Chapter 19: The Second Encounter

We had finally made our way into Waterfall. Familiar territory. I recognized the blue stone walls, and the quiet sounds of the water flowing in the distance.

Frisk noticed that I was in thought, and tapped me.

"Oh... sorry... I was just getting a little... nostalgic, I guess. I used to live here, you know," I told her.

Frisk nodded. I guess she got the idea.

We approached a small area, one I used to avoid. It was a position for a guard station.

...But now? Now, Sans was in charge of it.

So, his second job was just another sentry...? I thought. Guess I didn't know what I was expecting.

The yellow lizard kid from before in town was there, too, along with a fish-like monster standing on his tail. And he was next to a tale blue flower, which I knew as an Echo Flower.

The monster kid was who we had to pass first, and he said to us, "yo! Are you sneaking out to see her, too?"

"Um... you snuck out?" I asked him.

"Uh... yeah..." he replied, suddenly nervous.

"Sorry I didn't tell you before, but... I may 'look' like a kid, but I'm actually an adult," I told him.

"Oh... so, uh, please don't tell my parents!" he cried.

I laughed softly. "Don't worry, I'm one of the cool adults. I won't tell." And I gave him a mischievous wink."

"Oh, thank goodness!"

"So, you want to see 'her'?" I asked. I think I had an idea of who he was talking about, but I wanted to be sure.

"Yeah! She's the coolest, right!? I wanna be just like her when I grow up..."

"Yeah..." I still wasn't sure about meeting "her" again.

We ended up walking past the fish guy and the flower, and Frisk stopped to look at the flower.

"This is an Echo Flower. It repeats the last thing it heard, over and over..." the fish guy explained.

"Yeah, these things are pretty cool," I told her.

Frisk listened closer, but she didn't need to, as the flower echoed, "Yeah, these things are pretty cool."

Frisk stepped back in surprise, and I laughed. "Neat, huh?"

"Hahaha! Neat, huh?"

Frisk turned to me to sign, I didn't know they were saying things... But I always heard voices here. Are they these things?

I smiled softly, and signed back, most likely. I like these flowers. I used to keep one on my desk. Though it's hard to lie about stuff with one of these around.

Frisk silently snickered, and I snickered as well.

Finally, we were coming by Sans. Frisk began to investigate... something. Maybe another one of those invisible stars. Meanwhile, I waved to Sans, while Toby barked in greeting.

"never trust a flower... that's one of the constants of this world, they say," he said. It was in a joking manner, but I could tell that there was an air of seriousness underneath. After what we were talking about, I didn't blame him. After all, we only talked about an hour ago.

"Yeah, I know," I replied. "Keeping an eyesocket on things."

"yep," he replied, eyes closed, smiling (don't ask me how that worked for a skeleton). "let's hang out again sometime."

"Sure thing," I replied. Looking over, I asked, "Frisk, are you done?"

She nodded and ran over to us.

Cheekily, I said, "the sound of rushing water fills you with determination."

Frisk smiled with joy, as the three of us made our way forward.

"good luck!" Sans called to us as we left.

"Yeah... we'll need it," I said to myself quietly.

It wasn't long before we found another box, like the one in Snowdin. And there was also a new sign for it. It read, "This is a box. You can put an item in or take an item out. Why would you, though? You can't use items when they're in the box! Sincerely, a box hater."

Well, geez. You don't have to be rude about it! I thought. Just in spite of whoever this guy was, I took my bottle of Spider Cider that I hadn't drunk yet, and plopped it in the box. "Take that, box hater!"

Looking over, there was a rushing waterfall, which fell onto a flat stretch of ground that you could walk across, before falling further into the darkness. Constantly, rocks were sliding down the water, and some wooden-planked platform down below, probably so you could fall on them if the rocks knocked you over.

Frisk was standing by the edge of the water, looking at the upper waterfall, as if waiting for the right moment.

"Frisk, what's going-" I started, but then the little girl started dashing across the water, Toby right behind her, dodging the rocks that were falling, before disappearing behind the waterfall.

"Wh-wha-? Hey, wait!" I cried out, as I dashed towards where Frisk disappeared.

I reached the point that she was and reached in. There was no wall behind the waterfall. So I ducked my head down, and jumped through the falls.

And of course, on the other side was a small room with a couple mushrooms. And Frisk was now holding something familiar...

A pink tutu.

Of course, that's why she didn't have that and the ballet shoes anymore after we Reset. We did so after dealing with Undyne here in Waterfall. And now she had to get them once again.

I could only smile as Frisk put the tutu over her jeans.

"Okay, let's go," I said, as Frisk happily pranced around in her new piece of protective equipment.

We rushed past the falls from behind, and using my Blue magic, we leapt over the rushing rocks, over to the other side. And continuing on, we reached a cliff standing above us, and a bunch of tall grass in front of us, completely spanning the path, side to side.

It was nothing new to me, so I was just walking along, until Frisk grabbed my hand and stopped me.

I turned to her, barely saying "wha-?" before I noticed that she had her fingers over her lips. Quiet.

Switching to signing, since it'd make no noise, I signed, why?

Frisk didn't reply, as she crouched down, and began to walk into the grass, slowly, silently urging me to do the same.

Not sure of what was going on, I followed along, moving low to the ground.

As we started to move through the brush, it completely covered us up, thanks to the three of us being so short. As annoying as it was, I guess there was a benefit here.

Still, why was Frisk so worried? What-?

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice. A LOUD voice.

"H... HI, UNDYNE! I'M HERE WITH MY DAILY REPORT..."

Papyrus... I thought. I stopped to hear more, despite Frisk's urgings.

"UH... REGARDING THOSE HUMANS I CALLED YOU ABOUT EARLIER..."

Before he could continue, another voice spoke up, but it was not as loud as the skeleton's. As such, I couldn't make out what she was saying. But, it was also familiar, in fact, it was so much so, that I was almost surprised it wasn't as loud, since it was before.

Even still... it was a voice that we hadn't heard in a while. In fact, I knew that we hadn't heard during this timeline...

Undyne... I thought. I could feel the anger rising, and the memory of her attacking Frisk in the last timeline burned in my mind.

"...HUH? DID I FIGHT THEM?" Papyrus continued. "Y- YES! OF COURSE I DID! I FOUGHT THEM VALIANTLY!"

Undyne said something more, seemingly another question.

"...WHAT? DID I CAPTURE THEM...?"

Papyrus... Are you going to be okay? I thought, worried for my friend.

"W- W- WELL... NO," he finally said. "I TRIED VERY HARD. UNDYNE, BUT IN THE END... I FAILED. HOWEVER-"

Undyne cut him off. And what she said must've not been good.

"...WH-WHAT!?" he exclaimed. "YOU'RE GOING TO TAKE THE HUMAN'S SOUL YOURSELF... BUT UNDYNE, YOU DON'T H-HAVE TO DESTROY THEM! YOU SEE... YOU SEE..."

One word. That's what Undyne replied with. It sounded like a question, but I couldn't tell.

Then... Papyrus said something... unexpected". IS IT TRUE...? THAT ALL THE ROYAL GUARD'S JOB... IS TO KILL HUMANS? THAT WE NEED TO DO THIS SO WE CAN TAKE THEIR SOULS?"

Undyne sounded alarmed by this, but she replied with, loud enough that I could actually understand what she was saying, "what do you think 'destroy' means!?"

"BUT YOU ALWAYS 'DESTROY' ME IN TRAINING..." Papyrus replied. Fair point. But then he recollected himself. "NO, THAT'S NOT THE POINT! WHY DO WE HAVE TO KILL THEM!? THEY ARE NICE, AND DON'T MEAN ANYONE HARM."

"Papyrus! Listen!" Undyne replied, almost begging.

"UNDYNE... I'M NOT SURE IF I WANT TO BE A PART OF THE GUARD ANYMORE. NOT IF IT MEANS HURTING MY FRIENDS."

I could hear Undyne growling, until she snapped with, "well, I'm not even sure if you're even cut out for the Guard, anyways!"

What followed was an uncomfortable silence. Then Undyne started to speak up again, maybe to try to backtrack on what she just said.

But, in a bold move, I must say, Papyrus cut HER off! "UNDYNE... I CONSIDER YOU A FRIEND."

Undyne didn't reply. I figured she must've found what he said surprising.

"...BUT!" the skeleton continued, "I ALSO SEE THE HUMANs AS MY FRIENDS, AS WELL. AND..." he took a moment to think about what to say next. "...I WANT MY FRIENDS TO GET ALONG. BUT UNTIL THEN, I MUST PROTECT THEM!"

I could hear steps, as Papyrus, presumably, began to walk away. Then... "I CAN SEE THAT YOU ARE A DANGER TO THEM. SO I WANT TO BE ON THEIR SIDE. BUT ONE DAY... I'LL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THEM, OKAY?"

Then he left.

Undyne, frustrated, shouted, "D*** IT!"

But I didn't care. Because...

I caused this. I told him what the guard was doing, why they needed to capture us. I even told him that he didn't NEED to be a part of the Guard.

But what did I expect? He had relations here, people he knew and relied on. Those who relied on him. As much as I hated Undyne, I didn't want to cause all this.

To destroy his dreams...?

I began to mumble in distress, finally culminating in, "I'm so sorry, Papyrus..."

"Who's there!?" a voice shouted from above.

I looked up in surprise, finding Undyne staring down at the tall grass hiding us. She must've heard me mumbling, and came to investigate.

And what I saw was not what I expected.

When I saw her before the Reset, she was aggressive, crazy, and very excited. Shouting some nonsense about "wise ninjas" and "redheaded kitsune". What the heck was kitsune, anyway!? I've never heard about them, and I knew monsters pretty well.

Well, the point now was, she was completely different! I guess, at the point I first met her, she must've lost her composure or something, because now...

She was truly intimidating.

The red-haired fish monster that I saw before had a helmet on, her ponytail poking out the back. The helmet itself had a design of sharp, shark-like teeth, and one of her eyes could be seen glowing through the shading of the metal headwear.

Added with the rest of her knight's armor, and how she was hidden partially by the darkness...

She looked like a true monster. And I don't mean that lightly.

Is this what Frisk had to deal with, each and every timeline?

It's hard to admit now... but I was scared.

Undyne then summoned a magic spear in her hand, a construct of blueish energy, as she began to scan the area below...

But as quickly as she had come... She dispelled her spear and stepped back into the shadows, disappearing from our view. She hadn't seen us.

Once I was sure that she was far enough away that she couldn't hear us again, I scrambled out of the grass, releasing my breath from the tight fear I felt, gasping for air. Frisk and Toby followed behind me, the girl equally as terrified, while Toby tried to comfort me, and then...

That monster kid popped out. He looked around excitedly, before saying, "yo... did you see the way she was staring at you...?"

"Wha- what?" I exclaimed. "Wh-why are you here!?"

"Yo... I thought you were the cool adult."

I almost facepalmed. "Oh... right, you wanted to come see her. Even still, that was dangerous."

"Yeah, I know. But you've got to admit..." the monster kid replied, "that... was AWESOME! I'm SO jealous! What'd you do to get her attention...? Ha ha. C'mon! Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!"

He started to run ahead, before the armless monster tripped, and fell flat on his face.

Awesome, I thought, except we're probably the bad guys here. This is what we're going to have to deal with, aren't we?

I had to wonder... how did Frisk handle this alone. I've been able to help Frisk be more comfortable around the monsters so far, but in the previous timelines, she was scared of monsters. So, how did she deal with the monster kid?

The kid... let's just call him Monster Kid, got up, saying, "man, I've got to work on my balance. By the way... What do you think going to happen to that other guy? And the humans he talked about?"

He doesn't know that WE are the humans, I noted. Even still, he had a good point.

"I don't know..." I replied quietly.

Author's Note: Well, that was something, wasn't it.

(Also, I literally forgot that Toby (the Annoying Dog) was a part of the crew, up until I was about to upload this chapter. I did some last-minute edits to address this, but I don't like forgetting important things like this, so I made sure to put it in my notes not to forget this again.)

So, a shorter chapter this time around. I felt it would be best to just cover Undyne's introduction this chapter (and the few things leading up to it). I felt that this would be the best place to end the first chapter of Waterfall.

But, yeah, Papyrus had a change of heart about being a part of the guard. After Chara told him the truth and had a heart-to-heart with him, this felt appropriate. But that means his role in Waterfall may be a bit different, though still not as involved.

Now, while this made sense for the story, just recently, I realized something that may or may not contradict what I wrote here, but I'm not replanning or rewriting the story for this, so it's just not going to have to matter for this story specifically.

As for what I realized... it's spoilers for the story. Now, seeing as this is a retelling of the official story, and this has nothing to do this anything original I'm making, then you probably already know what it might be. But I'm still going to be coy about it.

Now getting to my point... I think Papyrus knew along about passing the Barrier, but he thought you'd be an exception. He says that you have a strong Soul, and well... the power you need to get past it "one and one-thousandth". That extra is one-thousandth is, all things considered, pretty small, so if Frisk has a stronger-than-average Soul (perhaps due to her determination), then she might already have passed that threshold.

But this is just something I realized myself... And wanted to put it out there...

Now, back to Waterfall, we have finally come full circle. Book 1 took place mostly in Waterfall, especially at the end, where Chara first met Frisk, ...and Undyne. This is by no means the end of the story, of course, but there are a lot of plans there to bring in certain story points.

Since we've already met Undyne in the story as a whole, even if was just in the last Book, and this is the first time we've met them in this Book, I feel the need to change some things with Undyne here. They'll mostly come up during the end of this section.

Now, I'm hoping Waterfall may be more streamlined, since there aren't as many... interruptions, you could say (with no disrespect to Papyrus). Waterfall, for all intents and purposes, is pretty calm in the story, and I appreciate the calm moments. But, while I plan to add some new stuff in this section, the main stuff will be pretty easy to get through, and maybe a bit quickly. I've actually been waiting to get to this section, particularly the end, so we've still got a ways to go. But we're getting there.