She's Patience, black hair, silver eyes, light blue soul...
I don't think I've gone up against one of those before... I've heard that Patience are awfully persistent...
It will make a fine collection to the others... King Asgore will be pleased...
Looks like there is another human to slay for Captain Lionheart!
Those voices rang around the young skeleton's head as he ran, panting steadily for air. His older brother and the captain of the royal guard didn't notice when he slipped quietly away, and it took him quite a while to find a way out of the shady neighbourhood where Lionheart lived. Now, he was sprinting at full pelt down the main streets of New Home, the buildings looming in on him from both sides. Monsters turned heads at him, but Papyrus gave them no attention. He needed to warn Tess and Undyne!
Papyrus turned left, then right, then left, and put more power into his sprint when the CORE came into view.
The smell of ozone disoriented him a little, but the little skeleton didn't hesitate and ran straight into the unmapped maze that was his father's work.
Right... no left! Turn left for goodness' sake! Straight on... why was Gaster's work always so confusing? Monsters didn't usually travel through the core, but it was faster than the usual way down to the lower levels of Hotland.
His feet skidded across the smooth and polished floor as he realised he had ran straight into a dead end. Goddammit! Wasting no time, he turned back around and tried another way.
Better question: what are you doing here?
Why did you leave school Pap?
Drat! There must be a way out of here! Left... or did he turn right? All the corridors looked the same, and even with the puzzles deactivated it was hard to navigate. The huffs and puffs of the CORE were coming from every direction, calling in their awful voices to come their way.
Papyrus once again ran into a dead end, and turned swiftly around to run back, but he was faced with an unwelcome sight. New Home once again? He'd been running around in circles!
"C'mon," the skeletal boy snapped at himself. "The Great Papyrus always knows his way."
Though it didn't help that the layout of the CORE could be reshuffled, so the way was not always the same. This time Papyrus had to hesitate before he ran back into the machine.
Where was it? Where was the way? He needed to outrun the lion and his older brother. They were coming for them.
A few million moments passed, and finally Papyrus emerged out of the right end. The sight of the upper Hotland neighbourhood came before him, and brought more strength to Papyrus' bones.
Run skeleton, run.
Down the stairs, and to the right. The elevator! It must be working! It had to work!
"Hey! I'm Heat Flamesman! Remember my name!" shouted a small fire monster next to the entrance to the elevator. Papyrus didn't take notice of him however, and pressed the white button on the devilish looking lift.
The door swung open almost instantly, and Papyrus gladly waltzed in and selected floor R1. The door swung closed, and the elevator started moving down.
You've killed humans before, haven't you?
It seemed like an eternity before the elevator doors opened again, and set Papyrus loose on the lower levels of Hotland. Once again the boy ran from rest, jumping down the stairs that led to his father's lab, but once again Papyrus didn't pay it any attention. It was his prison, where he had been fed those poisonous lies about humans by Gaster and by Sans. He could see that now.
Anyone could be a good person if they just tried. He firmly believed that. It didn't matter if the person was a monster or a human. It was a shame that it only got to him now.
Do you really believe that Tessy could do such a thing?
Papyrus took five steps down at a time, going faster, faster and faster. He skidded to a halt before he plunged headfirst into the cold river.
River Person and Boat weren't there. No matter.
Every monster knew how to call them, and Papyrus was no exception. He tapped his foot thrice on the ground and bellowed: "Arise and come to me!"
Almost instantly Boat emerged from within the depths of the underground river, droplets of water scattered from the wood as the familiar cat head roared its arrival, the black hooded figure on its back. Papyrus shielded himself from the splatter of water that came from the wooden feline crashing down onto the surface of the river. Once again everything was calm and quiet.
Papyrus wasted no time and stepped forward to hop onto Boat's back, but the canoe lunged forward, aiming to sink its many crooked teeth into the bones. The boy snatched his boney hand away just in the nick of time and Boat's teeth snapped down on nothing but thin air.
"Boat won't allow you to saddle on its back," said the River Person cooly, its hood casting a shadow over its inexistent face. "It heard what you had said to its favourite human."
Papyrus shivered for a moment.
Now you're scared of me?
He shook away the tiny voices at the back of his mind. Boat snarled at him loudly, so that Papyrus took another step back. Telling himself to get a grip, he began to explain.
"Listen, I need to get to Undyne and Tess as quickly as possible," he started, but the River Person would not let him finish.
"Why would you want to do that? You're scared of Light Blue Soul, are you not?" it told him coldly and emotionlessly.
Papyrus shook his head. "I'm scared for them! Captain Lionheart's after Tess!"
But his cry didn't make the River Person react. It didn't even shudder. Instead it was Boat who snapped at him again. Anger shined in its beady black eyes, and its claws started to dig into the hard Hotland rock at the bank of the river.
Papyrus' panic grew to desperation quickly. "If I don't warn them Tess will be murdered!"
"Why should we believe you?" the River Person shook its head, keeping back its steed with a single black bony hand. "How do we know you're not bluffing?"
Papyrus didn't keep himself back from bellowing at the river dwellers and their stubborn stupidity. "Are you kidding me? My older brother told Captain Lionheart about Tess! He's coming for her! He's going to kill her!"
However all he got was a loud roar from Boat, which silenced Papyrus immediately.
"Don't speak, skeleton," the River Person spoke quietly and calmly, which somehow hurt Papyrus more than if it had yelled it forcefully. "Our minds are up. Do not bother us again."
With that Boat gave Papyrus the dirtiest look it could muster, and dived back into the rippling riverwater, disappearing beneath and swimming away.
The skeleton boy stood there, dumbfounded. A solid moment passed as he stared at the river where the former friendly hooded figure and the formerly loving wooden steed had been. This was their other side. Their genocide mentality.
He did not believe for one second that the cold, emotionless hooded reaper was the same monster as the friendly, mysterious and advice-giving River Person. He did not believe for one second that the growling, snarling wooden beast was the same creature as the passive, trusting feline. But his experience had said otherwise.
Strange how people could change when you agitated them.
It looked like Papyrus would have to go the long way. Nothing the Great Papyrus couldn't handle.
But suddenly Papyrus didn't feel like it was the right thing to do to turn into The Great Papyrus. He couldn't rely on The Great Papyrus to solve all his problems. The regular Papyrus caused this mess. Now the regular Papyrus would have to fix it.
So once again he was running, his footsteps hitting the ground in steady rhythm as the surrounding area grew to a blur around him. The 'Welcome To Hotland' sign was barely readable against the speed, and the hotness of Hotland melted away into the coolness of Waterfall. The rocks hung from the ceiling like dark chandeliers, and the glowing stones shined brighter than ever before. Papyrus was told that those were to imitate something called 'stars'. What was a star? A white dot in a black sky, Sans would say. Personally Papyrus had never seen a star, but the way Sans talked about them he had always assumed that it was a beautiful thing.
Just like predicted, running on foot took way longer to get to the well-known enclosed neighbourhood than getting there on Boat's back. However Papyrus got there eventually. This is undoubtedly where he would find Undyne, and if he was lucky, Tess too.
Do you believe that I'll go quote-unquote rogue and murder monsters?
The second Papyrus took a step into the neighbourhood, a semi-familiar voice called over to him. He knew he had heard the voice before, he just couldn't put his finger where.
The next thing he knew a ghost was up in his face, showing his teeth and narrowing his ghastly eyes.
"What do you think you're doing here?" the ghost shrieked in his high-pitched voice. "You dare show your ugly face here?"
"My face isn't ugly!" Papyrus defended himself instantly, panting heavily from his self-inflicted cross-country.
"I beg to differ darling!" Mettaton yowled at him, getting up in his face so Papyrus had to take a step back as to not touch the ghost's cold transparent being. "You're just a kid! A kid with a filthy heart!"
"Just let me past!" Papyrus bellowed back, tears starting to well at his eyes from the effort and shock. "I need to see Tess and Undyne!"
"You'll get past my cold dead body!" screamed the ghost, then realised his mistake. "You won't get another chance to break the darling's heart again!"
Papyrus gnashed his teeth together in irritation. "Please Mettaton! I need to tell them something very important!"
Though just like Boat and River Person, Mettaton didn't look convinced. He made an unholy noise before snarling more at the skeleton.
"What do you want to tell them that's so important that you wish to bother them after all you've done?"
Papyrus barely hesitated before he told Mettaton the truth. The ghost instantly backed off.
"Well why didn't you say so darling? My I must tell Blooky! He needs to know! You go on and tell the girls boyo, perhaps it's not too late to be forgiven."
Papyrus watched the strange ghost streak away, and then melt into the walls of the neighbourhood. What a weird fellow.
No time to loose! He needed to warn Undyne and Tess!
Were we even friends at all? Even if we were, I can never be your friend again!
Papyrus hesitated, the argument playing out in his mind. He let Gaster's lies about humanity get to him, and it caused the whole fiasco.
If he didn't listen to Gaster, he would've told Undyne and Tess about his situation. If he did that, the girls wouldn't break into the lab to see if he was okay. If they hadn't broken into the lab, Papyrus wouldn't have to admit his terrible crime of fearing the human. If he hadn't been afraid of Tess, her feelings wouldn't've been hurt. If Tess hadn't fled, shortly followed by Undyne, Papyrus wouldn't have to curl up and get depressed for Sans to find him. And if it wasn't for that, Sans wouldn't feel the need to get revenge for making Papyrus cry. And of course, if Sans didn't know of their argument, or just wasn't so darn overprotective, he wouldn't've gone to Lionheart. If all that didn't happen, Undyne and her human would've been safe from the Captain of the Royal Guard.
If only Papyrus kept believing that anyone could be a good person if they just tried.
Undyne had done nothing wrong. Tess had done nothing wrong.
I can never be your friend again!
It didn't matter now. If he didn't warn them, at least one of them would die. Knowing Undyne though, she had a strong instinct to protect those she cared about, so mostly likely she would get herself killed while battling for her best friend's life. And Tess... there was no doubts about it. If Lionheart came for her, it was game over.
The walk to Undyne's house seemed to go on for an eternity, and it went on forever. But for how long it seemed to drag, it was over in no time at all. The door was shut, the teeth clenched together against the outside.
A warm piano song emerged from the interior, a piece that Papyrus knew Undyne had been practising for the past month. A piece that the three had dubbed "Battle Against a True Hero", and one that Undyne was particularly fond of. It was a difficult piece for a beginner like Undyne, but she was playing it surprisingly well, with only a few wolf notes here and there.
A wave of nostalgia washed over Papyrus, and he suddenly realised that this life, one he was so familiar with, was now so distant. Why did he have to throw it away?
Hesitation... a few long moments passed as he hesitated, but eventually Papyrus slowly knocked on the door.
The music stopped instantly, and the door opened like a hungry mouth, and the wraith stood there in the doorway. Her face merged into surprised anger. It was clear she had not expected him to show up at her door.
"Undyne I-"
Papyrus didn't manage to say much before he felt the air being knocked out of his non-existent lungs, the next he felt himself hitting the ground. A yelp emerged from him, the fall taking a few points off his health bar. The pain kept him down for half a second, after which Papyrus tried to get up, but found that if he wanted to keep his pathetic life, he couldn't.
Undyne held a glowing blue spear at his chest, forcing him to stay where he was. Young monsters like Undyne were not able to summon strong magic like Asgore, Lionheart or even Sans, for their magical forms were still developing as with their abilities. As luck would have it, Papyrus and Undyne had just reached the age where the magic they wielded was beginning to show up. Though it was not strong, it still could do damage to a low-hp child.
"Why are you here punk!?" Undyne bellowed, trying to decide whether to point her spear at Papyrus' chest, or under his chin. Either would be terrifying. "You didn't have enough!?"
"Undyne I-"
"Be quiet!" she shouted and raised her spear, ready to bring it down onto his head. Papyrus only had a split second to react. Between his hands appeared a single femur, which clashed with Undyne's sharpened blue spear. Both weapons were frail, and broke upon contact with a loud glass-shattering noise. It was enough to allow Papyrus to scramble to his feet to face Undyne at his full height. He took a deep breath and once again tried a reasonable conversation. "I have to talk to you! You have to listen!"
"I don't have to do anything other than die!" the girl snapped, another blue spear appearing between her hands.
Oh dear, her power does not falter, does it? Papyrus groaned to himself. "Undyne just listen to me! I-"
"SHUT UP!"
Papyrus looked at Undyne in amazement. He knew she was determined and persistent. He knew she was protective, sometimes even more than Sans. But this was unbelievable. "Undyne please listen!"
In reply the little monster girl raised the spear over her head and ran towards Papyrus, yelling "nyarrrgh!" at the top of her lungs. Papyrus caused another bone to appear just in the nick of time to parry her lunge, and they began to fight.
Though he didn't look it, Papyrus could actually match Undyne in a fight. Their magic was equally weak, and the children were equally inexperienced in battle. However they each paid very close attention in battle classes, and knew exactly how different moves worked.
Their weapons shattered, were summoned again only to be shattered once more.
"We don't have to fight Undyne!" Papyrus called as he parried Undyne's overhead blow in the nick of time. "I just have to tell you something important!"
"Does it look like I care?" Undyne bellowed back, her spear falling apart in her hands. She grit her sharp shark teeth and another appeared at her palms, sharper and stronger than the last. "You're a coward! A coward!"
Papyrus jumped to avoid a set of spears that emerged from the floor, squealing in fright. That was a move only teens would do, yet Undyne had managed it almost perfectly.
Tiredness weighed on the skeleton boy, and he decided to play his final, very desperate card.
"LIONHEART KNOWS ABOUT TESS!" he yowled out, half in terror, half in irritation.
In that moment Undyne dropped her weapon and the red-rage vanished from her golden eyes like mist into morning. Instead of anger, confusion swept her away as she didn't even know what to say.
"Papyrus?" a third voice joined them. Papyrus gulped as he recognised it, and turned around slowly.
She was standing there, his human friend. She had been crying, though stopped because she had no more tears left to shed. Her silver eyes bore into Papyrus' and that feeling of fear cracked at his soul like a whip.
No! Papyrus shook the feeling of fear away from himself. He wasn't afraid of this human. She was good natured. Anybody could be good natured.
"I'm sorry!" he blurted out at her. "I don't want to be scared anymore. Anyone can be a good person if they just try. It's a shame it only gets to me now."
Tess blinked and nodded her head. She was shaking. Was she afraid of him? Then Papyrus realised that he had yelled out what he wanted to warn them about. Tess was always very fearful, he knew that all too well.
"Waitaminute," Undyne butted in. "How did Lionheart find out about Tessy?"
Papyrus's eyes darted from golden eyes to grey eyes, trying to decide what to tell them. He eventually decided that he would tell them the truth.
"Sans told him," he said finally. "He wanted to make you pay for arguing with me and-"
"Should've known he would be the one to rat me out," Tess barked suddenly. "No offence to your brother," she added quickly.
"None taken," Papyrus assured her, though he did feel slightly offended that someone had something bad to say about his brother. "He told Lionheart that you were staying here, what you looked like, your soul, everything!"
Tess whimpered and sat down to cuddle her knees, beginning to shake violently.
"Where is he now?" asked Undyne, using another one of her glowing blue spears to prop herself up. "How far was he when you last saw him?"
Papyrus turned to her fully. "New Home," he told her. "It's not safe for Tess here. Sooner or later Lionheart will find her and kill her."
Another terrified noise escaped from their human friend, but none of the monsters paid her attention while they tried to figure out what to do.
So Papyrus began to pace from dummy to fanged door and back again, trying to come up with a cunningly clever plan, Tess sat with her back propped up against the house while Undyne threw her spears into the neighbouring wall.
What should they do?
Thundering footsteps echoed round the dark and dingy tunnels of Waterfall, the monsters that were native to the swampy area scurried away like woodlice into the dark crooks and cleared the pathway for the mighty hero to pass. Their many eyes followed him as he walked with a quick step down the pathway among the suddenly silent echoflowers.
The gentle blue glow of the star-stones and echoflowers barely matched to the lion's glowing amber eyes. Only very powerful monsters could make their eyes glow, and now Lionheart's eyes were giving off such bright wisps that it looked like there were two long orange ribbons stitched onto his very eyes. His golden mane shined in the glow of his eyes, as did his dark suit of armour. His ears were flattened against his head in anticipation, his mouth open to search for the scent of human blood.
It's been so long since he'd gone up against a human. King Asgore would always have him do the dirty work for him, not able to look another human in the eyes after he himself had killed some. Lionheart took on the position of executioner gladly, rising to the rank of captain in so little time.
His previous battle with Bravery was thrilling. The little human boy was talented in ways of war, powerful with his high LV and EXP, bulldozing through the sentries and monsters he encountered. Lionheart's tongue licked over his sharp teeth as he remembered those widened human eyes as his opponent realised he had no chance against the hero of monsters. The captain didn't hesitate before he forcefully lowered the genocidal child's hp to zero, remembering how he'd lifted his head in proudness and satisfaction afterwards, remembering the congratulations from the relieved citizens of Snowdin who had been hiding out in terror from the threat.
Then came Integrity, a rather tall near-adult girl. She had somehow evaded monster eyes all the way to Waterfall, but not the lion eyes. She didn't even see him. It was a quick kill. No battle, no confrontation. Perfect one shot. Once again that feeling of satisfaction had flowed through the lion's body. And that was the moment he knew he was addicted.
Now this was another chance to feed his addiction. Another soul to claim. Another human to slay. Finally!
Energy tingled in his fingers, his magic barely holding back. Don't worry, he assured himself. Not long now.
Sans told him exactly where the human would be staying. That little wraith's house. Of all monsters to be hiding a human, he hadn't expected the blue fish girl to be the one to do it. He saw the way she looked up at him, looking to him for comfort and a way to escape from her bullies. Oh well, he would say that Patience's death was necessary and for the good for the kingdom of monsters. And he was not wrong.
His two feet stepped into the enclosed neighbourhood, and took a deep inhale.
The residents' scents melted together like amalgamates, but a veteran like Lionheart knew how to tell smells apart.
Two ghosts lived here, though their ectoplasmic stench was weak, not that it could be strong in the first place. And Sans' younger brother... Papyrus was he called? It didn't matter. He was also here, not too long ago too, with Undyne. But Lionheart barely noticed all these scents and focused on the one.
A human scent.
It was laced with so much fear that even Lionheart himself was surprised. But it was fresh, sweet and innocent. The captain could already tell that Patience was a young child, just like Bravery was, though not nearly as bloodthirsty. He could tell that she was a flight animal, not a fighting one, and would be very easy to scare off, and even easier to kill. The lion purred at the thought, though was slightly disappointed that there wasn't going to be any blood-curdling battles he could fight. Oh well, he couldn't get everything he wanted.
He took another step forward, and an unfamiliar voice screamed at him. Flicking his head up, Lionheart turned his head to look at the monster who had protested so loudly at his sight.
A ghost was hanging there, trembling, however determined. His eyes were fixed on the lion hero, narrowed with grim despair. His mouth opened and out came the highest-pitched voice you could've possibly imagined.
"Get out of here, you're not welcome!" the ghost shrieked, puffing himself up to make himself more dangerous. "Shoo!"
He seemed to deflate slightly out of fear at Lionheart's unimpressed gaze. The Captain was not fazed.
"And who are you supposed to be?" he asked calmly, relaxing his pose, though annoyed at the core that his pleasure was to be delayed. Oh well, he could wait.
"M-M-My name is Mettaton!" the ghost shrieked again, though a stammer escaped into his voice. "G-G-G-Go away!"
Did this pathetic ghost seriously think he could stop him? Maybe he too knew about the human and wanted to kill it himself? Lionheart shook his head and paid Mettaton no more attention as he made his way to Undyne's house in a quick step.
"NO!" Mettaton threw himself before Lionheart in a lame attempt to stop the monster, but it did nothing. The ghost's transparent body merely phased through the lion's bully body, making him shiver in extreme discomfort, but the lion took no notice. The ghost looked back at him as he neared to the fish-like house before he threw himself at the lion again. "Leave them a-a-alone!"
But Lionheart flicked his hand, and Mettaton's ghastly white soul turned a sickly amber colour, allowing the brute to attack it directly. Before the ghost could do anything, the bigger monster batted at the now-physical soul like a little kitten at a yarn ball. But for how effortless the swipe was, when it collided with the ghost's soul, it sent him tumbling back through the air until eventually he collapsed on the soggy ground, already down half his hp. A ghost cannot be hurt by physical means, until their soul is turned orange and can be attacked head-on, which monsters like Lionheart were capable of doing.
"M-M-M-Mettaton!" Another ghost flew from hiding, rushing over to his cousin's side in an instant.
Lionheart's mouth twisted into a sneer as he turned his back and quickened his pace. He would've liked to end the annoying spirit's life, but that was not his order. Soon he would have just as much fun in murdering Patience, slowly and delicately.
The house came into view, and Lionheart's smile only widened. Prolonging his desire, Lionheart pressed his ear to the door and listened.
Nothing.
The human must be hiding. How cute.
A loud, lion growl emerged from Lionheart as he lashed out with his leg, kicking down the door so effortlessly as if it was a plank in a decaying fence. He waited for a while before letting himself enter the house.
Clean. Undyne sure did have standards. But instantly Lionheart knew something was off.
The counter. Food packaging had been left out in the middle of preparing something to eat, presumably soup, but not cleared away. Whoever had been preparing the food had sure left in a hurry.
Lionheart listened, yet heard nothing aside from his own steady breathing. He opened his mouth and inhaled, the scents of the house reaching out to meet the top of his ragged upper mouth.
All three children were in here, though their smells were stale. They were not here at all. Perhaps they hid in the fish's bedroom or bathroom or other room?
Lionheart searched the whole house, noticing that the usually house of one had been transformed into a home for two. A sister and a sister, not in blood, but in bondage. He took his time to inhale in each room, and his heart continued to fall when he didn't smell any fresh scents.
Soon with crushing disappointment, Lionheart lashed out at Undyne's piano, leaving three long claw-marks across the black polished wood, absolutely ruining it.
They weren't here! That skeleton brat must've warned them! Sans should've never brought him along! What a killjoy! He was going to kill all three kids at this rate. Why should he be stopped? Kill the skeleton boy. Kill the wraith girl. Kill the Patience.
Wait... their neighbours...
They must know where they are!
Lionheart's jaws opened widely, showing off his killer teeth, an insanely loud roar emerging from the depths of his throat like toxic ash out of an active volcano. The pathetic house Undyne dared to call her own shook, and the windows shattered at once, the ridged glass falling to the ground like millions of little diamonds.
Throwing himself out of the house, Lionheart bounded over to the two ghost cousins with his side teeth shown and ears flattened tightly against his head, eyes glowing brighter than ever before.
Both ghosts' souls once again turned that sickly orange colour, and both screamed as they saw the mighty beast bounding over to them. There was a flash of movement, and Lionheart felt one of them be pinned under his foot. He didn't care which one it was.
"TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!" Lionheart roared so loud the walls trembled, as the did the ghost. "NOW!"
"I... I won't!" Mettaton wailed, the weight being put on his frail soul being almost too much for him to bare. "I... I can't tell you were they are. You'll kill them!"
Lionheart barked with annoyance. "You're not wrong. I'll kill each of them, feel their bodies crumble at my feet. And you're going to tell me where they went, or you'll be waiting for them in hell."
He slowly applied pressure to his foot, which caused Mettaton to cry out in pain as his health lowered more. Tears of ectoplasm started to run out of his eyes, which only caused that feeling of satisfaction raise its ugly head in Lionheart's heart. Maybe I should kill this pathetic excuse for a monster? Nobody will know if there aren't any witnesses...
But what Lionheart had forgotten, was that there was in fact someone else watching this. A ball of condensed ectoplasm hit Lionheart in the side of the head, lowering his own health by five points. It was not much for a powerful brute like Lionheart, who had so much LV it was unbelievable, but for such a weak monster like Napstablook it was like a power-up.
"L-L-L-Leave m-my cousin alone y-y-you m-monster!" Napstablook cried, tears of fear streaming down his face as he shook the orange off his soul. "I-I-I-I... I'll hit you again if you don't leave!"
Lionheart gazed at him in amazement, but his expression soured again. His foot continued to press down on Mettaton's weakening soul.
"W-w-what are you d-doing! Let h-h-him go!" cried Napstablook, gathering his special attack with all his might and sent it hurtling towards the lion. However all the 'hero' had to do was lift his great arm, and his armour protected him from the ghost's attack. Once he knew he was safe from taking more unnecessary damage, he lowered his arm and gave the terrified ghost a dark sneer.
"So you care about your cousin do you?" he cooed quietly, amber eyes ceasing their raging glow to stare coldly at Napstablook, who seemed to shrink at their sight. "Would be a shame-" he crushed his foot violently, and Mettaton gave a loud outcry of agony. "-if I just crushed his soul to little shards. You wouldn't want that, would you...?"
Napstablook shook his head violently, now flooded over with tears.
Lionheart gave a dry laugh. "Perhaps there is a way for me to show your dear cousin mercy," he pretended to ponder. "Maybe you could tell me where those three children are? That would be very useful to me, wouldn't it?"
"No Blooky, don't tell him!" Mettaton pleaded, taking a few gasps of breath in a lame attempt to make the pain go away. Lionheart shut him up by digging his heel into his cracking soul, lowering the ghost's hp down to two.
"Time's ticking ghostie," Lionheart purred at him. "Tell me where the children are, and your cousin gets to keep his life. It's not much. But still..."
Napstablook let a whine, not able to squeeze a word out of his tight mouth.
"Tick tock," Lionheart growled sweetly, applying a little more pressure.
...1hp...
"Snowdin..." whispered Napstablook, stammering greater than ever. "They escaped to Snowdin..."
"See? That wasn't so hard!" Lionheart meowed cheerfully, taking his foot off of Mettaton's soul and allowed it go melt back into snowy white. "You saved your cousin, shouldn't you be happy?"
But Napstablook wouldn't stop crying. Never before had Lionheart seen a ghost cry so much. In honesty, it was disgusting.
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to show you their dust and corpse after I get them," Lionheart told him gently, making a mock-swipe at the tear-ridden ghost, his paw phasing right through the non-physical body. "I think I'll let you keep them. Though not the corpse, Asgore would want to bury it with the others."
So Lionheart calmly stood up and walked away from the isolated neighbourhood, heart lifted in happiness. Just wait! He'd get his hands on those kids and kill them one by one.
A few hours earlier the three had left Waterfall and fled into the snowlands beyond Snowdin. There were eyes of monsters everywhere in the town, and any one of them would gladly help Lionheart catch another human. They weren't safe in the snowed in town of Snowdin.
Undyne lead the three onward heroically, shifting the heavy bag on her shoulders. Her fins shifted with the cold, and she snuggled closer to her jacket.
"C'mon guys! The underground isn't that big and Lionheart will be looking for us everywhere!" Undyne called to the two behind her. Tess was shivering, but patient to get wherever they were going, also packed up with some things she decided to take. She had told them that she was used to fleeing, so this was nothing new to her. Poor thing.
Papyrus was with them. His tagging along surprised both Undyne and Tess, who told him that his family would be worried about him. However Papyrus stubbornly protested that they needed The Great Papyrus to protect them. Pssht. As if. Undyne would be the one to be the protector of the group! She always was, and always will be.
"Where are we even going?" Tess asked. "The ruins are locked from our side, and we'll free to death out here."
"I know where we're going," Undyne assured her, waiting for them to catch up impatiently. Their footsteps gave them away, and Undyne only hoped that Lionheart would not think to search the snowy area before the entirety of Waterfall. By then the footsteps would've been covered by other footsteps or snow. "We just have to get there."
They travelled on, and on, passing many sentry posts on the way. Thank goodness that today was the sentry's day off, Papyrus knew that because Sans himself was a sentry and Papyrus memorised his timetable. He knew the sentries' movements off by heart, which was very useful information to three fugitives. The skeleton boy also memorised the marked territories where the sentries travelled, which were the safest, but Undyne knew that in the surrounding coniferous trees were pathways not a monster dared to travel by. Dangerous routes that were forbidden, and lead to some undiscovered lands. Only a few dared to venture to the lower levels of the underground forest, and Undyne was one of those monsters.
She recalled the time, long ago, when her father took her down the cliff down to the lower forest, where not a soul fluttered. The massive dog had shown her the broken stone fundaments of a previous civilisation, before the monsters were trapped down in the underground. Undyne could still picture the non-monster ruins in her mind, remembering how she's played in them with her father, his white fur almost indistinguishable in the surrounding snow.
If only her mother hadn't grown dark and ran off with her father's brother. Where was that wraith lady now? Probably happy with her uncle in New Home...
Papyrus and Tess' groans recalled Undyne from her musings. They had started to complain of the cold, shivering against the sudden wind that had picked up. It blew relentlessly at them, taking the lighter snow off the top of the ground and threw it back up into the air. Undyne flinched as she realised that snow had began to fall. From where? Nobody knew. It just fell, despite the stone ceiling many, many metres above. But it was carried horizontally, wailing and howling loudly.
The travelling three were horribly exposed, the snow landing on skin, scales and bones, once melted thanks to body heat it soaked through, the chill creeping in. Hypothermia was coming for them.
"Undyne we can't travel in this blizzard!" Tess yelled, raising her patchwork hood over her head only to have it blown off again. Undyne could barely see her through the white, and her voice was drowned out by the loud wind.
The snow had began to fall so fast it was impossible to see five inches in front of you. No matter how determined you are, no matter how patient, the world is sometimes too big.
The vast white nothingness could wear out even the reddest of the human souls. Determination, Perseverance, Justice, Bravery, Integrity, Kindness, Patience... those were just some of the many, many traits human souls characterised by, and it made them strong. Though it was an inside strong. The strength of will.
Monsters, despite having weak white souls not characterised by any particular trait, too had strong wills and hearts.
And in times like these, mere willpower was not enough. No matter how determined or patient you were, muscle strength wears out. Weak legs could not stay standing forever in a strong snowstorm. At a drastic temperature drop organ functions ceased to properly work, and magic refused to work. Hypothermia targeted any living, creature, strong, weak, in between, it didn't matter. Nature can murder, just like we living creatures can.
Undyne realised this. They needed shelter, but no way they were going back to Snowdin. Where could they find shelter from the snow?
"Guys! There's something there!" Papyrus shouted to make himself heard throughout the howling wind. His bones were practically invisible in the whiteness, and it looked like just a red scarf and clothes were hanging around an invisible man. A red glove pointed to a structure in the distance. Undyne shook the snow from her eyelashes and squinted to see the structure barely visible through the snow.
What was it?
"C'mon, maybe we can get shelter there," Tess whispered through chattering teeth. Her hands rubbed at her arms, trying to get some warmth into them, though her bottom lip had already gone a horrible shade of blueish-purpleish. "We really need to get out of this cold."
The fish wanted to protest, but she herself shivered when the snow pelted at her delicate scales. She was adapted to water for goodness' sake, not ice. "Then let's get a move on," she growled in grim determination, leading her two comrades through the whirling snow, narrowed eyes to keep sight of the fuzzy image of the sentry post. The snow beneath the feet thickened, and the wind kept threatening to shove them off their balance.
It took the trio to reach the sentry post, and they scrambled into the enclosed wooden structure. First went Undyne, followed closely by Tess and then by Papyrus. It was not a large sentry post, and only provided shelter from three sides and the top, where the children settled themselves between the many bottles of ketchup, mustard and relish that were also sitting idly inside.
Despite still sitting in snow and the occasional snowflakes that fluttered in, the three young kids instantly felt a little warmer. They huddled together tightly to preserve body heat and keep each other warm. Their breaths still came out in puffs of vapour, and their teeth still chattered, but it was something.
Undyne knew that it would take a couple of hours for the storm to pass to allow them safe passage, as it always did with underground blizzards, so their evacuation had to be delayed. To think that this underground housed biomes so different from each other no more than a few kilometres away from each other, it was just incredible.
Tess began to shuffle, and plucked something from her patchwork jacket pocket. Her slightly busted MP3 player, the one Undyne and she always listened to songs. That was the way it had been for the past thirteen months.
Thirteen months? Had it really been that short? Undyne had somehow felt like Tess had always been there by her and Papyrus' sides, the life before Tess came now a blur. Those cries of bullies, the days were she looked to Lionheart for comfort, the loneliness of loosing both parents in one night, one to jail and the other to betrayal and lust. Papyrus and Tess were like a replacement to everything she had lost.
So Tess unplugged the tangled earphones and scrolled through her library, putting on a song that Undyne loved. It was quiet, and the wind drowned out most of the notes and lyrics, but it could still be hear, quieter than ever before. Though listening to the human song calmed down not only Undyne and Tess, but soon Papyrus started to bob his head along to the beat, getting himself comfortable as for sleep.
So Undyne the Undying, Papyrus the Skeleton and Tess Ashby stayed cooped up in the sentry station for the remainder of the day, and well into the night, were the storm hurled around them furiously. But its loud and cold and brash nature couldn't reach the now sleeping children, asleep to the soft sound of the playing MP3, lulling them to sleep like a mother's lullaby, someone each of the three lacked for quite some time.
Goodnight.
Lionheart arrived in Snowdin in a quick step, eager to finally find the kids and put an end to their miserable lives. Each and every one of them was to die at his paws, all three of them were to be slaughtered. It didn't matter in which order, it just needed to happen.
But once he arrived, he was greeted with an unwelcome sight.
The residents of Snowdin were preparing, calling the children inside, and the monsters retreating inside. Lionheart's ear flicked in confusion, and he stepped up to a small rabbit girl, who held her sister by the arm.
"What's happening around here?" he asked the girls gently. The two were flustered that the great lion hero had addressed them.
"A snowstorm's coming!" said the white-furred kit, one of her long ears flopping over her face. "We're getting inside so that none of us freeze to death."
"It's a pretty bad one too," added her purple-furred sister, doing a better job of keeping her ears standing straight. "Mamma says that it's the worst one we had in three years!"
Lionheart's soul twisted in disappointment. If he couldn't search Snowdin thanks to a stupid blizzard, then he could never find those three pathetic kids. However he kept his anger bottled up deep within him.
"And how long will the storm last?" asked he, putting on his calmest voice, the one he always used when talking to innocent children.
Though that voice would not be used once he got his paws on those traitorous kids.
The rabbit sisters replied in unison. "We don't know! Jinx! Sometimes a few hours, sometimes an entire week! Jinx again!"
"Molly! Polly! Come inside!" called a rabbit doe from Snowed Inn, her nose twitching anxiously, no doubt scenting the coming snowstorm. "Oh! Lionheart! You're here?"
"I must be going," Lionheart replied quickly. "But I'll be sure to visit this wonderful town again soon."
The two sisters ran from his side and disappeared into the inside, the door shutting loudly behind them. Lionheart stared back with cold eyes.
He needed to free them all. When Asgore shatters the barrier, he would be sure to be ready. Asgore couldn't murder the entire human population himself after all.
So it looked like Lionheart would have to wait until the blizzard had passed to find these kids. Who knew in which house they were hiding out in? Any one was a suspicion. The lion growled to himself and stalked towards Grillby's, were he decided he would wait out the storm with the rest of Snowdin's residents.
The very instant the blizzard was over, Lionheart would begin his search. He would not rest until his hands were covered in red blood and white dust.