//------------------------------// // Rule of Two // Story: The Multiverse in a Nutshell // by Pennington Inkwell //------------------------------// The three members of their "rescue" party traveled in silence through the underground. Sunset was enjoying listening to the hum of her saber as it swung back and forth through the air, but she didn't show it. It was the only distraction she allowed herself, it kept her mind from racing too far ahead of the present. She was acutely aware when a mitten-covered hand placed itself on her shoulder, and curbed her reflex to strike at the intrusion on her personal space. She kept herself focused on the path ahead, trying to remember the way that Penn had led her on their first trip through. It was only when Papyrus spoke that she found herself forced back to living completely in the moment, as if she had been forced to come up for air from a deep dive. "Sunset Shimmer... are you alright?" No. She wasn't alright, not by the longest stretch of the word's definition. Deep in her brain, the logical and rational part of herself was screaming for her to just stop before she did something she would regret, but she didn't care. It felt like a whisper in the typhoon of emotions wildly spinning in her chest, twisting her insides until they hurt... Easy to ignore. Piece of cake. "I'm fine." There was another long pause, and she could just picture the other two giving each other uncertain glances. They were judging her. It didn't matter, though. They didn't know her. She was functional, she'd get to the end of this before she broke, just like she always had. Papyrus cleared his throat nervously. "I simply ask because, well, losing someone close to you is... difficult. Even for one as great as me..." "I said I'm fine." The curt declaration managed to buy her a few more precious seconds of silence. One question began to rise up through the haze, however. She tried over and over to dismiss it, but she couldn't seem to make it leave the forefront of her mind. She huffed silently, berating herself for perpetuating a conversation she didn't want to have right now. "You lost someone close to you?" "My brother... he manned one of Snowdin's furthest sentry stations." Papyrus shook his head, a melancholy chuckle slipping out. "He was always so tired by the time he got there, he'd just fall right to sleep. I always called him lazy, but everyone knew that he was just trying his best." Sunset nodded. "I'm sorry-" "I just keep thinking about what he would say if he were here... He wouldn't want all of us to be moping over him, you know? He told the most awful puns every hour of the day, and he never wanted to see anyone upset or afraid..." his hand gave her shoulder a squeeze. "So... I'm trying to keep up the same spirit he would want me to have, at least until it's safe for me to feel the way that I want to feel." Sunset knew where this was going, and she already knew her answer. "I don't know what your friend was like, but-" Sunset took her turn to cut him off. "No, this isn't how he would want me to feel. He was patient, he didn't seem to care about getting hurt until the crisis had passed as long as Missy and I were safe. I'm one hundred percent sure he wouldn't kick up a fuss if he were here to talk to me about it, tell me to just let it be." She stopped walking, turning to face Papyrus with the harshest glare that she could muster, practically spitting her emotions like venom. "But if our roles were reversed? If I had been the one to die? He would have ripped through this world until he found some way to make that kid PAY. He said it himself, that he would burn everything to the ground to keep me safe, and I couldn't even manage to keep him safe from ONE. STUPID. KID!" She was starting to cry, the tears were forcing their way up and her throat was swelling shut. She took a deep breath, forcing it all back down again, and focused on the one emotion she needed right now. Soon, the surge of grief had receded enough for her fury to bring it back into her control. "I REFUSE to let them get away with this, and that's what I want! THEY. WILL. PAY!" She glared straight into Papyrus's wide eye sockets, watching as he physically shrunk back from her. Convinced that she'd made her point, she fell back into the pendulum-like stride. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Undyne felt AMAZING. It was like every molecule of her body had been struck by lightning and super-charged. Gravity was practically non-existent, she was as light as a feather, yet more steady than she'd ever been. What had once been a strenuous effort for her now came as easily as breathing. She was throwing masses and masses of spears without so much as breaking a sweat. It was like every limit on her body and magic had been removed, that she could do whatever she wanted just by thinking it. It was enough for a giddy giggle to escape as she chased Frisk throughout the MTT Resort. She was definitely fast enough and strong enough to catch them, now, but a few painful encounters with the walls and ceiling had informed her that she still needed to get used to this new level of strength, so she was holding back for the moment. Combined with the fact that they seemed to know this place like the back of their hand, they were just barely managing to keep ahead... but they were running out of places to hide fast. She conjured up another spear, this time pouring a little of her overflowing magic into it. The entire length grew blinding in intensity as the head widened into a wicked-looking blade. She grinned and began to spin it, letting it rev for a second before letting it go. Just as she released her grip on it so it could fly free, she felt a twitch in her arm that pulled her off-target. The spear missed the human by a hair's breadth, boring into and through the wall behind them and disappearing from sight. "Hey! Be careful, if we kill them, they just get a free do-over!" Penn's voice sounded like he was speaking just over her shoulder, and she could feel a tinge of anxious worry coming from him in the back of her mind. "Yeah, I'm aware... now..." she muttered. "Seriously, you couldn't have brought that up while we both still alive?" "Would you have believed me?" "Not really. Generally, people die if they are killed..." she muttered sourly. "Well, lucky for us there's a few exceptions, huh?" "Yeah, sure..." she smiled again as she rolled her eyes. She was caught off-guard when the kid rounded a corner into the main dining hall, one of the most open and exposed areas in the entire resort. She didn't so much as hesitate to burst through the doors, shattering them with the force of the impact. "So, got any ideas to finally get us our payback? If they can just turn back time whenever they lose-" "Yeah. Actually, I've been thinking a lot about how to deal with people you can't kill as of late." She glanced around the dining hall, scanning for signs of their fugitive. The doors to the kitchen would have still been swinging if they'd run into there, but they were still. None of the tables had draping tablecloths to hide under, a quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that they hadn't snuck up behind her... "Where did they-" Her body moved without her permission, raising her new shield up and over her head and parrying the incoming blade with a heavy bashing attack. Their knife cut deep into the shield, sending sparks raining down in a spray as Undyne's counterattack slammed into their body. They were sent flying across the room, rolling wildly out of control until they came to a stop up against the far wall. They slumped down, clearly having had the wind knocked out of them. "First rule of horror movies: always check above." She swallowed as she began walking the distance to the human, trying not to let the near-miss get to her. "Nice catch... But warn me before you take over like that, would you?" "Sorry, heat of the moment. Dying twice in one day would just be embarrassing." Undyne rolled her eyes again before her gaze finally settled back on the human. They couldn't move so much as a muscle without her seeing it. She watched as they tried to reach for their knife. She only needed to twitch her index finger to send a spear flying at them, shattering the knife blade to pieces. "You know, believe it or not, we've been thinking about what we want to say to you. Penn managed to come up with something pretty good..." She watched the kid press themselves harder against the wall as she got closer. For a brief moment, she felt an ounce of pity for them... until she remembered the trembling of the monsters she'd hurried along to Alphys's evacuation and saw in her mind's eye the faces of the ones that never made it that far. In the back of her mind, Penn's own fury added the images of the angel and her grievous injury, and how much the kid didn't deserve it. "It's a beautiful autumn night outside... Leaves are falling, crickets are chirping..." Frisk's eyes widened, and Undyne reveled in the look of fear and recognition. Finally, they were going to feel the same overwhelming fear they had struck into the entire underground. "On nights like this, kids like you..." She reached down, grabbing the human by the throat and pinning them against the wall. Every ounce of their combined wrath imbued itself into their next words as both of their voices spoke in unison from her mouth. "Should be freezing in Hell's ninth circle!" She continued to glare straight into Frisk's eyes, her own magic casting a green glow across their fearful features. It took every ounce of her self-control not to impale them on her spears right then and there. Slowly, carefully, Frisk opened their hands and rose them into the air. Surrender. Undyne was disgusted by the fact their circumstances demanded that she accept. She released her grip on their throat, allowing them to fall roughly to the ground. After all of this, their frightening aura was just gone completely. They were simply what they always had been: an angry child, feeble and beaten. "I'm gonna need the left arm for a second." "Fine... Whatever you're planning, do it before I lose my cool," she muttered bitterly. Undyne watched the arm bearing her new shield raise of its own accord, bringing the wide surface to face the human. "You ever watch 'The Rising of the Shield Hero?'" "Nah... I quit when I realized the spear hero was gonna be a jerk the whole time," she muttered. "Why?" The shield began to glow with lavender magic. Ethereal copies of the shield manifested in the air, glowing with the same light. Frisk's eyes widened as they tried to scramble to their feet, but for perhaps the first time, they were just too slow. The numerous shields all crashed into them, threatening to crush their body as they all rushed in at once, pinning their arms to their sides and lifting them off of the ground. In a matter of seconds, the kid was completely helpless, kicking feebly at the air as they tried and failed to break free of their magical bindings. "Not as clean as Naofumi's 'Shield Prison' spell, but it's the same idea..." Undyne chuckled as she walked up to their prisoner, giving the magical shields a knock. They were definitely more solid than they looked, giving the telltale sound of metal striking metal when her gauntlet's knuckles made contact. "Not bad... not bad at all." "To quote the King of Rock and Roll," his voice dipped low and he put on a thick accent, "'Thank you, thank you very much!'" Undyne rolled her eyes as she motioned for the prisoner to follow as she walked towards the exit. "Great, I get fused with a human soul and he turns out to be a giant nerd..." "At least now neither of us are ever going to have to watch anime by ourselves again, right?" he joked in return. That actually was enough to make Undyne pause. She unconsciously reached up and fingered at the pulsating purple heart on her breastplate. "So... about that. Are we really gonna be stuck like this? I mean, it's better than being dead, but..." There was a long pause as a chill traveled through both of their souls. It was strange, being able to 'feel' what someone else was thinking in her own head. She could dig and get specifics if she wanted to, but even without purposefully prying, she could tell that there was a lot going on with him. It was like he was shuffling through hundreds of puzzle pieces, trying to find the one that fit their problem. As solution after solution turned up incompatible, she felt him wearily let the train of thought grind back to a halt. "Wow, so being stuck with me ranks just above 'dead' with you, huh?" "N-no! That wasn't-" "Kidding. I'm not crazy about this setup, either. Let's just say I'm working on it for now, okay? First things first, we need to figure out how to stop Frisk from resetting manually and leading us through all of this again." Undyne nodded, glancing back at Frisk with a frown. "Okay, so... from what you told me, they can just... do-over like this was all a video game? With save points and everything?" "More or less." There was more to it, she knew. It felt like a nagging at the back of her head, but in all honesty, the massive dump of information into her head was still all a disorganized mess. She'd let Penn handle it while she was hunting the kid, and it was clear that most of the information that Penn's soul had brought with him was still a haze for her. She was going to have to trust him on it for now. "So... the longer we keep them from a place they could 'save,' the more of a setback resetting is going to be." "Which means the most logical thing to do would be to reset as soon as possible..." They looked back at Frisk, who was giving them the most hate-laced glare they could muster. "So either they can't reset like this, or there's something they don't want to have to deal with a second time, worth going through all of this to avoid, right?" "Sounds reasonable to me..." Undyne muttered, reaching up to wipe a bead of sweat from her forehead. "Hey... is it just me, or did it get hotter in here?" There was a short pause, and she felt a strange sensation run over her skin that she could only imagine was Penn using her body to sample the atmosphere. "While you ARE hot, it's not just you. It wasn't this hot when we went into the dining hall... "Yeah, that's what I was-" Undyne blinked. "Wait, what did you say?" "It wasn't this hot on our way in. Temperature's rising." "No, the first part..." "What first part?" Undyne sighed, somehow knowing that she was never going to get him to own up to his first statement. "Fine. I'll just pretend I didn't hear... that..." she trailed off as they stepped out of the front doors of the MTT resort. Waiting outside was a trio she hadn't been expecting. It was the other human, Sunset Shimmer, flanked by a frightened-looking Papyrus and Mettaton. "Oh no..." Sunset was almost unrecognizable. Her skin had darkened and reddened in hue until it was almost a shade of magenta. The sclera of her eyes had transformed to an inky black, making her sky-blue irises seem to glow from within with how bright they were in comparison. Her fiery hair seemed to almost actually be on fire, littering sparks and embers into the air as it was tousled by a nonexistent breeze. Just behind her, Undyne could see a red human soul, presumably her own, hanging and exposed to the world like some terrifying, flaming red halo around her head. She somehow had gotten the laser sword back from the kid, and she pointed the red blade at them. Somehow, the weapon itself seemed to be radiating killing intent, she could feel it. She pointed the blade at Frisk, her furious glare tightening. "You killed my best friend..." "Well, there goes any hope of breaking it to her gently..." Even with all her feelings of invincibility with her new power, Undyne felt her soul washed over by a tsunami of terror when the blade of judgement turned back to her. "YOU just LEFT HIM!" Undyne raised her hands defensively. "L-look, it's not what it looks like-" She was cut off as Sunset violently swung the blade downwards, cutting through the stone floor of the cave as if it wasn't even there. Behind her, she heard Frisk reflexively whimper in response. I guess we found out what it was they didn't want to go through a second time... she thought. Undyne could feel Penn's mind racing as her own went to work, analyzing the situation from a warrior's perspective. Sunset was angry, but this was controlled, honed until it cut through any kind of shortsightedness. She wasn't rushing in, she was in control, thinking clearly. They couldn't count on her rage clouding her judgement. Running was an option, it might buy time for them to explain what had really happened, but she was standing between them and the way back to Hotland. Before her mind could offer any alternate routes, the world around them went dark, plunging them into the black-and-white world of the underground's battle magic. There was no backing out, now. The very world around them seemed to have declared it. The only way to end it now was for an offer of mercy to be accepted, or... "Sorry, Penn, but it looks like we're doing this..." Undyne muttered. "Do you think our shields could stand up to-" "No. Whatever happens, Undyne, don't let her hit us OR Frisk... Or it's back to the OTHER deathmatch we just LOST..."