Rain pawed at the last remaining bits of ketchup with her last scrawny fry. It was the smallest fry. The crunchiest. The runt that had turned dark brown while its bigger counterparts had still been cooking. It was the last little morsel of her free handout so she made sure to savor it.

She had no money. Her clothes were damp, her fingers cold and her eyelids heavy. She sat on the last cement stair step of the back alleyway entrance to the bar and grill and mulled over her day while she struggled to keep from shivering.

Something strange was happening. Something odd and off color. It felt like a shadow twisting just at the corner of her eye that vanished every time she tried to look at it. It was a nagging question pawing at the farthest corner of her mind, sitting in the fog where she could not see it fully. A question of what, and why?

Why had all the other puzzles stopped working?

They had survived their trek into Snowdin with only minor injuries. Mostly because Rain figured out that all the guard dogs needed to calm them down was a good pat on the head. But something else had made the trip easier than she had expected. All of Papyrus’s puzzles had failed.

At first she had assumed it was Sans’s doing. With his Cheshire grin and strange watchful eyes he always looked like he knew a secret that he wished to communicate to her. He had said he wouldn’t let anything happen to her and to be fair there surely had been a few encounters where they had been spared a hassle or a dangerous task simply due to his convenient laziness. Yet there were things that had happened that she did not feel she could tribute to him.

She wasn’t going to complain about all of the sudden technical difficulties Papyrus had encountered in his attempts to “capture” her but she wasn’t going to just overlook them either. Some of the puzzles had been bugged. They got half way through them and then they registered as completed, thus removing certain obstacles and barricades from their path to Snowdin.

Papyrus had called it amazing.

Sans had called it clever.

Chara however, had called it curious.

It was that last comment that drew in Rain’s attention.

Things only became less subtle from there. They even came across one challenge that had already been completed by the time they got there. The levers had been switched and the traps disarmed. And off in the corner, near the spike walls that had slid back underground, there was a stone with a crack in it. A stone with a web of vines creeping out of it.

Rain had not noticed it at first but Chara had. It had caught her attention so thoroughly that she had stopped to look at it while they were still standing on the disarmed spike trap.

Once again, she had called it curious. “Very curious. But why now?”

If Chara knew something about what was going on, she kept it to herself. Despite all of Rain’s attempts to coax it out of her she remained aloof and deep in thought.

Rain was jolted from her thoughts when an orange flickering light cast dancing shadows at her feet. She looked up and peered through the other side of a door labeled “Fire Exit” and watched as a being of dancing flames looked out at her.

She gave a little wave and forced a little smile.

The creature, she assumed it was a he, stepped outside to join her. His presence lit up the dark alleyway behind the building as the strange lights of Snowdin Forest faded into night.

“Hello again.” She peeped.

He looked down at her, the light making odd reflections in his glasses. Perhaps the ever-burning flames that made up his face danced a little differently in greeting. Or perhaps not.

He crouched down from the top step and gestured to the white cardboard container her fries had come in. Nothing was left but some crumbs and a red stain.

She flinched a little at his closeness but soon found herself being drawn in by the promise of warmth. “Oh, yes, it was quite good. Thank you for letting me have it, it meant a lot to me.”

He held out his hand, dancing fingers flickering in a gesture.

She scowled for a moment then handed him the empty container. His fingers wrapped around it; stretching and spreading until black marks began to appear in the cardboard. Soon glowing ember holes began to eat their way through the container, causing little wisps of smoke to rise up between his fingers. The smell of French fries lingered in the alleyway.

She smirked. “Cool.” She got up and brushed the dirt from her pants. “Well, I guess you have no need for loiterers like myself hanging around here making your business look shady. I will go ahead and get going. Again, thank you so much for the fries. And, um, thanks for not telling anyone. I’m really sorry I couldn’t pay.”

He reached out and caught her by the arm. She jerked back in alarm but his touch was only warm. He shook his head and sat down on the top step, motioning for her to do the same.

“Um, ok.” She sat down on the step below him and tapped her nails against the handrail; unsure of what he wanted her to do. He didn’t seem to speak much and she wasn’t even sure she knew his name.

He pulled out a cigarette and held it up to his face. She didn’t really see any lips on the guy but he seemed to be enjoying it, even though both ends seemed to be burning.

He was not as hot at real fire but the area was much more pleasant now that he was there. She inched a little closer so the warmth could eat through her wet clothes.

Chara seemed to be resting now. She had exerted a lot of energy protecting them from the cold and now she was sleeping in some deep corner of their mind. So Rain was left to fend for herself for the time being. She was weary, hungry like never before and forced to try and hide and fight off the cold on her own.

At least the fire monster seemed to have taken pity on her. Chara had told her that as long and she kept quiet and avoided the guards most of the monsters wouldn’t realize what she was right away.

A few minutes ticked by. She began to lean up against the handrail more and more. Cold iron felt way more comfortable than it should have in her exhausted state.

The crunch of footsteps in the snow kept her from completely drifting off. She felt the fire turn away from her just a bit when the footsteps crept a little closer.

“ah, there you are. thanks, grillby.”

Rain was pulled from her half sleep by the sound of the familiar voice. Her head tipped forward and she hit her nose against one of the iron bars. “Ow, shit!” She hissed, holding her nose in her hand.

“heh, you alright lady?” Sans was walking down the back street with a takeout bag in hand. He was wearing a black woolen hoodie with the same big roomy pockets in the front that his blue coat had.

Grillby got back to his feet and pinched the butt of his cigarette between his thumb and forefinger, consuming the whole thing in flames and then flicking the ash out into the wind. He apparently said something that Sans caught but she didn’t.

“you sure? you could just put it on my tab.”

Rain looked up and watched Grillby’s flames dance while he brushed off his smart black vest.

“alright. that’s very generous of you, thanks. haha, yeah, i probably will just make up for it by lunch time tomorrow.”

Grillby nodded once, adjusted the cuffs of his sleeves and slipped back inside his establishment. Rain watched his flames make eerie pulses of light stretch up and down the hall as he left.

“He seems nice.”

“yeah he’s pretty cool, for a fire elemental.” Sans jerked his head in the direction of the main road. “c’mon. you shouldn’t be out here in the snow. it’s getting late and i hear there’s a human running loose.” His grin was perhaps a little more foreboding then he meant it to be but his tone remained lighthearted.

She rose slowly, feeling her joints ache and groan in protest. She brushed the dirt from her clothes again. Little puffs of dust rose from her pant legs and brought back uneasy memories. Luckily Sans didn’t seem to notice. “Where are we going? If your crazy brother has gotten his puzzles to work there is no way I’m going back out there.”

“aw come on i’m not that heartless.” He chortled. “look, i even got you some grub.” He held up the bag. Two black containers could be seen inside. The smell of warm food was a sirens call to her.

He led her out of the alleyway and into the main street. There were not too many people out and about this late but a few children could be heard shrieking to each other down another road. They were apparently engaged in an intense, long lasting snowball fight.

“so, the puzzles didn’t turn out exactly like he had hoped but you still made my brother really happy. a little town like this can get pretty boring sometimes so i think you made his day. maybe even his week.”

He noticed the wary way she stuck to the side of the road and kept her head down and her hood up whenever someone drew near. He gave her a nudge. “hey, lady, don’t worry about it. no one here has ever seen a human. they know you’re out there but they don’t know what you look like. most of them will probably just think you’re a really weird looking monster or something.”

They reached one of the larger houses on the street. It had two stories and a festive wreath on the door. Despite being one of the larger buildings it still had a kind of reserved look to it. San lead her around back to a shed. The walkway had recently been shoveled.

“here we are.” He had to push his shoulder against the door and give it a good shove to force the shed door open.

Rain gave him a suspicious look. “I have seen enough old crime shows to know what when some poor girl wanders into a shed like this, the ending usually involves chainsaws.”

He shrugged. “suit yourself. not gonna force you to go in. i just heard you were sitting out in the cold because you couldn’t afford to stay at the inn. i can’t let you inside were Papyrus might see you, but the shed isn’t that bad. it’s got a sleeping bag and decent insulation.”

She nudged at Chara’s presence. She stirred into awareness with a sort of displeased grumble. “I’m still hungry. Go find us more food.” Her awareness turned to Sans. “Oh. What’s he doing here?” She looked around a little. “What are we doing here?”

“He wants to let us sleep in the shed.”

Chara drifted back to sleep. “So then do it. I’m not afraid of him. I will keep an eye out.”

“uh, you're spacing out on me again human.” Sans warned.

She ducked inside. It was still cold and the floorboards creaked a little when she walked on them but at least it kept her out of the snow. Half the room was separated by a series of thick bars that were spaced too far apart to be anything other than a nuisance. The walls were naked save for a power box drilled into the left wall. “What’s with the bars?”

Sans slipped between the bars and tossed her an old sleeping bag that had been left in the corner of the room. It had a few tears in it but at least it was clean. “Papyrus’s doing. in case he ever captured a human. i think he imagined you would be a lot bigger than you are. He put the bars way too far apart.” He plopped himself down on the floor. His bones made a weird rattling sound upon impact. “c’mon, sit down. got you a burg with everything on it.” He unpacked the two containers and slid one to her.

She sat down across from him, still feeling a little wary but his laid back personality was pretty disarming. “Not that I’m not grateful for all this,” She said between greedy bites of burger. It was still warm. Truly this was the most amazing thing she had ever eaten. “But why are you helping me if you are supposed to be looking for humans if the first place?”

“i have my reasons. besides, after making my brother so happy i kind of owe you one.”

“Where did he run off to anyway? I would have thought we would have bumped into him again by now.”

He shrugged. He had unpacked his own burger but wasn’t eating it. “probably off preparing for your final confrontation.”

She swallowed hard, almost choking. “Final confrontation? What?”

“yeah he still has his heart set on capturing you for undyne. thinks handing you over to her is the only way how he can prove himself.” He was drawing a pattern in the dust now, boney fingers making soft scraping sounds against the wood. “so if you don’t understand how blue attack patterns work yet, you better learn. if you see a blue attack you have to stop. it’s pretty simple really. just imagine a stop sign, only blue instead of red.”

“Screw stop signs! I don’t want to fight anybody! Doesn’t he know what will happen to me if he hands me over to the Royal Guard?”

Something flashed in his eye. Curiosity perhaps. “do you?”

She set down the remains of her burger and picked at the sesame seed bun. Her voice was knit tight with loathing. “I keep hearing people say that the king is rather fond of ripping the souls out of people like us.”

“us?”

She quickly corrected herself. “Me. People like me.” She looked up, eyes pleading. “Sans, I just want to go home. I nearly threw my entire life away but I was given a second chance. A chance to do something better. A chance to be more than I ever allowed myself to be in the past. I can’t just let someone take that away from me. I will fight if I’m forced to but I don’t know if I have the heart for it. I just want to go home and sleep in my own bed again.”

Sans sighed. “believe me buddy, i know the feeling. i don’t want you to have to fight anyone either.” He thought for a moment. She wrapped the sleeping bag around herself and picked at her food a little more. She was starting to feel a bit better now. A little warmer.

“look, you stay here and rest, ok? i don’t know if Papyrus will listen to me if i ask him to just let you go, but maybe we can work something out and you can slip past him in the morning. how’s that sound?”

She smiled, a little reassured. “Sounds great. Thank you. Its… it’s been kind of a rough ride so far. It’s nice to know not everyone down here is out to get me.”

“i know the feeling.”

“What?”

He shook his head. “it’s nothing.” He dusted his hands off on his pants. “welp, i best be going. got lots of stuff that i have been putting off. if i sit here much longer, all that determination of yours is going to make me feel like i should stop procrastinating and get stuff done. but I’d much rather just go take a nap so, see ya.”

“Aren’t you going to eat your burger?”

He waved away the question. “nah. you can have it.”

“Hey, by the way, you can call me Rain. If you want.” She interjected awkwardly.

He tilted his head and smirked. “rain… is that really what you call yourself? you don’t sound very convinced.”

Her awkwardness only grew at that statement. She stared at nothing in particular and shook her head. Several flyaway hairs fell into her face. “That’s because I’m not. But until something better comes to mind that’s what I’m sticking with.”

“alright then, rain, that’s what i'll call you. until something better comes along.” He stuck his hands into his pockets and gave her a wink. “good night.”

Before she could say anything in response she blinked and he was gone. For a brief moment she thought his shadow was still there but then even that faded away.

Chara stirred, grumbling with discontent. “That’s weird. I didn’t know he could do that”

“Are you sure we will be alright here?”

“Safer than if we stayed outside. But I don’t recommend staying here for long. We are at their mercy as long as we are here so the sooner we slip out of view the better. Eat your food. All of it. Then sleep. I will keep watch for you. Our trek is far from over.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” She grumbled. She checked the fresh scab on her leg to make sure it hadn’t reopened then finished off her meal. She scarfed it down so fast that she hardly remembered chewing. At one point she just looked down and everything was gone.

With her clothes drying out and her belly full at last, she curled up into the sleeping bag and enjoyed the slowly building warmth within. She didn’t even remember her head touching the floor before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

“Wake up.” The darkness wavered like ripples in a disturbed pond. “Rain, wake up.”

In the empty dreamless landscape she saw Chara’s shadow, swirling and contorted. Its vague human shape prodded at her from across an impossible distance.

“Rain, wake up. It’s time to go.”

She rolled over and groaned. It caused a little trickle of cold air to seep in through the sleeping bag and disturb her. “Not yet.” She grumbled.

“You have had plenty of sleep. It’s time to go.” This time she felt the entity prod her outside of the dream. She twitched and her eyes flew open. She had been poked in the eye by her own finger.

Her hands flopped down in defeat and she sighed her loud displeasure. “What now?” She looked out of the single cloudy window within her view. It was still dark outside.

“If we go while it’s still early we should be able to sneak out of here unnoticed while Papyrus is still sleeping.”

“Sans said he was going to talk to him for us.”

Chara’s presence seemed tight and restless, an uneasy black whirlpool. “And what if he can’t get him to change his mind? Come on, we should go while it’s still our choice.”

“Ugh, what’s gotten into you all of a sudden? Why do you seem so tense? I thought you weren't afraid of them.”

“Oh, I’m not. But if you would be so kind as to turn your wandering attention back to that window, then maybe you will have a better of idea what’s going on.”

She scowled at the window. She had to leave the blessed warmth of her sleeping bag and squint a bit to see the letters smeared against the pane from outside. Surrounded by childlike drawings of smiley faces and flowers, the chilling words: “They know. They are coming” were etched into the frost.

“What the hell?” She pressed her face against the glass and looked out into the night. She saw no one. No footprints either. Just a strange, thin snakelike mark in the snow that vanished into nothing. “Did Sans write this?”

“No. I think I heard him leave the house a few minutes ago.”

“Do you think he…?”

Chara’s exsistance shrugged. “Does it matter? Someone is giving us a warning. Don’t question it, just go! Come on, go get our spear and let’s get out of here. There doesn’t seem to be much else we can take that won’t slow us down.”

Rain rushed to take up the fire iron. Her stomach lurched with anxiety. It felt like the foggy letters in the window were pressing down against her back. Her nervous heartbeat became the time-keep for every second she wasted as she fumbled.

“Quietly, Rain, quietly. We must be quick but if we are loud then there is no point!”

She put a trembling hand on the doorknob. For a brief moment she thought it was locked but it was only jammed a little. She yanked the door open with a groan loud enough to make her cringe. She poked her head out into the night. There didn’t seem to be anyone around.

She pulled up the hood on her borrowed coat and tucked the spear away where it would not be seen.

Sticking close to the looming walls of the buildings so that the common foot traffic would help hide their prints, she slinked along like an ashamed ally cat.

The cheery town with its festive lights and warm cabins seemed much more sinister now. Their colorful signs and elegant window displays now feeling more like a synthetic mask worn to hide the prying eyes of the predatory townsfolk.

She continued to feel claustrophobic until the buildings started to become more and more spread out, eventually giving way to trees once more. She slipped away from the illuminated town and let the darkness of a synthetic night envelop them.

“I guess we got lucky this time.” She whispered, feeling her breath warm her nose.

“Looks that way.”

“I thought I heard A river back in Snowdin. It’s getting closer now. We won’t have to cross it, will we?”

“Follow it. We need to head for Waterfall. It will be warmer there.”

“How far?”

“Not too far. Shorter than our walk from the door to Snowdin. I think I can protect you from the cold long enough now. Your wounds should be gone.”

She realized the sting in her leg had indeed subsided.

“So what can we expect to encounter from here on out?”

Well, the Underground has two great extremes. The cold outer ring of Snowdin Forest, which is maintained to supply the Core with ice, and the inner ring of magma which houses said Core. Everything stuck between the two has become a sort of wetlands. See the fog off in the distance? That means we are getting close. The snow becomes fog were the conditions warm up.”

“Anything we will need to look out for?”

“Besides the monsters themselves? Lots. It’s easy to get lost, drowned or have a bad fall. We should probably try to find better shoes for you soon. Something to keep your feet dry” Chara thought for a moment longer, considering what else stood in their way. “Our biggest obstacle will be the Captain of the Royal Guard. I believe the skeletons called her Undyne, right? The captain killed both of my other partners.”

Rain’s hands balled into fists and she felt bile rise up in her throat. “Do you think they were the one that killed Daniel?”

“If the king didn’t do it himself? Most definitely. So you need to prepare yourself for that confrontation now because if we can’t sneak past her our only option will be to kill her. She knows no mercy.”

She bowed her head. How the hell could anyone expect her to kill the monster version of a knight in shining armor? She couldn’t even pull off a good street fighter combo.

But if these people had killed Daniel… “Don’t know why you think I could stop her but if that scumbag killed my friend then I guess I’m all in. But let’s try not to hurt anyone we don’t have to, ok?” She hugged her stomach. “Sometimes I look at these guys and I feel something weird inside of me. Inside of you. I don’t like it. I know you must be really angry with everyone for what happened to you but I don’t want to go around turning innocent bystanders to dust.”

Chara laughed. “Oh Rain, you keep forgetting how valuable you are. Monsters have been trapped down here all of their lives. You are a one way ticket out of here. Power, freedom, strength- you could grant all of that to someone. Even the kindest of people would forsake their principles for something like that. So don’t be stupid. Don’t let your guard down and assume everyone is an innocent bystander. Toriel wasn’t. Neither was Flowey.”

Rain wanted to argue the point but she didn’t have much enthusiasm for the subject. Aside from Sans and Grillby, Chara had been right so far. Everyone saw her as something to grab a hold of for personal gain.

Despite the persistent chill of doubt and fear that gnawed at her bones, anger over her friend’s death and her own constant state of peril made her chest tighten with dark warmth. She could feel Chara’s shadow press against that bitterness like someone watching over a dying ember and trying to turn it back into a flame. It should have been unsettling but she only felt a clouded…indifference.

They walked on in uneasy silence for a while. The river grew closer and their path narrower. Ever so slowly their world was consumed by mist. Little flecks of fog crystals drifting across the cold darkness. Their footsteps were muffled by the trees pressing in around them.

They both breathed a sigh of relief when the last festive lights of Snowdin winked out of sight. The town continued to dream on without them; none the wiser.

Then they encountered the one thing Rain had prayed not to hear. Footsteps.

A tall, familiar silhouette was slowly taking shape in the fog up ahead.

“Why is he here? It’s the middle of the night! He should be sleeping!” Rain wailed.

“I guess he knew we would try to sneak past him in the dark.”

They stopped and crouched low, hoping they had not been heard. Had the sound of the river been enough to hide their own footsteps if it had muffled his for so long?

“Chara, is there another path we can take?”

“No. The river is on our left and there is a steep cliff face to our right. We can try to sneak around him in the fog but other than that I can’t recall anything useful. The water is too cold and the cliffs too steep to escape through.”

Rain tried to creep back; hoping that if she could just slink into the thin tree line she would have enough cover to sneak away. The rumble of the river could hide her footsteps.

Unfortunately Papyrus had other plans. He was wandering around aimlessly while he muttered to himself about something. Faint words like “human, Papyrus,” and “Royal Guard” were all just barely audible.

“Brace yourself; He’s coming right towards us.”

“Shit!”

Papyrus stopped short, boots crunching in the snow. He straightened himself and looked around. “Human? Is that you? Show yourself and face me!”

Rain crouched lower, trying to make herself an uninteresting shape in the night.

It didn’t work.

“Ahah! I see you hiding over there. Come out. Stand and face the Great Papyrus!”

Chara pulled them to their feet. The feeling of the iron rod hidden in their coat sleeve felt cold and heavy in her grip. How long had she been holding it like that?

“Papyrus, what are you doing out here? It’s late. I thought you would be sleeping.”

“Yes, well, I wasn’t sure when you planned to leave Snowdin and I couldn’t find you to ask so I decided that I would just wait here. The path is so narrow that I knew you would have to pass by. So as long as I was patient, I knew I couldn’t miss you!”

Rain took a step back, rubbing her arm in a nervous tick. “Papyrus, you’re not actually going to try and fight me, right? We did your puzzles. We didn’t hurt anyone.” Chara made some strange internal sound at that. “Can’t you just let us pass?”

Papyrus was close enough now that they could see his expression through the fog. He looked unsure of himself. Rain's heart leapt. perhaps she could talk him out of this after all. “Look, you seem like a nice guy. We don’t have to fight. Just let me pass... please. I won’t tell anyone you let me go.”

He rubbed his jaw and turned his back to them. “Human, I…” He bowed his head. He was quiet for several seconds. “Allow me to tell you about some rather complex feelings. Feelings like, finding another pasta lover so willing to share the joy of spaghetti with another, that they pass up the opportunity to eat it all themselves.”

“What is he talking about?”

“Feelings like…the admiration for one’s exceptional puzzle solving skills.”

“Wait, was he the one that left that frozen plate of food out in the middle of nowhere? What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Chara snorted.

He turned around, his face distorted with internal conflict. “Or the desire that some cool, new person you just met will hopefully think that you are cool too, because you don’t have many friends and they seem really nice!” He smiled a little. Then his smile fell and he visually floundered. “Uh, t-these must be the kind of feelings you are feeling right now! Right? I- I can hardly imagine what it must be like to feel that way, human.” He laughed nervously under his breath. “I mean, after all, I am very great. I don’t ever have to wonder what it would be like to have lots of friends. But I- I pity you, lonely human.” He pointed a dramatic finger at her.

“What the hell is this guy on?”

“Shut up Chara. I think… I think this guy doesn’t really want to fight us. I think he’s just lonely.”

She took a hesitant step forward. “Papyrus, I would love to be friends with you. Can’t we put this whole ‘final confrontation’ thing behind us and call it a night? C-come on. You don’t really want to fight me. Two ships passing in the night, right?”

It was hard to read his expression in the dark but there was something soft and genuine in his voice. “Human, I would love to... Surely together we would be the greatest of…. of….” His face was falling again; his eyes sinking lower and lower until they were staring down at the snow. He took a step back. “N-no. No. I can’t do that. It would be wrong.”

Rain laughed nervously. “Come on Papyrus, don’t do this to me. Where is your brother? Let’s go find him. He can help us sort all this out.”

“Ah, alas! I am afraid the canine unit has requested his help in finding their missing member. Doggo has not been checking in lately and everyone is worried he got lost in the snow again. He’s almost blind, so it happens. Thus, we must resolve this conflict amongst ourselves. But I suppose if no one is here to see…”

Chara bristled. It was like watching the spines on a porcupine rising up all at once. It sent shivers down Rain's spine.

“Well, why don’t we both just go back to Snowdin and-”

Chara cut her off. “Rain, we have to get out of here before they find out what happened to that dog.”

Papyrus shook himself. “No, no this is all wrong! You are a human! And I must capture you myself!”

“Chara, what are you talking about?”

Papyrus carried on, oblivious to Rain’s internal conflict. “It’s the only way she will let me in. Once I capture you, I will finally be powerful, popular, prestigious! Everything I have ever dreamed of!”

The ground around them began to glow with a strange light.

“Rain, that dog is dead. We killed it.”

“That will be me, Papyrus, the newest member…”

“What? …No. No! We didn’t kill him! You said he was just knocked out!”

“-of the Royal Guard!”

The ground around them erupted. Papyrus had made his move.