Come February, Gaster gives you your new staff. When he hands it over to you, you ask him if you need to be concerned about any more explosions.

He just gives you a withering look. "Frisk, I've designed this one specifically to not do that. If it does explode, then the fault is entirely your own, not to mention I will be quite disappointed in you for wasting several months' worth of work. Don't blow it up."

You just laugh and say you'll try, to which he just throws his hands up in exasperation.

It's not long before Undyne catches wind of the fact that you've gotten a new staff, and suddenly you find yourself in the field once again, bundled up this time against the still-chilly February air. Undyne, is, of course, wearing her usual jeans and tank top, in denial of the weather, or, her own coldness in the weather.

Alphys is there, too, even more bundled up than you. You suppose this makes sense, since she's kinda reptilian, and probably cold-blooded. Except she's a monster, so she doesn't have blood, she has Magic. Cold-Magicked? Except you've never heard of cold Magic. It certainly always seems very hot to you when you've felt it- it is a form of energy, after all. Maybe Alphys's scales just aren't good at keeping heat in?

Well. Regardless.

For the most part, Undyne doesn't give you any advice you haven't already heard, so she leaves you to your own devices, practicing some defense moves or something as you concentrate on the staff in your hands.

You're kinda nervous at first. Last time you did this, you ended up with burns so bad you could hardly think. You don't want that to happen again. But Gaster said that wouldn't happen. You trust Gaster. You trust him a lot.

It won't happen again.

You close your eyes and focus on the staff. You pull at something inside you, push it towards the staff. A warmth grows in your hands.

You suck in a breath, eyes snapping open and hands jerking away from the wood. You cringe, unable to help the memory of burning, intense agony in your hands.

For a moment, you just stand there, rubbing your palms with your hands, looking down at the staff lying in the slushy snow, sparks of red still dying out in the runes.

Slowly, slowly, you reach down and pick it up, shaking off some of the water droplets. The wood is still warm, though it's pleasantly so, not burning hot.

You trust Gaster.

Slowly, you wrap your hands again around the staff. Close your eyes again. Pull at the Magic.

It warms your hands.

You flinch a little, but screw up your face in concentration, and press on.

More Magic pours through your hands, into the staff. You think you hear Undyne say something to you, but you're too focused to respond.

You curl your hands more tightly around the staff. They're slick with sweat, and the heat from the Magic isn't helping solve this problem.

Especially not how it's getting warmer by the second, bringing, unbidden, fragments of pain like a resurfacing bad dream.

But you trust Gaster.

And then, suddenly—

"Frisk, look!"

You're jolted out of your trance as Undyne grabs your shoulders, shaking you a bit. You look down to see the hazy, red afterimage of... what looks like some kind of blade at either end of the staff. But then it's gone, and you're not even quite sure you really saw it, or just imagined it.

"Dude!" Undyne shouts at you enthusiastically. "That was so cool!" She grins at you. "Almost as cool as my spears!"

You smile back. "...What exactly did it look like?"

"I-I think," Alphys says as she walks over, voice muffled through the three scarves she's wearing, "I think it was a fauchard."

You just tell her you don't know what a fauchard is.

"Like a double-ended spear," Undyne supplies, "but cooler. And yours was all red and glowy, so that's even cooler."

You just laugh. "I'll try to do it again. This time, with my eyes open!"

Undyne gives you an encouraging NNNNYYYYAAAAGH! and you barely avoid being suplexed.

After managing to convince Undyne that you most definitely can not summon your weapon again while she's tackling you to the ground, you grab up your staff again, and concentrate.

You reach again for your borrowed Magic, and pull it through your hands, force it into the staff.

You see it sliding along, the runes closest to your hands lighting first with the red Magic, bordered in the faintest, barely visible rainbow lines, the only indicator that the Magic is not yours, the original colors of the borrowed Magic. Then the next row of runes fills with light like water filling a crack. Then the next and the next, each row glowing just a touch fainter than the previous as the Magic travels farther from your hands.

Then it reaches a point, fizzles out, sparks a little, and refuses to go any farther.

You try pushing harder on it, hands curled around the staff in a white-knuckles grip, but this seems to do the exact opposite of what you want it to do, as the Magic recedes, drawing back closer to your hands.

It becomes a struggle, then, as you try to force your Magic into the staff and it tries to go back. For a moment or two, it will waver, and then you'll realize you've lost another inch, so you pull at your Magic and pour it into the staff, and it'll light up for an inch or two, but then it will drop another three inches, and suddenly—

Suddenly you realize there's nothing left. You pull at your borrowed Magic, but there's nothing there. You have nothing to keep going with.

The red light of the staff flickers and goes it, and it's just a wooden staff with lines carved into it again.

"I-..." you say slowly, "I don't think I can do it."

"Yes you can!" Undyne counters. "I saw you do it, I know you can!"

You laugh. "That's not what I mean. I think I'm all worn out."

Undyne starts to say something, but Alphys interjects. "T-that's possible! M-Magic is a very s-strenuous thing."

You smile gratefully at her. "Yeah. Maybe we can try again later. Besides, I'm getting cold." You pause then look at Undyne, grinning. "Last one to the house has to make the other hot chocolate!"

She flashes you a grin, then next thing you know, she's got Alphys tucked under her arm, charging away, shouting over her shoulder, "you're on!"

You laugh and start jogging.

§

A/N

If anyone's curious, here's a picture of a double-sided fauchard I found on google:

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!