It was odd. There wasn't really a day/night cycle in the Underground, at least from what Frisk could tell. But they did have electric clocks, probably from Alphys, so there was a time when most monsters went to sleep.

Frisk was so exhausted after unlocking his JUSTICE bow that he passed out in the middle of the day. While he woke up after a few hours, the human had wasted much of his time remaining in Snowden. So, while he waited for his magic to recharge, he spent the day hanging out with the skeletons.

It turned out they had been slacking off on their jobs for him, so Frisk joined Papyrus in his guard duties around Snowden. Though, for the second time, he could tell that the younger brother was nervous about something. Unfortunately, he didn't think it was just about some misunderstanding this time.

In the games, Papyrus reported daily on human activity to Undyne, which meant the Captain of the Royal Guard probably already knew he was there. Frisk was sure the skeleton was desperately trying to choose between protecting his RIVAL and achieving his dream of joining the Royal Guard.

Especially because Papyrus kept commenting about how they could be such good friends.

Which Frisk didn't necessarily disagree with; it would be great if he could befriend Undyne. Maybe the Monster could give him some tips about fighting with a spear.

But the thing was… Frisk didn't want to die again.

He knew Flowey would most likely reset, so he wouldn't truly die. But that didn't really matter. The feeling of dying wasn't exactly pleasant, and he wanted to avoid it, along with the time reset that followed.

So Frisk had decided to do something different.

"I'm going to try leaving tonight, " he discreetly informed Sans as he leaned against the skeleton's wooden guardpost. Frisk had searched the area with his Aura, and while he wasn't the greatest at detecting presences, he didn't think anyone was around.

"Papyrus isn't gonna be too thrilled about that." Of course, Sans's first thought was about his brother.

Frisk shook his head. It was not the ideal way, but it was better than the alternative. "I'm sure you can make something up." Probably better than him, "and I think it will be less stressful than having to choose between me and Undyne."

They exchanged words like this for a few minutes before Sans agreed. While it might hurt Papyrus to know his RIVAL left without saying goodbye, it would probably hurt him more than having to betray him.

"You think I have a chance?" Even if Frisk tried to use stealth, he wasn't exactly confident in it working. Would he have a chance of getting away from Undyne? His JUSTICE magic had felt much more responsive ever since he summoned his bow, but would that be enough?

Sans looked at Frisk with his white, glowing eyes; for some reason, they seemed to flash yellow, but that might have been a trick of the light. Still, the human felt chills crawling down his back. For some reason, he thought of when he lied to his mom about his report card.

"Maybe," Sans stated simply. "She's not a bad person, so take that for what you will." He waved toward Waterfall. "If you can get into Hotland, you might have a chance."

"I know she's not bad." Still, he didn't mean he would just let her kill him. "Got any advice?"

Sans smirked. "Don't get stabbed."

Frisk rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

→ [Midnight]

Frisk took care not to slip as the snow turned into rocky terrain. He jogged as silently as possible after sneaking out of the skeleton brothers' home. Wearing his backpack didn't help with stealth, but it had most of the things he owned inside of it. Especially some of the magic food he had bought from the shopkeeper.

Looking carefully at the bunny-shaped cinnamon roll in his hands, Frisk could almost feel the magic inside it. Carefully, he stowed it away in his pocket. It might get sticky, but it was better than dying.

"Whoa," he said in a low whisper. The entire vibe of the Underground changed when entering Waterfall. Despite being in a cave, Snowden felt like it belonged outside with its lighting and snowy climate. But this place was obviously underground, the oppressive darkness only held off by the bioluminescent plant life scattered throughout the marsh.

Frisk nervously fiddled with the Manly Bandanna as he started into Waterfall. The entire place was beautiful, in a very creepy sort of way. The sound of crashing water in the distance barely covered up the eerie echo of voices coming from what the human knew to be Echo Flowers.

They released their sound without needing to be interacted with like in the game.

His midnight stroll through Waterfall was very different from what Frisk imagined it would be during the 'day.' He walked past an abandoned ice cream stand and wondered if it would be manned soon. There were few monsters on his path- sure, there were some, but the tall grass of the marsh actually helped in that regard.

Dodging past the occasional really buff mermaid, whom Frisk was half convinced was sleepwalking, was easy. Even when he had to do the puzzles, which mainly consisted of him floating around the water on really large flowery lily pads.

However, there was one with glowing mushrooms where Frisk tried to figure out what was happening with said plants. Seriously, they must have had some kind of motion detector because they turned on and off whenever he got close-

Frisk dove into the nearby tall grass and watched another mermaid-looking Monster walk sleepily past, murmuring something about finding a place to sleep. Shaking his head, he decided to ignore the mushrooms only to knock his feet on something.

Owowow Frisk mouthed as he focused on making no noise. He had tripped on something that felt almost glued to the ground in the middle of the tall grass.

Quickly ensuring no one was around, Frisk bent down and brushed the grass away. Sitting there on the ground were some ballet shoes. They were a light pink color and looked like they were made of some fine material. But when Frisk bent down to pick them up, they were actually really heavy.

"What the?" Studying the shoes, Frisk realized they were almost like the cinnamon roll. He could barely feel something magical within them. For a few seconds, he considered if this was against some sort of manly code before deciding he didn't care.

Frisk slipped the oddly weighted shoes on, and after a second, they seemed to grow lighter on his feet. It was lucky that his feet were so small now. Getting up, he walked a few steps with them on, and other than being more flexible than most shoes, they didn't feel very different.

That was until he tried to throw a roundhouse kick. The shoes flashed blue, and Frisk felt his foot get very heavy for a split second. It almost threw him off balance, but he managed to right himself before falling over.

"Interesting." Frisk jumped up and down a few times before throwing a couple more kicks. The shoes only seemed to activate when he intended to attack. "These could be useful, " he muttered to himself. They wouldn't help with his spear forms, but Frisk was somewhat trained in taekwondo. He had gotten a third-degree black belt, though it had been a few years since he practiced seriously.

Frisk tried to remember any more useful items he could find, but couldn't come up with anything in Waterfall. Maybe there was a tutu? But he couldn't for the life of him remember where it was.

Deciding he had wasted enough time, Frisk continued his stealth mission. Sometimes, the cave would open up to show the massive castle in the distance, reminding him just how far he still had to go. Everything seemed like it was going very well until it wasn't.

He crossed some sort of wooden bridge across a chasm that he couldn't see the bottom of. But when he was almost across, something popped out of the ground, making his heart stop.

"Naughty, naughty. " That wretched flower's voice echoed across the cave. "Did I give the impression that you could sneak your way past?"

Frisk cursed under his breath and dropped into a combat stance. "I don't need your permission to do anything, Flowey." He had tried to drop into meditation periodically but hadn't felt the flower following him. Where did he come from?

"There's that confidence of yours!" Flowey laughed. Frisk activated the spark inside him, pulling JUSTICE magic to the surface. "I wonder how long it will last?" The flower dug himself back into the ground right after he finished saying that.

What was-

Four spears of what looked like water and energy crashed into the bridge around Frisk. He could feel the wood giving way under his feet but stayed calm. It was only because his JUSTICE magic was already activated that he was able to suffuse his Aura and launch himself towards land in that instant the bridge gave way.

Frisk rolled awkwardly to his feet after just barely avoiding that long fall. His backpack made landing somewhat tricky, so he threw it to the side after getting settled.

*Clank* Something made of metal crashed behind him, and Frisk whipped around, focusing on the disturbance.

"Undyne," his voice was full of resignation. Looks like this is happening right now. The gray armored figure had done the classic three-point landing and was somehow standing on the shallow water of the marsh.

A/N: Aloha! I wanted to put this out a bit early because I'm evil and wanted to leave readers on a cliffhanger.

In reality, I went a bit over my preferred wordcount for a chapter with the Undyne fight so I decided to break it up. Don't worry, the next chapter will be all violence and will be up by tomorrow. If you want to know what happens right away the next chapters available for free on my Patreon, Tempest2077. Thanks for reading and have a great day.