The Tables Have Turned - Undertale Fanfiction

11 - Where?

~ Austin's P.O.V. ~

I was still surprised to see that I had actual skin and flesh covering my body. It was very pale, so it didn't feel too weird to me, but still. I wasn't actually supposed to be a human, but then again, what choice did I have? No way Frisk would listen to a shadow. Well, listen? Is that even the right word? My shadow form is incapable of speaking. It can interact with the material world - I'd established that - but that wasn't going to be helpful. I could make vague moments with the form itself but Frisk didn't know sign language and there were only two others in the entire Underground who did understand it and they both didn't know I was still around and neither did I know where they'd gone. Okay, I knew where one of them was. Family members always find each other if their bond is strong enough, don't they?

I was still slightly amazed by the fact that I now had actual skin as I heard the door to Frisk's bedroom creak slightly, meaning she'd finished changing her clothes. I quickly threw my shirt and vest on the ground and put on the sweater.

~~~

Toriel walked with us until we reached the exit of the Ruins. She hugged Frisk, who then pushed open the door and headed off. The heavy door was slammed shut before I could pass through and Toriel put both her hands on my shoulders to stop me.

"Blue." Uh-oh. She referred to me with my last name. That meant I was in trouble, didn't it? "Will you look over Frisk for me? My husband trusted your family so I do, too. Please keep an eye out for her." I didn't want to jump my classic excuse - the fact that I hated making promises - so I promised her I would. Toriel thanked me by smiling as she ruffled my hair - which made it messier than it had been already - and she turned around to walk back to her house.

Using all my power I pushed open the heavy door to leave the Ruins and I saw Frisk in the distance. She'd stopped at Sans' old sentry station and I could see tears in the corners of her eyes. I don't know for sure, but I think she was whispering "sorry" repeatedly. When she saw me approaching, she quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her right hand and she continued walking and pretended not to have seen me approaching.

Once we arrived in Snowdin, we both were left speechless when we noticed that all the lights in town were out. That wasn't the usual case, was it? I hadn't been to the Underground for nearly a year, but still, Snowdin was the Underground's NYC; The city that never sleeps. Except for the fact that Snowdin was more of a town.. or village. And we didn't have a sewage system with epic mutated ninja turtles and a fighting rat man. And we basically were the surface world's sewage system and the monsters were the mutants. In any case, those are.. details. Not relevant to the topic.

Hestitating, I said "Hello? Anyone around?" as we walked to Snowed Inn. But nobody came.

"It was like this last time, too," Frisk sighed and I saw tears in her eyes again as I glanced over at her. Where could everyone have gone? Did they flee because of.. Chara? No.. that couldn't be it. Frisk was here with me, and Chara couldn't roam around long on her own, right? Perhaps were they all secretly working with the Lockets and preparing the Barrier? It was eerily silent and, to say the least, I was freaked out and even Frisk seemed to be; she walked slightly closer to me than she'd done previously.

We checked every house, but to no avail. Snowdin was a ghost town, even the inn was empty and neither Grillby nor the Riverperson were anywhere to be found. Frisk explained that the Riverperson was gone the last time, too, but.. Grillby wouldn't have himself turned against us, would he? No way. It didn't seem right. Far from. And Frisk clearly was thinking the same as me. Of course, they - everyone who lived in Snowdin - could've been on the surface. But Grillby's never was empty, even in the midst of the night Grillby himself would be there. I think he was the only heat source the town had, because now that he was gone, Snowdin felt a lot colder than it usually was.

"Do you have any idea? What in the world is going on?" Frisk asked me. I was about to ask her the exact same question so I was completely clueless. I shook my head as I sighed and mumbled "Nope." under my breath.

As we left Snowdin, I called out one last time. But, just like the first time, nobody came. Honestly I didn't really know what I expected, either.

We left Snowdin behind us and the usual blizzard kicked up. Frisk shielded her face with her hands, and so did I, and I had to follow closely behind her, since I couldn't see anything due to the white flurry that blurred my vision and my sense of direction wasn't too perfect either.

~~~

Once in Waterfall, I suggested to listen to all the echo flowers. They could've picked up something and that would probably help us a little. I offered to split up - that'd be twice as fast - but Frisk refused. Maybe she didn't trust me enough just yet. Though, it had been less than 12 hours since I had introduced myself to her, so I had to accept that she didn't trust me entirely. And, actually, it was good that she wanted me not to wander off on my own because that meant "keeping an eye out for her" was a little easier.

I was tired and I had been using my magic for too long, and I was scared I'd unwillingly have to switch back to my shadow form to recharge and scare the heck out of Frisk along with that. In broad daylight that might have been acceptable - less scary, at least - but we were in a cave structure with water and voice-recording flowers and crystals that looked like stars and I did not want to give her a heart attack there. Frisk noticed I had started slowing my pace as we examined the echo flowers. It obviously wasn't smart to talk in a room with echo flowers, so she didn't ask anything until we had listened to every flower and didn't get any results out of it.

"Tired?" She asked. I thought my voice was already fading away, so I simply nodded. "Didn't you sleep in the train?" I shook my head. "Do you want to sleep? I'll bring you back to the Ruins if you want to." I shook my head yet again. This was the type of magic-tired, not sleep-tired. "You're weird," Frisk giggled, childishly, and she walked to the next room.