Against All Odds

Part 1: Chapter 3

The drive to Del Rosa Beach was a generally quiet one; with the stress of the situation, everyone in the group realized it probably wasn't a good idea to get into lengthy discussion, particularly about anything that might cause distress regarding the abduction. The blaring sirens weren't helping either.

Twenty-five minutes into the drive, they pulled into the parking lot for the aforementioned beach. Undyne didn't waste any time; while the others were just getting their seatbelts unbuckled, Undyne was already out the door, careening down the terrain for the beach.

"Move!" she barked at a duo of little girls, who were sitting on the repaired concrete. The girls scampered off and Undyne began to search the half wall for a clue.

"Did you find it?" Alphys panted, finally catching up to her.

"No." Undyne kicked the wall, making a sizeable dent in it. "This is where we were sitting!"

The dinosaur-like monster stared at the wall. "I-I don't think there's anywhere they could've hidden it in h-here... m-maybe they just chose this beach in general, b-but hid it somewhere less obvious..."

Undyne got the stopwatch out of her pocket. "Five minutes." she turned to her friends. "Everyone split up and search this beach from top to bottom!"

No time was wasted as each member of the group split up to search different areas of the shore. Alphys took the surf shacks to the west, Asgore took the rocks to the southeast, Toriel took the broken statue to the north, Undyne took the dock to the southwest, and Sans zipped around from place to place, checking the locations that everyone else couldn't.

"I found it!" Toriel shouted a few minutes later, holding up a starred envelope.

Within seconds, everyone crowded around her as she opened the envelope and unfurled the paper.

HELLO AGAIN.

SO YOU'VE FOUND THE ENVELOPE
YOU'RE ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO HIM
YOU PROBABLY SAW THE SECOND WATCH STOP
AND THE THIRD WATCH START
IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT, IN A WAY
AND THIS MAY BE A TOUGH CONCEPT TO ABSORB
IT'S KIND OF LIKE LIFE, ALL IN ALL
LIVES COME AND GO, IT'S IMPROMPTU
BUT IT'S LIKE A BEAUTIFUL DANCE
PUT ON YOUR SHOES AND FROLIC
AMONG THOSE WHO'VE SAID GOODBYE AND HELLO
THERE WASN'T MUCH TIME FOR GRIEF
IN YOUR CASE, YOU THIEF
YOU'VE MORE REGRETS THAN I
YOU STOPPED SIX "WATCHES" BACK THEN

IN ANY CASE, ENJOY THE HUNT.

"More gibberish." Undyne growled. She glanced at the stopwatch included with the envelope. "...Well, it's giving us a little more than three hours this time. I don't like what that implies."

Alphys stared hard at the paper. "N-No, there's gotta be a p-pattern here somewhere. M-Maybe it's in the first letters? Th-Then again, it'd be highly irregular f-for a killer to do that twice..."

"Well, let's see..." The fishwoman stared at the first letter on each line. "S...Y...Y...A... No. Unless this is some crazy acronym, just no."

Asgore turned from the group for a moment, overcome with a heaviness of heart that only those who suffered with crushing regret could understand.

"What? Asgore? Do you have something?" Undyne asked tentatively.

He hesitated; the thought of having to deal with everyone's judgment-especially Toriel's-over his past sins dug at him like the serial killer's apparent weapon, but he thought about who and what was at stake. His adoptive daughter. Her fiancé. Their happiness. The happiness of Papyrus' brother. And in turn, Toriel's happiness through Sans.