Once More With Feeling

Dust And Pain

"MAYA!" 

She heard the shrill scream even before she came fully back to her senses, still half stuck outside her body. 

As soon as she could, the girl ripped her eyes open, terror flowing through her veins. 

Her blood froze. 

How- How was this possible? 

Her head whipped around, eyes scanning her surroundings frantically. 

Where was- 

"Sans!"

Staggering, Maya got to her feet, ready to sprint over to the unconscious skeleton. She made it all of two steps before a fist painfully collided with her nose, the impact enough to send her tumbling back a few feet. 

All at once, her knees and feet gave way, forcing her back to the ground. 

Tears swarmed her eyes, vision blurry and unfocused. 

When the girl touched her face out of reflex, her hand came back bloody. 

Great. Just awesome.

How was there one left? 

Heartbeat loud in her ears, she let her teary gaze wander over to the huge shadow that loomed a few feet away. 

They had counted, right? 

She shook her head to clear her messy thoughts and stumbled back to her feet, shaking the stupid dizziness off. 

She had to get to Sans. 

How did that human even defeat him? Sans was one of the strongest monsters in the Underground, for fucks sake! 

And where was Grillby? Where was everyone else?

Bright green eyes fixated on the human, a mountain of muscles, one of his hands still in a fist. 

His thin lips were raised in a smirk, and Maya felt a cold shudder run down her back at the sight of icy blue eyes, watching her with a hawk like precision. 

Those eyes. She knew them. 
And she knew that smirk. 
She had seen both of them before. 

But where-?

His left foot slid back, ready to catapult his body in Mayas direction at the smallest movement. Skilled fingers worked quickly on releasing the knife out of its holster against her thigh. 

Why wasn't Gaster back yet? 

For the fraction of a second, Maya stopped, knife pulled halfway out. 
He wouldn't be stupid enough to try and overpower someone without telling her about it, right?

A small voice in the back of her head laughed loudly, as if to tell her that yes, that was definitively something the skeleton would do. 

Sadly, the voice belonged to herself.  

Never letting the human out of her eyes, Maya preventively called her magic forth, ignoring the way her stomach churned and her muscles screamed out in protest. 

But even after a few moments, nothing happened, nothing answered her call. 

She was empty, staggering and tumbling on her feet, vision dizzy at the ends. There was no power left to call any flames. 

That realization left her cold, fear gripping her heart and soul all at once. 

"What do you think you're gonna do with that toothpick, girly?", the guy laughed, rolling his sleeves up. "Those.. things may have been a challenge for me, but you? You're just a little girl!"