Toby Fox owns Undertale and all associated characters Alexander belongs to me.
Undyne rolled over in bed, her fins scraping across the pillows. An arm reached out to pull her wife closer to her, but it found nothing but empty space.
She groaned, opening her eye to stare blearily about the room. Sure enough, no-one else was there. She shifted over to look at the clock sitting on the nightstand close by. Three in the morning. Way too early to even be thinking about getting up.
The fish-woman couldn't hear Alexander crying, so either Alphys had calmed him already, or it wasn't their son at all, and she had just snuck out of bed during the night again.
Why couldn't I have married someone with a normal sleep schedule? Undyne grumbled internally, getting out of bed and stumbling towards the door of their dark room, her overlong tank top just barely keeping her decent. Not that she was worried about that anyway, it was only her family in the house right now.
She fumbled around for the door handle, and pulled it open, first going slightly down the hardwood floor of the hallway to check on Alexander in the next room. Opening the door, she took a quick glance around the messy room to see the boy sleeping soundly in his crib, his arms and legs twitching slightly as he dreamed.
She looked at him for a few moments, warmth flooding through her and a huge grin spreading across her face at the sight of her son. She would never get over the incredible feeling of being a mother. After a few moments, she closed the door quietly so as not to wake him.
Well, if Alphys wasn't there, that probably meant she was in the lab. Again. Undyne shuffled to the stairs leading back to the main floor, once again mentally berating herself for letting Alphys set up a lab in the basement. She'd thought that it would mean the reptile would spend more time at home, and less at her other lab, but apparently it just meant late-night expeditions to work on some idea she got in the middle of the night.
Vowing to herself that she was going to drag her wife back to bed by the tail whether she liked it or not, Undyne's feet just touched the simple red rug at the bottom of the stairs when Sans suddenly popped into existence right in front of the door leading outside. Undyne was startled to full wakefulness, suddenly grateful that she tended to buy her shirts extra long.
"Sans, what are you doing here?" She asked harshly. "There's a reason you're supposed to knock first!"
The skeleton was hunched over, huffing with exertion. Sweat poured from his skull, dripping down into his eye sockets and drenching his hoodie. At his feet was Kid. The boy toppled limply over to land softly on another rug. Undyne's eye widened as she took in his tattered shirt and the cuts crisscrossing his torso, flecks of dust clinging to the edges of the wounds.
"What the hell? Sans, what's going on!?"
"Kid… hurt really badly." Sans managed between wheezes. "Where's... Alphys?"
Undyne whipped out her cell phone, rapidly punching in Alphys's number. Since the reptile had insisted on installing an elevator to go down to the basement instead of stairs like a normal person, it would be a lot faster if the woman just came up on her own.
"U-undyne?" Alphys's voice came through the speaker. "I'll be back soon, I promise, I just-"
"Alphys, you need to come up here. Now." Undyne's voice was firm, leaving no doubt that she was serious. There was a clicking sound from the other end, and Undyne knew that her wife would be coming up as quickly as she could.
Sans had stumbled over to the couch, sinking down into it gratefully. Undyne carefully lifted Kid up and brought him there too. She laid him gently on the cushions, keeping his head supported by the armrest, then straightened, her eye flicking from the two unexpected guests, to the elevator doors and back again.
Undyne was fuming. Whoever had done this was going to pay. She looked back at Sans, who'd closed his sockets, his shoulders still shaking with exertion. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a dinging noise as the elevator opened and Alphys scuttled out from it.
"Undyne? What's wrong?" The scientist's eyes lighted on Kid. She made a noise somewhere between a shriek and a gasp, and ran over to the boy. "Oh no, what happened? What's going on? What-"
Sans cracked open a socket.
"Alphys, he Fell Down." The skeleton said tiredly, earning another gasp from the scientist. "We thought… Chara thought that you might be able to help."
"Me?" Alphys squeaked. "I-I can't, I'll mess it up, I don't know how-"
"Alphys, I need you to try." Sans said, and Undyne could detect a faint hint of desperation in his voice. "You saved Undyne right? If anyone can figure out how to help, it's you."
Alphys looked over at Undyne, fear reflecting in her eyes. The fish women swiftly scooped up the smaller reptile and raised her so that she could press her forehead to Alphys's own.
"You are strong," she whispered. "You are in control. You can do this." She leaned back and gave her a toothy grin. "I don't know what's going on here, but I'll take care care of Sans. You go work your nerd magic and save the day, okay babe?"
Alphys blinked then nodded slowly. When Undyne lowered her to the ground, she turned to the boy.
"Umm, I'm going to need some help… can you bring him down to my lab?"
"Sure thing. I'm gonna need to grab some pants anyway."
Undyne slammed the door of her truck shut and had to keep herself from twisting the key in the ignition too hard. She'd already lost enough keys by snapping them in there, and losing another really wasn't going to help her mood right now.
The old blue truck rumbled to life, and she spared a quick glance to the skeleton in the seat beside her. He'd not made any objections when she'd told him she would drive him back home. Which was good, because he was in no condition to get home alone, and she needed answers.
"What the hell happened?" Undyne asked, pulling the truck out of the driveway and onto the abandoned street. "I thought you guys were in Paris!"
"We were," Sans said, weariness lacing his voice. "I took a shortcut."
"You can do that?"
"Barely," the skeleton admitted, somehow slumping even deeper into his seat. "Didn't really have much of a choice though. Kid got separated from us, and was ambushed by a group of Humans. He was in real bad shape by the time I got there."
Undyne's knuckles paled as she tightened her grip on the wheel.
"Who did it? When I get my hands on them, they're dead."
Sans gave a hollow laugh.
"They're already dead. Chara found them first."
Undyne looked back at Sans for a second, before returning her attention to the road.
"Guess I shouldn't be surprised. If I ever found Alphys like that... ." She growled at the thought, not noticing as pale teal light began to shine from behind her eyepatch.
Sans was silent, and they quickly reached the house he shared with his brother. He didn't get out of the vehicle right away however.
"Undyne… listen. I'm gonna be… out of commission for a while. Chara's probably going to be home in a day or two… She took an early flight back. Can you watch out for her?"
"Of course! I'll call the station and let em' know. This is more important than work."
Still he hesitated.
"Watch her carefully, okay? She's gonna be upset and angry, and I'm worried that she's gonna do something we all regret. And for the love of mercy, don't antagonize her."
Undyne looked at him in bewilderment.
"What are you talking about, Sans?"
The skeleton shook his head slowly.
"Never mind… it doesn't matter. Just be careful okay? Now if you don't mind…" He finally opened the car door. "I'm gonna go sleep like the dead."
"Try and actually make it to your bed this time!" Undyne called after him, though Sans didn't respond as he shut the door and trudged back to his house.
"Weird," she muttered, pulling out of the driveway. "It almost sounded like he was… afraid of Chara." She narrowed her eye. Something strange was going on, and she didn't like it one bit.
There was no way she was going to be able to get back to sleep tonight.
Undyne sat at the piano in the living room, trying to relax by playing the songs she had composed. Spear of Justice didn't seem to be cutting it right now, so she switched to the new song she'd written; "The Heroine Appears."
She glanced over the the couch as she played, making sure Alexander was still where she had left him. A soft smile caressed her features upon seeing her son still curled up on the cushion, sleeping soundly. For whatever reason, listening to her play the piano always lulled him to sleep, something Undyne was grateful for. Especially when he was in a more adventurous mood.
Her phone blared suddenly, causing her to start in surprise, then quickly fumble for it, pulling it up to her face.
"Who is this?" she demanded, checking to make sure the sudden noise hadn't woken Alexander up, relieved to find out that it hadn't.
"Where's Kid?" It was Chara, her tone filled with anger, fear, and just a trace amount of weariness. "He's not in the lab, and Alphys isn't answering her phone. Where is he?!"
"He's in our basement;" Undyne found herself saying, slightly stunned at Chara's voice. "Alphys is-"
But Chara had already hung up. Undyne slowly lowered the phone, staring blankly at it for a moment. Chara… she hadn't sounded like herself at all. Something about it was... unsettling.
There was the swish of elevator doors, and Alphys emerged from them, rubbing her hands together nervously.
"How is he?" Undyne asked, focusing on her wife.
Alphys shook her head.
"I've done what I can… but no Monster has ever survived Falling Down before." She hesitated. "Well, not properly anyway. There's umm... not much else I can do. I'll keep monitoring him but…" She shrugged helplessly. "Either he'll wake up… or he won't."
Undyne stood, walking around the piano and kneeling down so that she was at eye level with Alphys.
"Hey, you know your stuff better than anyone. He'll pull through, you'll see. And uh, I think you're not gonna have to worry so much about monitoring him."
Alphys looked at her questioningly.
"I just got a call from Chara. I think she's coming here now." She hesitated for a second then said, "Could you bring Alexander upstairs? And uh, maybe you should stay up there with him for now."
"Is something wrong?"
"Just a hunch," was the vague reply. Alphys chewed her lip for a moment before nodding and walking over to the couch, scooping Alexander up into her arms. The small reptile opened his eyes slightly and gave a tired squeak at the disturbance.
"It's okay, little one," Alphys soothed, and Undyne couldn't help but smile at the tenderness in her voice. "Okaa's just bringing you to your crib, okay?"
Alexander yawned widely, then snuggled into Alphys's chest, his tiny hands fisting her lab coat as his eyes closed again.
Not long after the two had gone upstairs, the door flung open and Chara burst into the room, her eyes wild and her hair dishevelled. There was a small plastic bag clutched in her hand. She focused on Undyne and stepped towards her.
"Where's- "
"I'll take you to him." Undyne opened the elevator doors, but somehow Chara was inside before she was. Undyne followed, hitting the button to bring them down.
The ride seemed to take an eternity, especially since Chara was fidgeting so hard.
"The elevator won't go faster no matter how much you do that you know."
Chara shot her a glare, but said nothing, disregarding Undyne's advice.
Finally, the elevator doors opened, and immediately, Chara bolted out of the elevator and down the short hallway into the lab, Undyne hurrying after her. By the time the fish woman had reached the lab, Chara was already standing over the hospital style bed Alphys had set up for Kid.
The boy was unmoving, but for the slight rise and fall of his chest. Chara gripped the side rails with her free hand and stared down at him.
"He's still alive…" her voice was shaky with relief, but that only lasted a brief moment before she whipped her head around at Undyne.
"Is he going to be okay?" she demanded.
"We don't know yet." Undyne admitted. "Alphys said she did everything she could-"
"Well, tell her to do more!" Chara interrupted. Undyne narrowed her eye at the mechanical girl.
"She's doing everything she can." A warning tone had crept into Undyne's voice. "We're not gonna just let Kid die."
Chara bit back a snarl and walked stiffly to the other side of the room, grabbing a chair that had been left there and pulling it over to where Kid lay and seating herself. Undyne watched her as she settled into it, waiting for the girl to say something, but there was nothing. After a few minutes, the fish woman turned on her heel and left the lab.
Upstairs, she found Alphys waiting for her.
"W-well?"
"Chara's in the basement, looks like she's watching over Kid," Undyne reported. Then she sighed. "Remind me to talk to Sans about all this when he wakes up. If he doesn't know anything, then I'm a fairy princess."
Alphys's gaze went hazy as the image of a small Undyne with fairy wings wearing a pink dress and a tiara flashed through her mind.
"That's so cute!" she squealed. Undyne stared blankly at her.
"Wha- that wasn't the part you were supposed to focus on, nerd!" But despite her protest, she grinned, and had to admit she felt a little better for it. "Anyways, I'll see what he has to say, but… I think maybe we should go stay with someone else for a while until this is over."
"Umm, why?" Alphys asked nervously.
"Well, think of it this way… if I found out that you had Fallen Down, and I wasn't sure if you were going to survive… do you think it would be safe to be around me?" Undyne scratched at her arm just beneath her DT recycler. "I don't think she'd try anything on purpose, but that doesn't mean nothing would happen."
"O-okay, I'll make some calls then. I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out." Alphys hesitated for a moment, rubbing her hands together. "Umm, I might still need to check on Kid, see if there's anything else I can do to help…"
"Just let me know if you do, okay? I want to make sure I'm there in case something does happen."
"I think I can manage that, and she has to power down sometimes anyways." Alphys smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. Then she started, remembering something.
"Did you call Napstablook?"
Undyne blinked.
"Napstablook? Why would I need to-" she stopped and slapped a hand to her forehead. "Dammit, I knew I was forgetting something," she groaned. "This is just one big disaster, isn't it?"
Alphys nodded reluctantly, but grasped Undyne's hand in her own.
"It's okay… we'll make it through this… somehow…"
Author's note: I've got some things coming up next week, so I will be uploading the next chapter thursday morning. Posts will resume as normal afterwards.