Frisk couldn't help but marvel at how different the trip to Snowdin felt when she wasn't constantly battling for her life. While her countless resets had boiled each fight down to a science, it was still a stressful affair where one wrong move could result in her death. However, with Toriel by her side, no one dared attack the human child again.
But it wasn't just Toriel - Frisk had the entire canine sentry squad as her escort. After picking up Greater Dog with very little fuss and a large amount of pettings, the human child was soon completely surrounded by bodyguards - with the strongest of them all standing directly beside her, holding her hand.
Jerry never tried to make a second attempt, nor did any of the denizens of Snowdin that traveled the woods. Gawks and stares accompanied Frisk, safe in her protective bubble, as she was guided through the snowy landscape towards the town proper.
As Toriel carefully escorted Frisk over the bridge, the human child glanced upwards instinctively for signs of Papyrus' ultimate puzzle - the one he never used on her, regardless of who was the dominant force in her body during that particular run through the underground.
It's kind of sad, Frisk thought. I didn't really get to play with Papyrus at all. We would've been doing his puzzles by now. Even though she already knew how to solve the puzzles, spending time with Papyrus and Sans was always fun.
A glint caught Frisk's eye at the end of the bridge, reminding her of a crucial detail that had slipped her mind in all the excitement. She ran ahead of the others, heedless of Toriel's startled cry, to kneel down in front of the hidden camera embedded into the side of the faux wooden bridge. "Alphys, if you're watching right now, please tell all the monsters to evacuate to someplace safe. There's someone dangerous underground who wants to kill everyone!"
There was no response, not that Frisk expected any. Hopefully Alphys was monitoring them at that moment and not getting distracted by Mettaton, or anime, or shitposting online, or…
Frisk sighed and shook her head as she returned to her feet. At least they could get Snowdin evacuated once they got there.
"Please don't run off on your own like that, my child," Toriel said a little breathlessly once she caught up to Frisk. After what happened the last time the little human ran off alone, she was relieved to see no threat. "What were you doing there?"
Frisk pointed at the small circle of glass framed by metal that rested in the shadow between two rocks painted to look like wooden boards. "That's one of Alphys' hidden cameras. She's the head scientist for Dad, and she's always been the one who evacuates monsters all over the underground in case of emergency."
A small chill ran up Frisk's spine as she finished speaking. She knew that simple fact that Alphys prevented Chara from killing every single monster personally had been a point of irritation for the fallen child. That made Alphys a major target as well, not just for being one of Frisk's closest friends.
"We…" Frisk felt her mouth go dry. "We should hurry to Snowdin." They had to get ahead of Chara before someone else was attacked.
Toriel made a quizzical sound as she looked into the camera, then furrowed her brow. "What an… odd place for a camera. Are there many of these?" After speaking, she paused as realization dawned upon her. "...Ah. I suppose she uses these to help 'hunt for humans'." Her eyes narrowed as she glanced at the dog sentries out of the corners of her eyes. "Am I correct?"
The blank look worn by Doggo and the rest of the canines did little to soothe Toriel's irritation. The dogs looked at each other and then at their surroundings, failing to spot any cameras on a painted canyon. The boss monster let out a heavy sigh before she straightened up. "I see."
"There's cameras all the way from the ruins to the castle," Frisk said as she took Toriel's hand and gently urged her mother and the others to keep moving.
"And I suppose that idiot allowed her to do it," Toriel said, stiffly.
Frisk bit back the urge to sigh. It was always sad to see the progress Toriel and Asgore made to reconcile on the surface erased once they returned to the underground. "D… Asgore took her on as royal scientist when she told him she created an artificial soul." She paused for a moment, considering her words. "He told me, a long time after the barrier broke, before the timeline reset again to this, that he was hoping she could create artificial human souls so he wouldn't have to kill anymore humans to break the barrier."
Toriel went quiet for several moments, her expression once again becoming unreadable. But then, just as quickly as before, the look of steel returned. "And yet, for all his wishes, six children were still killed… and he still attempted to kill you."
Frisk didn't have a response for that. Her first thought was to recall how Asgore had succeededin killing her more times than she could count, but there was no way in hell she would ever let Toriel know.
Just like she would never tell how many times Toriel unintentionally burned her to death.
The rest of the trip to Snowdin was made in awkward silence. With Toriel unwilling to relent and Frisk unable to argue, the subject was instead left to linger over the group to the point that even the clueless canines noticed it and could only look at each other in discomfort.
Frisk was more than a little relieved to see Snowdin in the distance, its quaint little buildings and happy decorations a welcome distraction. Of course, that relief was short-lived when she noticed right away that the citizens of the town were still very much present; they hadn't been evacuated, and appeared to be going about their daily routines without a care in the world.
That fact alone made Frisk very uncomfortable and concerned above all else. It meant that Alphys hadn't responded to her message, though it didn't give any indication as to why. There were several options - she hadn't been paying attention, she didn't trust Frisk's warning, or she was unable to do anything. While the first two could easily be rectified, the human child couldn't entirely put her faith in the hope that either was the case.
Chara wouldn't allow it.
At the very least, Frisk thought, Alphys can't be dead… yet. Chara wouldn't just kill her and be done with it. Not after everything. She wouldn't go through all this trouble of letting me have control back unless she still planned on making me watch her kill everyone I love.
It was hard to imagine that Chara could have made such quick progress all the way to Hotland, especially when she had just attacked Papyrus outside the ruins. There was no one else who could have done it - the only possible culprit was Chara.
Of course, there was no way to know how long Frisk had been unconscious, and how long Chara had to prepare. The fact that Chara had somehow separated herself from Frisk in and of itself was unimaginable and downright terrifying. There was no telling what the other human could do at this point.
"It doesn't appear that this Alphys heeded your warning," Toriel said, drawing Frisk's attention back to her. "No one has been evacuated."
Frisk stared up at Toriel, inexplicably off balance. The fact that she had the ability to tell others about what was going on in this part of the timeline was surreal as it was, but for people to actually believe her… it filled her with all sorts of intense emotions.
"Perhaps she simply didn't know whether or not she could trust you," Toriel said as she glanced to Frisk. "After all, she would not recognize you at this time, would she? She must have been quite surprised to hear you address her by name."
Frisk sighed as she rubbed her head, willing to disorientation to disappear; she couldn't let herself be thrown by such drastic differences to the timeline. "I was hoping that by using her name she'd take me seriously, or at least let D… Asgore know. I think he knows about the resets like Sans does, so he might've told everyone to evacuate. Or maybe they would've panicked at a human knowing too much?" She trailed off on an awkward note, knowing she was grasping at straws.
Frisk's eyes drifted away from her mother to the snow crunching beneath her feet as her steps slowed. "Honestly… I'm not used to being able to tell all of you anything about what's going on. I'm not sure how much I should say without… making you all afraid of me." The memory of the look Sans gave her sent a chill through her body that had nothing to do with the cold. "Or hate me."
Toriel made a thoughtful sound in the back of her throat as she looked down at Frisk. "Well, it would seem that everyone's already worked themselves in a tizzy over you as it is, so you really can't blame yourself over that, my child. Even if I find it very strange and confusing, I also can not deny… that I feel as though known you for years. I see no reason not to trust you, and even less reason to fear you."
Tears pricked behind Frisk's eyes as Toriel's words grasped tightly at her heart. Moved by the sudden surge of emotion, she threw her arms around her mother's side and buried her face in the queen's dress. Words failed her, so she merely embraced her mother's side.
"Nice to see a human showing some love instead of LOVE," Sans said, his abrupt appearance startling both Toriel and Frisk out of the hug. "Heh, don't let me interrupt. I'd rather watch a human hug a monster than stab 'em. Right, old lady?"
Toriel fixed Sans with a pointed stare. "Indeed. Perhaps monsters could learn from Frisk, present company included."
Sans chuckled as he gave a casual shrug. "Hey, who am I to complain about being in good company? How about we all catch a bite at Grillby's while we wait for my bro to get back? I don't think we need any sentries keeping watch when the human is right here with us."
Doggo looked over at Toriel, trying to hide how eager he was for a break from all the strangeness. "The food here is good, Your Majesty. The royal guard can attest to that." The other dogs in his squad made barks or nods of approval.
Toriel's initial response was to agree but instead she paused. While it was true that Frisk was not a threat, the human child had insisted that there was another that was. And the fact that this other human had attacked the skeleton brothers was the entire reason the one before her showed so much hostility towards Frisk in the first place. It was a threat that she could not ignore, even if she had no physical evidence to support it. The old queen considered her options before she turned to Frisk. "...Perhaps we should order the evacuation instead, and not wait for this 'Alphys'."
Sans glanced at Frisk. "You talked to Alphys, huh?"
Frisk could see right through Sans' casual question. "Though the cameras, but if she was watching at the time, I don't think she listened when I asked her to evacuate the monsters."
"Eh, don't worry about it," Sans said with a shrug. "I doubt someone like the royal scientist would be interested in taking orders from a random human anyway. Maybe all she needs is to get the order directly from royalty, like, say, the queen."
Toriel was silent for several moments, before she gave a nod. "Perhaps that is precisely what I should do."
"Great," Sans said, his grin widening. "How about I show you the way to the lab while the dog squad here get some treats with the human. They could teach them how to play poker while you go save the underground from the human who wants everyone dead."
Toriel's mouth stretched into a thin line. "Thank you for your suggestion, but I believe I will keep the human child with me-"
A terrible scream cut off the queen, though it was a fair distance away. The familiarity of it hit Sans with a terrible sense of déjà vu that had him turn a glowing eye towards the child directly in front of him then in the opposite direction where Papyrus' scream came from. He disappeared just as the others started moving.
Frisk didn't hesitate to run, despite what happened the last time Papyrus screamed. Dread overflowed her rapidly beating heart as she reached the border of Snowdin and Waterfall. She expected the worst, a repeat of earlier, but it wasn't Papyrus on the ground bleeding dust.
It was Undyne.
The heavy armor Undyne wore looked as though it had been thrown into a thresher while she was still wearing it, gashes mangled inward and twisting her limbs until she lay helpless on the ground, hissing through her sharp teeth. Her helmet was gone, crushed by her side and exposing her face covered in cuts, but her gaze wasn't on her ruined armor or her own wounds. Her attacker stood only a few steps away, facing not her, but Papyrus.
"Chara!" Frisk shouted as she charged at the other human child, only to freeze in her tracks when she saw Chara held a knife, the knife right at Papyrus' neck. This wasn't the toy weapon from the ruins - no other knife had the same glow or blood red shadows that constantly rippled and danced across the surface of the blade.
Chara turned to face Frisk, a sadistic smirk spread across her face. At the sight of the other human, her smile grew impossibly wide, showing off her white teeth and glowing red eyes. There was something off about her, her body swaying slightly - jerking involuntarily in ways muscles didn't move - even as the human child held her ground with her knife a breath away from the skeleton's neck bone. However, before Frisk could even properly reflect on the unnatural twitching, Chara's spoke, her words echoing as if it were a chorus of voices rather than her own.
"YoU aLWayS weRe So pREdicTAble, pARTner."
"Hold it right there, human," Sans said, startling Frisk. Frisk had been so focused on Undyne and Papyrus she failed to notice his presence. She noticed too how his eye glowed and his hand was extended towards Chara, but nothing was happening save for a bead of sweat forming on his brow. His magic grasped for Chara's soul, but he could no more grasp it than take hold of the ocean.
In spite of the obvious strain on his face and the sweat beading his brow, Sans tried to sound casual, failing to hide his fear. "Hey, uh, I don't know what you think you're gonna accomplish by swinging that thing at my brother all the time, but I promise you, if you don't put that knife away, you're going to have a bad time."
"S-Sans, wait," Papyrus said, his voice shaking. "I'm sure we can simply talk with this human, just like we did with Frisk, and-"
Papyrus never got to finish his statement, as the knife sliced his neckbone neatly in half, causing his head to fall from his body as it went limp and burst into a cloud of dust. All the while, Chara fixed her gaze firmly on Frisk, her expression never wavering.
Sans' eyes went dark as, for all his words, the fight left him completely.
"No!" Frisk shrieked as she watched in horror as Papyrus turned to dust.
"What is going on!?" Toriel demanded as she hurried to the scene, having lagged behind the others as the dog sentries followed her. "What is the meaning-" All at once, the wind was knocked out her as her eyes settling on the twisted human before her and recognition hit her harder than any attack. She stumbled to a stop, her expression going blank as her hands fell limply to her sides. "C… Chara?"
"P… Papyrus…!" Undyne gasped, her crushed armor making every breath labored. "Damn you…!"
"S-stand back, your majesty!" Doggo shouted as the guards moved between their queen and this newest threat, all drawing their weapons.
Chara didn't acknowledge her mother at all, nor any of the other monsters. She kept her gaze firmly on Frisk, a haunting giggle escaping her. Even the humorous sound was distorted, more so than normal, but the feelings behind them were unmistakable.
"I-it's fine!" Papyrus said even as his head too began to crumble away. "It's fine, I-I am sure we can still-"
With a sick crunch, Chara stomped on Papyrus' skull, which crumbled as dust coated her foot.
Frisk's gaze fell to the dusty orange scarf fluttering in the breeze and the merciless heel grinding it into the snow. There was no question what she needed to do.
Frisk reset.
Before, in the void, Frisk would easily find her save file - a nice and neat font framed in a box hanging in the air. However, as the human child appeared in the blackness of the abyss this time, something was undeniably different. Instead of Chara's sick representation of a videogame that Frisk had become so familiar with, she instead found nearly a dozen stars - the same golden stars that allowed her to save.
"What is this?" Frisk asked aloud, instinctively expecting to hear Chara respond with some sort of sarcastic or sadistic explanation. Only silence answered her, and even the abyss seemed to swallow her voice almost immediately.
A sickening sense of trepidation weighed down Frisk's steps as she approached the nearest star. The game had changed and she had no choice but to play.
With determination in her heart, Frisk touched the star and the abyss fell away.
Frisk found herself back at the Ruins, standing before the small mound of ground she regarded as Flowey's hill. It was disorienting to appear someplace that wasn't one of her usual save points, particularly one that suggested that she was going to have to confront Flowey again. She fully expected him to pop up out of the ground any second now and taunt her for Papyrus' death, but he never appeared.
His absence set Frisk on edge, but she couldn't let it keep her still. As she stepped cautiously forward, her mind raced to figure out how to stop Chara and save everyone when something was amiss with her power to reset.
A single step was all Frisk took into the staircase entryway before she froze dead in her tracks. Upon the blood red pile of leaves was an all too familiar regal purple gown covered in dust.
"Boy howdy, ain't that a shame?" a familiar voice chirped, seconds before Flowey appeared from beneath the ground to stand beside Frisk. "Getting cut down so ruthlessly like that…" He turned to grin at Frisk, even as the human didn't look at him. "If only you hadn't been standing around stupidly, you might have been able to save her."
Frisk twitched at the cruel barb. Of course Flowey would show up to twist the knife; the only question was when his words would strike. It was pointless to ask him if he cared at all about Toriel's murder. "Asriel-"
"Aw, you're still trying to call for him?" Flowey asked as his face warped into a horrifying visage of teeth. "Hate to break it to you, but Asriel's been dead for a long, long, long time." In an instant his face turned cartoonishly adorable as he winked. "It's just little ole me, Flowey."
Frisk had to pause to take a deep, shuddering breath to calm herself, but her fingers still curled into fists. "Don't you remember me at all?"
Flowey stared hard at Frisk for several moments before he tilted his head, sticking his tongue out. "Oh, sure I remember you! You're the idiot who just let someone die~!"
Frisk closed her eyes so that she wouldn't have to stare at that mocking face out of her peripheral vision. "Just what is it about being on the surface that takes away your memories when we come back?" she muttered more to herself than Flowey, as she knew any answer he gave her would coated in poisonous thorns with nothing of substance at its core.
Flowey barely got a chance to let out a syllable before Frisk turned to him, her brown eyes blazing with determination.
"Even if you forget me a million times, I'll still save you every time, Asriel!" Frisk shouted. "Even if this cycle goes on forever, I'll never stop fighting to bring us all to the surface again. I promise."
Flowey hesitated, taken aback by Frisk's words. He was quiet for a moment before he gave a derisive snort. "You're such an idiot." With that, he disappeared into the ground from whence he came, cutting off any opportunity Frisk had to reply.
Frisk stared at the empty ground covered in dust and leaves as a shuddering breath escaped her. She turned to Toriel's gown, her gaze lingering on the dust covered gash, always in the same spot.
"I'm sorry, Mom," Frisk said. For once she was able to say the words aloud after Toriel died instead of only thinking them in a torturous silence.
After wiping the dampness from her eyes, Frisk reset and returned to the abyss.
The next star Frisk touched created a cruel transition not unlike her battles with Omega Flowey. In one instant she stood in blackness and the next she found herself suspended by cold magic seizing her soul, staring down into Sans' pitch black eye sockets in the snowy woods.
"That's a weird expression you've got there," Sans noted, his dark eyes scrutinizing the human scathingly. "You've got the face of someone who's been through this before."
Though initially disoriented, Frisk immediately realized where this reset loaded her and instinctively looked past Sans to see Papyrus sprawled out on the ground, alive, but not yet completely healed.
"N-nevermind that!" Frisk sputtered as she tried to get her bearings in spite of Sans' dark expression. "I'm not the one who hurt Papyrus! Chara was, and if we don't work together to defend each other, she's going to kill him again!"
"'Again'?" Sans repeated darkly. As deep as his anger was, the shift in the human's attitude was enough to give him pause. She seemed sincere in her fear, but it was clear that the emotion wasn't directed at him.
Frisk unsuccessfully suppressed a grimace at how suspicious one word could be, but forced herself to accept Sans' anger towards her the same as choking down awful medicine. "The timeline keeps repeating because of a human called Chara. She wants to kill everyone, and she won't stop until she does!"
"That a fact?" Sans said slowly as he assessed Frisk's words and body language.
"YeS, THat iS a FAct."
There was no chance for Sans or Frisk to react to the distorted voice beyond a flinch and a glowing eye when the knife streaked past Frisk's face, carving a notch into her ear and cutting away strands of hair in its deadly path. However, it was clear she was never the target, as the blade buried itself to the hilt into Sans' left eye socket, extinguishing the dual colored glow as the tip burst through the back of his skull with a spray of dust and bone shards.
Sans didn't even have the chance to cry out, but Frisk saw a glimpse of his remaining eye carrying shock before he burst to dust. His magic died a second later, dropping Frisk roughly to the ground in a cloud of dust and heavy clothing.
"S-Sans?" Papyrus asked weakly, his disoriented mind grasping to understand what had just transpired. It took him a moment to register the sight before him, tiny fragments of his own brother's corpse disappearing in the wind and snow, before shock and horror became clear on his face. "Sans-!?"
Another giggle escaped Chara, but her entertainment was not Papyrus' shock and horror. The sight of Frisk covered in dust was what made her smile widen and twist into a wicked curve of white teeth.
Frisk coughed up the dust and felt like she was going to vomit from knowing what she had breathed in. She sat up, trying to get away from the dust that stuck to her with the melting snow as a black pit of hatred bubbled up inside of her. "Stop it. Just stop it, Chara! You've already killed everyone hundreds of times! Thousands! What more do you want?!"
Chara didn't respond verbally, instead holding Frisk's gaze as she moved her arm about to point the knife at Papyrus, even as the injured skeleton struggled to get to his feet.
That gesture said it all; Frisk reset before Chara could have the pleasure of murdering Papyrus once again.
Chara's smirking face disappeared into the darkness as Frisk returned to the abyss, where the twinkling stars awaited her.
Again and again and again Frisk used different stars to load another save, but it all led to death. Doggo was sliced across the eyes as they arrived at his station. Lesser Dog was decapitated while Frisk had her hand on his head. Dogamy and Dogressa's entrance repeated twice for Chara to kill one then the other with stabs to the chest and back respectively so that each of them could see their lover die. Even Greater Dog had the knife driven into his head before his initial emergence from his hiding spot in the snow.
Each moment was like a stab in to Frisk's own heart, inflicting an injury that followed her through each reset. It made her dread each one, knowing what was about to happen even as she desperately fought against it. So when the scenery once again changed to the familiar field of flowers where she had first fallen, she instantly leapt to her feet and rushed forward into the darkened cavern to reach Toriel before she had to watch her mother die again.
Frisk found herself immediately greeted by the familiar scene of Flowey on his hill, waiting for her as he always did after every full reset that brought her back to the very beginning.
"Howdy!" Flowey said, with great - and completely false - cheer. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower-"
"Asriel!" Frisk shouted, skidding to a halt just short of the homicidal flower. "Stop it! You don't have to keep watching people die to feel anything! You don't have to hurt anyone anymore!"
A slash of the knife ended Flowey's mockery, carving a jagged cut between his eyes. His entire body twitched, sounds of confusion eeking from his mouth as he belatedly registered the pain, before a cruel heel slammed into the divide, roughly tearing the flower in half through sheer blunt force.
Chara ground her heel into the remnants of Flowey seconds before he burst into dust, her eyes still focused exclusively on Frisk. Her twisted smirk taunted her 'partner' as her eyes reflected not only amusement in its crimson surface but defiance - daring Frisk to stop her.
Anger and frustration bubbled over inside of Frisk and she barely managed the willpower needed to fight the urge to lunge at Chara and throttle the demon, screaming and crying. She knew all too well that violence was not the answer.
Unfortunately, when it came to Chara, neither was mercy.
"I'm going to stop you, Chara," Frisk promised with roughly hewn words ground out between clenched teeth.
Chara's only response was a giggle, her lips curling up in a sneer.
There was nothing more for Frisk to say before she reset once more.
As the world came into focus, Frisk found herself in the chilly yet familiar surroundings of Snowdin. The disorientation lasted only a second before she realized that Toriel was standing beside her, holding her hand tightly as she glared at the shrugging skeleton in front of them.
"Eh, don't worry about it," Sans said. "I doubt someone like the royal scientist would be interested in taking orders from a random human anyway. Maybe all she needs is to get the order directly from royalty, like, say, the queen."
Toriel's expression remained just as hard as the last time as she met Sans' casual barb with suspicious disapproval before she gave a nod. "Perhaps that is precisely what I should do."
Frisk jerked as she immediately recognized the scenario, and realized what was about to happen next.
"Great," Sans said, seemingly unperturbed by his queen's disapproval as his grin widened. "How about I show you-"
Frisk took off, releasing Toriel's hand. She heard her mother call after her, and glimpsed at Sans' startled face when she ran past him, but she only shouted. "Chara's after Papyrus and Undyne!"
There was no time for further explanation. Frisk tore through the town, jumping over presents in the square and dodging past monsters milling about as they stared after in confusion. Only her instincts brought her to a halt once she reached outside of town when a blur of motion and the familiar sound of something sharp cutting through air was the only warning she got before a spear of magic landed in front of her. She barely had a moment to focus on the weapon as she skidded a few extra inches across the snowy ground before she was forced to dodge an entire volley of magical spears.
The black armored profile of Undyne immediately greeted Frisk, her red ponytail sticking out the back like a tassel as she held another spear at the ready, crouched and obviously hostile. She didn't have to do more than point as her magic created countless jutting spears beneath the human's surprisingly nimble feet.
"Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait!" came Papyrus' panicked cries, drawing attention to him as he waved his hands. "There's been a mistaaaake! That's the good human!"
Although Frisk was relieved that Undyne wasn't injured and Papyrus wasn't dying, she couldn't give it more than a passing thought before she was forced to jump and run from the magic erupting from the ground and trying to skewer her.
Through the frightening visage of her helmet, Undyne's voice came with a metallic echo that made her sound grave. "There's no such thing as a good human, Papyrus. Go home and let me take care of this."
It was Undyne's turn to be blindsided this time. A burst of fire flew right by Frisk with deadly accuracy before slamming into the fish woman. It was not the tame sort that Toriel had used against Frisk, but a roaring inferno that promised only pain as it began to melt the armor.
Toriel stood beside Frisk in an instant as the human panted for breath, the boss monster's fist clenched as it was engulfed in flames. Her eyes seemed to blaze as well as they glared down at the downed Undyne. "You will take care of nothing."
Undyne let out a groan as her now warped helmet fell off, but she recovered quickly with sharp teeth curving into an almost manic smile. "Oh hell, yeah! And here I thought this fight would be be bor…" She paused as she took another look at Toriel. "Wait, you're not a human." Confusion immediately switched to anger as she jumped to her feet. "What're you doing!? Go home! Don't you know there's a couple of dangerous humans running around!?"
Toriel gave a sweeping gesture of her hand, and a burst of fire surged out around her and Frisk. The snow immediately melted, turning into steam, as a ring of fire danced in an obvious threat. "The only dangerous one I see is you."
Frisk attempted to step forward to get between Toriel and Undyne in case the captain of the guard decided to attack anyway, but the flames provided a barrier that was impossible for her to cross.
The unpleasant heat from the flames made Undyne wary, but she would not give a single inch. She directed the point of her spear directly at Toriel's face. "Look, I don't know who you are and what you think you're doing with that human, but you're standing in the way of everyone's hopes and dreams!"
"Waaaaait!" Papyrus shouted again as he hurried over to the armored leader of the Royal Knights. "Undyne, that's the queen! You can't fight the queen! That would be..." The skeleton man's jaw dropped as he clasped his hands to either side of his face. "Very bad!"
"I don't care if she's King Asgore!" Undyne snapped. "No one is gonna stop me from…" She paused for a moment to shift her gaze from Papyrus to Toriel and back. "Wait, did you say the queen? The queen? The one who ran off to the ruins forever ago and never came back?"
Toriel's eyes narrowed. "Who I am does not matter. I will not allow you - or that fool you call a king - to harm my child."
Undyne outright gawked at Toriel. "Your child? That's a human!"
"My child," Toriel repeated, her tone as dangerous as a knife.
Undyne let out a frustrated grunt. "Okay, look, lost queen, adoptive mother, I don't care! We need seven human souls to break the barrier!" She directed the point of her spear to Frisk. "And that human right there is the last one we need! I'm not about to let anyone get in the way of our freedom."
"You 'do not care'?" Toriel asked as she held her hand out towards Undyne, a warning of what was to come if she so much as sneezed in Frisk's direction. "You 'do not care' that you are killing innocent children?"
Undyne let out a snort of laughter. "Right. 'Innocent'. Like the 'innocent' child that nearly killed Papyrus?"
"A-ah, but… they didn't!" Papyrus said as he raised his fist triumphantly. "As you can see, the great Papyrus is still very much alive, so that does not count!"
"Or 'innocent' like the humans that trapped us down here?" Undyne pressed, as though Papyrus hadn't interrupted. "Or the humans that keep falling down here killing monsters until only King Asgore can put a stop to them?"
"The other humans killed monsters?" Frisk whispered, shocked. Admittedly, she tried not to think of what happened to the six souls who had fallen before her, but the fact that the other humans chose to kill was as surprising as it was completely, tragically heartbreaking.
Not everyone had the determination to refuse to kill anyone.
"You say that as if the humans were not attacked first," Toriel retorted, with surprising venom in her voice. "You attack those terrified children, then blame them when they defend themselves! Had you not instigated violence from the start, there would have been no bloodshed!" She net out a snort. "But clearly, that does not matter to you. You simply intend to twist the situation in order to defend yourselves - defend Asgore - even as it turns the Royal knights into nothing but murderers... child killers." She then clenched her hand, the flames flickering about it as they glowed white. "And I suppose the 'irony' that you are proving the human's fear of us to be well founded would be lost on the likes of you."
Undyne let out a derisive snort, her eye narrowing. "Heh. Figures the queen that ran away and hid for a century instead of standing up for her people would become a human-loving traitor! I'll bet you armed the humans yourself hoping they'd kill King Asgore so you could take over, you coward!"
Things were spiraling out of control; Frisk she needed to diffuse it somehow, even if she knew that no mere words would ever convince Undyne to trust her. Only actions might prevent her friends from hurting each other and she could only think of one act that might make Undyne pause "H-hold it!" she shouted, raising her hands into the air, palms open. "We don't need to fight. I'll give myself up without a fight. You can take me as your prisoner to King Asgo-"
"You will do no such thing," Toriel said as she moved in front of Frisk, without looking back at her. "I will not allow him - or anyone else - to kill yet another child! Let alone for such a foolish act of suicide!"
Frisk cringed at her failure even as she felt a swell of love for her mother's fierce protectiveness of her.
"I never planned on taking prisoners anyway," Undyne snarled as she held her spear in both hands, bouncing on her heels in anticipation of a fight. "Now go back to your hiding place! You heard the human - hand them over so I can bring their soul to King Asgore and finally break the barrier!"
"If you wish to fight, then so be it!" Toriel said, raising her voice as the fire intensified about her, further melting the snow and depriving Snowdin of its namesake as browned blades of grass and dirt appeared beneath the smoldering steam. The citizens who had dared to gather at the edge of town to gawk were quick to scamper from heat as suffocating as the mounting tension. Even the canine royal guard cowered far behind their furious queen, not daring to step between her and their leader. "Let us see how a bullying coward such as you fairs against a true opponent!"
Undyne laughed as she readied her spear. "Fine with me! I'm tired of talking anyway!"
Toriel narrowed her eyes. "As am I." Without waiting for a response, she threw her hands up and sent another blast of fire at Undyne, blowing her backwards as the very ground itself turned to ash around her.
"This is bad, this is very bad!" Papyrus sputtered as he clasped both his hands over the top of his head. "What am I supposed to do?" He then whirled to his brother, desperate. "Sans! What am I supposed to do!?"
Sans didn't reply or even seemed to be paying attention. His eyes were closed, his breathing even with his head bowed. At first, Papyrus assumed he was in deep contemplation, but a gentle snore dispelled the illusion.
Papyrus jerked before he grabbed his brother by the collar of the dirty blue hoodie to shake him violently. "Sans! How can you sleep at a time like this?!"
Sans opened an eye with a startled snort, but quickly recovered with an easy smile. "Sorry, bro. All this excitement just wore me out, I guess."
"You… you lazy good for nothing!" Papyrus snapped before he released his brother and turned back to the fight. Even the other members of the royal guards cowered away from the fight, uncertain and a little afraid to choose between their captain and the queen. "I… it seems that I, the great Papyrus, will be left to… to deal with this situation myself!"
The skeleton's pomp and posturing would have had more impact, if he hadn't immediately cringed back with a yelp from a burst of fire as it detonated nearby - though thankfully not near enough to do more than send his scarf fluttering in the aftershock.
"You go, bro," Sans said placidly. He knew Undyne would never hurt Papyrus and given what he knew of Toriel, the queen would never forgive herself for harming someone as sweet and innocent as Papyrus.
Sans knew he wouldn't.
Wreathed by flames, Frisk could only watch helplessly as Toriel and Undyne threw magical attacks at one another. There was no turn-based system to slow either of them down now that the facade of a videogame was gone, and the rate of attacks were dizzying. Any spears that came her way or tried to come up from the ground were instantly burned away by fire before she could even dodge. Even as Toriel created a mesmerizing display of complicated dancing flames, she still managed a perfect protection of the human child everyone wanted dead.
It was all too clear to Frisk how much Toriel held back during every battle between them, and even Asgore's patterns paled in comparison. Her mother showed unimaginable power and control, which had never been more apparent than when Toriel had tried to discourage Frisk from her quest. Despite the constant hail of flames, it was only when Chara usurped control during moments that Frisk dropped her guard and threw them both into the flames to die that she was ever in any true danger.
And often those moments were meant not to torment Frisk, but Toriel herself - to shatter her confidence in her self-control, and make her kill the child she tried so hard to protect. The flames didn't hurt nearly so much as the look of pure shock and horror Toriel had worn each time she saw Frisk die by her magic.
While Undyne had, in previous resets, exiled the queen back to the ruins during her particularly gruesome failed runs, it was made all the more clear to Frisk that Toriel had gone willingly, without any sort of resistance. She had lacked the motivation - the determination - to keep fighting. But now, that those powers were in full force and aimed at Undyne with intent to save. Toriel was not holding back and fully in her element; she was not resigned or succumbing to nihilism. Her determination glistened in her eyes and the flames she summoned effortlessly with each gesture, focused wholeheartedly in protecting Frisk from the attacker before her.
Undyne may as well have been trying to stab the fire itself, for all the good it did her. Every spear she launched exploded upon collision with fireballs and though she used all her training with Asgore to prepare her for such patterns of attack, there were too many - a hell of flames coming at her on all sides that scorched her armor and skin, regardless of her strength and determination to fight.
Undyne tried to close the distance between them in an effort to physically assault the queen when it was clear distance attacks would fail, but the large boss monster was surprisingly quick to bring up a wall of flames, forcing Undyne to retreat before she ran headlong into it.
It became all the more clear that she was not fighting a monster, but a force of nature itself.
It was too much for Undyne and she knew it, but sheer stubborn pride kept her climbing back to her feet even as the heat seeped into her armor and turned it into an oven that baked her. Even as her back bowed from pain, body smoking, and her movements turned into a crawl, she refused to stay down. "I won't… give up… on everyone's dreams!"
A single ball of flame, less deadly than the others, smacked Undyne in the head like a newspaper swatting a dog that piddled on the carpet, and she fell backward.
Frisk felt her heart twist for Undyne, and she tugged on her mother's robe. "Mom, that's enough! Please. Undyne isn't a bad person… I've made friends with her too… before time reset."
Toriel paused at that, though her expression remained serious. However, even as she kept her deadly gaze on the fallen fish warrior, she lowered her hand to take Frisk's in her own and give the child's hand a reassuring squeeze. "Leave. Now."
Undyne let out a hiss as she struggled in the heat as flames surrounded her with menacing promise. She couldn't speak, but the murderous glare in her eye conveyed her feelings far better than any word could. It was only when the magical fire backed away enough for the air to cool around her that she could return to her feet, unsteady and weak. She shrugged off Papyrus when he offered a helping hand, but muttered a short word of thanks when he healed her wounds.
Toriel met Undyne's glare with one of her own, neither wavering nor flinching. "And tell Asgore that I am coming for him."
There were no further words exchanged, just the sound of metal clanking against scorched ground as Undyne turned and stiffly walked away.
Although her life had been spared, Frisk still felt a surge of fear as she watched Undyne leave. "Undyne!" she shouted, causing the captain to halt, but not turn around. "Be careful. There's another human who is trying to kill monsters, so please warn everyone to take shelter and to not fight her - they won't be able to beat her, and she won't show them any mercy!"
A lone eye glared at Frisk from over Undyne's shoulder, but only for a moment before the captain left. Although there were no words spoken, the look spoke volumes of a hatred of humankind that seeped deep into the underground from wrongs made centuries past, and a cry for justice and revenge that would not end with this defeat.
Toriel breathed heavily through her nose in a sigh. "I am sure she did not believe that you, in fact, are not the human to fear… but I suppose it does not matter. The results will still be the same."
Frisk nodded ever so slightly as she watched the flames surrounding them wink out one by one. As long as everyone lived and reached the surface, the monsters could think whatever they wanted of her.
No matter the cost she paid in the end, Frisk would save everyone and stop Chara for good.