Frisk gasped, inhaling smoke and ash. They went into a coughing fit immediately. Peering around, their eyes stinging, they realized they had gotten pushed into the border of Hotland and Waterfall. Frisk coughed again and got up. They saw the entrance had caved in, piles of rock and debris were clogging the cavernous opening. Ash was still falling, presumably from the explosion in Hotland that destroyed almost everything.
The human felt sore everywhere and it hurt to breathe. Chunks of rock, steel girders and metal plates were strewn around the area. Pieces of timber and a familiar broken roof were laying in a pile underneath some rocks. Sans's stand…?
They stood motionless, feeling numb all over. What was the point of continuing… Was there something at the end of all of this? Their best friends were trying to kill them. And that strange person they saw before all this happened... Something awful happened in this strange world, and it was hard to not feel like it was Frisk's own fault, at least, based on what Sans was saying.
Who else was left? Alphys mentioned Undyne, however it seemed unlikely the royal knight was still alive if she wasn't around for that fight. Toriel might still be in her home, and…Papyrus! Frisk felt hopeful suddenly. To Snowdin it is then! There had to be something there for them, no matter how bad things were in Hotland, there must be someone that would believe them there.
Frisk stretched, trying to get some energy back into their sore muscles, and headed forwards. They continued through the field of lightly glowing flowers. The soft hue of light was a comforting sight for Frisk. They also realized Sans had seemingly disappeared, or was perhaps dealing with the aftermath of the laboratory. Frisk shook their head. If they dwelt on that thought any longer they were like to curl up into a ball and give up.
They had nearly passed by the temmie village and decided better of trying to check on them and continued onward. It seemed like most of the monsters in the area had all evacuated for whatever Frisk- whoever had done this. Passing by the two waterfalls, Frisk wondered when Sans would attack next. They had been feeling on edge for a while now, however, it seemed the skeleton was nowhere nearby. The light spray from the waterfalls was highly refreshing though, and Frisk was grateful for the sound of the rushing water.
Next, Frisk realized they were coming up on Gerson's place. They wondered if it would be better to continue on, but instead, they decided to pop their head in.
"H-hello…?"
Gerson seemed to be rummaging around in the back, frantically searching for something. Quickly darting his head up at the sound of Frisk's voice, he peered suspiciously at the human. "You…?"
"Hi, G-Gerson…" Frisk said, approaching, though trying to keep a respectful distance. "I wanted to ask something…"
"Really? YOU wanted to talk again?" He looked utterly incredulous.
"I…" Frisk was becoming increasingly unsure of themselves. Whether they had murdered their friends or really anyone in the underground.
"Spit it out then."
"What happened?"
"Wah ha ha ha ha!" Gerson laughed hysterically. His demeanor changed in an instant to anger. "Some nerve you have, asking me that. Come to gloat or something?"
When Frisk didn't respond, Gerson continued, "Ya know…when you visited before, I thought I helped some of them escape." He shook his head, throwing some antiques to the other side of the room in anger. "But that explosion just now…"
"Gerson, please just listen to me."
"Nah, I'm through listening and talking." Gerson seemed to have found what he was looking for as recognition lit up in his eyes. "No point anyways. It's all over then." Gerson pulled an elaborately decorated hammer from his antiques. The once brass hammer was a completely dull turquoise now, but what it lacked in shine, it certainly made up for in size. Frisk was surprised the old tortoise was able to lift the thing and rest it on his shoulder. He looked at Frisk with spite, "C'mon, let's take this outside."
"Wait, Gerson I'm not sure what you're suggesting but I'm not your enemy."
Gerson was not listening, however, and trudged outside his cave. He tried to take a fierce battle stance, pointing the hammer at Frisk. "I would ask you to be honorable, but…ya know…"
Frisk shook their head vigorously and decided it would be better just to run off.
"Now you want to run?! Coward!" Gerson yelled out after them. Frisk tried desperately to hold back tears.
Frisk tried to keep the feeling of despair at bay. They had never noticed how full of life the Underground had been when they had first gone through its lands. The areas they were now walking back through were so devoid of life, Frisk felt like it was some ghost town. And it was all because of them.
"No!" Frisk hit their head. No…its not my fault, it couldn't be.
They found themselves at Undyne's house. Frisk had tried to find Napstablook, but both him and his snails were gone. This was the last place in Waterfall they wanted to check. Looking at the house from the outside, It appeared as if the fire had never started in the first place. The entire house looked perfectly still and devoid of flames. They tried the door but it was locked. Then, they peered inside the window. All the upturned furniture and messy kitchen they had expected to find was the complete opposite. Everything looked spotless from what they could tell. The cooking session had never happened.
Frisk backed away from the window, questioning their reality. What really happened? Did I even experience anything or is this all some sort of dream? Or…was that other reality a dream and this was now real life? Whatever the truth was, they truly felt like they were in hell.
Frisk plodded along the path, nearly out of Waterfall. The environment passed by them in a blur, stuck inside their own head. Snowdin is the only place left…it can't be like the rest, there's just no way…
They almost didn't notice a collection of bones flying towards them. Frisk threw themself to the side, landing harshly on the ground and seeing the bones stab the ground where they were just standing. Turning and getting up quickly, they saw Sans standing on the other side. His sockets were empty, bottomless voids.
"didn't want to alarm you kid, but this is as far as you're going." The area around them went dark as the battle took over. "not sure how you knew where everyone was hiding, but it was really clever to distract me so you could kill the rest of my friends. a real class act."
"No, I didn't! Just…" Frisk gripped their head as Alphys' last actions replayed in their mind. "Just stop!"
Sans lifted his palm up, "what? no LOVE for your old pal?" A blue fire erupted from his right socket. "oh well." An almost infinite amount of bones appeared behind Sans in that instant, all flying straight towards Frisk.
Though they were exhausted, Frisk did the best they could to dodge as many as possible. Left, right, jump! Jump! Right- "Agh!" Frisk screamed out as bone flew straight into their arm. They fell suddenly as another caught them in their leg. Sharp pain flared throughout their body from their wounds. Frisk struggled to stand.
"feels nasty right? consider it a taste of your own medicine."
Frisk mumbled something under their heavy breathing.
"huh? you say something?"
Frisk clenched their hand around the soft earth, gritting their teeth in pain. "I'm not your enemy!" Frisk hurriedly presses the MERCY button and managed to successfully flee.
They were teleported right outside the battlefield. A dome of endless darkness replaced the spot they were just in. It seemed Sans had been trapped inside the battlefield, at least momentarily. Not taking any chances, Frisk ran as hard and as fast as they could. They snagged the glamburger from their inventory and ate it in one bite. Thankfully, the bones faded along with their wounds. With the pain down to only a dull throbbing, Frisk dashed off towards Snowdin.
They couldn't believe it.
Snowdin was just as lifeless as everywhere else. Standing at the eastern entrance, Frisk could feel the stillness in the once bustling town even from there. They approached the town, shivering and clutching their arms to stay warm. Trekking through the deep snow was harder than they thought, in fact, they hadn't noticed this much snow when they were fighting -
Frisk tripped and landed in the soft blanket of ice. Slowly getting up, their arms and legs burning with the effort, they noticed something sticking out of the snow. Frisk began to shovel out heaps of ice, unearthing a piece of armor. They looked in horror, realizing the skeleton would never go anywhere without his armor.
"Pap-Papyrus…? Who did this to you?" Frisk muttered to themselves, frightened. They wiped off more snow and then fell backwards, mouth agape in horror. All that was left of the once jovial skeleton was his armor that had a sickening gash in it.
Frisk crawled back to the armor, cold tears falling on to it. "No, you're just cold!" Frisk smiled bitterly, "That's all…yeah come on, let's go to Grillby's, that outta warm you up." Frisk grabbed ahold of the armor's collar and dragged the chest piece through the town. Their muscles were screaming at the sudden effort being applied. Ignoring it as much as possible, Frisk trudged dutifully towards Grillby's in the eerily empty town. They had hoped they would bump into someone to help them, but maybe they were all hanging out at Grillby's anyway.
Frisk entered Grillby's, carefully guiding Papyrus to a chair at the bar. Hearing the laughter and clanging of plates and glasses filled Frisk with determination. They smiled, hopping into the chair next to Papyrus and started to order. "Grillby! Papyrus needs some hot choc-" The sound of laughter and clanging dishes disappeared instantly. There was no one here. The only sound was the hushed wind outside.
Frisk shrugged, "Don't worry Papyrus, I'll get you something warm for your tummy!" The peaceful child jumped down and went behind the bar. They put a hot plate on the bar top and plugged it into one of the outlets. Grabbing a bowl, they poured some water into it and settled it on the hot plate. Frisk then rummaged around behind the counter and found a beautifully packaged instant ramen! They placed the instant noodles in the bowl, thankful for the warmth the small hot plate was providing in Grillby's absence. Frisk triumphantly marched back to their seat next to Papyrus.
"I know it's not spaghetti, but it's like the next best thing, it's sure to warm you up!" Frisk smiled to themselves, turning towards Papyrus. They gasped when they saw the soon-to-be-royal-guardsman waving at them. "Papyrus?"
Papyrus chuckled to himself at the child's shock.
"I can't believe you're here! I'm so happy!" Frisk could practically jump for joy in their seat. Realization suddenly struck Frisk, "Hey, you gotta talk some sense into your brother! Something's wrong with Sans and-"
Papyrus put an index finger to his teeth, signaling the child to be quiet.
Frisk quieted down. "What is it?"
Papyrus smiled and ruffled the kid's hair, making Frisk laugh in the process. The tall skeleton gave Frisk a confident thumbs up and then…
Disappeared.
Frisk's joy slowly drained away. Seeing the empty, broken armor laying in the chair next to them filled them with an overbearing sadness. Sorrow took over them completely as tears welled in their eyes. Frisk nearly slammed their head into the bar, throwing their arms around their face.
"This can't be real." Frisk wailed, "This has to be a nightmare…please please let this be a nightmare. Papyrus, you'll be warm again, just eat the noodles! Please! Papyrus…don't leave me alone." Frisk sobbed, the sleeves of their shirt soaking in their tears. "Please, come back…"
The soup boiled and the broth dribbled down the bowl, sizzling as it touched the hot plate underneath. Frisk heard it beginning to bubble over, and then shuffling where Papyrus- where the armor piece was. Through red, puffy eyes, Frisk looked over to see Sans move the damaged armor to the bar top.
"i'm sure you don't want to eat, uh, burnt soup." He said softly.
Physically - and emotionally - too exhausted at that point, Frisk laughed weakly.
"kid, i-" Sans paused, "i saw what you were doing," He paused again, "what you did…" Sans stared at Frisk for a long time. "you really aren't the same person. even a bonehead like me can see that, i just had to look a bit harder."
Frisk looked back past the bar, staring at nothing in particular. The words they wanted to hear the most were comforting, especially coming from Sans. More tears began to well up in their eyes, but they held them back. Any more crying and they were like to pass out.
"Sans, is everyone really…?"
"you really want to know?"
There was a hefty pause, one that filled the room. Frisk sat up, staring at their hands, then wiped the tears from their cheeks and gave Sans a confident nod.
Sans looked up towards the ceiling, not making eye contact with Frisk. It seemed it was still hard for him to look directly at the kid after finding out something had changed. "most of them are. papyrus and undyne, even some of the other citizens. alphys managed to get everyone else evacuated to a safe spot. that's where most of snowdin has gone to."
Hearing the confirmation would have shattered Frisk's reality when they had first arrived, but after everything they had experience since then…well, perhaps they had been denying the truth that was right in front of them. It seemed-
"seems hopeless, right?"
Frisk nodded, looking down.
Sans closed his eyes, "that's what i've thought these last few days." Opening one eye, he looked in Frisk's direction. "i'll spare you the details, but it's been hard. harder than i thought. given what's happened though, i guess i've got a lot more to learn than i thought. I'm a real numbskull, I guess you could say."
Frisk couldn't help but smile. Perhaps not the best joke, but it was hard not to when he was trying to cheer them up.
"does that tickle your funny bone?" Sans asked, elbowing Frisk.
Frisk nodded, smiling and chuckling.
Sans shrugged, "i don't blame you, my jokes are pretty humerus."
Frisk couldn't help but laugh. The jokes were helping improve Frisk's mood bit by bit. Thats when they remembered the bowl of instant noodles. They quickly put the bowl in front of Sans and said, "Here, bone-appetit!"
Sans chuckled with Frisk, "hey, not bad kid, i didn't think you had a sense of humor."
Frisk nodded, looking back down at the bar top. "Of course, we cracked jokes all the time. We always upset Papyrus with them."
"i would guess so, but we'll leave the explanations for another time."
Frisk agreed, their whole body felt like a million bricks. "I do feel bone tired."
Sans bursted out laughing. A genuine laughter spurred on by the surprise of a terrible pun. "oh geez, kid, there's just nothing that can stop you huh?"
Frisk laughed with him.
As the laughter died down, Sans said, "you know…" He stared at the bowl of noodles, "in desperate times like these, it's hard to find someone who will laugh with you." He hopped off the stool, grabbing Papyrus' armor. "come on…pal, let's go to my place and get some rest."
Too tired to say anything else, Frisk nodded happily and followed Sans out of Grillby's.
AN: My life has been a mess. Thank you for taking the time to read my fanfic. Expect more next Thursday.