A voice boomed in the dark, deep and rough.
It forbade her from fading away.
"Child if you go, I'll swallow you whole!"
it said.
When Sans walked back into the room with the pool, thirty minutes eaten up by waiting for that kid to call for him, he found Frisk just staring at the wall.
He paused at the entrance to the much larger room when he saw them, standing there quietly as they might have been all this time. They weren't looking at him, or indeed anything really; it took a second, and only with some prompting, for them to glance Sans' way. Their eyes looked hollow; beside them, the bedraggled little Flowey was cringing as their feet and looked as if he wanted to say something—but was unable to.
The only sound between all three was some water dripping from the ceiling.
He'd missed something. He was certain of it. Feeling very alone in this cavern all of a sudden, Sans blinked and shot a look off to the side. "...don't you two look awfully cheery."
Frisk blinked back, before uttering a soft growl and scowling at him. They then turned and, wordlessly, started to walk away. Sans blinked several times harder, as the child trudged to the upper left-hand tunnel- the one that, in his world, led to Undyne's house. Looking from them to Sans several times, Flowey dug back into the ground and presumably followed after his friend.
The kid seemed untroubled to go over to the house of such a formidable monster like Undyne. Was she friends with this version of her, despite clearly being enemies with Papyrus? Somehow Sans doubted it. It was because of what he "missed," he knew. Back in the other room, away from Frisk, he'd felt funny for just a single second. As if he had been moved slightly, or like the world had needed a second to resettle from an earthquake.
Furrowing his not-eyebrows, Sans decided to take a shortcut there and head them off.
He appeared beside the house, just next to the ear, everything luckily in the same spot as it used to be back home. The exterior of the fish house was even creepier than the one back home, though, although that wasn't saying much when having an angry fish head for a house was in his opinion pretty creepy to begin with. The training dummy in the front yard of it was also completely decimated; Sans didn't want to think about what happened to the ghost that was inhabiting it.
Undyne was standing outside, and it didn't take long for Sans to spot her; she was in her everyday clothes, or so he assumed. Like everyone else in this place, her outfit was noticeably different from the normal Undyne. Instead of jeans, she wore what looked like black leather leggings and red high-heeled boots. Her shirt was black and ripped at the arms and waist, showing a midriff and arms covered in bandages. When she turned, over the front was a red heart design.
In his opinion, she looked like she really needed some vitamins; her skin was a muddy turquoise. And while, like the old Undyne, this one kept her hair meticulously contained to a single point on her skull, it was still an unkempt and ratty ponytail.
"Different or not he's still Sans, and if he's Sans he's still a sack of crap," the woman was saying into the phone, and Sans rolled his eyes.
On the other end, he could just make out the other Papyrus' voice. "I'M NOT DENYING THAT! BUT IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU DON'T ATTACK THIS ONE! AND THE HUMAN TOO! AT LEAST NOT RIGHT NOW."
"Woah, you don't want me to attack the human either?"
"I SAID NOT RIGHT NOW! COME TO THINK OF IT, THEY MIGHT BE PASSING BY SOON."
Something in Undyne's yellow eyes gleamed, and she smiled- a smile revealing countless razor-sharp teeth. "That brat's coming back here?" As she spoke, Sans looked down the path and tried to catch even a glimpse of Frisk in the darkness, but so far the kid hadn't shown up yet.
Papyrus' voice was shrill, and for a second Undyne held it away from her webbed ear with a wince while he went on, "YES, BUT REMEMBER DON'T ATTACK THEM."
There was only one beat of hesitation. "Fuck that," she then hissed as she licked her sharp teeth with a long red tongue, "It's time for a rematch."
She set the phone right down on the rocks, summoning a bright red spear into her hands. Then, she stepped to the near-demolished practice dummy in her yard and began summoning even more, firing each one in one direction. They pierced the material of the dummy with ease, and it was all too clear that she was imagining the human child in its place. Her eyes with bright and her smile wide.
Sans pressed up against the ear of Undyne's house, resting one hand on the ridges and making sure to stay to the shadows. The whole time she was moving around, Papyrus kept on going, "NO! THAT IS WHAT I JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO DO! UNDYNE! UNDYNE! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?"
"Can't hear ya," Undyne said, pulling on black metal gloves hung beside her door.
Papyrus was even louder, and Sans felt sorry for anyone in earshot of him back at his house. "I SAID DON'T ATTACK THE HUMAN! UNDYNE YOU'RE NOT LISTENING! UNDYYYYNE! UGH, WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?" At this rate, Sans was hoping that Frisk could hear all the commotion and wasn't coming after all.
The fish monster had no trouble ignoring her subordinate's shrieks while she started buckling on her black armored boots. "This is why I'm the captain and you're-"
Whatever she was going to say next died when the sound of soft footsteps reached her, even as noisy as her front yard was right now. They reached Sans too, and when he scanned the darkness he found the source coming into the light of the rocks. He sighed, not for the first time since coming to this awful place.
Undyne kicked off the unbuckled metal boots and stood, amazingly still in her heels. She grinned big, "You. Somehow I knew you'd be coming about now."
Dented metal pan in their hands, Frisk didn't say anything to the opponent before them. The flower was, again, nowhere in sight. And even Papyrus on the phone had fallen silent, a small click following afterwards as his not-brother hung up. There was no sound around Undyne's house except for the excited breathing of the fish monster herself.
"You ready for a rematch, you clever little shit?" She said, summoning another red spear into her hands. "En guarde!"
Frisk didn't move. And when Undyne slashed her spear in an arc, and their SOUL flickered green, they couldn't move. Their mouth was set in a grim straight line, and their eyes were the same, the child pulling out their pan—which also glowed green. If Sans didn't know better, he would say that this was one brave little kid he ran into, much like his own Frisk always seemed.
Although since he did know better, he estimated that they must have done this all already, about... four times? That meant Undyne's tally marker had just reached eleven.
He would have thought it'd be more fruitful to not approach this crazy version of his friend at all, and to just hurry on to Hotland. But maybe that was just him. They did seem a little overeager to use violence.
Regardless of his input, the battle had already begun for Frisk and Undyne. Smiling maniacally, Undyne summoned a hail of red and golden spears that shot towards the child like burning arrows; they scattered in all directions inches from her stoic face, wrapping around to pierce her on all sides. Eyes barely moving, Frisk's wrist twisted and their arm snapped back and forth like a snake. The green of the pan glowed and expanded the weapon's surface area, a round shield protecting the child's whole side made more visible with each impact. They brought that pan-shield to the spears on every side with each snap of their arm; when, out of the corner of their eye, they saw a spear flying towards their back, Frisk turned halfway and blocked that too.
The golden spears were more durable, and flipped around to other sides of their body. Only after four deflections did they break down. Although Sans was surprised to see how strong the gold magic was, Frisk held that same unruffled face through battle. The storm of spears went faced head-on.
Undyne's grin became a snarl each time one volley failed to pierce and burn Frisk's body. Only once or twice did one shoot through them, and both times Sans flinched when Frisk cried out, their SOUL flickering for a second. But whatever injury the spear did, it did not seem to last, and it wasn't long before the human was back up and fighting like normal. He was impressed; he hadn't even seen them eat anything. Undyne, too, was irritated by their recovery rates, howling out, "Oh COME ON, you were a lot more of a cry-baby last time we fought!"
At that, Frisk spoke for the first time since before the battle started. It was a taunt, the kid's mouth turning for a second into an uncontrollable sneer. "Well you just suck; Papyrus was harder than this."
And the storm of red arrows became so fast that they were almost a blur. The sneer disappeared, but Frisk went right back to deflecting with the green pan.
Green magic such as this was based on a timer; eventually, Frisk's captured SOUL turned back red and they were set free for just one moment, just one turn. The pan was also reduced to its normal state, no longer a shield on a stick.
Undyne held a spear in her hand and snarled; Sans watched as she charged forward, not content to wait her turn, and tried to stab at Frisk herself. "Fight me, coward!"
But the human was able to run, now, and very quick. They dodged Undyne's jabs and dashed around her, blowing her a raspberry as she went. While Sans was still watching, the child ran up to the mouth of Undyne's house and slammed their pan into the teeth, not once but three times. There was a noise, like the whole structure was groaning, shuddering. Frisk prepared to "knock" a fourth time, but the teeth opened up.
Their momentary shock was enough that Undyne just reached them; she grabbed the child by their right sleeve and pulled hard. Frisk shrieked as they stumbled backwards, their pan flailing in their other hand.
Intervening at this stage was probably pointless; that was what Sans could hear in his head when the thought even showed up. After all, they could probably handle themselves, and he was getting too cold and achey- even if Hotland was as warm as a blowtorch, it might be worth it to take away the chill from his body. Too cold and aching to intervene with this murderous Undyne. But his own body had different ideas, as at that moment Sans started coughing loudly behind the ear of Undyne's house.
As a result she hesitated, and the human slipped from her grasp and scrambled inside. For the moment, Undyne didn't notice anymore. "What the fuck-?"
Sans looked up from his coughing fit to see her standing over him, her one uncovered eye blazing. He grinned weakly, clearing his not-throat. "uh. heya."
"Sans? Oh," Undyne bent and picked up the phone she'd abandoned, clicking through numbers before closing it in disgust. "That's right, Paps told me about you."
From inside the house, there was the faintest of rattling and crashing. What was the kid doing, trashing the place? Sans repressed shivers, most of which were not because of the warrior standing in front of him, and shrugged with his hands tucked away. "yeah, i'm the guy who's still a sack of crap."
"You don't look less pointy," she sneered.
Sans tapped his teeth, finding them still the same as when he got here. Even so, Frisk and Papyrus both seemed to have noticed his real self beneath them. He smirked at her, "look harder. ... eye can see how that would be hard for you, though, come to think of it." When her eye widened and she snarled, he took a step back. There was no telling that this one would avoid killing him the way that Papyrus did. "what i mean is, i promise i'm not pointy."
"What are you doing here?" Spear finally dissipating, Undyne gave a rough jerk of her head in the direction of the house. "You helping out the kid, punk?"
His grin got weaker. "uh. sorta."
She grunted, snarl relaxing just a tad. "You better pick some other pet, then, because this time I'm gonna kill that brat."
"uh, right, but... how about not killing the brat? you seem good at that too."
Although it was priceless, the enraged look on Undyne's face then was enough to make him take a second step back. But no more words were spoken on that; Frisk shrieked again from the house, and both of them turned expecting a crash. There had been plenty of them already.
But instead, they heard music coming from it. Badly played at worst, and repetitive at best, but it was still music. Sans tilted his head and glanced over at Undyne. Not looking back at Sans, her eye bugged out of her head and her hands had tightened into fists.
"WHAAAT ARE YOU DOING!?" She roared, turning and screaming into the window of the house. The yelling did not stop the plinking music, and she shrilled again, "THAT'S MINE, DON'T TOUCH MY PIANO YOU FREAK!"
Before he could stop her, she'd run back into the house and Frisk started shrieking louder, again repetitive sounds.
When Sans shuffled into the house after her, there was a huge mess in front of his eyes- and unlike Papyrus' house, it wasn't just because everything was too austere. Most of it was from the cupboards and kitchenette across from the entrance; many of the plain surfaces were covered in mud and pebble tracks, while the cupboards were ransacked with former cooking ingredients spilled over the floor. Plates were smashed, cups were broken, the fridge was open and empty; Sans whistled at the destruction. Someone had worked fast.
Now they were running, with Undyne chasing them around the table and throwing spears. From the look on their face, it seemed that this course of events was new, and all the stoicism of earlier was replaced by raw panic while their beaten shoes squeaked over a cracked linoleum floor. Although as fast as they went, Undyne was only unable to catch them because the concentration of summoning her magic was slowing her down.
If she was thinking clearly, she probably would have just stuck to one or the other, but Sans caught frustrated rage on her face. She wasn't even bothering with green magic anymore, and her spears were flying erratically.
One of the golden ones missed their course when Frisk smacked it, and flipping around it went diving towards Sans.
He could dodge, obviously. But Undyne dropped the magic before it got close enough for it to be a problem, her eye bulging again and the lady stopping in her tracks for an instant, "Shit!"
That instant didn't go unnoticed. From the other side of the table, Frisk's eyes flashed in Sans' direction too. They skidded to a stop, as well.
Undyne glared at them from across the table, and the two huffed. Then the human darted away from the circle, breaking the pattern, and Undyne screeched, "Get back here, prick!"
Instead, though, they dashed towards Sans.
"wh-!?" The next thing he knew, the child had grabbed him by the shoulder and swung just behind him, eyes concealed in shadow. They held up their pan and swung it in front of his sternum; when he tried to move, it raised up to cover his neck and nearly choked him. Frisk straightened their stance to stand just behind him, grabbing both ends of the pan with both hands.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Undyne yelled, although not moving from where she stood.
"Attack me again and I'll dust him!"
That rough proclamation was followed by a short silence; despite Frisk standing still, their tiny body was quivering with suppressed energy, which Sans could feel through the jacket. He raised a skeletal hand to the pan and they shook it with a growl. Brows raised, he coughed. "did not expect."
There was no movement from the fish monster at that, still frozen in her old position. But she took a step forward, towards the two, and Sans felt the weapon press harder against his vertebrae. "I mean it! I'll crush his-" There, their speech faltered.
"neck?" Sans offered.
"Shut up!"
"Fuhuhuhuh... you're not going to dust him," Undyne said, although even as she laughed mechanically her visible eye was twitching. She straightened, although her hands were still out and fingers ready, wishing to summon more magical attacks. "I've heard a lot about you, brat."
"Yes I will!"
"You haven't dusted anybody," she continued, taking another step forward. When she did, Frisk hissed and pressed down even harder; the pressure becoming painful, Sans hissed back, and Undyne froze. She only remarked, now still, "You don't have the guts."
"Yes I do!"
Despite no longer approaching, the fish monster was still roving her gaze over both of them, eyes flicking rapidly as she thought. Sans started to sweat, while she went on, "You're not leaving my grasp again!"
"I know you don't want to kill him," said the small child holding him hostage, "So you don't want me to kill him either."
"You won't kill him."
Frisk dragged him back a step. "Try me!"
"please don't try them," Sans choked.
For a minute there it was really hard to breathe, both from his not-windpipe being crushed and from the tension thickening the air in the house (a house that also could use some air-freshener, if he stopped to smell it.) But Undyne took a step back, her muscles and her enraged face relaxing.
She chuckled, and through his jacket Sans felt Frisk stiffen. "You remind me of someone, human." A red spear came into her hands, but it seemed to be for show more than anything else, as Undyne threw it over her shoulder and licked her teeth. "Fuh. Threatening someone else to get your way like that. You and Asgore both seem harmless at first. But even though you're a wimpy loser, you still have fangs."
Frisk didn't respond. Undyne frowned and let the spear hang by her side. "This isn't the last time we're going to fight. Next time, I won't let you get the upper hand. ...But for now, you better leave with your pet before I decide that piece of shit's not worth it."
Immediately, the metal handle was dragging him backwards by the neck, Frisk taking that as their cue to skedaddle with him in tow. He grunted, almost tripping, not used to the effort it took to walk this way- at least, once they had made their point, the kid relaxed their grip on him with the pan handle.
Heheheh. Panhandled.
Right as they exited Undyne's house, he heard a fragile little whisper next to his head. "Thank you."
He would have said something back, probably the panhandle pun he just thought up. But Undyne exited the house too, a mere a second later, watching them for any opportunity to strike. So Frisk affected a snarl, reaffirmed their hold on Sans, and dragged him away step by step.
It was a very long, uncomfortable walk to the River-person, despite the short distance.
When they finally got there, that was when Frisk let go of Sans and put their pan away, although they still gripped him by the sleeve while demanding a ride from the hunched monster in a black robe. The River-person didn't look all that different, really. But the rate they charged for traveling was much steeper than back at home; he heard the child grumbling as they handed off a whole bag of GP to them.
He was a little more distracted by the fact that the "boat" they rode was a snarling wolf, rather than that cute cat it was normally. He hoped it didn't bite. There wasn't a whole lot of room on the River-person's craft, either. The way that it ended up, Sans sat in-between the River-person and Frisk, the child sitting on the edge. They kept themselves still, for the most part, after the two of them were on board; a lot of movement on such a tiny platform would have led to somebody falling off.
"Where would you like to go?" The River-person said softly.
Frisk called out "Hotland" first, folding their arms and staring moodily down at the water. Their escort didn't say anything more before nudging the platform beneath them, which rose on its four legs obediently.
Everything was going smoothly again. Undyne reached the edge only after they had embarked, and she stood staring hungrily at Sans and Frisk while the "boat" carried them farther and farther away. The River-person began singing a demented and soft little tune. When they picked up speed, the wolfish craft leaping across the river, the fish monster disappeared and the last image he had of her was Undyne licking her teeth again.
They definitely had worse problems than Papyrus in this place. Sans wondered how awful Hotland was going to be compared to Waterfall. He wondered what this world's Alphys would be like.
For the brief few minutes they would be going down this way, he decided to get some more shut-eye. Despite their vocal protests, the kid made a decent pillow.
Author's Note: Edgy Frisk can't resist taunting people during battle.
Next Chapter: Intention Impaired
