Chapter 3: Caged

The next day, Alphys did not get any sleep, but nobody did after knowing their homes were being destroyed by the gas. Arianna was sitting at a table, eating some instant noodles. She looked over as Fightale sat in a chair beside her. "Hey, are you feeling alright?" Fightale asks, concerned for her. Arianna hesitates to speak, before finally answering. "No, not really." "What's wrong?" "Just…" She sighs and looks at her hands, "I feel so useless; everything is getting destroyed by my race even, and I can't do anything about it. Monsters are dying, and all I can do is sit back." Fightale sees Arianna is distraught by the events unfolding in front of her. She looks up at Fightale as he gets out of his seat and puts a hand on her shoulder. "C'mon now, Ari, lighten up. Sure things have gone to hell, but that doesn't mean you're useless! As you said," He lowers his voice and strokes her cheek with his bony thumb, "you can do anything if you put your mind to it." A smile tugs at the corners of her lips, putting her hand on his. She truly appreciated his attempt to comfort her, and his friendly gestures. "Thank you, Fightale. I am trying to get through this, guess it's just hard to do alone." He nods, then sits back down. "Yeah, it isn't exactly easy, but remember, you are not alone, everyone is in this together." Arianna looks over as Fightale smiles. She took time to appreciate the beauty in his sharp-toothed grin, knowing he didn't smile often, especially around those he did not trust. She returned the smile, wanting to let him know she enjoyed his company.

He then let out a groan, throwing his head back dramatically. "Man, I hate not being able to do my daily walks." "Well you promised you wouldn't do anything reckless, so no going outdoors." "Fine…" He huffs and crosses his arms. He eventually headed down to where he was sleeping and got out a notebook to write a journal entry since he couldn't take a walk.

"Hey, Alph." Arianna walks up to Alphys, putting a hand on her back. She was sitting on a chair, just staring at the empty screen where she had last seen Undyne. "You want to maybe take your mind off of things? Maybe do a crossword?" Arianna asks as she grabs a crossword book from a nearby bookshelf. Alphys just shook her head. "Arianna, t-these monsters, they are not just dying, they are corrupting." Her voice quivered as she looked into Arianna's eyes. "Corrupting? What do you mean?" "I watched more footage. After Undyne laid there for a while, she got up and seemed mindless. She went after some other monsters, eating them, but it seemed to keep her body intact when she did." Arianna felt speechless, not knowing what to say to that. Not only do they have the gas to worry about, but now there are going to be dangerous beasts out. Arianna thinks back to when she and Fightale went out into the ruins, seeing Toriel as some sort of crazed animal. "The gas must mess with the souls, that's the only thing I can think would do this. It isn't powerful enough to kill a monster, so it lowers the amount of magic produced, weakening the monsters and fading their memory." Arianna stated, sounding rather concerned. Alphys just nodded, knowing she was probably right. "We are stuck here, kind of like dogs in a cage, just waiting to be freed." Silence filled the room; nobody knew what to say. Then Fightale spoke up, seeming mad. "No! Not again. I am not going to sit here like some expectant animal! If I have to, I will get those damn gas bombs and get rid of them myself."

Arianna looked over and noticed Sans glaring at Fightale. "That wouldn't work, Fightale, the gas would get to you more since your soul is more vulnerable as a skeleton." "Well, what else are we supposed to do? Just sit in this lab and rot away? Hell no!" Fightale then rushed for the door. Sans and him then got into a fight as Arianna and Alphys stood by. Finally, Arianna had enough and pulled Sans back, overwhelmed. "Stop fighting! You know what, go ahead and break your promise, go right ahead!" She yelled at fightale, clearly upset with him. Fightale just stood there, not knowing what to do, especially since Arianna, of all people, yelled at him. "Fine." He said gruffly, then turned for the door before Sans walked up to him. "I'm going with you Fightale. If you think I am letting a brother of mine do this alone, you are out of your mind." He gives him a grin and then puts a hand on his arm. "Thanks." Fightale smiles down at his younger brother. Arianna then suddenly hugs Sans, seeming like she didn't want to let him go.

"Sans please, you do not have to do this. You said yourself, you guys are more vulnerable." Sans hugged her back, his grip a bit tight, as if he was nervous as well. "I know, Ari, but I can't just let my brother do this alone. You understand, right?" He said calmly. Arianna nodded reluctantly then let go of him, her eyes filled with concern for the two. "Please be careful, and at least wear my gas suit, Sans, it will protect you." Sans nodded and went to grab the suit before putting it on. It was a bit baggy on him due to being a skeleton, but it did fit enough to do its job. Arianna couldn't help but feel her heart tug at the feeling of her friends leaving, knowing they may not return. "Don't worry, Arianna, we will be back," Sans said assuringly, not wanting her to worry. Arianna decided to have some faith in him, and nodded, wanting to coerce herself that they would return, even if it turned out to be a lie.

"Where are you going?" The three looked back, seeing Papyrus. He seemed worried as if he knew something was going on. "Hey, Paps,," Sans said, his soul aching with knowing the news he was about to put on his brother. "We are going to get rid of the bombs." Papyrus' soul sank, and he quickly went up to his brothers. "But, won't you get hurt? The gas hurt Undyne and other monsters; how do you expect it not to hurt you, too, brother?" Sans was speechless, he knew this was a bad idea, but he didn't want to leave Fightale on his own. "We expect it to affect us." Fightale spoke up, "We just don't want to stay locked in here forever, so we are going to try and fix what mess the humans made." Papyrus remained quiet for a little bit before nodding and hugging the two tightly as if this was their last goodbye. "I love you so much, Brothers, please be safe." Sans and Fightale hugged back, Sans struggling to hold back tears along with Papyrus. Finally, Papyrus let go of them and gave them a smile to remember. Arianna did the same, wishing them luck on their journey.

With that, the two older skeleton brothers left, leaving Papyrus and Arianna in the lab, only to hope for their return. "Do you think they will come back?" Papyrus muttered, scared. Arianna, not wanting to make Papyrus sad, nodded, and hugged him. "Of course, they have something to fight for after all." She then booped his nasal cavity, causing him to let out a slight chuckle, enjoying the positivity Arianna held. They looked over at Alphys to see she still seemed down and decided to cheer her up. "Hey Alphys! Want to watch some of your favorite anime?" Alphys perked up at Arianna's remark, and nodded, her eyes showing a bit of gratitude in them. Papyrus and Arianna smiled, grabbed a Mew Mew Kissy Cutie disc, and then put it into the CD player. Papyrus popped some popcorn and then sat down on the couch with them to watch the show.

Hours had passed by rather quickly as the three did things to distract themselves from the anxiety of the real situation at hand. Alphys then had one final plan, something that was sure to brighten everybody's mood. "Here! I know what to do, how about we bring in another person!" Alphys then called Mettaton, and he came through the doors, opening his arms and grinning widely. "Hello, darlings! My, we have the human here! What's the occasion?" At that question, everybody froze. Did he seriously not realize the situation outside those doors? "Mettaton, do you not realize what is going on?" Arianna said sternly. "Well it seems a bit foggier than usual, but I haven't spotted anything unusual!" Clearly, he was oblivious to the whole situation. "A-about the fogginess. That fog is actually a gas being released into the underground by humans to ruin monster kind." Mettaton seemed shocked, "Oh my." He said, sounding a bit down.

Papyrus started to fidget, being reminded of the situation at hand, and how his brothers were in it currently. "Well then, might as well make a show out of it, right? There is always a little chaos in a good plotline!" Arianna glares slightly, not liking his attitude about the whole thing, but Alphys tries to calm the atmosphere by laughing. "Yeah, how about we do some of Mettaton's shenanigans, that should take our minds off things." Arianna was a bit shocked by this change of mood from Alphys, for it was unlike her to not act scared all the time. Papyrus just smiled; he enjoyed Mettaton's company, for he was his role model, after all. "C-can we cook something?" Papyrus asked. "Of course, darling!" Mettaton exclaims as he wraps an arm around Papyrus' shoulders. "Come on! To the kitchen, we go!" He picks Papyrus up like he weighs nothing then heads for the kitchen. Arianna giggles slightly at how amazed Papyrus looks, and Alphys follows behind, glancing at the giant screen one last time with a melancholic glimpse in her eyes.

Papyrus grabbed out some noodles, noticing they were not spaghetti noodles, but shrugged, "Will this work?" Mettaton nods and grabs it, grabbing out some cheese and sauce. "We can make lasagna with this!" As Mettaton puts everything together in a pan, Papyrus watches in awe, inspired by Mettaton's actions. Meanwhile, Arianna and Alphys were talking. "How has Mettaton seriously not realized the situation at hand?" Arianna grumbled. "W-well, Mettaton is made from metal. His soul is inside of a glass protector, so maybe the gas cannot get to him." Arianna sighs and nods. "He's lucky, that's what he is." Alphys gives her a confused look, wondering why Arianna seems so agitated by the fact that Mettaton can't be affected by the gas. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, just thinking is all." "About?" "Well, how is it fair that Mettaton can't be affected, but everyone else can? I get he is built, but we just sent two monsters out there that are even more vulnerable than the regular monster, when we could have just used him!" She shouted the last part, then noticed everyone's eyes were on her. Papyrus looked a bit down, creating guilt in Arianna's soul. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell." Arianna got up and went into the true lab before anyone could convince her otherwise. She went to where the beds were and covered up, feeling tears welling in her eyes. "I cannot believe I just did that. I hate this stupid anxiety, I hate this whole situation." She told herself as her anxiety and frustration grew, as well as her pain. She just wanted everything to be alright, but she knew things were far from okay at the moment.

Concurrently, Fightale and Sans were walking through snowdin, heading for the Ruin doors. When they arrived, they found the doors wide open, as if something had gone through them. This polluted the Snowdin air greatly, and Fightale was starting to feel his soul clench in pain. "Sans… I'm not feeling the greatest, how far till we get to the main falling point?" "Do you really not remember?" Sans looked at his brother to see he was starting to slow with his movements, his hands dripping some sort of magic. "Fightale, we should go back." Fightale didn't answer, however, and continued to walk forward, as if he didn't hear sans. Sans sighs and follows after him. Fightale mumbles something incoherently, so Sans grabs his arm. "Bro, you're freaking me out, what are you even-" "Don't touch me!" Fightale growls out, shoving Sans to the ground. Sans stands up quickly, ready to take action if Fightale lashes out. "We have to get those bombs, Sans, you never had to come in the first place!" He grumbles. "Fine, just, calm down, ok?" Fightale scoffs and turns around, beginning to walk further into the ruins. Sans hesitantly follows, looking behind him before he continues on.

When getting deeper into the ruins and closer to the gas bomb, Fightale starts to cough up blood but continues walking, even when Sans tries to stop him. Eventually, they make it to the main source of the gas. When they arrive, Fightale bends down and grabs the gas device, before dropping it quickly, cursing under his breath as he notices it has melted some of his bone. "Sans, we can't pick this up" He choked out, blood filling his mouth. "Then we should go back; you're a lookin' real rough, pal." Fightale just shot a glare at him, not pleased with his response. Fightale sat there, pondering how to get rid of it, before trying to summon his magic. When he did, however, it failed. The magic blade had melted in thin air; his soul was too damaged to form anything magic. He began to cough harshly and looked over at Sans. "Sans, maybe we should go back." He goes to stand when suddenly Toriel appears behind him. Sans sockets go wide as he points behind Fightale. When Fightale turns around, Toriel is lunging at him, so he grabs the gas bomb and throws it at her, landing in her mouth. It burns through the top part of her mouth, then falls to the floor. When the beast looks up, Fightale and Sans are already booking it down the hallway, already realizing they can no longer teleport.

As they ran, Sans was weighed down by the suit, slowing him down, and Fightale eventually collapsed. He began coughing up blood into the snow, his vision fading and mind feeling foggy. "F-Fightale, we have to keep running." Sans huffed. Fightale then stood up, seeing Toriel bolting toward them. Fightale's red eyelights appeared in his usually black eye sockets, then grabbed Toriel's horns, slamming her down with a grunt. Toriel tried to get up but Fightale kept slamming her head to the ground. Toriel finally used her strength to knock him back, but before she could harm him, Fightales phalanges grew out, and he slashed her across the face. Toriel retreated to the Ruins as Fightale stood there, panting heavily. Between his grunts sounded like grumbles, and Sans looked at his hand. His hand had grown longer, his phalange tips sharp as cat claws. "Fightale! Are you ok?" Sans rushed to his side, noticing a hunch in his posture, as if he were hurt. Despite Sans' efforts, Fightale did not respond. Sans felt anxiety creeping in him, telling him to run, but he decided to try and help his brother. He went to stand in front of him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Fightale!" He hollered. He shook him, then next thing he knew he was on the ground. Fightale was towering over him, his red eyelights laser bright. He continued to let the blood leak from his jaws. Sans went to stand up but Fightale shoved his foot down onto Sans' chest. "Don't move." Fightale growled. A grin creeped across Fightale's face as he pinned Sans down, then he rose his hand up to attack.