okay?"
Tenebris let out a tired laugh. "Undyne isn't after us anymore either. In fact, she trained me a bit to help me become more proficient in combat."
"Wait... really? Actually... that explains why the way you held your scythe reminded me of the way Undyne holds her spears. Your irritability makes even more sense now; Undyne's training does tend to make people more irritable than usual, so we can help you with that."
"Anything that helps will work. I just don't want to blow my top over the stupidest of things down the road." Tenebris shivered violently, which caught Selendis and Frisk off guard. It was hot, yet it was almost like he was freezing.
RG1 shook his head. "Then let's fall back a bit to near that safe. It has the feeling of a resting area, so it's the best place to teach such lessons."
It didn't take long for the humans to learn the lessons the royal guard had to offer and it was effective for Tenebris, Frisk, and surprisingly Selendis. The exercises mostly consisted of breathing exercises, but there were some psychological lessons thrown in as well. What baffled the trio after the guards left was their insistence that it was Asgore who taught them those exercises. As Selendis blatantly put it, "We are getting mixed messages about that guy."
Continuing on, they got another post from Alphys, who seemingly forgot to check up on the humans. The next post she sent almost made Tenebris double over in laughter: Top 10 Shows That Make You Forget To Do Your Fricken Job
The jolly atmosphere soon vanished when they entered another dark room. Frisk let out a sigh. "Mettaton Really should find a new way to try and get the drop on us..."
The phone rang and, as per usual, Alphys was on the other end. "Okay, I'm back! A-another dark room, huh? No worries, m-my hacking skills have got things covered!" Not even a second after she said that, the lights turned on, revealing Mettaton in what looks like a... news cast set-up. Alphys' reaction mirrored the human's. "Are you serious?"
"OHHHHHH YESSS! GOOD EVENING, BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES! THIS IS METTATON, REPORTING LIVE FROM MTT NEWS! AN INTERESTING SITUATION HAS ARISEN IN EASTERN HOTLAND! FORTUNATELY, OUR CORRESPONDENTS ARE OUT THERE REPORTING LIVE!" The humans sighed. This was the third time Mettaton did something like this and it was starting to wear thin. "BRAVE CORRESPONDENTS, PLEASE FIND SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY TO REPORT!"
"We're never going to have a say in this." Tenebris groaned. Frisk noticed that he was nowhere near the level of irritation he was before, which made her happy deep down.
"I HOPE OUR LOVELY BLOND CAN FIND SOMETHING SHE IS KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT! I BET SHE SOUNDS AS BEAUTIFUL AS SHE LOOKS." Selendis scoffed, getting tired of Mettaton's blatant flirting, and Tenebris was silently breathing deep, trying not to become more irritated than he already was; he really didn't like anyone hitting on his crush. "I'M SURE OUR TEN WONDERFUL VIEWERS WOULD LOVE THAT!" Tenebris was tempted to make fun of the viewer count, but refrained until it was the right time.
Frisk looked around and observed various objects scattered around the room, including a basketball, a dog, a present, a script, a video game, and… a glass of water. She pointed it out and Selendis snorted. "You know what? Let's report that, just to spite him."
Tenebris chuckled. "Yeah. Let's see what he says with this." The trio walk over to the glass.
Mettaton let out an obviously fake gasp. "OH MY! IT'S… A COMPLETELY NONDESCRIPT GLASS OF WATER. BUT ANYTHING CAN MAKE A GREAT STORY WITH ENOUGH SPIN!" Selendis motioned towards it impatiently, signaling she wanted to report on it. Tenebris noted Mettaton's slightly unimpressed tone as he said, "ATTENTION VIEWERS! OUR CORRESPONDENTS HAVE FOUND… A GLASS OF WATER! BUT WHAT'S ASTONISHING ABOUT THIS GLASS OF WATER… IS HOW UNINTERESTING IT IS! LIKE ALL GLASSES OF WATER, IT IS COMPOSED OF DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE, GLASS, NYTROGLICERINE…"
Frisk caught on a few seconds later. "Nitroglycerine? Isn't that…" The older humans adopted horrified looks when they caught on.
"WAIT A SECOND… THAT'S NOT A GLASS OF WATER! THAT'S… A BOMB!" As if on cue, the liquid started flashing and the humans jumped away from it. "OH NO! THIS NEWS REPORT… IS TURNING INTO A DISASTER REPORT! BUT DON'T PANIC! YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THE REST OF THE ROOM YET!"
The stage Mettaton was apparently sitting on suddenly fell away. The humans looked around and saw that everything, save for the dog and the basketball, had some form of explosive in them. None of them were amused in the slightest, with Selendis whispering, "At this point, anything he does will subliminally try and kill us. It's just a matter of finding out what and when."
"OH MY! IT SEEMS EVERYTHING IN THIS ROOM IS ACTUALLY A BOMB! AS YOU HUMANS CAN PROBABLY ASTERTAIN AT THIS VERY MOMENT, THAT DOG IS A BOMB AND THAT BEASKETBALL IS A BOMB! EVEN MY WORDS ARE…" Some words spelling out exactly what mettaton just said suddenly fell onto the ground and exploded. Tenebris raised an eyebrow; as much as Mettaton annoys him, he had to admit the robot was classy for doing something like that. "BRAVE CORRESPONDENTS… IF YOU DON'T DEFUSE ALL OF THE BOMBS, THIS BIG BOMB WIL BLOW YOU TO SMITHERINEENS IN TWO MINUTES! THEN NONE OF YOU WILL BE REPORTING "LIVE" ANY LONGER!"
"Did you really have to turn that into a pun?!" Selendis outburst with annoyance, which made Tenebris snicker a bit.
"IT'S THE SHOWBLITZ, MY BLONDE BEAUTY! ONE HAS TO KEEP THEIR AUDIENCE ENGAGED SOMEHOW! AFTER ALL, I'M SURE MY NINE VEIWERS WILL LOVE WATCHING THIS! I WISH ALL THREE OF YOU LUCK, DARLINGS!"
Mettaton flew away out of earshot when Tenebris snorted. "Lost a viewer, more than likely because we chose to report on a glass of water. I'm going to have to nail him for that one."
Selendis shook her head. "Good to know you're more in-control this time, Tenebris, but how are we going to defuse bombs? I don't think we have anything that-"
As if on cue, the phone rang and Frisk answered. "D-don't worry! I installed a bomb-defusing program on your phone! Use the 'defuse' option when the bomb is in the defuse zone! N-now go get 'em!"
Tenebris frowned as the sisters went and defused the dog bomb. It was very coincidental that Alphys put such a program on the phone. It was almost as if… she knew that Mettaton would use bombs like this. He shook his head; he would have to bring it up with the sisters later.
He rejoined them as they slipped through the orange and blue lasers again after removing the video game bomb. Frisk gave him an odd look. "What were you doing?"
"Pondering. Let's just get this over with." She shrugged as they continued on. After defusing the script, present, and basket-bomb, Alphys told them she trapped the glass of water, which had been flying around erratically, in the center of the room.
When the sisters went to defuse it, Tenebris looked at the big bomb and smirked. Mettaton's attention was clearly on the sisters, as if waiting he expected this to happen. "I wonder what he would say if I did THIS." Lifting it up with his strength-enhancing aura, he chucked it into the lava far below.
Mettaton came over right as Frisk defused the last bomb. "WELL DONE, DARLINGS! NO IDEA WHERE THE SHADOW-EYED HUMAN WENT, BUT REGARDLESS, YOU'VE DEACITVATED ALL OF THE BOMBS! IF YOU DIDN'T DEACTIVATE THEM, THE BIG BOMB WOULD HAVE EXPLODED IN TWO MINUTES. NOW IT WON'T EXPLODE IN TWO MINUTES, SADLY. IT'LL EXPLODE IN TWO SECONDS! GOODBYE, DARLINGS, ESPECIALLY YOU, MY BLONDE BEAU-"
"Ahem." Mettaton turned to see Tenebris standing where the big bomb was with his arms folded. "You really should pay attention, Mettaton."
"AH… IT SEEMS THAT'S THE CASE… THROWING THE BOMB OVER THE EDGE IS A CLEVER TACTIC, DESPITE THE QUESTION OF HOW YOU MANAGED TO LIFT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE."
Frisk put the phone on speaker for Alphys. "Y-yeah! Besides, even if he didn't do that, I w-would of… of f… fix… um… ch-change…"
Mettaton quickly grumbled something under his breath before exclaiming, "OH, SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT EVEN IF HE DIDN'T DO THAT, YOU WOULD HAVE DEACTIVATED THE BOMB WITH YOUR HACKING SKILLS."
"Y-yeah, that's what I would have done!"
"CURSES! I'VE BEEN FOILED AGAIN! CURSE YOU HUMANS! CURSE YOU, DR. ALPHYS, FOR HELPING THEM SO MUCH! AND MOST OF ALL, CURSE YOU SHADOW-EYED HUMAN FOR CONSTANTLY BEING ONE STEP BEHIND ME! BUT I DON'T CURSE MY EIGHT WONDERFUL VIEWERS FOR-"
Tenebris cut him off. "Going to stop you right there. You claim yourself to be a big-shot entertainer, but I've seen otherwise. Not only did you only have TEN viewers at the beginning, but you LOST two by the end. Looks like you're all bark, no bite, Mettaton!" He points at the robot with a smug grin.
That certainly raised Mettaton's enmity towards him. "HMPH, THAT'S BECAUSE NOT MANY MONSTERS READ THE NEWS. I HAVE FAR MORE VIEWERS THAT WHAT YOU'VE SEEN THIS TIME. AS MUCH AS I'D LIKE TO FLAUNT, I HAVE TO GO." Mettaton flew away, clearly peeved.
Tenebris chuckled under his breath he regrouped with the sisters. "Karma's cold, isn't it?" Selendis chose not to comment, since she got some catharsis from that exchange.
Frisk on the other hand was somewhat disturbed. She didn't pay much attention before, but the last two times Mettaton did this gave her a sense of deja-vu, like she's done this many times before. Yet as far as she knew, this was the first time ever going through the Underground. She was starting to wonder if it had something to do with her ability to SAVE, LOAD, and RESET.
She was jarred out of her thoughts when Alphys spoke up. "W-wow… w-we really showed him, huh?" There was silence as Frisk noted Tenebris staring flatly at the phone. "H-hey, I know I was kind of weird at first, but I really think I'm getting more… m-more, uh, confident about guiding you three! Tenebris, you doing things like that really help, um, m-move things along faster! B-but anyways, don't worry about that big dumb robot. I'll help protect you three from him!" She hesitated for a second, catching Selendis' attention. "A-and if it really came down to it… we could always just t-turn… um, never mind! Later!"
Frisk shook her head as Alphys hung up. "Tenebris, I'd like to know why you're being suspicious of her."
Tenebris sighed. "Again, I'm paper-thin. Anyways, don't you guys find it… too convenient we have a bomb defusing program on this phone?"
Selendis was about to object, but thought about it a bit more. "Yeah, you're right actually. I wasn't questioning it then because we were busy trying to defuse bombs but…"
"And think about it. Alphys upgraded our phone, yet we never had to "update" it during our trek through Hotland. Plus, there's that button for a jetpack." He pointed it out. "If I had to hazard a guess, that was intended for that cooking show scenario, I just simply made it useless thanks to Mettaton's taunting and my jump aura."
Frisk Looked between the two older humans. "Wait, what are you trying to get at?"
Selendis shook her head. "I hate to admit it, but I think we're being played for fools here. The only way Alphys would install such things onto the phone without sending updates is because… she knew it would happen in the first place! That means she and Mettaton are working togather."
Now Frisk was panicking. "A-are you saying that Alphys is being a double agent?" She desperately wanted to believe that the scientist wouldn't want to screw them over; why else would she give them such options?
Tenebris growled. "In other words, a traitor. I knew there was a reason why I still didn't trust her and here it is!"
"A bit harsh, Tenebris, but I can't see it any other way." Selendis sighed. "That means we must take everything she says and does for us with a grain of salt. And Frisk? I wanted to believe she was really on our side as well, but as it turns out, the only ones truly on our side are the skeletons." Her little sister let out a whimper and she rubbed her head. "I know it's painful… but that's how it is. While I don't agree with Flowey's "kill or be killed" line-of-thought, it's still just us against the Underground."
Tenebris shook his head. "Sorry, kid. Anyways, we should get going; Alphys might get suspicious if we dawdle for too long."
Frisk, now somewhat despondent, nodded slowly. When they got another glimpse of the core, Alphys called and asked if they were worried about meeting Asgore before attempting to reassure them. After that, they entered another elevator and went up to Left Floor 3.
The first thing they saw had Selendis freeze and turn blue in horror. There, manning what looked like a very basic pastry shop, was a female spider monster. Frisk, forgetting her despondency, whimpered again. "I forgot. Selendis has arachnophobia… and that area looks like the spider bake sale I stumbled across in the ruins."
Tenebris shot a worried look at Selendis. He's never seen her so scared before and, from the looks of things, doesn't want to move forward. He tried encouraging her with Frisk, but to no avail. He finally sighed. "Take my hand."
That knocked her out of her stupor. "H-huh?"
"Take my hand and close your eyes. I'll lead you through and make sure nothing touches you."
Selendis slowly took his out-stretched hand before squeezing her eyes shut and let him guide her through. Frisk, while knowing that Selendis was scared stiff of the situation, smiled at the sight. It was the first time the two ever held hands like that and the fact at Tenebris being very sweet to her by guiding her through her phobia. She made sure to talk to the spider monster, who seemed somewhat displeased that none of them were doing business, despite the outrageous prices.
Selendis managed to recover when they reached a room full of steam vents and got a call from Alphys telling them that it's the same puzzle as before. They did the one that was to their left when they entered first, then the other one in record time, though the trio had a run-in with a Vulkin and a Tsunderplane. The way the plane-like monster treated Tenebris made Selendis a little angry.
Unfortunately, after passing through the now unlocked door, Selendis noticed the smell of cobwebs beginning to appear and slowly became petrified again. They tried the same thing as before, but Selendis was a little more aware of how she felt about Tenebris hand-holding her like that.
Of course it was drained from her as soon as a voice rang out. "Ahuhuhuhu… did you hear what the just said?" Frisk and Tenebris looked around, startled, while Selendis squeezed her eyes shut tighter. As they tried to continue, the voice rang out again. "They said that a trio of humans will come through here. I heard that they hate spiders. I heard that they love to stomp on them."
Tenebris was getting a dreadful feeling in his stomach and looked at Frisk to reassure her. Selendis was slowly losing strength due to her phobia and the webbing they were stepping in wasn't helping.
"I heard that they like to tear their legs off. I heard…" When the humans suddenly couldn't go any further because of the webs, Selendis slowly started to sob out of fear. Suddenly the spider monster from before appeared in front of them on a separate web. "… That they're awfully stingy with their money. On top of that, a dark-eyed one destroys anything and anyone in his path."
Tenebris flinched. That was the second time he heard about someone saying he destroyed everything. Above it all, however, he was getting mad over Selendis terrified sobs.
The spider monster laughed, ignoring the sobs. "Regardless, you three think your taste is too refined for our pastries, don't you, dearies? I disagree with that notion. I think you're taste… is exactly what this next batch needs!" The trio's souls appeared over their chests as the area grew dark again.
Tenebris, knowing Selendis would be a sitting duck in this situation, turned to her. "Change of plan. Climb onto my back!" She didn't even hesitate as she almost tackled him and clutched her hands around his chest. With some quick thinking, despite the embarrassment over her breasts pressing against his back, he managed to summon dark chains, chain her to himself, and casted his strength aura before turning to Frisk. "Do you need my help as well?"
She shook her head. "Not right now."
The monster, now identified as Muffet, giggled as she observed the older female climb onto and get chained to the male. She already observed the older female having arachnophobia, which really didn't insult her that much, but wanted to see just how far the male would go for the other two. "Oh, don't be so blue dearies. I think purple is a much better look for you." She knew one was already purple, but she figured she would try anyways.
Sure enough, Tenebris' soul resisted the change, but he was still stuck on the same purple web as Frisk. Selendis kept whimpering into his shoulder, which filled him with the determination to get her through this.
The two humans dodged just spiders at first, until Muffet confused them by saying, "Oh, how rude of me! I almost forgot to introduce you three to my pet~ It's breakfast time, isn't it? Have fun, all of you~"
They kept dodging spider like normal, though they noted that these ones were faster than normal, until all three were horrified by an ungodly screech. Looking down, there was a giant spider shaped like a cupcake… and it was heading right for them.
Selendis started sobbing harder as it's chomping maw got closer to the climbing humans. Tenebris was now pissed off at the whole thing, not even bothering trying to keep calm because of how scared Selendis was. "You want to play rough, huh? Then let's play rough." He summoned an umbra blaster not to fire on the mutant spider, but to tackle it make it halt its progress. It screeched first in frustration, but then in surprise when the skull disappeared and the webbing right above it erupted into dark fire, blocking its path.
Muffet gasped before pouting. "Hey, that's no fair at all."
Tenebris gave her a hard glare, purple fire and dark mist erupting from his eye. "Fair? You have no right to complain! Now back off… unless you want to learn what true fear is!"
Frisk stopped climbing and gave him a worried look. "Please stop saying that! Not only does it make things worse, but you're starting to scare even me with it!"
"Sorry but in this scenario, I can't help it."
He kept glaring at Muffet, who shivered a bit before giggling. "Temper, human. You're looking like a Grim Reaper at this point." He winced a bit, but didn't let it get to him.
When pastries started getting thrown at them, Tenebris started using barriers to block them while they dodged the spiders normally. If the spiders got a little too much, he froze the webbing with dark ice so that some would slip and fall off, though they all landed safely in a large web below.
After having her "pet" chase them two more times and some more spider and pastry dodging, Muffet giggled at how tired the two looked, with Selendis still sobbing uncontrollably. "The three of you are still alive? Ahuhuhu~ Oh my pet… it's time for dessert~"
A spider suddenly showed up with a large paper in its leg. "Huh? A telegram from the spiders in the Ruins? What? They're saying they saw you and… You didn't kill a single spider!" She suddenly started panicking. "N-not only that, but none of you even attempted to destroy anyone here! O-oh my, this has all been a BIG misunderstanding! I thought you three were people who hated spiders. Sure, one of you fears us, but I'm not bothered by that."
Frisk gave her a curious look. "It doesn't?"
"No. I understand that some people get arachnophobia for a reason, so I don't judge them. But the person who asked for your souls… they most of meant a DIFFERENT trio of humans! I apologize for all of the trouble; I'll lead you back to the path to the Core!"
She did just that, though Selendis didn't stop shivering violently even after they left the room. Sighing, Tenebris dissipated the chains and kneeled down for her to get off. "Hey, Selendis… it's fine now, there are no more spiders."
She slid off, but still kept shivering, eyes still squeezed shut with tear build-up. Frisk tried to comfort her. "Selly, there are no more spiders from here on out, they will leave us alone!"
"I-I-I-I k-know… b-but… t-t-that w-was… s-so scary…" Selendis started sobbing again.
Tenebris did something none of them were expecting. He kissed her on the top of her head reassuringly as he hugged her. "Selendis, I can assure you that you won't have to worry about it for a long while. Don't forget, Frisk and I are always here for you, so don't feel like you're all alone for things like this." He lifted her chin so that she was looking at his eyes. She had stopped sobbing and was now blushing. "Are you okay now?"
"Y-yeah. Just… give me a moment." Tenebris nodded and stood up to observe the area, walking over to a poster to read it. Frisk stayed with her sister and observed how much she was now blushing, before hearing her whisper, "Why didn't I ever see it or feel it before now?"
