She watched her for what probably amounted to several minutes. She fidgeted uncomfortably, legs still screaming and knees feeling weak. She kept shifting her weight from side to side to try and ease the pain. At least the heat was helping to dry up some of the blood.

Undyne still wasn’t moving.

“Um, hello? Undyne?” She called, cupping her hands around her mouth to yell over the rumble of the magma below. “Are you ok?”

Nothing.

“If you can hear me, curse twice!”

Still nothing.

“Or twitch. Or move or. Do anything at all so I know you’re not dead?”

“So, what are you going to do? Maybe you should get a little bit closer so I can see just how weak she is. That would be fun.” Rain chewed her lip and made a troubled grumbling sound.“You know, this is technically a compromise. One in your favor. You leave her to die like this and no one can say you didn’t try. She won’t be able to come after you later and I can’t absorb her power. But I still get the heartwarming satisfaction of knowing you willingly let someone die. No optimistic ‘maybe she will be ok’ to cling to here. Look at her. That’s going to be some grade-A grilled tuna in a little while.”

Rain’s eye twitched and she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She inched her way back to the bridge, seeming to permanently lean back on her heels in preparation to run at the slightest movement. “Hey, I’m coming over. Just letting you know in advance. So you can, you know, not stab me.” Why the hell wasn’t Sans helping her? She could have sworn she had seen someone at that sentry station.

A few tense yards of travel later and she got her answer. “Oh for god’s sake.” She growled. Her attempts to find help were greeted by a white pillow with a blue pillowcase and a somewhat Sans-ish looking sleep face drawn onto it with a black sharpie. Propped up against it was a sign that read “out to lunch” in a messy scrawl.

“Wow. Even fake Sans sleeps on the job.”

Rain picked up the sign and glared at it. On the other side was a list of prices for hotdogs with various toppings. She couldn’t help but feel bitter about his negligence.

“Nygah!”

Rain jumped back with an alarmed yelp when Undyne regained some level of animation and managed to throw another spear at them. It sank into the ground mere inches from their toes.

Undyne coughed, her whole body shaking before her raised hand fell back down to her side with a metallic rattle. “Hah. Come to finish the job huh? Only brave enough to strike at me when I’m already down? Figures.” Undyne spat, looking up at them with one yellow eye and panting through her teeth. “You disgust me.” She groaned and tried to get up but didn’t have the strength.

Rain cursed under her breath. Dammit. She really wasn’t ok. But she was still the kind of person who would bite the hand that fed her if she tried to help. Damn woman didn’t know when to give up.

“Hm. Now who else do I know like that?” Chara sneered, rising up like rolling smoke.

Rain inched forward a few steps, stomach doing a nervous flip while she braced herself for what she knew was coming. “Go on then. Do it. Try me. I can still fight1” Undyne declared, her words little more than a rasp. Her fist opened and closed around a ball of blue sparks that refused to turn into anything. Her eyes were glazing and starting to close.

“Go on then. Try it. Let’s see if you can beat me again.”

Her hands were trembling. There was a deep itch under her skin and her fingers twitched and spasmed beyond her control. Her body was leaning over to pick up the discarded spear. “If you hurt her I will just reset and try again.” Rain warned, voice cracking as her legs swung forward, Chara boiling up to the surface like smoke and oil, rolling up from a deep ocean abyss.

Their voice contorted as Chara ebbed in and out of control. “Oh is that what you think?- I’d be ok with- that.- You would only be prolonging your own pain- by resetting. She will never back down.- Bringing her here- is your only bet. Letting her collapse.- Letting her die. In the end the choice will always lead back to this. How else do you expect to get the power needed to defeat Asgore, anyway?”

Rain tried to let go of the weapon, feet dragging across the gravel and thick beads of salty sweat rolling down her face and plastering her hair to her skin. She jerked this way and that, elbows stabbing at the air as she tried to move her arms and drop the weapon but only managed to make an awkward display of lopsided movements in the end. “I will find another way. There has to be another way!”

“Look at her. Let’s put her out of the misery. It would be such a small price to pay for sunlight.”

In a moment of panic she realized that Chara had been pooling her energy for the past two days. She was far stronger than she anticipated. This was why Chara had not been healing them. This is what she had been saving her energy for. She felt Chara jump with giddy excitement, pushing Rain’s exhausted existence farther and farther down into the gloom until the world was whitewashed in blue and gray and her whole body felt numb. In an epitome of dread she realized what this really was.

This was their deciding moment. This was Chara’s last chance to overpower her in a single move. Undyne was one of the strongest monsters in the Underground. The first time they had killed her it had given Chara enough power to claim full possession of their body. If Chara killed her then she would become the stronger of the two souls again. If she was able to kill Undyne and save over her death then Rain would either be forced to live with the disadvantage, or force to try for another true reset. Just the thought of starting over pushed her close to madness.

“N-no. No.” She gasped, teeth clenched so hard they creaked. “I will show compassion! I feel compassion!”

“It’s so much better when you can’t feel anything.”

“M-mercy. I will show mercy!”

“This is a mercy!”

Undyne’s eyes rolled up into her head.

Chara drove the spear down, Rain screaming her objection.

The spear disintegrated in their hands as it touched the armor, its magic crackling and becoming fleeing mist between their fingers as Undyne lost consciousness and her magic dispersed. Chara’s bare fists smacked against Undyne’s chest plate. The hollow clang of her feeble fists against the iron made her eyes widened in shock. “No.” Chara murmured, her wild look of victory turning into horror. “No!” She reached for a stone, a sharp piece of armor, anything. Anything!

Rain dragged them away, falling backwards into the gravel with a crunch.

They sat frozen in the dirt for a while, arms wrapped around their body as Rain tried to keep herself still. A disbelieving mix of alternating horror and relief washed over her as she realized she had only been spared a repeat of her former hellish timelines on a fluke.

Chara’s cries caused her physical pain. She ducked her head and kept her jaw clenched against her rage and frustration. Their sweat stank of fear.

It would pass, she told herself. There was no weapon so it would have to pass. Chara would have to either wear herself out on nothing or pool her energy for later. Rain was getting stronger. Really, she was. In the future things would be better than this. They had to be.

“No! No I won’t let you do this! You are ruining everything!” She cried in frustration, voice sounding oddly childlike for the first time in memory. “Why do you want to feel these things so badly? They will only hurt us! You have to let go of this world, Rain. I am protecting you! She needs to die.”

“I’m sorry.” Rain whispered to no one in particular, rocking herself back and forth. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t strong enough to stop that one. But we got lucky. It will get better from here. I promise. I promise it can get better from here.”

“Just let her die. Let her die here. Let her turn to dust. It’s already happened so many times. It doesn’t even matter anymore. Let them go!”

Rain took a shaky breath. “That’s not your choice to make. Not anymore.”

She waited an uncomfortable amount of time for Chara to wear herself out. When the rage started to subside and Rain could trust her body not to rebel against her too much, she pushed herself back up on shaky limbs and looked down at the unconscious monster. Undyne looked no less menacing in this state than she did while chasing them. She was still a massive creature of looming muscle and imposing steel.

Carefully at first, Rain stooped down next to her, pressing the back of her hand against her cheek. She didn’t know the Captain well enough to be sure but her scales seemed off color, they certainly didn’t look right. She felt pretty warm too.

Rain looked back across the bridge. There was a water cooler set up a little ways off. She usually stopped by it on her way through Hotland. She had no idea why the hell someone had stuck the cooler out in the middle of nowhere like that. Then again there was a random lamp sitting out in the middle of Snowdin and a piano chilling in Waterfall so maybe it was just some weird monster thing she didn’t understand. Whatever the reason, the water was kept cool by magic.

Alright. She knew what she had to do.

She ended up dragging the whole damn cooler across the bridge. A scary prospect since it was a narrow crossing that didn’t look particularly sturdy. She freed the whole drum of water from the cooler and started splashing it on Undyne’s face.

She groaned and moved a little but didn’t open her eyes.

“Hey. Wake up. Come on, you need to get out of here.” She felt Chara jolt in sudden excitement before quickly hiding her emotions in fog.

Rain scowled and did a double take of the situation. She was obviously missing something. The gravel was damp with water now, pooling under Undyne in a small puddle where her body protected it from the heat.

“Oh no.” She set the drum aside and took a closer look at the water. It was white and cloudy. When she held her hand over it to create a shadow, the white substance cast a faint light against her palm: monster blood.

“No. No, no, no! Undyne.” She grunted as she worked to roll her onto her back, eyes scanning the dripping joints of her armor for the source of the bleeding. “You can’t die. You are Undyne the Undying. Well, um, I guess you don’t really know that in this timeline, but still. I really don’t want to do this fight again if I can help it.” Her voice shook a little. “…I’m scared of doing it again.”

She knew what Chara would do to her if she did that. She would do the same things Rain had done to her to mess up their fights with Sans. Only unlike Chara, Rain was worried she wouldn’t be able to willingly tolerate the looping world of pain as long as Chara had in order to obtain her victory. Sparing Papyrus had only required Rain to work up enough strength to discard her weapon. Papyrus was never trying to hurt her during that struggle. Fighting Undyne on the other hand was a much more daunting task to repeat.

Rain’s fears were pushed away when she felt the strange sensation of coming into contact with monster blood. Ah, there! Near the left shoulder. She could see the magic seeping out through the joints. She began to tug at her armor, awkwardly trying to figure out how it all came off.

She didn’t realize she had a visitor until he called out to her.

“Rain! There you are! I have been looking for you all day and- is Undyne sleeping?”

Rain spun around, hair flying out in a fan behind her. Papyrus was jogging up to her, bones rattling softly in the dry heat. For once she was actually relieved to see the quirky skeleton. “Papyrus, thank god. I need your help. Undyne was chasing me and collapsed.”

He put his hands on his hips. “Oh no, not again! She doesn’t handle the heat here very well. I think someone set out a cooler for her nearby so she wouldn’t risk heat stroke but I guess she was too excited about meeting you and forgot to use it.” He glanced at the mutilated cooler and the half empty jug. “And upon further inspection I now realize you already knew about said cooler.” He knelt down next to his friend and scowled, seeing the long cut across her face. “Wait, was she fighting?”

Rain shifted uncomfortably. “Well, yeah. Her opinion of me is somewhat-”

“Murdery?” Papyrus offered with an embarrassed smile. “Yeah. I kind of worried it might be. But do not worry, Human! Once we get her back on her feet I’m sure that with my help the two of you will become the closest of friends!”

Rain waved away the assurances, picking apart the armor with fingers that were not in the mood to cooperate. “Papyrus, this is serious. I think she’s hurt and I’m not sure why. Look, she’s losing a ton of magic.”

His sockets widened. “Oh my god! What happened?”

“I just said I don’t know!” She ran her hands through her hair. “She’s not waking up and I don’t know how to help her.” She tried to pull off her shoulder plates but her fingers kept slipping on nothing while Chara hissed in her ear. If every second counted then Chara was determined to waste as many as possible. “Ugh. Dammit. My hands aren’t working.”

Papyrus pressed his teeth into a thin line; the gaps in his jaw narrowing down as a serious scowl overtook his face. “Let me do it. I help her put this stuff on all the time when we train.” He gently coaxed Rain to the side and knelt in the warm mud, bony fingers flying across the armor, beginning to untie and disassemble everything. Rain felt a bitter prick of jealousy over his motor skills. It must be nice not having to fight your body for every little movement.

“I swear I didn’t hit her there. I mean, yeah her face got cut and she got stabbed in the leg but I don’t think I ever got a body blow down on her. I-I was just trying to get away.”

“I know, Rain. I believe you.” He said softly, gently pulling the armor away.

Rain felt her heart jump and a weight slide off of her conscience. Those words meant more to her than he could ever possibly comprehend. She had started to give up hope on anyone believing her down here.

“Oh! Well that’s concerning.”

“What? What is it?” She peaked over his shoulder. “Oh.”

Undyne had a long, deep gash running down her left side. There were a few smaller ones as well, each one bleeding magic. But it was the one closest to her heart that was the worst. It ended in something that looked less like a cut and more like a deep puncture wound. The edges displayed the puckered, shiny discoloration of a scar; like it was an old wound that had been aggravated and reopened after not healing properly.

“Can you help her?”

“I-I’m not sure. I’m not very good with healing magic.” He pulled off his gloves and pressed his hands against the wound, a look of concentration causing his eyes to burn a dim orange. His friend’s magic stained his hands and fluttered away as flecks of dust as the substance seeped past his joints. “I think I can slow down the bleeding.” He looked around and saw his brother’s sentry station. “Have you seen Sans?”

“No.”

“Why is he never at his station!” He screeched. “Always slacking off when you need him, I swear! Rain, go to the station and check the panel under the desk. There should be a request assistance button. It’s green. Also, find something to write on and leave a note saying we are going to Undyne’s house and to send help to that location. Once you do that, help me get the rest of her armor off. Otherwise she will be too heavy to carry.”

Rain did as she was told, finding the marker used for the hotdog sign and writing down a message before making her way back to Undyne. “Are you sure we should move her?”

“Well, no. But we can’t leave her here in this heat.”

“Her house is kind of far off, isn’t it?” She pulled off Undyne’s boots and began to pick at her leg armor, not exactly sure how to go about it but managing to make some progress regardless.

“Well I know Alphys is closer but I don’t think Undyne will do very well if we go even deeper into Hotland while she’s like this. Besides, Gerson’s shop is along the way and if he’s there maybe he can help.”

“How’s the bleeding?”

He paused for a second. “Er, still…bleedy?” He wiped the nervous sweat from his face. “I think I slowed it down but for some reason the wound doesn’t want to close.”

Rain glanced down at Sans coat. She had tied it around her waist but hadn’t discarded it this time. “Um, here. Maybe you can use this to stop the bleeding?” She pulled off the sweater he had loaned her. It had a few more holes than before and it was a far cry from clean but it was all they had. She slipped Sans coat on to replace it, keeping it unzipped. Its warmth was uncomfortable but hopefully she wouldn’t have to worry about that for long. if it got too hot she would just go on without it- not like she had much decency left anyways.

They finished pulling off all of Undyne’s armor. It was warm to the touch and the air reeked of fish. They splashed a little more water on her and kept pressure on the wound. Papyrus slung Undyne’s arm over his shoulder and stood up with a grunt. Undyne groaned and her head lolled but she didn’t open her eye.

Rain hurried over to take up her other arm so they could share her weight between them. Papyrus looked down at Rain’s legs and balked, noticing her own injuries for the first time. “Human! You are damaged!”

“Yeah. Guess I am.”

“You require assistance.”

“Save it. It’s just a flesh wound.” She winked at him, realizing too late the reference probably sailed over his head. “Just make sure Undyne is ok, alright? I will be fine. Looks worse than it is. Promise.”

“…If you say so.” He shifted her weight a little so that Undyne leaned into the shoulder he was using to keep the shirt pressed up against the wound. “Ready?”

Rain nodded, head lowered so he couldn’t see the bags under her eyes. “Here we go.”

***

Undyne ebbed in and out of consciousness fairly often. Sometimes she was active enough to help carry her own weight but most of the time they had to drag her along on their own. She kept mumbling about Papyrus and not being able to save him again. Even when Papyrus assured her this was not the case, she continued to rant on and on about her "dreams." Lamenting about not having done enough to save everyone. She didn’t quite seem to realize he was still there.

She also had plenty of colorful words to describe her opinion of Rain.

Papyrus assured her Undyne couldn’t possibly mean any of those nasty things. It was just the heat getting to her- and she probably always bit people like that! It was just a love bite, see? They were practically friends already!

Rain did little more that grunt her acknowledgment. The sooner this was over the better.

Gerson was not around when they came to his shop. Apparently he was out on a lunch break. Rain grabbed whatever food items were closest and wolfed them down. They were not worth much but they did give her the boost she needed to keep moving. She tried to get Undyne to eat somthing but the attempt was pointless. Luckily they knew enough shortcuts to get to Undyne’s house in a reasonably direct manner and the fish shaped house soon loomed over them, its toothy doorway glinting in the strange bioluminescent light of Waterfall.

This was another house Chara had never had much success getting in to. Mostly because the door kept trying to bite them every time they went near it.

Rain peered into the house when the teeth parted to let them in. She skipped past the threshold a little faster than necessary.

“Her bedroom is over there. Can you get the door?”

She tried the door. “It’s locked.”

“Oh. Don’t worry, I know the secret combination.” Papyrus marched up to the door, Undyne all but slung over his shoulder by this point. Rain's legs kept giving out too often to be much help. Chara kept kicking her in the back of the knees.

Rain cocked an eyebrow. “There is a secret combination?”

“Of course!” He took a deep breath, kept himself balanced, and kicked the door open with a loud “Nnnnyeh!” before nudging the broken door out of the way. “That’s her secret combination for all her doors. She showed me herself!”

…Of course.

They set her down on the bed and did what they could but the wound still didn’t seem to want to heal. If anything it was getting worse, magic seeping through the improvised bandaging and pulsing with an eerie glow in tune to Undyne's heartbeat before turning to dust.

Papyrus decided that he had to risk leaving her so he could go find some proper help since whoever should have answered the sentry’s distress call had never shown up and they didn’t know where Gerson was.

Despite her protests against it, Rain was the one left alone to look after her would-be killer.

She sat down on the side of Undyne’s bed, keeping pressure on the wounds while trying to ignore the burning pain of her own marks. Chara’s bitter ploys made everything here more difficult then it needed to be. It didn’t help that Undyne’s house was decorated with weapons like some sort of insanely metal version of Christmas. Rain kept her elbows tucked up against her ribs and her hands pressed firmly against the puncture wound and well within sight, hyper aware of Chara’s attempts to be sneaky about picking up anything Rain hadn’t kicked out of their immediate reach. She chewed at her lip in a nervous fit as she watched Undyne’s face for any sign that she may come around and begin to wake up.

Rain cleared her dry throat. “Hey… I don’t know if you can hear me but I need you to pull through, alright?” She cast a longing look at the door. She would love to simply crawl outside and collapse in the weeds for a while. She didn’t trust herself alone like this. But she owed it to everyone to at least wait until Papyrus got back. “You have always had a bone to pick with me, so we don’t know each other very well but I know a lot of people look up to you. They need you. The Underground needs someone who can protect them from bad guys like me, because I’m not doing a very good job of doing that on my own.”

Undyne stirred, muttering a list of names again.

“They are fine. They are all fine. The only one in trouble right now is you. So, um, please get better? Come on fish lady, I have seen you take worse hits than this. Hell, I cut you in half a few times and all it ever did was piss you off! So don’t wimp out on me now, alright?” She laughed nervously. She could feel the stress pulling itself into a tight ball inside her chest, sitting there like a cold chunk of lead. “I mean if I have to, I will go back and try again. I haven’t saved yet. In case you don’t…yeah. But it would be better if I didn’t have to because I really, really don’t want to go do that again.” Her voice became a dry, cracked whisper. “I’m scared. I know you swore to protect people who were not strong enough to protect themselves, no matter what the cost. I know you don’t think I’m on your side right now. I know you don’t think I deserve any kindness at this point but… I’m trying. So please, help me out here? I need to know there are still people out there who are stronger than me in case I-“ she choked a little, “in case I fail.”

Undyne’s head lolled and her yellow eye cracked open. She groaned and took a moment to focus in on Rain, who was still leaning over her with a hand on the wound. Rain blinked in surprise when she saw some semblance of lucidity in her expression. Undyne’s lips curled up against her teeth in a disgusted sneer. “Get…the hell…off me.”

“I can’t. I have to keep pressure on the wou-Ow! Shit!” Undyne knocked her away with her forearm, sending her stumbling back into a dirty clothes hamper.

“I don’t know what this is.” She panted, pushing away the sheets as the glow of bleeding magic grew more prominent. “And I don’t care. I don’t need help from someone like you. So I’m only going to warn you once:” she pointed a trembling finger at her, “Get the hell out of my house. Because when I get out of this bed I’m going to kick your ass.”

Rain gaped, trying to find the right words amidst her panic. “Undyne, calm down. Look at yourself! You need to let me help- hey, stop that! Stop trying to get up!”

“I still don’t see you running, punk!” She grunted, trying to pull herself into an upright sitting position. The sudden movement caused her head to loll again and she sank back against the headboard, head in her hand as the room spun and she struggled to stay awake.

“Goddammit” Rain hissed.

Her salvation came in the form of Papyrus’s timely return. She heard the front door tsnapp open as he came racing back inside. “I’m back! And I brought help! You will never guess who I found just outside!”

“Papyrus?” Undyne slurred, drooping and losing her grip on consciousness once more.

Rain eased herself back up to her feat. Her calves were throbbing and she was oozing blood again. “Well hurry up and get in here. She’s starting to wake up and she’s pissed!”

“Right this way, your majesty.”

Rain frowned. Had Papyrus just said “your majesty?”

The door creaked open, its splintered frame whining its objection at being moved.

“Oh my.” A soft voice gasped.

Rain’s eyes widened and she found herself pressing her back against the wall, hands fidgeting uncomfortably before she shoved them deep into her pockets to hide them.

Papyrus ushered a tall, sturdy white figure through the damaged door, holding the splintered wood upright so the new arrival could step through. She had to duck her head a little to keep her small horns from brushing against the top of the door frame. Their eyes locked across the room and for a moment they just stared at each other.

Rain had spent a lot of time looking into a lot of angry eyes down here. Flowey, Sans… Undyne. She had caused a lot of pain and accepted that she deserved those looks of hate when she got them. But Toriel did not look angry. She only looked sad. Disappointed.

“Um, h-hey.”

“Hello, my child.”

Chara perked up and echoed Rain’s own disbeliefs. Thick rolls of ashen disgust and embers of bitterness stained their mind. “She’s alive?”

“You’re alive?”

Toriel gave her a soft smile that didn’t reach far. The skin and fur around her eyes crinkled a bit, causing a silver scar on her cheek to become all the more prominent. “Yes, it would seem that way.” She turned to observe Undyne, who was slumped against the headboard while Papyrus tried to make her more comfortable. Her eye was closed again.

Papyrus looked between Rain and Toriel with oblivious pride as he eased Undyne back down onto her pillow. “You know Asgore’s clone? Wowie!”

Toriel glided over to the bedside and put a soft hand on Undyne’s forehead, the other hand moving to gently peel back the makeshift bandaging. She hissed between her teeth. “This looks bad. You are lucky I was nearby.”

“How- why are you here?” Rain stuttered.

Toriel kept her eyes locked on Undyne as her hands began to glow green with an inviting light that made the whole room slowly fill with a comfortable feeling. “You scared me when you left.” She explained; tone calm and civil. “You said you needed to prove something. You wish to pass through these lands peacefully and prove that humans can still be good, do you not?”

Rain cleared her throat and looked down at the floor. “Yeah.” It obviously didn’t look like she was going a good job.

“As you can see, there are many you will encounter along your path that will wish to do you harm. You are new to the Underground so I imagine you are not fully aware of the dire situation you have fallen into.” Both Rain and Chara couldn’t help but snort a little at that. Toriel glanced at them from under her eyelashes before turning her attention back to Undyne. “Your arrival means that king Asgore will be able to break free of this prison, should he obtain your soul. With it he would wish to wage war upon humanity and reignite the cycle of death that forced us down here in the first place.

“I understand that you must be frightened of me, but I can no longer afford to hide from the shame of my title within the Ruins when Asgore is so close to obtaining such a volatile power. I must act.” She lowered her voice. “I simply cannot afford not to care anymore.” For a second she no longer seemed to be with them in the present. The memories of past children were playing out just behind her eyes. But she soon pulled herself from that murk and offered another small smile. “Just know that I come here only because I wish to keep you safe, and to let you know that I forgive you for your…outburst.”

Undyne coughed and Toriel’s attention snapped back to her patient with a frown. “This wound is deep and dark. There is something wrong about it.”

Papyrus fidgeted in place, picking at the fabric of his gloves and looking uncertain for the first time. “But you can still fix her, right, your majesty?”

“I think so. Her soul is strong. I have dealt with a wound similar to this recently.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Rain peeped.

“You have done enough. I will call you should we require assistance.” She turned to Papyrus. “Papyrus, was it? Come, take my hand. I may need to draw upon your magic if you will allow it.”

“Of course!”

Rain slid along the walls and slipped out of the room. She made a beeline for the door. Now would be as good a time as any to bail out. Unfortunately she only made it half way across the room before her legs finally gave out and she collapsed into the nearest chair.

Chara squirmed inside of her, hungry eyes surveying the room with a greedy desire to pick up one of the many weapons lying around and start swinging. Papyrus, Toriel, Undyne, they were all here. All her missed opportunities. Papyrus and Toriel were soft. She could take them by surprise. Undyne was bedridden. An easy kill.

Rain didn’t fight her when she took up control of their body. She only laughed at her, watching as Chara struggled to stand. She took a few steps then nearly fell, catching herself on the table and pulling them back into the chair with a curse. “Bet you wish you had been a little more cooperative back when we had enough energy to heal ourselves, huh?”

“Be quiet.”

“Bite me.”

A few minutes passed where Rain simply rested her head on the table. She didn’t even realize she had almost fallen asleep until the crack and creak of the broken door alerted her to Papyrus’s presence. She rubbed at her eyes and yawned. “How did it go?”

“Queen Asgore is a very skilled healer.” Papyrus offered an tired smile, moving to the kitchen and going through some of the cupboards. His shoulders seemed to be sagging a bit more than usual. He was starting to look pretty worn out too. “I think she will be ok now. She may even wake up soon and then you two can have a proper introduction. Undyne will probably be really hungry so I am going to make her something to eat for when she wakes up so she can recover faster.”

Rain cocked an eyebrow. “Is it going to be spaghetti?”

He scowled. “Of course it’s going to be spaghetti!” He took out a box of golden flower tea and began to rummage around in the fringe. Rain didn’t bother questioning why a wave of heat hit her face when he opened the fridge. “Tea and Spaghetti are good for the soul. That’s why I am the strong, handsome monster than I am today!”

“By eating spaghetti?”

“By cooking it!” He beamed. “Are you hungry too or will you be ok?”

“Yeah.”

Papyrus frowned. “Yeah you are hungry or yeah you will be ok?”

“Mhm.”

“Nyheeh? Okay? Would you like some spaghetti or some tea?”

She waved the notion forward, crooking her fingers in invitation for said things to be brought to her. “Yes.”

For a brief moment it looked like Papyrus was probably screaming on the inside. “…Ok.” His eyes darted from side to side. “You are not making this very easy. So I’m just going to give you everything and let you choose what you want.”

Raid was resting her head on the table and starting off at nothing. “Alright.”

Papyrus continued to chatter as he worked. He was apparently quite flattered to have just learned that Toriel knew about him and his brother. He kept referring to her as “Asgore’s clone,” or “Mrs Asgore,” though.

Rain wondered if Toriel and Sans had met in this timeline. She knew they had talked through the door and he had referenced her from time to time on other runs but the only time he had ever referred to her by name had been when Flowey had brought her out of the Ruins.

Papyrus slid a container or warm spaghetti over to her and she banished the question from her mind. She stuck her fork into the mess of burnt sauce and poorly cooked noodles and chewed methodically.

“I still can’t believe Asgore’s clone knows my name! This is the best day ever! Well, except for what happened to you and Undyne. That was unfortunate. And my brother not being at his station again was rather frustrating. Also Clone Asgore told a horrible skeleton pun while I was in there- but other than that!” He flung his spoon high overhead and splattered the ceiling with marinara sauce.

Despite his attempts at sounding enthusiastic she still caught the hidden note of fear in his voice. He really had been worried about his friend.

The water for the tea began to boil, causing the teapot to whistle. “Oh. Tea’s done.” He poured out two mugs worth of water and gave them a quick stir before sliding one over to her. She was in the middle of gnawing a particularly chewy chunk of noodles into submission when Papyrus let out a loud gasp and she stopped to look up in question. The stars in his eyes were quite literally twinkling. He was trying to cover his blush with a gloved hand.

Blush? He could blush?

“Human! you- I can’t believe- my spaghetti!” He squealed.

Her eyes darted around the room. “What about it?”

“You are eating it! You enjoy my cooking!”

She shrugged helplessly. “You have any idea how long I have been eating raw water sausages?”

“Do you- do you want more?”

She crooked a finger at the fridge and resumed her gnawing. She didn’t have the heart to tell him she had a hard time tasting anything anymore. She just needed to restore some health. But if this helped take his mind off of the near-loss of his friend she would do what she could. “Back up the spaghetti truck. I’m a hungry beast with a thirst for marinara.”

Actually, she wasn’t a big fan of tomatoes. But his cooking was so bad that the nutritional value had been burned away to almost nothing. Low nutritional value, low healing: thus she needed to eat a ton of the stuff if it was to have any positive impact. It seemed to be the only damn thing in the whole house she could eat so she wasn’t going to complain about it. She would just have to eat a lot of it before she could feel better.

For a while that star struck look of joy on Papyrus’s face took her mind off her legs looking and feeling like utter dog meat. And at least she had some tea to help wash down what little she could taste. She was polishing off her second container and agreeing to her third, much to the tear-filled joy of her cook, when there was a knock at the door.

Rain rubbed at her temple. “Great. Let’s just make this a frikkin house party.” She grumbled under her breath. Who else could they cram in here? The king? The Royal Scientist? The gay robot? Why did everyone suddenly decide to show up now that she wasn’t capable of running?

Papyrus went to answer the door with a little more spring in his step than he had had a few moments ago. “San! How nice of you to join us! Why were you not at your station?”

Rain looked over her shoulder just in time to see Sans hug his brother. His eyes were squeezed shut and his smile all but gone. She quickly looked away before she risked making awkward eye contact.

“i have been looking for you all day, Papyrus.” He said with much more emotion that Rain was used to hearing from him. “we didn’t see you on any of the cameras.”

“Oh. Well I suppose I did take a lot of really uncommon routes.” He rubbed at a rather particular spot on his neck. “Sorry.”

“why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“My phone?” He patted himself down, as if he had a number of places he could have kept a phone in that getup. “Oh, I must have dropped it.”

“Well, you did do a backflip out of the window of a two story building. Maybe that’s when you lost it.” Rain muttered around a mouthful of tea. Sans looked at her for the first time since Papyrus had opened the door. She avoided looking at him but out of the corner of her eye she imagined she caught the traces of some sort of dark look that gradually melted into that trademark smile of his.

“Papyrus, can i speak to you outside for a sec?”

“Of course!” They slipped outside and the door snapped shut behind them with the unnerving clack of teeth.

Rain listened to the high notes of Papyrus’s voice rattle through the wall and tried to discern the meaning of Sans’s lower drones but it was hopeless. She finished her tea and shamelessly turned to the mug that had been left out for Undyne, removing the tea bag and dropping it into her empty cup along with the first. This place was getting too crowded for her liking and Sans showing up could only mean that things were about to either get very complicated or cut short altogether. Either option was a good reason to eat up and get going.

Unfortunately a crash from Undyne’s room warned her that she had run out of time to leave without any conflict. They heard Toriel’s objections as the door was knocked aside. “Let go of me!” Undyne snapped, pushing her way through the door and locking eyes with Rain in a heartbeat.

“You.” Her eye narrowed. She managed to look imposing even though a dusty tank top had replaced her armor and she had to brace herself against the door frame to keep steady. “You sure have some nerve showing up here. Sitting at my table, drinking my tea- who do you think you are?”

Chara drew their eyes to a comically over-sized sword propped against one of the other chairs and Rain had to force herself to ignore it.

“How dare you set foot in my house after everything you have done.” Undyne grunted, rolling her shoulder to try and shake off the lingering sting.

“Undyne, I helped carry you here.” Rain tried to keep her voice calm. She gripped her mug a little tighter in frustration and called out to the two skeletons waiting outside. “Hey, Papyrus! Can you two come back in here for a sec? Undyne is up.” She locked eyes with Undyne but remained completely still, wary of what any sudden movement might bring. “No one is dead, ok? Papyrus is fine. I know you were pretty out of it but-”

“Shut up! Don’t you dare speak his name like you knew him!”

From the other side of the door Toriel voiced another objection; clawed hands peeking around the door frame before Undyne yanked the door closed and held it in place. She was soaked in a fevered sweat and was obviously still pretty out of it.

“Undyne, you’re delusional. It’s the heat.”

A blue spear accumulated in her raised hand. “We are going to finish this right here, right now. All out on both sides.” Her voice lacked its usual vigor, there was only a grim sort of finality to it.

Rain sighed and took a long gulp of her stolen tea to stall for time. She couldn’t help but drip sarcasm at this point. “Settle down Prince Zuko. You can find and capture the Avatar and regain your honor later, when we both look less like dog m-”

“Nngah!” Undyne threw her spear, its head biting into the table mere inches from her hand and causing the wood to split right down the middle.

“Dammit Undyne, leave me alone!” She reached for her mug and flung its contents at her as she forced herself to her feet and put the chair between the two of them. She didn’t notice she had picked up the wrong mug until she looked up at Undyne, expecting another attack. She was instead greeted by her stiff, unbelieving demeanor. One teabag was stuck in her hair and the other was peeling itself away from her good eye.

“Did you…just….teabag me?”

Papyrus came crashing through the door at long last. “Undyne? Why are you not in bed? You should be resting!”

Undyne’s head whipped around and her eye widened in confusion and disbelief. Her shoulders sagged and her voice cracked. Her eye glinted with held back tears as she took a moment to understand what she was seeing. “…Papyrus?” She pushed herself away from the wall and wrapped him up in a crushing embrace that made his back pop. She buried her face against his shoulder and said nothing.

“Wow I sure getting hugged a lot today! Nyeheh.” Papyrus gave her a reassuring pat on the back and helped keep her steady. She still wasn’t up to her usual snuff.

“I’m… glad you’re ok.” She managed gruffly.

Papyrus’s voice became surprisingly gentle as his willful ignorance broke away at last. “Sorry if I worried you, Undyne. Sans told me that you were trying to call me. I didn’t realize I lost my phone. But everything is fine now, alright? Everyone is safe. You don’t have to fight anymore. Here, let’s get you back in bed. I hope you didn’t upset Asgore’s clone.”

She cradled her head in her hand and gave the floor a thousand yard stare. “…Clone?”

“Yes. The human and I saved you, then we met Asgore’s clone!”

Undyne cast a very, very dazed look over her shoulder, eye darting from Sans who had just slipped back inside, to Rain, who was more or less leaning over the back of her chair and hadn’t moved or breathed since Papyrus had walked in.

She pointed an accusing finger at Sans. The sight of him seemed to return some of her angry sanity to her. “You! Why weren’t you at your station? I called for backup and you weren’t there!”

He shrugged, eyes sliding off to the side. “sorry about that. guess i got my schedules mixed up or something. but hey, at least i didn’t get in your way, right? and isn’t that sort of the same thing as helping, when you think about it?”

Undyne opened her mouth to let him know just what she thought of that sort of reasoning but her words were cut short, turning into an ungraceful gasp when her bedroom door fell open and a rather perturbed Toriel pulled her back inside.

“Papyrus.” Rain leaned over the table and snapped the lid back on the third container of spaghetti. “Here.” She tossed it over to him and he caught it.

“Thanks!” He winked at her with an audible click, his happy demeanor returning once more, then he propped the door closed behind him.

Rain sighed in relief and sagged to the point where she was no longer leaning over the broken table, but laying on it. Her gaze finally turned to Sans.

“heya.”

Her lip twitched in a wordless return.

“you’ve have been busy, huh?”

“Please don’t say that.”

The lights in his eyes narrowed before he nodded in agreement, perhaps sensing the unintended familiarity as well.

“Where the hell have you been? I could have used your help back there.”

“well, technically undyne is my boss and i have to do what she says, so by not being there, couldn’t one argue that -in a way- i was helping you?”

Rain pressed her cheek up against the table and swallowed her mounting frustration. “Asshole.”

His eyes darkened for a second. “you should consider yourself lucky. i warned you to stay away from my brother and you ignored me. i came back to a trashed house and a brother who wouldn’t answer any of my calls. what was i supposed to think of all that, huh? trust me, you wouldn’t have wanted me there to meet you with undyne.”

“Hey, I tried to get away from him!” She snapped. “It’s not my fault he followed me.”

He sucked in a loud breath and thought for a moment. “i guess not. would have preferred it if you had stayed put though. not a fan of running around like this. all this activity isn’t my style.”

No shit. She thought bitterly. She was smart enough to keep that thought to herself though.

Ever so slowly the light began to return to his sockets. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and let out a long, slow sigh. He was quiet for a while, seeming to need a moment to settle back into his own skin- or bones in this case- and re-associate with the situation.

He bobbed his head at the ruined door to Undyne’s room, his smile becoming a little less sinister. “actually, this is nice. weird… but nice.” When she didn’t say anything he continued, “you know there were a lot of things i was prepared to find when i caught up with you again. this…well… this was pretty far down the list.”

She cleared her throat and drummed one hand on the table, the other one fishing around inside of her borrowed coat. She felt something in one of the pockets that she had overlooked before and pulled out a small hand held telescope. She looked through it and watched the spear lodged in the table begin to disintegrate now that Undyne wasn’t there to keep it in existence. “Toriel is here.” She eventually offered.

He frowned. “who?”

“The lady from the Ruins.”

His smiling mask eased up a bit into something a little more real. “is she now? that’s nice. really, i mean it. i didn’t uh, didn’t think she had made it.”

To be honest Rain was just as confused as he was about that but she decided not to mention it. It sounded like she was just now starting to get some good rep with him and didn’t want to ruin it. She set the telescope down on the table. On top of not having anything far enough away to focus on, its lens had made everything look red. “Yeah I figured you two were friends or something. She’s in there if you want to meet her.” She twitched a hand in the direction of the no doubt crowded room. “Never stuck around with her for long but she seems nice. You should go say hello.”

He thought about her suggestion for a moment before shaking his head. “nah. maybe later.”

“Rain, wipe your face.” Chara droned in annoyance. Now that she knew there was no chance of turning this day around she was becoming a more passive audience. “You have a red ring around your eye. It looks ridiculous.”

Sans frowned as he watched her wipe away the ring she should not have been able to see. It seemed to disturb him a little but he didn’t say anything about it and Rain didn’t notice.

An uncomfortable silence soon stretched out between them.

“So what now?”

He rocked back on his heels and popped a few of his fingers. “well, i talked things over with a friend of mine. got a safe place set up for you if you will let me take you there. still not sure i believe your whole story about this demon thing but if there is something wrong with your soul, my friend will be able to see it.” He was watching her with one eye again, the other closed like he was half way to achieving a standing nap. “who knows. maybe we can find a way to help you out with whatever’s eatin’ ya.”

She stretched her sore limbs and sent a longing look at the spilled remains of tea on the floor. She would have liked to have had more. “Ok. I’m willing to give it a shot. I should probably get out of here before Undyne starts feeling better anyway. I think she still pissed and I swear Toriel wants to adopt me or something. It’s just… too much at once. I don’t trust myself to stay here much longer. Not with everyone I worked so hard to spare all just laying around like this. But I need to find some better food first. I can’t keep using my legs or they will give out soon. I already pushed myself farther than I should have.” She hiked up her pant leg to show him all the ugly marks on her calves. They were smaller than before but everything was still an oozing, ragged, angry red.

He looked away, hand seeming to go up to the crack over his eye without realizing it. “that’s rough, buddy. when’s the last time you saved?”

She shrugged. “before the fight.”

He clicked his teeth together. “ah. better fix that once we get to where we need to go.” He held out his hand. She gave it a dubious look. “don’t worry. i’ll get you some real grub once we get there.”

“Unless you plan on carrying me around bridal style I don’t think that’s going to happen. I really can’t walk.”

His smile became a little more devious. “don’t worry about it. i know a shortcut.”