Undertale: Reason to Live

Chapter 19

The trio walked through Waterfall searching for Undyne.

Frisk walked slowly as he started enjoying his surroundings for the first time in forever. The lights on the cave's ceiling, the echo flowers, and the water warmed his heart.

"Enjoying the view, kid?" Sans asked.

"Yeah," Frisk said. "I've always liked this place. It's beautiful in here."

"Where could Undyne be?" Papyrus asked.

"Why don't we check at her house, Papyrus?" Frisk suggested.

"That would be too obvious for someone as cunning as Undyne," Papyrus replied.

"Where else would she go, Pap?" Sans asked.

Papyrus froze for a second and said, "I…don't know."

"Maybe we should spread out, so we can look in multiple places," Frisk said.

"Quiet, I have to think," Papyrus said. "Where could she be?"

"You know her the best out of all of us, Pap," Sans said. "What would Undyne do?"

"Her house is literally right there," Frisk said. "We should just go ahead and…"

"Hush…." Papyrus said. "Let me think…"

Frisk rolled his eyes and started walking ahead without them. He pulled off his sweater, tied it around his waist, and walked towards Undyne's house which was only maybe 100 meters away.

Unfortunately, he didn't get 100 meters before an enemy approached him. It was Aaron, the horse merman.

"I'm ready for a battle, human," Aaron said. "But it looks like you've endured one already."

Frisk froze in place. He had been hoping this wouldn't happen anymore. He wasn't ready for another battle. Frisk couldn't risk it. He tried running past him as he did all the other enemies in the Ruins and Snowdin, but Aaron only moved into his path.

"It's your move, human," Aaron said with a smug smile.

"Please, go away," Frisk begged. "I don't want to fight you."

"Wow! Spunky! Love it. Whew. I'm sweating!"

Aaron flexed his muscles and his sweat flew straight towards him. Frisk dodged as well as he could to avoid the sweat, but one managed to burn his shoulder knocking his HP down by one.

"Your move, human," Aaron said flexing and waiting.

"What do I do?" Frisk prayed.

"Interact with him without actually fighting," Frisk heard Him say.

"How?" Frisk asked aloud.

"Your move, human," Aaron repeated while he flexed.

Not knowing what else to do, Frisk started flexing, too.

"Flexing contest? Okay, flex more," Aaron said with a creepy smile.

Frisk flexed back.

Aaron flexed again, and muscular arms flexed out of nowhere to attack Frisk who once again had to dodge as best he could.

Even though he was knocked down and lost another point, Frisk stood up and simply flexed back.

"You're determined, kid," Aaron said.

"FRISK!" Frisk heard Papyrus' yell at the top of his lungs.

Frisk then felt himself being pulled backwards until he felt his back slam into a bony arm that wrapped around him and held him against his side.

Frisk looked up and saw Sans say, "Crawl back into the river you came from, creep. The kid's with us."

"I see when I'm not wanted," Aaron said turning away with a wink. "We'll resume our contest another time then, child. Ahhhhh!"

Suddenly, bones flew in all directions towards Aaron. Aaron dodged just in time and hopped off as fast as he could.

"Get back here, monster!" Papyrus yelled while taking off after him. "Come and pay for your crime!"

As soon as Aaron was out of his sight, Sans let go of Frisk and said, "You alright, Frisk?"

"I lost a few HP, but Sans, I discovered I can interact with enemies without fighting," Frisk said excitedly. "He told me so."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah, I don't have to fight them. Wearing them down until I can spare them is not the only way to defeat them! I never saw that before. I mean, I did that with Napstablook, but since he's not mean, I thought it would only work with him. It might not. I can do other things to get the monsters' attention. I don't have to fight at all. If you guys didn't come, Aaron may have just given up eventually or…"

Sans waved his hand to show Frisk's stats and said severely, "Or he would have killed you before he got to that point. I told you not to wander off by yourself, kid. It's too risky for you right now. I know you could handle it before but look at how low your stats are. Hell, we don't even know if your determination has recovered enough to create a save for you to go back to if you died. One strong hit from a stronger monster could end you. You ain't doing that again until you're better. Got it?"

"But Sans…"

"Got it?"

Frisk sighed and said, "Got it."

"Good," Sans said putting his arm around him and walking forward again. "Let's find Papyrus and get him to heal ya. Try to fight a monster by yourself again and I'm taking you home."

"Got it," Frisk said.

"As for the whole 'finding other ways to interact with monsters' thing," Sans said making Frisk perk up in response. "I think you're onto something there. You should try it. It sounds like promising advice."

Frisk smiled and felt his HP go up by another point. Then, he felt Papyrus' two gloved hands on his shoulders healing his wounds by the two other points he lost. Once he was healed, Papyrus picked Frisk up and turned him around, so they were looking in each other's eyes.

"I don't know how to feel!" Papyrus complained. "I'm happy your HP has risen, but I'm mad at you for running away. What were you thinking?!"

"I'm sorry," Frisk said. "You weren't listening to me, so I went off to look for Undyne at her house by myself."

"Why?"

"You were getting on my nerves…"

"That's no excuse! You shouldn't have done that! You could have died!"

"I know! Come on, Papyrus! Sans already yelled at me…"

"Well, I'm yelling at you too, because I'm your big brother and I care! Why didn't you ask for help when the monster was attacking?!"

Frisk paused for a moment and said, "I don't know. I didn't even think about it. I guess I'm not used to having anyone to call for help."

"Well, from now on, you have to call for help!" Papyrus yelled. "We're your shields. It's our job to protect you now! You don't have to endure it by yourself anymore! Got it?!"

Frisk smiled and said, "Got it."

"Good," Papyrus said putting Frisk on the ground. "Now, let's go to Undyne's house!"

"Finally," Frisk said walking ahead of them.

Sans froze feeling unexpectedly touched by his brother's words. Papyrus walked past him, turned to him, winked, and then kept walking.

Sans smiled and felt his own HP raise by another point before following them.