You gasp and step back, pulling yourself from his grasp. Sans was watching you carefully, waiting as you caught your breath. You look down at your hands, feeling them shake violently. Despite everything, you feel as if you don't even know yourself anymore. The images flashing in your mind began to stop as you came back to what you hoped was reality. You looked up at Sans, meeting his wary gaze.

"What..." You couldn't find the right words to describe what you were feeling. So many things were going through your mind.

"It always ends the same," Sans began, tucking his hands back in his pockets. He turned and started to walk, "And it will. Again. And again. And again. Just don't say I didn't warn ya."

His voice faded off as he disappeared around a tree. You stand there confused as you watch him walk away the same in an endless set of ways. It felt wrong, but you didn't know how to stop it. With a sigh, you just fall back into the snow and stare at the ceiling of the cave. It was farther up than you were sure it seemed, the specks of lights from the "stars" lighting up separate section and stalactites.

"Maybe I'm just going crazy down here underground," you say aloud, "I can't imagine living down here my whole life."

"You're telling me! It's snow bad down here we've got icicles for tears!"

You blinked as you heard someone flutter closer to you. You sit up to see a large feathered monster with a head shaped sort of like a snowflake. You smile and tilt your head, "Haha! Icicle tears, good one."

The monster puffs his chest or proudly "of course it is! I am a pro after all! That'll show dad, I am very funny." He just cackles to himself and says nothing but puns as he walked away.

You smile to yourself as you stand and brush the snow off of yourself. Looking the way he went, you remember the choice you have to make. Would you listen and do what Sans said and abandon Frisk when they seemed to like you now?

Or would you follow blindly and watch yourself die over and over again?

Reluctant, you start walking.

The forest seems to expand further than you would have originally thought, the cold only getting more and more intense. You start to wonder if you really are even underground, but a glance up at the ceiling will tell you you definitely still are. With a sigh, you stop. A fork in the road looks less than promising.

You glance to the side and see a sign pointing in every direction reading "Ice"

"Oh look, north will get me to more ice. Just what I've always wanted." You sigh and start walking down one of the side paths, "How do these monsters navigate around here?"

You imagine a bunch of monsters wandering around in the dark, bumping into each other, walking circles around trees. The thought, though kinda sad, makes you laugh. Since they must have made it to where they are now, it must not be all bad.

A sound makes you stop then, a gentle and very familiar one. It was rushing water, a gentle river. As you hurry around another tree, you see a little boat on the edge of a tiny river. The far wall of the river looked different from the side you were on. Curious, you walked over. The little boat had a head that looked a lot like a little dog. The boat itself didn't look like it held more than a few people.

"Oh hello."

You jumped and realized that there was someone in the boat. You look up and see a figure in a dark cloak, their face was completely hidden in shadows. You tilt your head and just smile, "Oh, sorry! I didn't see you there."

"That is quite alright, child. Not many notice me at first," the cloak shook a little as if they were quietly laughing to them self about an unheard joke, "I'm the River man. Or am I the River woman? It doesn't matter."

You just smile, "I'm Sora. Where does this river go exactly?"

"Oh here and there, would you like to find out?"

You shrug and nod, "Sure, why not?"

Riverperson moves forward in the boat to give you a bit of space as you climb in, "Away we go, tra la la."

As you look over the side of the boat you see it suddenly lift out of the water with little feet and start running in top of the water. The sudden motion jerks you back. You grip the sides of the boat, hanging on for your life, a wide smile crossing your face. You couldn't remember the last time you had so much fun.

But you suspected it was more than a few lives ago.

"Tra la la, I heard Asgore has a favorite food," you look at them, but before you can question what it is they were talking about, the boat stops. As you look around, you see this area is a lot different, the opposite of the snowy area you just came from. As you climb out, the heat radiates from all around, making you sweat immediately.

"Welcome to Hotland. Hope you enjoy your stay. Tra la la."

You look back in enough time to see the boat skip across the water again. Deciding you had no choice now, you continue on the path, looking around. The cavern was much brighter here, the ceiling visible even from this far off. Glancing over the edge of the cliff you saw why. Just below was a sea of hot magma, moving side to side like a river. You step back, feeling an ironic chill run down your spine.

"This can't be safe," you say to yourself as you continue walking, keeping to the center of the path. As you look back up, you see Frisk on the path just ahead. You blink and hesitate. You watch them for a moment as they walk to a big white building that says "Lab" over the door.

Once their back was to you, you quickly sneak down the path they came from. You practically hold your breath as you sprint down the center of the path and out of sight. Once you made it to another platform, you glance back and catch your breath. The top of the lab was still in sight, but you couldn't see Frisk.

And you really hope they didn't see you.

With a sigh you look ahead. You start to walk, but freeze seeing something lying on the bridge. It seemed to be someone completely in armor. They looked blue with red hair on top. As you tiptoed closer to get a better look, you see the pained look on their face, which seemed dry and scaly, like a fish out of water. You look around for something to help with but the only thing in the area is an empty water cooler.

"There's gotta be something I can do..." you start to panic as you become more and more aware of the monsters breathing. You look around once more, then down at your keyblade. A thought struck you instantly. You smack your forehead and smile "Duh!"

As you hold your keyblade tight in your hand, you point it at the monster and focus with all your might, hoping it will work. You close your eyes as you feel the energy flowing through you. As you open your eyes again, you gasp and see a shower of green fall over the monster. They behind to stir before coughing a few times.

As you let your keyblade hang again, you hurry over to help them up, "Whoa easy!" Their armor is burning hot to the touch, "Ow! Geez, how can you stand that?"

As the monster stands, they eye you suspiciously. Looking at their face you can tell they are some sort of fish monster, face blue and scaly with ears to match. One eye was watching you, the other covered by an eye patch.

"I hate Hotland." You hear them mumble as they stand and walk back across the bridge. You want to follow them and make sure they're okay, but you can bring yourself to move. Not from better lack of trying. With a frown, you turn away.

"I see you took my advice, kid."

You blink as Sans appears, leaning against the water cooler. He's watching you in the same way he had been watching Frisk earlier in the snow. You tilt your head and step closer, confused, "What do you mean?"

"You saved Undyne's life when Frisk tried to end it." He explained, gesturing the way the fish had gone, She'd be more appreciative if she wasn't so stubborn."

"That was Undyne? The one Papyrus mentioned?"

"Yup. Head of the Royal Guard herself."

"How did Frisk get past her?"

Sans was quiet for a moment. He stepped close to you and stood beside you, facing the opposite way. He didn't say anything, and you almost couldn't breathe. Though he wasn't making any movements, you could almost feel something radiating off of him. It wasn't the same as the other monsters.

They are pretty determined. Can you say the same?"

You blinked and turned to look at him, but he had vanished. You couldn't figure out what this feeling was, but you weren't even sure you wanted to know anymore. Up ahead of you, you spotted a but of movement and caught sight of Frisk waving at you. They were smiling, beckoning you to follow them.

You squinted your eyes as you watched them. You raised your hand, starting to wave back. You tense and freeze halfway through. Behind Frisk you see a shadow waving with them. It had a wide smile and a dark aura that was all too familiar to you. You step back a little and Frisk frowns. You watch them for a moment as the shadows disappears from behind them. Without a moment's hesitation, you turn and start running down the corridor towards a darker are than Hotland. The shadows seem to dance around you, as if taunting you. As you grip your keyblade tight, you run faster, hoping they can't keep up.

And lucky for you, they don't.

The corridor is dark and damp the further you run. You realize that this must be the area between the hot and cold areas. It seemed odd to you that the two would be together. This part if the underground just seemed wet. It was as if the snow that came here was melted from the heat down the hall, causing it to rain.

The sound of rushing water is more comforting to you as it gets louder. Though the cave is darker than dark, you still feel like you managed to escape.

Then you fall flat on your face, tripping over something hard. As the ground connects with your nose, you lie there and wonder where you ever went wrong in life.

"Hey! Watch it punk! That armor is fragile when it overheats!"

You look around as you start to stand again. On the side of the path you can see Undyne sitting beside a small pool of water, a grouping of crystals lighting the path up a little. Shes sitting with one leg in the water and the other propped up so she can lean on it. She still has the same suspicious look on her face, but her mouth is turn down a bit in a pointy toothed scowl.

"Oh sorry! It was too dark to see.." you look back at the ground and see the piece of armor you tripped over was a chest plate. It still glowed a little from the heat, but was slowly fading back to the black steel.

Undyne sighed, "It's alright. The dark can be overbearing if you aren't used to it."

You rub your head, glancing back down the corridor you came from, "I'll say..." you mumble to yourself.

"Hey, you... you uh saved me from heatstroke back there." She started to say. When you looked at her, she looks away quickly "The human will pay for almost killing me in the most cowardly of ways. And for what they did to Papyrus."

The feel a chill rolling down your back. You were almost afraid to ask, but felt you had no choice, "What... happened to Papyrus?"

Undyne looks at you, the suspicious look in her eye fading a bit as she frowns. She sighs and looks at the water. You walk closer and sit beside her on the edge as she dips her other leg into the water, "He meets with me to give me a progress report every day just outside of Snowdin. His own wish, I might add. But, he didn't come today." She scowled "He called me and said he had found a human he was going to capture. They must have..."

She scowled and slammed her fist against the ground. The water shook from the vibration, "And his brother! He's so lazy. He doesn't even seem concerned for him! How could he just let them go past him without even trying to stop them?!"

You tense as you watch her, waiting for her to turn and come at you next. But she just slumps her shoulders and leans forward on her knees. She doesn't say anything else as she just watches the ripples in the water. You frown too and look down. It didn't seem right to you. Sans didn't seem like the type to care much about anyone, but surely he cared about his brother at least. He was definitely a different person when Papyrus wasn't around.

"I don't think that's true." You feel Undyne's gaze turn to you. You could almost guess she was about to argue it, but you continued on, "I think Sans just can't handle it. Maybe he doesn't know what to do without Papyrus around."

You turn an look up at Undyne. She's watching you closely, but she's frowning, as if not wanting to admit you were right.

"I knew someone like him. Someone who lost the one he was closest to, but, he didn't understand the way he was feeling. He died for his friend... died for me." You look out across the water. It wasn't something you had thought about for a long time, but a part of you thought about it often. He couldn't help but get you to really think about it for once, to really think what had happened for his sake.

Undyne rubbed her head, "That's rough. Sorry for yah, kid-"

"Of course, he came back to life with a different identity and no memory any of that happened." You interrupt her suddenly. She looks at you in shock. You meet her gaze and shrugged, "I'm just as surprised as you."

Undyne blinked a few times, then just started laughing. She slapped your back, really hard, a few times until you stumbled forward into the water. As you shook the water from your head you looked at her as she grinned ear to ear, "You know what? Thanks kid. I really needed a good laugh. You arent so bad for a human."

You blink and tense up, "Wait, you knew I was human?"

"Duh, punk. I can tell by your soul. Its not like a monsters soul."

"Then... why didn't you try to capture me?"

Undyne rubbed her head, looking a bit embarrassed, "Well, you did kinda save my skin. And besides, the other kids gone off to see Asgore. There's no way they'll be able to beat him." She grinned again as she stood, looking proud, "We monsters will be free to take the surface back from the humans. You'll see."

As she starts to turn back to gather her armor pieces, you scurry back up from the water, "Wait! You know where they're going, could you take me there? To see the king?"

Undyne strapped the armor back on and held her helmet under her arm "Sorry, punk. You gotta go through Hotland to get there. And I'd much rather go home and rest. I really need it."

You slump your shoulders as you watch her walk off down the corridor. Behind her you could hear the gentle sound of a music box. It was almost soothing the way it made its way to you beyond the rain drops. As you closed your eyes, you pondered what you should do next. Asgore was past Hotland. That had to be where Frisk was going. Would you meet up with them?

Or would you meet Asgore yourself?