Chapter 3: I Still Believe In You!
He awoke a little startled and confused, it took a moment to remember where he was, had he just slept in a dream? It must be so, it's not like he dreamt anything whilst sleeping here. There was a blanket draped over him, he… he didn't remember putting it there, why was it? Heh, it was all dream anyway right, so what, a blanket magically appeared, par for the course.
He stood, leaving the blanket where it lay, he moved along the path. Before him lay another cleared out area with a large piece of paper in the middle, on the other side stood the two skeletons.
"Human!" Papyrus yelled "Prepare yourself for… Sans! Where is the puzzle!"
"It's right there on the ground," Sans replied motioning towards the paper "Trust me There's no way They'll skip this one."
Out of curiosity Frisk approached the paper and looked down seeing a picture of a dog shaped ice cube and a number of letters arranged in a square. A word search? Did they think he was gonna do a word search? He was trying to survive through this nightmare! He walked forward and approached the brothers.
"Sans!" That did absolutely nothing!" Papyrus cried in anger.
"Whoops." Sans said "I knew I should have put down Junior Jumble instead."
"Junior Jumble!" Papyrus said "Finally something we can agree on!" Papyrus the rushed off into the distance again presumably to prepare yet another puzzle for him.
"Hey." Sans said "Y'know, it would make my brother real happy if you just played along."
Emotion stabbed into the child's heart as fond memories of his own brother welled up in his mind, memories that would mean nothing soon enough. He stopped and stared downward and tried not to cry, Sans looked at him for a moment, then walked off to join his brother. After what seemed an eternity, but was likely only a few minutes he raised his head and continued, his eyes burned red from trying to stop the tears
He found a strange looking sign in the snow, some weird double cross shape cleared out not unlike the squares the skeletons used. He approached it curious and the sound of footsteps sent him bolt upright, two massive dogs wielding axes of somekind approached, they were acting strange, it seemed they had bad eyesight, similar to the one he had killed earlier.
"I smell something." One of the dogs said in a gruff voice
"Yes indeed." The other replied in a more feminine voice "What is that strange smell?"
"If you are a smell Identify yoursmelf!" the other dog said.
Normally Frisk would be timid, afraid of something like this, he would be upset to say the least, he would remain quiet and try to escape detection, hoping the dogs wouldn't bite him. But things were different now, he felt more confident, it was strange thoughts would form in his mind nearly unbidden here.
"You may have heard of me Puppies!" He said charismatically "I'm the one who's been hunting all your friends down!"
"You!" One of the dogs said "You're Chara! The king's foster son!" he said "Why would you betray us like this!"
"Betray you?" Frisk said with a alight smirk "I betrayed no one, I'm just surviving, since you all want me dead, the only way to survive is to kill you instead."
"Perhaps we should leave him be dear." The feminine voice said "If his aim is for survival then he won't kill us if we leave him alone, isn't that right?"
Frisk nodded, he never really had a desire to kill, but he certainly didn't mind doing it.
"But he's the one who killed snowcap and Doggo!" The male voiced dog said "I cannot let him skate by freely for that!"
A moment later a knife found it's way into the male dog's stomach, though he was large, he found the pain to intense and reached down to feel the knife slide out, no blood flowed out and the large monster did not die, he raised his head an raised his axe ready to exterminate the boy beneath it.
Frisk jumped back as the axe slammed into the Earth with a heavy smash, some dust fell from the wound and onto the ground, Frisk wasn't sure if this was a good sign or not, but he didn't want to wait and find out. Another twisting step later and he tried to slash the male with the knife and take him down, but the glowing blade of determination slammed against cold steel as the female's axe defended her partner.
"Are you okay my love?" she said.
"I'll live." The man said "But we should see a vet soon, I'll need something for this."
"You're probably the toughest monsters I've fought yet." Frisk said as he dodged around behind them sticking the knife into the female's back where she could not block effectively. "This time I'll make sure it's permanent!" Frisk continued as he pulled the knife around her side and pulled it out from her stomach.
Te female dog let out a horrifying screech of pain and collapsed on the ground, her form began to shimmer and distort, tears fell from her eyes as she looked longingly at her husband, reaching her hand out to grasp his. He grabbed her hand only to feel it turn to dust as she ceased to exist before his very eyes.
"You…" He uttered "You Evil bastard! I'll-"
Another stab, this time into his side "You'll do what?" Frisk asked "I'm the one with power now, all of you think you can just kill me, but you can't. I'll kill you instead."
He ripped the knife around to the dog's back and upwards until it collided with a piece of armor he was wearing. Then pulled it out. Like his wife before him he shimmered and disappeared, unlike his wife he left behind a small white heart that shivered in the cold for a brief moment before evaporating into thin air.
"Why do they want me dead so badly? This should all just be a nightmare, one from which I can wake up." He asked the sky. He wasn't sure, but he felt as though he was being watched, though from where he could not guess.
Continuing onward he noticed a lot of symbols in the snow, they appeared to be blue X's, it seemed like another puzzle of sorts, but the skeletons weren't here to operate it, so he walked around it. Noticing holes lined up in the ground as he passed over them, they looked like the spike traps in the ruins once he had deactivated him. Of course they did, these monsters wanted him dead!
The plateu ended abrubtly and a wooden bridge led over a small chasm to an odd bit of ground that seemed to made of metal in various shades of grey. Like the skeleton puzzles before the ground around it was completely cleared of snow. Beyond it stood the two skeletons
"Hey!" Papyrus yelled "It's the Human! You're gonna love this puzzle!"
Before Papyrus even had time to finish Frisk approached walking over the tiles and swinging the toy knife around by a loop on the end of it's handle. These puzzles were beginning to annoy him, if they wanted a fight, they should just fight him outright, none of this stupid 'pass my tests' rutine.
"It was made by the great…" Papyrus finally seemed to have noticed Frisk's no nonsense motion. "Are you serious? Sans! Help! It keeps walking through my puzzles! It's supposed to let me explain them, then Threaten and baffle It with dangerous Japes!"
"Well," Sans said putting a finger to his chin thoughtfully "Maybe they don't like Japes."
"Everyone likes Japes!" Papyrus responded angrily.
"What about Undyne," Sans asked "Doesn't she hate puzzles?"
"She hates Puzzles, but she loves Japes!" Papyrus responded.
"You guys can see I'm right here right?" Frisk asked still spinning the knife at the end of his finger.
"Makes sense pap." Sans said ignoring the boy.
"Human, what do you think Puzzles or Japes!"
Frisk stared resisting as best as he could from going slack jawed in utter shock at what was happening before him, theis consisted primarily of him keeping his jaw firmly shut which gave him a somewhat indignant and irritated look.
"This is the part where you agree or disagree." Papyrus said "And depending on your answer we say something great in response!"
Again Frisk remained jaw locked trying not to erupt with shock, awe and likely laughter.
"Um…" Papyrus said "Okay, How about you do this puzzle yourself." Papyrus walked off, but his motion could be better described as sulking.
"Puzlles might be fun if you tried them." Sans said before following his brother.
"Yeah…" Frisk said still stifling a little laughter "screw that, But that guy, damn is he funny!" Frisk let out a laugh letting himself be himself for a moment and forgetting about all the terrorizing things going on around him. It was nice, but he had already had his laughter taken away by more unwelcome and saddened thoughts.
He continued onward and found himself looking at another puzzle with the blue Xs from before. Again he skipped this puzzle and moved on, as he attempted to cross over to a bridge he could see he ran into a pile of snow, the pile concealed what appeared to be a small and adorable dog.
"Awww," Frisk uttered reaching his hand out to pet it, but the ground suddenly lurched and a huge golem-like suit of armor appeared from it revealing that the dog was in truth an enormous armored humanoid of some kind towering over the poor child like a hungry beast.
"What?" Frisk asked "What the hell!"
The dog let out a bark and attacked with a spear which Frisk barely had time to dodge.
"I should've freakin' knew better!" he said tears stinging his eyes "Why do you all want me dead so badly!?"
This dog proved rather difficult to fight as his spear gave him a considerable reach advantage over the diminutive boy. The dog jabbed again and again barking the whole while and Frisk rolled about and dodged s best he could, he finally lunged forward getting cut in the side as he did so, just as he was about to hit the dog he felt something stick into his back, piercing through his body and sticking out the front. He slowly turned to look ans saw that the spear had reverse facing hooks on the edges and the dog had pulled back, shoving one of those hooks through his body, as he realized this the pain multiplied and he felt an incredible urge to cough and splutter, doing so produced sprats of blood.
The dog tilted it's head sideways and barked again, satisfied at the kill, he relaxed his grip allowing the spear to retreat from the hole which bled incessantly staining the snow red as the boy fell forward like a log. He felt cold and weak, he couldn't move, he couldn't do anything, he could not speak or scream, he could barely breathe.
He heard footsteps in the snow approaching him, but his face was turned the wrong way to see.
"Looks like you got the job done for us huh doggie." The familiar voice of the prankster Sans was heard. "That's unfortunate I suppose, too bad for them."
They were the last thing Frisk heard before fading into blackness. Then golden light filled his vision and he found himself at a table with a plate of frozen spaghetti on it, a microwave oven was on a table next to it and there was a mouse hole in the wall ahead.
"What?" he wondered briefly before remembering the searing hot flames of Toriel and golden light that had revived him before. "Oh, right, somehow… I keep coming back. I can't die… that's because its all a dream. A DEEP DREAM I CAN'T WAKE UP FROM! He said angrily punching the plate of spaghetti and earning himself some small cuts on his little fingers. He sighed frustrated and confused. He set out again, making it through the puzzles and the japes of the skeleton brothers and finally walking back towards the mighty dog that had attacked him.
Again he approached the snow and again the dog appeared, though this time instead of trying to pet it he plunged his knife downward into the dog's deceptively cute form "DIE!" he yelled in frustration as the blade pierced the dog's head and the creature ceased moving. He wasn't sure how he kept making this rd energy, part of the dream he supposed, but if this was a dream, maybe he could find a real knife soon.
Walking forward granted him access to a bridge at the end of which the skeletal brothers stood, Frisk was in no mood for any of their drivel, he had just killed a dog, maybe it was murderous, but it had looked so cute, unlike the axe wielding maniacs from earlier. Why was all this happening, what good was this nightmare, what was he to learn, his soul felt as though it was being consumed bit by bit.
"Human!" Papyrus' voice called across to him as he crossed the bridge feeling empty and tired "This is your final and most dangerous challenge! Behold! The Gauntlet of deadly terror! As he spoke several large pillars began to rise around him, each bearing a different threat. One was a ball and chain, two were spear launchers, one a flame thrower, one a cannon and one a cute looking dog, which he had learned the hard way may be a savage beast intent on killing him if he wasn't careful.
"When I say the word It will fully activate!" Papyrus yelled triumphantly "Cannons will fire! Spikes will swing!" Blades with slice! Each part will swing violently up and down! Only the Tiniest Chance of Victory will remain! Are you Ready? Because I'm… About… To… Acivate it!"
Frisk was uncertain about this, he could see that the gauntlwt would likely destroy the rope bridge upon which he was standing, sending him plummeting to his doom, but then again, he would just come back wouldn't he? He did only half an hour ago… then he noticed Sans, the skeleton was looking at him strangely reading him, looking through him as though he could see through his thoughts and motives. It was creepy and weird, as though he remembered… did he? Frisk wondered briefly, could he return to the past as well?
"Well," the shorter Skeleton asked his younger brother "What's the holdup?"
"Holdup?" Papyrus said "What Holdup!? I'm… I'm about to activate it now!" again he failed to activate the trap, Frisk wondered if the taller skeleton had misplace the activation sequence or something.
"That uh…" Sans said "Doesn't look vey activated bro."
"Well…" Papyrus replied hesitantly "It's probably just going to walk through it again and it won't be fun at all…"
"Hmm…" Sans hummed thoughtfully "so this human thing was a bust then?"
"Well…" Pepyrus responded "I'm excited to capture it… so I can become a famous Royal guardsman! But all the time I put into these puzzles… It's kinf of like throwing a birthday party!"
"That's what you creeps call this!" Frisk yelled angrily "A freakin Birthday party, does it occur at all to you that I just don't want to die!"
"Don't want to die?" papyrus asked innocently "I wasn;t going to kill you Human, just capture you."
"Yeah and then what?" Frisk asked angrily.
"Then I was going to bring you to Asgore…" Papyrus said "Our king."
"Do you know what Asgore does with humans pap?" Sans asked.
"He preserves then doesn't he?" so their souls can break the Barrier, I always thought that we would honor them as heroes after all was done."
"No pap," Sans said in a suddenly and uncharacteristically serious tone "He kills them and harvests their souls. To use in a the ritual when this is all over.
"He what?" Papyrus said suddenly losing interest in everything else "Then Undyne has sent six human children to their…" he seemed afraid to say it.
"Yep," Sans replied "And if you want to become a famous royal guardsman, you'll have to do the same."
"I don't want to." Papyrus said, almost immediately.
"You should." Sans said "This one, despite his looks he's a cold blooded killer, aren't you boy?"
"I wouldn't call it cold blooded." Frisk said "If he doesn't want to kill me, then fine." Frisk stuffed his knife back in his pocket and raised his hands "I just want to live."
Sans gave Frisk a grave look, the lights in his eyesockets disappeared and he stared through him for a long time, then without saying a word he walked away, vanishing into the snow and leaving Papyrus alone with him.
"I…" Papyrus began "I need to go think… Please human, don't do anything rash."
Frisk stood there a moment, a long moment thinking over what had just happened, the gauntlet remained, but it was inactive and he felt it should be safe to cross, he did so, sighing in relief as he reached solid ground again. What was all this? He continued forward and found a sign telling him that a settlement called "Snowdin" was up ahead.
But before he reached it a group of monsters blocked his way, two more of those bird things, some of the Geletin monsters and an Ice Cap.
"Stop right there Chara!" the Icecap said threateningly "This is home to many monsters and you will not destroy it. Turn back or die."
He curled his hands into balls of frustration and growled "Why?" he asked in both anger and exasperation "Why won't you just let me leave!"
"Leave?" The icecap asked "You want to leave the underground?"
"Yes!" he said "I want to go home!"
The Icecap pondered this a moment, he hadn't considered this at all, that perhaps this human was simply afraind and unaware, maybe if he stopped trying to kill it, it wouldn't kill him or his friends.
"I'm sorry." The Icecap said his hands drooping uselessly at his sides "But you ask for the impossible. We cannot return you to the surface."
Frisk screamed in a mixture of frustration, anger and agony causing the Geletins to react out of fear attachint to his limbs to keep him weighed down and still. But this only angered him further. Crimson fire burned in his eyes and Icecap realized he had made a dreadful mistake.
"Hold him!" he said to the Moldsmals He charged energy at his back and pointed his ice spiked head forward towards the human's vitals.
The birds attacked scratching the human's arms but the human pulled free of the moldsmals and slashed the first bird mercilessly turning it to dust and swinging down to do the same to one of the moldsmalls.
The gelatin monster dissipated and Frisk stabbed at his own arm to kill another, then next bird came down like a kamikaze and frist stuck the glowing red blade tip first through it's beak and into it's head, then the icecap attacked, Frisk barely dodged and the icecap smashed it's cone-like hat into a rock destroying it. As the third gelatin slumped away he approached the icecap and drove the knife inside it, the creature wavered trying desperately to keep its corporeal form, but failed as it's body too returned to dust. Frisk was covered in the stuff now, and he was angry, he couldn't get home? Nonsense! They were lying! They had to be! He had to go back!
To what? He wondered briefly, calming himself He had been cast out of his own home after all, he was not welcome with his defunct family anymore, why did he desire to return, did he miss them… he supposed that was all it could be, he hadn't realized he missed them so much. Again tears fell, but this time he forced them back. Asgore… that was the name of their king, he knew how to return, he could get home if he could find Asgore. He would probably have no choice but to fight him so he would have to beat him within an inch of his life and force the king to give up the secret. If he did, then he'd leave and cause no more trouble.
Frisk continued onward entering a town, a town that was completely deserted by the looks of it. He saw a sign in front of one of the buildings it said "Shop"he entered curious what he would find. But it too was empty, he looked around, checked behind the counter, there were a lot of goods here a motorcycle glove, a bandana a weird shaped popsicle and a cinnamon roll. There was also a note and a bag of gold coins like those he had seen before. He grabbed the note, it looked as though it was hastily written, scrawled on paper in a rush. It read:
"Please, I don't know why you're doing all of this, you may take what you wish from here, I hope it brings you fortune, take the money, take the goods, they're yours, just do me a single favor, please don't hurt my family."
Frisk starred in horror at the paper, "What the hell!?" he uttered aloud, to these monsters he was a monster, were there some that had no interest in fighting him, why then, why were so many fighting him, if their families were being put in danger, why would they... He sobbed uncontrollably, what was happening to him, this wasn't how his life was supposed to be, he had wanted to grow up and become a great scientist one day, invent new things to help people, not he was reduced to a monster killing soldier that just wanted to go home. It wasn't fair. Eventually he stood and returned outside there was a tree in the middle of town and a little lizard like monster was standing near it.
"Oh, Hey there!" the monster said in a young voice, was this a monster child? "I was wondering where everyone had gone, but I don't recognize you, are you new to Snowdin?" he asked.
"Y-yeah…" Frisk said uncertainly
"What happened?" The boy asked "You're all teary eyed, did you see the board about the thing killing everybody, scary huh? They it's an actual human."
Pain pulled at his heart as he heard those words, but he silently nodded wiping his eyes.
"Well don't worry!" The monster kid said "The Great Undyne will protect us! She's so cool, and so strong! I wish I could be like her!"
Undyne, hadn't the skeletons mentioned her, she was Papyrus' superior, his trainer, she was stronger that the brothers, but he didn't know how strong the brothers were.
"well I'm gonna go see if I can find anyone else," The kid said "I hope you feel better soon!"
Frisk starred In awe as the kid left, he hadn't been mean at all, hadn't even known he was human, but had he known, would he have… maybe? He didn't think so, the kid seemed do genuine and eager, not unlike himself but days ago before this mess all began, was he dying, was this a dream he couldn't wake up from because he was dying, was the monster boy him? He couldn't tell.
He trudge onward, past the town and out into a white wall of snow flurrying about him, there he saw a silhouette, a skeleton's silhouette, Papyrus' silhouette.
"Human." He said just as uncharacteristically serious as his brother had been earlier, "I don't wish harm or death on anyone. I want you to know that. I… Isaw what you did earlier, you are unstable."
Frisk gasped with fear "Y-You saw the fight."
"Yes, but…" Papyrus' head slumped "I was too late to help. You want to go home, he… he made you feel threatened, I don't think… I don't think you are evil, but… I do think that you are dangerous."
"then what will you do?" Frisk asked, he pulled out his knife though tears still stained his face and he had no real desire to fight, the snow died down and Papyrus' form was fully visible.
"I will capture you…" Papyrus said "Not because I want to be a royal guardsman, but because it is the right thing to do, both for the innocents here, and for you. you're scared, alone and confused." I won't let Asgore kill you, we'll find another way." He said "I believe that you're better than this, that you're really a good person, I think, if things hadn't turned out this way… we could've been friends."
"Asgore will kill me and take my soul," Frisk said "I… I don't want that to happen, That's not how this nightmare will end!" Frisk rushed forward brandishing the knife.
"Nightmare?" Papyrus said momentarily stunned and forgetting to defend himself, the knife drove deep and severed his spine ripping upward through his ribcage and popping his head from his neck.
He looked around "Well," he said as his body turned to dust beside him "that was unesxpected… but I still think you can do better… I still believe in you human, you can save this world, and the next…" His voice trailed off as the head to disappeared into dust and the fullness of what he had done crashed on Frisk once more, he had to bear it, he couldn't keep falling every time this happened he had to get to the end to save himself to do something…
He had to get to asgore… as he walked he didn't notice a small yellow flower push out from the snow and shake off it's petals next to the dust that had been Papyrus.
"I knew it!" the flower said gleefully "He returned, he missed me after all! This will be glorious, just the two of us we'll dominate this world Brothers once more!"
He couldn't contain his laughter as the human continued walking, shuffling out of the snow and blindly stumbling into a cave like structure full of sparkling lights and glowing flowers.
Author's note: I love this game's story! It is so good, I know I'm altering it, I tried to keep to the original dialogue at first, but I decided to try and make it a little more interesting, after all Frisk speaks in this one. I also really like the Underfell AU and I think that I'll do a fic for that one too. If you don't know what underfell is it's basically this: Instead of creating a happy society Asgore and the monsters lived in bitter hatred of humanity for years and blamed them for all the ill that has befallen them since being cast into the underground, they wish to return to the surface to make war, so all the characters come off as evil… except flowey who was thrust into a world of kill or be killed and hates it, fearing death when he finds Frisk he climbs onto his arm and tries to help him defeat everyone, but frisk decides to show them that the world isn't as cruel as they think it has to be. Anyway that's my interpretation of it, and I really want to do a fic of it, cuz it's so touching to me. But anyway enjoy this and more content soon!