Half-Tale: The Fallen

by HolmesJaw

Adrian Shephard, an HECU Corporal shipped off to Black Mesa, manages to somehow escape the hellish facility despite everything and, after being 'detained' by the ever-so elusive G-Man, is assigned a mission... to the UNDERGROUND! Accompanied by Chara Dreemurr, the first fallen human turned apparition, they venture through for a very specific goal... but is that all there is to it?

9. Chapter 9

Half-Tale: The Fallen

Characters are not mine. Half-Life and Adrian Shephard belong to Valve Corporation, and Undertale and Chara Dreemurr belong to Toby Fox. Please support the official releases.

Chapter 9 – Pain 'n Puzzles

You read the name right.

---

Chara's new life in the Underground was… interesting, to say the least.

When she 'tripped' and fell into the fabled and legendary Mt. Ebott, cursing all that hated and were repulsed by her, she thought that was it. No happy ending for her, just an end to her existence; that way, no one would have to be bothered by her presence ever again. Why she was so disliked by all around her, she was never able to find out, but it didn't matter—it was completely out of her control, right from the very beginning.

And then, when Chara impacted the ground—or flowers—she found herself in a much better situation than she was beforehand, ironically enough. A curious family of monsters found her, so to speak, and brought her into their home. Despite the name of 'monsters', usually carrying a scary connotation, they were the complete and total polar opposites of that; they were incredibly welcoming to the fallen human.

Something she wasn't very familiar with.

The matriarch and patriarch of the family, Toriel and Asgore Dreemurr respectively, along with their son, Asriel, showered her with lots of love, support, understanding, affection, and absolute, unrelenting sympathy as they adopted the girl. Chara, not having known such kindness before, was happily surprised. It was something she quickly realised she was not about to let go of. So, the girl embraced it, letting herself be swallowed into the family.

Chara had no regrets.

…until it was too late.

And it would haunt her for the rest of her life, to her eventual, untimely death.

---

"Lesser what?"

THWISH!

Adrian barely managed to weave yet another strike from the monster, having to recoil his entire body backwards to avoid the attack. This succeeded without incident, the marine managing to back away and get a gauge on the situation and whoever he was fighting. Exhaling, he put up his hands, now ready for anything else.

"Lesser Dog, you said? Like that guard dog from earlier? What should I do?"

"What do you think you should do? I can't always tell you everything," Chara said, folding her arms. She then floated over to the Lesser Dog to pat his head. She, obviously still being a ghost, couldn't touch him, but she did it anyways. "Besides, this lil' guy isn't so hard to beat! Just embrace him with your wuv!"

Adrian grimaced as he dodged another swift and blurred strike, yet this time, with much more ease. Now that he had his bearings, it came a lot easier. He then took some time to scrutinise his adversary's appearance as he gained some distance between him. The monster was exactly as described in the name: a dog, although Adrian wasn't sure how 'lesser' he was. Possessing a long sword and shield along with some sort of metal armour, the monster was surprisingly nimble. "Yeah, maybe I'd believe that if he wasn't 'tryna kill me!"

The marine retracted his knife from its holster and held it up. He had no intention to use it to harm the dog, but he also did want to protect himself in some way. Especially from someone so quick on their feet. Or in this case, paws.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic. He doesn't actually want to kill you… I think," Chara shrugged, opening an eye. She burrowed her frows slightly after seeing Adrian take out his knife. "Eh… you don't plan on using that, do you?"

Adrian looked at her and then to his knife and scoffed. "Yeah, like I'm going to start killing randomly all of a sudden. Come on, now."

"Just checking."

The monster attempted yet another strike, his face displaying one of unrelenting playfulness as he pressed forward. Adrian brought up his combat knife and responded in kind, by clashing the dog's sword with it.

SCHWING!

Having been able to accurately block the attack, the two fighters now engaged in a full-on clash for combat supremacy.

They both pushed against each other with neither side making much headway, entrapping the both of them in a sort of deadlock. Adrian then brought his left hand to support his right, the one being used to wield the combat knife. The amount of effort he found himself to be exerting was surprising; this monster had a lot of hidden strength underneath all the fur, Adrian thought.

As he began to sweat a little, even gritting his teeth slightly, the marine let out more strength and pushed forward, forcing the monster to stagger a little as he stood his ground. Adrian smirked as he then launched himself to tackle the monster. Catching Lesser Dog by surprise, the entire combination of attacks worked.

"Gotcha now!" Adrian exclaimed, propelling the monster in his opposing direction. He smirked in pride, bringing his head up, as he was able to disarm the monster without hurting him either. "What'cha got now, hu- OOPH!"

One could imagine Adrian's immense surprise as he was almost effortlessly pounced on and kicked into the air, eventually landing back down on the snowy ground, creating a small, moulded crater around him, along with a puff of snow being similarly kicked up. He picked his head up from the snow and shook it, opening his eyes in a daze. "Woah. Did not expect that."

"You let your gu-"

"I let my damn guard down, yeah," Adrian replied, wearily getting back up on his feet. He patted the snow off himself and checked to see if the initial impact harmed him. "Still fine. This combat vest really is some marvel."

"Now, how am I going to deal with you…" Adrian questioned to himself, watching as the monster got back up from his own assault, picking his sword up again. He readied himself again, now neglecting his shield, as he got into a battle-ready stance.

The marine folded his arms as he contemplated his options. He figured he could subdue him again, but he grimaced at the idea. He might be fine after being launched a couple of meters in the sky, but that didn't mean it was fun. Another option was to continue in engaged combat, but he quickly shot down the idea as well. He was already getting uncharacteristically tired, and drawing the fight out would only exacerbate the symptoms.

Losing himself was also out of the question for obvious reasons.

Adrian's eyes lazily scourged the area, trying to pick up any ideas that he could use. Something immediately caught his eye—a lone stick protruded from the snow a little ways away. A half-smirk found its way on the marine's face.

Chara, however, did not seem to get the hint. "You're having too much trouble…" she sighed in annoyance, folding her arms. "Okay, so, what you do is…"

Without saying a word more, Adrian leapt into action, the Lesser Dog launching himself towards the marine as well. However, Adrian, being quicker at the draw and having been the first to strike, managed to reach his desired location first and grabbed the stick from off the ground, then throwing it a fair distance away. "Here, boy! Fetch!"

The Lesser Dog, upon witnessing this happen, abandoned his mission immediately, instead opting for landing back down on the ground and looking at the stick in the distance in confusion. He then widened his eyes and darted towards it, going on all fours, contrasting the monster's initial bipedal disposition. The dog picked it up with his mouth and ran back to Adrian, sitting down like a regular dog, except in armour, as he placed the stick down in front of the marine.

"Awh, good boy," Adrian beckoned, kneeling to scratch the dog's ear a while. He could have sworn he saw his neck extend, but he shook it off and drew it up to his imagination. "You ain't so bad now, are ya boy?"

RUFF!

"Hehe, I thought so," Adrian ruffled the dog's head one more time before standing back up, watching the dog scurry away, a few gold coins being left behind. As per usual, the marine went to pick it up and stash it away for later usage.

He noticed Chara looking right at him in a vague combination of bewilderment and… pride. "Wow, you didn't even need my help there, Corp. Finally starting to get the lay of the land now, are ya?"

"Do something for long enough, you learn to get used to it," Adrian replied swiftly, putting his hands on his hips as he watched the Lesser Dog fully leave. "…though that one was a little obvious. All dogs love fetch."

"Mhm."

---

Switch!

"There we go. What a weird puzzle," Adrian commented to himself, though he then held a brief pause. "…does this even count as a puzzle?"

He had just flipped a switch, of which he had to find via the help of a snow-obscured map. Seeing that, to the immediate left of the covered map, the passageway forward was blocked by some spikes, the marine figured that he had to do something related to whatever was on the map to find what was needed to shut it down.

It didn't take him long to do it, but it seemed odd to refer to it as a puzzle.

"I'd say so," Chara replied simply. "Even though it was easy, you still had to go and find where the map's X led to, and then flip the switch."

Adrian nodded.

The two continued forth, returning to back to the spiked barrier, of which no longer held any of its spikey qualities. Adrian took a few steps past it and stopped, noticing that something was incoming from up ahead. And fast. However, being a little curious, he decided to let whatever is going to happen, happen.

Two large bipedal dogs in black robes, both also bearing axes with respects to their sizes, confronted the marine. To differentiate the two, one had slight 'stubble' on their chin and the other had noticeably thicker eyelashes. They seemed interested—curious, as Adrian was to them, in something. Specifically what, was something Adrian couldn't discern.

But Chara did, obviously. She giggled a little as she floated a little ways away from the scene.

"What's that smell?" the stubbled dog slithered.

"(Where's that smell?)" the lashed dog whispered in continuation.

"If you're a smell…"

"(…identify yoursmellf!)"

"What…" Adrian thought, remaining absolutely still. "…is happening?"

Suddenly, the two dogs, as if on cue, both began sniffing around Adrian. Although they came close to contact, they never touched the Corporal himself. This lasted a while, the dogs with their decently quick speeds continually and consistently trying to get a gauge on what exactly the target was.

They eventually stopped, lining up right before Adrian.

"Hmm… here's that weird smell…" the stubbled dog began. "…it makes me want to eliminate."

"Oh boy."

"(…ELIMINATE YOU!)"

"Damn it, just got out of a fight, too," Adrian thought, slumping his arms. He was beginning to wonder where Chara had gone when his heart burst gently out of his chest yet again, a feeling he knew he won't ever get fully used to. "Here we go-"

!

THWISH!

Adrian was smashed across his side before he could fathom a reaction by the butt of one of the dogs' axes, crashing into a nearby tree. He was completely caught off guard by the attack, even though he thought himself to be ready, something that had not happened since he was in Black Mesa. He was effectively stunned, struggling to move… which gave the Dogi an opportunity to continue their strike.

"H-Holy…"

With a flash of blinding speeds that Adrian had not witnessed very often up to this point, they arched their axes in tandem with each other, swinging the heavy weapons downwards onto the marine. Their determination and defiant expressions blatant, this defining moment seemed like it could very well end the fight before it could truly begin.

Adrian had no choice but to merely put his arms up to try and block the attacks. Heavy damage was inevitable, so he sat there, back pressed against the tree as he awaited the attacks to hit.

THUMP!

THWING!

They missed by mere millimetres, impacting the tree behind him.

"They…"

"Missed. They friggin' missed," Chara exclaimed, breaking out in a fit of laughter. A few tears even drew from her eyes in pure elation. "You probably would've been fine anyways, but it looks like you don't have to find out!"

"Damn our bad eyesight!" the stubbled dog turned his head to the other dog. "Dogaressa! We need to fall back!"

"(Right, Dogamy!)"

"Lucky break…" Adrian thought. Figuring to take advantage of the fact that they completely whiffed the attack, he quickly acted before they could, sprinting forward and clotheslining the Dogi. He didn't want to hurt them, but at the same time… as long as he didn't kill them, then there was no harm in fighting back, right?

He wanted to test it a little.

The Dogi were planted, backs on the ground, before eventually recovering, albeit with some damage sustained. They scowled at Adrian with clear murderous intent, clutching their axes. Chara, who was watching the fight intently, took mental note of their aggression. Their actions seemed very out of character for the Dogi—they always fought passively and somewhat reluctantly when they fight Frisk, with their attacks being simple and easy to dodge, but it seems like they were going all out against Adrian.

"What is going on… why are they so aggressive? They shouldn't be this strong, either…" Chara thought, squinting her eyes. She then crossed her arms and made up a little test. "Okay, I'll allow you to mess with them a little… but only just this once! I want to see if my theory is right."

"…okay?" Adrian said, half-nodding to the young woman before refocusing his attention back to the two dog monsters. "Let's try this again."

"C'mon, hon!" Dogamy exclaimed, turning to his spouse. "Remember, we ain't got limits!"

"(You're right, Dogamy!)" Dogaressa replied with confidence. "(Let's charge together at full power!)"

Dogamy was the first to return to the offensive. The Dogi's synchronisation was broken at this point, so Adrian figured he would take advantage of that fact and went to clash with the now lone monster. Bringing out his combat knife, he swung upon the monster's axe…

SCHWING!

To the fortune of Adrian, his knife sustained its worth as it successfully, and miraculously, clashed with Dogamy's axe somehow, the two's strengths being put to the absolute test. Adrian unconsciously let out a harsh smirk and almost let himself get lost in the fight. His body had been aching for a real fight, and this felt like it could satisfy his lust…

But he knew better than that.

What he didn't expect, however, was for Dogaressa, the other dog monster, to spring back into action as fast as she did, appearing out of nowhere behind Dogamy, preparing to launch her own strike against Adrian. However, it seemed like she was still devising a strategy, so he did have some time to find a way to counteract it before it could be enacted.

Thinking fast, Adrian retracted his body very slightly, reorienting his knife to a point where he allowed Dogamy's axe to 'win' the clash, bringing the axe downwards. Using this momentum and moment of distraction, he forced Dogamy to completely miss him, striking the snowy ground. The marine then lifted his foot and pressed forward to kick Dogamy's hand, causing the axe to be thrown another direction. Now stunned, Dogamy was effectively disarmed.

His attention then instantly shifted to Dogaressa, whose attack was now in the process of being thrown. It was launched with the same level of overwhelming intensity as before, the dog monster ferociously sending multiple axe slashes towards the marine's way.

Knowing clashing wasn't feasible, he had to dodge, swiftly hopping backwards with each swing attempted to grasp his flesh. Eventually, Dogaressa, growing increasingly frustrated of her attacks being incessantly dodged, decided that she needed one decisive strike to be able to land a hit, so she winded up her arms and quickly crashed it down on the marine.

The Corporal, in a flash, utilised his knife to its fullest capacity as he struck Dogaressa's axe before it could hit him, somehow succeeding as it not only sustained the attack, but it also staggered her enough for him to launch a side kick to send her a fair distance away.

Now with both Dogamy and Dogaressa at bay and a fair distance away, he used this moment of reprieve to catch his breath.

Adrian put his hands on his knees and slumped his back, panting in slight exhaustion. He was used to constant combat, that much is obvious, but he was no longer fighting for his life. The effort he put in was out of necessity, and he didn't need that here. Even now, he didn't feel like his life was in danger. But he knew he definitely would need to put in some work to get out of this fight in one piece.

The marine pretended to be a little more exhausted than he actually was, remembering something he watched as a kid. "Curse it… I can't feel my legs."

"Corp, can you still fight?"

"What…" Adrian sighed as he let out a vague smirk. "What kind of question is that?"

"Just checking."

"Damn, you ruined it," Adrian murmured, watching as the Dogi finally regained their bearings. They immediately returned to their battle-ready stances and awaited the Corporal's next move to make their counter strike. "They're waiting for me."

"Yeah," Chara said, lightly biting the skin on her lips as she floated a little closer to the fight. "It's bait."

"Ye-up," Adrian replied in acknowledgement, repositioning himself upwards. He didn't want to be the one to engage the first strike back, but he would if he had to. It appeared they weren't giving him a choice, however.

Inhale.

The cool, unfathomably sparse wind brushed past him, his curly hair waving freely in the wind as if entranced in a dance. The marine's piercing, auburn, eyes, combined with his rigid, furrowed brows, let out a subtle, yet overwhelming, aura of pure determination.

He enveloped himself.

Focus.

Without the risk of resorting to true focus.

He looked up for a moment.

Exhale.

In a flash, the Dogi dispersed from each other into two opposing directions. The marine assumed they would eventually converge together upon him, likely attacking at the same time, so he prepared himself. He darted his head around, trying to get a gauge on their precise moment of strike. "Where…"

His eyes saw one of them quickly closing in on him from his left. "Implying…"

Adrian ducked to his left the instant after he made that thought, keeping his eyes trained on the spotted dog monster, who was still a little ways away. He was wrong; they intentionally didn't synchronise their attacks as expected to confuse him. Instead, while he hyper focused on the left, he didn't pay attention to the idea that one may come from the right. The plan of attack almost worked.

The strike the marine cleared was followed by several axe slashes, of which forced his full attention on dodging them. He knew he would have to cut this short, however; he could tell that the farther dog monster was close. So, he quickly ducked further down, and sweep kicked who he could now tell as Dogamy, easily falling for it and stumbling.

Using this amount of downtime, he was able to react to Dogaressa now, who had finally just arrived on the scene in the delayed time and pursued her own attack. She heavily swung her axe multiple times in quick succession towards the trained soldier. He knew they were fast, but with his newfound determination to end this fight, he was faster. Every single one of the attacks were met with empty air as Adrian vanished from sight, attempting the same move he used on Dogamy on Dogaressa.

"(That's not gonna work on me!)"

She was right, proven by Dogaressa swiftly jumping over the sweep kick as she then focused all her attention on striking back downwards in hopes of hitting the ever-so elusive human. She got incredibly close, mere inches away, before…

THWISH!

CRACK!

THWOOM!

Adrian had reacted just in the nick of time to abort his failed attack, planting his hands on the snowy ground to push himself out of the way. Rolling back to his feet, he balled his fists. The marine was growing increasing tired and annoyed with the arbitrary attacks they were directing towards him, so he decided that it was time for him to finish the fight.

He let in another sharp inhale before breathing out suddenly. In an instant, he launched himself into a full-on sprint towards the two, of whom widened their eyes in a mix of immense surprise and uninterpretable confliction. However, although they were able to see him, they weren't able to properly react due to this.

Another error to make use of.

His eyes shot to Dogamy's axe, and then to Dogaressa's. He knew that if he wanted to finish the fight quickly, he would have to disarm them permanently and get them to yield. So, that's exactly what he set out to do.

Appearing like a blur to Dogamy, approaching him first, he managed to engage in a grapple with the dog monster, wrestling with him for a little while before he focused on his weapon. He needed to act fast before Dogamy could get his bearings again to launch a counter. Thinking fast, he finally launched a decisive, yet simple, attack—a palm strike towards Dogamy's jaw to disorient him.

This worked better than he had expected, even drawing some what appeared to be dust from the monster's lips. He fell to the ground, clutching his snout, defeated.

With the dog monster now at bay, Adrian wielded the weapon for himself. After inspecting it for a moment, he quickly brought his knee upwards to splinter it in half, rendering it mostly useless at this point to prevent further effective usage.

"One more."

He turned his gaze to Dogaressa, who, instead of attacking him as expected, hesitated. She was visibly concerned for her spouse. Looking to Adrian for a moment, she dropped her weapon on the ground and ran towards Dogamy, who laid on the ground, exhausted. "(Wait, hang on, human!)"

This brought an abrupt stop to Adrian's tracks.

Inhale.

…

Exhale.

He was back. Recoiling a little in response to the unexpected end of the fight, he staggered backwards a few inches, clearly similarly weary. He let out a prideful smile—he was successfully able to use a bit of his focus mode without murdering anyone. "Are we… hah… done here?"

"You are… much stronger than we thought you'd… hah… be, human," Dogamy replied wearily, returning to his feet with the help of his wife. He rubbed his nose and chuckled. "A lot stronger, actually…"

Adrian held his smile cheekily, rubbing the back of his head. "Hehe, yeah, well, you two were no slouches either! You guys were a lot more resilient than I thought you would be. If you guys hadn't missed in the beginning, I don't know if I would've been able to win."

"(Don't be so modest… I saw that look in your eyes. I don't think we stood a chance in the first place)," Dogaressa shook her head. "(We yield, hu-)"

"HUMAN!"

A loud, booming, yet familiar voice pierced everyone's ears. Even Chara, who had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout most of the fight, seemed shocked until she saw who it was from. Groaning in annoyance, she rolled her eyes. "What a way to ruin a moment."

Adrian, however, seemed higher in spirits. "Hey, it's Papyrus!"

The tall skeleton quickly speed-walked over to where the fight had just concluded and buckled his arms. "HUMAN! I DO NOT WISH TO RUSH YOU, BUT YOU SEEM TO BE TAKING QUITE AN EXTENSIVE AMOUNT OF TIME HERE! WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

Before Adrian could respond, Papyrus quickly managed to discern what was happening based on the Dogi's presence. "AH! I SEE! HELLO AGAIN, DOGAMY AND DOGARESSA! I'M ASSUMING YOU WERE BATTLING THE HUMAN, CORRECT?"

Dogaressa nodded while Dogamy shrugged. "(Yes! We did lose, however… the human was a little stronger than we thought. Even Undyne would have a lot of trouble, and you know how tough she is)."

Adrian squinted his eyes. That was the second time he's heard the name 'Undyne'. With how much praise he's seen circled around her and her strength, the marine wondered how strong the monster actually was. He shook his head, however; he wasn't really out to hurt anyone, so such questions shouldn't really be in his mind in the first place… though if her reputation is anything to go off of, he hoped he wouldn't have to fight her in any case.

"I UNDERSTAND! I'M CERTAIN YOU BOTH FOUGHT VALIANTLY TO THE END!" Papyrus proudly proclaimed, pulling two large bones from seemingly out of nowhere. "HERE, TAKE THIS FOR YOUR EFFORTS!"

He threw them to the Dogi, both of whom gladly accepted the bones without incident. Satisfied, the Dogi left, walking hand in hand with each other in another direction.

Adrian felt his SOUL retreat back into his soul, feeling whole again and indicating that the fight was finally over. Letting out a soft whew, he crossed his arms, bringing his eyes to Papyrus. "Hey, you don't happen to have any extras, do you?"

"SURE!"

---

"So, are we going to talk about that fight?"

"What's there to talk about, Chara? I fought 'em and then beat 'em."

"No, I meant how you handled it."

"Yeah, yeah, I might've went a little overboard…"

"Again, no. I was going to say that you did it well. I'm not a fan of you using violence to get around fights, but I know I can't stop you. As long as you don't kill them, then do as you will."

"Oh. Thanks, then."

"Speaking of, I was going to tell you about something—the Dogi… they fought with much more ferocity than usua-"

"WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO, HUMAN?"

Adrian had been following Papyrus to the next puzzle area. Since the tall skeleton figured that the marine was taking a while to get to it, he thought to bring him directly to the next one to prevent any further time loss.

Chara burrowed her eyebrows, folding her arms. She was now starting to feel like what Adrian did, with all the interruptions. "…I'll tell you later, I guess."

Adrian briefly glanced at Chara, nodding, before returning his gaze to Papyrus', who had just turned his head backwards to see what was happening. "Oh… sorry. No one. I, uh… talk to myself sometimes."

"I DON'T BLAME YOU! I DO IT SOMETIMES TOO, THOUGH ONCE WHEN I WAS IDLING NEARBY A BENCH IN WATERFALL, A YELLOW FLOWER APPROACHED OUT OF NOWHERE…" Papyrus began before he realised where he was. "OH! WE'RE HERE!"

Adrian nodded and sucked his own cheek, shifting his focus to the puzzle in front of him. "…What even is this. Is that Papyrus' fa-"

"Yes, Corp; it's Papyrus' face."

"How does she keep doing this?"

"SO, SINCE YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE, I FIGURED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE… BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE," Papyrus declared. "UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT!"

"I'm guessing you don't know what the solution is, then?" Adrian inquired, moving towards the 'base' of the puzzle. It did indeed much resemble the tall skeleton's face, with large X's sprinkled about within the confines of the snow. He didn't know the solution right off the bat, but it seemed easy enough to figure out. "I think I get it, but you explain, please."

"YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO STAND ON THE SWITCHES, TURNING THE X'S INTO O'S! ONCE ALL OF THEM ARE O'S, YOU STAND ON THE LITTLE PLATFORM OVER HERE…" Papyrus exclaimed, motioning to the switch just south of the sign. "…AND VOILA! THE SPIKES ARE REMOVED, AND WE ARE ABLE TO PROCEED!"

"I see…" Adrian hummed. "Isn't this too easy? Can't I just… jump over the snow piles and turn all the switches into O's without having to find a pattern?"

"Well, you see…" Chara interjected, attempting an explanation, but again, she was interjected herself by Papyrus.

"YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT, I'M AFRAID!"

"That's what I was going to say…"

Adrian tilted his head to the left in confusion. "What? Why?"

"TO MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT, YOU HAVE TO FIND A PATTERN TO START AND EXIT WITH! OR ELSE IT WON'T WORK," Papyrus said. "MAKE SURE YOU DON'T STEP ON THE SAME SQUARE TWICE! IF YOU DO, IT WILL TURN INTO A DIFFERENT SHAPE, AND THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO RESTART THE WHOLE THING!"

"That's…"

Chara continued, floating over the sign and sitting on it, crossing one leg over the other. "Yeah, was gonna say. You got this. It's not that hard."

Adrian briefly, and vaguely, nodded to Chara in acknowledgement before turning to the puzzle. He proceeded to circle around it, analysing it in its entirety to find the greatest possible angle he could proceed from. From the north, the south, the only other side he could enter from, everything.

He was not feeling up to investing brainpower into the process that is trial-and-error, his weariness from the past couple of battles already catching up to him, so he figured that doing it first try would be ideal.

So, he wracked his brain.

In the meantime, Chara watched with feigned bated breath and admitted slight anticipation. Compared to a regular pacifist, neutral, or genocide route that she would witness Frisk go through, there has definitely been quite a number of deviations from what she would normally expect at this point. With Adrian's presence, she knew she couldn't be surprised, especially since he's an entirely different person and all with his own ideas and ways to go about things, but still.

And then, there are the changes that logically shouldn't have been a thing. The Dogamy and Dogaressa fight, for example, was way different than it should have regularly been, something she was going to inform Adrian about. Whenever Frisk fought them, it was a simple axe attack or two that could easily be dodged; in other words, they were very easy attacks. But for some reason, the monsters not only seemed a lot stronger, but they were much more refined and competent in fighting than usual.

She didn't know if she was hallucinating the entire fight or something, but the Dogi were like completely different monsters than the ones she knew. And it wasn't exclusive to them, either; the Lesser Dog and Doggo fights were much more elaborate than usual, too. For Toriel, she knew it could be somewhat expected because of how strong she was, but for everything else to be affected as well…

Chara didn't know whether it was because the monsters knew they were fighting someone young and held back or whatever other reason against Frisk, but in any case, it was definitely an interesting sight to see. Especially with someone as proficient in fighting as Adrian was.

"Jeez, I wonder if all the other fights will be different, too. If it follows like this, he's gonna have one hell of a time against Undyne… I don't think I'm ready to see that yet."

"Done," Adrian exclaimed for all around to hear, clasping his hands after stomping on the switch near the sigh. The spikes that were blocking the way retracted into the ground, leaving the pathway completely clear and safe to proceed. "That wasn't so bad."

The first fallen flew over to the marine. She wasn't surprised, but it was interesting how quickly he solved it. "That was fast. You could have cheated if you wanted to, you know—there's a switch over by the tree Papyrus is standing by."

"Why would I do that? That sounds kind of cheap."

"INCREDIBLE! I'M IMPRESSED, HUMAN! YOU MANAGED TO SOLVE THAT IN NO TIME!" Papyrus shouted proudly, strutting over to the marine. "YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT ONE THEN! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU! NYEH-HEH-HEH!'

With that, Papyrus proceeded to go ahead of the pair, running off into the next room in preparation for whatever he has in store for the marine. In the meantime, Sans, who wasn't there before, was now standing at the edge of the now defunct spikes, apparently waiting for him to continue forth.

It made a certain apparition wonder: did Sans witness the fight from earlier? Chara wasn't entirely paying attention to anything other than the battle, so she couldn't know for sure. She then flew to Sans' side and awaited Adrian to approach the big-boned skeleton.

Adrian drew out an exaggerated sigh as he did as was expected, walking up to Sans. "Yo."

Sans maintained his 'cheery' smile. "yo. good work on solving this so quickly—you didn't even need my help. which is great, 'cause i love doing absolutely nothing."

"I'm more-so curious about the next one, really," Adrian said, crossing his arms. "I know I can see it from here, but… y'know. I'd like to know what to expect."

"well, i could tell ya, but that'd ruin the surprise," Sans rolled his eyes absentmindedly, pointing his thumb behind him. "besides, my bro is really enthusiastic with this one. give it a chance, yeah?"

"I guess…"

Chara chimed in. "Hey, do you think he saw-"

"by the way, i saw your fight with the dogi."

Adrian was taken aback for a moment…

"…that was some fine work, i think. even had to pop out the popcorn for that one—it was like i was watching a movie," Sans said, simply, chuckling a little at his own pun. "especially with how it ended. i think you'd give undyne a run for her money if you were and able to join the royal guard. everyone'd be all over ya like glue."

Both Adrian and Chara collectively, and internally, blew a sigh of relief.

Adrian shrugged, hesitantly asking a question. "I keep hearing about this Undyne… Is she someone I have to worry about?"

"yep."

"Damn."

Sans' smirk widened slightly. "nah, you'll be alright. maybe you'll be able to convince her to not fight'cha. but if you do, be careful—she's captain of the royal guard for a reason."

"That's… totally relieving," Adrian said, obviously not relieved. "If you say so, I guess…"

Chara watched as the little exchange concluded. Even though Adrian and Sans were now seemingly on good terms, she could tense a modicum of tension remain between them. It felt like Sans was still studying Adrian, despite all the evidence proving him to be somewhat pacifistic against monsters.

"You know, you could've asked me about Undyne, Corp," Chara pouted, crossing her arms and turning away.

"I haven't had many chances to talk to you without someone else being around, Chara," Adrian said, rolling his eyes. "How strong is she?"

"You're not going to have a fun time."

"Dunno what I expected."

Pushing forward a few meters, Adrian and Chara found themselves in the next area, not being too far from the last one. The first thing Adrian took notice of was Sans standing directly beside Papyrus. Swiftly doing a double take behind him, he saw that he was no longer there. "How the hell did he…"

"Get used to it. He does that a lot," Chara smirked. She was sort of excited to see how this puzzle would come into fruition. Normally, it doesn't work as a regular puzzle at all, with the path being completely pink and thus safe to proceed on, but with all the changes that has happened until now, there was a chance that it would work as intended. "This is going to be fun."

"Fun? Why-"

"HEY! IT'S THE HUMAN! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DR ALPHYS!" Papyrus exclaimed, leaning against a strange looking machine to his right. The puzzle, currently deactivated, occupied most of the room, consisting of a collection of greyed-out tiles. "ONCE I THROW THIS SWITCH, THESE TILES WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOUR! EACH COLOUR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION!"

"Corporal, I'm going to tell you right now that this will be VERY LONG," Chara explained between Papyrus' words. "He is going to be yammering away for a little while. I'm not sure how this'll pan out myself, but you'll either need to remember every word, or you won't need to remember it at all. Good luck. Even I don't have this memorised."

"What does she mean by that, exactly?"

"RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE! YOU CANNOT WALK ON THEM! YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC! THEY WILL ELECTROCUTE YOU! GREEN TILES ARE ALARM TILES! IF YOU STEP ON THEM… YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER! ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE-SCENTED. THEY WILL MAKE YOU SMELL DELICIOUS! BLUE TILES ARE WATER TILES! SWIM THROUGH IF YOU LIKE, BUT… IF YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES, THE PIRAHNAS WILL BITE YOU. ALSO, IF A BLUE TILE IS NEXT TO A YELLOW TILE, THE WATER WILL ALSO ZAP YOU! PURPLES TILES ARE SLIPPERY! YOU WILL SLIDE TO THE NEXT TILE! HOWEVER, THE SLIPPERY SOAP… SMELLS LIKE LEMONS! WHICH PIRAHNAS DO NOT LIKE! PURPLE AND BLUE ARE OK! FINALLY, PINK TILES. THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING. STEP ON THEM ALL YOU LIKE."

"…What."

Papyrus took a brief pause to catch his breath. "HOW WAS THAT? UNDERSTAND?!"

"Uh…" was the only word Adrian managed to mutter as he realised, he only captured roughly 25% of that entire explanation. Chara could only watch on in laughter as she saw his overwhelmed expression on his face, completely bewildered and confused.

"Hehe, see?"

"I don't… what the hell?" Adrian rattled his head. He then spoke softly as to speak to Chara. "Am… am I supposed to remember all that?"

"Like I said, you're about to find out."

"DID YOU CATCH THAT HUMAN?!"

"…yeeesss…?" Adrian hesitantly remarked.

"GREAT! THEN THERE'S ONE LAST THING… THIS PUZZLE IS ENTIRELY RANDOM! WHEN I PULL THIS SWITCH, IT WILL MAKE A PUZZLE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!" Papyrus exclaimed. "NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW THE SOLUTION! NYEH-HEH, GET READY!"

"What… did you just say RANDOM?!" Adrian shouted as Papyrus then threw the switch, causing the tiles on the ground in front of him to distort and shift in colours. It cycled through the entire spectrum, scrambling and randomising itself.

"You've gotta be messing with me… no way," Adrian then said, putting one hand to his head and another to his hips in a mix of terror and negatively charged anticipation. He had no idea what to do here. He turned to Chara, who was still giggling madly to herself. "You are not helping."

"You'll be, hehe, fine, Corp!" Chara managed to say between her fits. "Have fuuun!"

Seconds pass, the very loud whirring of the machine became even louder, its bass and pitch increasing exponentially in tandem. It was not only loud, but it was annoying as well for Adrian having to witness a random, difficult puzzle come into fruition right before his eyes. The machine then reached its peak, the tiles finally achieving its maximum velocity as…

And then, it was done.

Every single tile… was yellow.

Adrian looked on in only confusion. He already forgot what the yellow tiles were, so he didn't know whether this was good or bad. He looked to Chara, who had just ceased her laughter in time to witness this spectacle. She, at the very least, had some idea of what this meant.

"What the hell… are you for real?" Chara murmured, too astonished to begin laughing again. "These… these are yellow tiles. Electric. Meaning you can't pass them. Jeez, I have to take a minute—that is sorely unlucky."

"Uh-huh, ain't that unfortunate," Adrian scoffed, bringing his gaze upwards towards Papyrus. "Hey Papyrus! I think your thing is broken. The tiles are yellow—electric, right? How am I supposed to cross it? They'll zap me."

"HUH… THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN," Papyrus squinted at the puzzle in a blatant lack of understanding before turning to his dear brother. "SANS! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?"

Even Sans expressed some fascination. "uh… yeah, i kinda don't have anything to say to this one," the big-boned skeleton said, letting out a soft chuckle. "that might be top five—no, top three unluckiest things i've ever seen."

"What the hell are the other two?"

"OKAY… I SUPPOSE THIS PUZZLE WAS A RESOUNDING BUST…" Papyrus said with dejection blatantly riddled in his voice. He turned to the machine and kneeled, trying to figure out how to disable it. "SO… HOW DO I TURN THIS OFF…"

Even Sans went to assist, and yet the situation didn't change—the Corporal was stuck on the other side of the puzzle with no hope of passing any time soon… although Adrian had something of an idea. Not a good one, but it was better than nothing.

"I'm going to try something very stupid," Adrian said to no one in particular. He took hold of his PCV and blew a sigh. He hated worrying about charging his vest—it wasn't so bad in Black Mesa when charging stations were aplenty, but here he had to do it manually. "If this doesn't work, I'll be pissed."

"…Corp, what're you planning?"

"Something stupid."

Before Chara would wittily reply with a retort, Adrian stepped foot on a yellow tile. He winced in pain as he felt the electric shock course through his entire body, but it wasn't something he couldn't handle at all. He trudged forward with heavy reluctance, bearing through the pain, across the entirety of the puzzle.

Somehow, stepping foot off the electric-based puzzle, he managed to survive the death trap. For some reason, he felt… nothing. No pain, no lacerations, burn marks, nothing. He brought a hand up and clenched it; he greatly overestimated the ferocity of the zap. "Hey, I guess that wasn't so…"

WARNING. PCV. OVERCHARGE. OFFSETTING…

Oh.

Adrian couldn't even manage half a word before being zapped into oblivion with an electrical shock a hundred times more intense than the one he just endured in the puzzle. It felt like it had enough power to instantly fry anyone if left concentrated. Although it only lasted a second, the immeasurable pain the marine felt for that brief period of time felt like it lasted much longer.

"Pah," Adrian coughed, frozen in place, completely unable to move for a little while. He wasn't even aware of the overcharge feature—why the hell does it administer a shock to the user? It sounded very counter-productive. "I'm… alive? I'm… alive. I live."

"Holy crap, Corp, are you okay? You literally just walked through pure electricity—that must've hurt like a mother… and then whatever that shock was from your vest added insult to injury," Chara exclaimed, quickly flying over to Adrian; her face contorted from one of suspicion to immediate, and genuine, care and concern. "You can't just do risky things like that, jeez."

Adrian smiled at her. "Aw, how sweet…"

"Like, what'll happen to me if you die?!"

His smile faded. "…okay."

"WOW, YOU WALKED THROUGH THAT, HUMAN? VERY IMPRESSIVE! ABSURDLY IMPRESSIVE, IN FACT! I'LL HAVE TO WRITE THIS DOWN FOR FUTURE REFERENCE!" Papyrus exclaimed, pulling out a notepad and pen from out of nowhere. "HUMANS… CAN… SURVIVE… WALKING… THROUGH… ELECTRICITY…!"

"hey paps, i don't think humans can survive doing that. i think it's his vest that did all the work," Sans mentioned as he pointed to Adrian's vest, which was glowing a bright hue of green.

PCV. FULLY. CHARGED.

"I guess if there's one upside to being zapped with a bunch of electricity, it's that my PCV gets charged up. Thank God they designed it the way they did, survivability mechanics and all that…" Adrian spoke to himself before bringing his head up to face the brothers. "You might want to get this fixed so that the next person who comes through here doesn't have to do all that."

"DANG MACHINE! OF ALL THE TIMES IT HAS WORKED UP TO THIS POINT, IT MALFUNCTIONS NOW…" Papyrus stomped his foot into the ground, cursing the blasted machine. "MY APOLOGIES, HUMAN. I WILL FIX THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"

"nah, don't worry; i got it," Sans said. He reapproached the machine and inspected it for a moment before kicking it. As soon as he did that, the puzzle went from appearing yellow directly to pink. "good thing alphys designed a failsafe, huh?"

"Why didn't you do that… before…" Adrian began, but he felt like there was no point in asking. All he would get is a pun, a deflection, a joke, or all of the above, knowing the skeleton. "…nevermind."

"GOOD THINKING, SANS!" Papyrus shouted his praises to his brother before turning back to the human. "NOW, PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE NEXT INTENSIVE PUZZLES! THEY ARE SURE TO CONFOUND YOU GREATLY! NYEH-HEH-HEH!"

Papyrus ran up ahead, with Sans following behind, leaving Adrian and Chara alone once again.

"Ah, damn it, I was going to ask him about his teleporting… thing," Adrian snapped his fingers in slight irritation.

"Yeah, like he'd tell you anyways," Chara said. "He's actually really secretive about that for some reason."

"That sucks…" Adrian said, absentmindedly glancing ahead. His eyes widened slightly. "…Uh, are those…?"

"Snow sculptures. Of dogs' heads. Dog heads snow sculptures."

---

The duo was faced with yet another puzzle that dealt with the X and O pattern scheme, yet this one seemed much more interesting, and difficult, than the last few. Especially since this one dealt with having to traverse on slippery ice to reach the X's along with making sure it was the correct pattern so he could proceed forward.

'Annoying' was the first word that came to the Corporal's mind when he witnessed it.

'How is he going to deal with this one?' was the first thing that came to Chara's mind when faced with the same thing.

The answer was… he wouldn't. Not very well, anyways.

"Fu-"

Adrian had literally taken one step on the icy platform before he immediately lost his balance and fell into the dark void below. Darkness enveloped his entire view before a shed of light quickly approached him, highlighting his view.

Or rather, crashing.

"Ooph!"

"Nice one, Corporal," Chara said as she gracefully floated down the abyss, of which led to a little clearing with some snow formations, very obviously made by the two skeleton brothers. "That makes the second… no, third time, right?"

The marine picked his head up from the snow, shaking it feverishly; his dazed face made itself apparent. "Ugh… at least you didn't bait me into doing that this time… how did I lose my balance that badly?"

"I dunno. The ice isn't anything special."

"Yeah, I thought so. I'm doing that again…" Adrian murmured, picking himself back up to his feet. He, along with Chara, who instead opted for simply floating upwards, quickly returned to the puzzle with a sort of newfound determination on solving it.

The marine took a little while to scrutinise the puzzle in front of him. It didn't seem like anything that would be too difficult to figure out, the solution was right there in front of him after all, but he knew that he would have a tough time actually performing it.

"Start from right corner X. Slide straight to the next X. Stop. Sharp left. Slide to the next X. Stop. Sharp left again. Long slide forward into the next X. I should be on the X that is connected to another one. Walk on that. Stop. Turn left again. Slide a short distance into the next X. Then, slide slightly farther to reach the next one. Stop. Sharp right turn. Slide forward. Stop and turn left. Short distance slide. Should then be on the next X that's connected to another one. Walk. Little slide to the right, then I should be on yet another set of connected X's… Walk on the final X, and then slide forward."

Chara caught him in a brief period of contemplation once again. "Hey. You gonna do it? Or are you still working it out?"

Adrian shook his head. "Nah, I got it.

He mentally prepared himself to make the attempt, now knowing what the correct path should be, but he found himself hesitating. He wracked his brain to try and find out why—he knew he wouldn't die from falling, that much was proven not even five minutes ago, but… there still lied the air of uncertainty. "Must be all the times I've fallen 'till now."

"Come on, Corp! I, eh… believe in ya!" Chara exclaimed, ceasing her floating to stand right in front of the marine. She wore a genuine look of belief on her face. And rightfully so—she did want him to succeed, as funny as it would be to see him fall over and over again. "Do I need to give you a pep talk this time?"

The marine let out an appreciative smile. He felt better about it now. "…no, no—I think that was all the pep talking I needed. Thank you."

Chara smiled back. "No problem! Now…" She began floating again, moving upwards from Adrian's way. "Let's see how you do."

Adrian took a step forward and took yet another sharp inhale, then resting on an exhale. He finally began the process he described in his mind, smoothly, and quickly, making his way through the puzzle. He did so with such precision and accuracy that he shocked himself… of which nearly led to him making a mistake, but he recovered without incident.

Chara watched as he cleared the puzzle without as much difficulty. She sort-of expected him to fail at least a couple of more times, but she was glad to see him pass it easily. Especially in how it took Frisk a while to…

She then internally scolded herself. She has been comparing Frisk and Adrian very often, and she knew she couldn't be blamed for doing so, but the young woman did not want to be thinking about Frisk anymore.

Especially with what they put her through. What they put everyone through.

"Hey Chara! You coming?"

She blinked and realised that Adrian had proceeded to the next area. "Whoops."

Adrian had just shouted from beyond the obscured forest. The young woman facepalmed, knowing how ridiculous the marine looked, shouting her name at nothing. But she then cracked a smile. "Dummy."

Her new tether wasn't so bad.

---

"How."

"…what?"

"Sans. How'd you do that?"

"dunno what you're talking about, soldier."

"Are you for real?"

"i'm super f'real. in fact, i'm the realest skele-bro you'll ever meet."

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

Adrian was having a completely sane and 'regular' conversation with Sans after having been led to another area down the path by Chara to supposedly check… something. She wasn't very specific and as usual, intentionally vague with her intentions, but he trusted her judgement.

He then saw Sans relaxing, standing near a corner that he rounded. Not thinking much of him, simply waving a 'hello', he continued on his way… before blinking for a microsecond and then seeing the skeleton directly ahead of him somehow.

…and thus, sparking the eighth pointless 'debate' between the two.

"I just saw you teleport from behind me… to in front of me," Adrian said, placing his hands on his hips. He remembered Chara talking about this, but he wanted to know firsthand from the source. "What's that about?"

"…i dunno, man. maybe you're seeing things. you sure you're not mistaking me for a snow poff?"

"What the heck is a snow poff."

"go up ahead. that'll solve your problems."

…

Chara had enough of this pointless back and forth and finally interjected, putting an immediate stop to the debate. "Corporal Adrian Shephard. This is the fiftieth time you went back and forth, back and forth, back and damn forth with Sans. Can we just please get a move on? None of this is helping anything."

Adrian instantly paused took a breath. She was right, unfortunately, so he let the topic go for now. "Okay, whatever, I'm over it. Do you still-"

"don't worry, i haven't forgotten about the crossword. i'll come find ya later."

That being the absolutely last thing on Adrian's mind, the marine opted for slowly nodding. "…alright then. Just making sure. I guess I'll see you later."

The skeleton nodded back, sending the marine and the ghost off towards their minor sub-goal. Adrian, having dictated himself to be far enough from the skeleton, began his line of questioning on the apparition. "So… why're we going this way again?"

Chara, who was leading the both of them, replied simply. "There's something very interesting that I want you and I to check out. With the number of differences between having you as a tether and… them as one, I'm curious about this one thing specifically. I'm guessing not, but I want to see for myself."

Adrian tilted his head upwards a little. "Can't speed over there yourself and check?"

Chara turned her head to face Adrian for a moment and shook it. "Nope. Remember, I'm tethered to you. And I mean that literally—I can't go more than twenty something meters away from you."

"I guess that makes sense as a limit…"

"Turn right here, c'mon," Chara remarked, pointing to an opening in the side of the mountain they had been following—it was something akin to a cave entrance. Sensing his hesitation, she rolled her eyes. "This isn't going to lead to a fall, okay?"

The marine squinted his eyes before shrugging off what she said, going ahead of her.

Entering the cave felt… unusual. The walls were unseeable and the insatiable aura that encapsulated the area was incredibly overbearing. To Adrian, it was as if he was witnessing something he shouldn't be. Even Chara sensed something was off—something she wouldn't have 'felt' otherwise, in other runs. A mysterious sensation heightened the two's senses.

"Woah, okay, now this is different," Chara noted, murmuring to herself a little. "This feeling… I've been here a bunch of times, too, but this cave is oozing a whole other kind of aura. What the heck is this?"

"You feel it too?" Adrian continued walking, the blue path in front of him being highlighted by various small flora, none of which he recognised. Further ahead, in the distance, he saw a minor clearing, being surrounded by various other plants and fungus. He wasn't certain if this was what Chara was talking about, but when he turned to the apparition, all of his beliefs were confirmed. He found her looking ahead with a look of wonder, curiosity, and anticipation.

Unconsciously, he had a thought.

"…cute."

He shook his head, finding himself somewhat curious as well now.

They finally reached the end of the path and was faced with… a purple, ruined, wooden door that bore a long-faded symbol that they both recognised. However, it seemed like it was completely sealed shut.

Chara blew out a sigh of relief, although it was easy to sense a tinge of disappointment within her breath. "Locked. Dang. Well, I dunno what I was expecting."

The marine took some initiative and crashed himself against the door. Although the door made a rather loud sound in minor retaliation, it didn't even buckle in response.

"It's not going to open, Corp. No matter how many times we tried, we could never get it to open," Chara said, biting her lip in annoyance. "I can't even phase through it. There's nothing we could do here."

She cursed under her breath, staring closely at the sacred emblem. For some reason, something felt a little strange about it. It was difficult for her to discern what, however. "Damn waste of time. Sorry for th-."

QWIP!

An image of a man FLASHED quickly, yet distinctly, through the young woman's mind. A man. Someone she felt like she recognised but couldn't recall knowing from anywhere else. He didn't seem real—symmetrical head, hair neat and proper, a briefcase steadily, and mysteriously, held in his left hand…

Something about this figure terrified her beyond belief.

She couldn't even fully remember his facial features—it was a brief flash in her mind, after all—but nothing was right about him. Every instinct, every fibre of her incorporeal being was screaming warning signs… just from a brief glance of the man.

It just didn't feel right to her. He was so familiar, too, but she just couldn't get a grasp on where she knew him from.

It wasn't only the figure that terrified her so, either; it was also the feeling that accompanied her.

Her eyes widened, lips slightly quivering in fear. She turned to head to seek any sort of comfort from the marine. "…A-Adrian… Did… did you see that?"

Adrian, in the meanwhile, continued to stare at the emblem blankly, entrapped in some sort of trance.

"…Adrian?"

---

The two soon left after and returned back on track towards Snowdin town, following past the slipper ice X and O puzzle. Both were looking to be in somewhat high spirits, although it was noticeable that both were a little shaken by the events that transpired in that cave.

Chara seemed much more open about it, however.

"Are we keeping secrets from each other again, Corp? Awh, come on… you've got to tell me what you saw back there," Chara groaned in annoyance, encircling the marine. "First with your past and now this? That's not fair."

Adrian shook his head and smirked. "Hey, you were looking a little shaken up back there, too. Mind telling me what you saw?"

Chara crossed her arms and pouted, turning away. She still seemed very hesitant to share what she saw. "Eh… I kinda don't want to think about it."

"Well, I've got good news for you, 'cause it didn't bother me all that much," Adrian snarkily replied, stepping over a small snow poff. He paused for a moment, realising this was what Sans was talking about, and scoffed at himself. "Anyways, it was the weirdest thing. I was just standing there, looking at the emblem on the door, before a flash of some guy with a cracked face popped up in my mind, like a mask-"

RUFF RUFF!

Adrian cut his sentence off upon hearing the little barks. In front of him lied a lone snow poff, directly in his way. Then, a little tail protruded from the back of the snow formation before the head of a dog appeared in front as well. Adrian let out a soft 'awh' before kneeling down, reaching to scratch the ears of the puppy.

Right before his hand made contact, however, the dog completely sprouted from the snow poff, revealing itself to be donning a large suit of armour. Jumping back in surprise and falling on his butt, he looked up at the 'large' dog. "You kidding me?"

Chara, in the meanwhile, was busy trying to fathom what Adrian had just said. It completely caught her off guard—she knew exactly who he was describing. And, if he's making his appearance more known now, especially to Adrian, then something was definitely wrong.

She felt a pit form in her stomach.

!

Adrian looked down to see his SOUL retract from his chest and tilted his head upwards in irritation. "God… no, no you know what? I'm not dealing with this. I'm too tired to be fighting another friggin' dog." Before either could make any attempt to attack the other, the marine reached into his backpack and pulled out a bone, specifically the one Papyrus gave him earlier.

He knew he would've needed it soon, too; he was definitely glad that he asked for it.

"Here, boy! Fetch!"

Adrian waved the bone in his hand before throwing it behind him a fair distance away, towards in-land. Immediately, the dog in obviously heavy armour, despite all of the weight, quickly dispatched to retrieve the bone. He returned quickly thereafter, licking the marine's face for a second before ceasing his assault, turning the other direction.

Adrian blew a brief sigh of relief, wiping some sweat from his brow. He was not in the mood for another fight, and that's not even taking his physical state into account. To a degree, this was sort of unusual for him—in Black Mesa, he wasn't prone to getting tired this easily. But then again, he was in a constant state of fight or flight mode, so that definitely helped him stay awake.

Chara flew back over to Adrian and gave him a thumbs up, smiling cheekily. "Cool. Now, with that out the way… what were you saying earlier?"

"Right," Adrian snapped his fingers. "Messed up looking guy with a cracked face. Line up his right eye socket and another one below his left. No idea what he wanted—he sure felt weird to look at, though. Guy just stared at me. Even said something, too."

Chara widened her eyes. "And? What did he say?"

"He said… 'don't get lost' and disappeared..." Adrian was prepared to continue, but he paused. "Hey, wait a sec—you look really interested. Do you know who this guy is?"

"Yeah… yeah I do," Chara admitted. She didn't mind revealing what she knew, especially if he's getting more involved. "His name's Gaster. W.D. Gaster. Even I don't know all that much about him—he was the Royal Scientist before the current one. He sort-of just… shows up sometimes. It looks like he's been showing up more often lately… which is weird, because he pretty much never had any sort of real pattern."

"Hm, interesting. Didn't think he'd be that important," the marine replied, folding his arms. "You said he's been showing up more? I hadn't seen him 'till now."

"You remember when I had that dream back in the RUINS?"

"Yeah. You didn't tell me what it was about."

"That was when."

"Oh, I didn't realise," Adrian nervously chuckled. "…sorry."

"Eh, I didn't talk about it for a reason, so I can't blame you anyways," Chara said, waving a hand. "Anyways, c'mon. You're tired, aren't you? We're almost in town. There's an inn there, too, so we could rest a bit before moving on. I could go for some shut eye myself."

"Sure."

They press on, continuing forth only a couple of meters just to find themselves facing a long-winded bridge across a gargantuan gap. In the distance, they could faintly see Sans and Papyrus conversing with each other, likely concocting more japes for the marine to solve. Adrian sighed as he mentally prepared himself to face the two skeleton brothers once more.

It's not like he minded all the puzzles he had to go through thus far, but this one seemed a little sketchier, with it being over a bridge and all. It was so easy to fall and die a horrific, yet oddly ironic, death.

He wasn't afraid of heights, thankfully; although, when he turned to face Chara, he could see that she was slightly uncomfortable. "...how."

Chara turned to the marine with a look of confusion. After a few moments, she replied. "How what?"

"You aren't afraid of heights, are you?"

"Pssh, what? No! Are you kidding me? I can literally fly; how can I, of all people, be afraid of heights?"

"I can tell, Chara."

"...just keep going, Corporal," Chara swiftly retorted before murmuring under her breath. "Everyone's a mind reader these days… feh."

Adrian shrugged with a smug smirk on his face before advancing forward on the bridge. He makes it to the tail end of the bridge before stopping, the two skeletons now right in front of him. "Okay, Sans, Papyrus. What do you guy have for me now?"

Papyrus turned almost immediately, though Sans already seemed aware of his presence. "HUMAN! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE!"

"Almost done already, huh?"

"BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!"

Suddenly, a collection of various weapons ascended from below the bridge and descended from above the bridge. They seemed to be carried by platforms from both sides, of which Adrian couldn't see where it connected to. The weapons consisted of a spike ball connected to a chain, a traditional spear, a raging fire from a churn, another spear, a cannon ball, and a… dangling dog tied to a rope.

"Uh."

Adrian has been through many trials and dangerous combat situations. It was to be expected; he's a marine, after all, and that's not even counting his Black Mesa experience either. However, nothing could have prepared him for the most blatantly non-threatening, yet incredibly dangerous, 'challenge' he's ever seen. Although he held a straight face, it was easy to tell that he was holding something back.

"Nothing to say, Corp?"

"…nope."

Papyrus continued. "WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE, SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN! ARE YOU READY?! BECAUSE! I! AM! ABOUT! TO DO IT!"

Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, prompting Adrian to consider turning around to leave; Chara, however, managed to dissuade him. "This is the only way forward from here, Corp. Snowdin Town is right ahead, and I can already see you falling asleep there."

"…this girl's going to be the death of me."

"well?" Sans said, turning to his brother. "what's the hold-up?"

"HOLD-UP?! WHAT HOLD-UP?! I'M… ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!"

Another couple of moments pass with absolutely nothing changing whatsoever.

Sans finally broke the silence once again. "that, uh… doesn't look very activated."

"WELL! THIS CHALLENGE! IT SEEMS…" Papyrus began, progressively seeming uncertain. "MAYBE… TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH…"

"I've escaped worse."

"YEAH! WE CAN'T USE THIS ONE… AS I AM A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS! MY PUZZLES ARE ENTIRELY FAIR!" Papyrus proudly declared. "AND MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED! BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL! AWAY IT GOES!"

As if on cue, the collection of weapons retracted from view, returning back to their proper storage spots that Adrian, no matter how hard he looked up and down, couldn't find. Shaking his head in frustration, he had no choice but to accept that things were just weird down here.

…though the already knew beforehand. The marine blinked as he felt himself nod off slightly. He found himself more tired than he initially thought. "Ugh."

"PHEW!" Papyrus briefly looked the other direction before returning his gaze to Adrian. "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING…" He paused for a brief moment. "HANG ON, HUMAN. YOU SEEM TO BE A FALTERING—ARE YOU TIRED?"

Adrian sluggishly nodded. "Yeah. How could you tell?"

Papyrus put his hands on his hips and lifted his chin. "THAT IS EXACTLY THE REASON I RETRACTED THE CHALLENGE, OF COURSE! I SENSED YOU WERE WEARY, SO I DECIDED TO DO AWAY WITH IT! YES, YET ANOTHER DECISIVE, AND FAIR, VICTORY FOR PAPYRUS!"

"Even Papyrus noticed you were tired, Corp. All that fighting with space in-between is really getting to you, huh?" Chara said as she nudged Adrian. For a second, it seemed like Adrian's body reacted to the touch and moved slightly, but neither noticed.

Adrian yawned a little. "Colour me surprised."

"NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH…HEH!" was the final chant of victory Papyrus proclaimed before running off the other direction, finally ending the last challenge Adrian would have in Snowdin… or at least, that's what he's assuming.

Yet again, Sans remained in the area. The marine thought about approaching Sans, but Chara stopped him with her arm in front of him. "Hey, Corp. Hang on for a sec."

"…Sup?"

"Turn around right now for a moment."

"What? Wh-" Adrian stopped himself and just turned. He had no energy to argue, so he just did as he was told. However, what he did see, woke him up a little. There was a bright, yellow flower in the far distance behind him, back where he was. The marine knew it wasn't there before, so it must have been placed there literally in the last five minutes.

…or it was the other, very obvious option. "…Flowey."

He watched as the flower returned back into the ground in what he could only assume was panic.

"Yep. He's been following us," Chara said casually, nodding her head. "Don't worry—I made sure that whenever we talked, he wasn't around to hear."

"Do you know when he started following us?"

"Sometime around when you met Sans."

"…and why didn't you think to tell me sooner?"

"It just hit me."

The marine opted for shrugging rather than give a response. He figured he would deal with that situation once he's gotten some sleep. He didn't even have the energy to spark a conversation with Sans, which was good, since those usually sapped everything out of him. So, turning back around, he finally pressed further into…

"Welcome to Snowdin Town, Corporal Shephard!" Chara exclaimed, flying past the marine towards the base of town. At first glance, the town seemed a little bare, but the energy it emanated exuded one of life and semi-liberation. It wasn't a large town by any means; in fact, Chara reckoned she could circle the whole thing if Adrian was in the middle of it. However, that didn't mean it wasn't a nice, quaint community that a decently large host of monsters called their home.

Various monsters littered the town, going about their daily tasks, dining at restaurants like Grillby's, visiting the librarby, decorating a curious Christmas tree in the middle of town, staying at the inn, of which Adrian seemed very interested in visiting, etcetera.

And yet, all Adrian cared about was getting some rest. Ignoring the young woman, he pocketed his hands and approached the two first buildings he saw. They, being connected to each other, seemed to provide two services: one was a shop for various wares and the other was an inn.

Without hesitation, he entered the inn.

"Aw, come on. Can't even spare a little look-around fir-"

"No."

Chara slumped her arms in disappointment, though she knew she couldn't be surprised. "…fine, jeez."

The marine was greeted with a decently homey interior with some jazz lightly playing in the background. He stared at a couch positioned near the counter for a brief moment, seriously contemplating whether he should just fall asleep right then and there, but his better judgement overtook his instincts as he then approached the counter.

The bunny monster at the counter spoke with a smile. "Welcome to Snowed Inn! Snowdin's premier hote-"

"…how much is a night?"

"80 G!"

Adrian grumbled to himself as he dug into his gold pockets. He has never been more thankful for the fact that he had to face a bunch of monsters, as gold dropped frequently because of them. Retrieving exactly 80 G, he placed in on the monster, holding out another hand for the key to the room he would be staying in.

"Here you go!" the bunny monster said, reaching from beneath the counter to retrieve a key. She then placed it in Adrian's hand, retracting it afterwards. "Have a nice stay!"

"Appreciate it, miss."

Chara watched as Adrian slowly, yet surely, made his way up the stairs and found the direction to his booked room. He opened the door and revealed a small room that bore a bed that was nestled up against the wall's corner. There also lied a large, overhead lamp, a small table bearing an open book, and a larger table meant for… something. A painting also rested above the bed.

"Well, we're here. Happy?"

Adrian didn't respond.

When she took a moment to think, Chara realised something. "Hey, wait. Where am I supposed to slee-"

Chara was far too late as the marine, after dropping his backpack, immediately fell unconscious onto the bed, reluctantly, yet assuredly, moving closer to the wall, unknowingly leaving a decent-sized opening on the right side of the bed. She scrunched her face, seemingly opposed to it, but gave in as she begrudgingly climbed on, lying on it and avoiding all contact with the marine.

She supposed that she could float and phase off into another, preferably empty, room, but she was already there, and there was no point in moving, she thought, so she reluctantly accepted her circumstances. In time, she, too, found her eyes growing heavier. With one last annoyed sigh, she finally closed her eyes, succumbing to the brilliance that is the dreamscape…

---

…is what Chara would have expected, but she couldn't ever have what she wanted.

She found herself surrounded by a familiar void, darkness invading her every sensory senses. The young woman, yet again, scrunched up her face in irritation—she has been experiencing far too many void dreams that it's becoming tiring to constantly witness. They were all the same up to this point.

Rather than unnerve her, let alone terrify her, it only served as boredom.

She couldn't help but feel a tinge of uneasiness, however; it wasn't anything she hasn't felt before, but there was certainly a difference to this sort of darkness—something she couldn't really discern properly. She hated that; she liked knowing as much as she could, and unknowns were something she couldn't control, especially an unknown like this.

But what is there to know in the darkness?

Chara floated around, trying to find some way out. Although it was fairly obvious that she was in some sort of dream—for the most part, up until recently, she was able to easily discern her state of consciousness without fail—but she figured she would try anyways. "What would the next nightmare be?" she questioned. "What else am I supposed to confront?"

She would soon wish she hadn't internally asked these questions.

Suddenly, a fuzzy, translucent figure appeared some distance away. Chara noticed it instantly, it being the only contrasting thing in the darkness. So, when she floated over to see who it was, she was forced to widen her eyes in surprise. "Uh… what?

The figure revealed himself to be none other than Asgore Dreemurr, King of the Underground and her adoptive father. This was strange—she doesn't often see him in her dreams at all. "…but I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. Everything has been differently lately—this is just another deviation in the absence of… them."

She shook her head. Approaching Asgore, she floated over to face her father… only to see his face completely gone, a smooth surface replacing what would normally be a calm, warm expression. 'Asgore' did nothing, except turn his head to stare at the apparition.

A loud, booming and completely unfamiliar voice perverted her mind. Chara had no choice but to stagger backwards, clasping her ears as she darted her eyes back and forth between 'Asgore' and the surrounding darkness. Although intense, it spoke clearly. "…YOU DO NOT BELONG."

"What… what the hell are you talking about? Who are you? Why are you here?!"

"YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING."

Chara was tired of this already. "Is that supposed to mean anything, you freak? Why are you in my father's body?!"

"I OWE YOU NO ANSWERS, FOR YOU ARE IN DEBT."

As soon as the final word was uttered, 'Asgore' was struck through his chest with some sort of dark, fleshy appendage, completely impaling the King of Monsters. There was no grunt of pain nor any semblance of a whimper—the monster just slumped over, the appendage connecting him to the ground like a caricature.

"No!" Chara exclaimed as she leaped forward to reach her 'father', but she was restrained by some invisible force. Her arms contracted upwards before she was suddenly propelled backwards into some sort of wall… but when she turned her head to see what she landed on, there appeared to be nothing at all. "What… what did you do to me?!"

"YOU WILL BE RESTRICTED. THERE WILL BE NO INTERVENTION. WITNESS THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOUR."

Another obscured figure then made its appearance. Chara couldn't see who it was until it escaped from the shadows. She grimaced in mental agony as it was none other than her adoptive brother, Asriel. It was exactly as she remembered him, except, similar to 'Asgore,' he had no facial features to speak of. Just a dreadfully empty canvas. This was incredibly disturbing for the young woman—she has seen people she loved killed before, but to mimic and then desecrate them was something she couldn't help but be horrified at.

Another black, tentacled appendage sprouted from beyond the darkness, swiftly impaling Asriel to the ground.

"S-stop it, for fuck's sake!" Chara cried out. "Why are you doing this?!"

A faint, yet familiar, voice emanated from Asriel's corpse. "You, Chara. You are the reason. You did this. You ruined my life—all of our lives. Why didn't you pay? Why did you kill us?"

…

"…What?"

Another imitation manifested just behind Asriel, taking the form of her adoptive mother, Toriel. It was the same as before—no face, no life; it was something akin to a walking corpse. 'Toriel' slugged forward, wearily stepping one foot in front of the other as 'she' passed Asriel. A disembodied voice followed, somewhat similar to Toriel's voice, but heavily distorted. "…my child. My sweet, wonderful child… Why? Why did you have to do it? Why did you have to kill my son?"

Tears began streaming down Chara's face. "W-wait, no, no, I didn't- I didn't mean for it to be this way! I… I didn't want Asriel to just… bring me up and kill himself like that! I just… I just wanted him to break the fucking barrier, not die bringing me up!"

'Toriel' looked down upon Chara with disdain, even though such an expression should be impossible to form. "You alone broke our family apart. You killed Asriel. You ruined Asgore and I's chance to finally pass on. You persuaded Frisk into beginning an endless massacre that would last years. It was you, child."

"No! P-please, mom!"

KWSH!

The false imitation was then uprooted from the ground by a spikey tendril, impaling her from the bottom up. No more voices from her came after that—the walking corpse was silenced, although it didn't assist in comforting Chara. Her entire family was right in front of her, faceless, impaled, and died completely resentful.

She tried looking around to see if there was anything, anything at all to help her either escape or figure out who is doing this, why it's happening, and how.

But she wasn't expecting to see him.

Corporal Adrian Shephard.

A mimic manifested from the ground, taking the complete appearance of Adrian, except he still had his gas mask on, making it difficult to distinguish him from the rest of the copies if she hadn't seen 'him' sprout from the ground. Chara couldn't help but widen her mouth in disbelief. "W-what…? Corp?"

A voice that seemed nearly completely identical to the marine himself was drawn from the imitator.

"One place to the next, I know destruction. I have seen people kill and get killed in the most brutal ways possible. But what you've done… what you've wrought upon this world… is an utter travesty. You were wondering why everyone hated you so much? Such a conceited question."

The 'marine' stopped for a moment. "You're a failure."

In that instant, just like the rest, he was struck with the very same tendrils, spiking him to the ground. The force that restrained Chara was now gone, finally, bringing Chara to her knees as she fell down to the ground.

"I'm s-sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

She kept repeating those words to herself as she sobbed softly, remaining on her knees in front of the four corpses in front of her. They weren't real. She knew that. But they were right. They were right about everything, and there's nothing she could do about it anymore. Asriel's death, Frisk's genocide… ever since she fell into the Underground, and even before that, she's caused nothing but harm and endless conflict.

The reason she fell in the first place…

…

The air was suffocating.

---

Adrian's eyes shot up. This was unusual—he didn't mean to wake up nor, he knew, was it time for him to. He felt his body's heaviness weigh on him as he struggled to push himself up. He didn't know why he woke up so early—he conditioned himself to always wake up at a specific time when he wanted to, and this should have been no exception…

…until he heard sobbing.

He turned his head to see Chara curled up next to him, facing outwards. He wasn't sure if she was asleep or not, but it didn't matter t him. She was sobbing, and didn't know why. A dream, maybe? A nightmare, more likely. He knew how tough Chara was, so this had to have been something incredibly troubling.

He needed to do something.

"Chara…? Hey, Chara!" he loudly whispered, concern deeply embedded within his voice. He couldn't touch her… right? But he had to find some way to wake her. He hesitantly put a hand over her shoulder—it wasn't touching something, but miraculously, his hand stopped as if there was some force preventing him from simply phasing through the young woman.

Normally, he would marvel at such a thing happening considering everything, but he had no time no mull it over. He lightly 'shook' Chara, beckoning her to awaken. "C'mon, Chara! Please, wake up!"

Slowly, Chara's eyes began to open, the stream of tears falling from her reddened eyes being made even more apparent than it already was. Her head turned up to face Adrian's concerned expression. "Chara…"

"Adrian, I-" Chara hiccupped, unable to finish her sentence. She just shook her head and attempted a crude smile. She couldn't control herself after such a nightmarish trip into the dreamscape; it was all of her fears coming into absolute fruition. It was completely unprompted, too—it just didn't make any sense to her at all. Why now? Why does she keep dreaming about this? When will it stop? Can it even stop? She had no answers. "I d-don't… I'm so sorry."

The marine didn't know what to do. He didn't know any comforting words that he could share that wasn't already shared, nor anything that he thought would actually help. But she was crying. He hated seeing people cry. Especially Chara. So, he did something that he never thought he'd be able to do.

He sat up from the bed slowly and brought Chara with him, bringing the young woman into an embrace. He didn't know if this would work, just like everything else, but this was the best chance he had at comfort. If he couldn't do that at least, then what good was he?

Chara widened her eyes in hesitation and immense surprise as Adrian hugged her. Initially, she didn't feel anything, which depressed her even further, but… a certain warmth snuck its way to her non-beating, incorporeal heart. Scratch that—such warmth began to pursue farther than that, spreading to her entire body. It was a warmth that she had not felt in such a long time.

She didn't want to let go. She wanted to sob endlessly in Adrian's arms, her only safe space right now. Despite everything, despite the fakes' aggressions against her, she was able to find some semblance of peace. The nightmare she had was much worse than the one she had in the RUINS. It felt… real. It still feels real. She can remember it vividly—the entire memory replaying a thousand times a second as she's forced to relive it over, and over, and over…

…but those thoughts were quickly washed away as the warmth decimated them, as if it was a thousand-degree knife to soft, malleable butter.

Her sobbing eventually calmed down, there being no more tears to cry. Resting her head on Adrian's chest, they laid back down on the bed, the two finally drifting off to their respective slumbers. There was no hurt, no pain, no tension—there only lied mutual comfort. And, Chara knew, in that moment, there would be no nightmares. Not anymore. Not here.

Before the young woman fully succumbed to unconsciousness, she tilted her head up slightly to face Adrian's calm and peaceful slumbering countenance. As her eyes grew heavier and heavier, she had one, final, unbelievable thought.

"So… warm…"

---

A / N

(LONG A/N INCOMING! READ TL;DR IF YOU WANT TO SAVE YOURSELF AN EXTRA 5 YEARS OF READING!)

Before I say anything, I want to mention that I put a few Dragon Ball references here and there. Kudos to you if you caught it, especially where it's from specifically.

Anyways, here we have chapter 9! As you can see, it began a little light-hearted before I dove right into the deep end at the, well… end—it's been some time coming, too. There's a lot of unresolved feelings that'll need to be sorted out eventually, but for now… the two can find some solace in each other's comfort.

Feels like this should go unsaid, but this doesn't explicitly indicate romance. Interpret it how you wish, however.

Anyways, we're closing in on the end of this section of the Underground. Chapter 10 will be the closer. Got a lot planned for it and the next area, and the area after, and so on and so forth. Yeah, we're not going to be done any time soon.

I hope my fight scenes have been somewhat enjoyable. I've been trying to be as descriptive as I could without being too elaborate. I'm sort of running as I go—it's probably easy to tell I'm not very great at it yet. I think it's serviceable enough now, though. Don't worry, it will get better. Pinkie promise!

Speaking of elaborate, well, I did say that I would start writing longer chapters to make up for the fact that I'm only updating once a month. But this time it was completely unintentional. I almost cut out a few parts because of it, but I decided against doing so for the sake of continuity. Random large jump cuts on parts that I feel like would either further someone's character or whatever the case feels wrong for sure.

…but that's just me rambling away.

Another thing—the introductions. I'm kind of experimenting with brief flashbacks on certain characters that may or may not relate to the chapter itself to serve as the main introduction to the chapter. I'm sort of taking this idea from 'A Devil's Light', if you're familiar, so kudos to SilverSoulmmc.

Anyways…

Sparking Zero just released (well, by the time this chapter comes out, it'll already have been released for a little while) and I am grinding it out. If, for any reason, there are any delays, blame that game.

One last thing: after Chapter 10, I will be taking a one-month hiatus (meaning it wouldn't be until January 'till I work on 11) to work on something else (a potential one-shot; I'll elaborate more next chapter and in the fic itself since I plan on posting it here on whatever platform you're reading this on). Hint hint, remember your fundamentals in school, and never forget to pass your papers, lest you get caught by a certain miss.

Okay, okay… it's kind of obvious.

Other than that, I think I've said everything I wanted to say here. I have a lot planned, and I'm excited to share it with you guys… eventually.

As always, reviews and criticism are welcome.

Take care!

(TL; DR: A couple DB references here and there. CH9 is here! Light-hearted turns dark. That reminds me of something… Anyways, CH10 is next; we leave Snowdin soon. Fight scenes are hopefully enjoyable to read; improving as I go. Chapters will likely be as lengthy as this one going forward other than minor breaks. Introductions may be used here and there in differing ways—flashbacks. SZ released. We are locking in. New fic—will be taking a 'brief' hiatus after chapter 10)

---

(F/N) – Super heavy weapons guy

I appreciate it! It seems kind of off-putting at first, I know—Undertale and Half-Life are pretty different verses, after all, but I feel like a story like this could work really well. Disco9 did it well, and so I'm picking up the reigns!