The wind began to blow. It howled down the mountainside and made all the weeds bow before its call. Far atop the highest ledge a figure stood with her back to the shadows, her red hair dancing like a flame in the wind. The distant glow of the Hotland painted her face with the colors of a sunset she had never seen.

From where she stood Hotland made it look like the whole world was on fire, like the whole world was ending.

Today it felt like it really could be.

She saw her approaching from the distance. She did not go after her this time. They both seemed to know that it was inevitable that they would have to cross paths here. So she simply watched and waited. It wouldn’t have been wise to chase after the human anyway. That fall had hurt her. She hid it well but the human seemed to understand that she had just been putting on a brave face for the kid.

They watched each other as the distance between them grew smaller and smaller until at last the human stopped just under her perch. They looked up at her and waited.

Undyne’s lips twitched in some form of a knowing smile. So then they had both reached the same conclusion. They would finish things here.

“I admit, I’m surprised. I did not think you would face me willingly. You spent so much time running; hiding like a coward from the impact of your choices, that I assumed you would try to crawl right past me again with your belly in the mud.”

The human pulled away the cowl of her hood, allowing her red and white hair to billow in the wind. “I don’t need to hide anymore.”

Undyne took a deep breath and looked back towards Hotland. The familiar shape of a lab could be spotted among the blackened silhouettes. So far away and yet close enough to make her stomach tie itself in knots. If this creature was allowed continue, her path would bring her right past that lab.

She couldn’t let that happen. She would have to kill her here. Then her soul would set everyone free.

Her grip tightened on her spear. Well, maybe not everyone… just the ones that were left.

Her resolve hardened. “Seven.” She made herself stand up straight. It hurt for more reasons than one. “Seven souls and King Asgore will become a God. Six. That is how many we have.”

“Yes, I know.”

Undyne looked down into the human’s eyes. Did they find this amusing? Did they think that ripping apart her world one friend at a time was fun? She ground her teeth, rage welling up inside of her. “You know, it’s customary for me to tell you the story of my people. To help you understand why all this is necessary. But I don’t think you would care about that, would you?”

“Not really. No.”

“Well then, let me tell you a different story. It will help you understand the reason behind your slow death when I tear you apart. Three days ago, Papyrus was late to his lessons.”

For a brief moment the scumbag’s smirk faltered.

“I know he gets on some peoples nerves. He’s weird, he’s naive, he’s self-absorbed- but he never misses a lesson. And when you call him, it doesn’t matter what time of day it is- he always answered in the first two rings.” Her voice fell and her hands trembled. She lowered her gaze so that the shadows shaded her brow. “But when I called him three days ago, he never picked up. The phone rang and rang and rang but no one answered." She took a deep breath. “What did you do to him?” Her voice cracked and her throat was rubbed raw by rage. “What did you do to him! To all of them! To Papyrus, who I always knew was too goofy to hurt anyone but I still trained every day. To his brother, Sans, who has vanished without a word. What did you do to my Canine Unit? They were a family! An entire family! Gone, just like that! What did you do to my friends? My neighbors who used to talk to me while I was out on patrol?”

She tossed a spear down into the dirt below. It made a dull thud as it slid into the moist earth where it waited, thrumming with a faint hint of power.

“Go ahead.” She spat. “Prepare however you want. Arm yourself. Unlike you I don’t make it a habit of picking unfair fights with defenseless people. But know this, human: when you do step forward, make your peace. I can’t bring back the people you took from me but I can stop you from taking any more of my friends away. I will kill you. And I promise you, it will not. Be. Quick!”

For a moment it looked like the human was whispering to itself. Then they reached into the folds of their stolen cloak and revealed a sharpened fire iron.

With a sickening pang Undyne realized the cloak had belonged to one of her guards.

The human tested its weight, swinging it back and forth a few times. Then she picked up the spear Undyne had tossed at her feet and tested that one as well. She slipped her fire iron back into the fold of her cloak and nodded. “Ok. We are ready.”

Undyne closed her eyes and pictured all of her friends. All the people she was fighting for. She laughed. She had waited far too long for this day. The day all monsters would be free. But now she felt no joy, only rage. Her eye snapped open and she launched herself from her perch.”En garde!”

She pulled her own spear out of the air and swiped it across the air in a sharp motion. A rain of pulsing green needles pelted the human.

The human raised an arm in defense as the needles sank into her skin, turning into green streaks of light. She looked down in surprise as the lights burrowed through her flesh and vanished once they reached her chest.

Undyne stalked the perimeter, dragging her spear through the dirt until the human was boxed in by the shallow line.

A red light began to flicker to life in front of the human’s chest, pulled into the open by green tendrils of emerging light that converged on her soul. Like the sound of a drumbeat, the heart pulsed once and turned green.

“Now I’ve got you. As long as you’re green, you can’t run off again. And unless you learn to face danger head on, you won’t last a second against me.” She raised her hand to the false sky and called forth several more spears. They darted this way and that through the air, crisscrossing and arcing through the darkness around her. Undyne gave the command and it began to rain blue hellfire.

The first one was a direct hit. It sank deep into the human’s back and she screamed, spinning around far too late. A second spear came whistling through the air and she just barely managed to hop out of its way.

When the next spear came she knew to listen for the whistling air and twisted around in time to knock it to the ground. Twice more she used her gifted spear to block Undyne’s attacks.

Undyne stalked the perimeter she had drawn in the dirt; watching, learning. She wanted to rush in and do everything herself but knew that would be foolish.

The spear that had been lodged in the human’s back eventually flickered and vanished. A dark spot began to spread across her shirt. She managed to avoid the next few arrows of light despite her wounds.

Undyne nodded, impressed. “Not bad. But how about this?” Several spears left their school of lights up above them and dropped down until they were hovering just a few feet parallel the ground.

The human looked around, wary eyes darting between all the hungry points of light. The spears chose their angle and began to shoot past the line in the dirt.

The human wobbled out of the way of the first few shots, roaring as she knocked two to the ground and managed to doge a third while maintaining her balance. But as her movement triggered the next wave of bombardment, her attempts to fling herself out of the way unknowingly brought herself towards that shallow line drawn in the dirt.

Her soul lit up like a green fireball, flames curling up against an invisible wall the moment she tried to step foot over the mark. She fell backwards and received two more solid blows from Undyne' magic, one colliding with her side and another lancing through her leg. She screamed and staggered.

“I told you, you can’t run.” Undyne spat. “Get up.” She was cradling her bad leg, gasping in pain as crimson liquid ran down her shin. “I said get up! I am doing you a service but I won’t wait forever.”

She used the borrowed spear to pull herself back up to her feet. “What’s a matter Undyne? Too afraid to step into the ring with me?” She taunted through grit teeth.

“Are you really so eager to be turned into dog meat?” She waved her spear again and another glowing assault fell from the ceiling.

The human managed to knock several of them out of the way but once again another one struck her in the back. She staggered forward, eyes wide. She spat out a mouthful of blood. She was wheezing pretty hard. “Come in here and fight me!” She snarled, pink foam building in the corners of her mouth. She could not stand up straight.

Undyne’s grip on her weapon tightened, making her leather gloves creak. “With pleasure. I think you have had a long enough warm-up anyway.” Undyne crossed the line at last. She could feel the warmth of her own spear in her hand, its energy pulsing like a heartbeat.

For Papyrus. She thought.

She hoped he would forgive her for having failed him like this. She felt ashamed to have let him indulge himself with a sentry station that had put him in this… this thing’s way.

“You may have the first move, Human.”

“That’s a stupid choice to make.” She lunged forward, movements staggered and messy. She aimed her weapon towards Undyne’s abdomen.

Undyne took half a step to the right and smacked the human’s weapon aside then arced the pole over her attacker’s head and yanked back. The back edge of her spear caught her in the arm like a fishhook and yanked her forward.

The human spat at her, trying to bring her own spear around in time to knock her away. The edge scraped against Undyne’s armor and a second jab nicked her injured leg.

Undyne pushed her away. “For years we have dreamed of a happy ending.” She lifted her free hand and more spears dropped down to hover just above the ground. The human hopped and staggered through the array while Undyne sidestepped them with ease, exchanging a few test blows while the human continued to stagger and slow as they continued to bleed. “And now the sunlight is finally within our reach-”

The human charged forward. Undyne stood her ground and caught the spear by the pole and used the human’s momentum against her, steering her around and up against the invisible wall once more. She bounced off of it, stumbling back and lashing out with uneven swings. How was she even standing at this point?

Undyne snatched her attacker's spear again; sustaining deep cuts to her hand as the sharpened tip ate through the warm leather of her glove.

Undyne lifted her own spear and roared. She pulled the human toward her and drove the spear tip into her heart.

The humans eyes widened in surprised. Her mouth worked to form words that would not manifest.

Undyne’s voice came out in a single husky breath. “-and I won’t ever let you snatch that dream away from us.”

The human looked at her with shock. Terror. Suffering. She clawed at the spear and fell to her knees. Her green tainted soul fluttered, emitting several strings of green and red color before losing its shape. The green vanished like someone had popped a balloon full of fog. All that was left was a single red ember that faded into nothingness.

The human’s eyes glazed over. Their borrowed energy spear unraveled like dust being blown away in the wind and her body fell face down.

Undyne let out a shaky breath and propped herself up on her spear.

She waited to feel something grand in light of her victory. Joy. Relief. Excitement- but instead she just felt tiered. Like she had been holding her breath for too long and had not slept in days.

She told herself she should be happy. She would finally get to see that sunrise she had always dreamed of.

She squeezed her eye shut to try and fight back the tears.

Only now, she would have to see it alone.

***

Rain felt like she was trying to swim up a waterfall. She grew weaker and weaker. The world grew darker and darker. All of the throbbing pain that she would have given anything to stop just seconds ago was now going numb along with all her other feelings.

She was falling back into the darkness. That eternal prison of nothingness where her thoughts would be doomed to wander forever until they fell into madness.

A voice drifted over her. A disappointed sigh. “Well, that was rather pathetic. You could have at least stayed out of my way.”

Rain tried to hold on to consciousness but it was slipping through her fingers. Her body hit the ground but she did not really feel or see it happen. She felt empty inside.

Chara seemed annoyed but understanding. “You keep dragging your feet and telling yourself you are making a willing sacrifice to protect these creatures but in the end you are still afraid, aren’t you? Afraid of this.” Chara’s whole presence seemed to gesture at the darkness that was swallowing them.

“…Yes.”

“You don’t want to die yet, do you? You don’t want to go back into to the dark. You don’t want to think about what they will do with your soul once they have it. You heard what Undyne said. With seven souls, monsters will break free from the Underground and turn upon humanity. And it will all be your fault. Doesn’t that scare you at all? Doesn’t that make you angry?”

“Yes.” She admitted in a pitiful whimper.

The voice grew closer. It whispered in her ear. She could almost feel the warmth of a breath it did not have. “Then I think it’s time I show you a little trick. Strange things happen when human Determination and monster magic meet.”

Rain felt herself drifting upwards. It was like her body was weightless and someone was picking her up and setting her back on her feet, even though she was no longer sure exactly where her feet were.

“Ah yes, I can feel it. More than anything, you do not want to die. You don’t want Asgore to take your soul. You are more afraid of death than you are of me. You care more about you living than them dying. Good. Hold onto that. Stay Determined.”

Her fingers twitched.

She had fingers! That one simple idea brought her unparalleled joy and relief. She even laughed a little and smiled. She feltherself smile! She could almost hear herself laugh. "Chara, what’s happening? What’s going on?”

There was a light up ahead, warm and red. She was drifting towards it. Gaining speed one sluggish second at a time.

“We are going back to before we died.”

“That’s impossible.”

“No it’s not. Magic and Determination are strange things. Just focus on the light. We will get there. No, Don’t look back. The darkness is behind you, waiting. Don’t let it catch you.”

“I-I don’t understand.”

Chara sighed. “Of course you don’t, do you? Adults always struggle so hard with anything that changes their world. Unlike children, who just accept it. Look, you have played video games, right? Just think of this all as one big game. And right now, we are reaching out to our SAVE file…”

Rain reached out to touch the light. It filled her with warmth. It breathed life back into her.

There was a bright flash and then she was yanked out of the darkness and thrown back out into a world of substance once more.

Suddenly she could feel their body again. She felt like she had just jumped out of a moving car. She was confused and disoriented. One second she had been lying on the ground in front of Undyne and the next she was someplace else.

She gasped for breath and leaned against part of the cavern wall for support. She reached up to touch the wound in her chest but it wasn't there.

She looked up in surprise. Undyne’s silhouette watched them from a rocky perch off in the distance.

Rain took a step back. Her amazement and relief began to boil down into something far more sickening. “Chara, have we always been able to do this?”

Chara pushed her aside and took over with surprising ease. She stretched and flexed the limbs of her restored form. “Oh, no. No, of course not.” She assured with a satisfied purr. “Thanks to you I have been growing stronger and remembering more of my past lives. It wasn’t until recently that I remembered how to do this.”

Rain drifted along in her stolen body, stomach twisting. She wasn’t sure she believed her but she was relived to still be alive.

“Ah, you must be upset with me, even though I just saved you. Again.” Chara droned in an annoyed monotone. “You’re wondering whether or not you could have used this to save Papyrus, aren’t you? Well, maybe if you had placed more trust in me back then, I would have been strong enough to remember sooner. Strong enough to save him.”

Rain felt like her guts had been scooped out. She wasn’t sure what to think anymore. She was so hopelessly confused by all this. She was grateful beyond belief to be alive but she felt emotionally drained. “How many times can we be brought back to life?”

“Well if you keep getting in my way like you did last time, we will find out, wont we?” Chara threaten in sickly sweet annoyance.

She wasn’t sure if Chara was lying to her or not. That fog was settling in over her mind again. Was that fog Chara? Or her own cowardly nature letting her run from the truth?

“Chara, we have to go back! Surely there has to be some way to go back even farther into the past? Before we ever had to hurt anyone? If we can go back far enough maybe we can avoid falling down here in the first place! Then the king won’t be able to take our soul. We could find a way to seal up the opening so no one else can ever come down here again.”

“Sorry Rain, but I only have one save point and this is as far back as it goes. I know you’re scared of me but honestly I am the lesser of two evils right now, don’t you think? Undyne won’t show us any mercy so just let me handle her like we planned. You can have your body back when I’m done. So I’d appreciate it if you at least tried not to get in my way, if you’re not going to help me. I can’t save you from the darkness forever and neither one of us finds the sensation of being impaled pleasant.”

Chara felt Rain’s will fading away into the mist. Chara smiled a little wider. This is why she so loved having an adult to use. They loved to make things complicated in order to justify themselves. They were willing to live in that little gray area and look the other way if it meant not having to cause trouble. “Alright then. Let’s try this again.”

It was eerie when Undyne greeted them with the same words as before.

“I admit, I’m surprised. I did not think you would face me willingly. You spent so much time running; hiding like a coward from the impact of your choices, that I assumed you would try to crawl right past me again with your belly in the mud.”

Chara pulled down her hood and watched her. “I don’t need to hide anymore.”

Undyne stood up straight and proud, glaring down at them. “Seven.”

Chara Stared at Undyne's injured leg. She was trying to hide the fact that she was trying to avoid putting any weight on it.

“Seven souls and King Asgore will become a God. Six. That is how many we have.”

“Yes, I know.”

Chara watched the rage flash across Undyne’s face. “You know, it’s customary for me to tell you the story of my people. To help you understand why all this is necessary. But I don’t think you would care about that, would you?”

“Not really. No.”

“Well then, let me tell you a different story.”

Undyne began to echo her previous speech. Knowing what she was going to say word for word was an eerie feeling for Rain. Chara seemed to only find it annoying and used up this lapse of time to converse with her other half. “If you want to look away, you can. Just close your eyes and I will take care of this. You will feel less pain that way.”

Rain’s presence ebbed and flowed in and out of focus several times. She remained on the threshold, unable to decide.

“Alright. Well then, brace yourself. I have a feeling this is going to take several tries to get down. Hope you’re tougher than you look.”

Undyne tossed a spear down into the dirt below them. It made a dull thud as it slid into the moist earth where it waited, thrumming with a faint hint of power.

“Prepare however you want. Arm yourself. Unlike you I don’t make it a habit of picking unfair fights with defenseless people. But know this, human: when you do step forward, make your peace. I can’t bring back the people you took from me but I can stop you from taking any more of my friends away. I will kill you. And I promise you, it will not. Be. Quick!”

Chara took the spear and gave it a test swing. “I know.”

Undyne launched herself into the fray, shouting : “En garde!”

Chara darted to one side, watching Undyne’s spear fall. It flung an arc of droplets made of green light at her. Despite anticipating this, the cut was still too wide to avoid and so several points of light still seeped into her skin. She once again felt the odd sensation of those pinpoints crawling under her skin and forcing her soul to visibly manifest itself.

“Now I’ve got you. As long as you’re green, you can’t run off again. And unless you learn to face danger head on, you won’t last a second against me!” She raised her hand to the false sky and called forth several more spears. They darted this way and that through the air, crisscrossing and arcing through the darkness all around her.

This time Chara was ready. She spun around and deflected the first blow, which had originally hit her in the back. The next spear nearly hit her but she remembered things well enough to deflect that too. She was listening for the whistle of incoming projectiles now. She heard one coming and tried to block it but got grazed in the shoulder. She cursed under her breath.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Undyne finish drawing a line in the dirt. Chara’s lips curled back into an annoyed sneer. She had forgotten about that little trick in her eagerness to not get impaled.

“A warning would have been nice.” She spat at Rain, annoyed that she was still dragging her feet.

“Hah! What do I look like, your kindergarten teacher?” Undyne stepped forward and struck out at her with two quick jabs.

Chara took a stiff step back in surprise at the out-of-pattern attack, avoiding the first strike but gaining a long gash down her forearm from the second.

“Not bad. But how about this?” Several spears left their school of lights up above them and fell to the ground until they were hovering just a few feet above the ground.

Chara dogged left, feigned right and jumped over two other attacks as they crisscrossed underneath her. To her mild surprise she felt the bleeding from her arm slow. Good. Rain may be wising up to things but at the end of the day her instincts of self-preservation were stronger than her mounting fears of Chara.

Once again she was taken by surprise when Undyne struck early. Another hail of spears forced her to stand her ground, rotating in place and knocking them away as they came. But this time as soon as the round ended Undyne was upon her with another vicious set of strikes.

“What? Not going to let me have the first move? Rude.” She taunted, panting. She was losing ground now that Undyne had entered the ring early. She was being forced farther and farther back as the Captain exchanged blows with the speed of an angry viper. A stab in the thigh, a nick in the neck, a decent hit to her side. Things began to add up.

“Somehow I get the feeling you don’t deserve much civility.” Undyne hissed.

Chara laughed. “Curious. I guess you can still remember some things after all, can’t you?” She could hear the spears falling behind her again. She felt Rain tensing up in anticipation for the blow.

Chara grunted when the first falling spear hit her in the back. She dropped to her knees and let the other two graze by overhead.

Surprise painted Undyne’s face. She waved a hand and the two shooting spears arced up into the air and winked out of existence mere inches from the warrior’s face.

Chara took her chance and lunged forward again. This time there was solid contact, the spearhead digging deep into the right shoulder joint of Undyne’s armor.

Undyne grunted in pain, faltering back a step and gritting her teeth. Chara tried to drive the spear deeper but the half-healed gash in her arm had made the handle of her own weapon slick with blood. Undyne pulled free and waved her hand again, calling forth another rain of spears. “It will take more than that to defeat me!”

Another set of spears were hovering a few feet above the ground now. They darted past Undyne and forced Chara to retreat. Her successful strike had only served to anger her opponent.

“All the pain you have inflicted on the fallen; every hope, every dream you have turned to dust... I’m going to run you through for each and every one of them!” Undyne was on the offensive again.

Chara felt her back smack up against that invisible wall again. It sent an uncomfortable sensation up her spine and pushed her away, right into Undyne’s awaiting spear.

It sank deep into her chest. In some distant corner of her mind Rain gasped in pain. They both looked down at their wound, its appearance now familiar. They felt their heart throb once as if echoing their own failed cry of pain. They pawed hopelessly at the spear, darkness eating away at the corners of their vision again.

Undyne was looking down at them, teeth flashing in a savage grin while her eye remained empty.

“No… No! No! No!” Rain’s consciousness was pressing itself up against the darkness, trying to hold it back. “Not again! Not again! I don’t want to go back!”

With her last ounce of life, Chara looked up at Undyne as realization dawned on her. Blood leaked out from between her teeth as she laughed. “I know… how… to beat you.”