Undertale: Taking The Underverse

Undyne was angry.

There were no better words to describe her entire being right now.

The punk, the little shit she'd allowed to live and make it to the king after her little baby bones Papyrus had nearly begged her had killed her.

More than once!?

She'd been forced to remember what felt like thousands of years of memories. Facing the punk and being offered mercy. Nearly cooking herself in Hotland. Throwing spear after spear at the brat's SOUL, knocking them down a waterfall. Befriending her, talking with her, learning about the surface with her. Again and again across an endless cycle that nearly broke her mind from the sheer repetitiveness of it.

Facing the kid for the first time and only seeing an abomination. A murderer with no remorse or glee, simply killing out of curiosity. Her realization across infinite lives that the human, no the demon, would not stop until the entire world was dead just to satisfy that twisted DETERMINATION lurking in her hollow shell of a SOUL. It had driven her to not just use the strand of magic her older brother had woven into an eye as a weapon, but to merge it with her own SOUL to fight on, and yet she had still lost. Again, and again, and again, and AgaIn, AnD AgAiN, AND AGAIN.

Even after all of training, and chasing after Sans' utterly impossible power, she'd still eventually lost. As long as the kid could RESET, no one was safe from her… not even her older brother.

Her older brother, who collected the SOUL's of every fallen monster, and used his own magic to sustain them.

Her older brother, who apologized to them again and again, explaining why the slaughter must happen over and over even knowing that they'd forget again after every time the demon pressed a fucking button. About the failures of a scientist and the war his son waged to contain the man's mistakes.

Who cradled her, Muffet, and Papyrus to the center of his SOUL as he brought a fraction of his strength to the forefront against the kid. Endlessly repeating the same cycle of attacks and words even as he used the rest of the magic not sustaining them to weaken the t̷h̷i̴n̸g̶'̵s̷ hold over the human's actions enough for her to RESET and do the exact same things the next time.

Every time she closed her real eye, all of those times she'd been forced to forget would bombard her mind and SOUL. Bringing her to her mind's breaking point until she opened them, only to repeat in yet another cycle.

So as the fake of her greedy younger sister, and that egoist Mettaton launched themselves across the clearing with plasma blade and clawed gauntlets in hand, she forced herself to close her eyes and reach for Sans, just as he'd taught them all to do if they needed him.

The world came to a standstill, just as it always did when they called for one another.

She was in a pitch black void, just as it always started out for them. Her magic traits slowly offered some illumination; her Justice, a golden yellow, her Kindness matching the gold intensity, The Patience and strand of Determination Sans' had gifted to her buried deep within where they should be.

Across from her, embers of orange Bravery flickered gently in a nonexistent wind nearly drowning in the overflowing green Kindness that poured from every pore of itself, outlined gently by warm cyan of Integrity. Papyrus was okay then if distracted since his magic wasn't rushing to meet hers as if he were a puppy like it usually did.

A little ways away from the two, Muffet's faint aura was white and contained, which meant she was hurt or unconscious… Either way she needed her up and ready NOW.

With a flash of her SOUL against the spider boss monster's own, purple, nearly black, Perseverance rose up outlined faintly with cyan Patience to do the metaphysical equivalent of an angry hiss at her until it settled angrily into a tight ball near Papyrus, refusing to acknowledge her older sister's existence yet again.

Undyne felt her SOUL somehow roll its eyes at the bratty spider, even as she turned with the other three to look 'up' and see the nearly stone-like countenance of their elder brother's magic. Concern rushed through her as she forced her magic up to meet the gray surface of Sans' SOUL. She was too panicked to do anything other than ram into the edge and be rebuffed, however she was quickly followed by her younger siblings, and together they forced their way through and into the self contained sea of Sans' magic.

They followed the streams across endless chasms of scars left on his SOUL, nearly melted in a glowing vent of cherry red DETERMINATION, and floated on a channel of Patience to arrive at their goal; the center of Sans' SOUL. They looked into the deepest parts of him and saw that he was surrounded on all sides by more of their bad copies. His eyes remained open even if the world was frozen, refusing to come to the place he'd taught them to reach in case of emergencies.

It was Papyrus who reached out first, Bravery swirling to grip softly onto the white center of his older brother's SOUL with a one word plea…

'...PLEASE...'

Undyne huffed slightly; Sans' had never denied their baby brother anything. Not the toys he'd desired as he learned to walk, the lessons on how to use blue and orange magic as he'd grown, even the house Sans' had built for the two after Undyne and Muffet had decided that they needed some space to stop from murdering each other over ...

Later, she told herself as she forced her mind away from those days of being an unstable teenager stepping past the boundaries of adulthood and her obsessions with what she'd desired. Muffet had been even worse since she had no desire to hold herself back from the beginning, and had needed to be restrained countless times and dragged away for yet another screaming debate over what their small family needed…

She'd sit Alphys down and tell her everything, now that they would all remember everything. She had a lot to get off her chest and tell the other love of her life.

She forced her mind away to the present as an impossibly large Soul manifested from the center of Sans' SOUL, quickly checking them over as Muffet rushed to curl up against him, his green magic soaking into every fabric of their beings in an effort to relieve them of any maladies before curling back in on himself and letting out a strange sound to her… senses? She'd have to ask him some time after this… she was getting distracted again…

'Sans.' Her tone left no doubts about what she wanted; the truth and nothing but the truth.

A small amount of time passed with the two youngest presences continued to curl against the eldest in mind and SOUL as she seemingly floated but a few inches before the three, until with a weary sigh, Sans curled his magic against all of them and gathered them close to whisper…

'It's true.'

She could feel her jaw pop a couple of times in the real world as she digested the news and allowed Sans to guide her SOUL to rest beside Muffet against his side as Papyrus found his old spot on top of Sans' Soul to be big enough to lay on as he'd done when his size was no bigger than her forearm.

Okay.

Calm.

'How much of it was their fault.", yes, because she'd seen the dead princess and prince in her memories; mostly killing innocent monsters and cackling in sadistic glee as either a demented flower or dusty human.

'Less than you think.'

'So some of it was their fault. What did they do?'

…

…

…

'Sans.'

…

…

'They gave up in the face of impossible odds and then tried to take it back, just like any other normal person does.'

'They're not normal. How.'

'They turned back time over and over only to lose control again and again. Every time I tear enough of that t̴h̸i̵n̴g̷'̴s̶ power out of them for them to win back their bodies they'd panic and RESET, allowing the cycle to repeat over and over again.'

'You could have won.'

…

'If you'd let us go and used everything you had, that t̴h̸i̵n̴g̷ wouldn't stand a chance but you didn't. You followed a script. You wrote every line, and followed every direction like a fucking puppet?!'

…

'WHY?!!?'

…

…

'Because I can't let you go.'

!?

'I've watched this world die again and again, and for me it's like it never happened. No matter what I do. No matter how hard I try not to care. I just can't let any of you go.'

…

…

'Your big brother's pretty pathetic, huh?'

…

…

A small scoff was his only answer as she allowed herself to settle more comfortably against him.

'You idiot. It's okay to get attached to people. It's okay to hold them close. And it's ok to not be able to let them go sometimes.'

…

'See?!'

The smugness dripping from the spider boss nearly caused her to break from Sans hold to throttle Muffet as she threw herself between the two eldest monsters to snuggle deeper into the skeleton's SOUL.

Don't say it.

'He's just like us!'

Asgore damn it…

'I was right!'

The utter confusion radiating from the skeleton brothers almost made her laugh if she wasn't holding onto the last shred of her sanity in regards to her bratty little sister.

Before either could offer some semblance of reply she changed the subject.

'Alright, so we've got fakes of us invading our universe and trying to take it over according to tall, dark, and glitchy so what's the call Sans?'

Muffet's hiss as she sprung back to float slightly away from Sans' SOUL was therapeutic for the fish monster.

'That psycho bitch and robo dick ambushed me and that cheapskate Mettaton! I want a rematch, God damnit!!!!!'

Her snickers couldn't be contained, resulting in a small strand of darkened Perseverance to come out of her little sister's SOUL and fall apart harmlessly against the iron wall of Kindness she projected.

'Alright, that's one out of the way, I've got the robo hobo then. Papyrus?'

'… I AM ENGAGED WITH THE MIRRORED IMAGE OF MYSELF AT THE MOMENT… I SHALL HAVE HIM RESTRAINED AND IMPRISONED MOMENTARILY…'

'Good, you've upped your training with Sans since the barrier broke?'

'I HAVE TRIPLED THE INTENSITY OF MY TRAINING SINCE THE HUMAN FELL INTO THE UNDERGROUND! YOU KNOW THIS UNDYNE!'

'Just checking, baby bones.' Her younger brother's huff and pout were legendary, she was sure.

'Sans.'

He didn't respond for a minute, taking the time to gather his thoughts.

'I've got the rest then.'

Oh hell nah.

'Fuck no, bonejangle.'

'NOT THIS DAY BROTHER OF MINE.'

'Hell no, what if they try to steal your money?!'

'… What?'

Undyne "rolled her eyes" hard enough to physically hurt as she moved to float beside Muffet, quickly being accompanied by Papyrus as Sans "looked" on in confusion.

'You hold on until I can get everyone to you, you get me Sans. No more of this fighting alone bullshit. We're ending this together, and then we're all going to sit down and talk this out for once in our lives.'

They'd managed to shock him into silence for once, she'd savor his bewildered silence until her dying day she was sure.

'But-'

'Nope.', Undyne scoffed.

'Liste-'

'NEVER.', Papyrus intervened with a bright grin that was felt more than seen.

'Wai-'

'Shuddup.', Muffet demanded with a huff.

…

…

…

'… You're not gonna let this one go are you?'

'No/NOPE/Keep dreamin.' Undyne, Papyrus, and Muffet said at the same time.

With a groan the three felt all the way down to their SOULs, the skeleton who never could tell them no let them have their way once more; a tale as old as time repeats itself yet again. And so the two youngest departed to the real world, ready and eager to finish their battles, leaving the two eldest alone.

Undyne sighed quietly as she "looked" up at her brother. The utter bone head who refused to ever let anyone even know he needed help. The boy who'd raised himself and three other kids into healthy and successful adults in a world that they'd made care for them.

She came back up to the skeleton monster and gently wrapped herself around him, looking for the warmth that she'd grown up on. Thin trails of Kindness, Patience, and Perseverance wrapped around her to pull her in kindly, possessively. Not that she'd noticed the possessive part until her mid teens, but she had never cared about it, instead choosing to relish in the care and concern he offered.

'You're an idiot.' she'd always say when they were like this, just the two of them. Unable to allow the words she'd meant out.

'I know.', he always whispered back as he held her. Looking and reading inbetween the lines as always and knowing what she'd meant.

And that would be that, she'd pull back and they'd go about their day, but this time she decided to say what she'd meant.

'I love you, idiot.' Her soul flared a vulnerable orange for half a second as she made to follow their younger siblings example and return to the real world, only to be halted by a sea of blue patience, gently reeling her back in for a second "hug"; the magic firmly caging her smaller SOUL against him for a moment until he reluctantly allowed her to make her way out.

'I love you too, fish sticks.'

And as she raced out of the skeleton's SOUL, she could feel the large grin that refused to leave her face.

Just as she was about to return to her body, she turned back and made her decision.

'My room still open, bonejangle?' She already knew the answer.

'Always.' The reply was instant.

'Can you make it for two?' Alphys deserved to be a part of her family too.

'Of course.'

She fell back into her body with a grin, eager to finish her fight with the robotic hobo version of Mettaton so she could go home for the first time in years.