Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The alarm went off abruptly. Frisk sprung up eagerly and pressed the button to silence it. She didn't want to wake up Flowey, who was snoozing on her bedside table in a pot.

Downstairs, Papyrus was already making breakfast. "Good morning, Frisk!!" he said excitedly. "I'm making eggs for everyone! They have fresh eggs on the surface! But you already knew that, didn't you??"

"Maybe. But I don't know how the great Papyrus cooks them," she responded, smiling and sitting down at the table. "It smells really good!"

Papyrus shrugged. "Undyne didn't teach me to make these, so I'm afraid they won't be as good as my other dishes."

Frisk began to smirk, but caught herself and merely shrugged. As she sat down, she picked up a plate and started eating ravenously.

"Why are you up so early, anyway? It's only six-thirty. You normally get up an entire hour later than this!" Papyrus inquired.

"Asgore and I have a meeting with the humans today and I wanted to be sure not to oversleep, and have time to get ready."

"OH!" Papyrus stopped. "What time is the meeting?"

Frisk smiled sheepishly. "Four PM."

"Well... It's good to be sure, anyway!" Papyrus turned back to the pan of eggs. "I'm proud of you for taking charge of the Ambassador role so quickly!"

"Somebody's gotta do it." Shoving her empty plate forward, Frisk stood up. "Gotta take a shower now!"

"You do that!" he called cheerfully. "But--Frisk?"

Halfway through the doorway, she turned back. "Yeah?"

"Please take care of yourself." He sighed. "I'm worried you're putting too much pressure on yourself for this to go smoothly. Do not worry, and do not stress yourself out. You can do it, but it's always ok if you don't do it the first time!"

Papyrus's compassionate, worried expression made her smile. "Don't worry about me, Papyrus. I can handle it. If I'm the only one who can make sure that humans and monsters get along peacefully on the surface, I will do anything in my power to make sure it happens!"

She bounced out of the room, leaving her concerned friend behind. I can handle it, she reminded herself when her conscience pricked her. I'm the only one who can handle it.

They were living in a rented house in the small town at the base of Mount Ebott. Frisk had gone ahead and cashed in some gold at the local pawn shop, and rented the house for she and her friends to stay in on the surface while they waited for a response from the human government.

At first, Frisk wanted them to try to stay concealed, at least a bit, for the time being. She knew what had happened the last time a monster had come to the surface. But in a small human village, secrets can't be kept for long.

After at least a week, all the villagers knew or at least suspected that monsters had come back to the surface somehow, and, also remembering the last time, had decided to ignore it until the monsters saw fit to reveal themselves. Which had been about two weeks, since Papyrus and Undyne were going stir-crazy just staying in the house, Alphys wanted to bring her lab equipment to the surface, and Asgore was really nervous about how the humans would react and wanted to make a good impression. Toriel, Flowey, and Sans were actually the only monsters who were pretty OK with staying in; Toriel, because she’d been enclosed in a small area (the Ruins) for a couple of hundred years already; Flowey, because he couldn’t move around very well anyway in his pot; and Sans because he would rather not move at all anyway.

They were the only monsters who’d moved up, simply because they were the closest to Frisk, who had basically taken charge of the situation (with Asgore’s help). The rest of the monsters were staying in the underground until they got an “OK” from the human government. This was an attempt to demonstrate how willing the monsters were to cooperate with the humans.

The entirety of monster-kind waited underground with bated breath as Asgore and Frisk made contact with the government. Waiting for a response had been terrifying for everyone, but they finally had recieved one: the humans were calling the leaders of the government together for a serious meeting about whether the monsters would be accepted back into the world or not. The leaders of the monsters--Asgore, and Frisk, appointed the Ambassador, along with Undyne for a little security--would come as well. They would be picked up by a few government officials in order to keep their existence a secret to the general public until a decision was reached.

“Of course they’ll let the monsters back to the surface.” Frisk had said to Asgore the day they received the ominous message. “It wouldn’t be humane to just leave you all down there. Everyone thought that the barrier was a legend, anyways, and learning that it’s true now, they’ll do the right thing.”

Asgore sighed. “I am not so sure about that,” he murmured. “I feel it is entirely plausable that the human leaders remembered, and have kept a close eye on Mt. Ebbott since.”

Frisk shook her head. “I know, climbing the mountain, that I didn’t believe the old legends that monsters lay under the surface. All I knew was that those who climbed the mountain never returned.”

Asgore gave her a … look. “You climbed the mountain knowing that it was true that no one who climbed the mountain ever returned?”

“Well I knew that it was a legend that was told often in the village down here but it had never been proven, the last time any human had tried to climb it was--”

“Forty years ago.” Asgore finished, with a grave look on his face.”

Frisk blinked. “What? How would you--oh." She fell silent. "That’s right.”

“It was a little boy with a yellow SOUL. Did the humans…?”

“No, all they said was, it was a child.” she stuttered. “And, he could have crossed over to the other side, and the seaside town said there was a homeless little boy seen there a few days afterward, so it wasn’t taken quite so--”

Asgore moved to go back upstairs. “I… The meeting is in two days. I’m going to get some rest.”

He slowly walked up the stairs, his head bowed slightly. Frisk watched his retreating figure with pity. The monster was going out of his mind with guilt, as he probably had for years and years.

What would have happened if Toriel hadn’t intervened when they began their battle…?

She shook off the thought. No. Asgore wanted what was best for monsters and humans. Just like she did.

*But, knowing how similar you both are...

*... would you have done the same thing he did? Quiet, you.

She didn't need any more discouragement or stress than she already had.

She was sitting up on the couch, nervously drumming her fingers against the coffee table, watching some cartoon with Alphys and Undyne.
“What time is it?”

“Twelve thirty-one.” Alphys replied promptly.

...For the ninth time in ten minutes.

“Honestly, punk, stop worrying so much. You’ve got this.” Undyne flashed Frisk a toothy grin. “I’ll accompany you and Asgore to the human Capitol, and then you’ll go in, do some flawless conversational exchanges, and then all monsters will be free. You’re going to do great.” She slapped the nervous human on the back, leaned back into the couch, and directed her attention at the TV once again.

Alphys turned to Frisk, and seeing her expression hadn’t improved, leaned over and whispered, “We, uh… Frisk, we believe in you. H-humans are hard to talk to. B-but… even if things don’t go very well today, well, there will be other m-meetings. Do you believe in your own race to do the right thing?” She smiled. “Well, I, uh, I know what I think. If h-humanity has any more humans like you, then, Frisk, there’s g-gonna be no problem in the long run.”

“Ok. All right.” For a moment, the nerves fluttering in her gut calmed down. “It’s gonna be fine, right?”

“Y-yes! Absolutely!” Alphys chirped.

They both jumped as Undyne barked out a loud laugh when a character on-screen exploded. “Now this is quality entertainment!” she boomed.

Sans popped his head out of the basement, which he had claimed as his own the moment they stepped foot in the house. Nobody had dared set foot inside so far. “what’s goin’ on? who’s yelling?” he mumbled sleepily. “a guy can hardly sleep with all this racket.”

“It’s past noon!” Undyne yelled at him. “You should be up by now!”

“s’the weekend.” he responded, grinning. “nobody needs to be up. saturdays are for sleeping.”

“I-wh-Well, FIRST of all, that is a really unhealthy way to live! Second of all, Frisk and Asgore’s meeting with the human government is today, so it’s not like NOTHING happens on the weekends!”

Instantly, Sans was awake. “meeting with the human government? today?”

“YES, THAT’S TODAY? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK EVERYONE’S BEEN SO UPTIGHT ABOUT IN THE PAST TWO DAYS?”

“you got a response?” This was directed at Frisk, who tried not to roll her eyes.

“Two days ago.”

His sockets widened. “why didn’t I hear about this?”

“Maybe because you’ve been sleeping for the past three days?” Frisk suggested delicately.

He blinked. “i’ve gotta go with you.”

“YOU ARE NOT COMING!” Undyne shouted.

“Why do you want to come?” Frisk asked, confused. “This is the first I’ve heard of this.”

He glanced at her with a deer-in-the-headlights look.

“Asgore chose ME to accompany him and Frisk to the Capitol," Undyne interrupted, "and the humans aren’t gonna want more than two monsters there. They’re scared enough as it is! And besides, you’re a SKELETON!”

“and?”

“C-c-calm down!!” Alphys cried. “Wh-what exactly is the problem?”

Sans and Undyne looked over at her, then at Frisk’s exasperated face.

“uh…”

“Sans, I don’t know why you suddenly decided that you want to come with us, but it’s not happening. I’m sorry. The meeting’s in-- time?”

“Twelve fifty.” Alphys responded.

“The meeting’s in less than four hours, and we’ll be picked up in three. There’s no time for a change of plans.”

“is Undyne gonna be in there with you and Asgore?” His expression was serious.

“I think so. Why?” Now she was more curious than annoyed. “What’s going on?”

Sans rubbed his temples. “humans,” was all he said as he popped back into the basement.

Frisk turned with an affronted look to Undyne and Alphys, who were looking furious and terrified, respectively. “What was that?”

“Sans has this ridiculous idea that he and only he can protect Papyrus. Seems like now he’s extended that protectiveness to you as well.” She huffed. “As if i’m incapable of protecting a tiny human!”

Frisk frowned. “Should I be more worried?” She hadn’t even considered the fact that maybe they might be in any danger.

Undyne snorted. “We’ll be fine.”

Frisk was sitting in the vehicle, squished between Asgore, who was doing his best to give her room, and Undyne, who wasn’t. Fur on one side, scales on the other. Across from her, a few CIA agents in sunglasses stared her down. She squirmed a bit, uncomfortable.

After a few minutes of complete and total silence, in which Frisk thought she might combust from combination the awkwardness and her nervousness, one of the agents spoke.

“You don’t look like a monster.”

She blinked and looked at him. He raised an eyebrow behind his sunglasses.

“Well?” the other asked. “Why are you here?”

“Oh, I-I’m a human, yeah.” she stuttered in response. “I fell into the Underground six months ago, and I just managed to break the barrier and free all the monsters. So, uh, I’m trying to ensure that they can actually live on the surface without being attacked by human beings, and everything.”

The two glanced at one another, and one nodded at the other. “They did say there’d be a human.” one muttered. “Though I don’t understand why a human would care.”

Frisk wasn’t sure she’d heard him right, and neither of them said anything else, so she hesitated until it had been too long to respond.

Nothing else was said by anyone in the car, so Frisk stayed quiet. But her unease had returned.

If these agents didn’t think monsters were worth rescuing, what would the human leaders think?

The car hit a bump, and sped off into the dusk.

Chapter Text

Even though Frisk's skin was on the darker side, her knuckes were white as she clasped them tightly on the table. She was seated next to Undyne, who was sitting next to Asgore. Directly across from them was a table full of representatives of the human world, staring them down. The room was concealed. There was no press, which seemed a bit odd to Frisk, but she put it out of her mind. Of course the humans would want to keep the events of this meeting on the low-down.

After a bit of sitting in silence, a man sitting close to the center stood up.

"Will the visiting monsters rise and state their position and objective?" the man boomed.

Asgore stood up and began to speak. "I am Asgore Dreemurr, King of the Monsters." he boomed. "I have been King for about five centuries. I have lived through the Great War between the humans and monsters long ago, and tried to keep my people's hope of seeing the surface againt eventually alive." He sighed. "All that we have lived for is to see the stars again. I ask that you not deny that hope now."

A few of the humans nodded and murmured, but one directed her gaze at Frisk. "Why," she asked, as the room fell silent once more, "if I may ask, is a human sitting with you?"

"Well, I'm sure this human would like to answer this for herself. Frisk?" Asgore nodded to her.

"Yes, me. Um. I'm here, because I fell into the Underground and helped break the magical barrier that held the monsters captive."

"And why would you do this?" She was staring directly into Frisk's eyes. "Did they treat you with only respect and kindness when you fell?

G A M E O V E R

"Of course they did." Frisk replied without hesitation. "I was helped to reach the Capitol, and there, after an incredible string of events involving a monster absorbing every other monster SOUL in the Underground, the barrier was broken and monsters were allowed to go free."

"And are they free now? How many monsters have been living underneath us all this time?"

"A few thousand," Asgore said gently.

There was an uneasy stir. The lady stared at Asgore with piercing eyes.

"We understand that you wish to do what is best for your kingdom. However, we as rulers as well must take into account the safety of our own citizens. Do you understand this?"

Asgore nodded. "Of course."

"Keeping in mind that your entire population was able to survive for five hundred years underground, what exactly is the neccessity of coming to the surface? You weren't doing fine down there as it was?"

Asgore merely shifted in his seat, but Frisk could barely restrain herself from leaping to her feet. "Excuse me. If I may add a personal opinion to this?" she demanded. "I was only stuck underground for about half a year, and it was suffocating." She glared at the woman, who only raised an eyebrow. "It was suffocating.

"Do yo know what it's like to not see the sun rise and fall, to not smell the fresh rain, to not see the stars? Do you have any idea what it's like to be forced to scavenge for food that a race who forced you underground for no good reason tossed into landfills?" She stared around at every human at the table. "No. None of you have ever experienced anything like it.

"Well, I have. Monsters deserve to see the surface again. It was heartbreaking to see them suffering like that, but there was hope. The only thing that kept them going. The hope that one day, they would be able to see the sun rise again. And now, you're telling us that since they barely managed to hold onto that hope and survive, they must have been doing fine?"

She shook her head. "And their King doesn't even declare war upon resurfacing. He makes honest attempts to make peace, even keeping those monsters underground until you give the word. If you do not allow them to come back to the surface," she spat, "they would be fully within their rights to attack."

Frisk sat back, going silent. The woman, looking unimpressed, cleared her throat.

"King Dreemurr, do you recall what the cause for war was in the first place?"

Asgore, who had been sitting stock-still during Frisk's display, shifted uncomfortably. "I believe it was because humans were afraid of the power that monsters possessed."

"Do you know something interesting?" she asked quietly. "The human history available to the public holds no mention of monsters anywhere."

The silence was defeaning.

"Do you think that if all of your monsters resurfaced, these issues that caused the war to begin with would stop existing?" She raised her eyebrows. "Despite what your human friend may believe, we are fully concerned about both races. However, we feel that staying under the mountain for the time being would be best for everyone."

"Until when?" Frisk demanded.

The woman paused. "Until humans get accustomed to the idea that monsters exist, and are convinced that they are safe."

"And just so monsters understand us fully... it was not the government that caused the war in the first place. The FIGHTs were instantaneous and unprovoked. They were all initiated by a powerful band of rebellious humans, and they were the ones who sealed you underground."

"I thought human history held no records of monsters," Frisk said suspiciously.

She looked at Frisk contemptuously. "I said human history available to the public."

Asgore stood up. "We are willing to negotiate. My monsters can survive underground. However, I refuse to allow them to remain trapped for longer than another year." He made his way over to the table. "I wish for peace... I have had enough of bloodshed."

The lady smiled. "We can work out the specific negotiations later. For now, we leave you with this message." Her face grew quite solemn. "We will do what is best for both races, and we will ensure that monsters do not remain trapped in the underground any longer than they need to."

Asgore and the woman shook hands, and Frisk breathed again. She leaned over to Undyne. "Hey, do you think anybody'd mind if I went outside to get a breath of fresh air?"

"Be quick," Undyne whispered. "They're going to start negotiations, and you should know the details."

It was dark and drizzling outside.

Frisk stood underneath the overhang, with water dripping around her. It was quiet and cold. The feeling of solitude filled her with determination again to help the monsters find peace with the humans. Suddenly, a flicker of movement caught her eye.

On the corner, a block away, a small, hooded figure was watching her. Alarmed, she began to turn back inside, but then her eyes narrowed as she recognized the short, stocky frame.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded loudly.

The figure turned to face her and pulled down his hood.

"why wouldn't I be here?" sans asked, grinning.

"Get over here." She was not amused.

"sure thing." Instantly he was standing next to her under the overhang. "whaddaya need?"

"Why did you follow us here?" she asked. "I told you that Undyne was coming. She's plenty of security."

"you mean you genuinely didn't expect me come anyway?" He actually sounded amused.

"Well- I-- Yeah, actually!" Frisk huffed. "We specifically told you that we didn't need more security, and--what are you doing, who do you think you ARE, revealing yourself in public??"

"well, funnily enough, I actually do have a good reason to follow you." he grinned.

Her eyes narrowed further. "And what's that?"

"the humans picked you up right at the base of Mt. Ebott, correct?" He looked at her for confirmation, and she nodded. "and that means that these humans do not know we're living on the surface officially, correct?"

"But what does that have to do with--"

"and that means, the only thing keeping us safe from, say, an bomb strike, or some kind of covered-up attack?"

Her mouth was open. She closed it. "They don't know where we're living."

"yeah. and they could probably find out. but I decided, hey, since it's late, why don't I be in charge of taking you guys home?" He snapped his fingers. "no need for a car driven by possible enemies?"

Frisk recovered. "You have no idea what was going on in there," she hissed.

"i can guess." He cracked his knuckes. "they're doing their best to keep us underground as long as possible without suspicion. they can easily demand more time when that time runs out. they'll claim that knowing monsters exist will wreak havoc on humankind, when it was them who tried to eliminate us from existence in the first place. am I wrong?"

Frisk shuddered. "Do you really think that they'd attack us?"

"i'm sure of it. if they knew where we lived, they'd try to kill all of us as quickly as possible. especially if they knew all the most powerful monsters were living under one roof on the surface..."

She sighed deeply. "We can still make this work, sans. I'm sure of it." Drawing herself up, she turned to go back inside. "I've taken too long already. I'll tell Undyne and Asgore you're here to bring us home."

"ok, ok. Good luck with the humans."

She flinched. Shrugging it off, she walked back in and shut the door behind her.

After she was inside, sans turned to the outside again. Leaning on the railing, he stared out into the dark mist with a much more serious expression than he'd been wearing a second before.

Chapter Text

"Hey, look! A human!"

Frisk stiffened, then turned. "Yes, what--"

The girl who had called out to her glanced up, grinning. Her blonde curls bounced around her face. "Hey! Where're you going with that many groceries?" she called. "Seems like a bit much for a little lady new in town, living alone." Her purple eyes glinted under her glasses as she studied Frisk.

Frisk looked down at the cart, stuffed with plastic bags with groceries. "Uh..."

"Need some help?" The mystery girl raised her eyebrows. "You're staying in the big old house at the edge of town, right? You got a ride?"

"How do you know--" Frisk began, but she just chuckled.

"Small town. Everybody knows pretty much everybody here. No secrets. Just wackos. How about that help?"

Frisk looked down at the cart again, then up apprehensively at the girl. She had been planning on pushing the cart all the way to the house, then pushing it back, and getting a ride would be helpful, but... "How do I know you're not trying to kidnap me?"

The girl appeared to think for a moment. "All right, you're right. I should introduce myself." She bounced forward, sticking out her hand. "My name's Natalie Rivers, but please, please call me Nat, because Charlie gives me enough crap about it already."

"Frisk." She shook the hand. Nat grinned.

"Great! So now we're friends, or in the least acquantences. So how about that ride? I've got a minivan back here, and a somewhat dependable driver-slash-mom-friend, so what do you say?"

Frisk opened her mouth to say no, but then she stopped. Before falling down, she'd have refused and not given it a second thought. But now, she had several incredible magically powerful, big, scary monster friends, all of whom would rush to her aid if she was in any sort of danger.

"You know what? Fine. You have an honest face." Frisk smiled.

"Also, you've got no issues with self-defense, I can tell, so that's probably a consolation," Nat giggled. "You're a freakin' buff little short chick. You could kick my butt."

Frisk blinked. "Probably," she responded honestly.

Nat burst out laughing. "Hey! Charlie!" she called to the parking lot. "She said yes, it's ok!"

A little blue minivan pulled over, and the driver popped her head out. "What the hell kind of person are you?" she demanded as Nat giggled. "Why would you accept a ride from the shadiest looking brat in town? Huh?"

"She said I had an honest face!" Nat sniffed.

Charlie tossed her long, dark brown hair. "Not a very good judge of character, I see," she mumbled. "That bitch will tape you talking in your sleep about your ex and post it on tumblr for all to see."

"It only got, like, thirty notes!" Nat protested through her obvious mirth. "That's not 'all'!"

"You look familiar," Frisk shot at Charlie, who she'd been staring at for a minute. "What's with your..."

"My cheeks?" Charlie rolled her golden eyes. "It's fine," she said quickly as Frisk made a move to apologize. "I get that a lot. It's, like, an inherited gene? Or something? It runs in my family, like, birthmarks on the cheeks. Makes it look like we're eternally blushing or something."

Frisk gave her a long look. "It's..."

"Weird, I know."

"No! No, no, no, that's not what I was going to say!" Frisk blustered. "I just think you look like someone I know! That's all!"

"Are you in a hurry, Frisk?" Nat questioned. "You gotta get your groceries home to the fridge before your ice cream melts, don't you?"

"I, uh, didn't buy ice cream?" Frisk answered confusedly as the two girls piled the groceries into the trunk.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say," Nat snickered.

Finishing up, Frisk headed over to jump in the backseat, but Nat stopped her. "First timers to Stormageddon get shotgun, them's the rules."

"Wh- Stormageddon??"

"My car." Charlie patted the seat. "You get to sit in the front, it's your first time hanging with us."

With some misgivings, Frisk climbed awkwardly into the front seat of the minivan. Nat popped up in the middle, pushing her glasses up on her face. "Soooo?"

"Is it a normal occurance for you to give people rides around town?" Frisk asked as they cruised down the country road.

"Just cool people." Nat said with surity. "If we see you around town, and we think, 'hey, here's a potential add-on to the squad,' we make an effort to hang with them."

"And how often does this happen?" They hit a speed bump, and Frisk winced.

"Well, it happened with Morgan, and Dakota." Nat stuck her tongue out of her mouth, concentrating. "And Lee and Reese..."

"And Raegan," Charlie added without taking her eyes off the road.

"Ohhh! I remember Raegan!" Nat pouted. "Shame she had to leave town."

"She couldn't stand your positivity, Natalie."

"Nat, Charlie. It's Nat now."

"Keep telling yourself that."

The constant ribbing and joking around made Frisk laugh and reminded her of her skeleton buddies. The ride only lasted four minutes, however; she was almost sad when they reached her house. She hadn't had actual, normal human contact in so long...

"Here's your stop!" Nat said cheerfully as they pulled up on the lawn of the antique, big house. "Want some help bringing the stuff in?"

"Sure!" Frisk smiled. "As thanks for you not abducting me, I'll allow you to help me once more." she added playfully, half-joking about her instant suspicion of being endangered by them. I've really been around monsters for too long, huh... Fearing for my life at every turn.

*Well? It had been a fair suspicion in the Underground...

*... Down there, monster had nothing to lose and everything to gain from taking your SOUL.

"Wow, you two get along like a house on fire," Charlie noted dryly from the front seat as the two energetic gals rushed the bags across the lawn and deposited them on the front steps. "There may be no survivors."

"Thanks for the help!" Frisk called as Nat headed back to the minivan.

"It was no trouble! Always happy to help a newcomer!" Nat yelled back, waving. "Also! We're hanging out again another time, if that's ok with you! There's a really nice tea shop on Main Street, and I want to analyze your tastes! Also, tell your skeleton friend he's not as slick as he thinks he is, and that I'm WAY better at stalking!"

"Or she would be if she was into that kind of thing!" Charlie put in, annoyed.

"Or I would be, if I was into that kind of thing!" Nat agreed. "And your flower friend is really hilarious, too!"

"Nat, shut up!" Charlie hissed.

"Ok! Uh, and if you want to talk or make plans or something, you can just call me! All right? See you later!"

"She doesn't have your number, idiot!"

"Yeah, um, the flower has it, soooo... Whatever! It's really weird to yell at you like this across the lawn!! So, bye!!!"

She hopped into Stormageddon and-- in a puff of smoke--screeched away.

... Leaving a shocked and very confused Frisk standing on the lawn.

...

*They know Flowey?

And Sans, don't forget Sans!

*Not "into" stalking, indeed.

---

They landed abruptly back in the living room, where Alphys was watching TV.

"Aah!" she yelped. "What-- Sans, why did y-you teleport directly into the house with an entire group of p-people??"

"we don't want the humans to know where we're staying." sans responded as the others groaned from the impact.

"We d-don't? Why.... why not?" She tilted her head, confused. "What's g-going on? How did the meeting go??"

"It seemed to go fine, but you never know." Asgore stretched as he sighed heavily. "We monsters are in a seriously fragile position, and the fate of our kind rests upon the humans' MERCY."

"We'd rather keep any and all possible benefits and secrets." Undyne finished. "Apparently, that's the safest thing to do." She shot sans an annoyed glance.

"It'll be all right, Undyne." Frisk muttered. "Alphys, we're going to tell the monsters that they're staying underground for another few months."

"A-a few more MONTHS??" Alphys gasped. "Seriously???"

Frisk rubbed her temples. "Yes, and it's quarter to eleven at night, and I'd like to get some sleep. We've all had an extremely stressful day, and we all need the rest."

"Frisk?"

"Yeah, Flowey?"

"Why aren't you sleeping?" he demanded.

"I'm really stressed out and I can't fall asleep. I'm sorry if I'm keeping you awake." she said quietly.

"Don't -- ugh! Don't apologize to me! Just fall asleep already! You're not doing anyone any good stressing yourself out and overworking yourself. Just--relax."

She turned over and looked the flower in the face, her eyes watering. "I... it means a lot to me to hear that, especially from you, Flowey. I'm--"

"You're--it's -- it's only because you're --you're gonna mess up with the whole Ambassador thing if you're tired!" he screeched. "I don't actually care about you or anything--"

"Ok, Flowey." Frisk turned back over and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry."

He huffed, but settled down.

"I promise, I'm gonna fix things." she murmured. "For you, and the rest of my family."

"Family." he scoffed quietly.

"Yeah."

"Stop making promises. That's unhealthy."

Silence.

"Good night, Flowey."

"SLEEP, DANGIT!!"

Chapter Text

*Restless, peaceful, silence. You sleep.

*Suddenly, echoes from the mountains in the distance.

*You jerk awake, startled and full of dread.

*Could it be that the humans have changed their minds?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. Of course not. They couldn’t have.

But as Frisk leapt out of bed and peered out the window of the tiny room, through the blinds, the lights in all the houses around town were lighting up, one by one.

There was a crash down the hall as the building suddenly came alive with the activity of her housemates.

Well, Flowey was still snoozing, at least. She didn’t want to wake him up after his mood last night. She slid the pot in which he sat over the desk to get a better look out the window. Were Nat and Charlie awake, across town?

Another crash of something dropping to the ground, and a loud swear. Undyne was up, then.

...another crash, and another shout, this time a much more PG exclamation. Apparently Papyrus was as well.

The door to her room banged open loudly, and Frisk wrapped the blanket around herself instinctually, even though she had worn her old jeans and a t-shirt to bed for the comforting familiarity. It was Sans.

“You ok?”

His eyelights were tiny pinpricks, staring directly at her with a sort of terrified intensity. She felt herself shiver. Although the movement and hushed voices all around sounded panicked, his voice had only registered dread.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she muttered. “What’s happening? Why – what are we hearing?”

His grin was tight and forced. “hopefully, not what Asgore thinks we’re hearing.” His shoulders slumped as he sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead.

Someone—it looked like Alphys—rushed past sans in the dark, narrow hallway, almost knocking him over. He stumbled into the door. “uh, can I, come in for a minute?” he asked. “there’s some traffic out here.”

“Of course! Come in, come in, get out of the way.” she responded, taking the pot with the still sleeping Flowey and sticking it under the desk for now. “What does Asgore think we’re hearing?” Frisk demanded as sans stepped over to the bed and sat heavily down.

He shook his head. “Better not to tell you until we’ve found out what it really is.”

“Excuse me?” Her voice shook. “I’m the Ambassador? I kind of have a right to know?”

He hesitated, but shook his head again, more vigorously. “No. Undyne, Asgore and I are gonna check it out. We’ll head up there, and if there’s nothing to worry about, we’ll come back and tell you.”

“And if it IS something to worry about??”

“Then, obviously, we can start worrying.” He smiled a bit more genuinely. “It’s ok, Frisk,” he anticipated her complaint as she opened her mouth again. “We’re just going to see what’s happening. We’ll be back in half an hour no matter what. If the humans ARE—” He stopped himself abruptly.

“If the humans are what? Tell me!”

Her face was completely frantic. “I need to be able to help, Sans! You can’t keep things from me! I’m gonna find out anyways, please!”

He didn’t meet her gaze. “Half an hour,” he simply said his smile faltering. Then he vanished.

“SANS!” She was outraged.

“What the HECK is going on??” shrieked Flowey, instantly jolting awake.

*Now you’ve woken him up. Great job.

*He’ll be yelling at you all night if you can’t calm him down and get him back to sleep or something.

Crushing her frustration about her helplessness and fighting back tears, she forced herself to calm down and focus on the task at hand—calming down her friend.

“Flowey--” she began, not knowing what would follow it up. Helpfully, a loud honk from outside interrupted her. Again, she peeked through the blinds.

A familiar blue minivan was parked by the curb, a blonde girl waving her hands frantically from the rolled down passenger window.

“Flowey, I’ll be right back.” Frisk muttered.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded. It was pitch black outside, and she had hastily put on a jacket. It was quite cool at night.

Charlie popped out the window. “What do you think? Something’s going on with Mount Ebott. We’re going to find out what’s happening.”

“And we want you to come obviously because you’re living in a house full of monsters and you’re being super secretive about where you came from and we think you know something about Charlie’s –mmmmph!!”

Charlie, calmly, with her hand over Nat’s mouth, leaned further out the window. “We want to know what’s going on, and you deserve to know, too.” she said evenly. “You’re coming with us. Get in the back.”

A moment of hesitation.

*The thought of finding out what’s going on up on Mt. Ebott so you can help...

*... fills you with DETERMINATION.

With finality, Frisk yanked the door open and hopped in the car. “How long will it take to get there?” she asked quietly.

Charlie slammed her foot on the gas pedal, and they screeched away from the house. Nat leaned over the seat and gave her a maniacal smile, pushing her glasses further up on her nose.

“It should take about ten minutes to—”

“Five, disobeying all traffic laws.”

They both turned to Charlie with identical surprised expressions. “Mom??”

“Shut up, Natalie. This is a time sensitive situation, obviously. Disregarding the letter of the law in favor of the spirit of the law... is sometimes the moral option.” She dodged around a curve, throwing everyone to the left.

“Damn, when did you turn into the philosopher chick?” Nat was impressed.

“HOW IS THAT PHILOSOPHY??”

“What do you think is going on up on Mount Ebott?” Frisk interrupted. Nat turned to her as Charlie turned back to the road, concentrating.

“Well, the most logical option—at least from the political perspective—is overruled immediately.” Nat responded.

“What’s that?”

“That the humans in the neighboring village found out that the monsters existed and decided to attack.”

Frisk’s voice shook. “Why’s that overruled?”

“Because everybody in this town, A, already knew that monsters lived underground thanks to that incident a while ago, and, B, you’ve been living in this town for a few weeks and have done nothing to harm us. On the contrary. You’ve been pretty friendly. I mean, ‘you,’ from the perspective of—I mean, we know you’re not, um—”

“A monster? Yeah.” She turned to look out the window at the swiftly passing trees. It was so late that it was really morning, and the road was covered with a thin mist.

“So, nobody in town would have attacked the mountain. We’ve... learned our lesson. People remember things.” Nat closed her mouth and scratched her head. “Especially people in a small town like this.”

“So, basically, you have no idea what’s going on, as well.” Frisk sighed heavily.

“And that’s why we’re on our way up.” Charlie said matter-of-factly.

As they pulled up to the mountain, the explosions got louder and louder.

“Um... Charlie?”

“Yeah, Nat?”

“What... what are we going to do when we reach the mountain?”

Frisk spoke up at this point. “We’ll have to climb it. Don’t worry, I know an easy way up.”

“You... oh, yeah. of course you do.” Nat was silent for a moment. “Speaking of which, I’ve been meaning to ask you—”

“We’re here.” Charlie interjected. “Let’s go.”

They all piled out of the van. “Do you have phones?” Frisk asked.

“Yeah.”

Frisk pulled hers out and turned on the flashlight. “Then give yourself some light. We’re literally climbing a mountain at night.”

“Good idea!” Nat exclaimed. They both did the same.

“Now, miss Frisk, lead the way.” Nat bowed and gestured to the trees.

Charlie shook her head and stepped over to Frisk. “It’s all gonna be OK.” she whispered. “Don’t worry. It isn’t gonna be that serious. And it’s nothing we can’t handle, right?” She smiled. “You’ve got us now. We’re here to help.”

Reassured, Frisk nodded and stepped forward to lead them into the dark.

They vanished from the view of the street like phantoms, walking silently and solemnly.

Who knew what would be waiting for them on the mountain?

Another explosion rang out, shaking the ground beneath their feet. Nat grabbed Charlie for balance. Frisk sighed and turned around.

“Now, I probably should have asked you this earlier, and I’m not gonna be a sans about it, but are you sure you want to come with me? This could be a very dangerous situation. You could potentially get hurt.”

Charlie’s eyes glinted in the dark. “Yes.”

Nat looked at Charlie, then nodded at Frisk. “It’s our job, after all!”

Frisk shrugged. “Okay. Just saying.”

They walked a bit more in silence.

“You know, I didn’t think I’d be able to talk you out of it. I know I should. But for some reason I don’t want to, you know?” she said abruptly.

“I understand.” Charlie responded quietly.

“Yeah. We’re pretty cool to have around.” Nat laughed. “Don’t blame you.”

Almost all of a sudden, they could hear voices ahead. People were shouting in the distance. There was silence for a split second, then another boom shook the mountain.

They all looked at each other.

“Ready?” Frisk whispered.

“You know it.” Nat grinned.

They broke through the clearing.

Chapter Text

It figures. Right when you think things might be about to go your way... a bunch of humans start attacking Underground and endangering innocent monster lives, forcing you to anger the person you most want to make happy in order to protect them.

They--He and Undyne--were gathered on the front lawn, waiting to teleport to the scene of the crime. Asgore was trying to organize the monsters in the house before they all set off, so he and Undyne were just standing in the cold dark, waiting for him... patiently and not-so-patiently. Undyne was tapping her foot violently.

He allowed his thoughts to wander back to Frisk, and her face when he'd teleported out of her room. He felt a guilty twinge. Sure, she wanted to come along, but... he couldn't risk her being injured. She was too important. But she probably wasn't going to forgive him for this too easily in the future. Probably give him her trademark unemotional silent treatment.

He groaned, rubbing his temples. Undyne caught the movement and snarled.

"You're the one who wanted to come, buddy, so don't go complaining now."

"not complaining." he responded wearily. Undyne hadn't been much help recently, either.

"Just... be good backup tonight, ok?" Her face softened. "We really need the extra help, from the sound of it."

As if to punctuate her comment, another boom rang out from the mountain. Asgore shuffled out of the house quickly.

"We're ready to go," he said anxiously.

Sans winked, and they were up on the mountain in an instant.

As the other two stumbled, Sans immediately had his eyes on the group of people crowded around the gaping cave in the mountain that they had used as an exit from the Underground. He felt his SOUL drop.

Two trucks were parked on the side of the mountain, evidently able to have found a path up. A few humans were holding flashlights and torches, which cast an eerie mix of red, orange, and unnatural white light all over the normally dark forest.

At first glance, the explosions seemed to be coming from these strange, heavy-looking guns propped up by three poles. There were three of them, and all were pointed at the gaping hole that led to all the innocent monsters who were waiting patiently to be let into the land of the living again...

Undyne caught his look and grabbed his arm. "Chill, punk." she hissed.

He forced himself to lighten his grin. "You're not really one to give me lectures on temper control, Undyne."

She didn't smile. "Let Asgore handle this."

Asgore had stepped up to the crowd, which seemed to have just noticed that three monsters were present. They began shouting, and scrambling away from him--

"SILENCE!" he boomed. "What is going on here?"

Was he seriously going to try to talk sense into a murderous mob?

One human yelled, "We're not going to let monsters into the world of humans!"

"Yeah! They can stay down there!"

"We don't want them mingling with our children!"

Sans stepped forward and allowed his eyelight to brighten and spark menacingly. The crowd's shouts lowered to a murmur. Glancing back with a thankful expression, Asgore again began to speak.

"I assure you, no monsters are trying to leave the Underground at this time." he said peacefully. "We are waiting for your government to give us permission. We do not want the relationship between our species to be strained. We want peace as much as you do."

But no one seemed to be pacified. Asgore tried to speak again, but was drowned out in the loud and angry shouting and jeering, and one person moved the weapon to aim it at the monsters. Undyne stepped forward to throw a spear at the machine, and Asgore summoned an arsenal of fireballs that instantly lit up the area with a white-orange light.

Before the human could fire the weapon, Sans snapped his fingers. Several bones shot out of the ground and destroyed the weapons in an explosion almost as loud as the ones from earlier, sending shattered pieces flying into the crowd. People ducked and screamed, but before they could move, a row of glowing blue bones surrounded them.

They were trapped.

Three humans burst into the clearing. Sans glanced at them warningly, sweating but filled with adrenaline, and the identity of the middle one didn't register immediately. He raised a hand to summon more bones, heaving, before his eyelights fell upon Frisk’s panic-stricken face. He froze.

"STOP!" she screamed. "What's going on?"

A human from the crowd gasped. "They've got hostages!"

"Hostages??" A short, blonde one jumped forward. "We literally just got here??"

There was an awkward pause.

"Also, you're the ones who seem to be trapped."

"Are they trying to destroy the entrance to the Underground?"

"They totally are."

"Why would they do that?"

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" demanded Frisk, in between the two angry girls Sans didn't recognize.

"what are you doing here? i thought i said you should--"

"Who are all of you?" Frisk called to the crowd, stepping forward and utterly ignoring Sans, to his annoyance.

They seemed hesitant to answer, but a few called out "We're from Ebott! We don't want monsters down there!"

"Yeah! We found out that there were monsters trying to--"

"I don't recognize anyone here," Charlie interjected.

"You're right." Nat adjusted her glasses. "Nobody here is anybody we've ever met."

Frisk turned to them. "Nobody's from town?"

"Nobody's from town." Charlie confirmed. "And you know why else we know you're not from town?" she yelled. "Everybody in town remembers what happened, and has vowed that next time a monster emerges from the Underground, we'd listen to it."

Asgore stepped forward. "You aren't citizens?" He was utterly confused. "Why-- what'd happening?"

Several humans were stepping back and glancing around nervously. A few still looked defiant.

Charlie was livid. "No. You know what I think this is?" She stared each of the humans down with her intense yellow eyes, one by one.

"I think somebody important wanted to get rid of the monsters before anyone else could find out they existed. Joke's on you. Everybody down there--" she gestured towards the town, which was lit up with tiny pinpricks from the houses in which everyone was waking up and running around. "--already knows that monsters exist. We also know that monsters aren't going to hurt us."

Nat nodded and looked at Frisk. "Charlie's great grandma remembered her sister's death, and didn't let anyone forget about it."

"That's right. A little girl from town ran away and climbed the mountain. A few years later, the humans recognized her corpse when it was brought up by a gigantic monster. People thought it was the angel of death, or that it had killed her, and they attacked.

"But my great grandmother had gotten a good look at the corpse when the monster had put it down on the flowers. She was newly dead, and not by any kind of violence. She'd been poisoned by the very same flowers that she was lying on. It was a common kind of death! Common enough for her to recognize the slight hue her face and arms were on sight.

"The humans were attacking the monster, and almost killed it. But it didn't fight back, and by the time the villagers realized they weren't in any danger, it was almost dead. It simply picked up the corpse again, and flew back to the mountain."

The entire clearing had fallen silent to listen to the tall girl's shouts. The humans were eerily silent.

"Moral of the story? We villagers know what happened, and what monsters are. We were ready to listen to the next monster that came to the surface. We vowed to use mercy instead of fighting."

"So we know what you are, and what you're really trying to do." she finished, and fell back. Nat nodded.

Frisk turned to the crowd, still entrapped by the bones. "So, they're not citizens."

"Almost for sure they're not." Undyne answered.

"They have military weapons, by the way." Nat added. "So... yeah, those aren't exactly easy to get here?"

"So it would be considered a specific act of war for this to have occured." Undyne started to grin.

"Which means, it'd be totally just to kill you all right now." Frisk growled.

"I don't know. Maybe we should give them a chance." Undyne chuckled. "Sans... why don't you remove those bones keeping them there?"

"sure thing." The bones dissapeared.

With nothing holding them there, no weapons, and facing three powerful monsters (not to mention three pissed off humans) the crowd of people scrambled to the trucks and fled.

Undyne moved to intercept the truck, but was stopped by a gesture from Asgore. His head was bowed.

Sans shook his head and turned to Frisk, but to his annoyance, she was already moving towards Asgore.

Frisk, oblivious, reached an arm as far around the back of Asgore’s wide figure as she could in an attempt to comfort him. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

He gravely turned to her. "You do realize what this means, Frisk?" he muttered.

*This means war.

"This means war."

Chapter Text

"Slow down! You said the humans were -- what?"

Flowey's exasperated expression brought her back to earth. "I'm-- I'm sorry Flowey. There were humans attacking the entrance to the Underground. We think they were trying to block off any other monsters from exiting to the Surface."

After returning to the house from the attack, she hadn't been able to fall asleep again. Flowey, however, had fallen asleep and was in a peaceful state when she returned. When he finally woke again at eight, he was angry she hadn't woken him to tell him what was going on. But he wasn't even in the listening mood, so why was he so upset?

He snorted. "Clearly the smart option. Monsters can be unpredictable."

She looked hurt.

"Fine, fine." Flowey rolled his eyes and adopted his disturbingly cute worried face. "How awful. Why would they do such a thing?"

"It wasn't even regular citizens. It was either a group of people paid to attack us, or people from the military undercover, or something else. Either way, this can be taken as a declaration of war."

He whistled under his breath in amazement. "Well? How's Asgore taking it?"

"He doesn't want to have to attack back, but he doesn't think we have a choice anymore. We can't do anything except ... try to develop weapons to counteract the really dangerous ones humans will try to use against us."

"You keep saying that." he noted.

"What? Saying what?"

"'Us.' You're not a monster." He grinned. "Why are you on 'our' side?"

She blushed. "I mean... what else am I going to do?"

"A human siding with monsters?" he chuckled. "You're gonna be considered a traitor. You're in an incredible amount of danger... or you would be, if not for that handly little trick of yours."

Frisk stiffened. "Flowey..."

"You can still do that, right?" Flowey teased. "How many times have you died since we've gotten to the surface? How often have you reloaded?"

"None! I'm not doing that anymore, okay?" she burst out.

"But you won't have a choice, if something happens to you." he pondered. "Your DETERMINATION is far too great."

He tilted his head and let his smile widen an alarming degree.

Her hands shook, but she clasped them together tightly as she turned away. "It's not my fault she's not here anymore." she muttered.

"Oh, is that what we're talking about now?"

She turned to look Flowey in the eye, exhausted and desperate. "Isn't she always what we're thinking about?"

"I don't know. I can't read your mind."

Abruptly, she stood up. "I thought.... I hoped... when we turned you back into Asriel for a short time..."

"You hoped, what? That it'd somehow grant me a SOUL again?" He giggled. "I told you. You should've left me back there."

"She didn't let me." Frisk's eyes glistened with tears. "She told me you'd die down there, all alone. I wanted to respect your wishes, but..."

"Ah, yes! She didn't want me to be all alone in the dark. She'd rather I be all alone with my family."

With that, she turned and walked out the door. "Hey! Where're you going?" Flowey called.

"To the tea shop." she responded without looking back. "Charlie and Nat told me last night they'd be there for lunch, if I was feeling up to it."

---

The gals were at a booth in the shop when Frisk wandered in, half-asleep. Nat caught sight of her and began waving her arms in the air like a maniac. "Frisk!" she called, delighted.

Frisk tried to smile.

"Hi, guys. I need to talk to you."

"Sit down." Charlie directed. "I'll order you some tea."

She sat silently as Charlie placed the order and Nat stared at her, worried but unsure of what to say.

"I know that 'are you okay' is a dumb question after this morning, but I'm not sure what else to ask you. So... are you okay?" Charlie asked. She was half-smiling, but her voice still sounded concerned.

Frisk sighed heavily. "I have to ask you something first. Well, a few things."

Nat placed her hands under her chin and waited expectadly. "Yes?"

"How did you know Flowey, and how did he get your number?" she asked tensely. "And Sans? How did you know about him?"

They exchanged glances, and Nat burst out laughing, lightening the mood. "His name is Flowey?? For real?? He didn't tell me--"

Charlie interrupted. "Nat caught sight of him dipping underground the very first day the rumors started flying that monsters were hiding in town. She ran around the fields trying to find him and telling everyone that she'd seen him for days."

"Everyone thought I was crazy!" she giggled.

"You are crazy." Charlie turned back to Frisk. "Finally, this flower tracked her down and told her to stop looking for him. Threatened her."

"Needless to say... I wasn't all that scared." Nat smiled. "He's a flower."

"And you don't scare easily, anyways."

"How'd he get your number? You said he had your number. When I asked him, he completely ignored me." Frisk earlier had felt like she'd never cheer up again. But this was helping a bit.

"I gave him my number the second time I saw him."

"The second time??"

"Of course she kept looking for him." Charlie said, exasperated. "She's purple."

"I prefer the term 'violet.'" Nat assumed an air of regality.

"Perseverance. I understand about SOULs. But--"

"SPEAKING of which, I have a super-duper important question to ask you that really can't wait any longer because I've been waiting for since we first saw your eyes but are you really red??" Nat demanded in a single breath.

She stiffened, the conversation with Flowey flooding back into her mind.

*He was right, though.

*You can never stop being what you are.

"Yeah. I am. But!--" she intercepted Nat's wide-eyed follow-up question-- "--whatever legends you've heard about red SOULS, they're wrong. My magic is the same as yours."

"Oh." She seemed a bit put out.

"But about Sans..."

"Oh, yeah, Sans!" Perking up, Nat continued. "Sans, we only saw him because we were following you!"

Charlie's mouth dropped open. Frisk's face assumed its patent-pending "non-expression".

"Um....... Two questions?" she finally said.

"We were following you because you're new in town and you emerged right when the rumors of monsters coming back resurfaced, no pun intended, and also because we're weirdos who like making friends but not in the creepy way and it's not like we were stalking you or anything just whenever we happened to see you in town we'd follow you so we found out where you lived AND ALSO is Sans the skeleton? I assume so because he's the only other one I had noticed by that point and the thing about HIM is he was actually literally stalking you or something because we noticed wherever we saw you he was also right there in the background somehow which is really weird and--"

Nat stopped for a breath. Charlie interrupted her again.

"Nat, you're making everything worse, all the time."

"Don't worry." Frisk managed to laugh, and found that it actually came naturally. "I'm used to people following me at this point. I gathered up an entire group of people who were tracking me in some way in the Underground."

Nat laughed nervously. "Okay. But you know, it's kinda funny how that skeleton keeps following you around even when on the surface, right? It was super obvious, too. At least it was to us."

Charlie facepalmed.

"Anyway, wanna talk about the impending war?" Nat smiling winningly. The teacart came by and the waiter delivered Frisk's golden flower tea.

She stared into it, her upside-down reflection staring back at her.

*Surreal, isn't it?

*Humans are bizarre.

-----

Unable to force herself to walk back to the house, she wandered towards the mountain. At this point, her exhaustion was making her partially unaware of what she was doing.

She found herself climbing the mountain again. Pausing mid-step, she asked herself where she was going.

To waterfall. That was the calmest, most beautiful place. She needed to go there. Maybe she could talk to Napstablook, or something.

She continued walking, the same way she did when she'd first climbed this mountain...

Feeling hopeless. Helpless.

...

"O-oh my God! What are you d-d-doing here??"

Frisk smiled thickly at her alarmed dinosaur friend, who had simply emerged from the darkness with no warning whatsoever. "Just taking a walk."

"Up the mountain??" she demanded.

"Why not?" She teetered with exhaustion.

"O-ok, you're coming with me right now." Alphys rushed over to the small human's side and threw her arm over Frisk's shoulders, supporting her. "Walk."

...

It didn't even register in Frisk's head where they were walking until she was leaning against the elevator wall with flourescent light making her blink. "What... where...?"

"I'm going to the lab. You're going to sleep while I work."

"You..." She swallowed and shook her head, forcing herself to fully wake up. "You don't need to go to the lab."

"Yeah, I do." Alphys refused to meet her eyes. "I need to make sure everything's set for... the weapons researcher."

"Weapons researcher?? Why--"

"We're at war, Frisk." she sighed. "Asgore w-wanted me to start developing weapons to defend ourselves right away, but I...uh... I'm never doing Determination research again. Like, ever. S-so he said, I can just tidy up the lab and gather up the p-papers so whoever takes over--"

"Determination research is synonymous with weapons research?" Even half-asleep, she registered that word. Alphys flinched.

"Well, y-yeah. Only Determination-based weapons have a chance of saving us. But--"

"Why is Determination so strong?"

Alphys frowned. "Don't you know? Determination--as a t-trait, that is--is a c-combination of all other traits. M-most weapons used against monsters are emotional-magic based, since things hurt m-monsters based on the intent of the attacker and n-negative magical residue on the weapon. Determination, besides being easy to make weapons with, makes incredibly strong protective spells, such as the bar--"

"We need protective spells. The humans could attack us at any time." Frisk interrupted again.

"I suppose s-so... yes." Alphys fidgeted.

"So, why are we waiting to develop weapons and protective spells?" She was incredulous.

"Y-you don't understand. I-in order to actually m-make weapons, we need pure Determination to work with. We d-don't have any m-more of that, we used it up when--"

"We do have Determination."

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened to reveal the dark, foreboding True Labratory. Alphys turned to Frisk with a shocked expression.

"W-w-what? What a-are you t-talking ab-bout??"

"I--my SOUL is pure Determination. You can extract some from me. I don't need it. I don't even want it."

Alphys stepped back. "Y...you don't know what you're saying." she murmured. "You need some sleep."

"No." Frisk was wide awake now. "I need to help. I haven't done anything but make the situation with humans worse. The least I can do it let you have my--"

Alphys was shaking her head rapidly. "You c-can't. You d-don't understand. If we took y-our D-d-d-determination, it could seriously hurt you. Y-you could die."

"I don't care if I die. I need to do something. I can't just stand by and watch my friends suffer, knowing I could do something but don't have the guts to." She grabbed Alphys's shaking hands--claws?--and stared into her eyes.

She was wavering. "I s-suppose... If we set the machine to absorb only a small portion... It would still help, and the chances of you g-getting hurt would b-be slim..."

"Let me do this." Frisk begged with renowned intensity.

Alphys paused. "No. No, no, nonononono! W-w-what am I doing?? That machine is untested for the most part and could s-seriously h-hurt you, n-no matter what kinds of p-p-precautions we t-take!! I can't let you jeporadize yourself l-like that, you're m-more important than any amount of D-d-determination."

Frisk opened her mouth, then closed it. "You were right. I need some sleep," she said quietly. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"That's r-right!" She looked immensely relieved. "J-just go over there and g-get to bed, and I'll finish p-packing up. I'll c-call Sans when we're d-done, and he can t-teleport us to the house. Ok?"

"Ok." Frisk rubbed her head and wandered into the other room.

Alphys took a deep breath and hurried to another room, glancing at the panels on the walls as she went.

...

After a few minutes, Frisk silently emerged from the room and headed down the hall.

*Being ready to make a seriously dumb sacrifice...

*... fills you with, ironically, DETERMINATION.

Can it.

She looked at the control panel in front of the giant, gaping animal-skull-looking thing. This has to be it. It's the only thing that could possibly fit a human down here.

*Why are you doing this?

*Do you have something to prove?

Maybe I do.

Maybe I need to prove to myself I can help.

*And to me, I suppose?

Well...

She examined the panel more closely. Is there any way I could, like, set a timer for it? To turn it on and then go get into it?

*Sure. Press that button.

That was... that was meant to be rhetorical. How would you possibly know how this works?

*You press the button and get into the stupid machine.

*Your narrator character's backstory is unimportant.

Ok, ok... point taken.

Frisk pressed the button, then scurried over to the machine. "Ok, in we go."

She scrambled into it and laid her head back.

...

...

".. um, when does it--"

Instantly, the machine roared on and let out an ear-splitting screech.

For a half second, she felt nothing.

Then, her SOUL split.

A piercing scream split the silence of the dark labratory.

Alphys dropped the books she was holding as the lights flickered rapidly.

"Oh my god."

B̶̡̛͎̹͈̰̼̹͉̤̰̝̪̪̠̂̆̏̔́̑́͑̈́̍͋̆̈́̂͌͜û̴̜̹̜̦̬̝̙̊͌̏̃̃͋͛̉̽̎͆̓͛̓͘̕͝ͅt̴̪̲̗͙̥͋͒̀̒̾̾̌͑͋͋̍̕̕͘ ̸̣̏͆̍͋̽͒̑̐̎̈͑̾͂̽͗̐̊͘͝i̴̧̢̩̰͔͉͚͂͂͂̔͑̾̓͂͒͋͛̆͂̄̕͘͠͠ț̵̡̛̟͔͎͕̘̠͉̰̩̰̪̦̻̻͎̽̿͌͌͗̊̄͐̿͌ͅ ̷̢̡̨̱͔̹̹̫̻͕̞͚̻̞͓̈́̋̄̚͜͝ͅr̸͎̜̠̥͖̩̺̮̦͉̻̙̪̝͓̯̩̠͓̞͉̯͗̓̑̚͝ͅe̴̢̡̧̛̹̪̱͙͙̟̻̘̩̘͋͋̐͗̋͌͛͛̔͊̋̊̈́̚͠ḟ̴̧̳̤̥͖̥̙͎̯̪̙̆͝u̴̧̟̯̻̫͔̠̦̔̅͑̊͑́̊̂͐͘͝s̸̡̛̠̙̹̬̳̘̗̜͙̱̞͖͚̙̣̮̫̬͋̌̆̆́͛̊̚͜ȩ̷̡͖͓͙͇͓̜͔̺̪͉͙̠̗̱̃̏d̴̢̡̲͉̜͍̣̝̱̞͓̮̫̰̥̠̭̬̖̱͘͜ͅͅ.̵̧̡̡͎̤͔͕̙͕̯̩̻̯̺̪͍͉͇͖͕̭̉̒̈́̍͋̚

END OF BOOK ONE: MERCY

Chapter Text

PART TWO: FIGHT

dear, watch me from the shadows,
they shall not, cannot start thinning
this is our special darkness, oh,
and it's only beginning.

"That's my wish, too."

"My wish, too."

"Wish, too."

"Wish."

"My wish, too."

"Wish."

"That's my wish."

The echo flowers whispered among themselves, deep underground, in the dimly blue-lit cavern echoing with the mysterious susuruss and the quiet splashing of the interspersing rivers, spreading, flowing, reaching to the furthest stretches of the known underground and yet further, into the black where no living creature has yet ventured, down into the depths, deeper even than the banishment of an entire civilization.

But there was something new.

Somewhere, something changed. An exception occured. The straight pathway for time to follow made a jump away from its aforeplanned peace.

It began to write itself a new timeline.

A new AU was born. Its conception had been the moment the girl fell... or rather, the moment she did not fall.

Why did she wait so long to run?

Why did she run where she did?

It begins to write itself a new timeline.

When the world begins to collapse, the world struggled to rebuild itself with the pieces remaining for it to use.

"That's my wish, too."

There is a role to fill. So fill it. Who else has been lost to the darkness?

The man who speaks in hands.

There is a role to fill. So fill it.

One SOUL becomes two.

One girl becomes two.

The fallen becomes the risen.

Back to the land of the living. No longer to exist as a shadow!

Bring him feeling again, too. With her comes feeling. With her comes -- at least in part -- a shadow of a SOUL for him.

It's better than nothing. It's all it can give.

What else, what else? The world rebuilds itself. The girl is no longer a child. The SOUL is no child's SOUL, so both halves are strong halves. Adult SOUL, childlike spirit. Which pieces to fit together?

Be full.

Be free.

The angel reaches into the darkness once again. This time, a hand grasps hers.

It takes.

It is fuller than it has been for decades.

His cellphone, out of nowhere, in the three AM silence, blasted "Never Gonna Give You Up." Sans shot up out of bed so fast he nearly cracked his skull on the ceiling.

Snatching it up, he stared at the caller ID. Why in the world would Alphys be calling him at this time at night? Or in the morning? Whatever! She could've killed him. He answered it, trying to sound groggy even though he was suddenly wide-awake. "yello'."

"SANS! OH, M-MY GOD, P-PLEASE LISTEN T-T-TO ME! FRISK IS--SHE--SHE T-T-TREID TO--I D-DON'T KNOW HOW T-TO T-T-TURN IT OFF AND--"

"what? what's happening? alphys, talk to me." His SOUL dropped.

"THE LAB--THE T-T-TRUE LAB, WE'RE IN THE B-B-B-BASEMENT OF THE LAB, YOUR D-D-DAD'S OLD MACHINE, SHE T-T-TRIED T-TO-- D-DETERMINATION, B-BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT, SHE'S IN SERIOUS D-D-D-DANGER AND-- SHE C-COULD G-G-G-GET KILLED, SHE'S--"

"you're in the true lab?" He was pulling on his jacket already.

"P-P-PLEASE HURRY! I C-C-CAN'T TURN IT OFF, AND SHE JUST K-KEEPS SCREAMING--"

Normally, the amount of energy and power a monster can use is relative to their HoPe. Sans, who had struggled with depression even before Flowey decided to constantly RESET the world and make all his efforts for naught, had famously low HP among his friends. Normally, he wouldn't have the ability to teleport all the way to the True Lab from miles and miles away on the surface.

However, monsters in incredibly stressful situations tend to find power they never knew they had. Even measly 1 HP monsters.

Sans, more desperate than he'd ever been in his life, landed right in the room that all hell was breaking loose.

A snapshot of what he saw in that first moment:

Frisk, locked into the machine, was screaming, her head thrown back and her hair spilling over her shoulders. The lights in the lab, normally a dark blue-green, were blaring red. Alphys was at the control panel, desperately hammering on it in an attempt to get the machine to release the girl.

A closer inspection of the human in the machine would reveal several needles, pumping out a bright red substance from her arms, legs, and torso. There was a huge tube behind her that was filled almost halfway up with the same substance. Tears were flowing down her cheeks, and her arms and legs were stretched out as far as they could go.

Sans fell against the control panel, infinitely more desperate and terrified than he had been a moment ago. Even in the heat of the moment, he could remember what he'd been taught in case he'd ever need to use this machine.

The skeleton pushed the lever up and pressed several buttons. "alphys, catch her when she falls out!!" he barked at the lizard monster, who tripped over herself rushing over to the gaping maw Frisk was suspended in.

The needles suddenly retracted and Frisk collapsed head lolling to one side, completely passed out. Alphys managed to catch her and gripped her so tightly as she lifted her down that it seemed as if she was holding onto her own lifeline.

She was. Sans was instantly at her side, one eye glowing brightly even in the blaring red light of the lab.

"what. happened."

"i t-told her not t-to mess with the m-m-machine!" Alphys shrieked, hugging the unconscious human girl for dear life. "I t-told her to g-g-g-get some sleep in the b-bedroom and she seemed t-t-to listen!! I had n-n-no idea she was g-g-going t-to do something like this!!"

"alphys, i swear to god, if she--"

A movement from behind the machine caught both of their eyes and distracted them. They both glanced at the tube.

The red liquid splashed again. The tube seemed to shudder.

They both stared at each other, shocked.

"what's--"

"I HAVE NO IDEA!!"

Out of nowhere, the tube shattered, sending the raw DETERMINATION spilling out onto the floor.

But something else fell out.

Something solid.

A body. Covered in red, dripping with DETERMINATION.

Instrinctively, Sans strode over and pulled the limp figure out from the shattered glass and blood-like substance.

But it turned to look at him, eyes glowing red.

Miles and miles upwards and away, something else awoke.

Something living, and conscious, yet with no true SOUL to speak of.

Its eyes inexplicably filled with tears.

"She's back," it whispered to itself.

Even further away, but also closer, someone else awakes.

His grayscale tilts and swings him headlong into the world of red.

He simply smiles, as he always does. The cracks around the edges soften into simple decoration.

The man's time for exiting the darkness has finally come.

...

But not in the way he planned.

His role has changed.

He is a replacement.

None of this was her fault before.

But it sure as hell is now.

Chapter Text

She opened her eyes, and even in the dim, blinking red light, she recognized that skeleton. Instantly, she yanked her arm out of his grip.

The scientist was freaking out in the corner. "W-W-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT??" she screeched.

Probably can't tell I'm a human, with all the Determination.

Sans fell back, grinning menacingly. "An old friend."

The girl scoffed, which is hard to do when you're dripping with red, newly resurrected and curled up on the ground like a child. "Hardly."

"Give her your lab coat." Sans instructed, striding forward to gently take the unconscious Frisk from Alphys.

Alphys shuffled up, pulling off her lab coat. "H-here." She tossed it at the girl, who instantly pulled it around herself. Luckily, the red gunk was thick enough to hide every part of her body except the general size.

*WHAT'S GOING ON?

I don't know, shut--

She froze, and turned slightly to look at the slightly transparent part skeleton-part black blob that was hanging directly over the spillage of Determination.

"I can understand you."

*CHARA?

She glanced back at the three other people in the room. "Can you see--?"

"It's just you, kid." Sans muttered, staring hard at the place she was just looking at. "Why, is there something--"

"No, no there's nothing. I must have been... I must have been woozy from the..."

Gaster was definitely right there. Right there. And she could understand him. She never could before...

*WHY AM I HERE? WHY ARE YOU HERE?

"Later, doctor," she muttered. "One thing at a time."

Sans was grinning at her. Alphys just looked shocked. She pulled the coat tighter around herself, standing up.

He could hear Alphys gasp slightly. She was tall.

She was tall.

I've never been tall before.

Why... I'm an adult. I'm an adult. Why am I an adult??

"Why am I here?" she asked Alphys, who started.

"I HAVE N-N-NO IDEA!! I D-D-DIDN'T KNOW D-DETERMINATION COULD D-D-D-DO THAT??"

"It shouldn't." Sans put in. He gripped Frisk tighter, pulling her closer to him protectively. "Why are you here?

"How should I know?" She smiled widely. "I was just summoned from ... whatever limbo I was floating in, between life and death."

"You were a ghost?"

"I was something. I'm not sure."

Gaster seemed to overcome his silent shock and drifted over to where Chara was standing. She tried not to look at him.

*CHARA, LISTEN TO ME. DO NOT LET SANS TOUCH THAT MACHINE AGAIN. DO NOT LET ANYONE USE THAT MACHINE AGAIN. I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU CAN HEAR ME, OR WHY I'M HERE, BUT YOU NEED TO LISTEN. DON'T LET MY SONS NEAR IT.

She shuddered. "I don't know about this, but I'm picking up some 'how about we don't mess with that machine anymore until we have this figured out' vibes," she said, waving her arms at the control panel dramatically. Sans's sockets narrowed.

"Why is Frisk unconscious?" he demanded. "When you seem to be just fine?"

"W-well, that's p-probably because of shock from b-b-being in such incredible pain in such an intensely short time." Alphys noted, reaching over to Frisk.

Sans stepped back, still holding Frisk. "Everyone just... ok. ok, here's the plan. We're going back to the house. You can come with us, Chara."

Alphys glanced at the human, then at Sans with a terrified expression. "That's--you're--"

"Yes." Chara drew herself up to her full height and pulled the lab coat tighter around herself. "My name is Chara Dreemurr, and I was the adopted princess."

Once Alphys had run and gotten some more clothes for Chara, they started back.

Sans was completely drained, so he couldn't teleport back to the house. Instead, they all just walked back to the elevator together. He insisted on carrying Frisk.

While they walked, he listened to her heartbeat. At least it seemed to be normal. And she was warm, which he supposed was a good sign with humans. And she was breathing.

Her hair fell on his shoulder as he carried her carefully, his arms wrapped around her tightly. Listening to her breathe.

She could have died.

She could have literally died and her determination would be gone so she wouldn't have been able to come back.

She would have been gone forever.

He tightened his grip on her even more and laid his chin on her shoulder, trying to breathe.

He had been unbelievably angry. He had almost hurt Alphys, who hadn't done anything wrong. She had done nothing wrong.

Frisk was the one who had jeporadized herself.

How could she do that to him?

Let alone herself, and the thousands of monsters dependant on her well-being?

His angry, hurt, and terrified thoughts swirled in his head, keeping him from calming down. He didn't even notice when they'd reached the surface and car pulled up to bring them home.

All he focused on was listening to her breathe, telling himself over and over that it was going to be okay. It was going to be okay.

She was going to be okay.

But that other child was sitting next to him in the car. She was looking at him. He turned, and was about to say something, when she glanced away quickly.

Her cheeks were as rosy as he remembered.

What was going to happen now?

As Sans carried Frisk up to her room, Alphys herded Toriel, Asgore, and, for some reason, Flowey, into the living room quietly, trying not to wake anyone else up. "You n-need to come here," she whispered. "There's someone you n-need to see."

All their muttered, confused questions vanished when they opened the door to the living room and saw the frightened, defiant, familiar lady sitting on the sofa.

Frisk was lying in her bed, dark hair spread out around her head on the pillow like a halo.

She was an angel, but she looked less at peace than she usually did when she slept.

Nope, that sounded wrong. Ugh... How do you protect someone who continually insists upon throwing herself into danger for the greater good?

What about my good, Frisk? I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you.

Oh, no. I love you. He suddenly realized, with a sinking feeling. I love you so much. I want to protect you, you've saved us, you've saved me, you've done everything for us. You're beautiful and perfect and an idiot and determined and unpredictable.

And I love you.

He groaned heavily as his head dropped onto the desk with a clunk.

Let me protect you, dammit. Please. You're too precious to us.

He realized he was gripping her hand. He let go of it, embarrassed.

Papyrus knocked on the door, gently. "Brother? Are you all right in there?"

"Yeah, bro. I'm fine." he said wearily, raising his head. "Frisk's a different story, though."

"I was...I was wondering if you wanted someone else to sit here with her. You've just gotten home, it's late, and I think... I never imagined myself saying this, but you need to sleep, Sans."

"I'll be fine, Paps." he said wearily.

Another concerned look. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure."

"Why is Frisk unconscious? Is she just ... asleep?"

"She's hurt, bro. But I think she'll be ok. I just want to makde sure nothing happens to her."

"...All right. I'll bring you some coffee."

"That'd be great, thanks."

Chara had washed a bit in the bathroom, and although she looked a bit worse for wear, she was... presentable. More so than she was an hour ago, anyway.

She was sitting in the living room with her parents and Flowey. After the tears and embracing, they had settled down.

In silence.

*WELL, THIS IS SURREAL.

"Yeah, it is." she muttered. Flowey blinked.

"Chara..."

"How did you get here? What happened?" Toriel burst out.

She looked at her hands. There were still bits of red caked in her palms and in the cracks in her fingers.

"I don't know."

"We... you're so ... you're so beautiful," Asgore rumbled, tearing up.

Toriel nodded silently beside him. "You've grown up."

"How? How did you grow up? Why are you here? What happened to Frisk?" Flowey demanded.

She flinched. "I don't know. I didn't do anything to her." she growled. "Whatever happened, she did it to herself."

They all fell silent again.

The reunion of a broken family.

Papyrus stared at the living room door.

It was closed.

It was never closed.

"I hear voiced. The door is shut. But I need to pass through here to get to the kitchen." he mused to himself. "Sans didn't say anything about not going through the living room, and I'm sure he'd remember if it was anything important!"

He nodded seriously. "I'll be quick!" he muttered decisively, pushing open the door. "I need to get the--"

All four stared right at him, stock still. He froze.

"--the coffee." he mumbled, staring at the human.

She melted away from him into the sofa, her bright red eyes wide from his loud, instantaneous interruption. Without thinking, he jumped forward. "I'm sorry I scared you, human!!" he shouted, as quietly as he could. "I just needed to get to the kitchen for some coffee for Sans, and--"

Flowey hissed at him. "Get OUT! This is a private conversation!"

"Flowey!" Toriel turned to Papyrus, incredibly apologetic. "I'm so sorry, Papyrus. Everyone's just a little high strung."

"I'm sorry!! I didn't mean to interrupt!!" His cheekbones were bright red. "I'll just--"

"It's alright." Asgore rumbled. "No one told you we were in here."

"I think we could actually stand to have a little of your positivity, Papyrus." Toriel offered him a weak smile. "Why don't you stay?"

"No!" Flowey shrieked. "Chara's finally back, and I don't know how! Or why! And she's gotta explain, or I'm--"

He stopped abruptly. Papyrus was backing out the doorway.

"--I'm sorry."

He stopped. "I'm sorry. I'm actually sorry." A laugh bubbled up from inside him.

Then another.

Flowey started giggling hysterically.

"I'm sorry! I'm honest-to-God sorry! What's happening??"

He rounded on Chara, who, like everyone else in the room, was shocked by his maniacal outburst. "You did this to me. How. How did you do this?"

"I'M JUST GOING TO--" Papyrus was still standing in the doorway, obviously wanting to run away but not wanting to be rude.

"You wanted to get the coffee for Sans, correct?" Toriel stood up. "Let me help you fix it. We could all use some coffee tonight, I think."

Papyrus cast one last wondering glance at Chara before following Toriel into the kitchen. Asgore turned to Flowey with a stern expression.

"Flowey. I am not sure why you're upset, but you need to calm down. It does not do to lash out at people who don't deserve it."

"I do deserve it, Dad." Chara muttered. "I've caused this. I've caused everything."

Asgore reached over and put a huge paw on her shoulder comfortingly. "Now, Chara. How would you even know--"

"You declared war on the humans." she rattled off. "Asriel's consciousness was drained into Flowey, but without emotions. Toriel took my body and ran to the Ruins to live. You killed six children who passed through the Underground. None of that would have happened if I hadn't tried to sacrifice myself in a stupid, vain attempt to rescue the monsters from the Underground." She snorted.

"Frisk and her determination are the only reason everyone is free. And she's the only reason you're all going to be happy. And, my God," she realized, "I've messed that up, too." Chara chuckled hollowly, pressing her hands into her temples. "I've done it. I've corrupted every possible timeline."

"It's not your fault you were summoned here however you were summoned!" Flowey yelled. Then he paused. "... was it?"

"It might as well have been. I told her how to operate that machine. I knew it could hurt her. I didn't care."

Asgore's mouth was hanging open. He closed it. "Well. It seems we cannot rule anything out at this point. You seem to have broken every rule in the book, haven't you, my dear?"

"Don't call me dear. Please. You don't know what I've done. What I am." she said, emotionless.

"No." Asgore admitted. "But I do know one thing."

She rubbed her eyes. "What's that, Asgore."

"You are my daughter, and I love you. We all love you. And we're going to protect you."

He leaned over and pulled her into a tight hug.

...

She moved her arms up slightly to embrace him back, pressing her face into his uncomfortable fuzzy sweater.

There were tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.

Flowey was watching with a torn expression. After a moment, Asgore reached over and picked up his pot, placing it on his leg so Flowey could be a part of the hug, too.

He leaned into Chara, however, who complied, putting a careful hand around him.

...

*MAY I HUG, TOO?

She sighed quietly. "Sure."

"So... who is that beautiful human in our living room??" Papyrus asked Toriel curiously, who stiffened for a moment, then sighed.

"Chara. The royal princess."

His eyes popped out of his skull. "Chara?? How?? But I thought that she and Asriel died, way back when the law that all humans be taken to the capitol was made!!"

Toriel smiled hollowly. "We thought so, too."

He cleared his throat. "All right. Well. That's quite... interesting, isn't it?"

She laughed a bit. "Yes, it is. It all seems a bit surreal."

"Is she... Is she going to be staying with us now?"

"Definitely." Toriel's voice, which had been shaking, was now strong.

"Oh. All right." He scratched his head, trying not to look nervous.

"Papyrus, dear, is everything--"

"The coffee is ready!" he interjected. "Let us bring it to Sans, so he can keep up his vigil by Frisk's bedside!"

"Frisk? Why is he watching Frisk?" she asked, confused, while pouring the steaming coffee into a mug.

"Frisk is unconscious!" he said cheerfully . "We think she's injured, but not to worry! Sans is keeping careful watch, and he thinks she'll be able to recover!"

Toriel dropped the mug.

Chapter Text

Chara's bright red eyes opened, and she found herself staring at a cheap ceiling fan on a tan ceiling. An altogether alien sight.

She sat up abruptly, as memories came flooding in. The felt like a kick in the gut.

Frisk.

Without thinking, she scrambled out of the tiny bed and, losing her balance, toppled onto the ground.

She glared down at her offending legs. "This is idiotic. Why are you so damn long?"

The legs, being normal legs, didn't answer. Chara leaned her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes.

"Back in the land of the living." she said quietly to herself.

*YES, YOU ARE.

"Are you gonna explain anything, Doc?" Chara asked wearily, glancing over at the dark blob suspended in the doorway.

Its face fell.

*TO BE FRANK, I WAS HOPING YOU WOULD HAVE SOMETHING OF AN EXPLANATION FOR ME.

"It's your machine!" she complained.

*AND YOU'RE THE ONE WHO USED IT IMPROPERLY.

"Technically, it was Frisk." she muttered, glancing out the window. It had already been light for a good amount of time, she could tell by the length of the shadows. Thankfully, all the action was downstairs, and no one had disturbed her with their usual morning hustle and bustle.

*TECHNICALLY, I'M NOT STUPID. I KNOW SHE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO USE IT ALONE. YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WAS ALWAYS IN MY LAB AS A CHILD, BEING UNDERFOOT AND OCCASIONALLY DROPPING IMPORTANT VIALS.

"Ok," she rolled her eyes, "so what if I did help her? She wanted to be stupid and rip Determination from her body. If I didn't tell her how to do it, she would've tried anyways and gotten even more hurt. Speaking of which," she stood up, "I have to go check to make sure she didn't die overnight because of me."

*HMM. THOUGHT YOU WEREN'T BLAMING YOURSELF.

She shot him a sarcastic look over her shoulder as she walked through the doorway into the cramped hall. "Just because I know it wasn't my fault doesn't mean I don't blame myself."

*HUMANS ARE QUITE STRANGE.

"Hey, that's my catchphrase."

She pushed open the door and inhaled a sharp breath. Delightful. How many skeletons am I going to have to deal with in one morning?

Frisk was still asleep, looking pale and weak. Sans was sitting in the chair beside her bed, snoring with his head back.

"Sans. Go to bed." Chara hissed.

He sat up abruptly, coughing. "What--"

"You've been here all night. Go to bed," she said insistently. "I can sit here for a while."

'No way." He straightened instantly. "I'm protecting her from people like you."

She would've taken offense if he hadn't been so clearly still half-asleep, and if it wasn't a half-true statement. However, it was still altogether irritating.

Chara groaned. "Listen, partner. I haven't done anything to anyone, much less Frisk. I've been with her for her entire journey. She's safe with me."

"Why should I trust you?"

'What reason do you have to not trust me?" Chara demanded.

"What reason have you given me to trust you?" Sans repeated.

"I kept her alive!" she hissed forcefully. "I was her guide, I kept her safe. I don't know why you're so bent out of shape about me, especially after our--"

"Thanks to you, Asriel died!"

Chara straightened and folded her arms. "Are we going into ancient history, now? And that's not even hyperbole," she recounted, a slight smile tugging at her lips, "that is literally in the records as ancient history."

"Not for you."

"Actually, yes for me, because I've been almost-not-quite-dead for this entire time!"

"And awake?" he said sarcastically.

"Since Frisk fell!"

Almost as a response to hearing her name, Frisk shifted, eyelids fluttering.

Chara and Sans' wide eyes met.

Whoops.

"Ugh. . . What happened? Sans? ...Chara?" Frisk sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. "Are you guys fighting?"

"No."

"Yes," Chara said at the same time.

Frisk yawned hugely, and stretched. "Hmmm. What for?"

"Sans doesn't want me in here with you."

She smiled dreamily. "So. Chara's here? You can see her too, now?"

"You managed to bring me back to life with your little escapade with the Determination machine." Chara said gruffly.

'My SOUL feels awful." she groaned.

"Understandable. It's been torn in half." Chara responded conversationally.

"What?" Frisk asked in a hushed voice.

"What?" demanded Sans at the same time.

"Yeah." she nodded. "Half is mine now. You somehow melded my consciousness with half of your SOUL, and--"

"Where'd your body come from, then? You're tall!" Frisk asked delightedly.

"I noticed." Chara sat down on the bed. "I guess I'm an adult now, since your SOUL is an adult SOUL."

"Cool!"

Chara looked at her questioningly.

"You didn't have to suffer through puberty." Frisk explained, smiling.

Chara stared at her for a half-second, then burst out laughing.

"You are so weird."

Sans leaned on the door-frame, watching this scene. Frisk, as if just noticing him again, turned and smiled at him.

"Thanks, Sans."

"For what?" he asked in a low tone.

She scoffed. "You saved me, dummy. Or did you forget about that?"

"Uh, yeah. About that?" He scratched the back of his skull. "Don't ever try something like that again, please. You almost died."

"Well, it was worth it, it seems!" Frisk said cheerfully, not taking Sans nearly seriously enough for his liking. "Chara's back, everyone can see her now!"

"'Now'?" he repeated.

She waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, she was a ghost floating around commenting on everything I did and making awful puns. Pretty sarcastic for a decades-old lady."

"Excuse me." Chara stood up and gestured at her body. "Clearly, now I'm about twenty or so."

"Oh, don't worry, you're still decades old to me."

"I'm going to get breakfast." Sans said, heading out the door. "This conversation is making me even more tired than I already was."

"You're getting breakfast because you're tired?" Chara yelled after him. He didn't respond but to flip her off from in the hall, and vanish.

Frisk giggled like mad while Chara groaned and sat down in the chair Sans had vacated. "What a delightful skeleton. I can totally see why you like him so much."

"Hey, shut it, sister, or I'll give you a pillow in the kisser." Frisk warned, smiling and holding up her pillow as a weapon.

". . . 'sister?'"

"Yeah. Your parents are my parents. We're siblings. Congratulations, it's a girl!" Frisk spread her arms before Chara's stunned silence seemed to hit her. "I mean, unless you don't want--"

"No! I do want. I definitely want." Chara corrected hastily. "It just seemed really fast, and nobody's called me a sister since. . . Asriel, you know?"

"I'm sorry." Frisk replied quietly, staring at the ground.

Pause.

"Asriel, by the way, seems to also be back."

Frisk shot up in bed. "He is??"

"Um, not physically." she corrected. "Just. . . mentally. I could be wrong about this, but Flowey seems to be a lot different last night than ever before."

"Oh, God. I really, really hope he is." Frisk flopped back down. "I'm so happy you're here, Chara."

"Why?" she demanded incredulously.

Her sister laughed. "Because, dummy. You're my friend."

"What if I'd taken control back on that bed of flowers?" Chara found herself asking. "What if I'd forced a RESET?"

"Ha! Don't kid yourself, I was too strong for you to do that." Frisk flexed her muscles ridiculously and grinned. "Besides, I don't think you'd have had it in you, anyway." she reflected.

"But what if you had RESET the world yourself?"

"And why would I ever do that?"

". . . maybe to live through the adventure more than once?" Chara suggested, trying not to imply that maybe Frisk was acting a bit thick.

Frisk just shook her head seriously. "That kind of adventure was for living through once. I could never abuse my powers just to experience again."

"Too mature, huh?" Chara teased.

"You know it!" she crowed. "No, LOADing was bad enough. It made me feel guilty, to think that I was cheating death. Like, who am I to abuse those kind of powers, you know?"

"Hm." was all Chara could say.

"But enough existential problems. You're going to meet everyone today, Undyne and Alphys and Mettaton, and--"

"I've already met most of them," she said flatly. "When we were all kids."

"All right," Frisk went on, determined, "you're going to meet Charlie and Nat today, then. We're going to get tea."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes. Yes, you do."

*SO, YOU'RE JUST GOING TO TRY TO START LIVING YOUR LIFE, JUST LIKE THAT?

I mean, do I have another choice? she thought at him, pulling clothes out of the chest of drawers. I mean, I'm here. Might as well enjoy it, right?

*YOU'RE LIVING ON BORROWED TIME. YOU CAN'T STAY FOREVER. YOU HAVE TO KNOW THIS.

Way to kill the mood,

Gaster was floating in the doorway. His black omnipresent blobbiness was getting fairly annoying.Is this how Frisk always felt with me hanging over her shoulder?

*LIKELY.

She stopped. Wait.

*YES?

You replaced me.

*IT WOULD SEEM SO.

Does that mean. . .

She stared at him, eyes wide.

Does that mean I replaced her?

Trying to shake this thought, she held up the sweater she'd just picked up and wrinkled her nose. "Ew."

*TOO COLORFUL?

"Yeah, I want something dark." she muttered, rummaging some more in the chest of Frisk's clothes.

*YOU USED TO LOVE BRIGHT COLORS. EVERY TIME YOU SHOWED UP IN MY LAB, YOU'D HAVE THAT RIDICULOUS GREEN AND YELLOW SWEATER ON. MATCHING YOUR BROTHER.

"Oh, we were adorable, you loved having us there and you know it."

*I WILL ADMIT TO NOTHING OF THE SORT. I HAD MY OWN SONS TO CARE FOR.

"And what an annoyance, to have your sons' respective best friends constantly underfoot as well!" she huffed, yanking out a deep lavender t-shirt. That's better.

*OH, DON'T FLATTER YOURSELF. SANS WASN'T NEARLY AS TAKEN WITH YOU AS YOU WERE WITH HIM.

"Hm." She sniffed the shirt experimentally, and smirked at the cleanliness. Frisk sure was different from her. "Keep telling yourself that."

*WELL, IT'S IN THE PAST.

"Chara!" Frisk called from downstairs. "Are you dressed yet?"

"I just found clothes! Jeez, have a little patience!" Chara yelled back.

"Hurry up, you're so picky!"

Chara rolled her eyes and looked at the cargo shorts and shirt she'd laid out onto the bed.

And then at the floating blob Gaster.

Pointedly.

*DO YOU NEED SOMETHING, CHARA?

"Can I get changed?" she mumbled.

*THE CLOTHES ARE RIGHT THERE. HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN HOW TO DRESS?

"In privacy!!" Chara groaned. "Get out!"

*OH. was all he said, floating away quickly.

She slammed the door, knowing full well it wouldn't keep him out.

But it'd keep other skeletons out, and that was what really mattered.

It felt so strange to be wearing different clothes after so long. So very long.

Not bad different. Just different.

It also was very very strange to be in this body, but she was trying not to focus on that. If she did, she found her mind wander to what she was now, and that led to what she could do now, and. . .

No. Being an adult was going to be good and fun and not awkward at all.

She was going to drink alcohol.

Just so much alcohol.

Allllllll of the alcohol.

"Oh, mom is so not gonna let you drink!"

"What? Why not?" Chara demanded.

Frisk just clutched her sides and laughed.

Chara blew an annoyed puff of air out of pursed lips. "Fiiiine. Let's go meet those human friends of yours."

Her sister-- sister. I haven't had a sister in decades. No, don't think about her.--grabbed her arm and scampered towards the curb, where Stormageddon was parked, waiting.

It's time for a new chapter to begin.

I'm going to be something good. I'm going to be something useful.

Even if it kills me.

. . .Again.