"The new clothes. The dinner at Grillby's. The romantic walk through the woods. It is OBVIOUS that you are completely infatuated with me. Unfortunately, the GREAT Papyrus does not share those feelings deep in his soul." Papyrus explained, his voice growing somber the longer he went on. 

"Besides! As the main character of this show, it is forbidden for me, the Great Papyrus, to get into a romantic relationship before the final season." He finished and bowed deep. "I am truly sorry!"

"Heh, heh, heh." Frisk snickered into his hand. His relief that the situation had nothing to do with Flowey mixed with his bewilderment at this situation. He guessed all those things taken together and entirely out of context could lead someone to the wrong conclusion.

"Might I remind you whom I was invited to Grillby's by?" Frisk pointed out.

"Ah!" Maybe that had gotten through to the skeleton? "I'm so sorry, Friend Frisk, for misleading you about my romantic intentions." Never mind. 

"Papyrus, wait," Frisk called out, hoping to stop any more misunderstandings. "We're rivals, right?" He waited for Papyrus to nod. That was good now. How to convince him this was all normal without relying on social conventions… "Have you watched Naruto?" 

"Of course!" Papyrus exclaimed. "Kimimaro is my inspiration. His use of bones is exquisite for a HUMAN, second only to my brother." Oh… maybe Alphys showed it to him?

Ok… Frisk had honestly expected that to fail, but it was convenient. "Well, in the show, Naruto and Sasuke are rivals, and they sometimes eat together at that ramen stand. They even train together in forests and… I guess they get new clothes." Yeah, that kinda worked. "So nothing about those things is inherently romantic." He finished.

Even if Frisk thought SasuNaru would have been way better than SasuSaku. 

Everything was quiet as Papyrus contemplated this new information. "NYEH HEH HEH!" Frisk braced himself. "That does make sense! It seems that as Rivals, we are already growing better together." Papyrus bragged, looking rather smug for coming to that understanding. 

"Of course." Frisk agreed, chuckling under his breath. "So, how about we start practicing and grow even stronger." He suggested. 

Papyrus agreed, and Frisk was happy to escape that awkward social situation. He had more experience than Papyrus, but those misunderstandings still made him anxious.

Blinking away those thoughts, Frisk started to get into a ready position, his Aura wrapping around him protectively, but stopped when he realized he didn't have a weapon. 

"Ah, give me a sec Papyrus." Frisk concentrated inward, focusing on the PERSEVERANCE within himself. It lit within him like a spark, and he focused on flowing it through his body, pushing it into the real world. 

A purple flame burst into existence above his palm, and he smiled. Focusing, Frisk tried to will the flame into the form of a spear. Unfortunately, as the flame elongated, it fought against his control and eventually became too thin, dissipating into the surroundings. 

"Damn." He scowled. It was still pretty much impossible for him to manifest the weapon at the start of combat. 

"Ah, do not worry, my Rival. The Great Papyrus is also unable to manifest his magic weapon." That's right, Papyrus had only used a bone enhanced with his BRAVERY magic during their fight. "Would you also like a PATENTED bone spear?" He formed another bone on the ground and offered it to Frisk.

"Sure." Frisk took the offered bone 'spear' and twirled it around. "Thanks." 

"You are very welcome!" Papyrus twirled his bone around and stopped in his combat stance. "Be prepared, my Rival, for you face the Great Papyrus in a practice spar." His bone lit up with orange flames.

Shadows lengthened, and their hearts shone.

Papyrus burst forward, and Frisk backpedaled while activating the spark of JUSTICE within himself. His left eye shone yellow as he infused the power into his Aura and dodged backward. 

Recovering quickly, Frisk launched probing strikes against the much larger skeleton that were blocked relatively easily. They went back and forth before a large sweeping strike he failed to block sent him flying as his Aura flashed its signature yellow-purple. 

Frisk dug deeper into his JUSTICE and dashed forward, hoping to overwhelm his opponent with sheer speed. But Papyrus continued blocking each attack, using his comparatively superior skill and strength to fend Frisk off. Even worse, with each attack Papyrus threw, the orange flames of his BRAVERY grew stronger. 

Papyrus wasn't even using his bones and was still winning. Frisk needed to throw him off somehow.

"Prepare for my blue attack!" Papyrus called out and lifted up his leg. Frisk tried to back away but couldn't make it out of the range of the dark blue pulse that slammed into his soul and turned it blue. It once again felt like a weight was pressed against him. 

He was now on the back foot. With gravity working against him, the speed that had been his only advantage disappeared. Desperately, Frisk blocked until he was forced to give up on using JUSTICE and hope that his PERSEVERANCE was enough. 

The pace of the fight shifted. With purple flames flashing along his Aura, Frisk could completely tank a few strikes from Papyrus and attack back. The orange flames were still strong, but if he disrupted Papyrus's combos, they wouldn't drain too much of his Aura.

However, something happened when Frisk tried to enhance his bone spear with Magic. It wasn't absorbing as much Magic as even the stick had. Maybe it was due to the bone being made of someone else's Magic?

Still, even with his change in tactic, he was now too slow to capitalize on the opening he created. As the two clashed, Frisk's mind raced, thinking of ways to throw off this 'gravity'. 

"YIPPEE, this is much more fun than fighting Undyne," Papyrus exclaimed as Frisk fell back even more, trying to think of a way out of this.

Frisk couldn't even summon his spear yet. His flames were not building as quickly as they had in past battles, probably because he wasn't fighting for his life.

Wait, fighting against Undyne? Frisk went on retreat as he thought about that. Undyne wore heavy armor, yet she had no trouble when facing this attack. Maybe…

Frisk focused on his currently blue soul and concentrated on bridging his PERSEVERANCE forward. Slowly, the purple light of his flames started to burn through the blue debuff sticking to his soul. He smirked as Papyrus stopped attacking and looked at Frisk in surprise. 

"WOWEE! My Rival is truly a genius." His BRAVERY grew even stronger. Paradoxically, it was growing like he was fighting alongside a courageous comrade. 

By the time they were both ready to attack, the weight had been completely lifted from Frisk's shoulders, and his heterochromatic soul was glowing brightly. He tried to enhance the bone spear with the purple flame.

"Hahh!" They both thrust their spears at the same time. Frisk's eyes widened as his spear broke in half, and the orange flame-tipped spear hit his Aura.

*Shatter*

His Aura cracked, and he slid across the snowy ground before colliding with a tree. "Oof." It hurt, but most of the attack had been canceled out by his own. 

He had been running on low Aura after taking so many attacks from those orange flames.

"Good fight." Frisk stood up shakily, trying to dispel Papyrus's fear that he had 'cracked' him again. "My rival sure is strong." 

"NYEH HEH HEH. Of course, I am. The Great Papyrus was trained by Undyne, the leader of the royal guard." Papyrus trailed off a bit at that. "Though I still do not know how I will defeat her, my BRAVERY is strong, but whenever I try INTEGRITY, she easily counters it just like you did."

Frisk considered that for a second. "Does Undyne get rid of it the same way I do?" He asked, trying to understand what the problem was.

"Yes, I believe so." Papyrus stomped his feet. "But she does it even easier because she constantly uses INTEGRITY to lighten her armor." 

Interesting, Frisk hadn't known that. It seemed like Undyne specialized in affecting her own gravity while Papyrus focused more on affecting others. If she could lighten her armor, then it would also stand to reason that she could make it heavier.

She would be a difficult person to fight.

However, if she constantly changes the weight of her armor, that must take impeccable control and concentration. If something were to disturb that…

"I do have one idea that could work," Frisk said aloud, finally giving voice to his thoughts. Maybe he could help Papyrus improve just like his friend had done for him earlier. "What if you focused on smaller bursts of Magic but made them happen more often. You could also alternate making things lighter or heavier to throw her off." The constant changes could disrupt her fine control over the weight of her armor.

"WOWEE friend Frisk, do you really think that would work?" Frisk was halfway through, nodding before Papyrus scooped him up in a hug. "Then, if my Rival works very hard, too, we can both be in the Royal Guard."

Frisk laughed and patted Papyrus on the shoulder; he still wasn't used to being this short. 

"The Great Papyrus will start working on it immediately!" He called out, and Frisk had to rush and stop him. He glanced at the remnants of his bone spear lying in the nearby snow, still giving off wisps of purple fire, and decided he should probably find a new weapon.

That, combined with the fact his Aura was utterly depleted, made Frisk call a timeout.

"I'll just walk around here and look for another stick to use for the time being." Using a bone made of someone else's Magic apparently didn't work well. "You keep on practicing, and I'll be back." 

They said goodbye, and Frisk walked further into the woods. He kept an eye out for a fallen stick of the right size and shape, but mostly, he was thinking. 

He had progressed in both his use of Aura and Magic. He was using Aura almost instinctively now, and Frisk felt like the overall pool had grown, too. His Magic was… more complicated. He had made progress but still couldn't reach his full power without special conditions. Conditions only facilitated by the monster he wanted to kill.

Before he came to the underground, it would have been impossible for him to do all these things. 

But.

{"Die!" The vine pierced his heart. Choking on his own blood, Frisk looked at Flowey's satisfied face as darkness encroached on his vision.}

But the crushing weight of knowing it wasn't enough still haunted him. His JUSTICE wouldn't make him fast enough to run through time, and his PERSEVERANCE wouldn't damage Flowey through saves. The only reason Frisk still lived was the whims of a madman.

A spike of pain in his left eye brought him out of those depressing thoughts. He quickly found a stick that he thought would be good enough and began returning to the clearing. All he could do now was fight on and improve. A little bit of his Aura had already returned, so maybe he could try to train some more.

His best bet was probably to reach the lab and try to figure out a solution with Alphys. However, he didn't like the idea of telling another monster about what was happening. The consequences of that were still fresh in his mind.

But he would have to push thro-

When he entered the clearing, the sight he came back to made him freeze.

"Wha-" Sans was standing in the middle of the clearing. The blue skeleton turned around at the noise, and that's when Frisk got a look at what had happened.

A broken bone spear jutted out of a pile of dust. Purple flames, barely visible against the snow, slowly drifted off the offending object. Frisk turned back to Sans in horror and saw the skeleton clutching a long red scarf. The pit where his right eye was supposed to be stood pitch black.

But that only drew attention to his left eye, which was glowing an ethereal light blue. 

*Beom* The sound of something charging came from behind his head.

"I'm sorry," Sans muttered. The hairs on Frisk's neck stood on end, and he desperately tried to open his mouth and explain. 

Before he could process what was happening, his world disappeared in a storm of light blue Magic. 

 

A/N: Aloha! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter back from the dead. Did I surprise at least some of you with that final scene? Sans will be playing a bigger role in the story I just wanted to take the opportunity to show the extent of Flowey's potential. Because while he might not be the strongest monster in the underground, he's had enough time to get really good at manipulating people.

Any comments and questions about the chapter and story are welcome. I would appreciate favs you could throw me but don't feel pressured or anything. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!