( Phoenix: Thanks but I can't take credit for that! All Scotch's idea concept wise but I think the Sans reading LV is still canon since he reads you in the Judgement Hall? Either way, I copied that from the comic. You should def read the original if you get the chance!
ScorpioInDisguise: Aren't you supposed to be in disguise or something? I can clearly see you're Scorpio! GOSH. But, thank you!
Silver: Golly, I'm not sure if Chara will or not… BUT AFTER ALL, IN THIS WORLD… IT'S KILL OR BE KILLED. YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT HEHEHEHEHE!
Lucus: Thanks so much! Pressure is on now!
Aura: Oh, sorry! I was mostly just trying to leave it on a cliffhanger. But yeah, I'll try to update with larger chapters.
Fair warning that I read a lot more Aftertale now that Swaptale ended… So, uh, yeah…)
Chapter 3
"*NGAHHH! TO THINK THAT I USED TO THINK YOU WERE COOL!"
The wind seemed to pick up in the dark room even more, swirling around everyone and fluttering Undyne's hair wildly. Despite the fact that she wore no armor, her stance as a member of the Royal Guard still stood. As such, she was prepared to lay her life down to protect the others in that room from this human. No, whatever this was that stood in front of her. "*I even made friends with you and you made me believe that all monsters could put their hopes and dreams into you. But I was wrong! I was a fool and you're nothing more than a liar and a deceiver! Hiding behind that goody-two-shoes schitick until we lowered our guard? PATHETIC!"
"*O-oh, she's m-monologuing again… S-she must mean business. A-ah… Undyne is so cool when she g-gets like this…," sighed the yellow skinned monster nervously, tugging at the collar of the dress she wore under her lab coat. "I-is it hot in here, or is it j-just me?"
"*schitick? like a fish schitick?" added the shorter skeleton, earning a glare from his brother than turned into a sideways glance.
"SANS, THAT PUN WAS TRULY TERRIBLE, BUT I'LL FORGIVE YOU FOR IT!" the long faced skeleton exclaimed. He tugged on his scarf and looked down at his brother with a soft smile. There were times that the two didn't exactly see eye socket to eye socket, but now that really seemed to be all behind them. Both were just overly happy to have one another back again and it showed in an extremely subtle way in their expressions.
"*heh, yeah, even i knew that one fell flat," responded the jokester with a shrug of his shoulders nonchalantly. The way his smile faltered however, showed that even he had struggled to come up with something that close to a joke.
"*Hahaha, hilarious," added Asgore, receiving a glare from Toriel that he grinned sheepishly at, stooping over further as if to hide himself and his shame. "I thought that you enjoyed puns such as those, Toriel? I am… Sorry?" The King lowered his head in submission when a glare full of murderous intent was directed his way.
"*Don't ever laugh at something that terrible again," she huffed angrily, arms crossed over her purple dress, turning her long nose away from his general direction, disgusted. This response earned a deep sigh from the noble monster, who closed his eyes and resigned himself to the fact that his wife was still upset with him and likely would be for a long time to come.
Eyebrows furrowing and scaled face scrunching up, Undyne gestured with her blue spear in hand as she added, "*I guess this time I'll just have to make sure you really do DIE. Then us monsters can finally cross the barrier! And this time I won't feel the least bit bad about it either. FUHUHUHUHUH!"
"Are you done talking yet?" came the bored response from Chara, who yawned and looked completely exhausted with this whole routine. They were still fiddling with the knife, cutting their own hand in the process and licking it away with their own tongue as though it were a natural response. The creepiness levels had certainly maxed out when it came to this human.
"*Fine then! En guarde!"
Despite the fact that the button was crumbling, the human struck the FIGHT button, a wild grin on their face. In a flash, they went in for the kill. With all their power behind them and determination, the move would surely strike home. Not only that… But the level of damage would be astronomical. Yet, Undyne stood proudly, a glare and scowl on her face, pulling her lips and exposing her sharp teeth that grinded together in anticipation. Before the blow could land, the scowl turned into a smile, her one good eye closing in acceptance.
SWISH!
Drip… Drip…
Small drops of crimson liquid pitter pattered onto the hard ground. If one were close enough to the scene, they might have also picked up the subtle smell of iron that perforated the space.
Gradually, the eye not covered by her patch traced downward. The wave of emotions that reflected across her face told an immediate story.
"*O-oh, my goodness!" gasped Alyphs, taking a few tentative steps forward, knees shaking.
"THE H-HUMAN… THEY-!" came an audibly high pitched yell from the elongated skeleton.
"Oh, my-!"
Audible gasps filled the room. Surely, no one had expected this result to the fight.
Well, save for one.
Sans stood silently, hands in his pockets. Pupils obscured in darkness, the skeleton seemed oddly calm amongst all the other shocked eye witnesses. It wasn't like there wasn't concern or compassion in him but he alone had been the only one with a heads up to what had been about to happen. Though even the comedian hadn't guessed it would go down exactly like this.
"How-?!" questioned Chara, red irises more visible now as their rage increased.
"Determination, I guess?" was the reply as a smile formed across Frisk's lips. There they stood, directly in front of their fish friend, having taken the blow in her stead. Bits of blood were still dripping consistently from the slash they had just received onto the floor. Their hands reached toward the wound, covering it up with the palms of their hands. Health point wise, they were lucky to be alive. By pure determination alone they were clutching at life with one measly point left.
"*Nggah, wait a minute!? There are two of you? THIS IS TWICE AS CONFUSING, WHAT THE HELL!" the unharmed fish monster screeched, flailing her spear around dangerously close to the human that was at the brink of death.
"WAIT! OF COURSE! THAT IS WHY THE HUMAN HAS BEEN ACTING SO STRANGELY. IT WAS NOT FRISK AT ALL, BUT A COPYCAT!" exclaimed Papyrus even as the skeleton spun around in place excitedly, arms raised above his head. Normally naïve and a bit clueless on some matters, at least he was talented at puzzling out the solution to the mystery this time.
"*wow, bro, you're so smart," added Sans with a larger grin.
"I KNOW! I AM VERY GREAT AT MYSTERY SOLVING. ALMOST AS GREAT AS I AM AT PUZZLE SOLVING! NYEH HEH HEH!"
"*Y-yeah, t-that's good! B-but don't you think it's more likely that they're from a different t…," started the sweating lizard before her spectacles pointed in the direction of the short skeleton. "Tim… Nevermind… A-anyway, I didn't think that the human could have suddenly b-become so bad. I m-mean, not after all the nice things they did to help me out and stuff. ImeanIwouldn'thaveevenstarteddatingUndynewithouttheirhelpand…"
"OH. MY. GOD. YOU TWO ARE FINALLY DATING!? SANS! YOU OWE ME FIVE BUCKS!"
"Will you all just shut up for once!" cried the knife wielding foe, appearing to be more fueled now by pure aggression than before, the remorse that had reflected in their face prior now a distant memory. Their emotions on a rollercoaster twisting up and down, looping one way and then another, one had to question the sanity of the individual. "This isn't how it was supposed to happen. But I'm going to kill all of you all over again!"
"I won't let you hurt my friends," came the reply from their new adversary. A weapon was raised and Frisk continued to stand, impeding the would-be-killer's progression. The threat was a lot less dramatic, however, when you were aware that the human had brought a stick to a knife fight.
"Look, I get your whole idea of trying to progress not killing. I'm sure you wanted to see what it was like, right? The idea of getting 'the true ending', or whatever," Chara started, gesturing vaguely before sliding their fingers along the front of their blade, careful to keep their skin away from the sharp edges, however, their demeanor shifting yet again to a calmer note. "But, just how good of "friends" are you if your own pals didn't even realize that I wasn't you? They were prepared to kill you a minute ago, in fact." With that, the wild grin reemerged just as their fingertip pressed against the top of the blade, pricking it and causing blood to begin to drip down from the wound. "They would have sooner killed you than try to figure everything out! Haven't you learned anything yet? In this world…"
"It's kill or be killed!" more laughter filtered out of their mouth, shrill and crazed. It sent a shiver down the innocent one's back.
"That's not true! They knew it wasn't me. I would never hurt anyone!" shouted Frisk in retorted, shaking their head and throwing their arm the side as if to throw the very notion to the ground. It could have been easy here to call into question the reason they had made their own choice at the beginning of their adventure, but after meeting all of their friends… That just wasn't possible. Frisk wouldn't trade all that happiness for the world.
Behind them, Undyne gave a sharp-toothed grin. "*Ngah, well, I've already tried to kill Frisk in the past but I've never won against them anyhow! Despite being so weak… ANYHOW!? I figured they snap out of it. Though I was pretty peeved when I thought Sans was really dead…"
"YES, I, FOR ONE, WAS PRETTY CONFIDENT THAT THE HUMAN HAD BEEN REPLACED!" came the overly dramatic flourish from the tall skeleton, rolling the 'R' on his last word.
"*Oh, gosh, yeah, I guess I should have expected that…," was the honest response from the unconfident ruler. Of course, one could overlook his sudden realization when you considered just how short of a time that he had actually been acquainted with the human child.
"*F-frisk would n-never hurt anyone, s-so I was p-pretty sure, I guess?" mumbled the scientist unconfidently.
"*I had faith that my child would come around! I did not want to see them injured… Which is why I took it out on you, Sans. I do apologize…" Fury hands clasped together in a gesture of regret.
While everyone was making declarations, Sans merely shrugged casually. "*i really don't have a bone to pick with you, Tori."
"Oh, yeah?" was the challenge issued to all of them from the extreme pessimist as their eyes danced around the room, looking at each of the monsters in turn. "None of you could tell the difference between us. In fact, if you put us in a line up you all would fail to figure out which one was your friend!"
Silence followed as a mounting tension rose. The temperature felt like it had risen as well. Perhaps the effect of being so close to Hotland? Though that explanation was fairly weak.
"We might look alike, but we're as different as night and day. If my friends asked us questions, they'd figure it out in no time," was the confident response, breaking through the strange atmosphere that had built up, shattering it like a plane of window glass being struck by an object at high velocity. While everyone else had seen the weakness in themselves, the tiny human still believed in them all. Not only that, but something told them that there was more to Chara than what met the eye. A wild hunch, probably. After all, there was no doubt that they were capable of slaying anyone without remorse.
Lifting one foot, allowing the sole of the shoe to then come down hard onto the ground, before taking yet another dramatic step forward, a sheen reflecting off of the silver, there was a moment of doubt or speculation that stopped the killer from simply finishing what they had started. Mere inches away from their would-be victim, they instead turned and shrugged their shoulders nonchalantly, despite their hands twitching with enthusiasm or nerves.
"Hmm, why don't we play a game then? See if you're right about your friends. It could be… Interesting," they commented with a smirk. "I've grown bored of the same ol', same ol'. I mean, I was even going to reset and not kill anyone maybe just to see what it was like until this happened!" Laughter floated out of their mouth that was like nails on a chalkboard.
"A game?"
"DOES IT INVOLVE PUZZLES?"
"Yeah, why not? We'll have everyone turn around, walk around some and then let them ask us questions. If you're so right about your friends then they should be able to figure out who's who. Of course, we could just get straight to me killing you all and resetting if you'd rather not play," Chara answered with a sickening sweetness to their voice. "But if you win, I'll promise to go back to my timeline." Though it was not visible to the majority, a hand inched behind their back as they crossed their fingers slyly. "Of course, Sans, you'll have to keep your eye sockets closed since you can see our LV."
"*heh, I'm game."
"We'll make the rules simple. Each of you monsters can ask a question per round. They'll be two rounds. By the end, you all have to agree who is Frisk and who is Chara to win. Now turn around!"
"I-I don't like the thought of t-this!? W-what if we turn around and they use that as a c-chance to stab Frisk!" Alphys stammered, clearly the voice of reason in this situation, to which she received a glare so red hot intense from Chara that it almost made the scientist back up from her position.
But she needn't worry, as the innocent one had already pulled out a thing of instant ramen noodles and was beginning to cook them, poking it gently with the stick in their hand to stir it, eyes almost squinted shut in concentration.
"OH, ISN'T THAT LIKE A KNOCK-OFF SPAGHETTI?" Papyrus commented, leaning in for a closer look at the pot that was getting closer to a boil now.
"*an impasta?" added his short skeleton bro.
"*NGGAH, you need to turn up the heat, Frisk, the freakin' thing is going to take forever to be finished! Yeah, stir it harder already, punk!?" Undyne added, fish lips flaring as she watched the slow and painful cooking process taking place. Leaning down, her inclination seemed to be to snatch the stick out of the little kid's hands to begin stirring, but perhaps the flashbacks to her house burning down stopped the fish woman from acting on the impulse.
"*guess Undyne really is hot under the collar when it comes to cooking."
"*Oh, my… Perhaps it would be best if you ate something a bit healthier, my child? Ramen is quite high in salt intake. I would recommend something with better nutrients."
"Why not just eat it raw?! It's better that way," Chara added, somehow joining in on the stupidity.
"There's only a minute left," was the response that all of them received from the overly patient kid.
"Patience is a virtue," added the calm King, nodding his head up and down gently earning him an equally boiling scowl from Toriel to the flames cooking the soup.
Finally the noodles were finished.
The liveliness died down and faded back into a serious atmosphere once the noodles had been consumed. Now at max health and no longer bleeding, cleaned up with some help from Toriel, everyone had to turn around and face away while the two humans were left to orient themselves. Frisk ended up standing to the left. Each stashed their weapons away. Chara turned, gesturing toward them eagerly. Confused, they shrugged their shoulders in response. Rolling their eyes, the annoyed human tugged their own striped sweater off and tossed it at them.
"Switch it. Now," was whispered to them.
"This still won't fool them, if that's what you're thinking," Frisk answered back before following through on the request and throwing their own sweater back at the killer, purposefully missing and having it land on the ground. The small cut in the fabric was the only difference now anyhow, after the blood had been cleaned up.
"SORRY ABOUT THIS BROTHER, BUT YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN SEE THEIR LV! OF COURSE, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE ABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHICH HUMAN IS WHICH VERY EASILY. AS I HAVE A KNACK FOR PROBLEM SOLVING, SO YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO BE BLINDFOLDED FOR LONG," reassured the spaghetti-lover as he worked to tie his own scarf into a temporary blindfold around his brother's head. Once satisfied, he turned the shorter skeleton toward him and held up several boney fingers. "NOW, HOW MANY FINGERS AM I HOLDING UP!?"
"*uh, i don't know. thirty?"
"SANS, BE SERIOUS FOR ONCE!"
"*heh, sorry bro. i can't see any fingers, so you must have done a good job blindfolding me," Sans reaffirmed, giving a thumbs up in the slightly wrong direction. "seriously though, thanks." For a moment the two of them stood there silently before a gloved hand came down and patted the jokester lovingly on the shoulder.
"Alright, you all can turn around."
All of the monsters present did as instructed. A wild grin momentarily flashed over the face of the fish monster before she turned and nudged her girlfriend lightly on the shoulder.
"*W-what is it Undyne?" came the nervous question in response, as the lizard rubbed her arm gently where she had been prodded.
"*I think I've already got the answer," was the whispered response, which was hard for someone of Undyne's personality to accomplish. She normally never spoke under her breath and that showed, as the hushed conversation was actually still rather loud.
"*O-oh, r-really? Well, I thought I did too until I considered that the humans could have s-switched shirts. S-so what was your theory?"
"*…"
"*U-undyne?"
"*Never mind, Alphys!"
"*Shall we each go around and ask a question of the children?" questioned the kind and slow voice of Toriel, who patiently looked to each of her newly found friends in turn, purposefully keeping her back pointed toward her ex-husband, however.
"*sure, Tori, why don't you go first."
"*Oh my… You want me to go first? I don't know…"
This earned a roll of the eyes from one of the humans, who stood there impatiently tapping their foot at first, before ceasing the gesture. Chara was clearly not enjoying this game as much as they had previously thought they would and the antics of the monsters were only serving to drive them slowly toward reconsidering their course of action. Meanwhile Frisk couldn't help but give a small smile and a thumbs up to their goat mom, encouraging them to go first.
"No more hand gestures," was the snide remark from Chara under their breath, causing Frisk to drop their arms back down to their sides. Unfortunately, their goat mom had also missed the gesture as well, having been looking around the room at the time.
"*Very well then, I shall go first. Now… What would be a good question to ask?" she mused, tapping a finger to her chin and casting her gaze skyward, batting her long eyelashes as she contemplated the answer. "*Ah, yes, I've got it. This question is for the both of you, of course… Which do you prefer; butterscotch or cinnamon for your pie?"
"UH, WAIT A MINUTE, MRS. ASGORE CLONE, DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT IS A GOOD QUESTION TO AS-" Papyrus began, clenching his teeth mostly closed and looking rather concerned. However, the thin skeleton paused and added, "GO ON," when he noticed that Toriel was looking at him rather heatedly. Toriel was not a mother to be trifled with, it became clear.
"I would have to say Butterscotch? Because it's sweet like cho-" Chara began before pausing and shaking their head. "Because it's sweet like you."
"*Oh, my, that's so kind of you to say," responded the goat mother, hand reaching up to her long mouth and a giggle escaping through her lips.
The sideways glance that followed from Chara indicated that they knew precisely what they were doing. The innocent one's eyes looked into duplicates of their own and found them devoid of actual compassion. Grimacing, Frisk knew that there was no backing out now. Instead, they were going to have to fight to prove that they were the actual person that all the monsters of the Underground knew and loved.
"*Yes, well, same question, other child," began the Queen, this time shooting a suspicious look in the direction of Frisk.
"…"
There was a long pause before they actually answered.
"I actually can't decide after having them together. They're both so good," was their final response, receiving a confused response from the crowd.
"*Very well. Alright then, Sans, I believe it is your turn now," directed the goat mom with a swift redirection, assuming some authority in the process.
"*uh, can't I go last?"
="*… Alright then, how about you, Papyrus?" Toriel responded, giving Sans some slack that she normally would not allow to happen.
"AH, YES, IT IS SMART OF YOU TO HAVE ME ASK THE NEXT QUESTION ANYHOW. AS YOU SEE, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SURELY GET TO THE BOTTOM OF WHICH HUMAN IS THE TRUE HUMAN! AS I HAVE CONCOCTED THE BEST QUESTION IN ORDER TO PINPOINT WHICH ONE IS FRISK!" announced the would-be Royal Guardsman rather confidently, taking a step forward and posing with a hand on his chest, scarf fluttering around him gently, picking up the tail end of some of Undyne's wind.
"*Oh, really? I can't wait to hear this! Papyrus, what are you going to ask, which type of spaghetti the human prefers or something? You nerd!" Undyne joked with a big grin.
"N-NO, DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!" was the response that the teasing earned, an awful amount of apprehensive shifting of eyes following.
"*Ngah! Awesome! I knew you had this since you love puzzles so much. So, then ask it already so we can nail the fake to the wall with a spear or something!?"
"VERY WELL! I SHALL KEEP YOU ALL IN SUSPENSE NO LONGER. MY QUESTION IS, HUMAN…"
The suspense was real.
Everyone was holding their breath.
It seemed like this strange game might finally be at its conclusion thanks to the fantastic, amazing Papyrus…
The tall skeleton could see it now. His ambition finally earning him the title of crime solver… Undyne and Asgore welcoming him with a warm reception into the Royal Guard! What a joyous, eventful day that would be! Sans would even maybe clean his room in celebration!
Then Papyrus snapped out of his little daydream and finally got to the point.
"ON OUR DATE TOGETHER, WHAT WAS MY SECRET THAT I KEPT HIDDEN!"
"*W-wait, y-you dated the human too?"
"*HUH!?"
"*U-uh… Uh, Undyne, i-it's not what it sounds l-like? Y-you know… It was a roleplay? F-for pretend…"
"*Oh, right…" responded the fish woman even as she finished snapping her second spear straight in half. "*I knew that."
"*great question, bro… but uh, hey, if one of them answers first and correctly, the other will know the answer, won't they?"
And so it was decided between everyone that the humans would have to take a slip of paper and write their answers down to submit it to Papyrus. The tall skeleton took the piece of paper from the first human, the one on the left and then skipped over to the opposite human, reaching each in turn before turning back to face all of the monsters.
"UH-SO… THEY BOTH ANSWERED SPAGHETTI?!"
Distressed fish noises followed.
"BUT! THE HUMAN ON THE LEFT DREW IT IN A HAT? THAT WAS WHERE I HID IT ON OUR DATE!"
"Right, under your baseball cap," was the response that Frisk gave with a little smile.
"RIGHT!"
"*Oh, let me see," came Undyne's reaction, snatching the piece of paper and scanning it with her one good eye. Finally she crumpled it in one fist and shook her head. "*Papyrus, this drawing could easily be a bowl too!"
"OH… I HADN'T THOUGHT OF THAT! CLEVER… VERY CLEVER! HOWEVER, I BELIEVE I AM ON TO YOU!" declared the "cook" with a sly smile in the direction of Frisk. "I AM SURE UNDYNE'S QUESTION WILL FURTHER REVEAL THE TRUTH!"
(And this is where it'd be awesome if Mettaton could show up but he's kinda soulless at the moment… Sorry for all of the jokes and sudden changes in tone. I love Aftertale so much that it's started influencing my ideas for this. If you haven't read that comic, go check it out!)