This was inspired by my boyfriend's story, His Scarf. Originally a one-shot, it's now morphed into something bigger. Content warning for some dark themes ahead.

4 chapters total. Updated weekly.

[Camera Feed 12 – Waterfall Bridge

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It's done.

The human was pinned to a rock wall. Jagged, unreal, unnatural. It didn't even look the same anymore. The Undying had ripped away the last of her spears from its chest, bright light tipped with red before the weapon faded away. The human fell into the shallow waters, still and quiet.

A sash of bright crimson was around the Undying's shoulders, contrasting the rest of her dark armor. She held it close to her mouth, lips moving, breathing in remembered dust. She kept whispering, too low for anyone else to hear, as she knelt beside the human.

A hooded skeleton walked up to her. She paid him little attention.

There was dust on the human's clothes, chalky and gritty from walking through the wet marshes. The Undying grimaced at the sight, but she placed her hands on the striped shirt regardless, sifting through the remains of dear friends. Her sharp fingers stayed poised like waiting daggers, waiting for the soul to manifest. It wasn't long before red light filled the area, deepening the shade of her scarf, coloring her teeth into blood-drenched fangs.

It was an innocent shape, but its color was dark, and as the soul pulsed, it sent out waves of repulsion. It would have pushed back any other monster, weak and incorporeal as they were. The Undying was neither of those things. She did not flinch, and instead reached out to the soul to harvest for her king.

Until the soul started to shake. Her eye widened.

"What-" she started to say. She gripped the soul with both hands as tight as she could. The force of her determination made the waters ripple, tugged away at her sash until it lashed out behind her frantically.

The skeleton remained still.

Light shone from the soul intensely, beating in sporadic patterns. The Undying remained where she was, keeping the soul barred between her fingers. Her missing left eye shone with a light that was like a sword strike, trying to cleave the human's essence in its gaze.

The skeleton watched.

"I… won't…" The Undying gritted her teeth, both hair and scarf waving wildly behind her head. "I won't give up!"

The light was too much, the soul's very existence too strong. The light from both sheer forces of will, crimson and white, lit up the skeleton's grin, highlighted the barrenness that was his face, full of curves and valleys, but sparse of anything else.

There was a crack. And then-

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The cameras had gone out hours ago.

"S-shoot, how c-can the power source be this fried?"

Alphys frantically examined the power core inside her security system, making sure there wasn't any faulty wire hidden in the back. Whatever magic she could summon were only tiny little sparks, enough to perhaps jumpstart a fizzed out motherboard, or cause an electrical fire. Neither were happening, so she decided to cut her losses and firmly shut the panel. She really didn't have cause to worry. She had already seen Undyne defeat the human, transformed into a hero she had only seen in her shows. Even so, the look on Undyne's face had been worrisome, despite the grainy video image, and the strange play of lights she had been unable to determine the source of. It was not helped at all by how the camera had soon lost signal after that, too.

She stared at the dark cameras, her empty laboratory lit by the emergency backup lights. How had she overlooked that protocol would let her cameras continue to malfunction? …Right, those safety measures had been implemented long before she became Royal Scientist. She had installed the cameras herself, but the Core's pathways or the machine that was down below…

There was a resounding slam at her door.

Alphys squeaked, stumbling out of her chair, nearly sending her desk toppling to the ground. Anime figurines stayed upright, though a few empty ramen noodle packets fluttered in the air. "Who- who is it?"

Despite the door's mechanical nature, Undyne had forced her way in with ease. She strolled across the floor as fluid as water, completely unheeding to the heavy armor she wore. There were dents on its surface, riddled with the aftermath of heavy blows. The emblem of a soul on her chest was fragmented, cracks sprouting along it like spiderwebs. But even with all that, she looked much taller than Alphys could remember. Without the static-filer of a camera, she looked otherworldly. Her face hard, sporting fresh, still-bleeding cuts from her fight, her hand gripping onto her weapon, its soft glow now stained pink - she really did look like a hero.

And her face was so different. Her eye patch was gone, leaving bare a dark place where light occasionally gleamed. At first, there would just be nothingness, a chasm, then that light would strike forth, flashing across all surroundings, illuminating everything, like a lighthouse that watched for all during a furious sea storm.

"Undyne!" She clambered over to the warrior, but not too close. The constant flickering in Undyne's eyes held her back, unnerving her. "You're… you really did beat them! I was so worried because…" Because she had seen her die, watched her melt until the warrior re-knit herself into something amazing.

Undyne glanced at her. She didn't smile, her sharp teeth barely holding a grimace. "Alphys. Where is everyone?"

"O-Oh, uh, they're… they've all been evacuated. Just in c-case. They're okay." Alphys tapped claws against each other. That look Undyne gave her wasn't the usual. "But… but I knew you could beat them!"

Undyne lowered her head slightly. She was pulling at something around her neck. "Yeah… we beat them, didn't we?"

The scientist blinked. Was Undyne talking to herself or to Alphys? Though there was light in the lab, the backup lights were dim, painting everything in muted shades of yellow. She peered harder at what Undyne wore. She had at first noted the red color, and immediately thought it had been the fiery tail end of Undyne's hair, draped across her neck from her traveling. But on closer inspection, Alphys realized she was wrong.

It was a scarf.

"…Oh, oh no." Her voice pitched low. "You mean, you and…"

Sans' arrival was unexpected, as it usually was. She suddenly realized his form to her side, and leaped away, certainly tipping over a figurine by now as she bumped against the table. The skeleton made no motion, no sound, no apology. He just leaned against the wall of the lab, hands in his pockets, skull resting against the surface. He was smiling, but it was like plaster that refused to peel away.

"S-Sans?" Alphys called out.

Undyne growled. She gripped the scarf desperately. "Not him! That coward hasn't done anything at all!" The traces of determination billowed out from her, the light in her missing eye growing brighter as she swung its constantly revolving gaze towards Sans. "Why the hell are you here?"

The skeleton only slightly moved his head, a motion so separate from his body that it gave Alphys the eerie image that someone else was playing along, directing Sans to move through invisible strings.

"have nothing better to do." Shrug. "that's it."

Alphys could no longer see Undyne's face, but she saw the way her hand clenched her spear, how a boot slid only an inch or two across the metal floor. The heroine still clutched at the scarf, ragged and still powdered with dust. She watched as Undyne shifted closer to Sans, who only stared back, completely apathetic to everyone and everything.

"T-they've been evacuated downstairs!"

That took both of their attention. Undyne turned her head. The light pierced through Alphys' glasses, making her blink in pain. "What?"

"The… other monsters. I brought them downstairs… into the lower levels of the lab." Alphys heaved a sigh. "It was the only place I could take them. You… wanted to see them, right?"

Memory came back to Undyne's face. She became somber again, her hold on her spear relaxing. She still gripped that scarf tightly, and then wound it tighter around her neck, as if afraid she would lose it.

"Yeah, let's go." A pause. "I've already spoken with Asgore. He's checking around the Underground, while I-" She paused then, looking slightly confused. It passed quickly. "We just wanna make sure everyone's doing fine."

"Um… we?" Alphys looked from Undyne to Sans, but the skeleton made the smallest motion she'd ever seen – just a soft shake of the head.

She looked back to Undyne, saw her hold the scarf close, as if in apology. "He'd like that a lot."

"Oh… yeah. Yeah, of course!" Alphys swallowed, then shuffled for the elevator door that was marked deviously as just a bathroom. "Come with me."

Undyne trudged after her, footsteps echoing loudly in her march. The moment the door opened, she walked past Alphys, as if forgetting her already. The end of the scarf fluttered behind her.

Restraining back a nervous hiccup, Alphys looked back at Sans who hadn't moved. He was looking past her, eying Undyne – no, eyeing that scarf with such a burning gaze, she feared he would accidentally set it aflame with magic.

"Do you… want to come along? I – I mean, I guess Undyne wouldn't l-like it or… if you just catch the next ride-"

"just go on ahead, alph." Sans gave his trademarked wink – lazily, and with very little heart. "i'll catch up."

Alphys stood in place for a moment, thinking that, maybe, she should apologize to him? She wasn't sure what for yet just yet, but it was probably something that she could fix if she would just be smart enough about it.

When she heard Undyne practically punch the 'down' button for the elevator, Alphys had no choice but to leave the skeleton alone.

"W-wait! Hold on!" She trudged over hastily to the elevator, somehow able to squeeze past the closing doors and not get her tail caught. She huffed in exhaustion as they traveled down, the hum of machinery sliding past. "Undyne? Why'd you, um, do that?"

Undyne said nothing. She looked down, still holding the scarf close. She tapped the end of her spear against the floor rhythmically.

The silence was nearly unbearable. Alphys looked around the small space, softly berating herself for not installing any elevator music for the trip (it was always a long way down, so why hadn't she?) and then took off her glasses to wipe them against her coat. In her haste, she nearly dropped them, and in her nervousness, she nearly bent the wiring as she cleaned them. She just needed to do something with her hands. She just needed to find some way to talk with her friend again. She just –

"Undyne?" she started off, hesitating. "Are you… are you upset with me?"

Undyne didn't answer her. She didn't even seem to hear her at all.

When the elevator doors finally opened, after a hectic fast-fall section of the trip that always happened, no matter how much Alphys fine-tuned the machinery, the scientist breathed a small sigh of relief. Undyne exited swiftly, walking down the shadowed corridors as if she already knew this place by heart and was not just visiting down here for the first time. Alphys shuffled after her, afraid at first that she would lose her in the darkness. But that strange light beaming out of Undyne's lost eye, it kept her in sight, scanning over the cracked floors, the wilting potted plants, and the lonely vending machine. A strange blackness dripped from her wounds, staining the tiles as she marched.

"They're, uh, they're not too far off!" Alphys shouted after her, tripping over herself a few times. "Please be careful! There's some light further ahead, but the power can't seem to reach here…"

Undyne went past the main lobby, heading off to the other side where a hallway branched off. She looked in that direction, then back again, shining that eye beacon of hers. Her free hand kept tightening the scarf, twisting it neatly around her neck whenever it threatened to slip off.

"Here, Undyne. It's just… down here." Alphys gestured ahead.

Long red hair flicked. The warrior gazed back at the scarf. "What's that? Just… down there, huh?" A smirk lifted her lips, showed off more teeth. "If you say so, Papyrus." She walked forward.