Undertale: Reason to Live

Chapter 51

About ten seconds later…

"You better have an explanation for this, Sans," Undyne growled.

"Yeah, Sans. Are you alright?" Papyrus asked while Undyne fumed in the driver's chair.

"Sans, seriously, get off me!" Frisk said as he continued to wriggle his way out from under Sans.

"Kiddo, I do not have the organs or the patience for you to give me a heart attack," Sans said without moving. "What were you thinking?"

Sans finally sat up and allowed Frisk to sit up.

Frisk struggled to remove his football helmet with his numb fingers and said, "It was Undyne's idea, and she said it was safe."

"Duh," Undyne chimed in as he finally got the football helmet off his head. "We were perfectly safe."

"Yeah," Papyrus said.

Sans sighed, took Frisk's hands, started using the little healing magic abilities he had to thaw them, and said, "Look at you, Frisk. You're workin' with finger-sickles here. I think it's time we call it a day."

"Yeah," Frisk said. "They started losing feeling about half an hour ago…Wait! Why do we have to stop?! Undyne said she wanted to do some more training…"


"Uh, Undyne's going to call it a day, too…" Sans said.


"WHAT ARE YA TALKING ABOUT?!" Undyne yelled. "I had a whole day of extreme sports planned. It's only about noon. His HP went up by 2 points from just water skiing. Think of how much higher his HP could go!"

"What are we doing next, Undyne?" Papyrus asked as he knelt to thaw out Frisk's toes.

"Two words, boys," Undyne said. "EXTREME HANG GLIDING!"

Frisk and Papyrus' eyes grew wide with excitement. Sans' pupils dilated in terror.

"Undyne?" Sans asked nervously. "Where are you hang gliding from?"

"Only from the tallest mountain in Snowdin," Undyne said excitedly.

"Oh, man!" Frisk said. "I've never been hang gliding before!"

"I know, right?" Papyrus said. "This is gonna be so cool!"

Sans grimaced and said, "Undyne, this is a bad idea."


"What?" Undyne asked. "Why? It's working. Isn't it?"

Sans sighed deeply and said, "Undyne, you know that little kid that follows you around sometimes?"

"Yeah."

"Would you be doing things like this with him?"

"Hell, no!" Undyne said rubbing Frisk's head. "But Frisk is a tough guy. He can handle it. Besides, he can use his determination to get better."

Frisk smiled back at her.

Sans sighed again. He had to tell them the truth.

"Okay, I don't know how else to say this," Sans said. "Frisk, there's poison in you."

Papyrus' and Undyne's faces froze in shock.

Frisk's heart sank as he replied, "What? What are you talking about?"

"It was in Flowey's nectar," Sans said sadly. "It's something a past royal scientist made to weaken determination in humans. The only way to counteract it is for the human-in-question to rebuild his HP on his own…"

"How?" Papyrus asked sitting down in the boat with his heart clearly crushed having finally healed Frisk's toes. "How could he be so mean? Is Frisk going to survive?"

"I should have killed that little weed myself when I had the chance…" Undyne said gripping the side of the boat very tightly.

"Am I going to die?" Frisk interrupted looking Sans in the eyes.

"No, no, everyone, stop," Sans said to calm everyone down. "He'll live. Frisk has been recovering his HP on his own. That's why he's getting better, but until he recovers completely, Frisk is vulnerable because he can't use his determination. That's why you can't do this right now. It's too risky."

"I understand," Undyne said. "We'll stick to fighting on the ground."

"Thanks," Sans replied. "That's all I ask."

Sans looked at Frisk and Papyrus. He could tell they were both feeling bad.

"Hey!" Sans said to them both while still trying to heal Frisk's hands. "Hey, guys! It's going to be alright. Frisk is at 14 HP. He's gonna get better. You don't need to worry. Cheer up! Today's a good day. Frisk, you're going to officially be a member of the family. Papyrus, you and I will be legally his brothers. It'll be great! Everything's gonna be fine. Okay?"

Papyrus looked at him, smiled, picked up Frisk, sat him in his lap, grabbed onto his hands, and said, "Okay. Sans, allow me. I'm better at this than you are."

"Way to rub it in," Sans said before he noticed that Frisk was still sulking. "Kiddo, are you okay?"

"I'm so damn sick of being weak," Frisk complained. "I hate to be helpless. I want to fight with you guys."

"It won't be forever, tough guy," Sans said rubbing his head. "Just until you're better. Point is, for now, that you need to take it easy and try not to kill yourself the day I've talked Toriel into letting me and Papyrus be your legal guardians. Got it?"

Frisk smirked as Papyrus finally let go of his hands and said sarcastically, "So, I can kill myself tomorrow?"

Sans laughed out loud while Papyrus held Frisk close and said, "No! You're starting to act like Sans."

"My parents always said I had good timing," said Frisk. "I think Sans awakened it."

"I told ya I'm a great role model, Pap," Sans said.

"No, I'm not going to let Frisk turn into you," Papyrus replied. "You're going to stop corrupting him right now!"

Undyne smiled, got in the driver's chair, turned the boat back on and said, "Don't try to stop it, Papyrus. This is Frisk's way of rebuilding his determination."

Papyrus sulked while Undyne drove back to the rental place. Unbeknownst to them all, the Ferryman was watching from a safe distance away.