Over wood docks, through caverns, down waterfalls, the pair traveled alone and quietly. It went a bit faster this time. There was only one more unexpected trap on the docks that dumped the child right into the water. A rooky mistake; she'd let her guard down now that there were no monsters attacking her anymore. But Blue Sans never even realized it was there, as she sidestepped it the second time. Frisk did stop in the dump to pick out a few candy bars, as bitter as they tasted, and then they waded out into the next room. A room branching into five others, with a dark little pool in the center.

It was there that she encountered a miracle, and Frisk urged Sans out of the room immediately with a series of violent shoves. "Get! Out! I! Have to! Do! Something!"

"geeze kid," Blue Sans said, and foreseeing a pun or a sarcastic remark of some kind she shoved him out entirely, before any more words could come from his mouth.

He didn't come back in, to his lazy credit. Frisk stayed near the entrance for several minutes, waiting to see if he'd reappear or at least stick his head in. But when she didn't see a trace of the skeleton poking through the darkness, she cracked her knuckles and stepped away, trudging back to the pool.

It was quiet here, and there were no other monsters around to trouble her. Not even Aaron and Shyren were hanging around today, to challenge her with their abysmal brawn and singing skills, respectively. For that she was grateful; listening to Blue Sans coughing every so often was making her own throat start to hurt. She'd take a drink from here if possible; before then, though, as she told Blue Sans there was something she needed to do first.

The black water here was so calm, bouncing off the light of the rocks on the ceiling. So calm, in fact, that Frisk could see her own face inside the shallow pool, without a single ripple to disturb it; her colorless reflection glared up at her once and then disappeared. Because, straightening up, she sat down by the edge and closed her eyes. Then the child clasped her hands together, taking deep breaths and relaxing every muscle in her arms, her legs, and her back. She drooped forward.

You feel a still dread wash over you.

And then, just as suddenly, every muscle in her body tensed; she summoned every ounce of courage she could muster, every ounce of desire, and poured it into her heart. It was hard, sometimes feeling like it was harder than others. But then Frisk's eyes snapped open, alight as if burning inside but without a fire in sight. They were, rather, reflecting the light of something sparkling over the water, directly in front of her face.

You are filled with determination.

The yellow light engulfed everything and returned to a dull point in an instant. Within that instant, Frisk felt this terrible world become lodged whole inside of herself like a stubborn, omniscient memory, one she couldn't inspect for herself.

Your game has been SAVED.

...You SAVED something else, too.

Frisk relaxed again and flopped on her stomach in front of the pool.

"You found one!" She looked left, where Flowey had popped up beside her.

The child stuck her tongue out at him, pushing herself back into a sitting position. "Yeah, no thanks to you again."

"Well, I guess they just show up in different spots for you," the flower replied in a tremulous voice. "Sorry about that..."

"Are they as scarce for you as they are for me?" Frisk half-turned where she sat towards the cave where she'd left Blue Sans. If she called for him now, Flowey might accidentally tell him everything. "Sometimes I feel like I can't find any."

"Oh," Flowey bobbed on his stalk, "I mean, I think I just have an easier time SAVING is all. After all," as he spoke he stuck out his tongue and winked, and Frisk squinted. "Not having a SOUL does wonders for your concentration."

"Doesn't seem to do wonders for anything else," Frisk grumbled, and Flowey's smile disappeared. She picked at a stray thread on her abused sweater. "... I'm sorry."

Flowey's gaze moved back and forth over the ground, and then he gave a little fanged smile, "You seem to be doing alright for the moment. You're almost at the River-person's post. There's a rock trap there, but I think you'll spot the tripwire from a mile away. With that new Sans you've got, it shouldn't be hard to convince them to give you a ride."

"Yeah." Frisk picked at her nails next.

"You should also buy some supplies from Gerson," Flowey continued, and afterwards disappeared into the dirt. Frisk waited patiently until he had returned, bearing a bag of GP. Frisk took it and put it with the rest of her things, nodding. "I'd say... lots of liquids."

Frisk buried her head in her arms, groaning aloud. "Ugh, I fucking hate Hotland."

She heard Flowey laugh, "Yeah, I'm not too fond of it either. Better do what you have to quick."

"Yeah." Frisk leaned back and looked again at the cave; Blue Sans still had yet to appear. "Thanks for the help, Flowey."

"Hehe! What would you do without me?"

"Don't be a little shit about it," Frisk said, standing, and the flower huffed as he disappeared. She walked to the cavern where she'd shoved Blue Sans, rubbing her eyes. "I'm done! Hey!" There was no reply, so she raised her voice, "Blue Sans!"

"yo."

Frisk suppressed a scream and turned around. Blue Sans smiled over at her from the pool. Her smothered scream became another yell, "You said you'd stop doing that!"

"sorry kiddo, you just make the funniest expressions," Blue Sans said with a helpless shrug, and Frisk snorted in disgust.

"Well." Frisk looked to the passageway on the top left side of the pool. "You better be more careful, retard. This is where Undyne lives."

That took a bit of the mirth out of Blue Sans, as he too glanced in that direction. "not a great person, huh?"

Frisk turned and walked in an opposite direction, to the right side passage. "She's a bitch too." There were a lot less tallies on Undyne than the likes of Papyrus, that much was true. But it certainly wasn't for lack of trying on Undyne's part. And it didn't mean that Frisk ever wanted to recreate their fight again. "Come on, she might show up."

"got it." Blue Sans spared just a look in the direction of the warrior's house and followed.

Gerson's shop wasn't far, either, set just a bit away from the neighborhood. Frisk stopped beside the entrance and counted up her GP, while Blue Sans raised his brows at the dark rocky entrance. "oh, great. we gonna see what this world's gerson looks like?"

Frisk didn't reply, satisfied that she had enough money for now. She gestured to Blue Sans and walked inside without another glance behind, down a short tunnel that was pitch black and empty of glowing rocks. Cracks in the ceiling and walls remained from a time when they had apparently all been removed. But the light returned only a short while later, as they stepped into a little room on the other side.

The glowing stones adorned the wall, filling it with a brilliantly sickening green and yellow light. Countless shelves of junk, food, thermoses, and fish lined those walls between the stones, bathed in their color, while below the shelves were piles of other objects that didn't fit. In the middle of the room a wizened, hairy and dark-colored turtle sat cleaning off a thermos that had gotten dusty, his dully sharp teeth poking out from under his cracked beak. He wore what Frisk incorrectly dubbed "an Indiana Jones" outfit, with a safari hat, shirt, and pants.

When he was done dusting off the thermos, he took out a magnifying glass and began to inspect it for cracks. His eyes were absorbed in his task, but he looked up when he heard Frisk clear her throat in front of him. For a brief second his gaze jumped to Blue Sans and he squinted, but then returned to the child.

Blue Sans' posture straightened beside her as Gerson stood, as if automatically, his eyesockets empty while he surveyed the old man. Frisk put a hand to her pan, as always, as said old man then approached. She could already hear his crackling laugh in her ears, "Weh heh heh! If it isn't the human with the suspicious ton of cash!" Then he faced Sans. "Didn't expect to see you here with 'em, though."

As Frisk silently held her ground, Blue Sans sputtered, "-what?"

"Normally you don't risk other people seeing ya with this kid," Gerson mused, scratching his beard. Up close, his eyes were red and bloodshot. "Is something going on?"

"-oh," Blue Sans looked at Frisk, who stared sullenly back. "you think i'm the other guy."

Gerson raised his magnifying glass and peered at Blue Sans with one eye bulging through it. "Eh? Now just what do ya mean by that?"

The pupils in Blue Sans' eyes moved, looking to Frisk for some kind of input. Spotting them, Frisk just shrugged and refused to comply. Her opinions on Gerson were mute; he had only one tally to his name, and had never added another. So it was unlikely he'd attack Blue Sans for learning the truth. But he better not be expecting her to tell it to the old turtle.

Eventually Blue Sans made a decision. "wrong sans, that's all. the one you're thinking of dropped me off here."

"Wahahahaha!" Gerson jumped back, roaring with laughter, and both Blue Sans and Frisk tensed as a result; Frisk drew her pan out completely, holding it at the ready like a sword. Although no attack was forthcoming; Gerson just wiped his face and blinked at them. "Well shoot, you look like the right Sans to me. Something does look different, though. Didja hit your head recently? You do look a little pale."

"It's a long story," Frisk grumbled.

At that, Gerson glared. "That's not a problem! I've told you lots of long and exciting stories. Did they fall out of your head, whippersnapper?"

"Look, I just want food and drinks," she snapped. "I'm not telling you anything, you old shit."

"You're terrible," Gerson said, waving his magnifying glass at the child. "Every time you've come in here you've learned nastier words." And then, with Blue Sans straightening his back again, he waved his glass at the skeleton too. "I'm sure that's your fault."

"not me, teaching is way too much work," Blue Sans protested, coughing.

"I don't see anyone else here, sonny," Gerson said, and then took a step back with more laughter. "Well, don't mind me. You here to take some of this trash of mine off my hands?"

Giving a dutiful nod, Frisk picked out her bag of GP and poured some into her hands, handing it up to the crackling turtle monster. "Eight crabapple teas and two crabapples."

"hey, i just learned the secret to why you're so crabby," Blue Sans said behind her, and she half-reached for her pan with a growl.

But Gerson nodded and looked over his merchandise, taking and counting up the money. "Everything looks alright to me! Errrr, gimme a second, here..." He turned from the two and began to search.

While she waited, Frisk looked left and realized that Blue Sans had wandered farther into the store, farther than she'd dared to go before after the last time. Gerson didn't seem to notice now, and the other monster drew close to a flag hung up on the back wall, a flag Frisk had seen before. It held a picture made of simple geometric shapes, the background white and the shapes gold.

At the time she first saw that pattern, on Toriel's tunic, she had been interested in the design. She had even tried to work up the courage to ask Toriel about it directly before things became terrible between them. But seeing it everywhere since then, her interest had waned and disappeared. Yet Blue Sans was looking at the flag on the wall very, very closely. And she heard him breathe, "i can't believe i didn't notice before."

Frisk edged over to him, keeping her eye on Gerson as he rifled through his piled junk. "What?"

"oh," Blue Sans shrugged. "this insignia is the symbol of the kingdom of monsters. 's different in my world, that's all."

Also turning her gaze over to study the picture more closely, Frisk sat down at his feet and took her shoes off to rub her aching soles. "How's it different?"

"uh," he shrugged, sighing as if she had asked some difficult question. Frisk wrinkled her nose, and this lazier version of Sans continued without a choice, "... it's supposed to be a circle with wings on the top, and three triangles on the bottom. but this has got three circles on the bottom and a winged triangle on the top. wings don't look the same, either."

It was true, but she didn't know what all the fuss was about. "Oh." She squeezed her toes.

"That insignia is what started all this," Gerson mused behind them, and suppressing a hiss the child jumped an inch where she was sitting. "It predates the war, y'know."

"You said that last time," Frisk said.

But Blue Sans shushed her by the next second, flicking her temple. "what do you mean it 'started' all this?"

"Well, I mean the 'kill or be killed' law, of course!" Gerson said, with another "Wa ha ha". He put the magnifying glass away, then, and his expression became a little more somber. Unlike any he'd worn around Frisk before; his eyebrows furrowed and he frowned, as much as he could with a turtle beak. "My, my, Asgore wasn't in the monarchy long when the war hit. He was impressed by humanity's cruelty and brutality as they slaughtered us."

"yeah, that'd be a bit of a bummer," Blue Sans noted. Frisk shifted uncomfortably where she sat, pulling her shoes back on.

"When we were locked underground, the monsters here had just about lost hope of escape. That was when he made his decision, y'see," Gerson said, and then silently wandered back to his junk pile.

This part of the story Frisk had never heard before. "What decision?"

"Well, kiddo," Gerson pointed back at the insignia and then picked out an armful of crabapple tea, which he handed over to the child cup by cup. "It all goes back to that neat old thing. It's said that the circles at the bottom are meant to represent us monsters. That little flying triangle at the top, on the other hand, some say it's a demon."

"a demon?" Blue Sans' voice was so quiet while he looked at the flag.

"Yessiree! A demon." Gerson handed Frisk a crapabble, and she bit into it with a screwed up face while he continued, "One meant to eradicate all of our enemies, according to prophecy. Or us. Or, well, the whole world, really. I don't rightly remember now! But it's gonna eradicate something! Wahahaha!"

"for pete's sakes," Blue Sans grumbled.

Undisturbed, the old timer rolled another apple off of Frisk's head, and she snatched that up just as hungrily as the one she held, half-eaten, in her hand. "But ol' Grumpypants Dreemurr decided it was the first one. He decided... that the flag prophesied our destiny underground, and that meant only a demon would save us.

"So he said to us all, on that day, 'we have to kill each other.'"

Blue Sans and Frisk both went stock still, the child shuddering and Blue Sans stuffing his hands in the coat pockets.

"That's the path to freedom, he thinks," Gerson chortled. "That monsters gotta turn into demons! Wahahaha, ain't that a hoot?" Then the laughter stopped. "... By gaining LV. Terrible, isn't it?"

"Monsters suck," was all Frisk said, taking another big bite of her apples.

Blue Sans took a step away from the flag, sockets empty. He didn't say anything, and to that Gerson's expression softened. "'Course, people like me are exempt since I'm from before the war. Hoo golly, it's hard to watch monsters get dusted so often, too. I couldn't do it even if I tried."

As Gerson laughed again, the laughter seeming more and more mechanical as he went, Frisk just thought to herself, chewing on apple seeds, Yeah, you just kill people trying to get fucking food to live on-

Blue Sans nudged her and she flinched. "i, uh, think we've spent enough time here."

"Take care, you two!" Gerson said, as the child nodded and stood. "Mind the traps, Sans, you're liable to hit your head even harder! Waha! Aha!"

Frisk stuck her tongue out at the monster before following Blue Sans back out of the side-cavern. She suddenly found him much farther than she was when she turned back around, and could feel all the cups of tea rattling in her pockets as she ran to catch up. When she reached his side, the skeleton monster slowed but didn't stop, moving towards where the River-person always docked their boat.

"he seems nice," he uttered at last, grinning.

But the child didn't feel like responding. She jumped across a tripwire that Blue Sans stepped over without missing a beat.

The River-person was in sight now, hunched over the tip of a wolflike boat that glared over at the pair from across the water. Frisk poured more GP into her hands, preparing for the moment when they would be difficult about giving her a ride. But before reaching them, she remembered that Blue Sans was also with her. "Hey. You should make that guy give me a ride."

He paused, glancing casually her way. "make 'em? what do you mean?"

Frisk took a deep breath. "They always charge me when I ask for a ride, but if you show them your dog-cannon thing I bet-"

"uh, frisk, i'm not really in the intimidation business."

"Come on!" The child clenched her hands into fists, turning to face him proper. "Just pull it out for a second! Like when you hit Papyrus."

Blue Sans was shaking head, "i'm not gonna do that."

"Why not?"

"for starters-" he began, but then his speech choked off. Blue Sans' pupils shrank to a startlingly small size, and he finished hoarsely, "behind you."

Frisk whirled around. She could see it too, then, standing before the river person. It was a huge, jet black suit of armor covered in spikes, with a trail of bright red streaming out of it at the top.

From within the helmet, a bright eye glistened with murderous intent.

A circle of red gleamed from the ground around Frisk's feet. She only had time to speak one word, with the last sight in her vision being Blue Sans' panicked face. Funnily enough he almost looked like her Sans, again, when he was staring at her like that. "Fuck-"

A roaring pain rocked her to her core, ripped a scream from her lips. Glowing red spears plunged upwards into her body and shot out the other side into the cave ceiling, their shafts crisscrossing at her midsection. They left behind her singed body as it crumpled onto the rock.

The black suit of armor approached, but Blue Sans was even now standing next to her, albeit completely still. Frisk's scream died, turned to gasps, as the black metal feet stopped in front of her face.

Then the gasps died too.

And after that, nothing was left to die except for Frisk. Her pale red heart burst into pieces.


Next Chapter: The Warrior Appears