As one dark, wet corridor faded into a dim procession of others like it, and one heart-pounding battle was followed by half a dozen more, the electric stab of fear slowly faded to a tense, resigned dread.

At least the monster child could be in Frisk’s presence and speak with them for more than a few sentences without attacking. A meager comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

There was almost always a friendly voice available on the other end of the phone. A faint light in the darkness, a small handhold on a cliff. As long as they had that much to hold onto, they could stay determined.

Part of them tugged away from the echo flower, afraid to hear another prayer for the freedom that only their death could grant, but curiosity pulled them relentlessly forward, until they were close enough to draw a whisper from the bloom.

An icy rock plunged into their gut, and Frisk spun with a gasp as the harsh, rhythmic clank rang behind them. Adrenaline screamed through them, and the knowledge that they’d come back to life was powerless against the fear that fogged their mind.

​“Understand, human?”

Undyne’s stern, frigid voice cut through their thoughts, and they nodded numbly, trembling as they absorbed the enormity of the revelation.

The king of the Underground wanted them dead, and there was nowhere they could go where people wouldn’t be trying to fulfill his command.

“This is your only chance at redemption,” Undyne continued, her golden eye burning a hole in the child’s reeling mind. “Give up your soul… or I’ll tear it from your body.”

The woman bound to the chair attempted to tip herself over, her language turning obscene, and Alexandra thought she caught the faintest flicker of emotion in the kidnapper’s alien eyes. Anger, guilt, and perhaps something else...

“Zorei, let her go,” Kadian growled, gesturing to the bound woman.

“You’re here,” Zorei murmured, his eyelids dropping in a way that seemed to speak more of weariness than anger. “It took you a very long time. I was beginning to run out of words.”

“All that effort to track me down so you could play the hero. But real heroism...” Zorei got down on one knee beside the fallen man... “requires more than simply breaking down the door.”

“And taking me down will take more than just stabbing my head.”

“A shapeshifter. Of course.” Zorei’s voice was laced with bitterness as he pressed a hand to his bleeding cheek. “I should have realized that your brain wouldn’t be in the obvious location.”