Oh boy. I don't enjoy making author's notes on stories like these, but... I'm having computer troubles lately, along with all of my schoolwork pressuring me way too much... My computer will have to have a full reset done soon, so it'll take me a while to get back into a regular schedule. But hey, you came here for a story, didn't you? Let's do this.
The creature roared, its mixed cry of a million voices piercing Sans and Frisk's ears as it lunged forward. "Behind me!" Sans commanded Frisk, who immediately darted behind him. A shield of bones appeared in his hands, and he shoved it against the creature to stop it's advance. Drips of its body splattered onto the ground, and a head, with a razor sharp beak at the end of it extended out of the mass of its body. It's long neck darted around Sans' shield, snapping at him. A bone appeared in his hand, and he smacked it on its nose, before he backed up, deciding to analyze his enemy a bit more. "You're one of the failed ones. Aren't you." Sans growled, a blaster appearing behind him. The eyes of the blaster glowed yellows and blues, attempting to scare the creature back. It worked only for a moment, as the creature slugged forward, another growl coming from its countless jaws. "They messed up. They messed up, and they made you. You're not all separated into your different forms. Only that dog made it out of you." Sans said. "And now you're being contained down here..."
Different forms? Did Sans know this creature? As Frisk looked harder at the morphing form of the creature, they could see faces bubbling just beneath its pale, slimy skin, which only turned their stomach more and more. For a few moments, it was dead silent, before howling again. "Sorry to have caught you in such a bad mood. But I'm getting this kid out of here." He sighed, before the blaster fired off. The creature's form split apart to avoid the blast completely, and the shock on Sans' face was undeniable.
"Welcome..." A voice came from the creature. Frisk watched, horrified, from where they believed was safe from behind Sans. "To... My... Special hell..." It said, before large jaws appeared, attempting to bite down on Sans. A large bone appeared just in time, stopping its jaws from closing, and Sans darted away from it.
"Kid, we need to get to a safe place. Keep running, and don't look back!" Sans said, grabbing Frisk's hand and pulling them along. They could hear the sloshing of the creature behind them, and they didn't dare turn back, out of fear of facing that monster once again. Frisk was starting to break down, tears streaming down their cheeks. They didn't want to be in the Underground, they didn't want to be in the Old Lab. Sans noticed this, and as they were running, he picked them up as quickly as he could, holding them in his arms as they ran. Frisk shut their eyes, and a wind whipped through the Old Lab suddenly. Another cry came from the creature, but it was... Farther away. Frisk opened their eyes, to see Sans, panting heavily. "We're... We're safe... For... For a little bit." Sans gasped. "Don't ask how... Just take a breather, kid. I need you to try to be calm for me." Sans said to them, but tears ran down their face as they looked up at them. He sighed, before fixing on a smile. "hey. kid. what did i tell you before? we're gonna be just fine, 'snow' doubt about it." Frisk sniffed, staring at him. "aw, come on. try it out."
"... Why are you... Uhm... S-so... 'Ice' to me?" Frisk stammered.
"hey, good one. but i already explained that to ya, remember? 'winter' you going to remember...?" Sans said, cracking yet another pun with Frisk. They sniffled again, drawing a sleeve across their eye. "... hey. you kinda remind me of taking care of my little brother. back when he was a little baby bones. that's right, i was young once." Sans continued to joke with Frisk, despite another roar coming from the creature's jaws. Frisk, however, lost it at this, beginning to shake violently, covering their eyes. "stay determined kid." Sans whispered, putting his hands on their shoulders. "please. this isn't just to keep your spirits up. it's to keep mine up too." Another roar. Frisk could hear the sound of it squelching down the halls. "Frisk. You are the future of humans and monsters. Please." He said in a calm voice, but the thing that shocked them the most... Was that... He knew their name. They had never told him their name, so how...?
"D-Do you think... Do you think I'm pretty?" The voice of the creature said, and Sans stood, his eye glowing bright blue and yellow.
"I think you shouldn't be picking on a kid!" Sans yelled, before blasters appeared around him, beams of blue light searing out of their mouths at the monster, before Sans grabbed Frisk, holding them to his chest and focusing on Hotlands. Not the Old Lab, but the Hotlands, with the dangerously gorgeous fields of bubbling lava, islands of stone rising far above the heated danger below, and the outside of the pristine, white lab... He stared at the monster, gritting his teeth. "You poor bastards." Sans whispered, before closing his eyes, holding the picture of the Hotlands in his mind. Everything shifted between the two travelers, and at one point, Sans nearly lost hold of Frisk. Cold, clammy air blew around them in a wind, whipping Sans' jacket around them, and in an extreme shift of temperature, it immediately turned scorching hot.
Sans let go of Frisk, beginning to fall to his knees. Frisk quickly grabbed him by his shoulders, but a stream of what looked like blood was running out of his right eye. "we're... still close to the lab, aren't we?" He asked Frisk, quickly pulling off his scarf to cover his eye. Frisk nodded quickly, and he took a shaky breath, before putting an arm around Frisk's shoulders. "let's get out of here. i bet the guards are still around or near the lab." Sans said, and they began to walk as quickly as they could. As they stumbled through Hotlands, Frisk quickly looked around for any safe spots, but none came. Sans was only getting slower over time, and Frisk thought that that was a result of how they somehow escaped the Old Lab. Each time Frisk glanced at Sans, they could only see the dark red spot on his black scarf from the blood growing and growing. They needed to get help, but who would give them it? After all, they had been labeled as criminals at large, and were currently being hunted down. "... hey... kid..." Sans spoke up, and Frisk looked down at him. His expression was one of pure agony, yet there was a calmness behind his uninjured eye... "hold on for a second. i know a place... that we can take a break." Sans sighed. "you want to go there quick, right?" Frisk nodded quickly, but they had a feeling that Sans shouldn't use his powers to make them travel anywhere else. "hold tight to me, alright..." He said, and Frisk held his hand, closing their eyes. A wind that shouldn't have been there began to blow, and when it stopped, Frisk opened their eyes.
They were now on a rocky outcropping, stationed far above the lava, but below the main pathways on the islands of rocks. A gaping cave opened up in the rocks, and Frisk wondered just what this place was. "i... needed to give toriel a status update anyways." He said, sounding even more tired than he had before. A streak of blood escaped from the makeshift bandage he had made from his scarf, and Frisk helped him into the cave. Sans slowly raised his arm, lighting up the cave as they walked, until they arrived at a large hollow. There was a large panel that appeared to be a TV hung up on the wall, and Frisk was impressed. Humans didn't have many of those, with the supplies gathered going to the war. Besides, no human would have any time to waste watching static. Below the TV were consoles, which Sans walked up to, typing in something using the buttons sticking out of its surface. The TV turned on, the buzz of static apparent for a few moments, before it whipped into tune. Frisk's heart lifted upon seeing Toriel's stern face, happy to see the one other monster who cared about them.
"I was wondering how you were..." Toriel started to say, before her words trailed off, her eyes widening upon seeing the state of the two traveler. "What happened to you two? Are you alright? Sans, your eye, it's just like it was when..." She asked, her stern tone lifting to one of a kind mother worrying over her children, leaning forward to try and see their injuries. "Tell me what happened. Tell me everything."
"... eh... well... things have gone down since we last talked. i don't think you're gonna like some of it." Sans said, taking a seat in front of the screen, staring up at Toriel with his good eye. Toriel continued to insist, however, that they should tell her everything, and Sans sighed. "alright, you asked for this. snowdin went along fine, with little to no problems. luckily, the kid didn't run into any traps set up by my brother. they fought papyrus, and i was able to defend the kid without having to kill anything. they did, however, travel through most of waterfall alone, isn't that right kid? brave one, right here." Sans started, looking down at Frisk, who nodded. "we had a run in with undyne. i kinda got stabbed by one of her spears," Toriel scowled, upon hearing that his eye wasn't the only injury he had sustained. "but we got away from her. the kid did their best to help me, but, once again, she found and attacked us. i apologize if this upsets you, toriel, but to protect them... I had to push Undyne into Waterfall's abyss. It was the only way."
"I feared as much." Toriel responded with a sigh. "If only you could teleport the both of you straight through the Underground." So that was what Sans had been doing. Teleporting.
"well, this over here is the result of that, eheh." Sans said, pointing to his bandaged eye. "but, on with the story... we went to hotlands, and i decided to stop off by alphys' lab. sorry, toriel, but even i gotta miss some people. there, guards attacked us. papyrus had told undyne, who told her guards to watch out for us. that make sense?" Toriel nodded. "anyways, we went into this elevator type thing to try and escape. it worked, until the guards cut the cords on the elevator. we fell." Sans explained to her. "... what was down there... well... toriel, have you heard of determination?"
"Of course I have. What question is that?" Toriel responded.
"not determination, as in the emotion. determination, as in the thing that only humans have." Sans said, before pulling out of his jacket, the huge vial he had taken from the weird machine in the old lab. "this stuff." It illuminated the cave with an ominous red glow, and Toriel scowled.
"Yes, I have heard of that Determination as well... Isn't that stuff dangerous to monsters? We can't take that stuff without serious consequences, if I'm correct."
"but, we can become extremely powerful. i believe that determination was being harvested from humans to be able to find how to use it safely on our soldiers. and how do i know that it was being harvested from humans? ... the kid and i here found tons of humans. well... none of them were exactly alive, but there were a ton of humans." Sans mumbled, and Toriel's face turned to horror.
"What?! Dead humans? This place... It's, it's under Doctor Alphys' lab, right?" She asked him, and he nodded. "Was there anything else to note down there?"
"... there were creatures in there, toriel. monsters made up of many other monsters. it was horrifying. i was barely able to get the kid and i out of there in time. they were... melting." He told her, and she bit her lip.
"What... Happened down there..." She whispered, before shaking her head. "When you get to Asgore, please. Do not hesitate to ask." Toriel urged them, and Sans nodded.
"... oh yeah. there was... one last thing i found in the lab down there. a log. it was on a screen, and the text it was in wasn't in any language i've ever seen. they were odd symbols instead of letters... but... i could read it. i could read it like it was my first language."
"Well, what did it say?" Toriel pressed him.
"the first entry talked about a person trying to find how determination affects young monsters. this person has two subjects, which they so creatively named 1 and 2. it said that he made them, toriel. the second entry detailed how the monsters reacted to him. the only things that i know about the monsters were that 1 was short and hostile to this guy, while 2 was tall and became attached. in the third entry, 2 was the control for his test, while 1 was the one actually injected with determination. he mentioned how he would compare their power to each other through magical tests. on the fourth entry, 1 tried to resist being injected with the determination, and the guy mentioned how he was trying to find a way to inject determination into monsters safely. the fifth log was the final one, and it said how, when 1 was injected, they wrecked the lab and escaped with 2. this guy said that he, instead of catching them, decided to sit back and see what happened. and the initials the guy signed it with were... WDG. Is that, in any way, familiar to you, Toriel?" He asked. Toriel had been listening intently, and at one point, picked up a piece of paper to jot notes down on.
"WDG... It's slightly familiar. I think that he was the previous Royal Scientist before you and Alphys. One day, he vanished completely. His name was... I believe... Wingding Gaster." She thought, taking a moment to write it down. "From what I remembered, he had good intents, but his methods were... Questionable. Nobody argued with it though, deciding to leave him to his work. Experimenting on humans was fine with everyone, but... Monsters. He created monsters to experiment on them?! That's just sick!" Toriel exclaimed. "Anyways... Sans, I believe that I'm all caught up. I'll take time to review the information you've told me, and in the mean time, here's some gold. I wish I could heal you two through the screen, but I can't. So, please. Go to the large training building run by Mettaton and Undyne at the end of Hotlands. They have healig items there." She explained to them, before typing a few things into a panel below a TV of her own. Sans got up, heading over to the panel and grabbing something that came out. "Leave some of that gold for whatever you take. I wish you two the best of luck. Keep up the good work, and try not to die, please. You two mean too much to me." She said, before leaning forward to go and quickly turn off the feed.
With a sigh, Sans sat back. "jeez. well... i'm not feeling too good, kid..." He sighed, sitting down heavily. "i don't think i can teleport us both outta here... there's a staircase out of here. i'm not sure i can get up it though..."
"I'll get something for you." Frisk spoke up, and Sans glanced at them.
"kid, you could die out there. are you really sure?" He stammered, surprised.
"If you die, then what's the point of what we've gotten through?" Frisk said, and Sans sighed.
"alright, alright. i'll give you a shortcut, alright?" Sans said. He lifted his hand, and a beam of blue light went into a tunnel. "go straight through. i can only transport you there, you'll have to make the trip back. give me a call if you need help.
"But your HP..." Frisk protested.
"1 HP isn't a big deal. just be safe." Sans said, and Frisk quickly emptied their backpack before walking through the tunnel. They were in for a rough trip back...
A wind kicked up as a result of them teleporting, and when they opened their eyes, they nearly yelped. They quickly ducked behind a large box, their heart pounding. Sans hadn't teleported them in front of the building. He had teleported them into the building, straight into the center of activity. Frisk was shaking in fear. They could hear the sounds of recruits walking through the halls, and Frisk was listening hard for a moment to move. A sigh came from a little ways away, and Frisk glanced up, seeing an orange cat wearing a rather ridiculous outfit was carrying something, his eyes fixed on the counter in front of him.
"'EY! Burgerpants, move it!" A voice came, and Frisk winced. "Gimme one of those glamburgers, will ya?"
"Yeah, yeah." Burgerpants growled, before disappearing out of sight. Frisk peeked over the box, their heart pounding. A large monster in heavy armor appeared to be bullying Burgerpants, and Frisk darted into the back of the room, which appeared to be a kitchen of some sorts. Perfect. Now, it was time for Frisk to grab a bunch of things and bring them to Sans. Without getting caught. That was a problem, though. They opened up their backpack, wincing at the sound of them unzipping it, and when they glanced back, Burgerpants was still dealing with his unruly customer, unaware of their presence. Frisk reached up to the counter, grabbing as many of the things that they could, and placing the bag of gold Toriel had given them on top of the counter. It seemed fair enough to give Burgerpants the entire thing, because he seemed to get bullied, and he had a weird nickname. Frisk couldn't help but relate, as they remembered their time in the human camps. "Hold on a second." They heard Burgerpants mumble, before beginning to walk into the kitchen. Frisk, trying their best not to slip, scrambled out of the room, their heart pounding in fear. They cracked open the back door in the kitchen, sliding through and closing it silently.
They began to move on the tips of their toes, trying not to get heard by anyone. They were glad that they had cut off the fabric of their jeans back in the Ruins, or else they would be making lots of unnecessary noise. Frisk walked as quickly as they dared, looking ahead in the halls for anything like a map, or cover to duck behind if they heard or saw anyone. A pair of voices reached their ears as they walked, one familiar, one... Not so much.
"Uhm, M-Mettaton, a-are you sure you want to do another u-upgrade?" Frisk heard Alphys stammering. There was a slight tone behind her voice, one of sadness, and Frisk wondered if she felt anything after they had fallen into the Old Lab.
"O-Of course my dear A-A-Alphys!" Mettaton said proudly. Unlike Alphys, who stammered and tripped over her own words, Mettaton's voice cut out and cut back in unnaturally. Frisk darted into cover behind a large pile of boxes that had yet to be cleaned up, as the sound of something rolling across the ground reached their ears. They crouched in the darkness of the boxes, and a bright yellow light began to cut through it. A large, box-shaped robot rolled into view, a single wheel carrying it across the ground with ease. "After a-all, I want t-t-t-to be able to use my n-new body." He said, in a deep voice.
"Uhm, y-yeah. I'll a-also fix your voice box..." Alphys stammered. Mettaton turned, sweeping the poor scientist off of her feet.
"Oh, what a happy d-d-day! You truely a-are the best R-Royal Scientist the U-Underground has seen!" Mettaton said, before dropping her and returning to rolling across the halls. Alphys began to pick herself off of the ground, going to gather a piece of paper that had landed near Frisk's hiding spot.
"I need to fix how he acts, too..." She mumbled to herself as she bent down to pick it up. Frisk shifted slightly, and her gaze snapped into the shadows, where she easily spotted Frisk. With a nervous smile, Frisk waved to her, and the expression on her face was one of pure shock. "H-how- you, you're the- you fell into th-" Alphys gasped, and Frisk quickly put a finger to their lips to signal Alphys to be quiet. Alphys stood up, glancing around, before reaching into her stack of papers, giving Frisk a dull looking map. "Where is Sans?" She whispered.
"He's safe right now, but he's injured. Thank you Alphys..." Frisk responded.
"... G-good luck. Sans cared about you, so..." Alphys shook her head, before standing up, padding after Mettaton who was far ahead by now, boasting about how good he was going to look after this. Frisk slowly squeezed out of their hiding place, holding up the map to the lights. They had just exited the kitchen, taken a right, then a left... And... Frisk stood there for about a minute, attempting to find where they were, until, finally, they sighed in relief. Finally. Frisk began to walk out of the hallway, weaving in and out of seemingly endless corridors to attempt to find their way out. Frisk went quickly, intent on getting out, evading guards and monsters, until nothing stood in their way except... The exit itself. Guards were positioned around the door, along with a very bored looking receptionist of sorts. Frisk bit their lip, wondering how to get out. They had already taken a look at the windows, which were all positioned above a straight drop into the lava below, so that wasn't a viable option.
Thinking of Sans, they took a deep breath, readying themselves to sprint. With a slap on the hard stone tiles, Frisk took off, holding their hand out to open the door. "Human!" A guard announced, and Frisk slammed full force into the door, thinking that they could push it open. Why didn't they have signs for this sort of thing... Frisk fell back, and the guards surrounded them, weapons in their hands. "I didn't know humans were this stupid..."
"Of course they're stupid! Their numbers are the only reason why we haven't won yet!" Another guard responded. "Let's take them to Mettaton."
"Wasn't Mettaton getting a visit from Doctor Alphys?"
"Doesn't matter. We'll just throw them in containment until he's available." With that, rough hands grabbed Frisk, and they closed their eyes, trying to ignore the throbbing headache they had gotten from slamming into the door. As they walked, they couldn't help but feel like they had failed Sans. At least they could still call him... Their backpack was taken off of them, and they whipped around in confusion. One guard was holding it, and was saying something about taking it to be inspected for deadly human weapons. Their phone had been in there. The guards heaved Frisk, before throwing them into a dark cell, where they crashed into the cold, stone floor. "Enjoy your time alive, human..." A guard said, before they turned, two taking up positions by the sides of the cell.
That was a horrible failure, and there was nobody to blame but themselves.
But there was one person who trusted them...
Maybe there was still a glimpse of hope.
Frisk knew only one thing.
They had to stay...
DETERMINED!