Royal Bullet

by Leezi

Summary:

It's been 10 years since Mettaton took over the Underground. Anne, a 15 year old girl, falls down after trying to check if a message she hears in an old phone she finds is real. Anne arrives at the Underground, oblivious to the dangers in the kingdom, except for bits of information from the message. Throughout her journey, Anne discovers the truth about the Underground with the help of other monsters and she also discovers some things about herself.

Royal Bullet's plot extends parts of Undertale's canon plot, and contains some headcanons of mine.

Special thanks to my beta reader, thelegendofmudkip: https://thelegendofmudkip.tumblr.com/

Notes:

Royal Bullet began as fan-comic pages I uploaded to my Tumblr blog. Lately, I decided to make a written remake for the story, including detail changing in some parts.
I hope you enjoy it.

Special thanks to my beta reader, thelegendmudkip: https://thelegendofmudkip.tumblr.com/

My Tumblr blog: https://leezi.tumblr.com/

Chapter 1: The Phone That Begins It All

“I knew you had it in you” said Flowey manically after being slaughtered by Frisk at the end of the battle. Later on, Frisk just left the Underground, leaving behind all the monsters without their beloved king. When they went on the surface, Frisk ran and without noticing, the phone they had gotten from Alphys slipped from their pocket next to MT. Ebott. After that day, all the monsters’ lives changed in an unexpected and glamorous way.

10 years have passed since then. One day, a 15 year old girl named Anne from a village next to MT. Ebbot decided to travel in the woods around the mountain. Suddenly, Anne noticed the old phone on the ground and she decided to pick it up and check it. To Anne’s surprise, despite the phone being old, it still worked! But what made the surprise even bigger was that the phone had a message in it from 8 years ago. “It’s so weird” Anne thought to herself and her nosy nature made her decide to listen to the message.

Anne didn’t know what to expect, but the message was abnormal: the first person told about how a man named Mettaton took over some kingdom and made it his own paradise. Then, the king himself told about his own achievements, which disturbed Anne. When the third person spoke, this was the moment that broke Anne: that person told of the bad lives of the citizens and how people who don’t like the king’s show tend to disappear. Both the first and the third person were the king’s agents.

“What was that” said Anne in fear after the call ended “where is this phone from?! Just when Anne said that, she noticed the mountain above her and she got reminded by what adults told her about it: those who climbed the mountain never came back. This made Anne assume that maybe those who climbed were still alive and just lived in MT. Ebott. She got curious and decided to check it herself.

It took an hour for Anne to climb the mountain, after all it wasn’t that high. Anne found the infamous cave and went in it. It was dark inside and Anne could barely see anything while trying to find lost people. Anne didn’t see the pit, then she slipped because of a plant that grew on the edge of it and the girl fell down.

Anne couldn’t know that, but at that moment, her journey began.

Chapter 2: Welcome, Darling

Anne’s fall was softened by a bed of golden flowers. She stood up and the realization hit her: The reason those people never returned was because they had fallen down and at that moment, she was one of them. Anne panicked, but then she noticed the phone next to her; it wasn’t broken. Anne was glad of her luck and began to dial to her parents. The phone didn’t connect because it was made in the Underground and couldn’t connect to phones from above, Anne of course couldn’t know that. Upset and scared, Anne decided to keep walking inside the place that was new to her, maybe she could find a way out.

When Anne passed the gate and arrived at an entrance of another gate, a frog-like monster came out from it to greet the human. “Hello human” he said “my name is Ribbito the Froggit and I am the caretaker of the ruins. What’s your name?” Anne was surprised, but she responded “My name is Anne”. Ribbito listened and explained “I will guide you through the ruins, come with me, Anne. Anne hesitated at first and then joined the Froggit. At that moment, Anne noticed that on Ribbito’s purple scarf, there were pink letters: MTT, she decided not to question it.

The two went inside the ruins, there was a solved puzzle next to them. “The old caretaker used to reactivate those puzzles”, Ribbito explained to Anne. As the way continued, more deactivated puzzles were revealed, except a few that were labyrinths and therefore, there was no need to reactivate them. In those puzzles, Ribbito helped Anne to pass without her getting hurt. Inside the ruins there was also a bunch of statues of a guy in various poses: “Who is that?” Anne asked the caretaker. “Oh” he answered “this is his majesty, king Mettaton”. “Mettaton…” Anne thought to herself, “that’s the king from the phone call…” a bad feeling began to grow inside of her. The two continued to walk until they arrived at the house that belonged once to Toriel.

Anne toured the house, she examined the bedrooms, looked at the kitchen and the living room and even tried to open one locked door (unsuccessfully). Finally, Anne looked at herself in a mirror that was next to one of the bedrooms. She looked at her reflection and saw brown eyes, bright hair and the shirt she decided to wear that day: orange with 3 red strips. Anne came back into the living room to see that Ribbito was still there. “What do you think?” he asked kindly, “That’s really nice” Anne replied “but, is there a way to get outside?”

Ribbito nodded and replied “The last human who fell to the Underground did go out somehow” and then asked Anne to wait when he went into one of the rooms. When he came back, he held a small wallet with 50 Golds in it “For you” he said. Anne thanked him and the two went downstairs to the big door. Anne said goodbye and thanked Ribbito as she went to the door. Ribbito wished to alert Anne about the Underground, but he couldn’t because there were security cameras all over the ruins. The caretaker could only tell Anne one thing before she left: “Be careful”. After that, Anne left the ruins, oblivious to the dangers outside.

Chapter 3: His Glamorous Majesty

Anne left the ruins, she didn’t expect what she saw the moment she came out: everything was snowy around. “Wow! How is that possible?” she wondered while examining the snow on the ground with her bare hands. “This place is underground and the snow is real!” Anne didn’t complain though; it was like experiencing the winter again in spring (on April, to be exact). “I guess there are going to be more surprises today”, Anne said to herself and laughed a bit after she passed a little bridge that was placed not so far from the ruins’ exit. She began to believe that her way home would be special. “I wish my parents or friends could see this too…” The snow made Anne forget about the scary information in the message, but only for a short time.

After an hour of walking in the snow and passing some more abandoned and solved puzzles, Anne finally noticed how cold it was, she shivered. Finally, she arrived at a small town that, by the sign in the entrance, was called ‘Snowdin’. Snowdin, like the ruins, was populated by monsters as well; it was the Underground after all. There were posing statues of the king there, too. Also, as opposed to the ruins, huge TV screens were placed between the buildings of the town. “These are a lot of statues…” Anne thought about the view, feeling unsettled by it. “I wonder what there is usually on”. She wondered about the TV screens, all of that felt very wrong to her. Later, the snow that penetrated her shoes while her looking at a Christmas tree decorated with golden glitter and MMT letters in the center of the town, reminded Anne that it was too cold for her to stay outside.

Anne looked for a place she could get into and escape the cold. While searching, she noticed that the monsters around stared at her, full of despise and it disturbed her. Finally, she found a small shop. When Anne went inside, the bunny shopkeeper, like the monsters outside, wasn’t pleased by Anne’s human features. Anne began to get uncomfortable, but she still wanted to buy some food. The bunny was looking for the cinnamon bun that Anne had asked for when another teenage bunny got inside the shop and said: “Auntie, do you think mom will ever be back? It’s been years.”

Anne left the shop without buying anything immediately. What the boy said reminded her of what the third person in the phone call said about monsters that tend to disappear. “This place is dangerous, there’s no doubt about that!” she thought “I have to run away as fast as I can”. Anne walked fast without noticing anything around her. Then, she slipped because of the snow and fell onto the frozen ground.

As Anne stood up again, three figures got closer to her: the one in the center had a humanoid robotic look and wore a crimson cape and a golden crown. He held a trident made of metal and gold in his right hand. The other two who stood to his sides were skeletons that wore suits and sunglasses, one was tall and the other was short. “Welcome to the Underground!” said the one in the middle “My name is king Mettaton and I’m so glad to see another human here, what’s your name, darling?” “A-Anne” Anne stammered, because of her shock. A small rectangle-shaped bot holding an umbrella and a camera in its other hand took a picture of her face. The tall skeleton approached Anne to shake her hand. “Hello Anne, my name is Papyrus and the other skeleton over here is my brother, Sans”. Papyrus looked at his older brother that was distant and cold. “He’s usually more friendly”, Papyrus explained, with a little embarrassment in his voice.

“I believe any human should know the whole Underground So, I’m going to take you on a tour of Hotland” said Mettaton to Anne. “You haven’t been there yet, right? Also, it’s better than freezing here in Snowdin.” Anne, who still shivered, then followed the king, remaining silent, until the four arrived at the boat station. That’s when Anne looked back behind her only to notice a scenario she couldn’t even imagine: A rabbit stood a bit farther from the station, when two knights appeared to capture him, holding axes. Anne approached the king and said “That’s really kind of you, but you don’t have to do all of this for me”. She wanted to stay away from him and run away. “Oh, don’t worry about this” Mettaton shrugged Anne’s worries off “I would do everything for humans.”

Anne understood she couldn’t escape and got on the boat when it arrived. The four were on their way to Hotland.

Notes:

My Tumblr blog: https://leezi.tumblr.com/

Chapter 4: A Tour and a Pastry

The boat finally anchored in Hotland. It was a good change for Anne, who had already lost patience with Mettaton’s questions; all of them were about human lives above the surface. “Have you got questions of your own to ask me about the Underground?” Mettaton asked after Anne answered his questions. “No, your majesty” That was, of course, a lie: Anne did have a question but, it was about details from the phone call. Mettaton didn’t know about Anne owning the phone, so it was better not to ask anything related to it, Anne thought.

From the moment all the four of them left the boat, Anne was upset about deciding to wear a long-sleeved shirt that morning. The temperatures in Hotland, as the name suggested, were very high. The combination of high temperatures and exhaustion, spoiled every part of the tour for Anne; she was too distracted and couldn’t enjoy the the lava-inspired views. Her only thoughts were about the chance to get some sleep; she was tired of the day. During the tour, Anne also noticed that Mettaton wouldn’t let her walk by his side, but behind his agents. She heavily suspected that the king didn’t trust her.

After an elevator ride, the group arrived at a lair and next to it, there was a bridge that went around said lair. “We’re going to use the bridge now, Anne.” Mettaton explained her kindly. In the entrance to the lair, a little spider lady ran a bake sale. “Would you like to buy a spider donut?” she asked Anne “It’s only 50 Golds!” Mettaton noticed the spider lady and told Anne he “wouldn’t touch any of those gross things” if he were her. This statement insulted the spider lady deeply and Anne noticed that, which woke a sense of rebellion within her. As a result, Anne spent all the Golds she had to buy a spider donut. “Have a good day!” the spider told Anne. It was easy to assume that she was grateful for finally encountering a kind and polite person.

Then, Anne followed the king and his agents on their way to the bridge. She looked behind and noticed the spider baker was still showing a genuine smile. “That was the right thing to do” Anne thought to herself - seeing the spider baker happy was worth it.

Finally, the four arrived at the hotel building, good news for Anne who was really tired by that point. Mettaton presented the place to her: “Welcome to the MTT Resor- Who made this graffiti?!” A graffiti of the word “Hell” in red letters appeared on the MTT sign. “Sans, I order you to find that filthy criminal!” Mettaton said to his agent that only nodded in response.

Inside the hotel, Anne looked at the Mettaton-shaped fountain. “That design is narcissistic” she thought. Mettaton gave Anne a key for one of the rooms, said good night and continued with his agents to the castle. As the agents arrived at their own place, the king continued to walk by himself to the throne room. There he approached the statue of Alphys, his best friend that was never found.

Meanwhile, after she ate her spider donut (which tasted just fine), Anne checked the hotel room. The bed was giant and took most of the room’s space, there was a weird rectangular-shaped lamp and on the other side of the room on the dresser, and a giant cologne bottle stood on the other dresser, also rectangular-shaped. Anne read what was written on the bottle: MTT Scent. Out of curiosity, she opened the bottle and smelled its contents - MTT Scent wasn’t her cup of tea.

Anne then went to bed and covered herself with the blanket, which she found smooth and warm. She examined the phone one more time and noticed the big yellow button on it. Anne pressed the button: it made the tip of the phone’s antenna glow yellow. “I guess that’s a flashlight” Anne thought when she put the phone on the dresser. She was too tired to think farther about it. Before Anne fell asleep, she thought again about the message in the said phone: “The phone call proved that the king was a terrorizing tyrant, but he was so kind and polite to me today. On the other hand, I have seen knights capturing a monster and I guess these are knights that obey the king’s orders. Something isn’t okay in this kingdom and I should be careful”. Then, Anne fell asleep.

Chapter 5: Fake Glamour

The following morning, Anne woke up and started to plan her escape: “It’s early in the morning now, so I can get out of the hotel and escape. Maybe he won’t notice”. Anne really hoped king Mettaton won’t notice her leaving, she had a bad gut feeling about him.

Anne came to the hall with the same narcissistic fountain and was on her way to leave the place when a familiar voice sounded behind and made her jump: “Good Morning, Anne!” That was, of course, king Mettaton with his skeleton agents; Anne’s plan failed. “I wanted to inform you” continued the king, the happiness in his voice was clear “that humans who fall to the Underground, can join my fan club for free!” Mettaton passed Anne a Pen and a contract paper of the fan club.

Anne’s father had always told her to read the small print before signing a paper, so she did with the paper she got from Mettaton. Then she noticed a clause she didn’t like: the club members had to promise loyalty to king Mettaton. Anne refused politely and gave the paper and the pen back to Mettaton. “What’s this?” he asked “is something wrong?” Then he noticed the phone Anne held and recognized it: that was the same phone the other human used to defuse him in the battle 10 years ago. He began having suspicions about the new human that arrived. Mettaton refused to risk himself and decided to take action.

“Bring me the phone, now!” said Mettaton aggressively to Anne. “What?!” she said in surprise. “Now!” he said again and Anne lifted her left hand so she could pass the phone, shaking in fear. She didn’t understand why Mettaton became aggressive all of a sudden. Then, her shaking hand pressed the yellow button by accident: a yellow bullet came out of the antenna and hit Mettaton right in his core. The hit made Mettaton collapse and fall to the floor. Anne quickly approached Mettaton as his agents helped him to stand up again “I’m so sorry, t-that was an accident, I didn’t mean to”. That didn’t matter to the king that has already decided what Anne was. “Assassin!” He shouted as he was holding his trident again and began to chase Anne that started to run away.

Anne came out of the building and hid behind one of the walls. She waited, willing for Mettaton to come back inside. “Why isn’t he going away already?” Anne thought while the king patrolled around the area, she began to realize her choice for a hiding place wasn’t the best. The fear grew inside so much that she could hear her own heartbeats, “Please go away already!” Anne kept wishing. Mettaton got closer to the wall Anne hid behind and, at that moment, she considered seriously using the bullet function in the phone against him again, as a self-defense. Suddenly, Mettaton decided to go back inside.

When he did, Anne said to herself angrily “All I had to do was be careful and I failed at that” and escaped. During her escape, Anne questioned for a moment Mettaton’s intentions for suddenly leaving his searching after her but, she had no time to analyze it at that moment. She kept running, making sure no one was around.

When Mettaton came back inside, his agents stared at him, shocked. “Never mind” he said “I have another solution for this and an excellent chance for myself. Bring the News setting!” The king realized he got a chance to boost his own popularity as a ruler among the monsters, who weren’t known for liking humanity.

Anne looked for the exit from Hotland. She couldn’t use the boat again, the river man could hand her over. She began to walk when suddenly, breaking news appeared on the screens. Mettaton appeared on there and reported: “A human assassin walks around free. She must be captured, dead or alive!” Then, a photo of Anne’s face- the photo the bot took in Snowdin, appeared on all of the screens. Under the photo there was the word “Wanted”.

Chapter 6: Surprising Shelter

As the report ended, a yellow heart appeared on Anne’s chest. “What is this?” she asked herself, surprised. Then, at that moment, she noticed monsters that were coming to capture her, some of whom were knights with swords and spears. Anne had to think quickly about a way to prevent the monsters from killing her. She shot bullets from the phone again, this time intentionally. The bullets didn’t cause damage to the monsters like the bullet that made Mettaton collapse, but they did distract them, so Anne could run.

Anne ran without thinking. If she stopped, she would be killed by the monsters or, be captured and get killed by the king himself. As she ran to other areas in Hotland, more monsters appeared which meant, the report became well-known pretty quickly. Anne realized at some point that she had to find a place to hide, a place where there were no monsters who wanted to capture her. After a few minutes of running, she noticed a lair; it was dark inside, so Anne assumed there was nobody there. It was the perfect shelter for her.

Anne ran into the lair to hide from the monsters, she didn’t know she had seen it before, nor did she notice the bridge next to it. Anne entered and stopped running so she could rest but, all of a sudden, her feet got stuck in a spider web. Then, she heard a voice from the dark: “Interesting, the human assassin arrived at our lair specifically”. A youthful laugh sounded and from the dark came out the spider lady from the bake sale. Anne let out a scream but then, the spider lady said “Just kidding, I hate the king too” and brought Anne a cup of tea. Anne, not daring to drink the tea, asked in self-control, despite the fear that grew inside of her, knowing she was trapped in a spider web “How can I know you aren’t planning on handing me over?” After what happened with the king, it was hard for her to trust anyone in the Underground. In her view, under these circumstances, anyone could kill her.

The spider lady thought for a moment about a good proof for her not having any malicious intentions; she realized she accidently scared the human before her too much. Then, a good solution arrived all of a sudden from the outside: a Royal Guard member approached the lair. “Go and hide here” said the spider to Anne while untying her from the web and pointing to a distant spider web that was hanging from the lair’s ceiling and Anne hid behind it. The spider gave the other spiders a signal with one of her six hands when the knight was about to get inside. Giant cobwebs were sent towards the knight and were wrapped around him. The spider lady gave another signal and a beast that looked like a combination of a cupcake and spider began to run towards him. The scared knight ran away, while trying to untangle the spider web that wrapped around his arms.

The spider later noticed the fascinated look on Anne’s face and the open mouth, she told her kindly: “We would never hand over someone who showed kindness to us. My name is Muffet, by the way. What’s your name, human?” Anne then introduced herself to the spiders around her. The cupcake spider arrived and began to sniff Anne “This is Cupcake, my pet” said Muffet “He’s dangerous only when he’s asked to be”. Anne calmed down and soothed Cupcake’s head. “Not everybody in here is dangerous” Anne thought to herself while Cupcake soothed her hair with one of his legs as a response to her previous action. She finally felt safe in the Underground; it looked like Anne finally found shelter from the threats of the outside world.

Chapter 7: Story of a Resident

Notes:

Happy 6th anniversary!

Anne and Muffet talked with each other while drinking tea. They were both eager to know the story of the other. “So, why does the king think you are an assassin?” Muffet asked Anne. Anne replied “I pressed this yellow button by accident” and showed Muffet the phone “and a bullet came out of the antenna and hit the king right in the center of his body. That made him collapse and fall to the floor”. Muffet suddenly realized “I recognize this phone! The other human used it against Mettaton in a bottle 10 years ago; it was aired all around the Underground”. Then another thought came to Muffet’s mind “That’s a bit weird Mettaton collapsed from only one bullet. When the other human used this phone, they had to shoot a few bullets only to take Mettaton’s arms off and even then, he didn’t collapse.”

Anne had nothing to say, that sounded strange to her as well, so she decided to ask Muffet about her own story: “What is the reason you and your family hate king Mettaton?”

Muffet began to tell her a story: “This happened 9 years ago, if I remember correctly, most likely I do because this is a terrible memory and the worst ones are always the most memorable. This was the year Mettaton broke into the ruins, where some of my relatives used to be stuck in. I was excited when this happened because that meant my relatives could find a way to move to Hotland without the cold of Snowdin killing them. I immediately came to the king to ask for help, but he didn’t care because the spiders don’t worship him. That was the last straw for me, because Mettaton was responsible for the economic collapse here in the Underground.”

“So, what happened afterwards?” Anne asked, her frustration towards the king grew bigger the longer she listened to Muffet’s story.

“I decided to take action” Muffet answered. “I wore warm clothes and risked my life as a spider by going to Snowdin all by myself so I could take my relatives and move them safely to Hotland.” Memories of frostbites covering her feet came up to Muffet’s mind while telling her story and they made her cringe a bit. “The thing that prevented my death was the warmer temperatures inside the ruins when I entered there.” Muffet continued “At least, my family is reunited.”

Anne had nothing to say, she was terrified of the king’s apathy, which made Muffet risk her own life and almost die. Anne came face to face with the true nature of the Underground under Mettaton’s rule: Mettaton as a ruler only cared about himself and ignored duties that didn’t involve him. That conclusion made Anne sick.

“Since then” Muffet broke the silence “I have opposed the king in any way I can without risking anyone in the lair. First, I broke my own cellphone after returning with my family from the ruins. I don’t know if Mettaton can track cellphones or not, but I didn’t want to risk myself knowing he owns a Lab. Second, I have another way to oppose tyrants, look at this!”

Muffet took a stone from the ground and stood on the edge of the exit from the lair. “This way, the cameras can’t record my actions and sometimes, I even manage to hit them!” she explained excitedly. Then, she threw the stone towards a TV screen outside. The stone hit the screen and broke it. Muffet burst out laughing and then approached Anne “Are you a good shooter?” and Anne replied “Yes, I play darts a lot!”

Muffet then let Anne try to destroy another screen outside herself. Anne pointed her phone at a farther screen and pressed the yellow button. The bullet that came out not only broke the screen, it made a short in it. That activity, somehow, reminded Anne of the times she played darts with her two best friends, Jenny and Edith.

Anne came inside, proud of herself. “That’s the attitude!” said Muffet to her.

Chapter 8: Unexpected Help

Anne had a dream, she dreamed about a day from a vacation she and her parents had gone to when she had been around 5: Young Anne noticed a giant bug in front of her and it scared her. She almost stepped on it, when her mother stopped her “I don’t think that’s the right thing to do” she said calmly to her daughter. “So what’s the right thing, mommy?” Anne asked. The mother smiled and let the bug go, it joined the other bugs that waited for it. “See, Annie?” Anne’s mother said. “Yeah…” said the young girl both in fascination and realization while watching the bugs with her parents.

Soft pokes woke up Anne from her sleep, Cupcake wanted her to sooth him. She woke up, realizing that it was just a dream and that she had been in the Underground for a few days already. “A dream about a vacation from years ago” Anne thought to herself. “I guess I really miss home.”

“Good morning, Anne” Muffet said happily. Anne was glad that Muffet woke up; she considered her a good friend of hers. “I’ve noticed the TV screens are fixed” Muffet told Anne. “Do you want to help me destroy some propaganda?” Anne agreed, she found this action fun and hilarious. Also, it helped distract her mind and prevented her from thinking of and missing home.

This time, both of them shot and threw stones at the same time towards the TV screens. Anne made sure the bullets hit the screens the same time Mettaton was speaking on the shows. She found this action’s results very hilarious and satisfying to watch, it was much better, in her and Muffet’s opinion, than Mettaton’s brainwashing content.

“Honestly” Muffet said all of a sudden “his content was much better before he was crowned. Well, he’s the only one who was and still is producing this kind of thing” then, Muffet giggled bitterly about the last thing.

At first, it did sound funny to Anne but then, she finally realized how Mettaton could brainwash almost every monster in the Underground.

“Wow Anne, be careful there!” Muffet put down Anne’s arm, who got distracted because of her own thoughts, “You almost shot at a monster.” Anne immediately got focused again, she didn’t want to harm anyone innocent.

After the two girls broke some screens and even one camera, they came back into the lair. Then, they noticed someone was inside. That was sans, the king’s agent, and he stood where the girls had been a moment ago. “How did you get inside?!” Muffet and Anne shouted. Anne took her phone again and pressed the button, sans dodged the bullet quickly. “Woah, chill kiddo. I want to help you two…“

“Why should I believe you, bouncer?!” said Muffet in rage, she began to look for her pet. Anne suddenly realized the agent’s voice was familiar to her “Muffet, wait! I recognize his voice, he isn’t loyal to the king.” Anne let Muffet to listen to the message from 8 years ago. After listening to the message, Muffet wasn’t looking for her pet anymore, but she wasn’t satisfied either.

“Heh” said sans calmly “that’s the message I left for the other human back then. “Anyways, I want to help you two against the king, I have information of my own.”

Chapter 9: That Day-10 years ago

Notes:

Content warning: this chapter contains an implied suicide.

Mettaton walked back and forth in the castle, stressed out. He finally became the king of the Underground after a few days of successful brainwashing with his show and he had a lot of duties to take care of as a ruler. Mettaton stopped for a moment and began to organize his thoughts. As he calmed down, he got reminded of his best friend, Alphys, who had made his dreams come true by building a body for him.

Mettaton realized he hadn’t been a great friend to her and felt bad about it. He decided to find Alphys and apologize, and even ask her to help him rule the kingdom. Mettaton walked out of the castle and went to the lab, this was the last place where alphys had been seen.

On his way, memories went through his mind: all the conversations he’d had with Alphys came up; despite their opposing opinions about anime, it was really fun for Mettaton to chat with Alphys. He still remembered how excited he’d gotten when she had showed him her sketches for the body for him and how he’d gotten even more excited of the EX form. On other days, they would just talk about unimportant stuff, just as friends. “She is really a cool friend…” Mettaton thought with a nostalgic smile on his face. He also remembered the day Alphys had told him about her feelings to Undyne. “I shouldn’t have to reveal it in front of the human in that quiz. That was really rude of me” he thought in deep regret. “I really need to apologize to her. I should have been a better friend” Mettaton realized he shouldn’t have abandoned his best friend just so he could fulfill his own dreams. Considering Alphys had built his body, he had been really ungrateful to her.

“Here it is!” Mettaton finally got closer to the lab’s entrance. He hoped Alphys would accept his apology; he realized how he had missed her during the last few days. “If she accepts my apology” Mettaton hoped “maybe we can be like we were before. No! I’m going to be better than before” he promised himself. Then, the automatic door slid open. The place was quieter than usual. So quiet that the sound of the door opening echoed through the first floor of the lab.

Mettaton went inside to find the first floor of the building to be empty, nobody was there. He decided to look upstairs as well. After all, this was the room Alphys used as a bedroom and also as a workshop for her robotics work. Mettaton looked around, but she wasn’t there either. He became more worried, because Alphys hadn’t been seen anywhere in the last few days. Mettaton stood in the center of the room for a few seconds, confused of the situation.

Mettaton suddenly noticed the shower in the first floor; he approached it only to find the door to be completely open. “This is not a shower…” he said while looking inside, it was an elevator. Mettaton decided to use it, speculating that he would follow Alphys to where the elevator took her to.

When the elevator finished its ride, Mettaton came out of it to discover the True lab. “What’s all of this?!” he gasped in shock and began to navigate in the new place. “Why didn’t Alphys tell me about this?” He asked himself and immediately remembered his ungrateful behavior. Even after she had fixed him and recharged his batteries; he just left the place after a short ‘thank you’. “She has the right not to tell things to me, I guess…”

A sudden encounter with the amalgamated monsters Alphys had accidently created during her experiments with determination, made Mettaton almost fall in surprise, but he stood back in time to get away from them. Later, he checked out the entries on the screens that were hung on the walls around; those explained Mettaton what had been going on all that time in the True lab. “Alphys, I didn’t know you had to deal with all of that” Mettaton thought to himself with a sudden strike of sorrow about the entries.

After Mettaton realized Alphys hadn’t been in the True Lab either and that his research there was useless, he returned to the elevator, back to the outside lab. He began to grow worried; what happened to his best friend? He returned and stood in the middle of the room, bewildered.

At that moment, Mettaton suddenly remembered all that had happened in the days before his coronation. He remembered that the monsters had first looked for Undyne, the royal guard captain, to replace king Asgore but, they never found her. Undyne was the woman Alphys was in love with; she was so dear to her. “Is it related to Alphys’s disappearance?” he wondered worriedly.

Then, he noticed something on the desk - a letter. Mettaton rushed there and took the letter immediately. He opened the envelope and began to read the letter, he recognized Alphys’s handwriting right away:

Dear Mettaton, I’m sorry but I can’t take it anymore…

As Mettaton kept reading Alphys’s letter to him, he realized what had happened during those last days; he finally realized what happened to his best friend and the realization hit him - Alphys was gone and was never coming back.

“I am a terrible friend…” Mettaton said numbly “I wasn’t there for her. Now, she’s gone” his voice cracked. Realizing that, shocked and consumed in guilt and sorrow, Mettaton fell to his knees and started to sob. “I’m sorry Alphys” he said between sobs “I’m so sorry…” Mettaton sat on the lab’s floor for a few minutes. “It’s my fault!” he kept thinking regretfully. “I should have been a better friend to you!”

Later, Mettaton came back to the castle, holding Alphys’s letter; guilt still haunting him. Mettaton couldn’t stop thinking about what he realized when he was in the lab. Suddenly, a voice sounded behind him “Your Majesty?” That was one of the knights from the Royal Guard. “A group of monsters is protesting against your human policy outside, in front of the castle. What do you want us to do about that?” Mettaton didn’t respond, it was simply too much for him to handle at that moment.

“Your majesty?” the knight repeated. Mettaton turned to the knight, screaming “Just capture them, all of them!”

Chapter 10: Revolutionary Information

“Shouldn’t you look for the one who made the graffiti? The one Anne told me about.” asked Muffet in disgust; she couldn’t trust any agent of the king.

“Nah, that was me” sans replied and then, he took out from his black blazer a bottle of red spray as a proof.

“Why didn’t you do anything significant before?” This time it was Anne asking sans, she suspected his intentions; it had been too long, in her opinion, for Sans to pretend being a loyal agent of king Mettaton.

Sans decided to fully explain his own situation: “Not very long after Mettaton’s coronation, 20 monsters that protested against one of his policies, disappeared immediately. I realized that the Underground under Mettaton’s rule was dangerous, so I rushed to the king so he could hire my brother and me as his agents. This way, we pretended we were loyal workers of his. Papyrus and I even had to break into the ruins due to Mettaton’s order.”

-------
9 years ago-
King Mettaton and his two agents went on a patrol in the Underground; it was one of the first patrols that the king had done with agents on his side. After a long walk, they entered Snowdin. At this point, Sans and Papyrus believed it would the last place for Mettaton to check before returning Hotland, they were wrong: Mettaton kept walking. None of the skeletons was sure what their employer’s intentions were.

Finally, the three arrived at the ruins’ locked door. “This door should be destroyed” king Mettaton said with no hesitation “EVERYONE should enjoy the changes I’ve made for the kingdom.”

Both Sans and Papyrus remained silent and stayed, they were shocked of their king’s order. It felt way beyond some boundaries that were accepted in the Underground; Asgore himself had never considered to invade the ruins during his rule.

“Haven’t I been clear?” Mettaton asked his agents with a slight anger in his voice “I said this door should be destroyed. Destroy it now, obey me!” His tone made it clear that it could end really horrifying for the skeleton brothers if they would disobey the new king.

Despaired and worried, Sans and Papyrus summoned bone attacks and directed towards the huge wooden door. It broke in a moment and the monsters inside the ruins heard that as well: “What’s that?!” a panicked voice was heard from the inside. Other scared voices joined immediately after.

A brave Froggit volunteered to check the source of the explosion noise and went downstairs. When the Froggit saw who stood where the door had been placed, he couldn’t believe it: it was the Underground’s king, but not the one he had remembered. “What happened to king Asgore?” he asked worryingly.

“What’s your name, my dear Froggit?” Mettaton asked coldly without answering the question.

“Ribbito, sir.” the scared Froggit answered, while examining with his eyes the two skeleton agents, that wore suits and the sunglasses, by Mettaton’s side.

“Well, Ribbito” Mettaton answered “tell the other monsters inside that the ruins are opened from now on. Also, tell them that there’s a new king here, king Mettaton.”

“I understand, your majesty” Ribbito responded and then, obeyed the king’s order. The ruins weren’t the same anymore.
-------

“I’ve never dared to do anything significant” Sans answered Anne’s question “because Mettaton talks all the time about ‘fixing bugs’ in his system by himself and something about NEO form. I’m scared, I guess; I don’t want to cause any potential harm to me and especially my younger brother.”

After the last thing he said, it was easy to notice that Sans really regretted all what he had done as an agent. Muffet didn’t say anything, but her silence showed how bad she felt for the skeleton. Anne felt like Muffet; up to that moment she did not know that sans cared for his own family, just like Muffet did. That story presented sans in a different light.

“I saw you, Anne” Sans kept talking to her “First, you became a threat to the king, and then I discovered you joined Muffet and her family, who oppose Mettaton. I’ve seen yesterday, while hiding, how you two destroyed some TV screens. Now I know that there are other people I can trust and plan a revolution with.”

“Revolution?!” Anne asked as her eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes.” he answered calmly “The information I talked about before is perfect for a planned revolution.”

“What’s the information you mentioned before?” Muffet asked him.

“Oh, I was about to get to this” sans replied. “I think the people that disappeared during Mettaton’s rule are still alive”.

Both Anne and Muffet were surprised by this piece of information. “I know some of them! How can you be so sure about that?” Muffet asked excitedly.

Sans explained: “During the first months of Papyrus and I being the king’s agents, Mettaton didn’t let us patrol the castle, not even entering it. He had hidden something. When Mettaton finally let us enter the castle and patrol it, I was patrolling the throne room one day. Then, I discovered there was a wallpaper on one of the walls, that’s pretty odd, considering this was an ancient castle. I moved the wallpaper and discovered a small prison! There was no dirt inside, which meant there were monsters inside not long ago.”

Anne was surprised, but she still had her own doubts: “I’m not sure that means those monsters are still alive. There’s a possibility they’ve been dead for a while.”

“I thought like you at first” sans responded “but I’ve heard Mettaton one day demanding his knights ‘to move them’. I suspect he talked about monsters that disappeared, hidden prisoners.” That was a good argument for Muffet and Anne. “So… what do you think?” sans asked the girls, “Are you joining me?”

Muffet hesitated and then, she agreed. Anne immediately joined her: “me too!”

“I’m glad to hear that” said sans.

“Welp” sans noticed what time it was “I have to go now, that’s the hour Mettaton goes on patrol and he needs his two agents, I guess. I’ll come back tomorrow, see you”. Sans began walking and a few seconds later, he disappeared.

Chapter 11: Trained Trait

Notes:

Hi everybody, sorry for the delay; I've had a crazy week and had to sort things out, but now I'm good.
I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Sans came back to the spider lair the next day. This time no one tried to shoot bullets at him; he was welcomed. “Hyah, girls” he greeted Muffet and Anne “If we want to have even a little chance to defeat Mettaton and free the monsters that opposed him, we all have to be trained enough, so we may be worthy opponents to Mettaton in a battle.

“I want to train you first” Sans told Anne. “Muffet had already been in battle before, so stand in front of me”. Anne did as Sans asked her and took out the shooting phone, so she could be ready for a training battle. A yellow heart appeared again on her chest. “When a monster gets a human into a battle” Sans explained “the human’s soul becomes visible”.

“But why is my soul yellow?” Anne asked and Sans answered her question: “Every soul has a main trait that’s represented by a color. Yellow means, if I remember correctly, justice”. This cleared up Anne’s questions about her soul.

“Now, you have to begin your training” said Sans and then surprisingly, he shouted “Shoot it!” and sent a single bone attack at Anne. This was unexpected for her, and only by chance she succeeded shooting. The bullet hit the bone and made it fall to the ground; the attack then faded.

“That’s weird…” Sans wondered “when the other human used it, the bullets were a lot weaker. “Anne, can you pass me your phone for a moment?” When the phone was passed to him, Sans tried to shoot with it himself, the bullets were much weaker and smaller than when Anne used the phone.

“Oooh…” said Muffet “Anne’s got a special ability!” That discovery was surprising for everyone in the lair, but sans couldn’t stay for long.

“Y’know what?” Sans decided “Let’s just continue with the training. Actually, I guess your ‘power’ is a good thing against Mettaton.”

Anne’s training consisted of shooting and dodging simple bone attacks that Sans sent towards her. This kept going for an hour and then, Sans decided to train Muffet too. Muffet got her chance to show her own attacks; ones that she hadn’t shown during the battle from 10 years ago.

“Look at this!” she said excitedly: Muffet’s special attacks were huge purple cobweb that could capture opponents easily and it really made Sans struggle a bit when he tried to break free from it (Anne couldn’t stop herself from giggling a bit seeing this). Another attack Muffet had was her own hands: six trained fists against the opponent were pretty useful.

Then, Muffet got some help from her pet; which made Sans run a lot in the lair, so he could dodge Cupcake that was really excited by the skeleton.

Later, Sans returned to one last battle against Anne, who shot bullets at simple bone attacks. This time, there were many more attacks and they were much faster than before. Anne missed some of them and got hurt from them (“You’re lucky those attacks are of a weaker kind, Kiddo”).

After two hours of intensive battles, Sans had to leave. Before Sans left, Anne asked him a question: “Is your brother involved in this too? Will he take part in the revolution?”

Sans answered with a cold tone in his voice “No, I don’t want to put my younger brother in danger. So, if the plan fails, he’s safe” and he left the place. This bothered Anne, did this mean he doesn’t care about her and Muffet’s safety?

“Justice as a soul trait” Muffet cut Anne’s wondering “That’s really cool! Tell me, have you fought for justice in the past? This could suit you.”

Anne remembered how her 11 year old self had been trying to help people, to do the right thing. But it stopped after prolonged bullying she had been through by kids who considered her “a nosy and annoying girl”. Since then, Anne had no confidence in herself. “I did once” Anne answered her friend’s question. “But it’s been a really long time”; she didn’t want to talk about the bullying, it still hurt.

“Well” Muffet replied with a wide smile “Now you’ve got a new chance to fight for justice, we’ll do it together and we’ll save people!” “And my bake business!” she added jokingly in the end.

Anne thought about what Muffet said, she was right, “Yes, I can’t wait!” she answered. Anne realized she was in a situation where justice was needed, and she could fight for it, fight for the right thing.

Chapter 12: Under the Bridge

Notes:

Hi, I'm back.
I've been really busy with work the past year, but I'm back now. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Anne and Muffet waited for Sans the following day, but he didn’t show up. This was added to the fact that it was a bad business day for Muffet; this time, none of the Hotland residents even considered to buy any pastry; under Mettaton’s rule, available money only became rarer and rarer for monsters as the days went by and if they had some- they wouldn’t spend it on a spider donut. After Anne was told about the unsuccessful sale, she decided not to bother Muffet, who was very upset; the lair remained quiet and even Cupcake didn’t try to ask for a soothe.

“Anne” Muffet broke the silence “What do you think about us training ourselves until Sans comes?” It was clear to both of them that they had to find something distracting. “If he ever comes…” Muffet muttered to herself quietly while taking dishes and tea cups out of the way before stacking them all next to her. Anne couldn’t ignore the bitterness and disappointment in Muffet’s voice, but she knew that it was better not to say anything on the subject. Instead, she stood up in front of the spider lady holding tightly the shooting phone.

The training began as usual with Muffet throwing dishes and cups towards Anne so she could shoot and dodge them (preferably shooting, of course) but the practice lacked that day Muffet’s recognizable energy and Anne’s fun. In other words, the disappointment of both parties changed the whole concept.

Suddenly, for the first time in 10 years, Anne’s phone rang. “Hello?” she answered hesitantly.

It was Sans: “Hi, using my brother’s old phone. First, sorry for being absent today without saying anything.” Anne immediately let Muffet join and listen “I’m in Snowdin right now. I know it sounds strange, but I think there are more monsters that think like us about Mettaton’s reign, to say the least.”

“Wait!” Muffet shouted in surprise “How can you be so sure about that?”

“Welp,” he responded “you two will need to come with me to the place in Snowdin.” The call ended.

In less than a minute, Sans appeared behind the two girls: “Hyah…”

“Hey-oh, it’s you…” Anne calmed down “How did you come here that fast? I thought you’re in Snowdin.” Sans didn’t say anything and only shrugged, mostly to himself, before explaining the call’s content.

“About what I told ‘ya: last night Mettaton sent me on patrol on my own, around Snowdin. Can’t believe he trusts me that much…” Sans chuckled but after noticing none of the girls was amused, he stopped and continued seriously: “Then, I arrived at that one bridge on the outskirts of town and I saw some light in the woods under it, like some sort of a campfire. Something tells me that if whoever’s there ever supported the king, they wouldn’t hide in the woods.”

“That makes sense” Anne admitted “but, are you sure Mettaton isn’t aware of that residence?”

“Couldn’t be more than I’m now, Kiddo.” Sans answered impatiently “See, the king has documented all the monsters’ addresses around the Underground in the last 10 years. In all of those records, there is no mention of a residence in the woods. Except that one lone shack, of course…I can tell you he isn’t aware at all.”

“Fine…” Anne didn’t plan to argue with him.

“Anyway, are you two comin’?” Both Anne and Muffet nodded in response. “Good, we should go NOW to Snowdin.”

Anne still remembered the harsh cold in Snowdin and the idea of going there again made her feel really uncomfortable. Muffet noticed it immediately and went to one of the inner corners of the lair and then, brought with her a pink coat with faux fur sewn to its neckline and six sleeves, three on each side.

“Wear it.” She told Anne with an understanding smile on her face “As a spider, I know how horrible the weather is there. Feel free to use it as long as you need.” Muffet added before returning to that corner to take one coat for herself.

Later, Muffet returned wearing a similar white coat and Anne already wore hers. Muffet then tied the four extra sleeves behind Anne’s back (“You don’t need to walk around in such discomfort”). At the end, Anne covered her head with the coat’s hood.

“I see you’re ready, that’s good. Now, hold my hands. “Sans told Muffet and Anne and they did as they were told. In a moment, the three were in Snowdin’s outskirts. “Did we just teleport here?” Anne asked but Sans ignored her question and instead, walked towards what he was talking about before: the bridge. Sans then signled Anne and Muffet, who was still shocked by the teleporting, to go and join him on the bridge.

“Do you see the shack right there?” he pointed at a lone shack between the trees of the forest under the bridge. “Now, look north.” Sans demanded.

“I see something!” Anne whispered excitedly “There’s light there.”

“Yes, that’s where I want us to go now. I believe it would be a good idea to befriend those deserters, so they join our revolution against Mettaton.” The excitement almost in Sans’s voice couldn’t be ignored.

“Let’s teleport to the place, then.” Muffet advised.

“I would do so before but, I have one problem.” Sans explained “If we teleport right into the place, we may scare the monsters off and every chance of making them join us would be gone. Especially because I am a royal agent, ‘ya know.”

Suddenly, Anne noticed something moving past them quickly and disappearing behind a lone tree. “Wait, I’ll be back in a minute!” Anne said before running, following the mysterious thing, leaving behind worrying Sans and Muffet.

She didn’t find what she was looking for but, Anne did notice footprints that led to the tree. Then, Anne looked behind it and saw a rope ladder that was hardly hidden under the snow, as if someone had just used it. Also, it seemed like it led to the woods under.

“Sans, Muffet!” Anne called while running back to them.

“Yuck! I hate the temperatures here…” Muffet muffled while tightening her coat’s fluffy neckline and stood on a rock to prevent her feet from touching the snow. “Oh, Anne, you’re back. What happened?”

“Right there, there’s a rope ladder leading to the woods, hidden under the snow. We can use it to go- I’m sure it belongs to the deserters.” Anne explained before Sans and Muffet joined and followed her to the ladder.

When the three finished going down the ladder, Muffet looked around and found an old broken road that led deep into the woods. “You know,” she said, impressed “that’s kind of smart of them to destroy the road; only those who really need it would notice it. I’m pretty sure this road leads to their place” Then, the other two followed her on the road.

Muffet was right: as they got closer to the road’s end, Sans, Anne and Muffet could see a bunch of tents, most of which were improvised, surrounding a big campfire that was probably used as a source of light and heat because of the low temperature.

As Muffet, Anne and Sans got into the camp, a group of monsters surrounded them. All of them held knives, shovels and other heavy objects. Some of them were even ready to use a special attack, using fire. That moment, The three of them understood, they had gotten into serious trouble.

Chapter 13: Trust

“Why are you here?” asked a female grey bunny, holding a sharpened kitchen knife.
Sans panicked and began speaking: “We are on your side, we want to-“
“Liar!” a dog barked angrily towards sans “You are one of the king’s agents, I’ve seen how you patrol with him on a daily basis!” The dog let out a frustrated growl and a loud bark followed almost immediately.
Then, the bunny continued, with a slight mockery in her voice, mostly because of the three unwanted guests: “Look, a human came with them, I’m sure the human-loving dictator sent her to spy on us!” Another monster began to speak “We can’t take any risks, so we have to take you as our own prisoners, you too!” he said to Muffet “You came with the agent and the human”.
“But I’m a spider, I’m going to freeze-“
“Don’t say a word!” the dog screamed.
The bunny forced Sans, Anne and Muffet to one corner of the camp, between two big black tents and made them sit on an improvised seat made of wooden logs.
Sans, Muffet and Anne sat in the corner while two monsters made sure they didn’t try to escape. Muffet was upset and told sans and Anne “On the one hand, the cold is dangerous for me. On the other, if we use that ‘shortcut’ again, we’ll lose the deserters’ trust and they can even leave to a new unknown place…”
Anne began to brainstorm a solution and she had an idea: “I have proof we are on your side!” She called to the two monsters that watched over them. She passed them the phone “Listen to the message” she added to make sure they could understand her intentions.
A group of monsters listened to the message. “It’s a 10-year-old message. On a really old phone…” replied one of them at the end “this isn’t a satisfying proof at all.”
Anne began to stress out; Muffet suddenly had an idea: “Sans? Do you have access to the king’s security footage from the day Anne attacked him? You should use it as proof” Sans agreed and brought up the idea in the presence of some of the deserters. They agreed, but only if one of them would accompany him, Sans didn’t oppose the idea.
The one that accompanied Sans was the dog monster. Sans used a ‘shortcut’ for both of them and stood inside the lab a few seconds later. “The cameras inside are always turned off for some reason” Sans explained to the deserter. Sans approached the computer, chose a specific file and sent it to his own cellphone.
“Are you okay there, buddy?” Sans asked the deserter, who seemed sweaty and kept panting loudly.
“I should have left my coat in the camp.” The dog deserter took off his blue wool coat and tied it around his hips. “I forgot how high the temperatures in Hotland can get…You don’t know where I can get myself some water here, do you?”
“Actually, I do know but, It’s on Hotland’s other side and we don’t really have much time right now; your people need proof and Muffet could freeze over there.”
“Wait! Is that the spider’s name?”
“Yes. Anyway, you should put on your coat again; I’m done getting the footage.”
“Fine.” The deserter wore the coat again over his pink undershirt. Then, the two returned to the deserter camp with the same unexplained ‘shortcut’.
When they came back, Sans showed the monsters the video he sent to himself; it was a security footage that showed Anne accidently shooting Mettaton and later, the king trying to pierce her with his huge golden trident. “They are on our side” said together few of the deserters. Sans, Anne and Muffet calmed down and Anne even sighed in relief.
“So, about the plan we have…” Sans began talking.
“We are not going to listen to you three!” stated the grey bunny “Some of us have been hiding here for almost 10 years because of king Mettaton’s reign of terror. Where have you been all that time?” That was of course disappointing for Sans, Muffet and Anne; they had to find a way to gain the deserters’ trust and gain their help in the planning of the revolution.
Sans suddenly noticed what time it was when he checked his phone’s watch. “Oh no! We have to go back fast to Hotland; it’s the time Mettaton patrols the Underground.” The three used a ‘shortcut’ to the spider’s lair again and sans rushed to the castle.
That day felt like a colossal failure for the whole trio.
“I can’t believe we failed!” Upset Anne said in despair “Why wouldn’t they want to collaborate with us. We all have the same goal to overthrow Mettaton.”
“At least they know we wouldn’t report them to the Royal Guard.” replied Muffet while feeding Cupcake with some pastry. “Honestly, regarding the current issue, I can’t really blame the deserters.”
“Why do you think that way?” Anne asked, her eyes opening widely.
“Would you want to collaborate with a person that after so many years of abandonment, finally decided to come to you just because they need something?”
“When I think about it- no. Even if that person and I would have the same goal.”
“Do you understand now?” Muffet asked.
“Yes…” Anne lowered her eyes to the floor at her feet.
“BUT, don’t lose hope yet!” Muffet kept explaining “It’s going to be long and a bit exhausting but, we can show the deserters we care about them in other ways by doing nice deeds for them. We can start by getting some normal food for them. I’m not really sure how healthy it is to feed on only the things that grow under the bridge.”
“You have a good point,” Anne admitted “we should call sans and inform him of –“
“Not now.” Muffet pointed towards one of the lair’s entrance and Anne looked that way: three royal guards, wearing silver armors with the letters MTT printed in pink on the chest plates, patrolling around the area. Immediately after Anne had seen that, a spider entered the lair, running as fast as it could.
“Come inside, Toof!” Muffet told her sibling who told her something too quiet for the others around to hear. “Everybody else, get away from the entrances.”
“I thought they were scared of Cupcake…” Anne was shocked.
“Toof just told me there are more royal guardsmen than usual today. It doesn’t happen too often but when it does, it’s dangerous for Cupcake; enough guardsmen may work together to capture him. I would never take a risk when it comes to my beloved pet!”
“I understand.” Anne went sitting under one cobweb that was placed deeper in the lair, which was also darker than the rest of the place.
“Good.” Muffet looked outside carefully once again. “It will take some time before we can exit the hiding places and begin making dinner. Anne, would you like to help me with it later?”

Chapter 14: Day in an Agent's Life- part 1

Anne got a phone call from Sans the following morning: “Hey kiddo, I won’t be able to arrive in the near future to the lair. Mettatom began to be really suspicious towards me when I didn’t arrive in time yesterday. I hope we’ll be able to meet again soon”.

 

Sans ended the phone call without any goodbye; knowing clearly that he probably left the human and the spider lady speechless, confused and even angry but, he had nothing better to do if he wanted to save the plan. He put on his tie and sunglasses, his despair at the moment was one of the worst he’d ever had but sans felt he could do nothing against it. Instead, he left his dorms and joined his brother who was, of course, ready way before him, as in every morning before.

 

"Sans!” Papyrus, as usual, was disappointed of his older brother being ‘late’. “I woke up two hours ago and got ready in an hour and had to wait for you the rest. What was taking so long for you this time?”

 

“Papyrus, nothing special, really. I just got a skele-ton of sleep this time, y’know?” Sans winked towards his younger sibling behind the dark sunglasses.

 

“Sans! I swear, if you keep with those bad puns...You know what, forget about it.” Papyrus stopped himself from continuing with the daily rage; it wasn’t important at the moment (not important for Papyrus at least).

 

The taller skeleton sat on the sun-washed floor and invited his brother to join: “Sans, I think I’ve heard you talking with someone in your bedroom-“

 

“I talked with nobody before exiting the dorms and joining you.” Sans responded quickly, pretending to be surprised over the “allegations”, while trying not to sound too stressed over what Papyrus knew well, probably too well. Despite that, it seemed like a huge disappointment appeared on Papyrus’s skeletal face.

 

“If you say so, I’ll accept that…” Papyrus stopped for a second before continuing “Listen, if something’s wrong and you need any sort of help, you can always come to me. Okay?”

 

“Ok. Thank you, bro. It’s really nice of you…” Inside, sans knew that even if he wanted, he couldn’t tell any part of the revolution plan and endanger his little brother.

 

“Everything for the one who got me a job with my idol!”

 

“Wait, you know about-“

 

Mettaton entered the hall and Sans had to end the conversation: “Good morning, darlings and gentledarlings of the whole Underground!” A huge smile appeared on the king’s robotic face; nothing unusual, it was good for the cameras.

 

Mettaton decided to go on his weekly patrol again in the Underground. Sans hated those patrols, they showed just how Mettaton’s power as a ruler went over his head and beyond; he, as a king, used to terrorize the citizens with the help of his agents, Sans and Papyrus, that had to obey him, no matter what.

 

Mettaton, Sans and Papyrus left the castle “I’m glad you learned from your mistakes and this time, you’re here in time.” the king told sans with a wide smirk that held some sort of visible inner darkness. Sans didn’t respond because of a policy by the king himself that said the agents couldn’t talk with the king during a patrol. Mettaton was well aware of that and just took advantage of his own policy for some laughs and mockery when he was bored.

 

After getting out of the castle, the three used the rivermans’s boat and arrived to Snowdin. In the town itself, most of the monsters who lived there were happy to see their king visiting. Another proof for a successful and dedicated brainwashing done with the help of the royalty-owned TV.

 

“How lovely!” Mettaton said dramatically adding an extravagant pose when he noticed that one banner with his own smug face painted on it, hanging on one of the houses’ walls and three posters hung on the walls of other houses around in the same street. “They truly are fans of mine…who could’ve believed!”

 

Suddenly, a red lizard monster wearing a pair of pants, a coat and a yellow beanie approached Mettaton to ask help: “My economic status is at its worst- I barely have money to feed my family, nor myself, as well as paying your taxes. Your Majesty, please help me, as a fan of yours. Make my life a bit easier for once.”

 

Mettaton didn’t react the best for the citizen’s begging, it criticized him heavily. A huge fake smile appeared on Mettaton’s face before answering the poor monster: “A fan of mine, you say. I’ve seen how you ‘worship’ me usually, cursing every tax payment.” Then, the smile was replaced with a furious expression: “if you don’t pay the taxes already, your destiny is going to be worse than anything you could’ve ever imagine!” The monster got shocked and ran away after Mettaton’s threat, he was horrified as well by the fact that the king knew about his private whereabouts.

 

Mettaton later noticed a group of monsters with, in his opinion, an unlikeable attitude. “Surround them” demanded Mettaton from his two agents. All of a sudden, those monsters were surrounded by high white bones; the skelebros’ shared attacks. Then, an entrance was created by two bones disappearing, so the king could approach the group comfortably. “Your attitude is horrifying, it looks SO bad on cameras” he pointed his golden trident towards the monsters “You have to obey and change it. Now!” the monsters then pretended they are satisfied and smiled widely. Then, Mettaton let them go pretty quickly.

 

Other monsters applauded their king. It was music to Mettaton’s ears, he couldn’t be more proud of it. Such a great moment before visiting the ruins- the beginning of his royal success.

 

The king and his agents arrived at the ruins quickly; Mettaton had to have an important conversation with a specific resident that lived inside. Mettaton almost ran inside as he saw the opened huge wooden door at the end of Snowdin area. “Walk faster!” he told Sans and Papyrus as he couldn’t believe how slow they could be when there was such an important reason to be in this place.

 

Finally, king Mettaton found the one he was looking for: “Ribbito, I’m really glad to find you. I have some new orders for you” slight sign of anger showed in his voice, which scared the Froggit that wore the MTT scarf.

 

“First” Mettaton began to explain “How could you let that gross assassin pass here with such a weapon?!” he scolded the poor Froggit, who began to shake, both of surprise and deep fear.

 

“I-I didn’t know, Your Majesty.” Ribbito answered while visibly shaking “How could I know the phone Anne was holding was some kind of a gun?”

 

“How you could know?” Mettaton responded as his voice ton became higher “Maybe if you would watch the Great Battle of Glamour I’ve had 10 years ago against the other human; the PREMIRE of the EX form, maybe then you could know!” Ribbito gulped, he realized where that scolding was going to.

 

“If you keep this attitude” Mettaton added as an alert “I may see this as a severe treason of you and you know the punishment for a treason in my kingdom… ”

 

After a moment of silence, Mettaton ordered his two agents to “patrol the ruins and make sure the monsters inside are loyal as well”. Sans and Papyrus of course had no choice and did as the king ordered them to.

 

Sans and Papyrus looked around the ruins; this wasn’t their first time inside but they always felt like it was, in the terms of boundaries. A Loox that noticed the two skeletons and ran away to hide somewhere else, poor guy.

 

All that experience was painful for Papyrus; he’d always wanted to be as popular as his idol and even being noticed by him before the arriving of that one human 10 years ago. Now, not only he was noticed by Mettaton, Papyrus even worked for him on a daily basis. That’s what he wanted, no? Was making his little dream come true worth the fear of other monsters of him? He was popular only by the king’s unrealistic standards.

 

It was the time in the patrol to move to Waterfall. Mettaton called his agents and they took the boat again.

 

The king and his agents arrived to Waterfall, this place as well was also full of TV screens and statues that glorified Mettaton’s beauty and the Echo flowers that were an integral part of the area, were in an arrangement of the letters MMT. At the moment, rewinds of Mettaton’s morning shows were on the TV screens.

 

Monsters used to talk to the Echo flowers, which recorded them. That function could be useful for Mettaton against those who oppose him but, there were security cameras that could record sounds over most of the Underground already.

 

Waterfall was less populated than snowdin, but even there, the monsters came out to praise the ruler. The brainwashing was really successful: even 10 years later, most of the monsters living in the Underground kept worshipping Mettaton heavily, despite some of his decisions throughout the years.

 

Chapter 15: Day in an Agent's Life- part 2

Mettaton and his agents finally arrived at the area in Waterfall where he had lived in the past (a secret only Alphys knew about). He thought about his ghost cousin, Napstablook that still lived there. Mettaton hesitated for a moment, but in the end he decided to keep on his usual patrol. He really missed his cousin, but the shame stopped him from ever reconnecting. After all, he had abandoned Napstablook selfishly just so he could make his own dreams come true.

 

Short time later, Mettaton encountered Shyren, a shy fish monster he used to be friends with in the past before he had ran away. Shyren floated around without her agent and that, of course, wasn’t normal for her. It wasn’t the first time Mettaton noticed this, he even knew what happened to Shyren’s agent. He would never reveal that- he was the one that was responsible for said “disappearance”.

 

Shyren looked miserable, it wasn’t a good look for cameras in general, but Mettaton did nothing against her; He didn’t want to hurt an old friend more than he had already done.

 

“Your Majesty,” Shyren surprised the king, her voice was shaking and the tears in her eyes were visible “could you help me find somebody?”

 

“Who are you looking for, dear citizen?” Mettaton couldn’t ignore her “Is that a friend? A family member?” Inside, the robotic king knew that he wouldn’t do anything for her about it but despite this, he couldn’t bear the idea of being a jerk to Shyren.

 

“My agent. I’ve already told you about his disappearance in a letter I sent to the castle some time ago…” Shyren looked down in an awkward manner, not daring to stare into neither the king’s eye, nor the skeletons agents’ eye sockets which were hidden behind black sunglasses.

 

King Mettaton thought for a moment and then, responded: “Oh, I understand. Don’t worry, my darling monster, I didn’t forget about your letter. Your name’s Shyren, right?” Mettaton forced himself to smile.

 

Shyren nodded without saying a word.

 

The king continued: “Fine. Just for you to know, Shyren, I’ve already sent the best royal guards to look for your agent. It is going to take time but, everything will be ok in the end.”

 

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Shyren smiled sadly “I appreciate your dedication for this.” Then, the shy fish monster left the place, probably to return home. For Mettaton, it was good because of the huge old feeling of guilt that began haunting him once again just by talking to her.

 

A distraction appeared almost immediately: Mettaton noticed a hamster monster that decided to kick in rage a marble statue of him. Mettaton obviously got furious- how dared one of his subjects to degrade such monument of his own amazing beauty?

 

In almost perfect timing, a knight from the Royal Guard arrived, and Mettaton signaled him to capture the monster. He then left the place with the agents so quickly, that Sans and Papyrus couldn’t know what befell on that raging hamster.

 

On the way, as the patrol went on, a mother and a daughter, who was in her late teens, were walking with no destination on their minds. None of them noticed the royalty and his agents. The two whispered between each other during their conversation; it was a known fact among the residents of Waterfall that the security cameras could record sound pretty well- quite useful for a cruel king.

 

The daughter decided to share her own opinions: “Mom, it sucks here. I wish Asgore were still the king-“.

 

The mother immediately covered her daughter’s mouth as she noticed the king looking at the two of them, she couldn’t know how much of her daughter’s complaint he had heard already. Both of them panicked and bowed Mettaton to show loyalty, even though it was clearly false.

 

Mettaton nodded his head smugly for seeing how his residents knew their own place but, he did hear most of the daughter’s complaint. He knew that at least one of the family members would “disappear” very soon. No one should show disrespect towards him during his glamorous rule.

 

Then, the king decided to go on a short break for himself while each of his agents had to go on a “solo patrol” around the rainy area. “Don’t forget to take an umbrella with you, my dears!” Mettaton called towards his skeletons as they were getting far away from him and got closer towards the umbrellas that Waterfall rented. Just to not anger the robotic monarch, Papyrus took two umbrellas after his older brother ignored Mettaton’s meant-to-be advice.

 

“Well, bro, I’ll go as usual inside the street, where the ghost lives, to look around, and you’ll go the other way, near Undyne’s abandoned house. Agree?” Sans asked his younger brother before parting ways.

 

“As usual!” Papyrus smiled towards Sans and then, ran to the said place.

 

How does Papyrus handle patrolling around his lost friend’s house? Sans wondered to himself while checking Napstablook’s snail farm (without any resistance from the owner or the snails). Is Undyne even alive at this point? I haven’t seen her since the other human left Waterfall…

 

After some time, while deep in thoughts, Sans had ended his own patrol earlier than usual; after the fear of getting caught the day before because of Mettaton’s suspicions, he’d remained awake the whole night. He knew that no Waterfall resident would complain of him leaving the place earlier so, Sans exited the small street and went to join Papyrus.

 

Sans entered Papyrus’s patrolling area, and heard his brother talking with someone: “What’s wrong?” Papyrus worriedly asked a green child lizard, who was loudly sobbing.

 

“A classmate of mine disappeared, along with the parents.” The girl told the tall agent “I’m scared that…that…” she couldn’t continue and began crying loudly.

 

“Shhh…Don’t cry!” Papyrus tried to calm the girl as fast as possible “Don’t worry, I, the great Papyrus,” he put a hand on his chest “will help find your friend and their parents.”

 

“Really?” the lizard girl showed a teary smile “Thank you, the great Papyrus!”

 

“No problem! You should go back to school now, child. I’m sure that you can get a lot of glitters there.”

 

“I LOVE glitters!” said the girl gleefully. Then, the young monster left the place

 

Papyrus was about to leave the area when he noticed his brother watching him from afar. “Sans, what are you doing here?! We should end our patrols at the same time!”

 

“Was too tired today. I’ll do better tomorrow, alright?”

 

“Fine.” Papyrus vocally sighed “Let’s just go back so we can update His Majesty…”

 

The whole way back was silent, none of the agents spoke even a single word. The silence broke when Sans and Papyrus saw and gasped at the same time in response to what their king was doing during their ‘solo patrols’: Mettaton was seen putting one of his  pink heels on the back of an orange fox monster, forcing him to lie down.

 

“Your Majesty, what are you doing?!” Papyrus asked hysterically as he was approaching the king and the fox monster.

 

“He didn’t bow down when he saw me,” Mettaton explained nonchalantly while his foot remained on the resident’s back “so I had to teach how to do so.”

 

“I think the dude’s already learned his lesson…”  Sans looked at the monster’s shocked eyes “Let him go, Your Majesty.”

 

“Only because you asked so nicely, saying ‘Your Majesty’.” The king finally let go of the fox monster. “Let’s continue from here, darling agents of mine!” Mettaton changed the subject quickly and so his expression, which turned into a wide and photogenic smile.

 

The king and his two agents left the place, leaving the fox monster rubbing his own hurt back while staring at the three of them walking away.

 

The next place king Mettaton decided to check out was the Tem Village. The Tem statue that used to stand in the center of the village was replaced by a Mettaton statue a few years ago. Except for that, nothing really changed since then.

 

The Tems in the village remained quiet during the king’s visit, of fear that he might get annoyed by them somehow. Comprehensive patrol in the Tem Village wasn’t a normal thing, so it meant something wasn’t good (most of the times). Sans and Papyrus wondered about that too; what could have had bothered the king?

 

“Boi, y-your majesty” one of the Tems said nervously when the king decided it was enough and he and his agents left the village- there was nothing suspicious and the Tems even had done as they were told in the past and sold MMT-brand products in the Tem shop. When the royal trio left, all the Tems felt relieved, none of their lives were put in danger during the ‘visit’ this time.

 

When that part of the patrol ended, the three returned to the castle in Hotland and entered the Judgement hall. There, a big screen was hanging on one of the walls and it showed rating data. That was a bit useless, Mettaton’s shows were the only thing to watch on TV in the Underground.

 

Mettaton smiled as he checked the data on the screen and reacted dramatically: “Look at these ratings, darlings, this is wonderful! They are getting higher!” Sans and Papyrus pretended they were as happy as the king was and.

Chapter 16: Day in an Agent's Life- part 3

All the shows on the Underground’s glamorous TV went as planned, both for the robotic king and his two agents, who assisted all his daily productions.

 

Sans couldn’t not wish the Nicecream guy that visited the place now and then to help producing those shows this moment; he himself had already been too stressed out and anxious for the last few days and some help could be nice. He felt like he was going to doze off in front of his royal boss.

 

Then, Sans noticed that he wasn’t the only one this time: even though Papyrus tried to hide it, it was obvious for his brother that he was stressed by something by the look of the usually-stable hands shaking while holding the big camera and the constant turns his head took to watch the surroundings. Sans had a bad feeling that he knew exactly what bothered Papyrus.

 

It was a huge relief for Sans when the last live show ended and he left the set and its royal owner behind him to finally approach Papyrus, who sat on the grey floor outside of the Judgement Hall: “Hey bro, is everything ok?”

 

“I’m pretty sure it is.” Papyrus answered quietly while shrugging.

 

“I’m not so sure…” Sans replied back “Not everything’s ok- YOU are not ok. What’s bothering you?”

 

“Am I in the wrong?”

 

“Wrong?” Sans was surprised “What could’ve made you feel so? What happened?”

 

Papyrus moved his head down to not look at his brother’s eye sockets: “You probably saw me comforting that girl in Waterfall, right? Anyway, I have a feeling that the king doesn’t really do much to find that girl’s friend and their parents. I lied just for her to ‘smile for the cameras’. I feel dirty.”

 

Sans sighed before talking: “You don’t have to feel bad about it. On the contrary, in some way, you did the right thing.”

 

“What do you mean by that, Sans?” If skeletons had had eyebrows, Papyrus would have absolutely have raised one.

 

“What do you think would happen to the girl if she kept being sad? She might have even begun crying and Mettaton can’t stand things that don’t look good on camera. In all honesty, I believe you saved a child right there! It makes up for lying to her.” Sans’s permanent smile actually looked genuine.

 

“Sans, it’s been so long since I last saw you smiling like that!” Papyrus nudged his older brother in an affectionate manner.

 

“I’m just impressed by your quick-wittedness and kindness. You are indeed the Great Papyrus.”

 

As Sans hoped, Papyrus indeed began feeling better (and it was totally justified). From then on, both of the brothers changed the topic to something a bit happier.

 

While the brothers kept talking outside and even laughing at some of Sans’s jokes (a surprise for both of them), Mettaton left the TV set behind after the airing ended for the day and he kept walking through the hall to enter the throne room.

 

There, next to the entrance, stood on a tiny table a small vase in which Mettaton put an arranged bouquet of Golden and Echo flowers the night before. Then, the king took the bouquet with him and kept walking inside, to the decade-old statue of his best friend, next to the throne.

 

Mettaton laid the bouquet at the foot of the statue. Even after all those years, he still missed his best friend and even the same old guilt kept haunting him day and night.

 

“Hi, Alphys.” Mettaton held one of the statue’s marble hands“ I really miss you; there is not a single day that I don’t think about everything that we’ve been through throughout our friendship, especially that day, when I discovered you…“ Mettaton couldn’t say the rest.

 

It took him a few moments to speak again: “You know, Alphy? I still keep the letter you wrote. Almost a decade has passed since. I myself cannot really comprehend how long it’s been…” Mettaton’s sad smile finally broke: “I want to say again that I thank you so much for building the body that gave me the chance to fulfil my dreams; thank you for making my dreams come true.”

 

Mettaton stood up: “I wish I could tell you all of this in person. I should’ve been a better friend to you, I should’ve been there for you when Undyne died; you shouldn’t have gone through all of it by yourself. Maybe if I didn’t abandon you for my own selfish reasons…”

 

The king couldn’t keep going anymore and turned his back to the statue; he had a very short time that day, as this time he had to air nightly breaking news regarding a human assassin.

 

Mettaton left the throne room and met his agents in the judgement hall. His attitude toughened immediately.

 

Sans decided to question the king about actions that had been done earlier: “Your majesty, why did we commit such a comprehensive patrol in the Tem Village? After all, nothing has really changed there in the last decade…”-

 

“Don’t you understand?!” Mettaton replied, impatient, why couldn’t monsters come to conclusions on their own? “The human is still out there! We can’t be complacent when she can assassinate me at any moment with that damned phone!”

 

Sans, that knew more than he revealed responded “But, the last time the human was seen, she was around the area of the spider lair. Probably that cupcake spider pet of the spider leader had eaten her or some-“.

 

“The enemy must not be underestimated!” Mettaton interrupted sans “Until an actual corpse is found, the human’s still around!” Papyrus signaled sans to end the conversation, fearing for the lives of both of them. Under Mettaton’s rule, it was impossible to know what fate had faced those who had opposed the king throughout his infamous rule.

 

Sans couldn’t show that, but he was thankful to Papyrus because he forgot for a moment the revolutional plan that was developed secretly with Anne and Muffet. In this situation, it was better for sans not to irritate king Mettaton.

 

“Sans, Papyrus” Mettaton changed the subject “bring here the cameras and the news setting again, I must broadcast an important message to all of the kingdom”. The two skeletons obeyed the king (even though Sans groaned quietly) as he had been putting on his red blazer he owned since he had a rectangular form. Meanwhile, Papyrus took the role of the cameraman as usual.

 

When he was on air, Mettaton began speaking. “Good night, beauties and gentlebeauties! This is a breaking news report about some critical changes: The human assassin is still free! Remember, she’s dangerous but, her soul is just one step closer to us monsters, to break free from the Underground after hundreds of years. Money will be given to those who will kill her! Also remember, those who would help the human are destined for the worst! That’s it for today from your beloved king. Have a good night!”

 

How lucky was sans for wearing sunglasses as part of his job, the surprised look he made after hearing the news flash could have revealed his revolutionary intentions. Sans’ surprise was due to the fact that Mettaton announced money as a reward for killing Anne: The monsters in the Underground, except for the royal gourds members that got paid for their job properly, lived under horrifying conditions and a prize money would increase their ambition to capture Anne. This made Anne and those around her in a much bigger danger than before. Sans couldn’t call Anne and alert her when Mettaton was still suspicious of him; he hoped Anne and Muffet did follow the news on a daily basis.

 

After the news setting and the cameras were taken away, Mettaton announced that he had to arrive at the Lab before ending the day. When the three arrived at the Lab, Mettaton placed any of his agents in each door as bouncers.

 

When Mettaton was finally alone, he took out tools and diagrams, which contained information of his body’s mechanics. The diagrams contained remarks that Alphys had written, those were repairs for several bugs. Mettaton had to fix his core, he couldn’t allow himself to be vulnerable as long as Anne owned that phone.

 

While guarding, Sans thought again about the things Mettaton told the statue when he entered back the Judgement Hall and overall he was shocked: how did the king know that Undyne actually died more than a decade ago? How could he tell Papyrus about his friend’s death after years of thinking she had just disappeared and monsters having actual hope about her?

 

Sans’s skull began aching from all the stress and the overthinking but, his thought still linger on  one more question: what letter was Mettaton talking about? What was he hiding from a kingdom that was already in the rambles thanks to his own selfish actions?

Chapter 17: Glowing Alert

Notes:

Back to Anne and Muffet.

Anne and Muffet entered Waterfall “What’s your plan again? Anne asked Muffet, whispering; the spider had made Anne wake up early in this morning and has given her a quick and short explanation before sending her to get ready and after that, they both began walking towards the city of rains and glowing flora.

The spider lady answered Anne, audible enthusiasm in her voice: “I believe that the deserters would agree to be part of the revolution if we show them that we care about their well-being through acts of kindness. That’s why we should bring some proper food to the camp” Like Anne, Muffet talked quietly too; they both already knew about the security cameras and the related dangers.

“So, where are we going then?” Anne kept asking.

Muffet replied patiently: “I’ve heard about a good bar in Snowdin. This is the reason I, like you, am wearing a coat right now.”

Anne understood: She herself couldn’t come out of the spider lair without wearing a coat with its hood covering her head despite Hotland’s climate; she was wanted dead by the king and her human features were quite recognizable, to say the least. “Got it, let’s go!” she replied in the end and she continued walking inside Waterfall along with Muffet.

Anne was fascinated by Waterfall’s views: she found the Echo flowers that glowed in blue and the illuminating stones around them really beautiful and the waterfalls around looked picturesque, like a painting in a museum or an illustration in a fairytale book. Despite the multiple rainfalls in the short time there, her experience wasn’t harmed by them- Anne could finally to actually experience the beauty of the Underground, ignoring all the statues and the giant TV screens around.

“How can flowers glow like that?” she asked Muffet excitedly.

Before Muffet could answer the teenage girl’s question, Shyren suddenly approached the two: “Have you seen my agent?” she asked miserably.

“I’m sorry, I still haven’t.” Muffet answered the poor fish monster. It wasn’t the first time Muffet was asked about it by Shyren.

“Thank you anyway- The king is here” Shyren said to alert the girls. After all, her getting sympathy from the king didn’t mean others would get the same rare treatment and she definitely was aware of that.

Mettaton was on patrol in the area, Anne’s breath got shorter and quicker. “Muffet, what do I do? What if he recognizes me?” The panic in her whispers was audible.

Muffet looked beyond her own shoulder, her and Anne still had enough time before the king actually got closer: “Listen, dear,” Muffet explained quietly and quickly (the fear was heard in her whispers as well) “go to that corner behind this rock, that area is full of mud from the rainfalls. Use it to camouflage yourself as a monster. Understandable?”

When Anne agreed to do so, she was already running towards the mud puddles. There, she untied the spare sleeves of her coat and then, took a handful of mud in each of her own hands. Anne used the mud to paint two large circles one under the other on each cheek to create of the illusion of spider eyes. The coat hood remained to cover Anne’s hair as she returned to stand next to her spider friend.

Muffet smiled proudly towards Anne: “Excellent-“

“I don’t like your attitude” king Mettaton suddenly approached Anne; the two girls were too distracted for noticing his arrival. “You look so distressed and your quick breathes can even be heard loudly on TV. Tsk tsk tsk…”Mettaton got closer to Anne and without any notice, pointed his golden trident towards Anne’s face, so close that one of its pointy ends touched the skin of her partly-exposed neck.

Anne screamed loudly as her heart beats only grew faster and made her chest ache. In a moment, Anne uncontrollably took a step back and fell, and her fall was softened only by her elbows landing on the partly muddy ground.

“I can’t believe how dirty you are, in addition to your disrespect;” Mettaton added, still pointing his trident towards the human in disguise “your coat is full of mud-“

“That’s my younger sister!” Muffet dared and spoke out against the king in a (not so) made-up worried tone. Anne noticed, while still leaning on her elbows, how monsters got closer to watch the dramatic event. Some of those monsters even were whispering about the event- mostly about her “older sister”.

“What kind of example did you set exactly for your little sister, huh?” The self-acclaimed king left Anne alone and instead, pointed his trident towards Muffet’s neck, almost touching it.

“No!” Anne stood up after pulling her coat hood closer to her actual eyes before Mettaton looked at her again. “Don’t hurt my sister, she did nothing wrong…” her voice was shaking of tears that threatened to get out of her eyes “Let me bow for you, Your Majesty.” Anne dropped to her knees and bowed.

“Please accept my bow, too.” Muffet joined Anne and Mettaton got his trident away from both the girls.

“See, everybody?” Mettaton called with fake excitement in his voice “That’s a how good monster should educate their younger sibling! It’s obvious that the older spider taught her little sister discipline and a fair amount of humility. Good job!” The king patted bowing Muffet’s shoulder in approval.

Then, the king let the girls stand up again just for him to leave the place “gracefully” with his two skeleton royal agents. While walking, Sans looked quickly behind his back with an apologizing look on his face towards Anne and Muffet.

After the king left and so are the other curious monsters, Muffet ran towards Anne and then, gave her a tight hug. “Is everything ok, Anne?” she asked quietly, almost whispered.

“I don’t know…” Anne answered, her hands were trembling and the breath remained short and quick.

“Take your time.” Muffet instructed “Now, we can both calm down. The food shopping can wait for later.”

“He almost caught me…” Anne murmured, mostly to herself; she tried to process the whole event in some way. “I’m so scared, Muffet.” Anne couldn’t see the beauty of Waterfall anymore; she saw only horrors lurking behind the shadows created by the waterfalls and the glowing flowers.

“It’s ok to be scared, deary. No innocent should ever experience this kind of threat. Never!” Muffet sighed “I promise to cause a lot of suffering to this ‘king’ during the future revolution and after it. Do you trust me?”

“I do trust you.” Anne smiled weakly, she finally began to calm down. “Are you doing alright, Muffet?”

 

“Still a bit terrified but, yes, I’m doing fine.” Muffet smiled towards Anne and changed the subject: “I also want to remind you one more thing: if a thing like this ever happens again and it gets worse, remember- you carry that shooting phone everywhere with you; shoot it when you’re in life-threatening situation with Mettaton. Like you did on your second day in the Underground.”

Anne nodded quietly, Muffet did have a good point regarding the weaponry she had in her own hands.

“Do you want to continue with our original plan?” Muffet finally asked.

“Actually, yes. This can be a good distraction for us, right?”

“I guess so.” Muffet’s genuine smile widened. “Let’s head Snowdin!”

Muffet and Anne left waterfall, they wouldn’t let anything to get in their way. During the slow and quiet walk to get out of Waterfall, Anne put her hand inside the pocket of her pants, just to make sure that her phone was there. Muffet was right, that mysterious weapon could actually save her in this kind of dangerous situations.

Chapter 18: Snowy Conversation

As Anne and Muffet entered Snowdin, they found out that king Mettaton had already found another subject to torment: he forced the subject to bow him by laying his booted foot on the monster’s back. “That’s sick” Anne whispered to Muffet; she had never seen in her life such disgusting abuse of power before.

 

“You are right” Muffet answered “I guess that’s because I have barely left the lair in the last years but, I’ve never seen such a thing before. The monsters living here probably experience this much more often, maybe even on a daily basis.”

 

As the spider lady finished talking, Mettaton turned his head to watch Snowdin’s entrance from Waterfall side, where Muffet and Anne stood. For their luck, it was common in Snowdin to cover the head with hoods, to avoid cold, even inside buildings sometimes. Also, there was a light snowfall at the time and it was almost impossible to recognize faces from distance; the girls obviously didn’t look suspicious in the king’s eye in these conditions.

 

“Okay” Muffet whispered “let’s find the bar quickly before Mettaton finds a reason to get annoyed by us again and get closer enough to recognize our faces.” Anne left the spare sleeves of the coat untied and the mud stains remained on her cheeks so she could still resemble a spider monster. Muffet did clean up the coat a bit from the mud to not raise suspicions.

Muffet already told Anne what the bar was called, so when she noticed a sign with the name Grillby’s written on it, Anne seized Muffet attention: “I found it, let’s get in”. Both felt immediately the summer-like warmth inside the building, they weren't bothered by it though.

 

During the last 10 years, Grillby’s daughter moved back to Snowdin to help her father in his job as a bar owner. The two of them noticed the two visitors that just came in: none of them had ever visited before.

 

“How can I help you?” asked the owner’s daughter, a green flame monster who was wearing button-up white shirt with a black tie, along with a black skirt and a pair of black shoes.

 

“I just saw your menu and I’d like to order…” Muffet began ordering at least one of each from Grilby’s menu. Anne remained silent during that time.

 

“And who are you?” Grilby’s daughter asked Anne.

 

“Oh,” Anne responded shyly “I-I’m one of Muffet’s sisters, Arini.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Arini!” the flame woman replied and then, walked inside the kitchen.

 

A few minutes later, Grilby himself came out of the kitchen to talk to the girls. The dozens of food that Anne and Muffet ordered made Grillby suspicious, and for a reason: “Any special reason for your order?” he asked.

 

“That’s for the other spiders in Hotland” Muffet answered, lying fluently “They’ve heard of the food here, but it’s too cold for them in Snowdin”.

 

Grilby immediately looked at “Muffet’s sister”.

 

“Except for Arini.” Muffet added quickly “She’s much more stubborn than the rest of our siblings; I told her to stay home but, she really wanted to see the snow, despite the risks.”

 

“Well,” Grilby replied “I understand. I’ll make sure to get your order ready as soon as possible. It’s gets colder during the nights here.”

 

“Thank you so much, mister Grilby!” Muffet said in a sweet tone and with a smile as sweet.

 

It took almost two hours for all the food Muffet had ordered to be ready. As the time had passed, Grilby and his daughter came out of the kitchen holding small carton boxes full of food. Then, Muffet put money on the bar to pay before taking, with the help of Anne, all the boxes from the little flame family.

 

“Thank you for your service!” Muffet called before getting out of the building, with “her younger sister” on her side.

 

“Just wondering,” Anne told Muffet after closing the bar’s door “do your siblings have ever shown any interest in this place’s cuisine?”

 

“Honestly, not really;” Muffet giggled “some of them can’t even stand greasy food and that’s most of the place’s cuisine.”

 

“Oh…”

 

Later, Anne peeped inside some of the boxes on her hands. The food indeed was greasy: burgers, fries, hot dogs and more…

 

“Could the deserters possibly be like your family when it comes to greasy food?” Anne asked Muffet.

 

“Less likely: remember that my siblings and I are spiders, and the deserters, as far as I’ve seen, aren’t. Beside spiders, most monsters I’ve met during my lifetime do like the food at Grilby’s. That’s why the bar is so popular even outside of Snowdin.”

 

“So it’s a risk worth taking, then.” Anne added with a proud smile to herself; despite some obstacles in the way, it seemed like everything was going according to plan. Also, the food smelled really nice and Anne reminded herself in a mental note to visit and buy herself a burger at Grilby’s when possible.

 

“All my savings are gone for all of this food…” Muffet said to herself quietly.

 

“Muffet, everything’s fine?” Anne heard it.

 

“Yes, deary. Don’t worry!” Muffet put on a fake smile and that was Anne’s time to drop the subject.

 

When Muffet and Anne left the center of Snowdin, with their hands full of what they’d ordered inside carton boxes, they heard from distant “Sans, go patrol between the buildings on this side!”

 

Before any of them could react, Sans found them. “Are you asking for some bizarre death wish?” he whispered, upset “What are you doing here?!”

 

Anne couldn’t think of any response, but luckily Muffet already replied “Well, SANS, while you patrolled by the beloved king’s side, we already decided to take action by ourselves. We would rather you not to control us, we’re not little kids! Actually, I’m probably even older than you.”

 

Sans tried to find a good argument, but in the end he realized Muffet had gotten a point. “What is the plan?” Sans asked and Anne explained Muffet’s idea. While explaining, Anne realized that she or Muffet had never actually bothered to update Sans about the plan.

 

“You know, Muffet?" Sans responded “That’s a good idea, I guess I should listen more to you two.” Anne smiled, something inside of her was proud of her own confidence that had started to develop recently. “It’s just that you chose a bad hour to walk around in the Underground. I recommend you both to go on your missions at later hours of the day next time”, a slight sign of real joy appeared in Sans’s eyes sockets.

 

“Sans? Come, I’m leaving” Mettaton called his agent.

 

“Welp, I have to join the king and my brother now” Sans said “I promise to arrive tomorrow, so we can continue our plan. I think the king’s suspicion has lessened a bit”. Then, Sans joined Mettaton and Papyrus.

 

After sometime, Anne and Muffet arrived in the bridge and found the rope ladder and used it. They really hoped they could succeed.

Chapter 19: Around a Campfire

Anne and Muffet finally entered the deserters’ camp, it was a hard mission for the two of them this time; they had to carry dozens of burning hot food made by Grillby’s. Despite the difficulties, Anne and Muffet’s mission ended successfully as they got to the frozen ground under the bridge, each one holding trays full of greasy food.

 

It didn’t take for the two a lot of time to arrive to the deserters’ camp, and they were quickly greeted by somebody familiar- the gray bunny they met the first time in the camp, noticed the girls immediately.

 

“What’s all of this?” the bunny asked, looking at all the take away trays Muffet and Anne were holding.

 

 “That’s food for all of you” Anne told the bunny lady while trying not to collapse under the weight of all the take away trays she was holding. Despite the challenge, Anne kept a friendly smile across her face.

 

The bunny looked at the food and examined it. At the end, she came to the conclusion that the food wasn’t dangerous. “Come with me” she finally told the girls and led them to the campfire, shining bright in the middle of the secret camp.

 

When they approached the campfire the bunny told Muffet “I think you should sit next to the campfire for a bit, you’re freezing”.

 

Anne remembered that Muffet was a spider and low temperatures risked her life- Anne noticed how her friend was shaking before she sat close to the campfire.

 

“I forgot to introduce myself” added the bunny lady “My name is Ellie”.

 

Other monsters came out of their tents right after Ellie introduced herself; they were confused but, Ellie told all of them about the conversation before. Anne and Muffet introduced themselves to the monsters. The monsters were aware of Muffet and Anne’s intentions because of the security record sans had showed one week ago, so they felt free to tell the two girls about their own life.

 

“My name is Monster Guy and I’m here with my parents for almost 9 years” told an armless yellow monster “They decided to take me and run away after a kid from my classroom told the classmates and teachers that his mother doesn’t like Mettaon’s show, and a day later she was gone. My parents felt unsafe after I told them about the events.” This story made Anne wonder even more about the fates of those who’d disappeared. She hoped that Sans’s theory about them is right and that they were still alive.

 

“I ran away a few days after twenty protestors disappeared” Ellie told Anne and Muffet “I’ve never liked the king’s show on TV.” Then, sad silence followed.

 

The monster dog that sat down next to Ellie decided to break the silence; he hadn’t joined the conversation until this moment: My name is Doggo and I am a former Royal Guard member.”

 

Anne was surprised and Muffet too as well: “I’ve heard that Mettaton makes sure the Royal Guard members are paid well for their jobs” Muffet said “Why did you escape?”

 

A sad smile spread across Doggo’s face “The Royal Guard’s members are paid very well so they don’t have a reason to start a revolution and assassinate the king anytime soon. As long as their families’ lives are good of course.” this made sense for Anne, and Doggo continued speaking: “Even though I was paid very well, I still had a lot of disagreements related to Mettaton’s reign. I’ve quickly understood that it would safer for my family and friends if I remain gone than risking them with my opinions.”

 

The food was divided between the monsters, and Anne and Muffet were offered to take it too. Anne couldn’t touch the food, not because the dishes themselves, but the thinking about the injustice all around the Underground in the last ten years, it made her feel sick: many monsters had and still suffered under Mettaton’s rule and most of the knights in the Royal Gourd showed selfishness mostly instead helping other citizens.

 

Most of the camp’s residents decided that it would be better now to start eating the goods from Grillby’s. “We can continue talking while eating those around the fire.” Doggo exclaimed happily as he sniffed the contents inside the tray he was holding in his hands, which enjoyed its warmth.

 

“I can’t say no to food…” Monster Guy giggled in joy as he opened another tray to reveal a burger that smelled great.

 

Ellie only nodded when she observed Muffet beginning to eat and her attention moved to the other and finally, Anne began eating her burger and Ellie’s attention returned to her food. Then, everybody sat down around the campfire to comfortably enjoy their meals (“How long it’s been since I’ve eaten something from Grillby’s!” someone said).

 

It felt really nice to sit like that with the deserters, Anne thought as she looked around as a tiny smile crept up her face. At the same time, at made her miss her two best friends from the world above; they’d used to hang out together all the time, even in the form of a campfire.

 

Those emotions were forgotten quickly as Muffet decided to share her own story, Anne already knew it from her first encounter with Muffet.

 

“What’s your reason to be in here, human?” asked Monster’s Guy’s father “I just noticed that we don’t know a lot about you”.

 

Anne answered “First, my name’s Anne and I’m here after I fell down MT.Ebbot by accident. I searched the mountain after I listened to that phone call let you listen to one week ago. The phone was on the surface and it belonged to another human that left the place, successfully I guess.” This reminded the monsters the battle of Mettaton versus Frisk, and they immediately connected the dots. “I hope to use the phone’s shooting functions” Anne kept talking “it can be useful in a revolution against Mettaton…”

 

“Revolution? Are you still interested in a revolution against the glamorous tyrant?” Ellie asked, her voice full of curiosity this time. It seemed like Muffet’s idea did work as planned.

Notes:

I've found out recently that there's a page dedicated to Royal Bullet on the Undertale AU wiki. I'm flattered, thank you (:

Chapter 20: Share a Plan

Anne was surprised by Ellie’s response. She did hope her story could rise an interest among the deserters, but that hope was so little.

 

“What revolution are you talking about?” Ellie asked again curiously.

 

Anne’s heartbeats got faster: it’d been years since she had the confidence for such a thing. The memories of kids react rudely to her trying to bring up “noisy” solutions hadn’t left her yet, Anne was scared at the moment.

 

Anne realized she can’t turn back, so she stood up began to speak, letting everyone around the campfire hear her: “Umm…sans has brought up an idea to go on revolution against the king. Since then, Muffet and I have been training to become worthy opponents against him. But we also have information.” Anne took a deep breath to stop the shaking in her voice “Information about those who have disappeared during the last decade”.  

 

An expected surprise spread amongst the monsters around the campfire. “What’s the information? I wasn’t one of the knights that the false king used to discuss with!” Doggo asked, his excitement was audible to all.

 

Anne, still feeling stressed out but hiding it well, explained: “Sans had found some time ago an empty prison inside the castle. Along with hearing the king’s discussions from time to time, Sans has come to the conclusion that the monsters that have disappeared are currently prisoners in a hidden place somewhere. My point is, they are still alive”. Anne stopped, she was surprised of herself; she gained some more self-confidence. Anne heard the deserters speaking excitingly about the details.

 

“Does that mean I’ll have the chance to find my big brother?” asked a cat young adult girl someone next to her, a mouse monster.

 

“Yes, you do!” the mouse answered.

 

Anne then heard more deserters talking:

 

“My family is still alive, then!”

 

“It’s time to stop this reign of fear!”

 

“If this works, the economy could finally recover!”

 

Anne could even hear Doggo saying quietly “Finally, I may see my family again; they wouldn’t be worried about me anymore…” he had a little smile.

 

Later, Muffet approached Anne and whispered “In my opinion, they are interested”. Short time after, Anne found out Muffet to be right, as the deserter monsters approached her and Anne: “We’ll be glad to take part of this future revolution! Tell your friend, Sans about it. This plan has a chance to work if we all take part of it.”

 

The dreary atmosphere in the camp replaced by joyful one, no more feelings of uncertainty and paranoia.

 

“You know…” said the mouse monster to Anne “You may not know that but, monsters don’t have determination.” Anne’s eyes widened in shock but she couldn’t say anything back. Luckily for her, the mouse kept speaking: “Despite that, we do have hope. This plan gives us a new hope in this glamorous dictatorship, thank you all!” Anne and Muffet were flattered to hear that.

 

We gave them hope right now… Anne thought, she still couldn’t fully digest it.

 

“Good job, dearie” Muffet told her with a wide smile, like she’d read Anne’s thoughts.

 

Later, everybody sat back around the campfire, they all talked about the future plans about the revolution.

 

“Now, you have to visit us permanently.” Ellie said to Anne and Muffet with a friendly smirk “This way, everybody will be trained properly”. Anne shyly in response, smiling a bit and Ellie gave Anne’s shoulder a firm yet affectionate pat.

 

Suddenly, one of the older monsters began to talk “Would anyone here like to hear an interesting fact about the war between humans and monsters? It isn’t taught in schools anymore, I want to inform the younger ones here. Like a campfire story.” The mood in the camp was already lightened up, so everybody agreed. Anne also was eager to listen, this kind of history wasn’t taught in schools on the surface of course.

 

First, everybody sat down and everyone stopped the talking. The parents in the deserter camp even hugged their children tightly like it was going to be some kind of a bedtime story. “If we win Mettaton, we should know the history that’s existed way before his time.” One of the mothers whispered in her child’s ears.

 

Once the place was fully quiet, the old monster stood up and cleared his throat before he began speaking: “It’s well known here that the barrier was created by human wizards but, how did they create such a huge barrier at first?”

 

Some voices in the crowd hummed in agreement and a few curious monsters asked whispering “How did they really do that back then?”

 

The old monster smiled and answered the curious monsters: “The answer is: the human wizards needed to use concentered magic to create it, which was impossible using only their bare hands. They worked hard during the war between humans and monsters, mostly during the final days when it was clear the humans were going to win the battle. Then, on the last day of the war, they found a solution- they created a powerful object that they filled with their own magic. The monsters were sent under the ground and then, the wizards used the powerful object; that’s how the barrier was created. However, the result wasn’t perfect: there’s still a hole in the barrier, under MT. Ebbot. Fascinating, isn’t it?”

 

Various voices sounded from the crowd: “Impressive information.”

 

“I’ve never heard about that fact, that’s really cool.”

 

“I wonder what the object looked like…”

 

Anne inside her head agreed with everybody. After a few seconds with her own thoughts, she realized something and approached Muffet, who was sitting next to her: “That object, it could free you all from here.”

 

“Theoretically, yes.” Muffet nodded, slight sadness in her eyes “But, nobody here is able to find it- we’re all stuck here. Unless…”

 

“Unless what?” Anne began to worry.

 

“Unless we get YOU out of here first so you can look out for it above.”

 

“How am I going to get out of here? I can’t climb up to hole in MT. Ebbot, nor getting closer to the ruins- Mettaton reigns there as well.”

 

“I didn’t talk about the hole in the barrier, dearie. There’s one way to get a human through the barrier itself but, it would be dangerous in this place and time.”

 

“What’s the way?” Anne’s heartbeats got faster again.

 

“The most known fact about Mettaon among the monsterkind is that he was created as a robot with a monster soul, which would be quite useful for you when the time comes…” it was clear that Muffet had tried to avoid the topic until now and even then, she wasn’t eager to discuss it.

 

“How could Mettaton having a monster soul help me out of here?” Anne asked, dreading the answer.

 

Muffet sighed and looked Anne in the eyes and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort Anne before the awful truth would come out of the spider’s mouth: “To get out of the Underground through the barrier, you need the power of a human soul, and a monster soul.”

Chapter 21: Justice is Subjective

Anne couldn’t fall asleep even after she and Muffet had returned to the spiders’ lair after a long and exhausting day. Both the excitement from the success of convincing the deserters to join her, Muffet and Sans, and the fear from the terrifying information about the way to get out of the Underground, deprived Anne of sleep that night.

 

After hours of unsuccessful attempts to fall asleep, Anne stood up and approached a paper and a pencil she’d found next to her earlier that day and began to write something. She had an idea and she didn’t to risk the option of forgetting it in the morning.

 

“Is everything okay, Anne?” Muffet murmured after waking up from the noise Anne made with her steps and the pencil scratching the paper under it.

 

“Yes, don’t worry” Anne replied “I’m just too excited because of all the events that happened today”.

 

“So, what are you writing there?” Muffet asked as she stood up and approached Anne, still half-asleep.

 

Anne then explained: “I write down different ideas for the future revolution and I believe I’ll get some good ideas until the morning”.

 

“Okay, goodnight” Muffet said and returned to her spot to fall asleep again.

 

The following morning, as promised, Sans finally arrived at the spider lair. “Heya, gals” sans greeted Muffet and Anne.

 

“We did it! The monsters under the bridge are convinced to take part in the revolution” Muffet said excitingly the moment Sans finished greeting her and Anne.

 

“What?!” Sans said surprisingly; he wasn’t upset though.

 

“Muffet’s idea was really successful” Anne continued “We’ve befriended the deserters and I was given the chance to share the idea of a revolution”.

 

“That’s great” Sans told the girls “I wish I’d been there too” a real smile showed on sans’s face with the help of his eye sockets’ expression.

 

Sans then noticed Anne holding something in her hands that wasn’t her gun-like phone: “What are ya holding there, kiddo?” he asked.

 

Anne in response showed Sans the paper she was holding. “I have been writing the last night a few ideas for the revolution’s preparations and now I have a polished concept. Wanna see?”

 

Sans nodded and took the paper from her hands. When he began reading, Sans learned that Anne had written an optional schedule for training for the expected battle during the revolution; It contained the three of them, but also the other monsters from the camp in snowdin that he didn’t recognize. “That’s interesting” sans finally said “I believe we can use it.”

 

“By the way” Muffet said to sans all of a sudden “the deserters want to see you again, too”.

 

Sans then realized that that’s a good sign, because the last time he’d visited the camp with Anne and Muffet, they had been unwanted, to say the least.

 

“Welp, let’s go, then” sans decided and took the girls with him to Snowdin using a “shortcut”. When the three arrived, sans asked Anne if she brought the paper, and she showed that she did. Then, all of them used the rope ladder, walked the dirt road and entered the camp.

 

“Hello there!” greeted the cat girl Anne had seen the day before “Come here, they all arrived!” she called the other monsters.

 

“Finally you came, too” Doggo told sans.

 

 The skeleton could only reply with his own surprise “I remember ya, you were a Royal Guard member in Snowdin. I thought you were dead or something”.

 

Doggo didn’t respond.

 

During that time, Ellie found Anne in the crowded area and greeted her politely yet warmly.

 

“What do you have here, human?” Ellie asked Anne. Anne showed and explained her the idea for preparing for the revolution.

 

“Yo, I like it” said Monster Guy, who eavesdropped the conversation. After that, Monster Guy told everyone else around and they agreed.

 

Half an hour later, everybody was ready for battle training based on Anne’s format: they separated into different groups and each one went to a different part of the forest, so they could train using big spaces between the groups. It seemed like it was going to be great day, both for the deserters and Sans, Anne and Muffet.

 

Anne found out quickly this wasn’t going to be the case unfortunately: she was in the same group with Sans and Muffet. At the beginning, everything was normal, until Sans noticed someone that wasn’t related to the camp was passing through close to the rope ladder, which was well hidden in the snow.

 

“Go and shoot this guy with your phone” Sans instructed Anne, whispering frantically “I fear he may find our place being this close. Besides, it’s also a good shooting exercise for you.”

 

Anne was surprised, and not in a good way. “What, why?! He’s done nothing” she said “I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”

 

Sans had no patience for this so, he instructed almost shouting “Do it already!”

 

Anne had to press the yellow button because all of the pressure she was put under but, no bullet came out.

 

 “What?” Anne was shocked, and so Sans as well.

 

Meanwhile, the oblivious monster had already left the area and the chance for an “exercise” was missed.

 

Sans asked Anne to shoot again, to check if something was wrong in the phone’s system. This time, the phone’s weapon system worked perfectly.

 

Anne thought about what had happened before and said “I think that doesn’t work because it’s not the right thing…” and it angered sans.

 

Anne noticed another stranger close to the bridge and decided to prove her point both to herself and sans. When she pressed the button again with the phone aimed towards the monster, no bullet came out; her theory was right.

 

Sans became angrier: “I don’t understand you, Anne!” he said and left the place for the rest of the training.

 

Later that day, the deserters asked Anne and Muffet where sans was, and none of them could answer. Anne approached the campfire and sat down on a bench and watched the small flames, pondering. She was ashamed of herself and Muffet quickly noticed her.

 

That made her follow Anne’s steps to talk to her. “Are you sad because of what has happened today?” Muffet asked, and Anne nodded quietly.

 

“I didn’t do my part properly in the training because it felt…so wrong” Anne said “it was so stupid…” Anne’s shame slipped through her quiet voice.

 

Muffet sighed with a smile and told Anne “Doing the right thing is some kind of justice, right?” Anne turned her head to her friend and the saying continued: “I’ve heard once that justice is subjective: an action can be seen right to one but wrong to another. What you’ve done today, was right in your eyes and you don’t have to feel bad about it. We’ll find a solution for this in the end, don’t worry.”

 

Anne finally smiled a bit. “Thank you, Muffet.” Anne had some time to think about what she was told before she and Muffet had to leave for the night. Anne also realized that there was a serious flaw to her weapon with no known solution for now.

Notes:

Seems like there's a major flaw in Anne's weapon.

Thank you for reading!