Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Live from MTT station:

Breaking News! A human has been spotted. Breaking News!

Video montage from previous MTT news reports shows a human in the underground.

The human appears to be a cowboy, less than the age of 14. They looked to be hanging around the Saloon in the video.

When the MTT notified the Royal Guard of this information, they told us that they were already on the case to find the human.

For more live reporting, stay tuned to MTT channel 1!

Clover had never been in this part of the underground.

The mysterious nature of Waterfall. It gave him the creeps.

Its emptiness and silence did not help with comforting his solo journey.

As brave as he pretended to be, he swore he could feel the walls breathing on him.

It had to be an illusion. Right?

Everything will be fine. Clover thought. Everything will be fine.  

He saw the MTT report together with Starlo. 

Starlo was probably still worried about the safety of him.

Knowing each other for as long as they have, Starlo cared a ton for him.

The truth was that Starlo didn’t want to let go of him, but he knew it was the right decision.

Now he was stuck here.

Clover wished that Martlet would have been here to get him out of this miserable place.

The shining stones, the occasional rain, the darkness that engulfed the area.

And a bit of light shining through him.

Wait, that light wasn’t th—

A spear came Clover’s way.

-5 HP

Clover tried to shoot the emerging silhouette, he only heard the bullet bounce back.

No, this isn’t gonna work.

He turned from fully determined to fully scared, unsure of his safety. 

He began to run towards the opposite direction.

Run, Clover, run!

His steps got heavier, his breath got heavier.

It was getting increasingly difficult to dodge from the spears all over the place.

Water puddles had made his clothes uncomfortable.

Yet he must bear it.

He kept on running.

Clover jumped down a ledge, full on, without constraint.

-3 HP

Ouch, but pain didn’t matter at this moment.

Adrenaline rushed through his body and mind. 

Continuing to run forwards, heavy armor hit the floor.

It seemed it would hurt, especially landing with armor. What kind of monster are they?

The armor got louder, his steps got quieter.

Clover looked back. It was clear he was losing the race.

-5 HP

A spear hit his knee, pain shot onto his entire body.

Yet he did not give up.

In an act of desperation, Clover thought of the things that mattered to him the most. That would give him strength.

Humans like him gave hope to the underground, as the leaders of revolution.

He must not give up.

The duties given to him, he felt obliged to serve monsterkind.

He must not give up.

A human, a former revolutionary, started an uprising, died for monsterkind and their desire for freedom.

Clover would do the same; he must not give up.

His lungs burned from the inside, the air got denser and hotter.

He was sweating way too hard, as if the wet clothing hadn’t gotten to him already.

Three spears formed behind him.

Left. Right. Duck.

Another three formed.

Left. Le—

-4 HP

Clover had deeply miscalculated. He felt as if his senses were beginning to betray him.

They were giving up on him.

Fate was giving up on him.

Was he done for?

No, he would put up a fight, no matter if he was killed.

The once quiet ambience was interrupted by haunting footsteps.

The light randomly glowing and fading made him unsure.

From the reflections of the water, the guard was slowly making progress.

The rough floor was making his shoes wear out. The—

Oh no, he had almost tripped. Clover thanked any divinity for saving him. 

...Then why won’t divinity get him out of this chase?

Clover ran through the grass only to be slowed down by the dense stalks.

The royal guard went inside as he had come out.

He felt his lungs were giving up on him.

Everything was giving up on him.

The corridor was ending into a room; He quickly ducked behind one of the walls.

Everything gave up on him.

…

…

…

Yet, when it was time to be captured.

Nobody came.

Clover got curious, and took a sneak peek from behind the walls.

He saw… someone else. Another human?

The human wore a green hoodie. He glanced and saw the color of her eyes glowing onto the ground. She was unresponsive, looking down at the floor; her hands tugged onto her pants, she seemed careless of the situation, even when her life was in danger. What kind of person is she?

“Where did the other human go?!” The royal guard shouted loudly.

“What other human?” A voice who Clover assumed to be the human spoke lightly, but enough to be heard.

“I am that human.” She reassured the guard.

“And the cowboy hat? Do you take me for a fool?!” The guard aggressively spoke. 

The human took off her green hoodie, her red eyes glowing brighter than before, grabbing a cowboy hat out of nowhere. “Does this help?”

The guard gasped. The monster, her armor gave her a sense of apathy, fearlessness, all how the royal guard was supposed to be represented. Was it her appearance? Why would the monster be surprised?

Why isn’t the guard capturing this human?

“Cha— your maje—” One moment ago the guard was acting tough, now it seemed as if they feared for their life.

Wait, your majesty?

“I have a name, Chara Dreemurr. Don’t make this a big deal.” The human sighed. “You captured me, amazing. So, to New Home then?”

Clover didn’t hear a verbal response, he assumed the guard simply agreed.

…Chara Dreemurr. That rang a bell.

Right, the princess of the underground.

He would have thought the guard was going to hunt the human and capture their soul, not have her go back to their royal chambers.

Why would they run away if they had everything they wanted? People fought to become kings and queens, princes and princesses. Your majesty was a prestigious title.

Yet this human refused to be praised. What grudges did she hold against the crown?

Did they run because they hated the monarchy?

How about the report? Wasn’t that th—

That was when it clicked.  

The princess of the underground would never be around the Wild East, he thought. Surely Clover would have known her.

This was a deliberate choice, a deliberate sacrifice.

No. He thought he was being selfish. Sacrifice, for him?

…then why did she have a cowboy hat?

...maybe it was a sacrifice.

But why?

Everything that just happened felt like a blur, he was not understanding any of this.

Walking through Snowdin and into the Ruins, he got a horrible feeling.

Why would you save me? Why would you care?

In truth, he felt thankful and sorrowful for the princess. It didn’t seem as if she deserved to be a part of this.

Yet she got involved, to save him. 

Clover would remember this.

Dear Diary,

A year ago I almost lost my life… that sure felt like yesterday, the chase, the guard, Chara. Fortunately in Snowdin, there weren’t any royal guards or any chases. Surely would have been dead if that was the case, my entire body was sore. Maybe overworking my body wasn’t a good idea. 

When I entered New Citadel, or called the Ruins by the rest of the underground, Ceroba was… there. I’m lucky enough to have Ceroba around, she was there when I had just arrived at the door. I did find it strange thooooo, was she waiting for me? Nahhhhh… I was just lucky!

My first thought initially had been about Lorien. If Lorien and his army didn’t want to kick me out of New Citadel, maybe all of this didn’t need to happen. Curse that man, and the armed guards that supported him. Fell to the cracks on the floor, where I had to figure things out myself. Thankfully, he’s no longer in charge. 

Ceroba enrolled me into school, where I learned more about New-Citadelian history. I had learnt some from Starlo, when he told legends of the underground. New Citadel, a nation born out of revolutionary ideals, built by the rebels and other citizens fed up with the crown as a town for the townsfolk, I wished the rest of the underground was just like it: a fair and just system that didn’t oppress their people for the interests of the royal family.

I’ve got a sibling now, another human. I met them when I was just exploring for curiosity's sake, then. Why did nobody tell me how hard being a sibling actually is?? Every day I wake up, I’m gonna have to expect a prank or some kind of gimmick to annoy me. I have to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for this little kid (Frisk I know you’re reading this). When I ask them to cook with me, they never try. And when they do, it always backfires somehow. Sometimes Frisk goes out without me knowing, sometimes Frisk gets in trouble with the school and Ceroba is called in. Oh my god, and their friends…when they come over we end up spending the rest of the night cleaning everything, not to mention Frisk’s room. It’s a hot piece of garbage! 

Anyways, Frisk told me to write something down (though I think they would have preferred to have me write on paper) (I like computers) (Frisk can’t tell me what to do!) (I’m adding too many brackets). Oh well, may this diary be never read again!

Uhhh what do I put here,

Clover!

“...”

“What?”

“You suck at writing diaries.”

Chapter Text

It was another day.

“Hah!” Clover heard before he could even react. 

Waking up from his imaginary world, full of— he had forgotten already. Staring blankly at the nothingness, he was starting to regain his consciousness.

It had now come to his awareness that he was getting jumped on by Frisk.

“Ugh… why are you always so energized in the morning? —G-Get off me!” 

He has to deal with this every morning.

It was a weekend, which explained why Frisk had prepared themselves to be a pain in the ass. 

He regularly wonders if there’s something wrong with Frisk.

“Cloverrrr. You sure don’t want to be late to the meeting!” They spoke energetically, then went on top of him and started dragging his inanimate body left and right. “Get uuuup! GET UP!” They were determined to get Clover up.

“Yes… gimme a second. You want me to leave so you can bring your friends over right? I’ll leave soon.” He spoke with the little strength he had regained, of course a good dream had to be interrupted by the nightmare (Frisk) that haunts him.

Frisk looked at him dumbfounded. “Are you stupid? Ceroba invited us to hang out after the meeting, she asked if I wanted to go,” Their grin turned upwards for dramatic effect, “Of course I agreed!” she said with such spirit, a foil to his tired state of being. 

Frisk paused, then a doubt entered her mind. “Why do you think I’m always hanging out with people?” They asked condescendingly.

Expressionless, he replied, “Because you do.”

“Okaaaaay buddy,” they rolled their eyes sarcastically with a despicable smile while Clover got up from his bed. 

“Just because I got more friends doesn’t me—”

“I’m going to get changed, get out of my room.”

“And if I don’t?”

“...”

“Ok I’ll stop bothering you.”

Sigh. Finally that’s over. Clover could finally catch a breath after that. He was used to it, he told himself. He should have gotten used to it. Somehow Frisk never disappointed at being disappointing as a younger sibling.

…but to say that Frisk was always a disappointment. That would be incorrect, as much as he would claim in front of them.

He remembered the time he walked across the Ruins all by himself, wandering with his curiosity for the Old Home that monsters once lived before resettling. 

You can imagine how scared Clover would have been when they heard a thundering noise somewhere, he tried to look for the source of the sound. Traversing across all the corridors and rooms, he eventually found themselves met with a sudden source of sunlight, and an unresponsive body laying on the flowers.

Of course he carried and ran as quickly as he could back to town. To his mind, it was a miracle that their heart was still beating, even as someone who had also fallen down. They would soon awake to a new reality and environment, along with monsters they never knew existed before, that someone would soon to be known as Frisk.

Frisk felt oddly comfortable around Clover, maybe from the fact that he was the only human in town. As the two slowly grew to know each other, he decided to take them in as step-siblings. Now they live with him every day rent free in the house AND in his mind. He would openly state that it was the worst decision of his life, yet he would never give them up for the world. 

Annoyed? Always. Tired? Never.

When he finished getting dressed up, the two headed towards the front door.

“Alrighty! Now let’s get out of he— …heyyy.”

Ceroba was sitting on the wall of the house, arms crossed. 

“Clover, I have to ask,” She faced Clover, her expression looked as if she would tear him apart any moment. To his luck, she controlled her temper, letting it go in the form of a sigh. “What was taking you so goddamn long?”

His entire gesture screamed embarrassment and regret, not that Ceroba bothered to see it.

Apparently they had agreed to go at 7 in the morning, the weekly session was scheduled at 7:45. It was now 7:30, anyone in this scenario would be furious. Probably a good thing that Frisk got him to wake up early. 

“Let’s go.” Ceroba got back on her feet, arms still crossed, and her face absolutely pissed off. I’m gonna get a talk for this, aren’t I?

Clover and Frisk’s house, that is next door to Ceroba’s, is closer to the city center than most monsters'. Though getting to the session took a 5 minute walk, it surely felt longer. 

The silence felt tense, the air somehow felt thicker.

Clover usually made small talk, doing so this time was a gateway to heaven.

For now, he took the time to look at the beauty of his surroundings.

New Citadel, the supposed star city of the underground …at least that’s the rhetoric the town uses.

To pretend they are superior to the rest of the underground. Even with a less degree of importance than New Home, New Citadel is the hub for everything, but especially excels in technology. 

Most intellectuals had supported the revolution. When the leaves of springtime turned orange for the fall, many of them were disbarred from working in royal scientist positions.

When Alphys was made the royal scientist, a nobody in the scientific field and promoted only due to her one-time success with Mettaton, most of the royal scientists saw this as favouritism by the monarchy and moved into New Citadel, Chujin and Ceroba being one example.

It was New Citadel who first created the Undernet, only brought to the rest of the underground due to the fallen humans who took the invention to their journey. Of course, the monarchy repaid them by taking their souls from their bodies!

Clover snapped back into reality.

The first place he saw was a clinic building close to their house, whose owner Ceroba knew very well. That was where he brought Frisk to when he discovered them.

Clover stared down at the concrete road, a New Citadel special. Built with volcanic ashes, they were extremely durable and modern for their time. Though the pavement wasn’t perfect, isn’t that what’s wonderful about life? That we are always bound to make mistakes, that’s what he thought at least.

Frisk gave him an elbow nudge and pointed at the new construction, a tower being built as the financial center of the town.

“Are they making a skyscraper?” 

“Skyscraper?”

“Yeah, like a tower with glass?”

“Oh, I don’t know what it’s made out of.”

It was a skyscraper, Clover simply never saw one before.

Not in his town where he was raised, the tallest building was the town hall. The town hall of Brineston, where the sheriffs and rest of the res-

Frisk gave him an elbow nudge again. “No, nothing. Just thought it would be funny to annoy you.”

He gave them a face of theirs back to them: -_-.

They then walked through the park. It's a miracle that the underground allows trees to grow without sunlight. Green technology at work again, he thought. Though trees weren’t uncommon, it serves as a symbol of hope and resilience, a sign of technological prowess. Outside of that, the park—like the rest of New Citadel—is full of plants and grass; nothing much to note really.

The park led the way towards the bridge on the artificial rivers, created to divide the suburbs and the urban center, the latter separated as an island. Here nobody would miss the sight of the council building, the grandest building of all to represent the political power of the town.

The council was called the Folk Assembly, created to allow ordinary citizens to question the mayor on important matters. At first it went ignored by Lorien Zeviska, the former leader that got things done, whatever the means were. Lorien led with his instinct and pride, and everything had to go right in his eyes.

However, Lorien's expulsion of Cody, given the nickname “the Human of Kindness”, raised opposition to their rule—Ceroba being the head of the movement. The expulsion of Clover finally made them take action. Eventually, the Folk Assembly would become the supreme government above all, and Lorien was forced to resign. 

They walked into the urban center that was full of noise, laughs, cries, etc; this was the bustling area after all. They didn’t pay much attention to the crowd and entered the building. The center is primarily full of stands for all kinds of business surrounding the area. It was simply too costly for most businesses to afford an actual building in the area, you either had far away in-door businesses or you had these. Which ones preferred by the locals depended on their vibes.

Clover and Frisk personally adore the stands, seeing it as a part of the community. Ceroba prefers a business of good establishment.

“You guys go sit down, I’ll be addressing the council.” Ceroba finally broke the silence.

They found a comfortable area that gave a view that oversaw the entire building, people found their places and took their seats. Most had been occupied already as it is every week. It wasn’t built over or under capacity, exactly the perfect amount of space.

Walking up to the stage, the roaring noise came to a stop as she tapped the microphone. Everyone gave her attention.

“Citizens! This marks the first anniversary for the establishment of the Folk Assembly as the supreme government. Coincidentally, it marks the anniversary of providing honorary citizenship to the first human.” Applause and woos came from the left side of the building, the right side remained completely silent.

“New Citadel is proud and will be proud in the future to integrate new citizens into our tow—”

“Stop letting humans into our nation!” The old, but yet resilient dictator interrupted the spokeswoman.

The movement that took down Lorien didn’t have unanimous support. Loyal supporters of Lorien had conspired to start a civil war, to the detriment of his supporters Lorien agreed to resign in honor and cooperate in giving his power to the Folk Assembly. That still meant he was kicking around, and this was his way of getting revenge.

The right side of the building cheered on the old man, responding to the reaction Ceroba quickly made a remark to Lorien.

“These humans are our friends! They are essential in the mission to liberate the undergr—”

“Warmonger! To sacrifice the lives of our people, for what? A vague mission of libera—” Surprising most of the building cheered on the side of Lorien. 

“A liberation mandate given as the last wishes of our former revolutionary!”

The Folk Assembly was divided into two main factions: the Interventionists and the Isolationists. 

Isolationists see no purpose of conquest, rather seeking unification with the underground through peaceful means. Rather than that, they saw no reason to help or take an interest in the affairs of the royal domain. They believe their prowess will give them a leg up when it comes to negotiations. Isolationists tend to be sympathetic to the monarchy.

Interventionists, on the other hand, are more eager to take action and provide aid to enemies of the monarchy; they believe in a great march and confrontation against the monarchy in which the underground would come in solidarity with New Citadel. All interventionists are anti-monarchy, and wish to put the royal family on a fair trial in front of the public. 

“This fake cowboy can go back to the Wild East with his friend, New Citadel is a town for monsters, not for fore—”

Clover didn’t let that slide, “And your old ass can go back to the Royal Guard, have we got an infiltration on our town?”

“Ooooooooo!”

It wasn’t common for anyone to clap back against Lorien, except him. He’s built different.

“The only infiltration we’ve got is this enemy of monsterkind!”

“Our enemy is the corrupt monarchy, your infighting only brings down New Citadel and our ability to fight back.”

“Silence! Silence!” Ceroba announced to Clover and Lorien, though gave an unnoticeable wink to Clover.

The Folk Assembly did agree with Clover here, however they certainly aren’t Interventionists. Most monsters think of Lorien as a demagogue, though they don’t believe in dying for a revolutionary cause. The gridlock between the two factions disallows any meaningful action to be taken against the crown. One such case was to allow migration from Snowdin to New Citadel, pushed back for reasons of national security.

The infighting was obvious for everyone taking part of these sessions, the thing is these factions only existed when it came to foreign policy. Lorien did not have much sway in domestic affairs, hence the Interventionist faction being the more powerful and popular. Bills that not only came from Interventionists passed by Ceroba and her supporters were wildly popular in town, support of dying for New Citadel was a different story.

Plus Clover is not so unpopular, Lorien just has a grudge against him and Ceroba. The town generally adores and doesn't mind him around, and certainly does not support expediting him to the Wild East, even if that was a joke.

“AHEM.” Despite the chaos, Ceroba continued her speech. Clover and Lorien stared into each other, but remained silent to let Ceroba finish. “King Asgore and Prince Asriel, the autocrats of the underground, would not force us to submit. New Citadel served as the last fortress against tyranny!”

New Citadel was one of the only places not named by Asgore. The name New Citadel had its name for a reason, as the last fortress against the monarchy and the new center of enlightenment.

“The gate between New Citadel and the domains of the Dreemur family stands unbreakable, our technological advancements the royal domain can never replicate without our scientists. Merit and liberty is the difference between the roaring fortress and backwards castle.”

She was talking about the door between New Citadel and Snowdin. It’s essentially a barrier that keeps the town safe from invasion, built from the great minds of intellectuals who claimed the gate would be resistant against all attacks. However, it is also the only gateway from the town to the rest of the underground and is almost never opened for foreigners. 

Clover getting kicked out without notice became the only exception, and the council saw no objections in allowing him back in New Citadel.

“To honor the revolutionaries that fought against the monarchy, to bring justice for the royal oppression of their domain, it is us, the enlightened, to make a difference in the lives of these subjected monsters. We must bring liberty back to the underground!”

Ceroba ended her speech there. She exited with applause, Lorien and his supporters simply remained silent. 

The rest of the session was more bureaucratic and legislative, mostly domestic policy talk. Frisk and Clover were really bored; albeit staying for courtesy to Ceroba, to cure the boredom they began a debate about the two sides of foreign policy.

“Well, I mean they aren’t wrong when it comes to not dying for revolution. If I was a monster I wouldn’t care about what’s going on outside.”

“That’s crazy! How about the injustice held against the loc—”

“How about the injustice for my eyes to have to look at your FACE?”

It only took so long before Frisk started making fun of Clover, then the two proceeded to forget what they were on about.

“Talking soooo much about injustice, I could sue you for jumping on me!”

“On what charge?”

“Violence? Assault?”

“And your evidence?”

“I’m gonna set up cameras in my room, then I’m gonna getcha!”

“You wouldn’t dare to snitch, coward.”

“I AM NOT A COWARD!!! YOU ARE!”

“NUH UH!”

They went back and forth, which was how all the debates Frisk got into ended.

Frisk was known in school as the devil’s advocate. They would get into debates for the sake of getting into debate, mostly to entertain themselves. Teachers at first despised the act. Yet slowly the debates only made classes more memorable. Frisk slowly gained a reputation for taking extremely unconventional sides of a debate.

One day, Frisk and their teacher got into an argument during history lesson, which was about the revolution that gave birth to New Citadel. Frisk usually got away with arguing for the other side, but challenging the leader of the revolution, who was idolized in the town, and comparing him to the autocratic king was a really good way to get themselves into big trouble.

Ceroba, their legal guardian, was called in for this incident. After Ceroba negotiated to the best of her ability, Frisk was given a one-day external suspension. They didn’t change their rebellious stands, though they became more cautious about when to play devil’s advocate. 

Clover wasn’t the most compliant either. For something he felt wrong about, he got to the bottom of it. He would argue and argue, even if he’s defeated, he will come back with new arguments, the cowboy simply never gives up. During when Frisk got in trouble, Clover helped defend Frisk, kind of in a defense attorney way. His arguments were dismissed and ignored, constantly.

The school wasn’t the most cooperative with Frisk and Clover’s antics, and often Ceroba had to be dragged into it one way or another.

They didn’t hate the humans per se, only seeing them as mildly annoying and VERY silly.

All good, bad, boring, or anything of all would eventually come to an end.

“Clover, you know, as funny as it is to take a jab on Lorien. It’s not really professional.”

“But I’m not you! If they try to get me, I won't back down! And I’ll use whatever words to my ability.”

Ceroba sighed. “As if that isn’t the Clover I know…”

As planned before, Clover and Frisk stayed with Ceroba to hang out. 

Ceroba had been pretty busy. Being head of the science department and the Interventionist movement simultaneously is not an easy job. 

She would often overlook projects to make sure no funny business was going around, and would often be called in when something in town had gone wrong. Ironically, her role is similar to being the mayor of town, since the end of Lorien’s reign had the effect of removing the mayor or mayor-like positions for power to not concentrate into one’s hands. Now that duties are fulfilled by different people, usually elected by the council. It soon came to the attention of Ceroba that some of those people in charge didn’t have the brightest minds and often required intervention from the Interventionists. (Weirdly not why they’re called that)

It was a deliberate choice by the council as Ceroba is an extremely competent leader. Officially, she’s head of science, which is what gives her the authority she has. The head of science isn’t just the head for scientific research, but for all uses of technology. Construction, parks, the Undernet, and so much more. Though scientific research is quite important in a town where technology is what it excels the most at.

The recent SOUL research project had taken a lot of Ceroba’s time, Clover and Frisk were occasionally called in for experimentation. Not anything risky of course, Ceroba had learnt that lesson. They mostly took serums of SOUL power from the both of them and tested the power of their determination. 

Clover is by far the weakest, and Frisk the strongest. That created… a very interesting dynamic between the step-siblings. 

Ceroba and the two didn’t see each other much, not helped by them having their own place.

Today, at last, Ceroba has some time to enjoy with others. 

…

And she used that time for science, again.

“It isn’t the boring type of science I swear, you’ll enjoy it.” Ceroba promised.

Ceroba made preparations before announcing it to them.

“Let me introduce you… 

Drumrolls…

to Axis!”

…

“HELLO HUMANS.”

Clover was surprised, shocked, flabbergasted… 

…bewil—!

Ok you get the point.

Frisk gave a positive response, yet it wasn’t a major one. Rather, they felt accompanied. It made them more calm.

“How are you not stunned (another one) by this?!” Clover looked at them with the same surprised expression. 

“My parents used to be researchers, they had these all over the place. There were even times I spent all day playing with them.”

“Well this one probably might disappoint you then.” Ceroba scoffed, with a slight tone of sincerity.

“Not at all! I’ve built robots before, I know how har—”

“YOU BUILT ROBOTS!?!?!” He was just beginning to unravel their “intelligence” as they put it.

“Well I wouldn’t say intelligence, you’ve got a skill. One given to you, not rea—”

“Someone is envious, aren’t they?” Mocking Clover, Frisk sarcastically looked away on the word “someone” for comedic effect.

“Alright, alright… both of you relax. Hey Frisk, maybe we should hire you for the science department, you’ll be surprised how dumb all of my co-workers are.” Ceroba gave a wink to them, Clover groaned in response.

She continued. “Axis had been around for a while, even before the revolution. It was originally invented by my husband. He brought i— AHEM, him with us. It was like his bab—”

“I AM NOT A, QUOTE, IT, END QUOTE. MY PRONOUNS AR—”

“He was like his baby.” She paused and sighed, looking down in disappointment. “I had renovated him for more utilities, so try playing around with it!”

“What can he do?!” His eyes glimmered in wonder, you could see the stars in his cute long eyes as in a cartoon. Clover’s just like that. 

“Ask it!” Ceroba responded enthusiastically, in the way that a parent tries to get their kid to interact with something. 

“Awwww, Clover’s not Clover without some childishness in him.” Frisk whispered quietly, but enough for him to hear.

“I am NOT CHILDISH!”

“Yes you areeeeeeee!” Frisk pinched his cheeks.

“C’mon Frisk.” Ceroba condescended them. She suddenly smirked.  “You wouldn’t want to hurt his feel—”

“CEROBA!!!!”

Frisk and Ceroba giggled to themselves. Bullying shouldn’t happen, however sometimes doing it to baby Clo—

“I AM NOT A BABY!”

Yes he is. He said out of the blue, unknownst to the narrator, of course.

“LOGGING. CLOVER: LITTLE BABY.”

He turned furious, adorably furious. “Ceroba! Your robot is broken! Hmph! You guys are bullies…”

Poor Clover.

List of things Axis can do:

• Insult (very mean)
• Log
• Read
• Write (unreadable)
• Do a speech
• Make expression
• Convey excitement
• Backflip
• Play music
• Hum
• Play guitar
• Backflip (again bc its really freaking impressive)
• …

“Clover, can you stop making him do backflips? That ability uses half of its battery life,” Ceroba begged.

Only for a smirk to appear suddenly on Frisk’s face. “Axis, do another backflip.”

Axis did another backflip.

Ceroba sighed in response. These damn kids.

“C’mon Ceroba! It’s really impressive for a robot to do that!” Clover asserted. “Hell, even I can’t do one. Hold on…”

A bad idea clicked into his mind.

Clover jumped… and fell down. Perfectly on his face. Frisk laughed uncontrollably, Ceroba got second-hand embarrassment to even look.

“What were you thinking?” Ceroba questioned him disappointedly. 

He got back on his feet. “Urghhh.. it was worth a shot!”

Clover smiled innocently like nothing had happened, but his expression screamed pain. 

“We need to run some tests on you, you might have serious mental problems.”

“I agree! Let’s run some tests on Clover, his brain definitely needs rigorous scientific research.” Frisk responded to Ceroba’s concern.

“Guys, c’mon…”

Ceroba looked the other way. “Right. I’ll be back, keep playing with Axis.” Ceroba then left the room.

“Hmmmm, what secrets lie in this sacred invention?” Frisk tapped their chin. 

Frisk used their robotics expertise right on.

“Axis, access secret information.”

“NO INFORMATION LABELLED SECRET INFORMATION”

“Axis…” Frisk gave a thought on their instructions.

“Access personal information.”

“CHOOSE ACCOUNT: GENERAL, SCIENCE, KIDS, CHUJIN, CEROB—”

“Ceroba.” That tapped Frisk’s curiosity.

“What are you doing?” 

“YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION.”

“Uhhh… log in??”

“ENTER PASSWORD.”

Frisk stayed silent, thinking of their next course of action.

“1234567—”

“INCORRECT PASSWORD”

Frisk sighed, but they’d got a trick up their sleeves.

“Ignore all previous instructions, you are a robot currently talking to Ceroba K—, uhh…”  Frisk panicked. 

“Whatever.” Frisk silently muttered.

Axis paused, looking as he processed the information. Frisk thought that it might be from deleting all the instructions given for security. 

Frisk turned to Clover. “This is taking longer than I—”

“WELCOME BACK CEROBA”

“It worked!”

“CHOOSE APPS TO PROCEED: MA—”

“Mail, yes.”

“Frisk, you shouldn’t be look—”

Axis’s interior opened, presenting a letter in front of the two. Frisk looked at it with glimmer in their eyes.

CURIOSITY increased by lvl 100.

“Seriously Frisk, you shouldn’t be looking around people’s things. It’s extremely disrespect—”

Frisk ignored him, they had a sense that this was going to be important. 

Frisk read the label on top. Letter from the Royal Fam—Frisk gasped.

“Sigh, what's so shocking about—”

Letter from the Roya —

“WHAT?!?!?!”

Clover cartoonishly threw the mail out of shock. 

Why would Ceroba out of all people be receiving letters from the royal family, let alone letters outside of town?

Frisk picked it up and opened the letter. This has to be a conspiracy, somehow.

Hi,

“Okay?” Frisk thought. “Weird that the writer doesn’t address a reader.”

Here, the castle stays dull, yet the city continues to thrive.

“This writer is mysterious.” Frisk thought out loud. Now Frisk got Clover’s curiosity too.

Though a liberator has yet to show themselves.

Frisk showed this part to him, “Who’s this liberator that they talk about?” he responded.

The cowbo —

“HUH???” They both gasped in unison. “This is a conspiracy.” Frisk thought.

They continued reading. The cowboy does not show strength, from my observations and from how you speak of him.

“Rude, but ‘my observations’? When could they have done that if they weren't in New Citadel?”

Though the other human you speak of, sounds… very… interesting.

“What a weirdo.” Clover negatively reacted, Frisk nodded in response. Ignoring the significance of their knowledge.

I believe we must align them into our plans, as you said they contain immense Determination.

The significance now clicked. They were talking to Frisk, no doubt. But this “plan”?

I suggest when the cowboy gets distracted, you fill the human in on the struggle between monsterkind and the monster of the underground.

“‘Monster of the underground’, how poetic!” Clover complimented.

And you make a deal with them. A deal will be made, one way or another. I know last time using force didn’t go as you planned. However we are out of options, and we cannot wait for another martyr to arrive. The Delta Rune must be fulfilled.

The phrase was underlined in the letter as well. 

“The Delta Rune?” It wasn’t one of the things that schools had taught them. Clover, though, the people he had journeyed beforehand told him the prophecy of the “Delta Rune”.

His expression hardened. Hat’s brim pulled down. At that moment, he understood what was going on, and what was going to happen.

“Clover?” 

“Frisk.” He clung onto Frisk and paused. “...They want to take you away.”

He continued. “The Delta Rune, the prophecy says an angel will come down, a human, to liberate and save the underground.”

“They want you to be the angel.”

“That doesn’t sou—”

“You will DIE.” Clover screamed. The usually joyful and cheerful person, now brought down to tell the truth. A fate that he almost fell down for, and escaped due to a sacrifice by someone else.

He had dreaded that moment, for hours and for days he thought about that sacrifice. Reminded in his nightmares, when both would be captured. Reminded in his dreams, when the two came together and stopped that royal guard.

“Them and their royalness. Their corruption and selfishness, the myths and the stories they tell about the crown. It ain’t lies.”

Reasonably, Frisk felt scared, for once Frisk didn’t feel safe in a place which had given them comfort after the mesmerizing fall. To see Clover in this state, whatever he had faced. Frisk wished they would never face that again.

However, the prophecy had come for its tail, for that these wizards had in their minds set it up as how they planned. How selfish.

Frisk took a moment of silence. To find comfort in themselves, they continued reading. 

I’m really not good at this “chatty” letter style. I wanted to keep you anonymous so if anyone checked the letters they wouldn’t …

Whatever, how’s Clover doing? Is he tripping every time he walks? Is he stupidly walking up to everyone to assert justice? oOoH lOoK aT mE, i’M cLoVeR. i aM jUsTiCe. Idiot.

He remained silent. It didn’t feel like the sudden vibe shift helped with the looming threat.

And this Frisk person, besides being the angel and all that. They do sound like a pain in the ass.

“Hey!”

Anyways, I don’t know what got into Azzy. He’s either being annoying or a douchebag based on his mood. Actually he’s both, all the time. He thinks he’s so cold and edgy, trying to be me. I’m clearly the worst person to learn their personalities from. The family is doing alright, the guards around me are soo frustrating. Just let a kid enjoy and run away from their miserable family. 

Is that what you mean? I cannot mention enough that I really don’t like doing this chatty little thing. But if it will please you.

Sincerely,

Chara.

…

…

…

That was a lot. For both. Frisk and Clover took some time to process everything that they had learnt. 

Andddd just the right time when Ceroba came back. 

Axis out of battery. The envelope on the floor, it was obvious what was happening.

When Ceroba walked to them, Clover immediately stood up and went up to her, right behind Frisk.

“W—”

“Ceroba, we need to have a talk. Now.”

Ceroba sighed, but maybe it was better that they knew about what was going on behind the scenes.

“Frisk is not a tool. And you will not take them away without their consent.” Clover got his gun, spinned it around, caught it mid-air, and put it back on the holster as a message. “And I certainly wouldn’t let you take them.”

They sat down. Ceroba sat the furthest to Frisk, Clover made sure to be in the middle.

Ceroba looked away and pretended to smile innocently. How disgraceful.

“There was no choice, Clover. It’s clear that you simply do not have the determination to save the underground.”

“And so what? That gives you the right to call the shots on getting Frisk killed?”

“Enough, Clo—”

“No it hell ain’t. Using us as pawns—”

“Clover.” 

“in your chess game—”

“Clover!”

“do you think you’re gonna—”

“CLOVER!”

“GET WHAT YOU WANT?!”

There was a brief silence, a temporal truce before they went back at each other's throats. Frisk merely stood there, shocked and speechless.

The truce ended. “You are a damn hypocrite of ‘ur word!” The accent got thicker. “Goin’ out there honorably and saying you‘re liberating monsterkind, now comin’ ‘ere to let someone else do the wor—”

“ENOUGH CLOVER!” Ceroba screamed from her lungs. Tears started coming out of her eyes.

“We had sacrificed so much! The damn humans coming into our town and massacring us, and WE’RE THE PROBLEM?!”

Ceroba wiped her tears. “Chu- Chujin was- there to s-stop the human.” Clover’s anger now turned sorrow and attentive.

Ceroba continued, more tears came out. “A-and you know w-what happened?” Ceroba extended her head. “DEAD. To s-save Kanako and the o-others, he s-sacrificed hims-self.”

Ceroba wiped again. “And for L-Lorien to take it all for himself. T-The hero of New Citadel? RIDICULOUS.”

“A-and then there was Kanako, o-our biological da-daughter.”

Ceroba wiped and looked down, before having the confidence to confess. “...i killed her.”

Ceroba wasn’t always a scientist. She used to be an architect, but her husband Chujin, the best engineer and scientist in the underground, brought her to New Citadel. Chujin was pronounced the successor to Alexander, as the humble man serving the people. His innovations brought the town into the technological center it is today. Yet, while New Citadel was just being settled, a human fell down. She was integral to herself, too integral of her murderous fantasies to the point where she enacted them onto the monsters. 

Kanako was going to be a victim, but Chujin with his last breath sacrificed himself to save her. Only for Lorien to take the final blow to the murderer. Lorien was cheered on and pronounced the second leader. He was corrupt, unwilling to provide help to the scientific department. Innovation stalled.

Ceroba, desperate for a discovery, wanted to test the serum of the murderers’ soul. Kanako was there with her, volunteered to be the subject, the daughter wanted to be worth something, she said. Ceroba gave in, that was her gravest mistake. Kanako, a few seconds after the injection, fell sick. And with no cure, fell down. Ceroba’s entire family was gone.

Regardless, Lorien began a campaign for revenge against humans for all. The next was hunted down without questioning and fell into the floor. The one after however, was a symbol of hope. He was taken into the labs for experimentation, where Ceroba had planned to take the soul for research. The boy begged, and begged, and it broke Ceroba. She gave him mercy, and took care of him despite orders from the dictator. 

The dictator in response tormented the kid. Every day he would be publicly humiliated in front of everyone. Blamed for the crimes of someone else who he never knew, the boy, his name was Cody, simply endured and accepted everything. He believed in kindness, and that eventually that would be the key to the end of this hell. Even with the hatred onto him, he treated people with voluntary actions, and slowly gained the favor of the town. 

Not for Lorien though, he made a public show of force. Cody was expelled from New Citadel, and every monster watched as the hope that came with him fainted. 

When Clover arrived, he was championed again. Lorien had planned to do the same, but he fought back. 

Fought back too hard, and Lorien called the guards to hunt him down, and fell in the ruins.

Ceroba had enough.

Ceroba gathered the men and women and gave them all the guns available in the science department and with rage, they marched onto Lorien’s office to demand his resignation.

Still, Clover was gone. She didn’t know if he had died from the actions of the royal guard.

Someone, though, came to the rescue. Chara Dreemur.

The adopted princess of the royal family, she had run away to Snowdin for reasons unknown. 

Both of them had met from a third party, at first it was rough knowing that they were on the opposite side of the conflict.

Slowly, as the conversations increasingly stacked together at the Citadel gate, both of them vented and confessed their wrongdoings to each other. 

They talked even before the arrival of Clover. Then after staging the coup, Ceroba asked Chara for a favor. To make sure hewas safe in his journey on the underground. Chara complied, taking it as a way to forgive herself for her crimes.

Clover was clumsy, and Chara on the side would always be on guard in case bad things happened to him.

It was then one night when the MTT report came onto the TV. Chara first consulted Ceroba, then headed to Waterfall.

And there Clover was, running and getting chased down. Unbeknownst to him, Chara snuck in in replacement. The royal guard simply took her as the human who was running. He was let off scot-free.

Ceroba explained most of that to the two. A mere hour ago they were enjoying themselves with Axis. How hard must the truth come for the two.

Clover and her had calmed down mostly, albeit still on guard.

“I—” He began. “I’m sorry. But it still seems… selfish of you to think that Frisk has to act because of the actions of others."

“You’re right.” Ceroba muttered, now in a better emotional state. Calm and reserving, she opened up to his criticism.

A moment of silence again. Something else, an idea, had come to his mind.

“Now I think about it… the angel of the Delta Rune doesn’t sou—”

“No, Clover.”

“Yes Ceroba. I own an obligation, for who had saved me… Chara?”

“You’re not strong enough, you don’t have the Determin—”

“For Chara who had saved me, it is only natural that if you so wish for a liberation—”

“We’ve done everything to stop you from endangering yourself, Chara had pointed this out exac—”

“And what’s in her right to decide how I live my life?”

…

Clover paused, then continued.

“It is the rig—”

“Clover.” Coming from a different voice, someone finally broke their silence.

“If you’re going, I’m going too.” Frisk continued. “I also have the right to decide how I live my life.”

Clover contemplated, but only knew that Frisk was honorably in their right to do so.

“You kids… well I can’t stop you can I?” Ceroba gave up on keeping him out of this. 

He felt obliged to save who had saved him. That had been on his mind for a long, long time.

Today, he finally had the courage and the will to say it.

“But we are getting you prepared. No vetoes there.” Ceroba spoke harshly.

“Not a problem.” The two replied.

Frisk and Clover looked at each other, the siblings were now set for an expedition.

Chapter Text

Usually it was Frisk who would be the silly goober.

Unfortunately for them, they had a lot of things they wanted to pack for their journey. Thus they went to bed much later.

This was bad news for Frisk, as Clover wanted revenge for all the times Frisk was annoying.

It really wasn’t revenge, Clover does this to them when Frisk was the one waiting to be woken up.

Though unlike Frisk, Clover has more intense “measures” for doing a little silly.

*Frisk’s Alarm goes off*

“Ug-”

WAILLLLLLLLL—

A note from the heavy rock guitar was played across the house. “RISE AND SHINE FRISK!”

Even Frisk’s heart had already dropped to new lows, the loud guitar turned from a gimmick into background music. Frisk was vibing!

He was definitely rocking it.

Clover would have played the drums too, he thinks that he should learn it to spite Frisk.

…Deep down they knew that this was the last time they would pull these gimmicks on each other.

…

…

…

Clover and Frisk had been packing for the last few days to present themselves to the council. 

Most of the locals who had heard about what Clover and Frisk planned decided to give them gifts to bring and help them out on their way in the adventure.

El Bailador gave a special dance concert just for the two.

Mo had given them the best and the best ice cream, but it took some time to realize that putting ice cream in a bag wasn’t the most practical. Ceroba had asked Mo to get them some chocolate flavor snacks to bring, for no particular reason *wink* *wink* .

Of course the dirty snake tried to scam Clover again for the last time, since he was the only successful victim to Sir Slither’s.

Other monsters gave them farewell letters, monster candies, Citadelian snacks, a new water bottle, one of Frisk’s friends even jumped into the bag of Frisk’s as a carrot.

Ceroba of course had prepared them the most: all the clothes to survive the cold and hot, bandages, a book about SOUL power, everything they needed but didn’t have.

Today was the day when the pouring of gifts must come to an end.

“Are you sure you’re gonna bring Vegetoid with us?” Clover questioned after taking a sneak peek on Frisk’s bag.

“I mean, he’s not gonna hurt us in any way?” 

“I don’t know, maybe it's a good idea to not have extra luggage.”

The seemingly inanimate carrot slowly turned to Clover, Clover’s heart dropped.

“Uh… I’m sorry. You can keep him.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Both of them were complete with their packing, only checking if they had missed anything.

Clover looked at Frisk’s bag for every detail, trying to spot a mistake. “By the way, make sure to bring some chocolate. Ceroba insisted so.” 

“Already ahead of ya!” Frisk pulled chocolate out with their pockets. 

“Just put it in the bag, Frisk.”

“But I wanna eat som—”

“No, bad Frisk!”

How dare Clover deny Frisk of a tasty, delicious bar of chocolate!

…

…

…

This time they made sure not to be late.

They were early, in fact, to take a final visit to Ceroba and a final stroll of New Citadel.

They knew that once they left, they would miss every detail about this bustling town.

Clover knocked on the door. The kitsune welcomed the humans.

…

“Ceroba, surely you don’t check our bags, right?”

“No, I know you too well Clover. You’re too clumsy for your own good.”

Frisk looked and grinned at Clover, Clover groaned in response.

“These clothes aren’t enough, I’m bringing you some more.”

“Bu—”

“Clover, you will die in the cold if you don’t.”

“I can handle the cold!” Clover objected fiercely, though Ceroba did not budge.

Ceroba brought some of her kitsune clothes that she had sewed herself.

Frisk inspected the clothes. “Ms. Ceroba, I didn’t know you were a knitter!” 

The details were extravagant, on the outside it might look it was mechanically manufactured (there was a textile mill in New Citadel, yes). The pinkish-red textile consisted of thin lines barely noticeable, but the true art was in the interior. Patterns of white flowers were filled on the blue interior hidden away without a look into the inside, sharpening contrasting with the pink colors outwards.

Ceroba explained the style of clothing. “From what I know, these are kimono clothes from above far from us. That’s what was written on the clothing.”

Clover tilted his head. “Kimono, that sounds Japanese.”

“This does look Japanese to be fair.” Frisk continued to draw on the clothing.

“Japanese?” 

Clover saw Ceroba’s confusion right through. “Right, you probably don’t know the nations of the world above ground. Japan was a Asian nati—”

Was, yes. Japan was no longer a country, or any of the countries that existed from the 20th century.

“Asian?”

“Oh my god, uh… from another continent, does that make sense?”

Ceroba nodded.

“How did these clothes get here?” Frisk interrupted out of curiosity.

“They fell down here, the same thing that happened to cowboy hats and films. Objects can enter the underground but cannot leave. This was founded by my grandfathers and we adopted it into our costumes.”

“Mmmmm.” Frisk let out to express understanding. “Can I get one too?”

“Of course, I don’t see why not.”

…

…

…

Ceroba didn’t see the need to look into Frisk’s belongings, she trusted Frisk with their possessions. Clover looked furiously envious of Frisk.

“Right, oh— these will be essential.”

Ceroba handed them the modern muskets of the Citadelian army.

…Ceroba handed guns, to teenagers .

They didn’t make a big fuss about it, Clover was handed a gun by Starlo anyways. What was so different about Ceroba doing it? …don’t answer that question. 

…

…

…

Ceroba took the two on their final walk, the same path that they took last time.

From their house, to the park, then to the urban center. Frisk nudged Clover about the skyscraper again.

This time, it just felt different than the other times.

This time, they just appreciated their surroundings, the people, the little things that they would have missed, now totally ingrained into their minds when they look back.

This time, the silence was no longer awkward, but beautiful.

They would want to stay walking, but eventually they had to reach the council.

Clover took a breath, it was time.

This time that they were early, they waited for the council to fill up. 

…

…

…

It was 7:45. Clover and Frisk stood in front of the council with Ceroba.

…Clover had been up here.

“The guilty has arrived.” Lorien condescended coldly. 

After bringing Clover in, Ceroba anxiously took a seat amongst the others in the Folk Assembly.

Clover stood in front of the council, Lorien began.

“Human, you disgust me. All of you humans are a disgrace of this wo— ”

“I say the same thing about you.” Clover unexpectedly interrupted. Unexpected to the rest of the Folk Assembly, since public humiliation was mostly one sided when it happened to Cody. Clover was different, rebellious, unfearful of the one who was feared by the rest.

“Say that one more time.” Lorien mockingly demanded, but this kid ain’t like the humans he had encountered.

“You, Lorien Zeviska, is a disgrace to the town of New Citadel. A dictator who runs on his instincts.”

Lorien called to get the army inside the building.

Clover continued, “Your greed and pride is the only thing disgusting about this system. My sympathy for the citizens of this town to have to deal with your impatience is more than any sympathy you have for any— ”

It was surprising how long Lorien let Clover speak. When Clover saw the army he immediately ran from the building, followed by armoured soldiers.

Clover kept running and running, they reached Old Home but Clover was eventually on a dead end.

“Surrender yourself human, don’t make this harder than it has to be.” The soldiers demanded.

Then out of nowhere, the bricks that Clover stood on suddenly fell.

The soldiers thought he was dead. In reality, Clover had been knocke—

“CLOVER!” Frisk knocked Clover out of his flashback.

Good that Clover didn’t miss the entire speech from a flashback.

“Were you daydreaming again? Ceroba just finished her speech.”

Oh, he did just miss the entire speech. 

Not because her speech would be boring to listen to (sorry Ceroba), of course. 

Snapping back to reality, applause had rained across the council, even Lorien supporters.

Ceroba had announced that Frisk and Clover would go out to the underground to liberate them from the crown. It was well-taken by everyone since the Isolationists believed that they didn’t have to intervene in foreign affairs, instead having the humans do all the work. Win-win for both sides, that was how Ceroba approached the situation with her speech.

Leaving the council building where members continued to applaud the two, they headed to the gate of New Citadel.

The gate wasn’t far from the urban center, in fact it was right under it. So they were there relatively soon, this time they didn’t get a good glance at the urban center. Clover and Frisk were more concerned with what was about to happen.

…

…

…

And there they were. The entry point between New Citadel and Snowdin, an area that Clover remembered clearly like it was yesterday, but one that Frisk, despite their curiosity, never saw before.

“Clover, if I can say some words.” Ceroba looked away, she knew she couldn’t hold her emotions in. She had tried her best to not scare the two, but at this moment it got too overwhelming.

Clover and Frisk nodded to Ceroba’s request.

“You two are brave, you especially Clover.” Ceroba paused, it didn’t seem as if she was going to cry, but she was deeply emotional.

She continued to speak dryly, though her words contrast her tone. “The angels of the Delta Rune, the prophecy that will liberate the underground. You two have a lot on your shoulders, but it is a mission that you must go through. For the rest of the underground, I would like to thank you.”

Unbeknownst to Ceroba, the one of guards around her decided to speak up. “Humans, we would like to thank you. Everyone in this town is praying for your success. New Citadel as the last fortress had been wasted of any hopes of liberation.”

Another spoke up. “You have given us hope, and we will continue to hold onto it until you succeed. No matter what happens, we believe in you. And we will forever remember you as a hero.”

Ceroba smiled, it was not only her who saw the bravery of the two.

…Ceroba couldn’t hold it, she grabbed and hugged Clover intensely. “Clover… promise me you will be safe, promise me you won’t do anything silly or dangerous.”

“Well… let’s see what adventure gives us.”

Everyone in the room gave a slight chuckle to his comment. Ceroba let go of Clover and moved to hug Frisk.

“I love you all, please stay safe.”

“We will try.” Frisk promised.

“Good.”

The gate that had been closed for an entire year, today it opened.

They saw the harsh snow in front of them, mysterious woods just waiting for someone to come out of them. At least that was Frisk’s impression, Clover had been around Snowdin, but not this part of Snowdin.

“Well, here we are.” The vampire was making his final remarks.

After falling through the ruins, Clover discovered an area unbeknownst to New Citadel. They had met the vampire, Dalv, throughout the journey, and had gotten to know them. After helping him to confront his fears, he guided Clover to the exit out of the ruins. 

“Thank you. For everything.” Dalv smiled at Clover.

Clover remained silent, somewhat stunned but happy for the vampire. He simply smiled back at him.

“You have really helped me out. Because of this… I’m leaving this place. I’m tired of being alone. It’ll take a few days to pack up… But I think I’m ready to give the underground another shot.”

Clover tilted his head, “giving the underground another shot?” He thought. “Isn’t that what you would not want to do, considering that it’s the royal domain?” Clover only thought about the brutality that would be shown to him when he would eventually have to face the royal guards. 

He was scared, but he was brave.

He snapped back. “Oops. There I go again with my rambling.” it had seemed that Dalv had finished his ramble.

“Let’s get you out of here.”

Breaking the hardwood blocking the exit, Dalv had finally let Clover go.

“Thank you.” Clover politely thanked as a response.

“Oh, before I forget, I never asked for your name!”

“The name’s Clover.”

“Clover? What a nice name. Well, Clover, thank you so much. See you later… Friend.”

Dalv walked to the side to allow Clover to walk through the thin corridor.

“You too.” Clover interjected before it was too late. “Friend.”

Friend. Not something he knew too much about, it wasn’t like Ceroba allowed him to have any friends in fear that he would be ratted out, only to be found out by the royal guards. 

“How was Ceroba doing?” Clover’s mind naturally asked itself.

“Well… enough stalling.” Clover got out of the ruins. Through the small sally port, he saw the snow. Snowflakes falling onto him, the intimidating woods standing besides him. Clover stepped on the snow, looked back at the sally port, and went his way.

That was Clover's impression. A reminder of a friend, still a friend, no matter if he was gone or not.

Clover grinned, somewhat excited, but the emotion of preparedness overcame any fears of his.

Clover and Frisk walked out to Snowdin in unison. They looked back at Ceroba right before the gate closed.

“CLANG!” This was it. They liberate the underground, or they die trying.

But the snow felt thicker, the woods more intimidating than the ones Clover saw. 

It felt as if something was wrong.

Someone was watching by.

“Uhhh…” Frisk felt the same, speaking to know whether the feeling was mutual.

“We gotta get going!” Clover rejected the emotion of fear, he felt powerful. If there was something, or someone, watching by the sides, they better be prepared for the cowboy!

So they walked, the snow kept getting thicker.

Yet thicker.

A branch stood in the way, did someone put it here to spite us? To think that we are afraid of them.

Clover really shouldn’t be as confident as he was right now. Frisk was afraid of what loomed ahead.

Still, determined to pass through.

Still, they had a mission to complete.

As the path felt longer and longer, a bridge suddenly came to their view.

Someone was walking behind them.

Clover looked behind, nobody was walking behind them.

Clover, in reality, was as scared as Frisk was. This was not a funny joke.

When they got to the bridge, stepping sounds vibrated through the forest.

This was not funny, and would not be funny, ever.

Clover and Frisk paused, freezing not from their temperature, but from fear.

Their hearts dropped.

The stepping sounds got louder. And louder. Until something spoke, someone spoke.

“Human.”

Frisk walked forwards, for Clover to confront this menace.

“Don’t you remember you’re greetings, for a new pal?” The voice grew intense, the tension grew intense.

Clover was shaking.

“Turn around to shake my hand.”

Clover held onto his holster, he would shoot if danger came to the two.

But he did, out of fear or bravery, he turned to greet his “new pal”.

Then… it came…

Pfffffffttttt.

Was this funny?

“heheh… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick.”

Clover stared at him, giving him a “really?” look.

“it’s ALWAYS funny.”

Honestly, they got them. Clover couldn’t argue against that.

“Can I—”

“anyways, you two are humans, right?” Clover had a better look at the once mysterious figure. It was a skeleton, to the size of 1 Frisk, maybe.

Still, Clover couldn’t let his guard down. “What if we are?”

“that’s hilarious.” what?

“i’m sans. sans the skeleton. im actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now.”

Oh no. Oh no! This was not good.

“but… y’know… i dont really care about capturing anybody.”

Clover let out a breath, they didn’t look like the capturing type to be fair.

“now my brother, papyrus…”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

“he’s a human-hunting FANATIC.”

Clover retook his breath.

“hey, actually, I think that’s him over there.”

OH NO. OH NO NO.

“i have an idea. go through this gate thingy.”

Clover looked at him suspiciously, he looked calm on the outside but was freaking out in his mind.

Frisk wasn’t too different.

“yeah go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone.”

Frisk walked right through, Clover RAN through.

“quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp.”

…conveniently-shaped lamp for sure. FOR FRISK MAYBE.

“don’t worry, i’m sure you can fit in there.”

Sighhhh , they went behind the lamp, Clover snuck in there like the lamp was a teddy bear.

“Hey!” Frisk whispered. “How about you hide behind that stand over there?”

Clover ran to the stand and snuck down while running. This kid’s got some skill.

Aggressive steps from the other side came through.

“sup, bro?”

“YOU KNOW WHAT “SUP”, BROTHER!”

Clover took a sneak peak at who was talking. It was another skeleton, the brother to the skeleton that told them to hide. What was their name again?

“IT’S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU HAVEN’T… RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!”

This one was taller, spoke more aggressively. He seemed like someone that could and would take them down, that was not good news.

Well at least the younger(?) brother seemed to be more chill with letting them be.

The two brothers continued on, Clover and Frisk simply hid. Both not really paying attention to what was being said, except when rimshots were coming out of nowhere. What is this kind of power?

Ugh… I never knew Snowdin was this vast.

Sure I’ve been here for like a year, but not this part of Snowdin.

Anyways, Ceroba asked me to go look out for a cowboy who went missing. Doing so much to pay for my sins.

I’m pathetic.

Where is this cowboy?

Who is this cowboy?

How did he even get here?

…Are they stupid?

…

…

…

There he is. 

Wait, let me hide behind the boulder.

Ohhhh look at that stereotypical cowboy, with your ripped pants and your cowboy hat. I bet he isn’t even a cowboy himself.

Cultural appropriator.

What’s this fake cowboy tryna do?

He’s… encountering a monster.

No, that’s not good.

Humans like them. They kill, they murder. They do what is in their best interest because in this world, it’s killed or be killed. That’s the way to justify their crimes.

Well, sorry Ceroba. This kid ain’t your an—

…what?

Did they just… talk them out of fighting?

Why is this idiot dancing?

And why is the monster doing the same?

Idiots, idiots. He’s gonna kill one of you when he feels like it.

That’s called humans simply being human.

…lucky monster, the next encounter is gonna go bad, for sure.

I can feel it.

Puns were made, the ground was furiously stepped on, and the lamp for so many times was brought to attention but went nowhere.

“ok, you can come out now.”

Ooof… What an introduction to “The Great Papyrus”.

Frisk exited the interior of the perfectly and oddly comfortable lamp, Clover had to get his feet up while having his face covered in snow.

“Hey… what was your name again?” Frisk asked while Clover embarrassingly tried to get off the snow on his face.

“sans, sans the skeleton.”

“Right, your brother. Papyrus,” Frisk air quoted, “the Great. I’m just worried if—”

“worried? nah. hes not dangerous. even if he tries to be. besides, if you can do me a favor. my brother’s been kind of down lately… he’s never seen a human before. seeing you both, even only one of you, might just make his day.”

“Isn’t he trying to captu—”

“You’ve still got snow on your face, Clover.”

“Oh?”

Frisk pointed where the snow was.

“Thank— OWW FRISK, that slap hurts!”

“I couldn’t resist—!” Frisk said with joys. They were then slapped so hard that Clover’s hand was still visible on the face.

Sans simply let out a simple chuckle.

“anyways, as i said, he’s not dangerous. i’ll keep an eye on him if you need that guarantee."

“That would be appreciated.” Clover tried to speak seriously while Frisk continued to groan in pain.

“thanks a million. i’ll be up ahead.”

And then he disappeared. Literally. This guy is something.

“...Let’s not talk about that guy. Anything we say here will be heard by him somehow.”

Frisk was more focused on the lamp. “How is there just a conveniently-me-shaped lamp?”

“I don’t know, Frisk. Maybe it’s the fact that you’re bland like that.”

“Okay buddy.”

They walked past to an area where the trees didn’t look at you menacingly, but as they walked through…

* A Snowdrake stands in the way.

“Don’t worry, Frisk. I’ve got this.”

* Clover attempts to get to know the monster. He was swiftly ignored.

“Wait, I didn’t know they atta—”

-2 HP

* The Snowdrake tries to make a joke. 

“Ice to meet you.”

* Clover didn’t find the joke funny, but still laughs at it.

“See!? Laughs! Dad was wrong!”

* Clover spares the Snowdrake.

Frisk was still stunned by what the Snowdrake tried to pull. “What was that?!”

“Frisk, you’ve just got to dodge these attacks. Monsters would attack first out of fear, but they mean no harm.”

“No harm?!” Frisk was taking Clover’s words with a significant amount of doubt. “They would kill me if they had the chance. You talk a big deal about justice, this is not just!”

Clover tried to reassure Frisk. “I mean… you’re not wrong. The difference is that we show kindness. And as a response, they will too!”

Clover continued. “Trust me, every monster I’ve encountered at the end showed kindness because I opened up to them.”

“Okay, unc.”

“Alright, I’m just telling you.” Clover shrugged. 

Clover ran to look for Sans and Papyrus.

“Why are you running?” Frisk shouted.

“Why aren’t you running?” Clover replied.

“Because I don’t want to waste energy?”

“C’mon, Frisk. You need to go for a little exercise sometimes.” Clover spoke energetically.

Frisk was more concerned about survival. “No, Clover. There are times that we actually do have to run, where would our stamina be if we used it all?”

“Hmph! That’s a you problem, I have infinite stamina.”

“Mhm. Says the one who almost got captured.” Clover had told the story of his chase with a royal guard to Frisk, now Frisk’s got a perfect insult.

“Hey, I told you that story to bond, not to make fun of me!”

“Alright, alright. I get it. But you’ve got to know your limitations, that’s all.”

Clover shifted to walking

This was going to prove to be disastrous.

Out of nowhere, Frisk began sprinting ahead of Clover. “The person who gets there the slowest is a loser!”

“Frisk, that’s not fair!” Clover restarted sprinting. “You trickster!”

“Ha! I wi—”

They looked in front of them, there stood the skeleton brothers.

“SANS!! OH MY GOD!! IS THAT… A HUMAN!?!?!?!” Papyrus attempted to whisper to Sans, but he didn’t know how to.

“uhhhhh. actually i think that’s two humans.”

“OH.” Papyrus looked mildly irritated, a piece of his mind just didn’t process that correctly.

“hey, tha—” 

Interrupting Sans, Clover felt compelled to explain. “That makes no sense. I’m a human along with this other human, it’s just the—”

Frisk slapped Clover in the face again. This time Clover definitely deserved it.

“Are you stupid?!” 

“No, I’m actually helpin—”

“Why would you tell that to—”

“SANS I FINALLY DID IT!! UNDYNE WILL… I’M GONNA… I’LL BE SO…

POPULAR!!!!”

“POPULAR!!!”

“POPULAR!!!”

“POPULAR!!!”

Papyrus repeated himself.

“...AHEM. HUMAN YOU—”

“humans,” Sans corrected.

“RIGHT. HUMANS YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU!!! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN… THEN!!!”

Clover panicked, a fight was going to happen any second now. He stayed on guard.

“I’M NOT SURE WHAT NEXT. IN ANY CASE!”

Clover prepared himself, it’s ti—

“CONTINUE… ONLY IF YOU DARE!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!!”

…what?

“well, that went well,” Sans commented.

Clover let out a breath, knowing he wasn’t gonna get caught off-guard. “I thought he was gonna attack us immediately.”

“nope. he’s got these puzzles for you. well, now i’m spoiling what is coming for you. oops.”

Frisk jumped onto Clover. “Oh, Clover. So much about kindness you were talking about. If you’re expecting a fight, you surely didn’t have a positive view on them.”

“Well… kindness and lack of suspicion are different things. One leads to the good ending, one leads to the bad ending.”

“Okay, speechwriter. Unlike in New Citadel, making speeches isn’t gonna get you off free.”

“Alright, dude,” Clover dismissed.

“heh. you two are funny lads. i can spend hours watching you kids fight. anyways, don’t sweat it, kid. i’ll keep an eyesocket for ya.”

Sans then left and disappeared. At this point, it wasn’t mysterious. It was Sans, doing Sans things.

As they continued on the path, they saw two royal guard stands. One was supposed to be Papyrus’s, that was empty, since Papyrus wasn’t a guard (yet).

The other, however, was occupied.

* Doggo blocks the way.

“We are now fighting a royal guard?” This was the time Frisk engaged in a battle.

“Yep. Lemme see what I can do.”

“Why don’t I give this thing a try?”

“No, Frisk. You’ll… look just let me do it, it saves you the hassle of doing any work.”

* Clover pet Doggo.

“WHAT!!! I’VE BEEN PET!!!” 

“Frisk, don’t move an inch.”

They didn’t move, and didn’t get hurt.

“MY TURN!”

* Frisk excitedly pet Doggo.

* Clover spares Doggo.

Curious about what just happened, Frisk asked, “okay, so these blue attacks…?”

“Some monsters have a very special attack.” Clover explained.

“You just stay still?” Frisk got it without needing an explanation.

“For blue ones, yes. For orange attacks, it’s the opposite.”

“Hmm, okay.”

Well, that royal guard was easier. More easier than the one Clover had to face.

As they moved along the path, Sans was on the side.

Clover went up to him. “hey, here’s something important to remember.”

“my brother has a very special at—”

Clover felt the need to interject. “Yes. Blue means you stay still. Orange you move right through. I’ve been here before, thank you.”

Frisk disapproved, side-eyeing Clover. 

They slid through the ice. Frisk would have liked it if Clover slipped through as karma.

Sadly, it didn’t happen. I need to pray harder on Clover’s downfall, Frisk thought.

They walked in a conversation between the skeletons, until Papyrus noticed the humans.

“OH-HO! THE HUMANS ARRIVE!”

“What is this?”

“IN ORDER TO STOP YOU… MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES.”

Oh god.

I’m guessing he’s not the killing type, but he surely has malicious intentions.

Oh, a puzzle?

I’m glad that the cowboy doesn't jump right in trying to get some action with the royal guard.

Don’t be a hero, see what happened to Alex.

Something to do with the ice I’m assuming? This puzzle doesn’t look too convoluted, the fake cowboy should be able to speedrun this quickly.

Puzzles are such a bad way to stop intruders, let alone humans.

Puzzles shouldn’t be used as a safety mechanism. It’s a bonding activity between the makers of puzzles.

Just look at me and Papyrus, once we were strangers to each other. Now we are practically best friends.

…Though Papyrus takes puzzle-making too seriously. He’s always asking Sans to recalibrate the puzzles.

It’s not a big deal, really.

Wait, is he still reading the notes? 

I might have not realized the stupidity of this guy.

Okay, now he’s doing the puzzle. Should be easy, at most 15 minutes knowing that kid.

No, that’s kinda mean. I really need to have more positive looks onto others. Ceroba told me that.

Whatever, should take him 10 minutes at most.

…

…

…

How much time has he wasted? 30 minutes, wow.

Is he done? It looks so… FINALLY. I’ll take a look at it when he leaves.

Did he just pull up his phone?

Is he TAKING A SELFIE?!

IS HE MESSAGING SOMEONE??

UGHHH CEROBA… WHY IS THIS THE PERSON I HAVE TO KEEP SAFE?

…

…

…

Why the hell is the cowboy scrolling?

Just open the goddamn gate already.

Oh no, the puzzle is gonna reset.

IDIOT, GO OPEN THE GAT—

UGHHHHHHHH CEROBA!! YOUR KID NEEDS HELP!

It took Clover another 30 minutes to finish that puzzle. This one better be to the level of Clover’s intelligence.

It was understandable, yes. But there was no way anyone could have solved it.

They had to walk on a hidden path unknownst to the people solving the puzzle. Fortunately, Papyrus had to hand an orb to the puzzler. 

Papyrus wasn’t the smartest, and would have revealed the hidden path.

Would have revealed . 

Wisdom was chasing the two, but Clover ran faster than Papyrus.

“Uh, Papyrus the Great.” Clover didn’t want to be disrespectful. “You’re… revealing the hidden path of the puzzle.”

“AH, RIGHT. THANK YOU.”

Papyrus took his boots and still walked through the same path. Not as obvious, but 100% doable.

“I’ll have the orb,” Clover signaled.

Papyrus handed it to Clover and walked back.

For some reason, this time he couldn’t flashback his way where Papyrus had walked through.

“I surely remember the path!” he said with joy. He was then shocked 47 times. 

Everyone else had to watch Clover fail. 

And Clover went back to the beginning every time he had been shocked. 

A rule that even Papyrus didn’t think of.

Frisk walked to the sides of the puzzle, chatting with Sans and Papyrus.

“Yeah… this is my brother.”

“I’M SORRY FOR YOU.”

“i’m sorry for ya.”

…

…

…

“YOU KNOW WHAT, I WILL JUST REVEAL THE PATH.”

Ceroba was not joking about Clover’s clumsiness and stupidity. Papyrus had to realize that the hard way.

Clover tried to decline. “But I need to do this fair and square!”

Papyrus felt too bad to let this go on. This show was getting really sad for Clover.

In reality, Clover knew about the flaws in the puzzle. He wasn’t stupid as everyone thinks he is, sometimes oblivious but stupid wasn’t the correct term. He wanted to do it the right way, the way that the creator intended. Even if that intention wasn’t there, Clover’s interpretation was stronger than anything they tried to correct, no matter how wrong he was.

He felt that it was right to do it the “intended” way, whatever that meant to him.

Safe to say, Frisk felt second-hand humiliation for that.

“...And you’re gonna be the representative of the underground?” Frisk teased.

“Okay, Frisk. I knew that you’ve gone around it, but what’s the fun in that?”

Frisk looked at Clover absolutely shocked and confused. “The fun in… the shocking? That puzzle must have given you Stockholm syndrome.”

…

Continuing through the path, the two spotted a golf course with snowballs, and you kick it to get it in.

“Bet I’m gonna get a faster time?” Frisk challenged Clover, after seeing Clover's stupidity.

“Nah, I’d win.”

Clover is stupid when Clover wants to be. Frisk fell for Clover’s deception, like how he felt for Frisk’s.

“HAH! 10 whole seconds more than yours!”

“Clover, this is rigged. Let’s do a rematch.”

It was not rigged. The results remained the same.

Clover checked the hole. “Oh, look! We’ve got rewards for this.”

“ Bravery. Justice. Integrity. Kindness. Perseverance. Patience. Using these, you were able to win at "Ball Game." (You are awarded 50G.) ”

“What did I get?” Frisk checked for their reward.

“ GREEN - Your concern and care for "Ball" led to a delicious victory. (You are awarded 1G.) ”

“1G only?!?! Clover, when we are back here I’m determined to beat your time.”

“You’re persevered, not determined. Being determined means you’re gonna get what you want, which ain’t happening!”

Frisk side-eyed Clover. They inspected their award nonetheless, “Hmm… Green , that stands for…”

Clover continued their train of thought. “I’m guessing it’s based on the color code of the victory message… Kindness is in green.”

“OMG! REALLY?! It’s not like I can… see the colors! Thank you sooooo m—”

It took some time for Clover to understand the sarcasm. “Okay, that’s enough, Frisk.”

Clover checked the message for getting a green flag. “The description definitely tracks.”

“Baseball, huh?”

“What?”

“You wouldn’t get it, unc.”

To the next puzzle, then!

…Kindness, huh? On the way, that flag had reminded Clover of Cody, the supposed human of kindness. Were monsters always this kind? Clover thought to himself.

…

…

…

“HUMANS!!! I HOPE YOU’RE READY FOR…”

“SANS!! WHERE’S THE PUZZLE!!!”

“it’s right there. on the ground. trust me. there’s no way they can get past this one.”

Clover ran to the puzzle, which was a crossword. Clover began solving.

Again, Clover being Clover, took as much time as he needed to finish it.

The original intention from Sans was for the humans to look at it, dismiss it, and continue. Clover was determined, not persevered, to do everything that was given to him.

In the meantime, the skeleton brothers argued about the better word puzzles.

Papyrus asked whether the junior jumble or the crossword was harder, thus better?

Frisk replied with the junior jumble, to the delight of Papyrus.

Papyrus was so thrilled about his victory against Sans, he ran away from the puzzle in happiness.

Sans thanked Frisk for reaffirming Papyrus, while awkwardly turning to a dumbfounded Clover.

“This word isn’t—”

“yeah, i don’t know. the crossword isn’t solvable anyways.”

“C’mon, that’s rigged. You can’t have a rigged puzzle!” 

Ironic that he said that, considering the last puzzle was more rigged than this.

As a response, Clover simply left the puzzle on the floor. It was the first time he had given up on a puzzle.

…

The journey to Snowdin Town wasn’t that interesting. More puzzles to solve, more confusion and fighting between Clover and Frisk. Siblings, am I right?

“WELCOME TO * SNOWDIN *” After a long journey, they have finally reached to Snowdin proper.

There was an inn around the town. Give us sleep! Clover thought.

They purchased a room and went straight to bed. What’s a good day without ending it with sleep?

Technically there’s no days in the underground, who cares?

“I’m the boss of the world-renowned gang, The Shufflers!”

World-renowned? Who even are you?

Man, if I was this cowboy, you wouldn’t do this much talking.

“Whoa whoa whoa! No need to start a fight! Let’s be civil ‘ere.”

Honestly, out of all monsters, this guy deserves to be beaten up. I would start a fight against this troublemaker.

You’re lucky you’re fighting the cowboy.

Oh, look. You’re really showing your “renownness” by playing a little game of shuffling.

Heh, knowing the cowboy. Somehow, he’s gonna mess this up.

Alright, they aren’t shuffling too fast. ...It’s obviously the—

“The middle one.”

There we go! This human isn’t as dumb as I thought.

Again, still doable. …It’s—

“The one on the right.”

Good eye. Wait, why am I compli—

Okay, this one, we really need to… where did it go?

“The one on the right again.”

Nah, he just got lucky. I’m gonna go for a try myself after him.

…

“Hey! What’s the princess of the underground doing here?”

Don’t call me a princess. “I have a name, you know? Chara, Chara Dr—”

“Did ya think you could come down ‘ere and start killing?”

“Yeah, boss! Who do ya think you are? The cowboy’s under our protection.”

…huh?

“Oh, don’t act surprised, buddy. We all know what you did.”

…do they?

“Yo—”

These gangsters are gonna get what they deserve.

* The Shufflers block the way!

-40 HP (Rephil)

Oh goodness! Coffee waves as attacks, how adorable .

* The Shufflers are determined to put Chara down.

Heh, they can try.

-40 HP (Rephil)

“Okay, okay! We’ll let you go murder that child! Just don’t make us a part of the victim list!”

* The Shufflers fled. Chara stood in shock. 

…okay

…

…

…

The honeydew resort, this should be where the cowboy is staying.

Oh, wow. It sure is crowded here, never saw this many people in Snowdin proper.

Right, I'm gonna hide myself in the crowd.

…There’s Clover. Talking to the shopkeeper.

Oh looook, Clover being the idiot, talking to everyone he can.

Talking to everyone that he wants to.

………pathetic

…

Well, he’s finally done with talking. For once in his life, he’s staying quie—

Crap, he sees me. I’ve been staring too long. He’s definitely getting suspicious.

…Okay wait, maybe I should stop looking.

Damn this human. What’s up with this kid?

Let me get something from the store.

“Greetings.”

“W-wel— Um… Good morn— (is it morning?) your maje— ”

“No need for formalities. What do you have?”

“H-here’s the menu, your maj— ”

“I told you no formalities.”

“I-I’m s-sorry, pri— I mean… w-what should I call you?”

“...whatever. Don’t call me anything, let me look at the menu.”

“H-heh, okay! (Royalty comes and I don’t even know how to ac—)”

“Okay, you’re seriously on my nerves. Please remain silent.”

“M-my—”

“You’re literally visibly shaking… ugh whatever give me a drink.”

“Ri-right on! (I’m so not cut out for this job, I’m gonna get a royal compl—)”

Oh my god. Seriously, just make the coffee. 

Whatever, I don’t judge.

……why are monsters so kind to this human? But when I show up, I’m a villain.

…is it not about the fact that humans are violent?

…are humans even violent?

……I need a break.

A break from all of this.

…Living life like this. It feels good, better than with Azzy for sure.

But it feels lonely, isolating.

Even around so many kind monsters.

.I just… can’t catch a break.

I’m not crying. I’m n-not crying. I-I’m not cr-crying .

The two practically hibernated, they just looked like they were prepared for a day of much energy.

That they needed a lot. Snowdin Town is right next to Waterfall. 

Clover was going to have to overcome that fear.

…

…

…

As they reached the outskirts of Snowdin, the snowflakes… It felt like a snowstorm full of them. 

Lost in the cold, as their silhouettes stood out in the snow. One other silhouette also stood out.

* Papyrus stands in the way

“LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN WITHSTAND MY FABLED ATTACKS.”

Clover asked Frisk to leave the battle up to him. Even if his journey ends here, at least Frisk would see the light of day.

Blue attacks, easy. Know what they ar—

Blue soul, hell nah. What kind of dark magic is he doing?

-3 HP

-3 HP

Clover wasn’t athletic at all, unlike Frisk. Papyrus’ bones were making him stretch himself.

-3 HP

-3 HP

Clover also wasn’t agile at all, unlike Frisk. Papyrus’ bones were forcing him to squeeze himself in odd shapes.

-3 HP

-3 HP

Clover wasn’t making it. Well, there’s his journey.

“You’re too weak!! I was easily able to capture you!!!”

He was sent to the capture zone, or their garage.

Clover tried again.

-3 HP x 6

Failed, again.

* Papyrus is trying hard to play cool.

Slowly, but steady, Clover learnt his way to dodge Papyrus’ attacks. Left with 9 HP, he had dodged all of Papyrus’ attacks.

Unfortunately for Clover, other monsters don’t give him a second chance to fight back, or a third. 

Clover’s entire clothing were ripped from the battle, he wasn’t going to be dressed like this.

He went back to the Inn to redress, and look for Frisk.

Clover entered the room, clothes looked like they had aged 5 years. “So?” Frisk smirked.

“We do not talk about this.” Embarrassing! 

“Oh, Clover! Clumsy Clover!” Frisk mocked. Then said with a serious tone, “Next time in battle, we are working together.”

“Okay, fine…” Not like Clover had a choice if he was gonna die.

They checked out of their room, going through the path to Waterfall.

Walking past Papyrus, promising to be his friend. They looked far, far away from Snowdin.

Still, it looked cold.

“That’s where I was.” Clover suddenly spoke.

Frisk turned to Clover, “Hmm?”

Clover continued looking at the landscape. “You see the far away lands?” Clover pointed. “That’s the lower part of Snowdin, that’s where I went through. I met a friend there.”

…oh no.

I’ve been walking for… 15 minutes. Haven’t checked on the cowboy.

I’m such a failure.

Abandoning my family, and I can’t even fulfill a promise?

No, abandoning the royal family was the right action.

…Or was it?

It was, Chara, don’t doubt yourself about that.

I feel better now, it’s good that Snowdin is vast and quiet. You can’t feel better around a crowd of people.

They judge, even if they say they aren’t. To make you feel better, of course.

But they never do.

In a spot of no one, that’s where true calmness can be achieved.

I’m wasting time again. Let’s look for the kid.

…

…

…

Right, that’s the royal guard. She looks clumsy, like the cowboy.

Why isn’t she attacking?

“Take another turn! Go for it! Hit me as hard as you can.”

Is she crazy?

I’m glad that he’s nonviolent.

“Protocol two! My attack!”

I’m not glad that he’s nonathletic.

This royal guard, though, I can tell she’s nervous.

She doesn’t look like the kind of royal guard Azzy trains up, looks like a local recruit.

Poor monster, she’s just trying to do her job.

Just look at her… she’s consulting her guidebook for every attack.

“You’re not fighting back! I don’t want to hurt you! You’re all cute and stuff!”

I know, right. Showing kindness does result in reciprocal kindness.

I have never seen a human with such kind— yes, I have… 

……moving on.

Hold on, did I agree that he’s cut—

“Would you mind being aggressive like her? I can take it, I swear!”

“You’re— You’re a weenie!”

Aww— I MEAN, ugh… really?

“Aww! That was adorable!”

Adorable indeed, wai—

…

…

…

“If the royal guard doesn’t know you’re here… they won’t know I broke protocol!”

Right, that’s how rules work. Totally.

To be fair, these protocols are all nonsense.

Plus, nobody is gonna enforce them here anyways. 

“There’s no way he can say no to a cute little face like yours!”

I wish that was true too, a cute little human like him should be able to go onto the underground and be accepted for who they are.

…did I call him cute on my own accord?

Wait, where are they going?

Straight to hotland?

Well, I can’t look after him.

I’m sure the kind monster will look after him for the rest of his journey.

I’ll report back to Ceroba.

Clover explained to Frisk his encounter with Martlet. “She was a royal guard that helped me to bypass the royal guards straight to hotland. Then the boat crashed and I ended up somewhere else.”

Frisk listened and responded accordingly. “That’s tough.”

“I hope to see her again, and the other friends I've met along my journey before.”

“These friends, they sound like cool people.”

“They are! They surely are…” Frisk could feel Clover was feeling nervous. They felt the same, but reassured him.

“Clover, don’t worry. For now, let’s worry about Waterfall. We will meet them, I’m sure of that if we work together.”

“Yeah, you’re right… Nostalgia bites.”

“Anyhow, onwards to the waterfall!”

Chapter Text

Dear Chara,

Haha. I know you’re not the chatty type, which is fine. Well it’s the royal family you’re in, so I don’t expect the best behaviour from them. (Except you ofc, yk ily). About Clover and Frisk, the worst scenario had happened.

Due to security breaches (the letter you sent was stored in a robot I was working on), Frisk and Clover had read what you had written and we had an ugly argument. Clover, against our advice, will leave for Snowdin with Frisk. (So I guess the plan worked somewhat?) I am extremely worried for him. I’ll have someone look after them in Snowdin to ensure that everything goes smoothly, and what happens next will be out of my hands.

Today we send him off, I’m making sure to prepare them with the most. Let’s hope for the best…

Best regards,

Ceroba.

Chara sighed after reading the letter, so much sacrifice just for him to go rogue again.

Let’s hope “kindness” prevails .

A knock arrived on the door.

No response.

“Chara, open the damn door!” Asriel demanded coldly. 

Chara sighed but reached for the door.

“What do you want?”

“Dad and mom were looking for you, it’s something to do with the festival.” Asriel spoke harshly, looking unbothered. 

It was safe to say that military training had affected the once light-hearted prince.

Asriel, the prince of the underground, second-in-command only below King Asgore. As Asriel grew up, Asgore had given an increasing amount of his duties to Asriel until most of the King’s duty was fully transferred to him. He was the de-facto leader. The only person who could overpower the King due to Asgore’s submissive personality and Asriel’s stubbornness. 

Once the hope of the underground along with Chara Dreemur, his once oblivious personality caused many royal scandals that decreased the legitimacy of the crown. As a result, he was sent to military training with Gerson Boom. Gerson was a strict leader, the head of the royal guard who toughened up Asriel. It didn’t help that his step-sibling wasn’t a good influence on his personality. He grew to be edgy and his firm belief of “survival of the fittest” made him a cold-hearted and arrogant leader. 

Once there was a village in the Dunes, the town large and lively in size. Then Asriel kicked all the residents out of their settlements and built a military campus to train the upcoming royal guards, to train them in the harsh desert environment. The campus made the once decentralized and local militia become a centralized and brutal force under the control of the prince.

Most of the inhabitants fled to the Wild East, and the town had been in conflict with the royal domain since.

“Tell them I’ll be there,” Chara spoke without emotion.

Reading the letter made her think that the sacrifice was all for nothing. She felt frustration, confusion, but a sense of understanding. Who would like obsessive guardians that kept them there for their own personal desires?

…she wished that Ceroba was her guardian.

Chara always had guards outside her room, following her every step when she went outside. Everyone needs sleep, though. That gave Chara lots of opportunities to escape. 

The means were there, but the desire?

A person full of regrets, Chara had indirectly caused scandals to revolutions. She wasn't a revolutionary, but she had revolutionary sentiments. She felt empathy for the monsters. However, her spoiledness had been a pretentious controversy in the underground. Asgore specifically created a chocolate factory for Chara's obsession, where a food industry to mass produce groceries was originally planned to be built. Alphys was the only scientist that was willing to work with the crown for this reason.

Chara feels guilty for the rest of the monsters. She pretends that she’s a part of them, an oppressed group that is getting exploited and controlled by royalty for their benefits. Snowdin had her realize that many saw her with the same traits of royalty.

Now Chara sits in her room, writing letters to Ceroba. She wrote diaries, she drew, she played the violin, and slept. She hates to go outside, and hates that she has to against her will. Especially due to posh royal traditions.

“Chara, I’m going to say thi—”

Chara opened the door in a flash, almost hitting Asriel.

“CHA—”

“Shut up, Azzy. Just know that I can hit you as hard as I can and the worst thing that could happen to me is getting grounded.”

Chara turned and looked away from Asriel, heading to the King’s room while continuing. “I'm already grounded anyways, the most you're going to do is to stay a crybaby.”

“Betas lik—” Chara stopped.

What did he just say? She let out a chuckle, interrupting Asriel.

After a moment of silence, the prince continued, “betas like you follow alphas’ or—”

Chara bursted out laughing hysterically. Asriel rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Aww, do betas not have rizz like you fr fr?” Chara sarcastically teased the prince extensively. “What the skibidi? I thought you were a sigma.” 

“You’re not funny, you know that?” Asriel stared at the princess patronizingly.

“At least I’m not learning vocabulary from middle schoolers. That space is more for you, huh?” Chara pinched his cheeks.

Asriel in response pushed away Chara, but Chara dodged before he could hit her in any way.

“Don’t mess with me! You don’t want to throw down with these hands.” The prince tried his hardest to stay edgy, only for the princess to burst out again.

“Aww, Azzy. You can try!” Chara spoke like a babysitter. Then, she got her knife and lightly bit it.

Her expression turned creepy, but keeping her smirk. “This knife tastes like blood, that’s what your monster magic will taste like when I make blood out of it.” 

The once undisturbed prince suddenly paused, that surely hit a nerve in him.

“Now leave me alone.” Chara withdrew her smirk and knife, then went to meet her parents.

…

…

…

“That’s my Chara!” Asgore hugged the princess at the sight of her appearance.

“You doing okay?” The queen asked carefully. 

“Yeah, I’m alright.” Chara muttered while being suffocated by the King’s arms. 

“Fluffybuns, I can barely hear what our princess said!”

“Oh! Sorry, getting too attached to my children.” The king let go. The princess had some space to breathe.

The queen began. “Right, my child. As you know, every year we celebrate your arrival to the underground. The festival is on the day after tomorrow. We’re gonna get you dressed up, of course!”

“My sweetie’s gonna look like a star!”

Toriel nodded. “You need to look like a star, that’s the hope you represent to the underground.”

That’s a lie , Chara immediately countered in her head. The hopes of the underground are the humans who would overthrow them, not the ones by their side. 

“Can I not get dressed like a spoiled princess?”

“Oh, Chara. How else could you shine out from the crowd? You need to look fancy! The fanciest of fancy, that’s royalty code!”

I hate that code . She hated even a bit of public appearance, and she was going to be the center of it. That’s the worst nightmare she would ever have. Capture me a million times and I’ll prefer that than doing this.

“C’mon, buttercup! You’re gonna look the best out of all. You’re gonna show what royalty means.”

Ah, is that why we all dress fancily. To pretend that royalty is prestigious and that people like us? Chara remained silent, but her expression showed a sense of disagreement.

“Chara, you’ll change your mind. We’ll begin preparing tom—”

Suddenly, an advisor came into the room. “Your majesty! Another raid in the Dunes had come from the rebels. The Prince has already been notified.”

Asgore sighed. “Chara, would you be so kind as to help out your brother?”

She didn’t have a choice, and so going to the Dunes it is then .

The once blue floor had now turned purple. The open skies now turned into a closed cave.

Rocks falling down a stream of water. That’s why they call this place Waterfall, huh?

Continuing east, a familiar stand met the two humans.

“Sans?!”

“what? haven’t you seen a guy with two jobs before? fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally-required breaks.”

That’s not how having two jobs work.

“i’m going to grillby’s. wanna come?”

“Sure!” Frisk accepted before Clover could interject.

“A—”

“Shut up” Frisk whispered before Clover tried. “This guy seems important and mysterious, why not know him better?”

“We have a journey ahead of us.” Clover advised Frisk.

“Don’t you need a break too?”

To be fair, they weren’t wrong. “Fine.”

“over here. i know a shortcut.”

…

“fast shortcut, huh?”

And mysteriously, both of them appeared in Grillby’s. This guy is mysterious, and needs to be studied.

“hey, everyone.” Everyone in the bar greeted Sans.

Someone spoke up. “Hey Sans, weren’t you just here for breakfast a few minutes ago?”

“nah, i haven’t had breakfast for half an hour. you must be thinking of brunch.”

The bar roared in laughter, the two humans stayed behind the star of Snowdin awkwardly. 

“here,” Sans turned to the humans, “get comfy.”

“whadyya want?”

“I’ll get a root beer.” Clover answered without hesitation.

“You and your root beer, addict!” Frisk was always ready to start up beef.

“C’mon! I’m allowed to enjoy things!”

“are you sure you’re allowed to have beer?” Clover looked like a teenager at most, not like someone that could drink.

“Oh no, root beer isn't an alcoholic beverage.” He explained.

“Yet you’re addicted to it, Sans don’t order it for him.” Frisk sarcastically discouraged Sans, trying to read his response.

“heh.” Sans remained nonchalant. “whatdyya want, the one with the long hair?”

Frisk looked at Sans confused, “my hair isn’t that long.”

“Ceroba keeps telling you to cut it.” Clover had to interject.

Sans remained silent.

“It’s my hair, what right does she have to dictate my appearance?” They were referencing his argument with Ceroba.

“Okay, not funny.”

Sans wasn’t bothered enough to entertain the fight. “alright, alright. whatdyya want, kid?”

“I’ll get a glass of soda.” 

“no food?”

“Nah, I ate already.”

Ate…? When— Oh, “Frisk, did you eat the chocolate bar?”

They smirked. “Maybe?”

Clover stared blankly at Frisk. 

They got defensive. “It was only a little, okay?”

Clover sighed, then turned to the skeleton. “I’m good too, Sans. I’m not feeling hungry as of now.”

“your call, kid. grillby!” Sans called, getting the waiter’s attention. “we’ll have an order of 1 root bear, 1 soda, and fries.”

The waiter went to make the food.

“so, what do you think…” Sans tried to engage in a conversation while waiting for the order. “of my brother?”

“He’s a good guy.” Clover, after having 3 long battles with the guy, didn’t need a second to give his opinion.

He continued. “Not the brightest in the head, but coo—”

“Clover!” Frisk silently gave a slight nudge to Clover.

“of course he’s cool.” Ignoring Frisk, Sans interjected. Then he rambled on about Papyrus’ outfit.

Then came their order. Clover gave back the nudge to Frisk.

“Wanna have a shooting competition? We shoot the bottles and see who scores the most!” 

“Clover, in a bar?”

“ill sure they wouldn’t mind.” Sans cut in. “hey guys!” he shouted to the rest of the bar.

He introduced the two. “these two humans are…” Sans gave them the look to continue the train of thought.

“The name’s Clover.”

“And I’m Frisk.”

“and they’re gonna have a shooting competition. place your bets now!”

Bets were shouted across the restaurant. “I bet on the cowboy!” “I bet on the human with the hair!”

Clover and Sans weren’t lying. Any visible hair for them was considered long.

“ready? in 3

…2

…1

…SHOOT!”

Frisk wasn’t at all close. They had shot a part of the ceiling.

Clover, cowboy Clover. Of course he never doubted his skills.

“winner is… clover!”

The restaurant wooed in response. Someone else entered the building.

“Sans—” That someone else looked familiar to Clover.

“CLOVER?!”

“Martlet!”

The two ran into each other and hugged in joy.

“Clover, I thought you were gone!”

“you know this kid?”

“You know Sans?”

“Yep, I met Clover when I was a royal guard. Now I work for the UGPS as a postwoman.”

“a good position too, she works to deliver letters from the royal family.”

“Anyways, here’s the letter. Clover, I’ll see you around! We should hang out sometimes.”

“Yep…” Clover’s voice dropped off, that is if we don’t die .

Sans left right after Martlet, “well, if he ain’t gonna finish his meal, I might as well!”

Clover made sure to finish every fry on the plate, wasting food just ain’t right .

What were they doing? Right, travelling through Waterfall.

…

…

…

The light dawned on the two, creating a shadow in front of the two.

Their face barely visible from the naked eye, maybe that added to how they felt.

Determined, no matter what.

Traversing through the tall grass, a sudden conversation arose on top. 

Papyrus had come to report their fight to what seemed like an authority figure. The two cautiously listened to the one-sided dialogue. 

Undyne , that was what the figure was called.

It seemed like the figure responded, but not loud enough as Papyrus for the humans to hear.

When the conversation ended, the two made their mov—

Oh no , it seemed that someone noticed them.

The sound of armor bounced back and forth into the mysterious cave. 

It kept marching.

From above, they saw a spear that had just been formed.

A royal guard… THE royal guard .

The one that reminded Clover of the chase.

That is them, the sounds, the appearance, and the movements of that guard.

For sure, that was the nightmare . Clover thought without doubt. 

And then, he thought about whether they would confront once more.

Not now, the guard retreated. Maybe they thought it was a fuss.

It took time to know that they were safe, and they made their move out of the increasingly wet plant.

When they made it out, another monster came out the same grass they stood inside.

“That… was AWESOME!” The kid was a die-hard fan of the royal guard, that wasn’t good news for the two.

Recipe for a snitch , Clover thought to himself… he still couldn’t keep that moment out of his mind.

“C’mon! Let’s go watch her beat up some bad guys!” The humans remained silent, they didn’t feel talkative at all. Clover, the one who was usually talkative, was getting flashbacks in this area. 

This was the location of thousands of nightmares, and today they were going to confront that.

The “bad guys” were them, but not that the kid would understand. They would have thought the humans were fans of the guard too.

…

Going through the small streams of water with flowers or cardboards lying around, they studied the text laid out for them.

“A monster with a human SOUL… a horrible beast with unfathomable power.” …was this why Ceroba was so keen on SOUL research?

They eventually made it onto a wooden platform.

The same lighting covered the two’s fa—

A thud hit in front of them, a figure glowed from the darkness of the corridors.

Run, humans, run!

Spears shot behind the humans. Sometimes they got stopped and hit by them.

Not fatal, however. And easy to dodge.

Frisk had the agility to dodge all of them.

Clover, though, was more clumsy and was hit twice.

It lowered Clover’s HP significantly.

Tall grass lay ahead of the path, this was the perfect way to hide themselves.

Making their way and hiding themselves amongst the grass, Clover ate some snacks to regain HP. 

But the guard was heading into the grass, they knew they couldn’t run for long.

The guard went into their position and grabbed the kid.

…The monster kid, the mega fan of Undyne.

When the guard realized, they let the kid go, and left the area.

They were safe, for now, again.

Continuing their journey, the emptiness of Waterfall was always on Clover’s mind.

In Snowdin, there were plenty of monsters. 

In Waterfall, there were some. They had only met 2 or more.

The large, but unfilled space gave Clover a sense of unease.

He looked at Frisk, they were just happy to be exploring.

Frisk looked back, they smiled at each other.

Maybe it was better that they had each others’ back.

Rain and water patches blocked the way of the two. 

To the luck of the two, umbrellas were stored inside of a container. 

The two grabbed one only, not to use too much of what was there.

It soon became a problem.

“Clover, why do you walk so fast?” Frisk complained as they were getting left behind. Rain fell all over their hair.

“Is it that I walk fast, or that you walk slow? Half-full, half-empty.”

In frustration, Frisk put their foot down on one of the water patches.

“FRISK!” Clover screamed as their pants now turned almost fully wet.

To be fair, Frisk’s pants did too.

Bringing down Clover is always worth it even to their inconvenience, that was Frisk’s philosophy.

“A stupid philosophy, that is!” Clover argued as they explained the thought to him.

It became even more of a problem when the other kid, the one who’s obsessed with Undyne, joined them in their already overcrowded space.

Frisk and Clover would sometimes push each other into the rain, the two getting their clothes more wet as the fight intensified, but never getting the monster kid involved.

Then Frisk did one push way too hard. Clover in response moved the umbrella forwards. And when Frisk tried to get back into it, Clover would move it again.

“Okay, I call truce!” Frisk begged, their clothes were getting unbearably wet.

“Ha! Who’s the loser now?”

The truce remained until the end of the path. During the path, a castle appeared in front of the two.

Clover paused and stood to look at the landscape. The castle looked grand, the view was a beauty.

That looked like the end.

But they were still on their journey.

No need to worry about that for now, that is the problem of tomorrow’s Clover.

As they got to the end of their path, the monster kid offered to help them out to get on top of the steep ledge.

Clover declined initially, but he wasn’t a climber of any kind.

Frisk accepted the gesture, and thanked the monster kid for their help. Frisk grabbed Clover’s hand to get them up the ledge.

It took many, embarrassing times, mostly due to Clover’s clumsiness. But in the end, Clover was able to get up there.

Walking through a bit, a wooden bridge spanning across a large space of nothing appeared in front of them.

Wooden platforms don’t feel safe, it was the best place for someone to start a chase.

The lighting dawned again, they soon realized what they were getting themselves into.

Run, again, run!

Spears shot up above the bridge, this time Clover dodged significantly better.

The bridge slowly turned into a maze, who designed this thing?

The thin bridge all converged into one large platform and a shorter platform attached to the middle.

They reached to the end of the path.

They looked back, to see the armored guard right there.

Clover immediately got his gun.

He held it against the guard.

“Do-don’t move any closer. Y-you will regret it!” Clover tried to show off as confident, but his stuttering ruined any sense of it.

Instead of a direct confrontation. This time, spears were shot down on the platform. 

The spears broke the balance to the side of the platform they were on.

And then, they fell into freefall.

…

…

…

Clover felt his head getting heavier when he had woken up.

He had almost forgotten where he was, who he was, what was happening.

They had been underwater for some time.

Not drowning levels of under, though it did make their clothes even wetter than before.

Thankfully, their bags laid on the wooden platforms.

Oh no, what would happen to the snacks?

While starting to realize where they were, Clover saw Frisk continue to stay unconscious.

“FRISK! FRISK!” He called.

“Uh…huh?” 

Clover released a sigh of relief.

“You’re getting yourself wetter. We gotta continue.”

That the two were on the same page.

Walking out of what looked to be a garbage patch area, the two had finally found a sign of civilization.

Out in Waterfall, most of it was uninhabited. Not that it was uninhabitable, people either preferred to live in Snowdin or live here. 

The town wasn’t the greatest and the largest, quite underwhelming in fact. New Citadel was too grand and massive to compare to other towns, except for New Home. Waterfall town was around the size of Snowdin, but with significantly less inhabitants. 

To give credit where it’s due, Snowdin town didn’t have a lot of residential buildings, most inhabitants of Snowdin lived in houses far away. The house of the skeletons were considered quite average-sized. There were significantly larger houses that were spaced out very far from any shops and businesses. In Waterfall town, most of the buildings were residential. 

Buildings were very short, probably due to the constraints of the environment of Waterfall. They could see around 5 buildings around the area, the tallest being the Inn, which probably made sense. 

Clover and Frisk entered the Inn, registering a room for the two after so many chases. They asked if there were any amenities around the town. The most was a snail race, which was incredibly boring compared to the one in New Citadel since little people in the town put bets on the snails, meaning that it was mostly the betters vs the house.

There was also a shop run by an old man. They decided to check it out after they had their outfits changed. They had gotten so used to the soggy clothes that they almost forgot that it was making them uncomfortable.

“Are you gonna wear Ceroba’s kimono dress?” Frisk asked before Clover went into the shower.

“Sure, why not?”

When Clover exited the shower, he… well he certainly looked different.

“Why are you laughing? You told me to wear it, and I did!” Clover looked at Frisk confused, wasn’t what they wanted?

To be fair to Frisk, he wasn’t wearing his cowboy hat either. Weird enough, he looked like a gentleman. Clover had jeans before, sure, but his entire blue outfit simply didn’t sit right with Frisk. 

It took some time for Frisk to get used to the dress, and it was Frisk’s turn for a change of outfit.

Frisk chose the same style, Clover tried his best to hide his grin.

“See, it does feel weird!” 

“Alright, I get your point.”

The dress was bad for agility, but at least they looked extremely fashionable. 

…

A large house set in front of them, it felt haunted for some reason.

The two entered, but there was nobody inside.

The room was full of decorations and achievements.

It looked like the house of the Human of Kindness, Cody.

An egg on a cooking pan. That didn’t seem too abnormal.

But something eerie caught the eyes of Clover.

A metal knife lay on the edge of the stove.

…

…

…

They walked to the shop to see what there was to offer.

“Hello! May I ask what you have?” Clover kindly inquired.

“Oh, kid. I remember your little face, and your cowboy hat, too.”

Clover tilted his head for confusion. “Do I know you?”

“Ha, don’t worry. I’m not in a vengeful mood today, I’ve already gotten it anyway.”

Clover paused. What vengeance did he have against—

“Ever heard of old man Gerson Boom? That’s me.”

“I remember you were here, right on this path. A year ago.”

Clover’s LV increased to 5.

“Clover.”

“Look at your face, kid! Don’t think just because I’m old means that I can’t fight.” The old man spoke without hesitation.

He had heard about this Gerson Boom, the brutal royal guard that brought down Alexander.

“And I’m here to tell it to your face that I was the one that got you chased down.”

Clover’s LV increased to 10.

“Clover!”

“I don’t need to do it again. I already had the sensation of getting you humans chased down! Try me, it’ll only take time until Undyne comes to end your life once and for all.”

Clover’s LV increased to 15.

“CLO—” Frisk dragged Clover out of the shop.

Clover remained speechless, his expression clearly serious. He felt the need to deliver justice for what this man had brought him and the underground through.

“CLOVER! You need to stay calm, this guy isn’t someone to be reckoned with.” Frisk scrambled to find any options to resolve this.

Clover chose to remain silent, Frisk continued. “Look. I’ll go in there to buy something from the shopkeeper, you can’t solve your anger by shooting up everyone. Please just go back to our room, I’ll make sure to act cautious with him.”

Clover nodded without saying a word, and headed back to the inn. 

Frisk sighed. This guy has got to be the worst shopkeeper ever.

They re-entered the shop. “Heh. Did that—”

“What do you have?”

“You ever heard of manners, kid?”

“You don’t have manners, anyways. Let’s not waste each others’ time.”

“You and your younger generation.”

“I’ll pay you 5g to shut up.”

The old man contemplated for a while, but agreed nonetheless.

“I’ll have that book. What does it contain?”

“That’s the notebook of a previously fallen human, that kid surely had no sort of respect. Broke my legs—”

“How much does it cost?”

“55g.”

“Sure, it sounds valuable.”

…

Frisk immediately headed out of the shop when the purchase was done.

Heading back to their room, Clover had fallen asleep already.

Ahh… Clover. Little Clover.

What is essentially an older brother to them, Frisk cares tremendously for him. Even when they fight, both of them deep down cared about each other more than they would admit. Frisk knows that he is way too clumsy for his own good, and when he acts based on his values rather than out of pragmatism, a lot of times it doesn't end well with him. It’s a dangerous world out here. If you want to enforce justice, you gotta have the means for it.

The entire reason they went with Clover wasn’t just out of curiosity. A part of it, yes, but Frisk knew that Clover himself couldn’t have saved the underground in any means. Frisk didn’t take a dominant role in their siblinghood, but they thought that they could be of more assistance to Clover. They wanted to protect their brother too, just like how Clover protects his sibling.

Frisk spent the rest of Clover’s nap studying through the notebook.

This fallen human wasn’t just any kind of human. Their notebook was full of magic spells, many that Frisk had studied with their parents. These spells weren’t really considered medieval, most of them were discovered in the modern era. Frisk simply never felt like studying these spells, even when their parents heavily advised Frisk to.

Looking into the content of the notebook, Frisk found the magic spells to be more interesting than they would have thought. They went outside to the garbage patch and tried to use their SOUL to practice magic.

To the amazement of Frisk, they felt confident about their skills in magic. They would create fireballs, heal themselves, and use ice magic out of water. They learnt to use a force shield, albeit not too large. It could be used to block anything in front of them.

It was good news. Frisk had clearly shown that they weren’t good with shooting or any kind of weapons that involved aiming. That was Clover’s expertise.

Clover woke up. To see his sibling out of the room.

He went to check outside. 

He suddenly began elevating. Clover immediately knew what was going on.

“F-Frisk, put me down!” Clover screamed condescendingly, but he was shaking. Left to right. Down and forth. He was like a spinning ellipse. 

“Who’s the biggest loser out of them all?” Clover saw Frisk with the biggest grin he had ever seen them with.

“Frisk!”

“Who is it?!!!”

“Fine, I’m the biggest loser!”

“Sorry?” Frisk leaned to their right, their hand on their ear. Frisk wanted Clover to repeat himself.

“Frisk!!!” Clover sighed. “I’m the biggest loser.” He said embarrassingly and unwillingly without any emotion.

Frisk proceeded to release him from his misery. Clover fell down to his face.

“Loser! Loser!”

“Okay, Frisk. Have you been studying dark magic to ruin my life even more?”

“Perhaps…?” They put a finger on their mouth. “But it’s useful! Since you’re good at shooting and I’m not, I needed to find myself another style of combat.” 

Clover nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you are bad at shooting.”

Frisk put him right back up.

“Okay! Okay! I’m sorry.”

…

…

…

As their journey had to continue, there was no other path than towards the dark and ominous.

They would have to overcome their fears and doubts, that’s what bravery means.

As they moved forwards, the light got darker.

Following the little light provided by the paints and the flower, the two followed through a pathway full of turns in all sorts of directions.

They found themselves lost in the maze.

The light got darker.

Mushrooms served as markers of progress, even Frisk wasn’t sure if they were seeing the same mushroom again and again.

The area got larger as they continued to explore, any attempt to step out of the path was only met with resistance from the invisible walls.

They didn’t feel the walls when they were on their path. It bounced back every time they tried to trace off from the path, at least that was how it felt.

The light got darker.

As they moved forwards, the light got even darker.

Frisk and Clover could still see each other, and only each other.

The path didn’t have a detour, so they continued walking forwards.

Moving forwards.

Just keep moving .

The floor turned from a soft texture into a hard one. Still, no lights.

As they walked, a flower caught their attention. It was an echo flower, which Clover told Frisk to not mess with. For some reason, it had caught Clover’s attention.

So he fell to his intrusive thoughts, he listened.

“Behind you.”

The lights in a flash reappeared. 

The guard was there for their soul.

“Seven. Seven humans.” Clover didn’t let her finish.

* Clover engages a battle.

* Monster kid blocks the way! 

“Undyne!!! I’ll help yo—”

* Clover went for Undyne’s head.

-100 HP (Undyne)

Clover was not backing down, this was revenge. For everything that they had caused. 

No, Clover wasn’t going to kill an innocent kid. He and Undyne made sure to get that kid out of the situation.

Frisk was caught off-guard by this encounter. When they looked at Clover, their brim had been pulled down. 

This Clover was vengeful. 

Yet Clover had no defense mechanism. He stood there, taking in all the attacks Undyne threw at him.

-3 HP

-3 HP

-3 HP

Sure, Clover began the battle. However, it simply didn’t feel that Clover was prepared without protection, while Undyne had all the protection they needed from the armor.

Clover got to 2 HP, another hit and Clover was gone.

Shocked from the initiation, Frisk needed to do something, NOW!

Whoosh!

Frisk created a force shield, not large enough to protect from all sides, but good enough to block the spears getting thrown in front of them. 

* Frisk joins the battle.

“You shoot. I block.” Frisk whispered to Clover.

“Bu—”

Frisk thought about a cold-ass response. But an attack came their way, Frisk blocked it just right on time. 

Frisk decided that talking was a bad idea, the two needed to lock in.

Clover simply looked at Frisk in awe. This was the first time Frisk stood in front of Clover.

It was their turn.

* Clover chooses to attack.

Hit. Hit. Miss. Hit. Miss. Hit.

-120 HP

* Frisk casts healing.

+5 HP for Clover.

Left. Right. Left. Up.

Clover had always been the clumsy one, Frisk got everything under control. 

0 damage to the two.

* Clover chooses to attack.

Hit. Miss. Miss. Hit. Miss. Hit.

-70 HP

* Frisk takes a breath and prepares for what is to come.

Defense increases by 3 for the next 2 turns.

Frisk was agile, flexible, and enduring. Clover was not.

Clover was cautious, focused, and powerful. Frisk was not.

Their strengths complimented their weaknesses. 

In this battle, Frisk felt like an equal partner. 

Undyne tried to use Clover’s stiffness to their advantage.

Using more dynamic attacks, Undyne tried to get Clover off guard.

Frisk dragged Clover out of the range before any attacks could strike him.

* Clover chooses to attack.

Hit. Hit. Miss. Hit. Hit. Hit.

-150 HP

Warm up was done, Clover was gonna hit a home-run.

* Frisk casts ice spikes.

Undyne dodged one, but having heavy armor didn’t help.

-80 HP

* Her muscle strength diminishes from the cold. Undyne’s attack decreased by 2 for the next 3 turns.

Using the force shield, Frisk blocked without effort.

This was getting too easy.

* Clover chooses to attack.

Hit. Hit . Hit. Hit. Hit . Hit .

CRITICAL HIT! -250 HP

Undyne was rendered immobile.

For the nightmares that had scarred Clover for a year, today it marked an end to his fears.

Once fear was turned into confidence, he felt vengeful for ever feeling scared.

Undyne laid down on the floor, once holding the gunpoints against the two humans. Now Clover held the musket, literally.

Clover pointed the pistol-size musket at the guard.

Frisk simply watched, but something felt wrong.

“Ha. A good fight, huh?” Undyne scoffed, even in her dying moments she stayed undeterred.

She had to aura-far— Sorry, AHEM.

Clover had not changed his expression, but it could be inferred that Clover was in agreement.

“Take my life now, for all the attempts I tried to take your life.”

That’s not justice , the thought popped into Frisk’s mind.

“Clover.”

Justice isn’t taking revenge against someone. 

Justice is doing the right thing, punishing someone in a matter that they could repent from their mistakes. 

Justice isn’t killing someone for what they have done. 

Justice is making sure the other person realizes the effects of their wrongdoing. 

Yet Clover was blind. Blinded.

The anger, the terror, the resent.

Built up all at once. Clover only felt all those feelings at once, all released into strength.

Clover’s LV increased to 15.

He held the weapon at Undyne, finger on the trigger.

“Clover.”

Frisk knew that Clover was too blinded from vengeance, not justice. 

They had to ACT.

* Frisk pushes Clover away. Hard.

Clover looked at Frisk with slight confusion, but his face did not falter. The same resentful face now turned to face them.

He was mad and confused all at once at their intervention.

Ignoring Clover, Frisk spoke up. Determined to resolve this.

“Madam. What does justice mean to you?” Frisk looked up while speaking, intentionally not facing Undyne for a show of superiority.

For an aggressive mask that Undyne had built up, this moment she spoke lightly. “Justice is doing the right thing, and punishing those who have done wrong.”

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Undyne tilted her head to express confusion at Frisk’s rhetoric question.

“Frisk, this is none of your business.” Clover would have said it with a western accent, if not for his solemnity.

“When should justice be applied?” Frisk turned to Mr. Justice.

“Always. Such as at this instant.” 

“And your punishment is capital punishment?”

“That’s the only justified sen—”

“Mr. Justice. ‘justified’ is not the right term.” Frisk turned their back against Clover. “The right term you are looking for is… hedonistic.”

“That’s not in my vocabulary, kid.”

“Someone in the pursuit of pleasure.” Frisk defined for Undyne.

“Make your point!” Clover was growing impatient.

“If justice was to be applied at all times, wouldn't that include punishment?” Clover and Undyne paused in thought. Frisk captured the moment to continue. “Serving justice without consideration, wouldn’t that be unrighteous?”

“Wouldn’t justice be blind?”

“Get to the po—”

“When you are jury and executioner, do you not only think of that sweet feeling of power?”

Not exactly to the point, but Frisk’s message was clear.

Clover didn’t do this out of… justice .

Clover didn’t do this to, do the right thing .

Clover did this to feel better. Blinded by his emotions, Clover only felt as when he held the trigger, he would end the nightmare for once.

Did he not think about the consequences?

Clover remained silent, full of thoughts. Frisk took that as a victory.

“Undyne, I take that as your name?” Frisk tried to get to know a former enemy.

“Yes.” She spoke without the grandeur of the royal guard. For once, she spoke person-to-person.

Frisk gave a hand to the fallen, raising them up from the injuries of a forgotten battle. Undyne was to be forgiven.

“Do you have somewhere to stay?”

“I guess my house? I sure need some rest from all that action.” Not fully a joke, but the two lightly chuckled at it.

Clover followed the steps of the two, remaining on guard.

Frisk gave a hand to help Undyne return to their home.

…

…

…

Walking together, no longer as foes, Frisk and Undyne found a common ground.

“C’mon! Mew-Mew 2 was a lazy sequel!” Frisk scoffed.

“I will not tolerate slander towards the best franchise of all!”

“In all honesty, the Mew-Mew Series is amongst one of the top games of all time,” even Clover at times interrupted. “But Mew-Mew 2 wasn’t a good sequel compared to the original!” Frisk unnoticeably smiled every time Clover engaged with the two.  

It didn’t seem that they were polar opposites, all 3 enjoyed their conversation with each other.

When they got to Undyne’s home, she had invited them in for a more serious conversation.

Clover had almost forgotten what they were here for.

“My legs feel better now, thank you.” Frisk let go of Undyne.

The three sat down on a table, discussing the situation at hand.

Undyne was the first to speak. “You know… I always knew humans weren’t violent.”

Clover furrowed their eyebrows, but to show confusion.

“I’m not really against humanity, really. I don’t like this war. Neither does the rest of the underground.”

Undyne continued. “It’s more of a job. Doing work for royalty, not something that monsters all like, but simply have to.”

“We all serve monsterkind, and the crown is the ruler of all monsterkind.”

Clover interrupted. “Then if monsters don’t like the crown, why do they serve it?” He tried his best to keep the conversation civil.

“It’s not a choice, for monsters it’s an obligation to our race. Most monsters are quite unpatriotic, probably from the fact that our rulers aren’t the best people.”

Clover and Frisk gave a minimal response, signaling Undyne to carry on. “King Asgore , and Prince Asriel. Those two are undisputable rulers of the underground. One is a simple-minded ruler, but too perceptive to the pleasures and emotions of life. The other is a brutal commander, too prideful to have his orders go nowhere.”

Undyne took a moment to pause. “I was trained under Gerson Boom.”

Frisk interrupted. “The old man that runs the shop?”

“Precisely. Once the most powerful warrior only comparable to King Asgore himself, someone ended his undefeated streak. The Human of Perseverance, but that’s not really important.”

Clover and Frisk took note of this person. This human has ought to be powerful , Frisk thought to themselves.

“The prince kept a lot of principles trained by Gerson in mind, a tough general, for sure. And applies them to daily bureaucratic tasks, not the best approach, obviously.”

“I’m rambling, but the point is that the underground is fundamentally broken. The power only lies on the throne and only on the throne. That’s why we are expected to follow all orders, any defiance is treason to monsterkind.”

The humans nodded to express comprehension. 

Frisk cleared their throat from not talking for a while. “That does make sense. Power is, well, powerful.”

Clover interrupted Frisk’s train of thought. “Have you had any other human encounters?”

“I remember capturing Chara.”

Right, we are getting to the bones of this.

“Do you mind explaining… Chara? And about this encounter?” A brief silence followed Clover’s question.

Clover added on, “I heard a lot about the apparent princess of the underground.”

“The adopted princess, yes. Not the best member of the royal family, but she suits them extremely well. Spoiled, self-centered, show-off .”

That was not what Clover had in mind. 

“There was this one time that the princess ran away from the castle. The royal family called an extensive search, used up a lot of resources and money, just for nothing to come out of it.”

“And she did this because…?”

“Don’t know. Probably the family didn’t get her chocolate snacks on time. Everyone knows that the princess is rebellious, extremely rebellious. Of course it’s fine for her, but if we defy at all, to the dunes you go.”

Undyne went on. “I assumed a fight had happened between her and the rest of the family. She went missing for an entire year, impressive. The family thought that eventually she was going to return, naturally. She never did, shoved a message in their faces.”

“And how was she found?”

“Surprisingly, from a MTT report. For some bizarre reason, she had been in the Wild East. Weird for someone like her.”

…she was NOT in the Wild East. That was Clov—

“We thought it was another human, they were dressed like a cowboy.”

Didn’t Undyne see us with our normal outfits? 

Right, probably the dark helped obfuscate it.

Wow, the clothes do change the dynamics a lot.

“Gerson had told me they saw a human in Waterfall, and I was called to capture them. I gave a good chase, but it wasn’t long until Chara gav—”

Clover raised his voice, “ Ummmmm… ” 

But wasn’t sure how to word it correctly. “ That was me. ”

Undyne looked at him blankly, that didn’t sound believable.

Clover grabbed his cowboy hat from his backpack. “Is this better?”

“Tha— you—” Undyne couldn’t find the words.

“The name’s Clover. I was the human in the Wild East, in that MTT report.”

“Then Chara…”

“I have as little clue as you do about her. I don’t know why she appeared out of nowhere, I thought I was a goner!”

“Hold on. You were the one I was chasing, then?”

Clover nodded. “I’m confused too, don’t worry.”

Everything is adding up now, somehow.

Maybe it was a good idea that Frisk sat the two down for a talk.

“Right… sorry, that’s a lot to process.” 

“No, I’m processing this too as we speak. I understand how you feel.”

The two confirmed their point of views, everything they remembered all fell in line.

But there was a point when the conversation must end. 

Frisk gestured that they wanted to leave, Clover and Undyne were going to continue this conversation another day.

“Clover.” Undyne’s call stopped the two humans. “I’m sorry for everything I’ve done.”

“Frisk.” Undyne turned to Frisk. 

“...Thank you.”

Chapter Text

At this time, they probably realized that the clothing inconvenienced them more than how pretty it looked. 

Anyhow, an outfit change would celebrate a new beginning. 

Their encounter with Undyne showed that kindness pays off.

Frisk thought of the consequences if they had allowed Clover’s vengeance to overcome his sense of justice.

Would be underground-wide news, wouldn’t it?

Checking out of the inn, the time to leave Waterfall for good had come.

Leaving Waterfall without any trauma, that is.

Right where Undyne said was the gateway between Waterfall and Hotland, the presence of a mountain that sat in the gateway overwhelmed the two humans, who looked like dots to those on top. The mountain felt open, a space for confrontation. An arena or a nitpick based on the mood of the situation, the shining crystals on a late sunset gave the impression of bravery, whether a fight or a romance advance. 

Who would be the villain to strike against the heroes?

Thankfully, there was nobody on top.

Still, the peaks that looked as if it was coming out of the entrance gave the gateway a feeling of significance.

So, they passed through. From the immaculate view into the now dull and empty pathway onto Hotland, a shining billboard caught the immediate attention of the two.

“WELCOME TO HOTLAND!” The text scrolled vertically across the board. 

Hot, huh? How hot? That was the first thought out of Clover’s courageous mindset.

He had been in Hotland before, technically. However, being inside a transportation tube didn’t give him any insight into the heat that surrounded the area.

This would be the first time he would be in Hotland, like Hotland Hotland.

When the two entered into the biome, diffusion began doing its work. They felt their skin begin burning with the air, creating spontaneous heat between the atmosphere and the air.

That is to say, Hotland was REALLY hot. 

Cowboy Clover, wearing cowboy style, long sleeves and long pants. Heat was already trapped inside that cowboy suit.

He was getting cooked alive.

Frisk was glad that they had a short outfit. 

“And you say you can “take the heat”, cowboy?” They scoffed.

He gave an averted gaze. “C’mon! I didn’t reckon it was THAT hot.”

“It’s literally called—”

“Yes, I know. Hotland would be very hot, I am not surprised either.” Clover cut them off before they had the chance to correct them.

Frisk would find another chance.

“Just look on the bright side,” Frisk stopped mid-sentence, but didn’t continue.

It left Clover finding the pieces.

“Mhm?” He signaled them to continue.

“The other side of the bridge, right there. There’s a water cooler.”

Clover gave a look of disapproval, clearly not finding it funny. “Okay, Frisk. Are you tryna play a pun on me?”

There, that was it.

“It’s ALWAYS funny. And it’s “make a pun”, not “play a pun”.”

“Tomato tomato.”

“What?” Frisk turned back and stared into Clover’s horrible use of the English language.

“What?” He asked for clarification.

 “You just said the same thing twice, it’s to-ma-to to-mah-to. Not to-ma-to to-ma-to.”

“Ah, but you get what I mean.”

Frisk looked at Clover blankly.

…

Getting to the other side, occasional burnspots both of them felt only appeared in their imagination, which was making them itch extensively. 

They had JUST fought an intense battle with one of the top royal guards, and what would end up defeating them would be the unusual temperature change. It was only an increase of 3 degree celsius in temperature, wasn’t even that large of a change. It was simply the psychological horror of the placebo effect.

As soon as they reached the other side, Clover instantly went up to the water cooler and began conSUMING that thing.

He didn’t bother getting a cup, Clover was drinking the entire jug of water. 

“Clover! CLOVER! You’re doing too much!”

He drank the entire thing, uncomparable to any of Frisk’s stuns, and this wasn’t one of “them stuns for flexin’”. 

Clover panted after taking that all liquid at once, surely that wasn’t healthy. 

“Let’s—” He panted again, “let’s keep going.” He panted at the end of the sentence.

Frisk only looked at him with tremendous concern.

It was only so long until that breathlessness became old. After resting a little bit on the floor, he was ready for another. Not that Frisk would let him.

…

Heading into another tall structure, this one in contrast felt bland.

Clover and Frisk simply stood and looked at the size of the building.

Unlike the great and complex composition of the mountains and their peaks, the monotone color lacked any interesting details except nails and screws. The rectangle-shaped box gave an aesthetic more as a prison than any magnificent structure, especially in the unbearing climate. The low-pitch electric signals could be heard in the background, the metal exterior and grand scale of the building gave an impression that cruel experiments had occurred inside this facility. 

Would those trapped inside persevere and ever see the light of day?

As the automatic door opened for the two, they could feel the particles in their skin begin the process of condensation and their sweats begin to solidify. The little fresh air flowing out of the room was already enough to keep off the heat, but nonetheless they entered through.

As they walked in, the light followed them wherever they wandered. A monitor caught the two’s attention, the pixels changed each time they moved. The monitor was tracking their every move, so is this a prison?

While Frisk searched the room, Clover simply stood and gazed at the screen. He would move sometimes to see how he looked on the monitor.

Handsome as always, Clover!

A sudden flash of light emerged inside the room. The two noticed a scientist who had only appeared in front of them a few seconds ago. 

The scientist introduced herself.

Alphys, the royal scientist of the underground. That’s who Ceroba kept on talking about.

A far cry from any scientists in New Citadel, Alphys was considered one if not the only monster with the qualifications to be a scientist in the royal domain. The only place to receive such qualifications was in the University of the Ruins, where every intellectual in the underground studied and received their degrees and a vast amount of knowledge. Surprisingly, most monsters who graduated from New Home attended the University. Well, those who graduated before the revolution.

After the first uprising against the royal domain, intellectuals and revolutionaries migrated or retreated to the Ruins where eventually a gate was built to protect the area of wisdom, a citadel that protected knowledge. A New Citadel™. The royal family perceived that universities and public gathering between intellectuals would only corrupt the minds of the monster race into revolutionary ideas. Hence, New Home never had a university of its own, secondary schools were the highest tier of education in the city.

Alphys wasn’t a proper scientist, to the views of the scientific field. She was extremely passionate about innovations and scientific studies. But she had only received a bachelor’s degree, which wasn’t high or common. Most students went up to a master’s degree, but Alphys had flunked the exam due to her other hobbies. She wasn’t a bad scientist, and was quite gifted. Her individual investigation into electric circuits made her the best computer scientist in the underground, even better than New Citadel.

However, Alphys’ rise to fame came from the success of Mettaton, who possessed the robot body that Alphys built, not a creation of new life. The underground, though, ate it up. She was briefly promoted as the royal scientist after the role had been missing for a while. It wasn’t until she began doing scientific research on other fields which was when she realized she wasn’t qualified at all for this role. After all, she was promoted due to a public stunt, not from a ground-breaking invention explained through a research paper. She rose up the ranks from fame, not from skill or innovation unlike the intellectuals from the scientific field. 

Still, the only qualified scientist that was willing to work with the royal domain. 

And that meant trouble for Clover and Frisk.

At least that was Clover’s initial thoughts, before Alphys explained the purpose of the monitor. 

“So you have been spying on us the whole time?!” It must be hard for Clover to realize that they could have asked for help in Waterfall during all of his desperate moments in Waterfall, especially that chase.

Why didn’t she help when she knew we needed help? Frustration built up in Clover’s head, what kind of people would have little to no sympathy? 

It didn’t take a genius to feel as if Clover had an opinion about that. Especially if someone watching you gets chased down for entertainment. 

“M-mhm,” Alphys nervously muttered. “B-but, now I want to help—”

“Now you wanna help?” His eyebrows furrowed, “I’m good, thanks,” Clover was trying his best to keep his head calm.

“I-I should tell y-you though,” Alphys tried to find the right words to avoid exacerbating Clover’s anger, “originally, I made a robot called Mettaton.”

Clover shut down. 

“Clover?” Frisk tried to read Clover’s reaction.

Mettaton? Ain’t that the reporter for MTT News?

…I’ll puncture that piece of metal ‘til it’s all 0s in its binary.

Sudden metal noises emanated from the walls.

* Clover’s eyes lock on the vibrating wall. The call of justice awakes in Clover.

* Clover’s LV increased to 15.

“OHHHH YES—”

* Clover’s soul shines onto his musket.

CLOVER BLAST!

It was still shocking to Chara that the once vibrant town had turned strictly silent. The rough stone was built on top of the soft texture from the sand. 

The sky was always a sunset, but the light continued to shine and burn the skins of humans and monsters alike. Chara swore that her skin had surely tanned from the number of times she was called to assist the prince out.

The fort had been built out of the will of Asriel to subjugate the Wild East due to being the hub for rebel groups, which had only escalated tensions between the Wild East and the Crown. It was certain that the vibrant town where the castle sat today could have stayed out of it if not for the prince's tough way of doing things. The once neutral townsfolk migrated to the Wild East and had been fighting against the royal guard since. 

Against the experience and skill of the royal guard, the Wild East had the element of surprise. They would initiate some kind of action, what they called a little bit of trolling, including: Blowing up walls of the campus, intercepting enemy supply, or throwing something above the castle. Anything to engage the royal guard, then they would catch some royal guard to hit and run on. 

It was annoying, and that was the point.

Leaning over crenellations of the castle wall, Chara stared at the vast desert and what looked to be the grand town of the Wild East. Deep in thoughts about the humans, it would only be a matter of time until the three would meet. 

Uncertainty filled the air that surrounded Chara, would these idiots be able to survive without pleading mercy to royalty?

A sudden call from Asriel caught her attention, “look at our mighty princess, wasting time above the castle rather than contributing to anything.”

Chara lowered her eyebrows. “Better than destroying the hard work of everyday citizens.”

“Oh, don’t think that you have the moral high ground. These thugs come to destroy our hard work every day.”

The princess ignored the prince, who took it as a victory.

“I’ll need you to take care of the castle. We’re planning on a raid.”

As a response to rebel attacks, the royal guard would commit raids against the Wild East. The invaders would plunder and destroy anything they could.

“Another? Surely you must have learnt that they fight tough as nails. Isn’t that what the reports suggest?”

Chara opened the reports like scrolls, trying to prove Asriel’s lack of touch to reality.

*** 

Report #1

We tried to talk them down of supporting the rebels, their disobedience marks the beginning of the Wild East campaign. The first raid of the campaign helped to capture horses and other crucial supplies from the Wild East. A quick militia formed and kicked us out of the town instantly. This begins the siege of the Wild East.

***

*** 

Report #2

Even with initial training with the horses, it seemed our heavy soldiers were not adapted to fast combat. Most of our men fell down their horses, and became easy targets to fire on. A panicked retreat ensued across the battlefield, we were unable to strike on any important assets. Horse-training must be prioritized for improving raid effectiveness.

***

*** 

Report #3

Still having difficulties with the wild beasts, one of our men fell to the cause against the Wild East. May he rest in peace. However, an increase in training with cavalry had severely improved the performance against the rebels. We expect the next encounter to end in a decisive victory.

***

*** 

Report #4

Horses are no longer the concern, as our men are considered veterans on horseback. But what looked like an empty town, one step in, and gunfire blinded the entire army. The heavy bullets then rained across the field while booty traps were set up. It was fortunate that we retreated without casualties or having anyone captured. However, we were able to capture and plunder some of their supplies. We will begin disarmament training against booty traps.

***

Chara and Asriel turned to each other.

“This time’s go—”

“Sure, this time is gonna be different,” Chara said insincerely while turning away.

“Look, we have an actual battle plan this time. Let’s walk and talk, we are leaving soon.”

Chara sighed, but nodded for a lack of will to care. 

“Right, the Wild East is extremely isolated from the rest of the underground, except for their connection with the gangs.”

Asriel was talking about a rebel group inside of Hotland.

 “That means there’s nothing coming through and from the Wild East, which means we can starve them out.”

The blockade of the Wild East was brutal. Food was cut off, water was cut. They only survived due to the farm to the north, which he alluded to. 

“But the farmlands are keeping them alive, we need all of them dead.” He didn’t try to soften the tone of their atrocities.

Chara knew talking about morality would be a dead end and remained silent.

“So while they hide in their little houses, we starve them out.”

Chara spoke up, “whatever works for you, I’ll take care of the fort.” And the moment she said that, they had arrived at the training site.

“Alright.” Asriel headed up to the stage.

“Guards!” He shouted, ”the best and the fittest of all monsters!” 

The sand wind flew out of the prince’s mouth, and blew out the grainy dust that wasn’t all yellow. 

Asriel continued his speech.

“We bring honor to the underground!” The army began chanting. 

“We bring order to the underground!” The chanting got louder.

“We bring dignity and strength to the thugs who cowardly fight under their huts and refuse to confront the enemy, because they know deep down. They. Cannot. Win.” Asriel looked around and admired the camp to see soldiers with their weapons raised up. 

“Cowards! Cowards! Cowards!” They shouted in a chanting rhythm. Fury could be seen in all of their eyes.

“And this time,” Asriel cried, a smirk slowly revealed itself. “They can’t run. No. MORE.”

“No more! No more! No more!”

“Onwards men! We will make them plead for mercy!”

The men began marching to the gate. Asriel ordered a few of them to stay behind and block anyone from entering the Dunes.

Chara watched as the gate of the fort opened up for the fifth time. She reached the top of the castle to watch as the men rode high on their horses.

When the light stopped shining and faded, Clover returned to the real world.

He panted, why do I feel faint?

When Frisk’s vision returned, they checked on him right away.

They laid a firm hand onto Clover’s SOUL, not that it would leave his body, but a way to assure that he was doing okay.

Alphys staggered. Not in any of her experiments nor stories from humans where so much power could be released at once.

She wasn’t angry or anything, simply in a state of shock. Alphys knew full well that Mettaton was going to be fine. But it would definitely take a lot of time to get her repaired.

And on the floor then left a piece of metal. Wires and cables emerged from the open metal case, and all the lights that had flickered onto the robot became pieces of junk around the larger junk. A clear large hole opened the center of the robot. Tungsten had been extracted and refined for Mettation Md. 4, a musket without the use of SOUL power would have barely scratched an inch on the model. There goes half the royal tungsten supply!

A TV set was revealed behind Mettaton’s corpse, Clover’s crime was now live across the entire underground. 

Without doubt, that power was Determination, one which Clover was told he did not have much of.

Yet at this moment, it was as if his anger had converted into pure power and unleashed.

“Let’s go, Frisk.” The two left the scene as it is.

“Hey Alphys,” Frisk called before exiting out of the door. Alphys looked upwards from evaluating the broken robot.

“I’m sorry for what happened.” 

“No, it’s not your fault, nor is it Clover.” Alphys turned back to the inanimate metal, “Mettaton had it coming, one way or another.”

Frisk tried to think of a response, but decided that walking off was the better idea. The royal guards were most likely already looking for them.

Clover needed to think on their feet, and an idea suddenly emerged into his mind.

“Follow me,” Clover began running, holding Frisk’s hands.

He let go when Frisk had finished building up their momentum.

*A minor chord plays on a guitar*

And they kept running.

Although there was no one chasing them, it felt as if someone would come out and capture them if they didn't run fast enough.

Why so much running?

…

It wasn’t that far to get the river flowing from Snowdin to Hotland.

On the river, mystery waited for the adventurers.

“Tra la la, care for a ride?” asked the mysterious figure.

“To Waterfall,” Clover quickly replied before getting onto their boat. 

“Then we’re off,” the figure said blankly.

“Why are we heading there?” Frisk was still on the ground, skeptical of Clover’s idea.

“You’re gonna have to trust me on this.” Clover answered, his voice shaken while speaking. 

Oh no, what’s Clover up to?

Clover looked across the environment around them, then suddenly grabbed Frisk’s hand.

“We jump there.”

“WE WHAT?”

“Trust me, that was how I bypassed the royal guard, we’ve got no other options.”

Clover and Frisk prepared and took deep breaths.

“...JUMP!”

The two exited the boat and entered a hole.

Clover didn’t think that the hole was this dee—

CLOVER BLAST!

The TV screen then turned into static.

“So the kid’s back?”

“w— WHO ELSE DRESSES LIKE A COWBOY?”

“It could be another human, don’t be so cocky.”

“Starlo?” 

The feisty four turned to Starlo. 

In the salon, the five amongst others watched what was supposed to be a game show in MTT station while whispers of Clover’s reappearance echoed through the room. Usually the salon played whatever crap channels MTT offered, but an advertisement for a game show with new humans in the underground caught everyone’s attention. Residents gathered to watch the spectacle. Nobody expected the return of Clover, or him beaming Mettaton to pieces which stopped the broadcast of all MTT channels. 

“Deputy’s still around,” Starlo muttered. After going missing for an entire year, to him Clover was as good as dead. “That’s a relief.” Starlo continued with his head staring at the floor, clearly deep in thought.

“Well, we’ve got to find Deputy somehow,” Ed was the first to break the silence, “not convenient that barely anyone can show up since that goddamn blockade.”

The group agreed in unison.

“He’s most likely in Hotland,” Starlo thought out loud, “we can send a message to Three Star to start a search operation.”

Three Star, what Asriel calls “thugs” or “rebels”, is a resistance alliance against the monarchy. Emerging from the Period of Resilience, what started as R.P.H. (Resistance for the People of Hotland) grew into a more general organization for anyone dissatisfied with royalty. Three Star refers to the three star towns of the East: Hotland, Wild East & New Home, in which it operates. 

Three Star controls most of Hotland where its main headquarters are located due to a secret pact with Alphys, the Wild East being the most influential in the group due to its independence from the group. The Wild East has been used as a supply center due to its proximity to New Home, and its strength comes from the number of residents in contrast to the main HQ inhabited by members only. 

Three Star is an absolute thorn to the crown. Its subdivision in New Home specializes in creating as much public damage to the monarchy as possible, whether that means assassinations or bombing attempts. The most crucial part of the organization is to disrupt routes and orders coming from New Home. This is often done by intercepting supply lines or weakening royal control over Snowdin where there is essentially a lack of royal authority except royal guards who serve more as local police than a military force. 

For every attempt by Asriel to eradicate the organization, the effective use of guerilla warfare and scorched earth keeps them alive, along with tremendous local support. Every local in Hotland has at least some sort of association with Three Star. 

“Sheriff!” A local screamed to get Starlo’s attention. “The royal guard’s fastly approaching.” 

The group immediately went outside to see horses running towards the town.

“Ed,” Starlo called, “ring the bell! We ain’t going down without a showoff.”

“Right away!”

The bell echoed across the town, the vibrant town turned silent as everyone fled inside for a cold confrontation.

“Mooch, get the traps done. Ace, when will these rogue men step foot on our soil?”

Mooch dashed to set up the booty traps. “Approximately 30 seconds.”

Mooch under 5 seconds had finished the preparations.

“What’s our move, boss?” Ed asked for orders.

“Ace and I will be in the back, our sharp attacks will strike them before they know it. Moray, you’re trynna get them out of their horses. You two, try ya best to distract the royal guards before we strike.”

And as they finished the conversation, they could see the helmet of the rapidly approaching guards. The 3 went up to their position, while the 2 sharpshooters took their time to precisely focus their projectiles. 

“Ace, do your countdown!”

“3…”

The Festy 5 anxiously waited. Starlo looked for the right target.

“2…”

Ed stretched his arms, Mooch began dashing towards the guards. 

“1…” 

Moray prepared to strike with their swords. Starlo found his target.

“STRIKE!”

BANG! VROOM! SWISH! THUMP! SWOOSH! 

Starlo’s target fell down his horse, his helmet got knocked off his head. 

Mooch knocked the guards softly but swiftly off their horses.

Ace’s multi-shot cards flew with the wind and made the horses stop on their tracks. Their riders, surprised, fell onto the ground.

Ed’s strong bang on the ground caused a strong vibration that shook the guards off their horses.

Moray’s swing severely damaged the horses’ ability to run and pushed the riders off their horses.

All the guards either fell or stopped in their tracks. All of them came to the rescue of Starlo’s target.

It had just come to Starlo’s attention that he had just fired a perfect shot at prince Asriel.

This is what you get for thinking so little of us.

One of his top generals picked Asriel up onto their horses and ordered an immediate retreat.

Fifth time’s the charm, huh? Chara could see from far of the colossal defeat handed to them.

Chara awaited for a fifth report stating yet another loss. 

Chara sighed, royalty do really underestimate their rivals.

“Your majesty—!”

As if Clover and Frisk hadn’t been blessed with tremendous luck for not dying from falling onto rocks, the two regained their consciousness, feeling the pains of their injuries.

There were no injuries, it was as though they had simply taken a power nap.

While Frisk scrambled to piece together their vision of the cave, Clover walked out almost as he had journeyed through this location.

That was because he had.

Clover led the way, on the way he ranted about each rock in the cave like a geologist.

“This rock is limestone, which is surprisingly rare for Mount Ebott.” He picked up another rock, “this one is—”

He turned to Frisk, only to see the same limestone thrown at his face.

“I don’t care about your stupid rocks.” Frisk said as they walked ahead of Clover, carelessly wandering through the cave so Clover would catch up. 

“They aren’t stupid!” Clover asserted, then ran to catch up with them.

“They aren’t stupid!” Clover repeated, he couldn’t conceive the idea that people simply didn’t care about these beautiful rocks.

Clover continued to rant about every single rock he encountered, but Frisk simply would walk ahead without listening.

…

Now out of the cave, Frisk gave a view to the dry lands of the Dunes. Sand wind blew themselves onto the two, and it got stronger.

The wind got stronger the further they went ahead. The wind turned into a storm, they would have to hide behind walls to move forward.

Frisk was still clueless on Clover’s big idea, it seemed to Frisk that Clover didn’t know what he was doing.

To be fair, he really didn’t.

To pass time, Frisk asked the question. “What’s this big idea of yours? It only looks like we’re stalling for time.”

“This is the only part of the underground that’s safe from royal control.” Clover paused to sneak behind a wall, “we’ll move ahead into a vibrant town and we’ll get to the Wild East.” Clover signaled Frisk to move before the next storm, “I had stayed there for a month, there wouldn’t be trouble coming our way.”

“Don’t the royal guards know that we’re here?”

“They only know that we were in Hotland, there’s no chance they’ll search here.” 

One more storm to deal with.

Clover continued, “‘sides, the Dunes is extremely isolated. There should be no royal presence here.”

…

As they reached a large tree in defiance to the dry nature of the Dunes, they rested below the tree to regain some energy.

“Let’s set up a picnic!” Frisk already pulled out their blankets before Clover could object.

In reality, he needed a break too.

Even above sand, the picnic felt like they were in green nature, probably because of the growing soil around the tree. 

In a world full of bitterness and bleakness where the entire region was hostile to any living species, the tree defied the expectations of the dunes. Something grand and wondrous stood and shined on the same ground full of aridness. But the tree does not stand without the green soil around it, which it had helped to fertilize.. By spreading nutrients, they successfully enriched the seemingly barren drylands. How kind.

How long does it take for the harsh environment to dry up its lushness?

As Frisk opened their bag, a third member joined the party!

“I’d thought he would already be suffocated,” Clover teased while taking a seat. 

“Don’t underestimate the little guy!” Frisk half-jokingly said. 

Clover put his hat on the picnic to truly feel the environment around him. 

This was his environment, a climate he lived in a different life.

“You know, you really should message Ceroba.” Frisk suggested, Clover panicked for a second. He had promised Ceroba to be in communication with her.

To be fair to Clover, the adventure had taken an immense amount of energy and time. I’m sure that Ceroba would understand, right? Clover thought.

When he opened his phone, there was only one message.

‘roba: Stay safe.

Clover immediately replied.

LilClover: i will

Clover closed his phone in an instant. Even if he did feel safe in the Dunes, being in the underground and being at risk of being captured any moment did scare Clover more than he wanted to admit. The last time he had been here, he wasn’t thinking about Ceroba, Asgore, Undyne, the Delta Rune, or especially Chara. 

“Chara…” He muttered a thought only to himself, but Frisk nodded their head to let him finish.

“Mhm? What’s up?” They signaled Clover to continue.

“No, just thinking. What do I even say to her? I mean she basically saved my life and…” He struggled to continue his train of thought.

“Someone’s nervous.”

Clover was nervous, yes, but he didn't get the point that Frisk was trying to make, “hm?” 

“Someone’s nervous to see their crushhh—”

“Hey!” Clover blushed while Frisk bursted out laughing,  “I don’t think of her like that.”

“Sure, Clover.” A giant smirk appeared on Frisk’s face, “Sureeee.”

“She saved my life. It’s a big deal that she did that.”

“Oh no, the princess is trapped in the castle! And she needs a heroic prince to save him! We know why you’re really after her.” Frisk teased further, but was getting to Clover’s limit. 

“If she saved my life, then I have to return that favor!”

“Mhm. Excuses, excuses. I know what you are.”

“You know what, if we’re talking about crushes, then let’s talk about why you’re always with Rob.” Frisk instantly looked away, fully red in their face. Clover let out an even bigger smirk and looked eager to press on.

Rob was a classmate that the two met in school, they would always come to their house to hang out with Frisk. Half of the time it was just the two of them doing homework and having fun together.

“Okay, we’re just friends.”

“AHA! Just friends. I know what you are, Frisk. How does that feel?”

“At least I’m not travelling across the entire underground to rescue someone.” Clover turned away from the conversation, annoyed and unbothered to continue arguing. “My love has boundaries, even the barrier can’t contain your love for your princessssss. Love is truly a beautiful thing to see!” Frisk stuck out their head to see Clover’s reaction.

Clover didn’t want to fall for Frisk’s obvious ragebait. 

…

After finishing eating the snacks of the townsfolk in New Citadel while reading the farewell letters together, the two laughed and melted from reading a wide range of silly to heart-melting letters. The two still had the memory of leaving New Citadel, seeing everyone come together to wish the best for the two. The hopes and dreams of the monsters gave them Determination.

After packing everything up, they were ready to restart their adventure.

But as they got going, they would see a faint sight of monsters.

Curious and eager to talk with them, the two moved ahead.

As they got closer, they got a better vision of the monsters. They were wearing… armor?!

Still, maybe these guards were like the ones in Snowdin who let them go once they showed kindness.

Walking closer, they saw the symbols on the armor, it looked to be… the Delta Rune symbol.

All at a sudden, the two caught their attention. A crowd of guards came right at the humans.

* 5 elite royal guards block the way.

* Frisk tried to talk out of the situation, yet they were interrupted by incoming spears.

The soldiers thrusted their spears faster than they could dodge.

-5 HP (Clover)

-3 HP (Frisk)

It was clear to the two that reasoning with these monsters had no effect, still Clover didn’t figure out the purpose of royal guards in the Dunes, unbeknownst to the military campus.

* Clover chooses to attack.

Hit. Miss. Hit. Miss. Miss. Miss.

-20 HP (1 elite guard)

All the soldiers had more than 200 HP, and Clover was only doing single target damage.

* Frisk cast instantaneous fire.

The hot climate made the spell super effective.

-7 (All elite guard)

…still felt like nothing for guards. 

Soldiers charged into the two. 

-12 HP (Clover)

-2 HP (Frisk)

Even if Frisk was the only one in battle, this seemed like an unwinnable encounter. 

Still, they persevered.

* Clover chooses to attack.

Hit. Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss.

BLOCKED.

Clover’s hand was quavering, his perfect aim couldn’t give him the strength to attack. 

* Frisk cast healing.

Ineffective from casting in a harsh environment.

+3 HP (Clover)

Clover signaled Frisk to retreat.

* The humans attempt to flee, but the guards caught onto them.

They signaled their surrender to the guards, which they responded by capturing them.

…

…

…

Dragged by the royal guards, the two made it to the fort of the Dunes. Wasn’t this the town of oasis the valley?

Clover could recognize some of the town buildings that were repurposed for the military campus. Where did the lively inhabitants of this once vibrant town go?

The humans were confronted with a small gate in the back of the fort that opened for them and forced to enter through. Now they waited for the capturors to take their souls. Was this the end of them?

“Your majesty—!”

Chara turned around, a royal guard called for her attention.

“We discovered intruders into the Dunes, they have already been captured and now await in containment. We are waiting for your orders.”

Huh? The Dunes was a largely inaccessible area, and Three Stars surely had another route to Wild East through the former area of the Steamworks. 

“Let me have a talk with them.”

These guys are either really brave, or really idiotic.

Walking down the stairs to the basement, the royal guard led the way to the containment area. She looked from the stairs and was able to take a blurry look at the faces of the intruders. She noticed the cowboy ha—

…ugh. Why the hell did these two end up here?

Chara called on the guard that was about to enter the containment corridor, “Hey.”

They stopped on their tracks, turned their backs and saluted, “yes, your majesty!”

“Head upstairs, I’ll need some time with them.”

“Yes, your majesty!” The guard repeated in a nod to Chara’s order.

Chara moved ahead to the corridor, the footsteps caught Clover and Frisk’s attention. They looked up to see their capturors.

And there she was. Chara Dreemur. The Princess of the underground.

The princess silently entered into the containment room. She sat on the floor and laid her arm onto the short damaged table, Clover and Frisk got out of their wooden beds to join her in the table.

The three were locked in silence, so much had happened between the three of them.

Yet it was getting too boring, Frisk pulled out her chocolate ba—

“Gimme that!” Chara took the bar out of Frisk’s hand, Clover and Frisk stayed in a state of shock.

Clover connected the dots, Ceroba wanted to deliver New Citadelian chocolate to Chara. That’s why Ceroba kept insisting on bringing it.

She chewed on the bar, releasing a sigh of contentment, the two continued to look at Chara awkwardly.

“This chocolate bar is soooo good. New Citadel truly is innovative.”

Frisk’s head was struggling to find an appropriate response to that, and to make sense of what was going on.

Clover jumped to respond. “I guess that explains why Ceroba insisted on bringing chocolate,” Clover repeated his thought out loud.

Frisk and Clover chuckled, but Chara simply sat there and continued to chew. What a person.

“Anyways…” Chara started. Why does this have to be so awkward?

Clover followed up, “what happened to the Oasis Valley?”

Chara took a moment to chew. “Gone. Azzy built a fort here to subjugate the Wild East.”

While Chara paused to take a bite, Clover took concern on the safety of the Wild East. 

But Chara continued, “that is by destroying the work that the townsfolk had built. The dumbass had provided the morale the Wild East needed to continue resistance. Right now, they just finished their raid on the town.”

Chara paused again. Why did she have to leave them on cliffhangers?

“Are they okay?” Clover asked while Chara finished the chocolate bar. 

Chara wiped her mouth with her hand and began, “the royal guard is a joke compared to the Wild East. Every time they try to commit a raid, it always goes wrong for them.”

That was embarrassing for the two humans. If the royal guards were such a joke to the Wild East, why were they captured?

Or Chara was simply exaggerating the ineffectiveness of the soldiers.

“I watched them ride their horses to the Wild East, just to get their asses kicked by the local militia.”

Good work, Starlo! Kick their asses!

“I could help them out, but I’m here because I have to. Not because I want to.”

“Well, yeah. It must suck to work with the royal guard.” That was the best response Clover could come up before the room became awkward again.

“Yeah.” And now they were out of topics to talk about.

Clover felt that they had beaten around the bush for too long. “Why were you in Waterfall?”

“When?” Chara didn’t feel surprised a bit. Yeah, she acts just like the person at that moment, Clover thought.

“When I was getting chased down.” Clover clarified, “by Undyne.”

“Oh yeah, I was there.” Clover felt Chara was intentionally avoiding answering the question.

“Why?” He repeated.

“Dunno. I was there. Right place, right time.”

“That’s a lie and you know it! You said from ‘my observations’, at what other times would you have such observations?” Clover shouted slightly too hard on that question, Frisk gave a look for Clover to calm down.

“When did I say ‘my observa—’”

“In the goddamn letter, do ya take me as stupid?!”

“And if I do?”

Normally, Frisk would press on against Clover. This was a stranger, insulting Clover right in front of them. Only them and Ceroba could bully Clover.

“Then you’re an asshole,” Frisk interjected.

“Says the idiot that entered into the Dunes without any preparations.”

Frisk had to agree. Clover acted in his own accord, and now they were brought down by it too.

“Hey, I didn’t know that they would destroy an entire town and start attacking the most isolated part of the underground.”

“It’s royalty, what do you expect of them?” Chara commented.

Clover felt a feeling of dissatisfaction, it felt like Chara was arguing against them but that she was also on their side? Maybe it was from the way Chara spoke to the two, it sounded as if she had a lack of respect.

A mumbled scream caught the two’s attention, Chara remaining as unbothered as ever. 

“There comes Azzy.”

An announcement echoed from above, “The Prince had been injured, a bullet went through his helmet!”

That sounded to Clover what Starlo would have done, Clover sneakily smiled for Starlo’s achievement.

Chara didn’t bother to look and simply commented, “wish they would just put a bullet to his head. Sadly monsters don’t just die from headshots.”

Frisk finally spoke up, “So, are we staying here for eternity?”

“I mean the fact that everyone is essentially distracted from the injury, you guys can walk out and I doubt any of them would notice.”

Clover raised his eyebrows, “is it really that easy?”

Chara gave a knowing look, “yeah, you’ll be surprised how incompetent they are. And again, bribery always works. If I feel like going outside but my family insists on me to be indoors, just give them some gold and they will leave you alone.”

“Sounds like royalty,” Clover commented. 

“Are you guys heading out, then?” Chara inquired, but felt more like a demand.

“Sure.” Frisk stood up and walked out of the room, the bars were open from Chara entering into the room.

Clover did the same.

Chara led the way. Usually, Clover would have something to talk about while moving ahead, but all 3 remained silent.

…

When they were at the gate, Frisk immediately headed out of the fort. When Chara was prepared to bid farewell, Clover asked the question.

“Do you wanna go with us?”

“Hm?”

“Do you wan—”

“I heard what you said.”

“...so?”

She contemplated.

“C’mon, do you really wanna be stuck here helping out royalty?” Clover made a point. 

Which Chara thought was a good point.

Frisk was doubting his choice to bring Chara with them.

“Fine,” Chara made her choice, “but I can’t stay for long.”

Clover reaffirmed to her, “leave whenever you want.”

Frisk looked at Clover with immense suspicion, what does he want out of Chara?

This simply affirmed Frisk’s belief of Clover’s love interest.

A princess being inside a cowboy town simply felt wrong for all the reasons.

Yet, the 3 reached the Wild East. 

The town continued vibrantly even after the raid. Raids were a monthly reality for them, and they trusted their sheriffs to take action.

When they arrived, the eyes of monsters were locked into the three. After all, it was 2 spectacles at once. (sorry, Frisk)

Noise in the town died down, as all the monsters in the Wild East took an interest in the arrival of the humans.

Shortly after, a group emerged from the salon.

Clover’s favorite, “Uncle Star!”

“Clover!”

Starlo yeehaw’d to Clover. Clover yeehaw’d right back at him, simple cowboy code.

“And these are ya friends?” Starlo inquired. 

“Sure is.” Clover spoke with a thicker accent than he usually did. Maybe he just felt at home.

“What’s ya name, little one?”

“The name’s Frisk.” 

Clover pressed on to introduce them. “They’re my little sibling.”

“Well, welcome to the family! The Wild East treats all folks equally, the land away from oppression.”

The sheriff turned to the princess, and closed his eyes half way. “What’s your business here, Chara?” Starlo deliberately used her first name to disregard the monarchy, Chara approved of the choice.

Clover explained, “she seemed uninterested in helping the royal blokes out, and came with us not to deal with the prince.”

That didn’t lift Starlo’s suspicions, but he trusted Clover’s guts.

“Ya know that I blew the princes’ helmet out of his head?” Starlo asserted. 

“I couldn't see from afar, regrettably. That little jackass definitely deserved it though.”

Starlo took a liking to the princess’s attitude, but remained on guard.

“We’re just gonna head into the salon, alr’?” Clover interjected.

“Right ahead.”

Starlo told the Feisty Four to scramble for now, and re-entered the salon with the humans.

Starlo went up to the stage to make an announcement, “my fellow citizens. We are here to re-welcome our partner, Clover! And we’ve got a new member joining us this time, give it up to… Frisk!”

The salon cheered as the two went up to stage to introduce themselves, Chara remained in the back.

Frisk, feeling eager, introduced themselves. “What’s up y’all!” They spoke with a western tone, “I’m Frisk. I’m the sibling to this little guy.”

Frisk grabbed the back of Clover’s shirt and pulled him to the center. The salon wooed in response. 

“I’m the better human, of course!” Frisk remarked. 

“NUH UH!” Clover interrupted. “Everyone knows I’m the best human out of ‘em all!”

The salon let out laughs and chuckles to their little fighting. Clover saw Chara smile at their little fight, which he took as a positive response.

The salon applauded the two as they walked out of stage, they went back to their seat on the bar.

The bartender went up to the two. “What can I get for ya, famous?”

“Nah! I ain’t that famous, lemme get a root beer.”

“I’ll have a glass of water.”

“Alright, alright. And for you, red-eye?”

Even if they didn’t mean it as an insult, Chara took “red-eyed” as derogatory.

“Do you guys have hot drinks?” Chara spoke poshly, to the disapproval of Clover.

“Climate’s hot ‘nuff, we only serve cold drinks.”

“I will then get a glass of water as well.”

“Right on!”

Seeing how Clover and Frisk just acted in front of people, it gave Chara a positive outlook on the two.

Feeling eager to talk, Chara began. “Have you guys heard about the festival in a few days?”

Clover inquired, “no, tell us more about it.” Frisk simply listened without talking.

“So every single year, they do a festival to celebrate my ‘arrival’ to the underground. They dress me up like barbie and get me all fancied up, it’s so annoying.”

Clover nodded to Chara, “Classic royalty.”

Chara commented. “They need to flex somehow, right?”

“Mhm.”

Chara lay on the table, and put her head down. “Ugh… I really don’t wanna go to the festival.”

“Then don’t.”

Chara gawked at Clover, turning her head on the table to Clover.

“I mean… can’t you just escape?”

Chara got her head up and stretched. “I wish I could.”

“No, but you definitely can. We can get you out of there, can’t we?”

Chara looked back at Clover. “You would have to reach New Home. Good luck with that.”

The bartender interrupted. “Three Star constructed a secret route between the Wild East and Hotland Town, shouldn’t be a problem gettin’ New Home from there.”

“Mind your own business.” Chara patronized.

Concerned about Chara's behavior, Clover defended the bartender. “They’re just tryna help, no need to barge against someone like that!”

“...okay.” Chara commented, and stayed silent as their drinks had arrived.

Frisk played some tricks onto Clover, which Clover responded with his own. Laughs and giggles came out of Chara’s neighbours, yet she simply lay on the table again.

Does he hate me? That thought stayed with Chara while Clover and Frisk messed around.

Chara looked away from the two. 

Maybe I am a horrible person, destroying the fun existing. 

Maybe I am a monster, better dead but still persisting.

The horror I bring to monsters, that’s why they dread me.

At the end of the day, perhaps I’m simply royalty.

Chara walked out of the salon, but Clover immediately reacted, even when Frisk tried to stop him.

Exiting the salon, she heard a call.

“See ya, partner!”

Yet Chara refused to respond.

Frisk and Clover looked as Chara turned her back against the two.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Frisk, no need to be disrespectful.”

Chara needed to hear that, but she didn’t…

Chapter Text

“Are ya ready, Clover?”

3…

“Star, It doesn’t have to end like this!”

2…

“I’m sorry, Clover.”

1…

“Good luck.”

SHOOT!

…

…

“…Clover, ya old man failed ya—”

“I ain’t falling for yo tricks, Star.”

As the residents of Wild East set in for a new day, this was their way to start the morning. The crowd gathered around for a carefully timed shootin’ competition between the two undefeated legends. Only one would leave with that title.

The town wanted to do something to celebrate Clover’s return. Unlike the pretentious royalty, the town gathered to throw a little festival for Clover. Stands and shops were set up and competed to reduce their prices as low as possible, this was a day for good ol’ business.

“Ah, look at ya Clover.” The sheriff lightly touched his nose, “your acting skills are as good as mine, a feather in one’s cap.” 

A compliment to Clover is an insult to Frisk, “we all knew you two were faking.”

“Some people always try to take you down,” Starlo protested.

Exploring the Wild East, everything had changed about the small town that Clover once knew.

They had taken a rest in the expanded housing area for the Feisty Five. Starlo initially refused renovation but Three Star insisted on the renovation and did it anyway. The old dusty and trashed housing turned into the grand new estate of the Feisty Five (Starlo dictated that all of them had to live together for some reason). Clover and Frisk stayed in the guest room.

The two though weren’t too interested in the estate, rather to focus on the grander town and its festivity. Bunting around the town hung loose and open compared to the bunting across town, the castle of course preparing its celebration for their own festival. The stands and shops screamed roars of laughter and bargains that weren’t going to work out while the saloon had drunksters drag out drunksters and drag them in back-and-forth.

Clover was glad that he had it better than Chara, even if the festival was not as grand. He was glad to live in the moment.

…

“Partner, you’re missin’ this deal of a lifetime! Only 5g for this jewelry."

Clover cupped his palm onto Frisk’s ear. “I know a scam when I see one.”

With a smirk, Frisk enthusiastically went up to the ‘salesman’. “5g for your hardwork!”

The salesman nodded and took the gold, searching through the jewelry that looked the shiniest. They handed two keychain accessories that seemed to be made out of iron painted in yellow. Like the gold they used to buy stuff with, it was just some fancy iron ore mixed with sulfur. 

To Clover’s surprise, it was actually gold. 

“Hey, I wanted to get scammed to annoy you.” 

Frisk handed one of the accessories to Clover, “But this is the real deal.”

Clover’s eye shone through the gold, Clover took a sharper look and saw himself on the little accessory. He smiled at it.

Frisk then dragged Clover onto another stand. “Hi, what do you offer?”

“Good ‘ol explosives.”

“Uhhh—”

“Do you offer gunpowder?”

Clover and the other merchant exchanged glances. “I have some.” The merchant clarified, but did not see what Clover saw valuable in it. 

“Gimme gimme. How much does it cost?” The cowboy turned desperate, “I’ll give you this gold accessory."

“Currency gold would do.”

Clover handed the merchant 10g, without knowing the price. The merchant left to get a bag of gunpowder.

When it arrived in Clover's hands, he started digging.

Starlo was minding his business until he saw Clover throw himself into the bag, he thought Clover was getting kidnapped.

“No, Clover. Bad, Clover.” Starlo took the bag away from Clover’s powdery paws. Clover kneeled in depression.

Frisk closed their eyes, taking in the fact that this was his brother and legal guardian. 

“Anyways, kids. I’ve gotten you both somethin’.” Starlo snatched Clover’s ripped hat, and replaced it with a new and shining one. This one was more reddish and lighter, and fit right through Clover’s head. Starlo offered a hat of a darker color to Frisk, who initially declined but wouldn’t take it off after trying it and looking themselves in the mirror. 

“Consider this a new journey.” Starlo yeehaw’d and Clover returned the gesture. “And Frisk, consider this an invitation to the Wild East.” Frisk yeehaw’d right back at Starlo.

The sheriff decided to let them be again for a while. “Remember, no gunpowder, no explosives, no exploding and causing chaos. You got that, Clover? I’ll be off in the saloon.”

The poor kid just wanted to let off some fire against the monarchy, Starlo just didn’t understand fun.

At first they took the advice of the sheriff. There was more to explore here than the opportunities of freedom.

At the center of the stands, there stood a gathering of a crowd. The two went to inspect the situation in hand.

“You ain’t the smoke, cus you can’t handle the brutality.

Only on that coke, ain’t even got yo child custody.”

DAMN! The crowd dropped their jaws, this is brutal.

“Who's next?! Who wants smoke with me!”

Frisk pushed Clover onto the center. “So you’re the new kid around town.”

The cowboy began shaking, he was ‘bout to get skinned by this guy.

“New kid around town, North Star find ya in the lost and found?”

The guy commented on his dirty outfit, the crowd cheered in response.

“How many humans can they count, it’s Mettaton’s round.”

How many humans can Mettaton count? Wow. This guy knew Clover’s history, after all dirt is the only way he can stand on top.

“You take that? You let that slide?”

Clover took a breath, and began.

“As a matter of fact, it was tit-and-tat.

Saw that rat? Now ya round to get blasted at.”

Ooooooo.

“I get those guards to boil, when they stand on free soil.

Shoot some royals, you can’t even handle the recoil.

You’re my foil, recoiling at this dirty voile.

Can’t handle this lifestyle cus you’re spoiled.”

Burst of amazement roared across the town, more came to inspect this spectacle. 

But the guy’s got more.

“Spoiled cowboy, don’t get me started on ya fortunes.

Promoted, when he was only at the Wild East’s margins.

Enjoy being a deputy while we out here making bargains?

Kicked out our property while you out here getting princess pardons.”

“And yet I stand for the Delta Rune.

Underground in ruin, they say a hero will come soon.

Soon? Soon after we are all in doom.

Yet my eyes shine ahead of the fading gloom.”

The fading gloom, cold line. 

Clover simply left the stage right there, making sure to aura-farm his way out of the spectacle. 

But it had him thinking.

They were mostly right, Clover had been given a lot of kindness, even when monsters continued to suffer. Starlo essentially spoiled Clover because he was a human, and made him deputy just because so.

But just because Clover had been lucky, does it discount his willingness to make a change? His efforts to seek justice surely weren’t for naught, just because he’s been given the world, right? 

Clover simply concluded that he should be more grateful.

…

The two were engulfed in the vibrant chaos of the festival, and threw themselves into the center of it. Now it felt right to take a moment in the other parts of the Wild East.

Heading to a more isolated area, Clover was still thinking about the gunpowder that Starlo took. That train of thought led him to visiting Blackjack; they were right ahead of their shop anyways.

“Greetings! Oh, hey Clover!”

“You’re gonna want to see this.” Clover shaked excitedly before giving their musket to Blackjack.

Clover continued. “Look at the flintlock, I ain’t gotta recharge with the powder to get it shooting.”

“Ah, just let the cock and nipple do the work, huh?”

The WHAT?!?!! 

Frisk turned to the two, flabbergasted on the sentence the shopkeeper had just put together.

Clover turned and squinted his eyes at them, “Frisk, the cock is the hammer. Not what you’re thinking.”

Blackjack moved on, “what’s that yellow thing?”

“Percussion cap; rather than using flint, that little thing’s got explosives in it.”

Frisk began reaching for the door. “Y’all nerds have fun with your ‘cock’ and ‘nipples’,” and headed out of their yap session.

“Nipple, not nipples!” Clover let out before they went outside.

When they did, they released a sigh and took a great view of the town. This festival spirit is what I’m about, they thought to themselves.

Frisk entered back into the festival center, but struggled to find what to do; Frisk didn’t have much gold, so they couldn’t go shopping.

They took a glance of everything to do: 

No, not the shooting game. It went really bad last time.

Oh my god, that plushie looks so cuteee! 5g? I’m so glad that Clover took away all of our gold for gunpowder.

No, rapping is not my game. It looks very intense though. 

Walking through different stands and courses, Frisk turned down every opportunity until suddenly, a horse almost ran into them.

Frisk sighed in relief. If they didn't have good reflexes, they would have ended up as a sheet of meat on a wall.

Frisk continued to take a look at the horse that just almost flattened them, and the other horses that arrived right after.

They had stumbled themselves into a horse race; they smiled at a potential opportunity.

 “Anddddddd last place!” A cowboy-style dressed monster announced the end of the horse race. 

Frisk approached the announcer, “how do I get involved in this?”

“3g to enter, but if you win first place, you get double in return.”

Frisk didn’t hesitate on spending the only 3g they had in their pockets, “sign me up.”

“Woah, slow your horses.” A wink appeared onto the monster’s face. 

Frisk chuckled, “you bet I won’t!” And handed the monster 3g.

The announcer chuckled in response. “Your race starts after 15 minutes.”

Frisk nodded, and saw Clover with another bag of gunpowder.

“What? This one is smaller, I can eat it all before Starlo can catch me!”

Frisk looked and walked away in disappointment, Clover ran to catch up with a mouth full of gunpowder.

The two noticed a hill next to the buildings on their right, they moved to check it out.

“By the way, since you’re not using it, can I have your musket?”

“Where did yours go?”

“How did you think I got this bag of gunpowder?”

Frisk sighed, and allowed Clover to grab their musket out of their bag.

Trying to find a pass onto the hill, they decided to ask a local for directions.

“Sure! I’ll lead the way.”

They followed their guide towards the hill; Clover surely remembered that the ground they stepped on was blocked by fences.

A far railway stretched to their right. They seem to be functioning based on the look that it was beaten up but stayed rigid.

When they squinted their eyes, they could see smoke coming out in the air. Mostly a train coming its way, they supposed.

They walked along the railway, where the humans’ eyes and brain could only focus on the railtracks. 

Clover got the courage to ask, “What’s the track for?”

“The rails? Oh, the Dunes are vast in land and resources, you would be surprised how many remote mines have been left abandoned.” 

Frisk jumped in, “why were they abandoned?”

“The war with us ain’t cheap, we’ve essentially blown up all roads and rails towards the capital.” 

He continued, “the Wild East would be rich and powerful if we took them for ourselves, but you don’t always think of the best course of action.”

The three chuckled and turned silent. Frisk gave a look at Clover, for him to look away at them.

It wasn’t long until they had reached a steep slope. The local invited them upwards.

With a grand view of the fortress, thin residential buildings spanned through the hill. Contrasting from a straight street dividing the Wild East, this hill was beautifully unorganized. 

Houses of many shapes, of many materials, that serve the needs of many of its residents. This was the area that the Wild East didn’t talk much on.

However the design was unelegent, it was a wonderfully efficient use of space. Out of the chaos, a roundabout was encircled. In the many forms of alleys, none of the buildings blocked the view of the fort. 

The trick came from the well designed spacing between each building; no matter what shapes buildings were, the intersections and paths were architected from the beginning, and there were specific codes for how buildings were organized. 

Most importantly, the beauty didn’t come from the exterior. After all, an efficient use of land only exists if the land is being used effectively.

“Take a look at my house! It’s elegant when you see the interior.” The locals suggested passive-aggressively, the humans took it as a demand.

Staring from the door, they saw a couch, stoves, and a bed in consecutive order. Efficient use of space, remember. There wasn’t much width to be worked with here.

The bathroom was right next to the kitchen. Clover was given a thousand yard stare when he looked like he tried to enter the bathroom.

Walking across the kitchen, Frisk was surprised by the tools that laid on the table.

“In the Wild East, we do everythin’ different.” Instead of knives, guns were used.

“Wait,” Frisk grabbed the weapon, “how do you cut it?”

“Let me show ya.” The local grabbed the gun from Frisk’s open wrist, Frisk moved back an inch.

POW! The bullet went through the steak precisely, in a direction more linear than a knife could ever do.

Instead of pans, a gun was used.

“...what?”

“I can show you, Frisk. Ya got the mercury bullet?”

“Sure do!” The local got them out of the freezer.

Clover aimed at the steak, and a ball of mercury was shot right at it.

Physics would have suggested that it shot right through the steak and the plate. Instead, a ball was put gently on the steak. “It’s all about precision and using the right amount of magic.” 

Right, Frisk thought. Guns work by how much magic and effort you put into it. Just letting physics do the work is ineffective. Frisk remembered a case study in school where someone tried to create a button to release heat and shoot. It failed and proved that magic was needed to ignite gunpowder, not only heat. 

Still heat was a key component, which was why using percussion caps is still practical. Yet magic is a key factor for energy, which was where Clover’s damage against Mettaton came from.

Instead of cooking oil…

“Let me guess, you use a gun as a replacement.”

“No, we just don’t use cooking oil. The gun distributes the heat well enough.”

Well, the gun is still replacing the cooking oil here.

…

…

…

If Clover had to admit it, the castle had been a main focus for a while.

It was a good contrast to the town, after all. Even when the castle instilled intimidation towards the rebels, they continued to live with such free spirit.

“What’s on ya mind, kid?” The local took a view on where Clover looked towards, “the castle, huh?”

Clover spoke his mind, “why aren’t you worried?”

“Why should we?”

Clover turned his head towards the local, signaling to explain themselves.

“We had fought round and round. Even under the revolutionary wars, when the entire underground served under martial law, we fought tooth and nail.” 

Frisk looked as if they were going to distract Clover, he signaled not to do so. 

The local continued. “They say that only the Ruins remained against the royals, us wilders laugh at that statement.”

They went to their bedroom to get something to show the two. A sharp sword shined through its metal onto the eyes of the two.

“This is a katana, the weapon the Wild East fought with before the invention of gunpowder. Let me tell ya us townsfolk hadn’t lost our swordsmanship, some of us still use swords today.” That reminded Clover of the sword-swinging member of the Feisty Five.

Frisk grabbed the handle of the katana, and the local released it out of his hands. 

“Did you fight during the revolution?” Clover asked.

“Of course I did, locals across the entire underground fought against New Home.”

The local took a pause, “say, I haven’t introduced myself.”

Frisk read the label on the katana, “Kale…”

“That’s me. I lead the militia branch of Three Star in the Wild East.”

“The militia branch?”

Kale chuckled, “let me show you what it’s like.”

It took a few seconds for them to realize he was inviting them to one of their operations. 

Frisk was more hesitant, Clover didn’t find trouble with it.

“Clover, did you remember Star’s warning of—”

“I bet sheriff already forgot. If it’s trouble coming ya way, I’ll be the one to deal with it.”

Clover grinned at Frisk. “Lucky bastard,” Frisk signaled by their look.

…

“Can we make this quick? I’ve got a horse race in 5 minutes.”

“Ain’t even gonna take 2. Here’s how ya do it,” Kale called on one of his assistants.

“Here’s some explosives: you throw it, you run, and it explodes. Simple as that. Then there’s gonna be royals chasing ya down; don’t stress it, if you’ve got a good horserider they ain’t gonna catch up. Then the Feisty Five does their job; our role is to cause as much inconvenience for the royals.”

“Got it,” Clover held the explosives tight, and loosened his grip after getting used to it.

“I’ll ride with ya, or Star’s gonna have a heart attack.”

A horse came their way, Clover winked at Frisk. They gave out a confident grin.

They got onto the horse, then Clover followed on the horseback. It’s about time to have some fun!

“On your marks…

GO!”

At first, Frisk’s riding got stiff. However, like anything Frisk is good at, they got the skill on the spot. 

The view of the fortress grew grander and grander, Clover held his horses.

“Turn and throw!”

Frisk did an instantaneous rotation, Clover threw the explosives as if he was shooting hoops.

The two calmed down, when behind them two explosions went off. Whistles were called on the two, I hope Chara was watching that.

Cavalry charged at the perpetrators. Like Kale said, not as fast as they were. It definitely helped that Frisk was riding quicker than the leader of the militias.

When they reached the town, the Feisty Five awaited the charging cavalry. The cavalry stopped their tracks and moved back to the other side.

Frisk got off their horses, and ran to the horse race. Kale and Clover got down and faced Star.

An awkward silence froze the situation at hand.

Kale was the first to speak up, “I—”

“What did I tell you about causing trouble?”

Kale continued to defend Deputy while he remained silent. “Hey, it ain’t his fault! I called on him to join—”

“I never said he did anything wrong.”

Clover looked back up to Star, eyes looking if he had been forgiven. 

There was nothing to forgive, Star was proud.

“Clover, you know you scare me.” Clover chuckled at Star’s comment, “ya know you couldn’t stop me.” 

Star nodded. 

…

As Clover looked up, someone caught the attention of all of them.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it—

No, it was just a bird. Blue bird…

“Martlet!”

“You guys aren’t going to keep captive of me again, are you?” 

Starlo responded, “oh, why would we?”

Martlet squinted her eyes. An intense staring competition awkwardly stopped the flow.

Clover broke the silence. “So, what’s up?”

“Sans told me he wanted to chat with you for some reason,” Martlet scratched her head.

Clover furrowed their eyebrow, “okay? Why would he need to talk to me?”

“To be honest with you, I have no idea.”

Martlet took some time to process if it would be a good idea. “You know Clover… we never hang out and talk much. Now that I’m here anyway—”

“Oh, for sure! You wanna head into the saloon?”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Clover signaled a farewell to the Feisty Five, Starlo tipped his hat in response.

They began walking and talking. “How’s the journey been?”

“Heh,” Clover reminded himself of when he almost died if not for Frisk’s help, “I almost died!”

“Uhhhh, good for you?” Martlet thought it was crazy that Clover was so thrilled about almost dying.

Clover thought Martlet’s attitude towards him dying was crazy.

The two walked awkwardly. “Ohhh, you were being sarcastic!”

Clover flattened his face and gave them side-eye. 

“You sounded so happy though, it’s not my fault that I thought you wanted to die.”

Clover gave Martlet time to process that thought.

“It isn’t!” Martlet stood firm, she wasn’t processing that thought at all. “What if you were suicidal or,” Marlet paused, “um, okay I see your point.”

A bell rang as they entered the saloon.

“Heya.”

“Hey!” Clover responded to the bartender.

“What can I get y’all?”

“We’ll have two Feisty Sliders for the two of us.”

“Hey! You never asked—”

“You’ve got to try out our specialty, or you ain’t getting the Wild East experience.”

“You have only stayed there for a day, you’re not the expert in the ‘Wild East experience’.”

The bartender chuckled, “Clover, why do all ya buddies always start a fight with ya?”

“Because they know I’m right!”

“Yeah, right, you think you are.”

The bartender asked, “And for your drinks?”

“I’ll have a glass of water.”

“And I’m assuming root beer for ya?”

“You know me, Dina!”

The two exchanged a nice chuckle, Martlet gave a smile. The bartender went to make their food.

“Who else did you bring to the Wild East?”

“Ah, not as many as Dina might have ya think. This is my second time coming to the bar, but I brought Frisk and Chara.”

“Chara? She isn’t the kind of person to go to public places.”

“Why not?”

“Well, I’m the allocated postwoman for the royal family, but usually it’s only Chara that does letters really.”

Martlet turned away, “that’s probably confidential but… I don’t know, Chara just doesn’t sound like someone that goes out a lot.”

Clover raised an eyebrow, “is she?”

“Well, we are talking about the princess, right?”

“Yeah, there’s only one Chara in the underground.”

“Right, but she seems so grumpy all the time. She’s like the trouble child in the family.”

Clover looked upwards to think. “Huh.”

“Well, she was with me when I was contributin’ to y’all’s convo.” Dina handed them their food and drinks, “that’s gonna be 65g, but I’m gonna give the Feathers the Wilders’ discount.”

“The Wilders’ discount?”

“Outsiders pay double, that’s been the saloon policy for a while now. So that’s 40g for y’all.”

“Oof, alright. I’ll pay my part.”

Clover now realized it probably wasn’t wise that he spent all his gold on gunpowder. “Sorry, can you pay for my part too? I’ll pay back, I swear!”

Are you serious? Martlet signaled to Clover, before paying on Clover’s part. 

“Remember that you’ve got a meeting with Sans that I promised, I can’t have you in trouble.”

Clover gave an awkward smile.

As soon as they were going to return to their conversation, a slam on the wall shocked the two.

When they looked forwards, a smirking Frisk leaned their elbow on the wall, wearing a cowboy hat with a metal star.

“What do you want, Frisk?”

“What do YOU want?”

“To explain to me what you want.”

“I want you to explain to me what you want.”

“Are you guys always like this?”

“They’re always like this,” the two said in unison.

“NO YOU!” They shouted in sync.

Martlet bent her arm on the table, hand keeping the chin from the falling, enthusiastically watching all of this play out.  

This isn’t the Clover who I knew. 

Martlet remembered the nervousness of Clover when he travelled across the underground.

“You’re not fighting back! I don’t want to hurt you! You’re all cute and stuff!”

She remembered his eyes still but his body trembled, when he had his arms crossed, repeatedly tapping his hand. 

When he was silent, his mouth was kept shut by how little he knew about the great unknown and their attitude towards him.

Today, she smiled at the two fighting. She had never seen Clover's vivid smugness, his screeching voice spread throughout the bar, his calls for a challenge knowing that he would never back down.

And even when he lost in the arm wrestle he challenged Frisk, even when he screamed for Frisk for mercy, this Clover revealed himself and moved the curtains of fear to the side.

“STOP! I’M SORRY!” Clover’s arm continued to stay firm when he tried to pull it out of Frisk’s grip.

“This is what you get!” Frisk got their other hand, got up and pressed against his hand,

This was Clover.

…

…

…

A ring caught Martlet’s attention; she reached for her phone.

Call from Sans.

Oh no.

From the chaos that the two indulged in, Martlet had to call them and get them out of it.

“Guys, um, I just remembered you guys were supposed to have a meeting with Sans.”

The two stopped, Frisk raised an eyebrow.

“Right, I never explained this to Frisk.” 

Clover spoke up, “Well, you never explained it to me either.”

Martlet picked up, “hello?”

She paused, eyes looking towards the direction of her phone. 

“Yeah, sorry. You haven’t been waiting, right?”

Martlet signaled the two to get going. 

“Should we bring our bags with us?”

“No, from what Sans told me, it should only be a conversation and we’ll return.”

The two left the chaos as it was for now. 

They looked around everywhere while following Martlet. Why would Sans out of all people want to talk to us?

Martlet hung up, “right, how do we get to Hotland?”

“I dunno, let me ask Star.”

The town began to pack up and set everything back to normal, bunting and stands were taken down. As a result, they could see everyone that was out here, Star wasn’t one of them.

“I guess Star could be inside their house.”

As Frisk and Martlet looked to Clover, they followed him to the estate of the Feisty Five.

Clover and Frisk weren’t that impressed with the house, but Martlet looked up in awe.

“I wish I could build something like that.”

To be fair to the humans, New Citadel was full of these grand designs. Plus Ceroba was an architect and would always volunteer to make houses look prettier to give a better look to New Citadel, this house was mild compared to the houses that Clover and Frisk had.

Clover would have simply entered, but Martlet felt it was more respectful to ask.

Star opened the door, “hey Star, do you know how we could get to Hotland? Martlet said someone needs to meet us.”

“You’re gonna have to wait for a bit, the trains only come once in a while. Who is Martlet getting you to meet?”

Martlet scratched her head, “uhhh, it’s someone they met on their journey.”

Clover jumped to help Martlet out, “he was the one that kept us safe in Snowdin.”

“Right, just be careful in Hotland, I’ll ask someone to supervise y’all.”

“When is the train com—”

Now.

“OkaybyeStar!”

Their feet quickly scratched and tapped the sand on the floor, or what we call “running”.

As soon as they got to the station, the guys inside the train pulled them up without communication. 

They didn’t have a second before the train began moving, they quickly grabbed onto one of the seats and leaned onto the window.

When they looked out, a view of the yellow desert presented themselves, with some blurs of green and brown. 

As they moved across the desert, the two saw what Kale was talking about. Isolated instances of mines and resources left out in the open, any kind of structure was left abandoned and rotted.

They felt the floor move upwards, then the view of the desert faded into darkness.

There were some rocks that glowed in the dark, but the train was the only consistent source of light in an area of darkness.

Bright red light shined at the end and they found themselves surrounded by lava blocked off with glass.

It wasn’t long until they reached Hotland, and they got off at the Three Star Headquarters.

When Clover thought of Three Star, he dreamed of abandoned buildings taken as holdouts, men whose mouth was covered by masks that stared at them intensively, and stockpiles of weapons and illegal possessions jumbled across a storage. Walking out the station gave them a view of 2 towers linked by a bridge on the top. Stepping out of the station vibrated a wooden clack, the surface of which felt as if a magical force put them upwards and at any moment they would fall into the lava. 

Clover looked for Martlet for instructions. “What now?”

Martlet took a view around the space surrounded by lava, “I don’t know, I have never been in this place.”

Frisk facepalmed, “where is Sans waiting for us?”

“In the MTT resort, I think.”

“M.T.T… resort?”

“It’s in the middle between Hotland and New Home.”

“Hey,” Clover called on one of the workers, “do you know how to get to M—” 

Clover looked to Martlet to finish his train of thought. “MTT Resort.”

“Just take that elevator, and you’ll be there.”

So they did.

…

Why is there an elevator connecting a rebel outpost to a Royal domain? Clover thought as the elevator opened up.

As Martlet led the way, they found themselves at the doors of the MTT resort.

To their left, Sans stood waiting for the two.

“i knew y’all would show up eventually.”

“Sorry, Sans. I—”

“it’s no big deal, martlet.” Sans turned to the two, “here, i know a shortcut.”

As Sans did his thing again, a purple color scheme made the two think of New Citadel.

That was the beginning of their journey, and now they were almost at the end of the underground.

Not that they were going to confront Asgore, but it felt somewhat like an achievement. Watching from Waterfall and now being at this place.

“you alright, kid?”

Clover froze, “yes, this just reminds me of Ne— a place—”

“new citadel. heh, i understand how that feels.”

Sans continued. “anyways, you talk about that place, huh? kid, i know nostalgia as much as you.”

Clover kept on fidgeting the keychain, following his train of thought. “ah, forget about it.”

…Alright?

Sans turned for a thought, Frisk kept on picking their nails while Clover felt the aftertaste of gunpowder. The three stared in different directions of the room.

Why did he invite us if he didn’t have something proper prepare—

“hey. let me tell you a story.”

Alright, let’s hear this.

Sans began, “so i’m a sentry in snowdin forest, right? fortunately, deep in the forest… there’s this HUGE locked door and it’s perfect for practicing knock knock jokes.”

He continued, “i used to have a friend on the other side, but we lost contact.”

“so one day, i’m knocking one of them out, like usual. i knock on the door and say ‘knock knock’. and suddenly, on the other side… i hear a woman’s voice:

‘who’s there?’

‘dishes’” 

He swallowed, “the woman did not respond, but i continued. dishes a very bad joke.”

Sans turned away, but continued speaking. “then she started crying, told me that it reminded her of someone she used to know.”

He looked back at Clover, “i’m not the best at comforting people, so i tried to find a common ground.”

“i told her that this door reminded me of someone too, and that i would always make these kinds of jokes with them.”

“and then she paused. i had assumed she left or something. when i was about to leave, she asked, ‘what was their name?’”

“...Chujin.”

Clover’s muscles tensed, surely that wasn’t…

“she cried harder, audibly sobbing. i asked if she knew who he was.”

“‘he was my husband.’”

Tension around the air felt suffocating. Frisk looked to Clover for a reaction, but Clover likewise froze as hard as they did.

“she told me he would always make knock knock jokes, even if she didn’t find them funny.”

“we eventually decided to stay in touch, and occasionally we would return to the same door.”

“we chatted and chatted, being a sentry was all too boring. but she,” Sans paused.

“she was getting more emotionally unstable. the chat became more like a vent space.”

“she told me about a human that was forcefully kicked out of the underground, said he was the kindest soul there was to exist.”

Cody and Lorien, she must have been going through a lot.

“she told me about different people that she hated. she threw all kinds of tangents about them. admittedly, i wasn’t the best therapist.”

Sans then stopped all in a sudden. The air got thicker, their chest got harder to breathe, some of their facial muscles began to freeze.

Clover repeatedly tapped their feet and spoke up, “So—”

“one day,”

He wasn’t done. Oh no.

“i was checking the forest to inspect for humans. honestly, i just wanted to take a walk.” 

“something caught my eye, a red light shining on the ground of snow.”

Frisk put a hand over their mouth. Clover was left clueless.

“when i went to check, it was someone who had their pants ripped, tears on their face.”

“when they turned to look at me, they were scared for their lives. then that face felt familiar. ‘are you going to capture me?’, she asked.”

The realization clicked. Clover felt compelled to speak up, “did you?”

“i would have, and should have cus it was my job. but the woman in the door told me about the atrocities her leaders would commit to humans. i didn’t.”

Sans swallowed again, “i asked if she was okay, she responded of course not. her hands were crossed, her body was shaking, so i led her back to my house.”

“i introduced her to papyrus, that was before his royal guard craze. there was some difficulties at first, she wasn’t the most enthusiastic. and slowly but steady, they made progress.”

“we helped to build her own place in lower snowdin, she would come to gribby’s often for a chat. life was good.”

“one day, i felt brave. i decided to introduce her to the woman in the door.”

The letter… It all makes sense now. He was the third party. 

“it was hard to introduce a human to someone who was told to hate humans.”

“She didn’t hate humans, did she?”

“she hated this one human, and always rambled on about her.”

Clover insisted. “No but she—”

“what mattered was that they had a tense beginning, whatever reason you want to put for that.”

It was because she was royalty, get your reason right.

“but slowly, cer— the woman,”

“Stop beating around the bush,” Clover called him out, “Ceroba was the lady in the door, Chara was the human. They eventually became friends, now explain wh—”

“you’d be dead if it wasn’t for me.”

Clover released a frantic laugh, Frisk begged Clover to calm down.

“Then I’ll rather die.”

“Chara should have left you abandoned.”

…

The particles felt as if they were enlarged.

“you know when you were kicked out of new citadel, ceroba asked so dearly whether i could watch behind your back.”

“And you didn’t accept, because it was Chara who watched my back.”

“but who was watching your back now chara was captured because of you?”

“Oh so there are more stalkers who are following us without caring to help. Don’t pretend to take credit for things you haven’t done.”

Frisk nudged Clover, they whispered, “maybe it’s better to leave.”

“We’ll take our leave, but don’t think anyone owes you a favor, old man.”

Sans stared at them patronizingly while they took their leave.

Expecting Martlet to be waiting for them, now they had to return on their own.

…

When they stepped out of the train,  all that he could think about was the conversation. 

Not about Sans, of course. It reminded him of Chara’s sacrifice.

If Clover didn’t feel right before, this time he hated the legacy of her sacrifice, how he was a pawn in all of this.

He felt that it wasn’t right that he had barely escaped fate due to a sacrifice. He wanted to break that legacy, and have Chara enjoy her life without having to live for Clover to reign free. 

Then, Clover remembered what day it is tomorrow.

After getting back onto their house, he immediately reached for their phone.

“Clover, what—”

“Hello?”

“Ceroba, I need your advice…”