Royal Blue

Up in Smoke (Chapter Forty Three)

"Sans was what?!" Undyne roars.

The room collectively flinches.

"I just-" fury rises in her veins like a quiet wildfire. The metal sole of her boot slams into the floor with several steps. "Why did nobody decide to tell me?!" She snarls.

Asgore takes a step back. His eyes are wide and weary; guilt-ridden.

Undyne feels a sour crackle in the air, it raises the scales on her neck and arms.

In the corner of her vision, she can see the flash of blue and yellow, swallowed by darkness, from inside his helmet.

"It wasn't their secret to tell," Zero says, stepping forward and swinging an arm out. Putting himself in the line of fire, Undyne realizes. Defending their friends from her ire.

The realization makes her wilt; but the flames in her chest don't fall.

Her fury blooms like weeds, taking root through the growing cavernous cracks of her trust.

"And yet, it was yours?" Undyne spits. She knows she's taking the bait, she knows he's making himself an active target for her aggression. But-

"If you could tell me, now," Undyne says, "so could they! I-"

"I shouldn't have." Zero says solidly, coldly, "and I will deal with the penance from my actions later, I'm sure."

'I always do,' stays unwritten, but lines the way his fist shakes as it closes around the hilt of his sword.

"But,"—he looks Undyne in the eye, locking eyes momentarily with all of them around the room—"you all needed answers. We all needed trust."

Undyne's fists tighten.

"And, as you said earlier," Zero references, "we need trust; now more than ever."

Undyne folds her arms; trying to create a physical cage for the anger that beats louder than her heart against her ribs, clenching her fists and toes in her boots as she tries to remind herself why they're here, why she can't be having an outburst right now-

She's too exhausted to hold it all in though.

Even so; she can feel her friend's hesitances in the way they watch her, it feels like how they look at the ground during an earthquake. Like they're waiting for the world to tremble and fall apart, and she... well she's the disaster they're waiting on.

The feeling builds from the pit of her stomach like she's singlehandedly trying to swallow a forest fire.

She hates feeling like this; hates loosing control like this. But it's not usually this bad. Her anger has never controlled her so deeply-

Faintly, one of the monitors is buzzing with static again.

A voice like Asgore's floats though her spiraling mind. Something about control. Something about how Anger is a double edged sword- Something about using your anger, before it uses you.

Her head aches and her body feels fuzzy, her lungs sting — like she's inhaled too much smoke.

She tries to breathe anyway- even if it feels like her lungs are collapsing. She's so fucking tired of this whole thing, and-

Undyne's eyes snap open at someone touching her shoulder.

Alphys- her brave, wonderful girlfriend Alphys, stands at her side. Undyne can feel her shaking. She can feel her tension.