A/N: Sorry it's been a while. Good news I'm pretty far ahead in chapters and I went back after writing some new content about the royal guards and went back to change the name and story of the orange soul this is in Chapter 6 and 10.
Chapter 17: Spoiled Rotten
It was nearly five years before the initiation ceremony where Undyne would accept four royal guards to serve at her side.
"You recruits are gathered here today for the initiation ceremony. Four of you will be joining my side to join the royal guard and the rest of you will be sentries."
She paced in front of Errol.
"Sentry Errol, your dodging skills are outstanding but you hold back in front of your colleagues and I can respect that," she said before approaching Barty.
"A sentry needs a good heart and bravery to do the right thing even if it's difficult. That's why Sentry Barty and Sentry Errol will be the first to join the Royal Guard."
Barty was shocked, he looked and saw that she also let Whiskers and Flicka into the Royal Guard as well.
"The rest of you are sentries. Your job is to patrol the rest of the underground. Remember we're on the lookout for humans."
The rest of their old colleagues went about their business.
"Sentry Barty. You pick first. Choose your partner who will help you patrol."
"I'd like to partner up with Sentry Errol."
"Then I guess Sentry Flicka will be paired with Sentry Whiskers."
Whiskers huffed.
"Don't slow me down."
Flicka blushed.
"Sentry Barty will be referred to as Royal Guard 01 or RG01 and his partner will be RG02. Sentry Whiskers is RG03 and Sentry Flicka is RG04."
After seeing Nicedrake on stage it seemed Snowdrake was a little nicer to Stephanie taking her everywhere. Snowdrake motioned to an ice cube wearing an icicle hat.
"This is Ice Cap. The green flame is Barby Q and the tub with the yellow bird is Woshua."
"Pleased to meet you," Stephanie said.
"How could you walk around looking so dirty?" Woshua asked.
"So how was she like in person?" Barby asked. "Arial, I mean."
"She seemed pretty nice. Do you know her husband is the royal scientist?"
"Really?"
"She has two sons too."
"How old are they?"
"I don't know. The shorter skeleton sounded like an adult but his brother looked very old. He was so tall."
Stephanie and Woshua had a staring contest gazing each other down.
"Hey will you two knock it off this is not some spring cleaning contest," Barby snapped, distracted by the staring contest amongst her friends.
"You think they'd play with us?" Ice Cap asked.
"They're adults, Ice Cap," Barby said.
"They might play with us."
"It's nice to hope," She said with a sad smile. "At least you got their mother's autograph so that's a good thing."
"Well I couldn't do it without this monster's help," Snowdrake said pointing to Stephanie.
"Really? I thought you hated her," Ice cap said.
Barby snorted eyeing up the girl.
"She doesn't seem that impressive. You don't have to lie for her. She don't look like she could talk her way out of anything."
Stephanie frowned.
"Don't be rude, Barby. We hung out and I changed my mind. These things tend to happen."
"Well that's cruel."
"If you don't like it then you could go. Who needs friends like you. The only thing anyone likes about you is your hat."
Ice Cap was silent.
"Was Cal baiting you again?" Snowdrake asked.
"I don't like her."
"She was so nice to us."
"I know it was so creepy. Then when we were talking about her she was glaring at us as if she knew what we were talking about. I'd die before I ever be her friend."
"What's her problem?" Stephanie whispered idly.
"Her mother has been very sick lately."
"That's no excuse." The words slipped out accompanied by confusing feelings of nostalgia.
"I know."
Meanwhile while Sans was in the lab, he was hit with an epiphany.
"That's where I recognised her from."
"Sans, why are you talking to yourself?" Aster asked, peering over to where his son was seated.
"Um, I just remembered I forgot something. I'll be back," he said as he headed out.
Luckily there was a box outside the throne room in the king's castle. Sans had moved it there from the lab after the king had developed a use for it. In an instant, Sans vanished, teleporting into the king's castle.
"Sans, I didn't expect to see you here," the king spoke.
Sans looked up and saw he was getting ready to leave.
"You didn't need me for anything, did you?"
"No, I'm just getting something from the box."
"Oh I forgot all about the box. I'm sorry I haven't been using it."
Sans took out a vial.
"What's that?"
"A cure. I just remembered I kept it there. Usually I don't remember until it's too late. A human will drop down here with an incurable disease. It will kill everyone too unless I can give everyone the vaccine in time."
"I will let everyone know."
"Thank you, your majesty."
His first priority was to give it to Toriel. He only hoped he was in time. He quickly teleported outside the ruins before knocking on the door.
"Coming."
Toriel's soft voice echoed from the other side. Eventually she answered the door.
"Sans, I didn't expect to see you here again. Did you forget something?"
Sans felt his face heat up and rubbed the back of his skull.
"Er, here," Sans said before handing her a vial from the pocket of his lab coat.
"What's this?" Toriel asked, taking the vial from the skeleton gazing at it's contents. "It's a vaccine. You said a child came through here right? She has a virus."
"I see and you were hoping to save everyone before they got sick right?"
"Yeah, that's the gist of it."
Toriel chuckled.
"I already recieved the vaccine though. So there's no need for me to accept any more."
Sans' pupils shrunk.
"What? But how?"
Toriel chuckled.
"How strange, it was you who gave me the vaccine before the human came down here."
"I did?" Sans asked in genuine confusion.
"Yes, you did so thanks," she said before she kissing him on the cheek his face turning a light shade of red.
Still after the event something nagged at his head as he was heading to Grillby's. It was as if he was missing some vital piece of information. He sat at the front of the pub on one of the stools.
"What can I do for you today?"
Sans looked up and saw it was Grillby.
"Where's your daughter today?" He asked.
"She's sulking in her room. I asked her to take care of her mother while I work but she didn't want to. She said it was too hard then she got sassy with me," He said before letting out a sigh. "That's never happened to me before."
"Have you seen a human by here per chance she's really sick and.."
"No," Grillby said. "Haven't seen a human at all."
Chills crept up his spine just being in Grillby's at this time rewarded him with a very bad feeling something would happen.
"Are you feeling alright?"
"I feel a little under the weather I think."
He got up and headed out not noticing Barby peering around the corner.
"That's where I recognised her from. I always knew she was trouble."
It was after Sans had left that Grillby headed back into the kitchen area and opened a backdoor leading to their bedroom. Flare was lying on the bed.
Barby was at her side glaring at her.
"What is it about her? Do you even care about me?"
Grillby's fists clenched, smoke came from his body. Barby knew it only happened when he was angry. Was he going to snap at her?
"Your mother is sick. She's cared for you ever since you were a little girl. You're being very insensitive."
"Why am I not surprised," she grumbled through teary eyes. "You care about her more than me."
Barby huffed and ran out of the room.
"Barby, apologise to your mother."
"She don't have to apologise," Flare said softly. "It's alright. I'm sure she didn't mean it. She's just upset."
Still even as she said that a part of her felt uneasy.
As Snowdrake was about to go to sleep, he heard the sound of a pebble drop in his room.
"What the-"
He got up and looked out the window spotting Barby outside.
"Barby, why are you outside so late?"
She wiped at her face.
"Are you crying?"
"Of course not," she spat. "My dad's just being an idiot. I'm running away. Do you want to come with?"
"Hold on," he said.
A part of him was worried since that human had been running amok. He was a little concerned for Barby.
"Be down there in a minute."
Snowdrake headed to Stephanie's room.
"Hey," he said, shaking Stephanie trying to get her to wake.
"Snowy, what's the big idea?" She groaned.
"Barby is meeting us downstairs.
"You mean that girl who was nasty to everyone? She's such a spoiled brat."
"With that human around though, I'm a little worried for her."
"If we get in trouble because of her I'm telling her parents everything."
Stephanie followed Snowdrake outside.
"What's she doing here?" Barby asked glaring icily at Stephanie.
"I asked her to come along," Snowdrake said.
"Heh, it's no smoke off my back," She said with a smug grin. "We're heading to Waterfall, I heard there was a place you could watch snail racing."
"You mean at Napstablook's place?" Stephanie asked.
"I don't know. It's just some ghost."
The three kids headed through the cave to the place where the water was too wide to cross.
"How do we even cross this place?"
"There's four plants that float when they're placed in the water. I mean why else would they be there?"
Snowdrake set the plants in the water and they crossed. Some time had passed and Barby grew irritated with each passing moment.
"Hold on," she snapped. "I need to take a break. My feet are killing me. Can you move that bench over here, Snowy?"
"Why don't you do it?" Stephanie asked.
"I'm exhausted."
"So are we."
"Well you two didn't have to come."
"Yeah we did because you can't resist bringing everyone into your drama."
"Take that back."
"Never."
"Stop fighting you two," Snowdrake cut in.
"She started it," they both said in unison.
"Well I'm ending it."
Meanwhile one of the sentries dropped by Undyne's post.
"We spotted a human walking past Waterfall with two other monsters."
"Have RG03 and RG04 head them off at the intersection."
RG01 and RG02 came in and Undyne told them the news.
"So another human had come down here, huh?" RG02 said.
"Yeah, your only job is to apprehend the human."
"Isn't there another way. It just seems to cruel to kill them," RG01 said. "They are only children aren't they?"
"We're doing it for the greater good. It might be a misconstrued act of justice but the idea that our king is working so hard to make everyone happy despite his past it makes me want to fight for his dreams because I can't bear it to see him suffer after the humans killed his son. I've lost two parents so I know what it's like to lose someone to a human."
On the way through Waterfall, a monster shaped like a raindrop ran into them.
"Hello."
"Where's the big waterfall?" Stephanie asked.
"Oh it should be to the east. You'll have to take the lower path though."
"Thanks."
They headed east and walked for some time.
Another sentry had dropped by Undyne's station.
"Captain, RG03 and RG04 just missed them. They heard from the locals that the children are up ahead."
Undyne's face heated up.
"How did they miss them?" She snapped. "What were those idiots doing?"
"You could send us to find the human," RG02 suggested.
"No, I can do it myself. Still it's probably best that you two come along."
RG01 and RG02 followed Undyne to the checkpoint.
Snowdrake looked around. The path looked strangely familiar almost as if they were going in circles.
"Where are we?"
"You don't even know where we are?" Barby asked.
"I think we're lost," Stephanie said.
"Well who's fault is that. If you two hadn't listened to that monster we would have been fine."
Stephanie's glared at her. Her face pale, her fists clenched. She gritted her teeth angrily.
"SHUT UP! ALL YOU'VE BEEN DOING IS WHINING AND COMPLAINING. YOU DON'T EVEN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. YOU'RE JUST TAKING IT OUT ON EVERYONE BECAUSE YOU'RE MISERABLE," she said before she lunged for Barby and grabbed her shoulders shaking her erratically.
Barby smacked her.
"What are you doing? Let me go you creep."
"Apologise."
"Why should I?"
"If you don't, I'll make you."
A blue flame covered Stephanie's right hand as she jabbed at her with her fist.
Barby braced herself.
"What? Why?" Snowdrake gasped.
When no pain was forthcoming, Barby looked up. Her eyes instantly widened with surprise. Flare stood in front of her. A fist protruded out of her abdomen.
"Mom, what? Why are you here?"
"I was so worried when you were gone."
She clutched her chest.
"I'm sorry I wasn't a better mother," she said as she faded to dust.
Stephanie stared at her looking very horrified.
"What happened?"
"She turned to dust. I guess you must really hate me. Don't you? Only one punch from you killed her."
The dust was sprinkled all over her tutu.
Snowdrake looked at her as though he'd seen a ghost.
"What are you?"
"She's human," Barby said. "I heard my brother talking with Sans. You're the person who's making everyone sick aren't you?"
Tears fell from the corner of her eyes.
"I'm, I'm sorry," she said before she ran deeper into Waterfall.
The next day, Sans dropped by Grillby's. He saw the place was covered in flames. Still that hadn't deterred him from sitting on one of the stools in front.
"Grillbz, what happened?"
"Don't know. That wife's been gone since yesterday."
"I didn't know you were so flammable under pressure. Do you know where they are?"
"No one has seen them in Snowdin.
"I can look for them in Waterfall if you like. Think of it as a favor from a friend."
"Thank you, Sans."
"Cheer up or you'll scare all your customers away."
With that Sans teleported away.
Walking through Waterfall, he stumbled upon a drop shaped monster looking around frantically.
"Have you seen a monster with a green flame? They are a little smoky."
"There was one who came by here with a snowdrake and a weird looking monster. They almost looked like a human. They said they were heading to the big waterfall."
"Thanks," he said walking further to the east. It was some distance away that caught sight of the snowdrake with the monster in question.
"Where's the human?" he asked the snowdrake.
Snowdrake was silent.
"Here, you two should take some of the antidote. If the virus is left unattended for too long you two will die."
Barby stammered.
"They-She killed my mom and after that she fled."
Barby was shaky and there were tears falling down their cheeks.
"She looked very pale. I don't think she's dangerous. She was so upset when your mother died," Snowdrake said.
Sans sighed.
'It has started.'
Sans continued his journey through Waterfall. Peering behind some tall grass, Sans caught sight of the battle between Undyne and the human.
The human had conjured blue magic in her hands and tossed it at her. Undyne was completely still.
She laughed.
"Is this some kind of joke? That didn't hurt at all. I tire of this game. Just die."
"Please don't kill me."
She tossed some spears at the child. Stephanie dodged some of them but one landed in her chest and she collapsed to the ground.
End Notes:
9/8/16 Edit: Rewrote Chapter 6 and 17 after doing a little fact checking.