Chapter Text
“A-all right! You’re up!” At the muffled instruction, Endogeny bounded forward and began frantically sniffing around the transport. Not for the first time, Undyne winced at the volume, even through the headset Alphys had given her, the transport was deafening.
A shrill drone like a tuning fork accompanied the chopping of the turbines that furiously sliced the air at the rear of the transport, the tips of their blades wreathed in an unnatural light. The enormous angular craft was roughly two-hundred feet long, tapering to a dull nose at the front with four such turbines slanted downwards at the rear. As she watched, Endogeny approached the transport where it sat hunched on its sharp legs and began diligently sniffing around the craft.
The amalgamated monsters let out a distorted bark, and Alphys gave them a shaky thumbs up. “Ok! P-power down!” The order was accompanied by a sudden increase in volume.
Undyne resisted the temptation to clutch her ears, before the sound began to lessen and the turbines slowed, drifting to a stop and packing themselves back into their cylindrical housings. As the field collapsed, several of the gathered monsters cringed at the cracking sounds like glass shattering that emanated from the engine bay.
Alphys sighed and removed her headset, motioning for Undyne to do the same. “I d-don’t know what I expected.” She said, her voice sounded tinny and distant over the seemingly deafening noise of the ambient air as Undyne removed her own ear protection.
“Don’t beat yourself up.” Undyne said, “They only needed to last this one trip anyway.” Alphys just shrugged. Undyne turned and peered back over the enormous white expanse of the staging ground, half a dozen more transports sat lined up across it, already being unloaded from their return. As she did, the teams of monsters that were waiting nearby rushed forward to do the same to the last transport, a wide ramp extending from its side. At the same time a much smaller ramp extended from the rear, and a team of technicians rushed up it, eager to assess what remained of the fuel and save what they could.
“C-come on, let’s see if w-we can salvage anything.” Undyne followed the scientist to the rear of the transport. As they approached, the technicians carried the fuel canisters down the ramp, setting them on the rough stone that formed the floor of the staging ground.
Undyne couldn’t help but wince, all but one of the canisters had a small pile of faintly glowing shards sitting at the bottom. They pulsed sickly, still trying to cling to life even in pieces. The sixth canister still contained a complete human soul, though the light from this one was pale and weak, like it too could shatter if it were moved carelessly. Even years later she couldn't help the uncomfortable twist in her stomach at the sight of them, the captain did her best to shove it away.
“Hey! Would ya look at that, one survived this time!” Undyne grinned and nudged the scientist, “I told you those improvements you made helped!”
Alphys fidgeted under the praise, “M-maybe, we still don’t know what causes some souls to l-last longer than others. Aside from the o-obvious.” As she spoke her gaze was drawn to Endogeny, now harassing the workers as they unloaded the latest shipment from beyond the New Barrier.
Undyne shrugged, “Yeah, but this’ll help you figure it out right?”
Alphys paused, before addressing the volcano monster who was tapping their foot impatiently next to the full canister. “C-could you go ahead and h-have that delivered to the lab for me? I-I’d like to study it before it g-goes back to the stockpile.” The volcano monster steamed quietly and began instructing their crew. As they did, Alphys led the way from the transport and turned an awkward smile to Undyne.
“Y-yeah, it couldn’t hurt. If we can f-figure out why this one lasted, m-maybe one day we can learn how human souls get f-formed.” Undyne’s grin lessened as the scientist’s shoulders slumped, “It still d-doesn't make sense, all the a-accounts say that intentions d-dont matter to humans, t-their souls are fundamentally d-different on the m-most basic level. We s-still don’t know why they are able t-to shield us when they shouldn’t even register that the k-killing intent is even there .”
The captain turned to look across the field with a frown. Alphys had once tried to explain to her how the shielding worked. If she was honest she hadn’t understood much of it, but she understood why they were necessary, as she stared at the morphing form of the amalgamate.
The humans had used… some kind of weapon, just before Asgore had wiped them out. Far more powerful than anything they had sent before, it had reduced the region outside of the valley to ash for almost a hundred miles. Asgore had managed to shoot down the missiles headed for the valley they had made their home, but hadn’t seen the point in intercepting those that landed beyond the mountains. They hadn’t known, then, that the weapons left some kind of residue behind like poison. Radiation, Alphys had called it.
She explained that normally it wouldn’t even affect monsters, they had none of the gross organic things that humans did. The previous royal scientist had thought that too, and had journeyed a short way into the deadzone to conduct research. That had been a mistake, the radiation itself may not have affected them, but it was still supercharged with the furious killing intent of the humans who had launched the missiles.
The royal scientist hadn’t come back, but before he died he had found a way to project that intent back onto the human souls Asgore had taken before the attack. Undyne couldn’t help but feel a grim sort of satisfaction at the irony, almost enough to make up for the sickening frustration that humanity had once again become the only key to their prison. The cell had gotten larger, it hadn’t disappeared.
“Yeah, well… there's a lot of stuff we don’t know about how humans worked. If we were capable of understanding each other none of this would have ever happened.”
Alphys nodded dejectedly, “Y-yeah, I know. Still, with any luck we can learn something from the souls that survived this time. Even if w-we can only increase the efficiency by a q-quarter, that will go a l-long way.”
Undyne resisted the urge to cringe, she still hadn’t told her about her conversation with the queen. She reached out to put a hand on the scientists shoulder, before Alphys turned around with a small smile that faded at the sight of her expression.
“Undyne? I-Is everything alright?”
She blinked, and forced a smile, “Uh, yeah! I’m great, work is just… Its complicated right now. We still don’t have a lead on whoever clocked Otu from behind. I just…” She groaned, “I know it was one of those punks from Underground, they've been harassing my people for months ! No one else would have had a motive to attack Otu.”
Alphys shifted uncomfortably, “Are you s-sure? T-they’ve never been violent b-before.”
Undyne grit her teeth, “No! And thats the worst part! If I knew for sure I could go after them right now! I-” Undyne shut her eye and let out a breath, “Sorry.”
“I-It’s ok, t-things have been rough r-recently.” She perked up, “H-hey! I have a new order that came in w-with this shipment, d-do you want to come over tonight?”
Undyne shrugged, “Sure, I should be free later tonight, rotation has me off evenings right now.” She smirked, “Is it a new show?” Alphys nodded excitedly, nearly vibrating from excitement.
Across the field the technicians uncapped the empty canisters and the shards within evaporated, motes of light drifting off to parts unknown. Undyne looked away, and focused on her best friend as she began to explain.
_______________________________________
Undyne scanned the streets as she made her way back towards her usual route. As she passed people cleared a path before her, their conversations growing more subdued. She resisted the urge to grimace.
Despite the problems her people’s growing distrust of the guard posed to her work, she couldn’t find it in herself to blame them. The door was closing… everyone knew it. Every time a transport took off for the colonies they used up a few more of the precious souls that were the only way to leave this place. Even if they were to abandon the city, years of supply runs had depleted their supply, and the number of monsters living in the valley had grown immensely. They simply didn't have the souls to get everyone out.
The queen had ordered that efforts be focused on making the colonies self-sufficient, less reliant on the food and materials produced in the valley and their old prison. Undyne ground her teeth, her people weren’t stupid , they were beginning to figure out that there wasn’t a plan to remove the last of their prison’s walls. Undyne felt less like a guard and more like a warden with every passing day.
An octopus monster that had been demonstrating an impressive ability with multiple stringed instruments abruptly packed up and left as she approached a small plaza. Undyne ignored them and moved to lean beneath the shade of a nearby awning. She rubbed her neck, her glove came away damp. Despite herself she couldn’t help but miss waterfall on days like this, why did it only have to rain some of the time? It was too damn hot.
Across the way, a vendor cried out as a small monster ducked out from under their stall, arms full of fruit. Undyne straightened, and peered across the way. The kid was a little thing, blunt silver horns poked up above a smooth head. Tattered frills wrapped around them, wings probably. The loox they had apparently stolen from pointed a clawed hand at them as they fled, “THIEF!”
The kid froze and looked back just in time to see Undyne push herself off of the wall, eyes framed by ragged brown fuzz went wide and they bolted into a side street. Undyne groaned, these delinquents were going to be the death of her. She broke into a run and followed.
She turned the corner just in time to see the kid duck out of the other end of the alley, heading north towards the park, probably intending to find a place to hide and wait her out. “HEY PUNK!” she roared, hoping to startle them enough to give it up. The monster child didn’t even spare her a glance. The hard way it was.
Several citizens stopped to stare as she pursued, the child leapt a moldsmal and ducked between the legs of a troll who promptly dropped his coffee and stumbled back, nearly bowling her over. Undyne growled and ducked around the larger monster, doing her best to get back up to speed.
The kid made the mistake of heading straight, and Undyne grinned as her longer gait started to close the distance. “You ain’t getting away that easy punk! Give the stuff back and I may even let you off with a warning!” The small monster didn’t stop, running faster and having to duck to avoid being bowled over by a whimsum who was panicking at the volume. Undyne ducked around it and clenched a fist, emerald light swirling around her gauntlet.
The brat made the mistake of turning to look at her, distracted by the sound of magic, and Undyne swept her arm forward. An arc of green light shot from her fist, hurtling towards them. Too late, Undyne realized that the kid hadn’t just turned to look at her. The punk’s wing shot aside, and their arm swung out. An instant later, something green and squishy collided with her head, striking just above her good eye.
Undyne stumbled back, stunned and grabbed the offended area, her magic fizzling out before it could make contact. Her hand came away sticky, and she looked down to see one of the stolen fruits rolling away. She felt far more disorientated than she should given the nature of the projectile.
The captain ignored the sudden sickness that rose up in her, too overcome by the giddy feeling of incandescent rage. “Did.. DID YOU JUST THROW A PEAR AT ME?” She saw red and resumed chasing the brat who had already made up the distance they had lost.
The monster child weaved into a crowd of people, ducking between legs and wings and doing what they could to put the crowd between them and her. Unfortunately for them the crowd saw the furious fish monster barreling towards them and promptly dove for cover, leaving her an unobstructed view of them as they skidded into another alley.
She turned the corner and saw that the kid had come to a short fence between the buildings flanked by a few trash cans that they hastily clambered up. Undyne picked up speed and leapt the fence in a single bound, emerging into a small courtyard that probably served one of the nearby apartments. The courtyard was made of the usual pale stone, dominated by a large tree that stood in the center. The captain raced around it just in time to see the brat duck into yet another alley.
She growled, “Getting real tired of this shit!” But as she approached she couldn’t help but grin, she looked up at the layout of the nearby buildings and if she was right that alley would be a dead end. Jogging over at a more leisurely pace, she turned the corner and froze.
The child was sprawled out at the end of the alleyway, flanked by dumpsters. Their wings were splayed out and the stolen food scattered in front of them as though they had tripped and injured themself. “Kid?” She asked, unable to stop the note of concern from entering her voice.
There was no response, and Undyne’s eye widened as she rushed towards them, all ideas of revenge dropped at the sight of the fallen child before her. “Kid! Are you alright punk? Where are you hurt?” She knelt down next to them, putting her hand on their shoulder and shaking them vigorously. They… smelled really bad.
Undyne's eye widened, she gripped their shoulder and pulled, causing what she had assumed were the child’s horns and wings and head to fly away to reveal… a bag of trash. Undyne stared at the trash bag for a long moment, before turning a wide eye to what she now saw up close to be a too-large purple coat, its bottom vigorously ripped and fabric generously crumpled to give the impression of wings wrapped around the child’s body. The hood lolled towards her, the horns she now saw were made of rolled up cones of duct tape glinting in the dim light.
There was a sound from behind her, something skipped within her chest and Undyne whirled around, magic crackling just in time to see the rough bark of a thick branch rushing towards her face. The blow took her head on, bowling her over. Her chin collided with the flagstones as she gasped and tried to bring in air. She had forgotten what pain like this felt like.
The captain tried to get her arms under herself, only for them to give out causing her to fall back to the ground. Her head spun, vision blurred by pain that somehow radiated throughout her entire body, pulsing through her with every breath. Was she dying? That was the only explanation she could think of for why she couldn’t move, couldn’t think.
Over the pain, she felt small hands pat her down and… they just took her wallet. The child stepped over her limp body and Undyne watched as they knelt down and began collecting their ill-gotten goods. From what she could see they had two arms and legs. Ragged, torn and… and bloody clothes sat beneath a rats nest of shoulder-length hair that blocked their face from view as they gathered the fallen food and stood, turning to face her.
Undyne’s eye went wide and her breath hitched as the chil- no, the human stared down at her, their dirt-smudged face meeting her gaze with an unreadable expression. Her vision blurred, and the last thought that crossed Undyne’s mind was that this was a really stupid way to die.