"EN GUARDE!"

Frisk turned, beginning to run as fast as they could, when a wave of green magic slammed into them, rendering them immobile. They couldn't move. The words sunk in, and Frisk could only turn to see Undyne walking in front of them, a sneer on her face. "Did you think I'd let you escape?" She asked. "If you try and run again, there's no way you'll last more than a second against me!" Undyne said, before a spear appeared in her hands, and she hurled it at the defenseless child. Frisk covered their face, but when nothing hit them, they cautiously looked again. So that was what Undyne meant. Frisk had to face her attacks head on. A bright blue light behind Frisk made them turn in panic, as a spear sliced through the air towards them. It shattered, but another spear was in the corner of their eye. They could see Undyne smiling triumphantly as she pummeled Frisk with attack after attack, knowing that there was absolutely nothing Frisk could do. Frisk yelped, a spear plunging into their side, before disappearing like it was never there, and taking away most of their HP in just one turn. Undyne charged at Frisk, swinging her spear, and Frisk faced the wave of red magic that swept over them, before stepping back. Their eyes widened in surprise. They could move again.

A beam of white light bled from Undyne's eye, and Frisk, their heart pounding, darted away from her in complete and total terror. A shout came from Undyne, who ran after them with the clatter of metal armor, raising her spear and preparing another wave of green magic to stop Frisk in their tracks. The magic swept over Frisk again, and they stopped, before a teal spear appeared to stab Frisk. They quickly turned to face a wave of attacks, and blocked it as best as they could. A break wasn't in order, however, because it didn't take long before another attack was sent at them, and Frisk turned, to see... A yellow spear? It changed course from where it was facing, immediately facing another exposed side, and piercing their HP. They gasped in pain, as yet another spear plunged into them. Tears began to streak down their face as they faced Undyne's attacks once more, and they couldn't help but think that Undyne had no heart. The only people they could trust were... A wave of red magic swept over them, and their spirits immediately lifted.

Frisk bolted as fast as they could, diving into grass and plunging through a river, reaching into their pocket to grab their phone. Who knew if it would work after being in the water? It was their last resort though, and they didn't care if it wasted time. The screen flickered on uneasily, and Frisk quickly tapped the phone number Sans had given them in, before continuing to run. The dial tone matched the clattering of their steps onto wooden boards, reminding them of the docks they had faced back earlier in Waterfall. Undyne's armor clanged heavily, and she roared, "Get back here you twerp! Lie down and die already!" Frisk glanced at their surroundings, and nearly had a heart attack when they realized that a black abyss was just below them... They turned their head, looking back at Undyne, who suddenly slid to a stop, just a few steps behind them. A huge smile was on her face as she watched them, the spear in her hand disappearing. The next second, Frisk's stomach flipped as their next step had nothing below it but the air and the dark abyss.

For the second time, they were falling. Falling into the darkness. And this time, nobody would catch them. They closed their eyes, accepting their fate. A human would never be able to get through the Underground, much less a mere child. This entire place was too much for them anyways... A bright blue light pierced through their closed eyelids, and out of nowhere, someone yelled: "Hold on!" Something sped through the air towards them, and despite the fact that their impact with that something knocked the breath out of each other, they knew that they were in someone's arms. For a moment, Frisk felt peaceful. Like nothing was wrong, like they weren't plunging to their certain doom in a place where their body would never be found... But the feeling passed, when they came to a sudden stop, another blue light searing from the darkness and catching them. They opened their eyes, finding their face buried in a black scarf. When Frisk looked up, they couldn't help but smile, through all of the pain, through their misery of being trapped in the Underground... An idea occurred to them, but Frisk quickly shoved aside their notion, as the very real pain that they had experienced from Undyne's attacks reappeared. "you alright?" Sans' gentle voice called to them.

They nodded, and he set them down on a smooth, marble-like surface. "hold on tight kid. see those holes? yeah. just hold on in there." Sans told them, and they bent down, grabbing the holes. A warmth seeped through them as they held on, and Frisk realized, they were on top of one of the blasters that they had seen Sans use, and what they were holding on to... Were its eye sockets. A growl rolled from its mouth, and sparks of white magic spiraled away into the abyss as Sans stamped on the blaster's head. Frisk's stomach felt like it had dropped into their feet as they ascended at a shocking rate. The boardwalk above the abyss reappeared in front of them, and Frisk could see Undyne standing on top of them still, her mouth pulled into a sneer.

"So, Papyrus was right. You're protecting a human! What the hell are you doing, Sans?!" She shouted, as they came to a stop.

"here, kiddo. might make you feel better." Sans said, bending down to give Frisk... A hot dog? Frisk couldn't tell, because it had triangle shaped ears on one end of it. Maybe it was a hot cat. Sans straightened up, sighing and putting his hands into his pockets, keeping his balance on top of the blaster without even holding on as a result of years of practice. "yo, undyne. i heard you were shanking a defenseless kid." Sans called to Undyne as more sparks came from the blaster's mouth. It clearly wanted to blast her to bits, but Sans' presence made it fall silent once more as he spoke up again. "i thought you were supposed to protect the people who couldn't protect themselves?"

"Damnit Sans, you don't understand! We are not the monsters! Those disgusting humans are the monsters!" Undyne bellowed, and Sans snorted. "Are you mocking me?!" She yelled, and he began to laugh. "SANS!"

"you are just... just too funny!" He laughed, pounding his hand on the blaster. If it noticed, it didn't signal anything. Or maybe it was just used to Sans acting like this. He immediately stopped laughing, when a spear seared past them. "undyne, i think you should know by now that i'm going to protect this kid." Sans said, his gaze turning dead serious. Undyne seemed to only be disgusted with the skeleton, and a spear was held tight in her hand, ready to throw at them. Sans... Sans was an odd person. He could turn from being lazy to speeding to save someone's life, from being serious one moment to rolling on the floor laughing. Above all, Frisk wondered something about Sans... Why would he decide to protect them, out of all of the humans. They were insignificant, and Sans could easily kill them. "Stand down now." He growled, standing tall on the blaster.

"I'm... I'm going to kill you. You're a traitor. You're a disgusting traitor, Sans! No, you don't even deserve a name. You might as well be a human!" Undyne yelled, readying to throw the spear at Sans, Frisk, and the blaster.

"hey, kiddo, how good are you feeling?" Sans asked Frisk, facing Undyne seriously. Frisk gave him a thumbs-up, and Sans clapped his hand. Another blaster appeared in a burst of blue light. "get on and follow me." He said, before putting a shield of bones to block Undyne's attacks. "it's easy to steer. just lean forward to make it go, that's all you need to know." Sans explained. "oh yeah. and don't fall off." Frisk clambered on to the blaster, holding on as best as they could. "three..." More spears shattered on his bone-shield, but it was starting to splinter. "two..." Sans could see Undyne through his shattering shield. "one!" He yelled, as the shield shattered. He turned, putting his hands on the blaster and crouching down, before speeding off into the darkness. Frisk did exactly what he did, and, albeit rather uneasily, sped after him.

"kid! something to note is that undyne will not give up! she might not be able to fly like we can, but she's really, really good with those damn spears!" Sans shouted to Frisk over the air that whipped around them. Frisk would have nodded if they could, but the adrenaline pumping through them, and the cold wind cutting at their face like a knife wasn't something they could take their mind off of. Not to mention that they were speeding through the air on a dangerous, dragon-skull shaped blaster, following a skeleton who was going against everything that the monsters knew to protect them. They would have to ask him... Why was he protecting them? Frisk shook their head, and nearly jumped, when a loud metallic clang rang against their blaster. "don't worry about that! its just the first storm of spears. might wanna duck." Sans called to them, as more clangs rang out through the darkness. A teal spear passed right through the gap between their two blasters, and if Frisk looked up, they would see many, many more above them.

Sans suddenly knocked his blaster into Frisk's, and in a flash of blue light, the blasters morphed into one large blaster. "almost there- hold on tight! and i mean, really, really tight!" He told Frisk, who had a death grip on the blaster. A spear hit something on the blaster, and the blaster pitched forward, diving into the abyss, down into the darkness. Frisk quickly pulled up on the blaster, noting how erratic its movements had become, and struggled to make their way to a ledge, barely visible in the darkness. The blaster settled into the water and stones, and Frisk looked into the air, scowling. Teal spears were still speeding through the sky. Frisk turned to look at Sans, and stopped dead in their tracks. One of Undyne's spears had found its mark, piercing straight through his side. The spear whipped away like it was never there, and Frisk quickly took out their bag, digging through everything to find something to help Sans. He wasn't dead yet, and if Frisk didn't hurry... Well. He would be.

And Sans, his vision blurred from the pain, stared at Frisk, remembering how he had felt pain like this before. It made his eye hurt just thinking about what had happened.

"toriel..." Sans mumbled. He had spent the last of his energy just to get to the Ruins, and now he was fighting to get to the queen's home. Sans had used his scarf to cover his eye, trying not to think about just how much it was bleeding. Monsters had blood, just like humans did, and if Sans knew anything from his experience of killing humans, it was that humans couldn't lose much. Sans listened to the crunch of his footsteps. His heart lurched, the light of Toriel's house coming into view. "toriel...?" He called. "t-... toriel?" Sans whispered, stumbling through the grass. "come on... keep... keep it together..." He mumbled. His left eye sparked yellow, and he took a final step to her door. Sans reached out a hand. To knock. To do something... But no. Sans fell to his knees, his bloodied hand dragging across the wood of the door, causing only a mere scraping sound. He couldn't move, he couldn't see, and he couldn't call for Toriel. Going down like this. It was funny, wasn't it?

Toriel sighed, sitting in her living room, and putting down a few scattered papers. What was that scrape on her door? Monster children had been coming to her home every single day, doing something stupid like knocking on the door and running away, or other annoying things. She had a mind to chase them off, she thought to herself as she stood. Toriel padded through her house, planning exactly what she was going to say to whatever person was at her door. Toriel sighed, opening the door. "I'm tired of this stupid joke, okay?" Toriel groaned, before realizing nobody was standing there. Her eyes trailed to her door, and she let go of the handle, her heart pounding in shock. There were dark red streaks staining the wood, running down to a hand. "Oh... My..." She whispered, falling to her knees upon seeing the person collapsed in front of her home. "Sans?!" Toriel gasped, gathering up the skeleton in a bundle of his gray blue jacket. His black scarf was tied around his head, stained red from the blood coming from his eye. She carefully looked around outside of her house, before stepping inside with the wounded skeleton in her arms. And, to herself, she could only wonder... Who would do this?

Toriel had set up Sans in her free bedroom, taking his stained jacket and his scarf to clean, while healing him as best as she could. Toriel felt like she was going to fall asleep at any moment, but she kept telling herself that she needed to stay awake, for Sans' sake. What she was wondering apart from who did this to him, was why he didn't return to his own home, or go to Alphys. Perhaps it was her healing magic, but... She sighed, leaning over to see the bandages on Sans' head. They already needed to be changed. Toriel rubbed her eyes, before getting up. She had taken off the armor, cape, and circlet she usually wore, so the sounds it created from her movements wouldn't disturb Sans. She picked up a roll of cloth from the bedside table, before unwrapping the bandages. Toriel winced, covering his eye socket with her hand, glowing with healing magic. "He's going to be alright..." She mumbled to herself, but seeing the cracks in his skull, something told her that he wouldn't be fine... At least, not completely. "You're going to be better, and you're going to tell me who did this to you..." Toriel whispered.

Done, she sat back in her chair, leaning on the side of the bed Sans was in. She couldn't help but feel dead tired. Toriel stood up, beginning to pace the room, starting to get impatient. Time crawled onward, painfully slow for the worried queen. Just one more thing to add to her stress... She shook her head, convincing herself to not think about Sans getting hurt being a burden. It wasn't, it really wasn't, for her work in the Ruins, or, the Bunker, didn't take much. It just took time. Toriel sighed heavily, sitting down in her chair again and tapping her foot. She missed her husband Asgore, who was busy leading the charge against humanity for all of monsterkind. She protected all of the monsters who were too young or too old to fight in the war, for nobody could be spared. Toriel initially took on the job, stricken with grief over her murdered son, and her other adopted child. She swore to protect every monster who couldn't defend themselves, but she couldn't help but miss Asgore. "... Sans... Come on. You have to wake up." Toriel mumbled, leaning forward to bury her face in the bed covers. "I need to know what happened to you... You can't die. You're too important to the monsters... You're too important... To me..." She whispered, trying not to cry. Now was not the time for that, and Toriel knew that. Besides, crying was for the weak... Wasn't it? "Please..." She mumbled, taking a shaky breath.

Toriel sat there for about a minute, pleading with someone who couldn't even hear her. She was a wreck, and she knew it. Suddenly, something rested on the top of her head, and she slowly looked up, to see Sans with his hand on top of her head, a shaky smile on his face. Toriel would have immediately hugged the skeleton if it wasn't for his injuries. "he-eey... i'm alive. nice one tori..." He laughed, despite his situation.

"Sans, what happened to you?" Toriel asked him, her nerves calming down just a little bit. "What happened to your right eye? Was it a human?"

"... uh..." Sans said, a scowl on his face. "well... it wasn't a human."

"Sans, who did this? Just tell me." Toriel urged him.

"... that's the thing. i don't know. all i remember, is that a monster hit me and nearly killed me. the... the thing i remember the most about them is that they had red gloves..." Sans stammered.

"It was a monster wearing red gloves. The Royal Guards all wear red gloves, along with Asgore. Where were you?"

"snowdin. and it was definitely not asgore. i... it's definitely one of the royal guards, not a human... but... i'll be fine."

"Sans, don't you think that we should catch them?"

"no. it's fine... besides, it's just my eye. i got another one, anyways!" Sans laughed nervously. Toriel looked away from him, sighing. "Seriously. Toriel. I'll be alright. Don't worry about it. I don't want for this little incident to have to come to another monster getting hurt."

"... Alright. But... Sans? Can you do something for me real quick?" Toriel asked him. He nodded, and she sighed. "Take off your bandages, just for a second." Sans raised an 'eyebrow', before removing them, exposing his wounded eye. Both of his eyes were dark black as he stared at Toriel. "Glow your eye, like you do when you use your magic." Sans took a shaky breath, before making only his left eye glow. He immediately stopped, realizing what happened. He couldn't glow his other eye anymore.

Toriel opened her mouth to say something, before Sans put up a hand. "tori, i said, don't worry about it. i'll be fine. i can still do magic." He explained, trying to convince her.

"Sans... You aren't going to be fine. You're never going to be fine."

"what?" Sans asked, surprised. What was with Toriel? Her tone changed drastically, and her kind gaze had turned cold at the drop of a hat.

"You know exactly who did it, and you're not going to say anything. You're a coward, Sans."

Frisk shook Sans, biting their lip. They could hear Undyne coming. They could hear the clank of her armor. The glow of a teal spear pierced through the darkness of Waterfall. Frisk needed Sans to get out. There was nowhere to go, except to their death in the Abyss below. His eyes suddenly opened, his left one glowing with a blue and yellow light. Frisk held a hand to their lips to signal him to be quiet, and he didn't ask why, hearing the clank of Undyne's armor in the distance. They held out the hot cat he had given them, pushing it into his hands with a small smile. Monster food was healing, they knew that. And they couldn't just waste it on themselves. Sans quickly used the hot cat, healing himself, right as Undyne came into view. "Perfect. Now, I can throw you into the Abyss myself!" She laughed. "I'm surprised you're still kicking, Sans... Looks like you didn't come out unscathed like you usually do... Red is a good color for you. Maybe I should make you red." Undyne said, before charging, the spear in her hand aimed at them.

Undyne wasn't giving up until they were dead. Sans and Frisk needed to stay determined, despite the odds they were faced with.

But...

The small chance that they had to get out alive together...

The little hope they had to see the sun...

It filled them with...

DETERMINATION!