Chapter 2: Intoxication

Sans and Papyrus were at home, Papyrus cooking spaghetti and Sans watching Mettaton's Show, "What a Fabulous Day". "Hey, brother?" "Yeah, Paps?" "Have you seen Fightale lately? I know he went out with the human." Papyrus peeks past the doorframe of the kitchen and into the living room at Sans. "No I haven't, but maybe he is just busy." "Maybe…" Papyrus ponders, wondering what could possibly take so long. Nevertheless, Papyrus continued with his spaghetti. About 30 minutes went by and Arianna opened the door, Fightale leaning on her and coughing. "Fightale? Are you alright?" Papyrus stammered. Sans stood up and went straight to his older brother, helping him to the couch. "I don't know what was going on!" Arianna said worriedly, "We smelt something off a while ago then he said he felt dizzy, so we sat down to take a break, then he started coughing uncontrollably and gripping his chest." "And you didn't come home?" Sans asked. "Well, Fightale said it wasn't a big deal at the time! I had to convince him to even come home; he didn't want to!" The two younger brothers sighed and looked at Fightale, concerned. "Maybe we should go to the doctor, Alphys may be able to do something." Arianna looked over at Sans and nodded. Papyrus picked up Fightale's defeated body in his arms and began to walk to the lab where Alphys stayed, Sans and Arianna following not far behind.

"Alphys?" Arianna exclaimed as she opened the lab doors. However, Alphys was nowhere to be seen. "Follow me, I know where all the stuff is for treating monsters." Sans then led the way, going into the true lab. Fightale was then laid on a bed and given a soul monitor to keep track of his soul beats and how much magic it was releasing. Everything seemed normal except his soul was not producing enough magic, which was probably what was causing his weakness since a monster's body relies on its magic production. "Sans?" Sans turns around to see Alphys; she seems concerned. "What happened to him?" She asked. Arianna stepped up and decided to explain the situation, to which Alphys froze. "The gas did that?" "What gas?" Sans questions, realizing Alphys knew more than she was saying. "Me and Undyne found a gas leak or something in the ruins, but Undyne shut the doors to make sure the gas didn't leak, but it seems it still did." She stammers out, realizing how bad this situation may be. Sans steps forward, seeming a bit upset. "You didn't tell anybody? Why?" "That's what Undyne went to do, talk to King Asgore." Sans just sighed and looked at Fightale, who seemed to have stopped coughing, but he seemed tired. Arianna looked at Alphys with a serious expression and spoke sternly, "Do you know what to do about it? Where can monsters stay safe from it?" Alphys just shrugged, shaking her head. "Possibly the lab? It has a built-in filtration system to keep fumes out since it is in Hotlands." "Then let's get as many monsters here as possible." She looks at the skeleton brothers and then at Alphys before walking into the main lab. "Where are you going, Arianna?" Sans grabbed her arm, his face worried about what she was going to do. "I'm going to go find monsters in the ruins and hope that some survived… If the gas affected Fightale that bad from far away, just imagine what it does up close." She sighs and grabs a mini camera to clip to her shirt, then an oxygen tank from the equipment room, along with a mask. "I'll go with you." Sans and Arianna look behind them to see Fightale, standing against the doorframe. "I am not letting you go alone, Arianna; besides, I am already affected by it, it's not like it can get much worse," Fightale said nonchalantly. "Fightale-" She scoffs, knowing she can't argue with the stubborn skeleton. "Fine, but if you feel bad, you teleport out of there right away, got it?" Fightale nods and smiles, ruffling her hair. "Alright boss." He teases.

With that, Fightale teleported them to the ruin doors, where gas was seeping through, you could hear it at this point. "Do you think we should open it? What if it makes it explode?" "Ari, it's not going to explode." He laughs before opening the door, a gush of gas hitting them as Fightale backs up and starts coughing. Arianna rushes to him, worried. "Are you sure you want to do this? We haven't even started and you're coughing." Fightale understood her concern and knew this would be a bad idea, but he nodded anyway, not wanting to leave her alone. "For the last time, I will be alright Arianna." She sighs, not wanting to argue, and nods, deciding to take his word. "If you say so." Arianna turns towards the ruins and then begins to walk down the corridor. There seemed to be melted handprints on the walls and scrape marks from something like claws. Anxiety crept up through her body like worms would a corpse, and she turned on her flashlight, the lights in the ruins not seeming so bright anymore. "Damn it's dark in here-" "Hush!" Arianna warns, "We don't want to run into anything dangerous!" Fightale huffs, a bit annoyed at her tone. "Well, I thought we were supposed to be calling for survivors?" He whispers. "No, it's too risky, we have to find them ourselves." Arianna then sees a froggit, it is deformed and melted, its tongue dragging on the ground. Her face contorted, somewhat creeped out by this. "H-hey little fella," she mutters to the frog monster, "are you-" Before she could finish, the frog let out an ear-piercing screech and lunged towards Arianna. Panicked, Arianna hit it with the flashlight, knocking it back. This seemed to work, till several started to come from the other halls. Fightale stepped in front of Arianna and summoned knives through several of them. "Back off you freaks!" He growled out, mad about the fact Arianna got attacked. "Fightale be-" Suddenly, there were stomping sounds from behind them in the dark. The froggits all squeaked and scurried away while the stomps got louder. The stench of what seemed to be rotten flesh filled the air as Fightale began to cough again, clenching his chest as if his soul was acting up again. Finally, the creature reached some light, and it was Toriel. Her eyes were a pale white; her jaw seemed dislocated, and her legs long and eerie. Arianna gasped, unsure of what to do. Toriel then bolted towards them, mouth wide open as if to eat them, so Arianna grabbed Fightale and tried to run, but he refused. Before she knew it, Fightale had a dagger up in Toriel's jaw, and he yanked it out, slicing the jaw in half. Fightale went to attack again but the beast's giant hand came up and slashed him across the chest. Arianna grabbed him before he hit the ground, and began to flee with him, awkwardly carrying him due to his size. She then got an idea: if Toriel was blind now, would she be sensitive to loud sounds or lights? "Fightale, summon a gun" "Why?" He coughs out, but Arianna just glares at him "Fine, fine, take it." He hands her a gun, and she shoots at Toriel, making her roar out and cover her ears, and then she flees. "Hey! It worked!" Arianna pants out.

She looked down at Fightale and saw he appeared in a daze. "Fightale?" Suddenly, blood starts to pour from his mouth, making her eyes widen. "Oh god!" She panics and lays him on the ground, lifting his shirt to see the cuts in his bone. She takes her black hoodie off, trying to put pressure on the slashed bones of his ribcage. Once she sees he is not getting any better, she picks him up and heads for the exit of the ruins, not wanting to lose Fightale to whatever gas this was. As she neared the exit, she felt his hand come up to her face. "Ari." He murmured. She looked down, then he wiped away tears on her face. She had not even realized she had been tearing up, but the anxiety had been pounding through her. She went through the ruin doors back into Snowdin, noticing the town ahead looked vacated. "Alphys and Undyne must have evacuated them while I was gone," Arianna thought to herself. She then began to run, trying to make it quick to the lab. "You want me to teleport us there?" Fightale suggested, but Arianna shook her head. "No need to waste your magic, I can handle a bit of exercise." She smiles at him, trying to not worry him. Once she makes it to the lab, she notices there are not as many monsters there as she expected. "Arianna! You're back!" Papyrus goes to hug her, then notices Fightale's state and his eye sockets widen with fear. "Where is Alphys?" "Right over here!" Alphys comes around the corner, looking winded. "We evacuated most of the monsters of Snowdin, but the smaller monsters didn't seem to make it. We are working on the other parts of the underground now." "Where is Sans?" "He went to help gather up the monsters." Papyrus takes Fightale to the medicine room and hooks him back up to the monitors. Alphys follows Papyrus there and checks Fightale's stats, such as his temperature, magic radiation, and soul beats. Fightale looked at Arianna, noticing how guilty she looked for how he ended up. "Arianna, look at me." Arianna does as he asks, smiling to hide her emotions. "Yeah?" "Stop feeling bad about me; I am fine and will be in the end, alright?" They lock eyes for a moment before Arianna sighs. "Please promise me you won't be reckless…" Arianna walks up to him and holds out her pinky. "A pinky promise, seriously Ari? That's what children do." "Hush, just promise me you will be careful out here." Fightale groans, then interlocks their pinkies before pressing their thumbs together. "Happy?" Arianna nods and smiles. "Thank you, it means a lot more than you think it does."

Undyne then came through the doors in a rush, Sans behind her carrying children to get them inside. "Alphys, I think we figured out the source of the gas." Everyone perked up at this, but Sans took Papyrus out of the room as if he did not want him to hear the truth. "What is it?" "Well, Waterfalls has been flooded by this gas; we found a poison gas bomb and a long-release tablet that dissolves in water. It was dropped in the junkyard of Waterfalls, so it dissolved pretty quickly. I have got to go save the king before humans drop some in through the exit of the underground." Arianna felt her heart drop, and she could tell everybody else's did, too. "H-humans are doing this?" Alphys quivered, obviously shocked and scared this was happening. "That seems to be the only reasonable explanation; humans never liked us monsters anyway." "Then you can't go Undyne! You'll die out there! If that gas is designed to corrupt the souls of monsters, then it could seep right through your body!" Alphys hugged her girlfriend, not wanting to lose her. "Alphy… I have to save the underground, it is my duty. Besides, who's the strongest woman you know?" "Y-you. B-but!" "No buts, ok? I'll be back." Undyne kisses her forehead and then stands up to leave. Alphys began to tear up, knowing she did not have any equipment to prevent the intoxication from the gas. Arianna walked over and hugged her while Undyne left the lab.

Hours went by while the gas continued to spread throughout the underground. Fightale had recovered slightly from the gas poisoning and was lying in a bed with his brothers, they were all trying to get some rest. Nobody had gotten much rest due to how stressful this situation had become. Arianna was sitting in the main lab, listening to Alphys come up with plans, and helping her build them. Another hour goes by, no signs of Undyne. Alphys starts to worry for her girlfriend and talks a lot more about her. "What if something happened to her? Should I go and look for her on the cameras?" "Alphys, you are just worrying too much; I am sure she is fine; she is strong, after all." She tries to reassure Alphys despite the fact deep inside, she feels as if something has gone wrong. Papyrus walks upstairs from the containment room that held the monsters and walks towards the two. "So, you want to join in on a game? I figured maybe a game would help lighten the mood!" Papyrus grins happily, trying to make Alphys calmer, but it doesn't seem to work. "N-no, thank you, Papyrus." Arianna looks over at Alphys, then sighs. "Sure Papyrus, I'll play. If you need me, Alphys, just holler." Arianna then pats Alphys back and heads to the containment room with Papyrus. Knowing nobody would see her do anything, Alphys got up, shaking as she walked to her computer, pulling up the camera footage. She scanned through the cameras for minutes on end before seeing Undyne walking. Alphys felt her heart jump in joy, but it wasn't long before it sank again. Behind Undyne was something large; it had large fangs, was around 14 feet tall, was eyeless, and had huge hands and feet. Alphys froze in fear, not knowing what to do. Before she knew it, Undyne had a chunk of her head gone, and she hit the floor, groaning, trying to fight back against the monster. Thankfully, she didn't die due to her soul not being damaged. Alphys began to cry, watching as Undyne fended for her life, throwing spears at the beast. Finally, Undyne got knocked into the water as the beast ran, accidentally hitting Undyne with its large tail. Screams echoed out through the camera as Undyne struggled to get out of the acidic water. Her face began to melt and distort, her eyes bleeding from her face. When she finally got out, her legs were nothing but mush, her arms melty as well. Alphys wept, crying loudly as she hit the floor. Arianna and Sans rushed upstairs to see what had happened, only to see the horrific sight on the screen Alphys had just witnessed. Arianna teared up, covering her mouth, unable to speak from the shock in her body. Sans helped Alphys up, trying to comfort her, but to no avail.