Chapter 4: Chasing Shadows

Hours kept on passing, but still no Fightale and Sans. Papyrus was not paying attention to Mettaton's attempts to cheer him up, seemingly too in his mind. Arianna finally went up to him and grabbed his bony arm. "Papyrus, what's wrong?" Papyrus just looked over at her, an unfamiliar sadness in his expression. "Human, do you think they will ever come back?" Arianna felt her heart ache at his question. "Surely they will, don't worry about it. I know it's been a long time since they have been back but maybe they are just busy!" Papyrus sighs and hugs her. "I hope you are right." She pats his back as she hugs him, then pulls away, giving him a gentle smile in hopes to calm him. "Oh darling!" Mettaton coos, grabbing Papyrus' arm. "Ready for our next activity?" Papyrus smiles slightly then looks away. "I'm sorry Mettaton, but I don't think I want to do much anymore. I think I'm going to rest." He then headed to the true lab and crawled into one of the beds to nap, which was unlike him. Arianna and Mettaton looked at each other and sighed, knowing the loss of his brothers was already getting to him.

"Maybe I should go try and find them." Arianna suggested, wanting to have the two back as well. "Well, without the gas suit, won't you get gas poisoning?" "Probably, but hopefully they are nearby and I do not have to go far." She said as she began to head for the front doors. "Well, good luck, I will tell Alphys that you left." They waved each other goodbye then Arianna left to go find Fightale and Sans. Immediately she was hit by the gas, and she started coughing. "This is not going to be easy." She thought to herself. She began running through hotlands, making her way to Waterfalls in order to search there. When she arrived at the first bomb sight, she did not see them, so she headed to snowdin. Her chest was tightening up as the gas began to get into her system. She knew she had to hurry, for she wouldn't last much longer. She stumbled down to the ground once she reached the Snowdin town entrance, coughing up blood into the white snow. "Sans?" She stuttered, noticing a blue blob in the snow. She could not see very well so a blob is all she could make out. Determined, she pushed herself to get up, walking over to the blue figure. Indeed, it was sans, but he seemed unconscious, and there was a big scratch across his skull, as if something had attacked him. Quickly, she removed the oxygen tank and mask from sans and began to breathe through it, coughing as her lungs processed the air it had been needing. After she attached the gear back onto herself, she picked up the skeleton and then went to head back to the lab. However, she remembered Fightale. She looked back, seeing if she could see him, but no signs of Fightale. She did notice footprints, but they seemed large, larger than what Fightale's feet would be. The worst case scenario flooded her mind, but she decided to believe nothing had happened to him. She just knew she needed to find him, and fast. Knowing she only had a limited amount of time, she headed into the forest swiftly, calling out his name. "Fightale! Where are you?" No matter how hard she tried, how loud she screamed, no reply. Arianna felt her hope drain. She knew Sans couldn't last forever so she reluctantly exited the forest. Guilt filled her heart, she felt as if she was abandoning Fightale, but she didn't want to risk Sans' health.

As she crossed through Snowdin town, she looked around to see the shape everything was in. The atmosphere was cold, lonely, void of any joy. The snow no longer seemed to bring that hope it used to, now it could resemble the amount of monsters that had died to this gas. Arianna looked down at sans, seeing his defeated state. A sigh left her lips as she continued on, now reaching Waterfalls. She looked up between the two waterfalls. There was the ledge Fightale would always go to, and he called it his "secret spot" since it was so high up. She missed the days where everything was alright. In a matter of a day, everything had gone bad, and she wished it was only a bad nightmare. Eventually, she made it back to the lab. Papyrus was there at the doors, waiting, and when he saw Arianna walk in, he grinned widely, seeing his brother in her arms. Arianna took Sans to the beds and laid him down, covering him up before hooking him to the soul monitors. When she turned around, Papyrus hugged her, crying. "I was so scared you wouldn't come back." When he said those words, it felt like a sword in her heart. She hugged him tighter, and tried to comfort him. "I won't ever leave you, ok?" Papyrus nodded, wiping the tears from his skull as he smiled at her. "Where is Fightale?" He asked, but she just let out a sigh in response. "I don't know, but we will find him, alright?" She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and Papyrus let out a breath, trying to remain calm.

Sans began to cough as he rose up quickly, looking around and panting as if he just had a nightmare. "Sans!" Arianna rushed to Sans and hugged him. "Where's Fightale" Sans mutters out, seeming serious. "I'm sorry, I couldn't find him." Sans just looked down, then grinned widely before tearing up. "We have got to go find him." "Brother no!" Papyrus asserts. "You are already hurt enough! You shouldn't be going outside anymore." Sans sighs, and nods, not having enough energy to fight back. Alphys enters, looking around then spotting sans. "I take it you didn't see Fightale?" Arianna nods, her eyes showing the amount of pain she feels. Alphys can feel how tense the atmosphere is, so she decides to try and make up a plan to make it better, as well as to distract herself. "How about we get some rest! I am sure everybody needs it anyway, and it would help Sans' healing body." "I'm down for that" Sans responds, before bundling up in the covers. Papyrus nods and takes the bed beside Sans, wanting to keep an eye on him. Arianna, not wanting to let them see her cry out her anxiety, chooses one in another room. Once everybody is asleep, things are silent. All that can be heard is the rustling of blankets as people toss and turn.

Arianna is the first one to wake up, not having gotten much sleep at all. She walks into the kitchen to start brewing some coffee, then goes to check on Sans while she waits. The mug drops to the ground. Sans was nowhere to be seen. Arianna, ignoring the broken glass, goes to Papyrus and shakes him roughly, waking him up. "Where the hell is Sans?" "Sans? He is right-" Papyrus looks at the empty bed and jumps up, panicking. "Oh stars! He is gone!" Worried, Arianna and Papyrus search everywhere through the lab till Alphys stops them. "What is going on?" "Sans is missing!" Arianna exclaims. A thought then comes across her mind, "What if he had gone to find Fightale?" She thinks to herself. Before she can go to find her recharged oxygen tank, Alphys gets a text from Asgore, saying he was going out of his bunker to find Toriel. "No, he can't do that, he will be killed!" "Why is that?" Alphys questions. "Because, Toriel is already affected by the gas, and in a sense, she is feral!" Alphys understands her explanation and types it out to Asgore, but he doesn't reply back. Arianna returns with her oxygen mask and tank, and heads for the door. "You're going back out?" "Yeah, got to save King Fluffybuns. Maybe I will find Fightale as well." Papyrus hugs her goodbye, and she gives a promising grin his way. "Remember what I told you, Paps." He nods then she heads out the large doors, putting on her mask and turning on the valve to the oxygen tank.

First, she heads to the river person's boat area, but they are nowhere to be seen. "He must already be in snowdin" She then trudges through the marsh that is Waterfalls, finally making it to Snowdin. She heads for the Ruins entrance and takes a deep breath before entering. After a bit of walking, she finds Asgore walking not far in front of her. "Asgore!" She hollers out, but he seems unresponsive to her calls. She walks up to him and taps his back, to which he turns around and smiles at her. "Hello Arianna, where is Toriel?" He asks. A growl then rumbles out through the corridors, and two white beady eyes emerge from the darkness. "Right there." She whispers. Asgore walks up to her and smiles, "T-Tori, it's so nice to meet again." "Asgore no!" Giant thuds shake the ground as Toriel bolts towards Asgore, showing the beast she had become. Asgore looks back at her, fear in his eyes. Arianna tries to yank him away, but before she can, she hears a chomp, and Asgore's body hits the ground. Scared, Arianna begins to run as Toriel eats Asgore's fading corpse.

The pitter patter of her footsteps echo through the halls as a screech can be heard. Arianna's heart feels as if it is beating out of her chest, her head thudding and legs shaking. Once she exits the Ruins, she shuts the large, purple doors and runs into the forest of Snowdin, wanting to get as far away from the doors as she can. She weaves around the trees, snow kicked up by her feet, before finally getting deep into the forest. She stops to rest against a nearby tree, noticing her tank is halfway full. She curses under her breath and tries to calm herself. Once she calms down, she thinks about her next mission, finding Sans and Fightale. She stands up, then hears a tree fall. When she looks over, a large, black figure rushes behind some trees, disappearing from sight. Arianna knows she is still being followed, and decides to try to get out of the forest. When nearing the exit, she hears a twig break. Looking back, she doesn't see anything except for a fallen branch that had been broken, but when she turns around, there stood a malformed Fightale, his grin large, his sharp teeth more visible than ever. His red eyelights beamed bright like a laser, and his gaze was empty. "F-Fightale?" She reached her hand out, almost in a trance-like state. However, this was quickly broken when Fightale went to bite down on her hand, but she moved it away quick enough.

She fumbled in the snow before getting up and fleeing, Fightale roaring out then chasing after her. She saw a house nearby and made a sharp turn, causing him to launch into a tree, hitting his skull. Arianna swiftly hid inside the house, hyperventilating as she sat down against the wall. Fightale knew she was in there though, and his piercing eyes shot through the glass door. Before she knew it, the glass was smashed, and his long phalanges crept down to the door handle before opening the door. Arianna knew she was trapped as she sat there, her body feeling frozen in place. Her life was flashing before her eyes, everything she had accomplished, everything she had messed up on. Fightale let out a dark chuckle before going to charge at her, his mouth open uncannily. Arianna lifted her arms up in hopes to protect herself and closed her eyes. However, she never felt any pain. She opened her eyes to see Fightale getting dragged out of the building by another skeleton. They were both larger in size than before, and the shorter skeleton threw Fightale against a tree before slamming his skull to the ground. Arianna, not wanting to figure out who or what that was, began to escape while she had the chance.

She kicked the snow up beneath her as she ran, and she heard something call out, "Wait!" It sounded like Sans, but she was not about to turn around and risk her life. She could hear something chasing her, the ground shaking with every step it took. Suddenly, the beast appeared in front of her, as if it teleported. Arianna hit the ground, scrambling backwards in fear. Again, she lifted her arms up and closed her eyes, ready for her demise, but she never felt it. "Arianna." She looked up slowly, finding a distorted Sans in front of her. "Please, don't run." His eye socket was melted, his blue eyelight large and blazing through his skull. His grin was wide and eerie, along with his height growth. He had a hunched posture, as if he was in pain. "Sans?" She whispers, almost not believing it was him. "What happened to you?" Sans looked around then back at her, before stepping forward, getting on his knees in order to be on her level. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm sorry I left without saying anything. I just wanted to find Fightale, and well, I did." He sighed, his voice seemed rough, as if he had trouble speaking. "I'm just glad to see you again." Arianna smiled, then hugged the now uncanny skeleton. Sans was a bit shocked by this, but hugged her back, making sure not to hurt her due to his large size.