A/N: New cartoon out on Wednesday. Dunno how I'm gonna share it here, I don't think I can paste links. In the meantime my YouTube channel is linked in my bio if you wanna check that out?

The fish monster's footsteps echoed as she traversed the final corridor of the CORE, towards the elevator which would allow her to finally leave Hotland and enter the king's castle, whereupon she and her companions would grab as many of the coffins he kept in the basement as they could and book it. Somehow. Undyne hadn't exactly worked out all of the details yet, but just kind of winging it had worked wonders for her thus far, so she was sure she would find a way. She had to. The thought of giving these humans a proper burial and finally atoning for her past sins filled her with DETERMINATION.

Before they reached the door, Undyne stopped in her tracks. Her companions stopped as well.

"I-is something wrong?" Alphys asked.

"No, it's just…" Undyne turned around to face her friends.

I'm going to take over for a second, Frisk told Chara. "Undyne, is everything alright?" she asked.

"I just wanted to thank you guys for coming to do this with me," Undyne said. "I know that I keep going back to these dumb mistakes I made two years ago. You're probably tired of it. I need to get over it, it happened in the past and there's nothing I can do to fix it. But…" She glanced over at the elevator. "I can't get over it until we do this." Undyne crossed her arms and leaned up against the wall. "I can't ever undo my mistakes. I won't ever be able to give those kids the lives they deserve to live. I can't even return their souls to them, Asgore has those locked up good. But I sure as hell can give them the honor they deserve to be given."

"Of course," Frisk nodded. "I'm proud of you, Undyne."

Alphys gave a determined nod as well. "Yeah! Y-you've grown a lot in the last month." She scratched the back of her neck nervously and chuckled. "I wish the same could be said about me. But we're getting off track." Alphys smiled and smacked her fist into an open hand. "Let's get in there and give those humans the memorial they deserve."

The trio nodded and marched into the elevator, excited to get the show on the road. The show had to wait, unfortunately, as this was a really, really long elevator ride.

"So, uh, how are we gonna do this?" Frisk asked.

Undyne glanced at her, then stared back at the elevator door. "What do you mean?"

"Well, there are seven coffins and three of us." She looked over at Undyne. "I imagine you can probably carry a couple, but Alphys and I will have to team up just to carry one." She thought some more. "We're also going to have to be really careful to not disturb the corpses. The coffins need to be handled with as much care as possible."

Undyne nodded. "We're going to be moving slowly and carefully and respectfully. And we're going to make multiple trips."

Alphys sighed. "This is risky."

"I know," Undyne said. "I don't have much to lose, but… You could lose your job if you're caught… Or worse," she added while glancing at Frisk. "I won't blame you two if you decide to back out."

"No way!" Alphys protested. "We're with you til the end!" She glanced at Frisk. "Plus, something tells me we're going to be fine." Frisk pulled out her phone and typed a message. Alphys' phone vibrated.

This is the first run. Things might totally go wrong.

Alphys typed out a very deep response. k. "Alright. We can do this."

Undyne smiled. "Thanks." The elevator doors opened and the trio stepped out into New Home.

Alright Chara, you can take over. Frisk allowed her consciousness to take a backseat to Chara who, thankfully, had calmed down considerably. Chara stumbled while he tried to wrestle control of the body he shared, but soon got back on his feet.

Alphys turned in concern. "Are you okay, Frisk?" she asked. She noticed that Frisk's pupils once again had a slightly red glow to them.

"I'm fine, thanks," Chara responded. "Let's just keep moving." He moved ahead of Alphys and Undyne, who just looked at each other.

Upon entering the next room, Chara approached the ledge and stared at the city in the distance. Even all of these years later, he still couldn't believe the monsters fit all of this underground. He now knew that the monsters could BARELY fit all of this underground. He wanted to do something to help, but the last time he tried…

Hey, Frisk interrupted his train of thought. Mistakes were made.

My mistakes can't be fixed.

But they can be learned from.

Alphys and Undyne approached the ledge. "Kid, is everything alright?" Undyne asked.

Chara nodded. "I'm just thinking about things. You guys don't deserve to be trapped down here. You only need one more soul, and…"

Undyne put a hand on Chara's shoulder. Chara looked up to see Undyne smiling. "I need you to stop right there. We'll find another way, Frisk." Chara looked away upon being called 'Frisk'. He didn't deserve that name. "Besides, if the only way up to the surface involves losing a friend like you, I don't want to go to the surface." Alphys simply nodded. Chara broke away and started walking again. Undyne sighed and followed.

Soon, they approached Asgore's home. "Hope nobody's home," Alphys said, nervously. "I mean, I'm sure we're fine," she said while again glancing at 'Frisk,' who seemed not to notice. She took that to mean that either nothing was going to go wrong, or Frisk simply still didn't know whether or not anything was going to go wrong.

The trio stepped inside and looked around. Nobody was home. "The King's probably in the garden," Undyne said. "Where we're going is just past the garden. We should be golden." They approached the stairs, only to notice that a chain blocked them from entering, two padlocks adorning it. "Agh, dammit, Asgore. What's the point in locking the doors if you're just gonna write down where the keys are?" She glanced at the note and noticed that, unlike usual, it was not English. "I don't speak this weird hands language, Asgore!" she complained, totally forgetting her previous complaint. "Write your notes in a language that makes sense!"

Chara blinked. "Hands?"

Alphys pushed her glasses in. "Let me see it."

"You can read this?" Undyne asked.

"Just a little bit," Alphys replied. "Th-the old Royal Scientist preferred to write this way, so I had to learn enough to… To get the gist of what he was trying to say."

"But why would Asgore write this way?"

"Paranoia, maybe," Alphys said. "This note says 'return to the old path', or… Something like that." She sighed. "He clearly doesn't want visitors."

Undyne seemed surprised. "What?! He LOVES visitors! Why doesn't he want visitors?"

Alphys shrugged. "His most trusted guard quits, his Royal Scientist just stops sending reports of her work, there's been no word to him of the human that he was told about weeks ago, none of his other guards are reporting to him…" She crossed her arms. "He probably thinks something's gone horribly wrong."

Undyne narrowed her eye. "And he hasn't come out to check on us."

"He's too scared," Chara said, surprising the other two. "Asgore's a coward. He doesn't want to face his people if they're suffering under his leadership." He sighed. "He keeps the keys in the hallway and the kitchen." Chara then turned and walked toward the hallway, leaving the other two alone.

"How did you…?" Undyne began to ask, but the child was already gone. She looked towards Alphys for answers.

"Uh, beats me," she replied.

Undyne looked back at the note, where she noticed something odd. "Hey, wait a minute, did one of you guys switch the note?"

"Huh?"

"It's in English now."

Howdy! I'm in the garden. If you have anything you need to get off your chest, please don't hesitate to come. The keys are in the kitchen and the hallway.

Alphys' eyes widened. "What?" She flipped the note around; there was nothing on the other side.

"You sure got me good, Al!" Undyne said, grinning. "For a second there, I thought something was really wrong with the king. How'd you swap the note so fast?"

Alphys stammered. "I… I-I…"

Undyne stretched her arms and started heading in the other direction. "Anyway, I'm gonna go get that other key," she said, and marched off.

Alphys kept staring at the note. "...what?"

The trio regrouped a moment later and continued onward. Alphys convinced herself that Undyne was just pranking her, although Undyne seemed convinced that the reverse was true. Soon, they reached a long hallway adorned with large marble pillars on either side. Golden light bathed the room through the large stained glass windows on the left side of the hallway, the king's seal on each and every window.

"Th-this room sure is pretty," Alphys said, admiring the decorations. She looked over at Frisk, who seemed uncomfortable with their setting. "Are you okay?"

Chara, can I talk? Chara agreed, and Frisk sighed. "This room…" She looked over at Undyne to make sure she wasn't listening. "This room is where I fought Sans."

Alphys frowned. "W-well you don't have anything to worry about on that front," she responded.

"I know, it's just…" Frisk blinked slowly. "Bad memories."

Alphys put her hand on Frisk's shoulder. "Everything's going to be fine." As she removed her hand, she noticed that her arm's movements were far weightier than normal. It was also taking slightly more effort to walk, and Alphys soul felt… Oh no.

Alphys looked over at Undyne and Frisk, who were similarly walking with more effort. Undyne grunted. "Ugh, is it just me, or is gravity different?"

Alphys' eyes widened. "Our souls are blue," she said, alarmed. "Everybody, we need to get out of—" she was cut off, as she and Frisk were shoved slightly backwards by an invisible force. Undyne turned around in concern, but a wall of magical bones rose, blocking the two parties from reaching each other.

"Sorry. I can only do one of you guys at a time," an annoyingly low voice said humorously. "I don't mean to be marrow minded, but this line of work is exhausting."

Undyne turned back around and glared, adopting a defensive stance as she did so. Several feet in front of her was Sans, grinning as always. "Oh, how did I know you would be in my way?" she rhetorically asked through gritted teeth. "What gives, Sans? I thought we were cool!"

"I'm pretty cool, but…" Sans winked. "You've been spending a lot of time in Hotland." He glanced out the window. "Plus, you seem pretty steamed right now."

"This isn't—" Undyne clenched her fists before closing her eye. She lowered her arms and took a deep breath. "Alright. I'm calm. This is calm Undyne speaking." She opened her eye, though she was still glaring. "What do you want, Sans?"

Alphys leaned over and whispered to Frisk. "Now's a pretty good time to do the time warp thing, Frisk." Frisk shook her head. "No? What do you mean, no?"

"Let's see how this plays out," Frisk responded.

Sans observed Undyne. "The look on your face says that this is the first time this has happened to you." He shrugged. "Now, one could argue that, unlike some people," he glanced at Frisk before looking back at Undyne, "you wouldn't remember if it happened before, but something else is telling me that you'd have at least a vague sense of having done this before." Sans scratched at his skull. "The look on your face ALSO says that you're here on a very important mission; redemption." He chuckled. "That raises a very important question; do you DESERVE redemption? You are LV 3, my friend, and nobody gets to LV 3 on accident."

Undyne's eye darted around the room. "I…" She sighed in defeat and closed her eye. "You're right. What I did was no accident." She reopened her eye and gave Sans a determined look. "But it WAS a mistake. A mistake that I will NEVER be able to completely undo, but dammit, I'm going to try my hardest to make things better."

Sans nodded. "What matters is that you were honest with yourself. So you made a couple of really big mistakes. Those mistakes haunt you. That's a surefire sign that you're, at the very least, not a terrible person. But I think you might even be more than 'not a terrible person'. The last month has been an incredible journey for you. One filled with more growth than I think most monsters go through in a lifetime. I've been unfair to you in the past, and for that I apologize." He glanced at Alphys and Frisk. "And, while your friends still have quite a bit of growing to do, I have no doubt you'll help them along that journey. But you need to promise me something." He put his hands up. "Now, I don't like making promises, because I don't know if I can keep them," he said, glancing at Frisk again, "but you seem like the type of monster to who'll keep a promise with them until the bitter end."

Undyne nodded. "Go on."

"Alphys and the kid aren't perfect either. They each have their own secrets and their own reasons for keeping them." He gestured towards them. "They might be in on each other's secrets. I can't say for sure. They might be hiding some things from each other and revealing other things. Regardless, there's a lot that the both of them haven't told you about themselves." Sans put his hands in his pockets and looked straight at Undyne, his grin seeming more sincere than usual. "Promise me you'll be patient with them. Promise me you'll stick with them through thick and thin. And promise me…" he hesitated. "Promise me, that no matter what they might have done in the past… No matter how heinous their crimes… You'll help them move past it, just as they helped you."

Undyne didn't hesitate. "I promise."

Sans nodded. "There's just one more thing." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "You're starting to remember, aren't you?"

Undyne looked confused. "Remember what?"

"Yeah, you are. Subconsciously, you know things you wouldn't otherwise, and you're starting to blend the past that was with the past that is."

"You're not making any sense."

"I know I'm not. Just keep something in mind." Sans opened his eyes. "The past you're starting to remember doesn't exist anymore. Don't fear it." He gestured to Frisk and Alphys. "But I think they'll tell you a little more about that when the time is right." He shrugged. "Which might be sooner than you think. I dunno. That's really up to them." He paused for a moment. "I was going to say something else, but then I forgot it. I… should get a planner." He looked back up at Undyne. "See you around." In the blink of an eye, he was gone, as was the barrier separating Undyne from her friends. Their souls were no longer blue, so they ran to her.

"A-are you alright?!" Alphys asked. "I-I- I mean, he… You… Where did he go?!"

Undyne just smiled and started walking forward. "Come on. We've got work to do." Alphys, though utterly confused at what just happened, shook her head and followed, as did Frisk.

Okay Chara, you can take over.

Did Sans just… Judge her? Can he do that? Can he judge monsters?

He's the judge, he can judge whoever he wants. It's down to his judgement.

They both went silent.

We should stop using the word "judge", it just sounds weird now.