Chapter Text

The Underground had been home to a large number of monsters, all varying in shape and size. Frisk, having gone through only a portion of the Underground, had not seen them all.

When the Barrier had been broken, and monsters allowed to leave for the surface once more, many of them wanted to see the human that had allowed for their release, much like anyone who would want to thank their savior. Almost every week, Frisk seemed to have a handful of visitors from all over the Underground, always wanting to thank them for their effort. And, always, the human saw them off with a smile.

Of course, monsters being monsters, some of them were desperate to try and repay Frisk for their actions. This was more of Toriel’s department, either having take in an abundance of gifts (Frisk didn’t know there was such a thing as too many fruit baskets), an overflow of G (the weekly allowance was already generous) or even the odd request (“No, you do not need to indenture yourself for lifelong servitude!” Was something Frisk heard on more than one occasion).

…though the thought of having someone else have to clean their room was starting to become a tantalizing idea…

Sans seemed to read their mind, though. Shut that down. Something about how there was “only so much lazy for one person”, whatever that meant.

Still, monsters kept coming, either with a gift, an offer, or both. Some simple, others complex. For weeks, it seemed like there was no end to any of them! Despite attempts by Toriel to keep their home as inconspicuous as possible, it was like they were a hotbed of “thank you’s”, “greetings”, and “can you please sign my northernmost cast?” What did that even mean? There was only one cast!

Until, one particular afternoon, a particular monster came to their particular door.

—•—

It was Hump Day, a Wednesday, an hour or so past afternoon that found Toriel in the backyard, attempting to bring the lawn under her will. Frisk had returned from Asgore’s, gushing about the trimmed hedges and flower beds the king had meticulously cared for, and Toriel, with only a “hint” of jealousy and envy, decided that she, too, would have a nice, flowered lawn.

Only, the battle had just begun, and neither side appeared to be winning.

Whatever green thumb Asgore was bestowed did not rub off on the former queen. Working in the sun on a cloudless day made her realize that having a body covered in fur meant you got hot. Really hot. She had half a mind to call out Frisk for help, but pride goeth before the fall, and Toriel had both ample amounts of it and good balance, and continued working.

As for the backyard, the hole she was digging had turned into a few more, and now resembled more of a trench. Dirt was spread around her like the remnants of a child’s birthday piñata; Toriel herself had gone out to get gardening supplies for this very moment, though in the moment, it felt more like some sort of battle garb in a duel. It didn’t help that the ground was dry and hard… in hindsight, she should have waited until rain came down and then started digging, but now, she was too far in and deep to stop now.

Adding insult to injury, the seed packets just did not open. That may have been the gloves she was wearing, but in the heat of war, the former queen chose to believe they were sabotaging her.

‘You’ll always be a second-rate gardener,’ they seemed to mentally jeer.

Toriel scowled. “I am NOT taking this guff.”

‘What’s the matter? Gonna run away from this too?~”

“How DARE you?!”

She lifted her trowel as if to strike-

“Miss Toriel?”

Oh- Papyrus. Right. The former queen quickly composed herself as the skeleton neared, and cleared her throat. If he had noticed that she was about to angrily stab at seed packets with a gardening tool, he did not comment.

“What did you want, Papyrus?”

“Actually, I came to give this to you!”

He happily held out a glass of lemonade, charmingly garnished with a lemon slice.

“Frisk was worried that you were working out here in the sun, and I, the GREAT PAPYRUS, agreed wholeheartedly! They had a brilliant idea, and voila: a glass of cold lemonade! They say it’s a normal thing to give to those that are working outside, a time honored tradition, in fact!”

The goat sighed with a smile creeping on her face. “Yes, I suppose that very much is. Thank you, Papyrus, and be sure to give Frisk my thanks as well.”

She drank, though admittedly it was more of a guzzling (man it was HOT), while Papyrus surveyed the carnage and mused.

“You know, I have a friend that I think would be great at managing gardens, but I haven’t seen him in a bit. He must be out exploring the surface!”

“Mmhm,” Toriel half-listened, handing back the glass and looking at the seed packets with a renewed resolve. Laugh at her, will they?!

Seeing the look in her eyes as work ethic, Papyrus stood. “Well, I’d best not keep you any longer. I bid you good luck, Miss Toriel!”

With that, the skeleton turned around, and walked towards the house. If he heard sounds behind him similar to growling and snarling at the attempt to open a seed packet, he wisely ignored it.

—•—

Papyrus and Sans coming over to visit was very much a normal occurrence, and Frisk couldn’t ask for much greater. Papyrus seemed to always know what to do to keep them occupied, and Sans seemed to always know the greatest route to the couch.

It was a coin toss as to which side of the skeleton brothers Frisk would emulate for the day, and today was decidedly with Papyrus. The current project was designing a pillow-and-blanket fort to encompass the whole living room; Papyrus had done a multitude of material shopping once he got to the surface for puzzle making. Turns out, when making grand scale puzzles is one of your jobs, you tend to have an eye for design. And when you have DIY projects under your belt as a borderline PhD?

Needless to say, it was coming along great.

And seeing as to how long Toriel was taking, it was more or less done without supervision. Which made it better!

When she finally threw in the towel while gardening, and she reentered her home, she was faced with a veritable wall of blankets separating her from the living room. Confused, she walked up to the wall and “knocked” - she really just patted the wall.

“Hello? What is this?”

“Y o u  m a y  e n t e r.” A mysterious voice called  from within.

Ducking between two blankets, Toriel was met with a sudden kaleidoscope of color: propped beneath a fish bowl was Frisk’s starry night light, and while turned on, created a rainbow of refracting color around the darkness within the fort. Around the “crystal ball”, sat four figures, clad in blanket robes, looking dark and mysterious…

…

…one of them was obviously Papyrus.

“P l e a s e,  s i t,  d e s t r o y e r  o f  l a w n s.”

Two figures gestured at once to a blanket mat, meant for her to sit on.

The goat sighed. “Really?”

“the kids organized all this so as far as I’m aware it was execute authority, now c’mon, play along.”

A longer sigh, but after the grueling battle out in the sun, Toriel could do with some RnR. With a smile, she came forward and sat down, and the figures all joined hands. With a combined hum, they swayed from side to side, and Toriel couldn’t help but giggle at the performance. Suddenly, they stopped as Papyrus straightened, almost throwing the blanket off of him.

“Hark! A vision approacheth!”

Everyone had to hold in their laughter, but he sold that line.

“S o  i t  w o u l d  s e e m.”

“Doth one have the eyes to see this vision?”

“Oh! I have them! I can uh, per-, uhm… what was the word again, Frisk?”

“Peruse.”

“Oh, uh- peruse! I can peruse this vision!”

Angel bless Asriel’s SOUL. The process of getting him one was long and challenging, fraught with many a danger, dramatic moments, and near death experiences, concluding with several neatly wrapped character arcs.

Hmm? What’s that?

This fanfiction doesn’t have any of that?

Eh, well, they get around to it.

Asriel held his hands over the “crystal ball”, wiggling his fingers as if trying to reach something.

“It’s… it’s a glimpse of the future!”

A gasp went from around the “ball”.

“Of- of what?” Toriel dared ask, having her voice tremble.

“A dia- di- diabol- an evil plan, being set in motion!”

Another gasp.

“A r e  y o u  c e r t a i n?”

“Yes!”

“But how can this be,” Papyrus exclaimed, “there’s no one here, but… us…”

“What does the vision entail?” Frisk questioned.

Asriel’s arm started to shake. “It’s- It’s a… it’s a hor-ruh-bull act!”

“What is it?!” Toriel nearly cried.

Frisk and Asriel suddenly threw off their blankets, and launched themselves at her!

“TICKLE AMBUSH!!”

“What-?!”

Toriel let out a somewhat undignified squawk of surprise as her children landed on her, mischievous hands going to her sides and armpits to make her laugh. Of course, she fired right back, trying to get at Asriel first as he was more squeamish. Papyrus and Sans merely watched the family tussle, with the taller brother having tear streaks down his face.

“Looking at such an amazing display of family love and affection could make anyone cry!”

“well, good thing im not anyone then-“

Before he could continue, Papyrus snapped his attention to his shorter brother.

“Sans, I swear, if you make one single pun to ruin this mood, I’m selling the couch!”

Sans put his hands up in faux surrender.

“okay, okay! point taken.”

Papyrus harrumphed with a smug expression.

“I’m glad we finally agreed on something, brother.”

“you sure did; gave me some ‘starch’ contrast.”

Papyrus blinked for a few moments, before eventually snickering. “Okay, that one’s kinda good.”

“i knew i’d ‘chip’ away at your defenses.”

“Don’t push it.”

It was a frame perfect picture of the Dreemurr household: two skeletons bickering and a laughing goat and her children. Very, very few things could disrupt this scene.

Ding dong!

…save for the doorbell.

There was a momentary pause, and Toriel looked down at herself.

“Oohh, I am in no way presentable like this- Papyrus, would you be a dear and see the door for me?”

The skeleton jumped to his feet.

“Say no more, Miss Toriel! I will see to it immediately!”

With that, he promptly left the fort.

…

“Wait, is he still wearing the blankets?” Asriel asked.

—•—

When Papyrus opened the door, before him stood a shorter monster who was currently muttering to herself, and without really registering who opened the door, launched into a speech.

“Ah- uh- Hullo! I was hopin’ to ask you about- oh-“

When she did notice Papyrus, he did, in fact, still have the blanket over him. It was a nice blanket, with cute little pastel dinosaurs dotting it. But with his tall frame and partially covered face, it made him look like a strange, quilted warlock.

“Uh- er- uhh- A-Ah’m sorrey! A-Iv’ musta found tha’ wrong house, I’m so sor-!”

“Wait!” Realizing his mistake, Papyrus ripped off the blanket, revealing himself to be in a sweater, also with pastel dinosaurs. “Are you looking for a Toriel Dreemurr?”

“O-oh, so this IS Missus Dreemurr’s house?”

“It is indeed! However, she is indisposed right now, so if you need to relay a message, I, the GREAT PAPYRUS, am more than happy to relay it to her!”

“Oh, uh-“ the monster stammered. Without the blanket in the way, Papyrus could see them clearly: she bore great resemblance to one of the Doggos, but whereas they were minimally expressive and had white fur, the canine before him had a more pronounced snout and face, as well as having golden fur. From her get up, the first word that came to mind was “aviator”, complete with goggles and scarf and all. She was currently holding her cap nervously in her hands, letting a wild array of curly hair out and free.

“I was… actually meanin’ to talk to the, er, human that was here?”

“Ohh, I see! One moment-“

Papyrus grabbed a small note that was attached to the wall next to the doorframe; with Toriel sometimes having to be out of the house, while monsters still came to see Frisk, she had to write down a small list of things to say should the need arise. Well, the need was now. Papyrus flipped the note open, its bottom folds falling down as he read through it.

…in hindsight, Toriel should’ve put down what to say depending on who was at the door…

“Alright let’s see… are you here on official business?”

“Uhm, no.”

“Are you here based on rumors or other such gossip?”

“No.”

“Do you wish ill will on anyone in the household?”

“No?”

“Are you here at the behest of another on a dare?”

“No??”

“Are you here to offer a gift to Frisk?”

“N- well, actually, yeah, I was here for that!”

“Ahh, okay, I see,” Papyrus affirmed, going down the list as a few more layers unfolded from the bottom, the sight of which made the dog visibly deflate.

“Are you-?”

“Papyrus, dear?”

Fortunately for the dog, Toriel came in behind the skeleton, gently moving him out of the way. Then she faced their outside guest. “My apologies, I had to freshen up real quick,” she said, now much more presentable, the previous gardening gear gone. “Who might you be?”

At the prospect of introduction, the dog summoned courage, fitting her cap on and striking a small pose.

“Why, Ah’m Malory Nosehart, only THE best aviator, flier, and pilot on this side of the Underground!”

She faltered for a moment.

“Er, uh, outside the Underground- you get what I mean!”

A trio chorus of “Ooh’s” came from Toriel’s side, Frisk and Asriel having joined, and Papyrus echoing the statement.

“Uh huh,” deadpanned Toriel, not as impressed.

Malory continued, “So you see, I was thinkin’, as a thank you to the human that freed us all, I was wonderin’ if they would like a flight in my aeroplane? It’s the least I could do for somethin’ so monumental that they did!”

There was a stunned silence. And then-

“FOR REAL?!” Frisk exclaimed, stars in their eyes. Malory looked down and saw them, only to squeal.

“Aww! I weren’t aware you looked so CUTE!”

Without missing a beat, Frisk winked and pointed a finger back at the canine. “Takes one to know one!”

Malory let out a surprised squeak, covering her muzzle with her cap as her cheeks went red. A compliment? A flirt?! From the human?!? It was only the afternoon and this might’ve well made her whole day!

“W-wait-!” Toriel began, trying to salvage the situation back under her control, only to be interrupted by Frisk hugging her leg.

“Can I go, Mom? She said she’s a pilot and all so that means she knows it’s very safe so can I go pleaseplease- pleasssee??”

“W-well-“

Her other leg was grabbed, this time by Asriel.

“Yeah! She’s an ay-vee-ay-tor, and I wanna go with, it sounds really fun! Pleeeeaasseee??”

“Yeah,” Malory added, “The more the merrier, I can fit two!”

This was starting to spiral out of her control. And before she could make one last, desperate attempt- was that Papyrus squatting down?

“Please let them go Miss Toriel I promise to take good care of them and make sure they never leave my sight, attempted royal guard’s honor!”

Asriel, she could typically handle. Frisk? A bit more of a challenge. The two of them together? If she mustered enough willpower, she could overtake them. Papyrus? Ooh, he was another matter entirely, it was hard to say “no” to him. All three together was an insurmountable obstacle without help. As a final wild card, she looked over to Sans with a pleading look, who was lounging on the couch, as the blanket wall had been taken down. He looked towards her, at the three, then at Malory. His gaze remained on her for a bit, then finally returned to Toriel.

“well, if i have to play fair…”

The three aspirants deflated, and the goat breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Sans was taking her side-

“she has goggles, so clearly she knows her stuff.”

Huh?

“and like Paps said, we’ll keep an eyesocket on em’.” He said with his ever-present smile, tapping the side of his head with a wink.

Another sigh, with an accompanying facepalm. Soundly defeated by the garden and in the field of vernacular before she even uttered an argument, Toriel surrendered.

“…okay.”

“YAY!!” A chorus of three monsters and one human rang out. Malory had to join in, the energy and tension was palpable!

“I’ll swing by this weekend, get everything set up, and I'll direct you to my little airstrip! I can’t wait to show what me and m- I have in store for you!”

Other than one slip that only Frisk noted, Malory exchanged numbers and briskly set off. Toriel closed the door with a sigh.

“I let you kids get away with too many things…”

“Oh, c’mon, Mom,” Asriel tried to reassure her, “Malory knows what she’s doing, and Sans is a good judge of character, right Sans?”

When he turned, Sans was asleep on the couch, eyes closed.

“…well I’m still right!”

“It’s not that I’m worried about Malory,” Toriel said with a tired smile but worried look in her eyes, “more about what might go wrong.”

“Pssh, please,” the goat boy boasted. “What’s the worst-?”

Frisk put a finger to his mouth and shushed him. “Don’t! You invite danger just by uttering that phrase!”

Asriel playfully pushed away Frisk’s hand. “Oh please. What’s the universe gonna do, hit me with lightning?”

He waited for a moment, as if to prove his point. When nothing happened, he harrumphed smugly.

“See? Nothing. So, again, what’s the worst that could happen?”

Unfortunately for Asriel, the Universe had other ideas.

Chapter Text

Thursday and Friday came and went in the blink of an eye, no small part to what awaited Frisk and Asriel come Saturday.

The thought of going on a plane, a REAL plane, and going into the air… hoo, that was exciting! Even after all the Underground had to offer, going up hundreds of feet in the air would be a dream.

A daydream, in the sense that that was all Frisk had through those two days. Asriel was much the same way.

“Whaddya think it’ll be?” The goat sibling questioned Friday night when they were in bed. “Do you think, like something big?”

“Hmm… something rustic is my bet,” Frisk said. “It’d have to be, Malory seems like she knows her stuff, if she already has an airstrip for it, and no way would she have a jet engine!”

“Oh yeah… I guess that makes sense.

“You know,” he added, “the idea of being able to fly, after all the time I spent literally in the ground… almost seems unbelievable!”

It took a second for what he was saying for Frisk to register it. “Hm? Ohh, right. Huh… guess it’s quite the glow up, huh?”

Asriel snickered. “The ‘glow up’ is this,” he said, sticking his arms into the air. “Tomorrow, we’re going up. There’s a difference, Frisk!”

“Oh, don’t you mean ‘diff-er-ence’? Or is that too ‘un-bel-eev-uh-bull’?

Asriel pouted at Frisk’s teasing. “Hey! You know I can’t just start spouting big words, even if I do forget! Mom would freak if I started listing off coefficients! I’d like to retain my yooth-ful-ness, thank you very much!”

“Aww, is the prince growing too big for his-?”

Frisk was silenced by a pillow to the face.

“The only thing you haven’t grown out of is your idiot phase!” Asriel proclaimed with a smug air and crossed arms.

“Well, jokes on you, goat boy, ‘cuz I’m keepin’ this pillow!”

Asriel’s eyes snapped open as he realized his blunder.

“H-hey, I need that!”

“Ooooohhhhh,” Frisk drawled, taking their other pillow and rubbing both pillows on the sides of their head. “Twwwoooooo pilloooowwwwsss!”

“C’moooonnnn, just toss it back!”

“Baa like a sheep and I might consider it!”

“I’M NOT A- Ooh, you’re in for it now!”

By the time Toriel checked up on the two, they were fast asleep in a heap, the covers and pillows a casualty. With care and attention only a mother could have, she managed to place them side by side and cover them. With a weary smile, she left them to dream of planes and flying.

—•—

Malory came around Saturday afternoon with a twin sidecar motorcycle. Frisk had no idea if that was street legal, but she seemed to be fine.

As for Papyrus and Sans, the brothers would be following them in Papyrus’s incredibly cool bright red supercar. The skeleton had wanted one, and Frisk, as ambassador, couldn’t help but pull a few strings, and before anyone knew it, the taller brother had a car that most people could only dream of renting. What was it… a Lahfer-ar, something? Around those lines.

Regardless, it turned heads, and Papyrus just loved showing it off. He was immensely proud and happy with it, and anyone could tell why.

Toriel saw them off with a sigh and a wave, knowing that, at the very least, the two brothers would keep her children safe. They had done so before, and would do so again, she just knew it.

The drive itself didn’t take too unbearably long, at most 20 or so minutes. Suburbia gave way to nature and fields, leaving Frisk surprised that monsters could have settled elsewhere than the city so quickly. Well, it had been months, so they guessed it probably wasn’t too far-fetched that monsters could begin to spread out. Eventually, they took a turn off the main road into the wilderness, only to then find themselves at-

“An airfield?” Frisk asked in surprise.

“Yep!” Malory tapped the side of her snout. “This sniffuh never fails when it comes to the love of the sky!”

It was an old airfield by the look of it, with only three hangars to its name, but it made up for it with a large, expansive runway, though it too was somewhat taken by time. One hangar looked overgrown with foliage, with the other two in separate stages of reconstruction.

“It’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but it’s pretty much home. Been working here for the past few months, and I’ve got to say, this is already leagues better than when we were in the Underground!”

Only someone who is trapped in a cave could look at an old abandoned airstrip and say, Hey, this looks nice! Not that Frisk could blame her.

There weren’t any real parking spaces, so Malory pulled alongside the middle hanger, Papyrus following suit beside her, and whistling with appreciation as he left the car, eyeing the makeshift scaffolding.

“Wowie! It’s great to see another real enthusiast of large-scale construction!”

“I believe that’s restoration, Papyrus.”

“Even so,” the brother continued, “The passion and virtue one must have for a project such as this can only be matched evenly by the GREAT PAPYRUS’ own ability!”

Malory wasn’t quite sure how to respond before Asriel tapped her on the arm to get her attention.

“You’ll get used to it. Papyrus likes to make himself look very cool.”

“Which I do flawlessly!”

“…with an ego,” the goat murmured.

Malory shrugged it off with a chuckle. “I know how that feels. But if something as simple as a few crossbeams wired together makes you impressed, just wait until we get inside!”

She led them around to the front of the hangar, where she undid a padlock looped through two holes in either massive hangar door.

“Believe me, prepared to be amazed- nngh!”

Trying to let the doors apart, she found they wouldn’t budge. She pushed on one side, and nothing happened.

“Agh, c’mon-“

She spent the next minute trying to open at least one door, pushing, pulling, and even a kick to try and dislodge the door, leaving her four spectators feeling awkward.

“Uh,” Papyrus began, “do you need any-?”

She held out a hand to stop him. “No, no, I’m fine! This thing can open, I’ve done it before!”

Asriel tried his luck. “I mean, we can help-“

“No, really! This thing just needs-!”

Suddenly, while she was pushing, there was a click, and one side of the door gave way and opened unexpectedly. Her sense of balance was thrown off, and Malory fell to the ground with a thud.

“-elbow grease,” she muttered into the ground.

“‘M, didja forget the inner ground locks agai-“

A new voice, belonging to a monster on the inside of the hangar, stopped when he saw Malory’s four companions. On first impression, it was clear they were siblings, being the same species and having similar fur color, the difference being this new dog was taller than Malory, his fur was more desaturated, and what he wore said “weird mixture of biker and mechanic”, what with the black leather jacket with the apron with tools on it. A black beanie that made his dog ears poke out of the bottom of it covered his head, adorned with goggles. Pair that with jeans tucked into some work boots, he looked more at home tinkering in a junkyard than an airfield.

He stopped when he saw the company his sister was with.

“…’M? Who’re these…”

His gaze fell on Frisk, and he stopped as Malory got to her feet, dusting herself off. “Oh, Wil’, these are-!”

“Wait, hol’ on…”

He raised his hand, pointing at the human, a confused look on his face.

“You’re… you’re Frisk, right? The human?”

The aforementioned human nodded with a knowing smile. The dog just scratched his head.

“Now, this might be strange, but-“

“You already know their name?” Asriel began.

“You know what they’ve done for monsterkind?” Papyrus continued.

“despite the fact you haven’t met em before until now?” Sans finished.

The canine just stared in disbelief as the monsters before him described perfectly what his thought process was.

“How… how did you know?”

“It’s a very long and complicated story,” Asriel quickly said. “But needless to say, Frisk helped everyone out of the Underground, and just about everyone knows on some level.”

“…uh huh. Gotcha.”

The canine shifted on his feet.

“Well, if I had known you were coming,” he said with a pointed look at his sister, “I would’ve tidied up a lil’.

“Name’s Wilienthal. My twin brother is inside, I’ll introduce y’all. Come on in.”

The inside of the hanger was just as Wilienthal referenced: not very tidy at all. Mechanical parts and bits of metal seem to be strewn all around the place. But that all paled in comparison to what was in the direct middle of the hangar itself: a variable mountain of plane parts. Frisk alone could see a few hollow chassis stuck haphazardly around the middle and even higher within the mountain, engines, wings, bits and bobs, they didn’t know the names of. Around the sides of the hanger were various workshop areas, all of them having mechanisms in varying states of progress.

Frisk, Asriel, and Papyrus all marveled at the sheer cluttered nature of it all, filled with things they hadn’t seen up close before. Sans just walked alongside.

“We’ve more or less been busy ever since we found this place,” Wilienthal said. “It’s been a bit of a slog to try and make it all up and running again, but I feel like we’ve made good time.”

“‘Good’?! You two’ve been the best!” Malory refuted.

They moved around the side of the mountain, where there was hammering behind what looked to be a large shelf, stuffed to the brim with model planes. Malory called out:

“Oi, ‘Leb! Get ovah here!”

“One mo’!”

A third dog eventually emerged from behind the shelf, and Frisk had to blink to make sure they weren’t seeing things. The third sibling was a twin of Wilienthal, looking virtually the same, with the difference being they didn’t have a jacket or a beanie, though they kept the goggles and apron. Instead, they had a plain white t-shirt that looked semi-covered in small dabs of paint from the front. The only real distinguishing fact about the third Nosehart member was that they had a scar on the right side of their snout.

“What's all the fuss abou-oh wha-?”

“And this is Olebri!” Malory took her second brother’s hand, leading them up to Wilienthal, then looping her arms around the two of them.

“These two have been the perfect mechanics for me, I couldn't have gotten here without ‘em!”

Seeing the siblings all together, it wasn’t hard to see them as anything but. Malory was a head shorter than her two brothers, but she made up for it in personality. Olebri and Wilienthal were shy about the spotlight she was shining on them, trying not to meet Frisk’s gaze in whatever inconspicuous manner they could.

“Y-yeah…”

“We… we sure do our thing…”

It wasn’t until this moment that Frisk realized that all of their ears were in different directions: Malory had hers perked straight up, Wilienthal’s was pointed downwards because of his beanie, and Olebri’s was sideways. Another distinction, they supposed.

Malory slid from between her siblings and hurried in front of the four. “Wil’, can you start up Red’s engines for me? I’ll be takin’ the two of them,” she pointed at Frisk and Asriel, “up in the air.”

Wilienthal blinked, trying to comprehend the speed at which her message came through.

“Wh-huh?? I thought we-“

“Please, Wil’?”

Wilienthal deflated. “…okay.”

His voice certainly did not make him seem ‘okay.’

The canine trudged past them, only for Frisk to realize that both Sans and Papyrus had left them and Asriel’s side, Papyrus to look at plane diagrams on the wall, and Sans was admiring the parts mountain. Kinda made sense.

Malory turned to Olebri, directing them towards Papyrus. “He likes construction, go! Work your magic!”

The second twin didn’t try to argue; the grimace on his face said it all, but it did come with relief as they began to chat with Papyrus. Unsurprising that the taller skeleton would view plane schematics as puzzles.

Before Malory could figure out what to do with Sans, he answered for her. “i’m going to go take a breather outside, all this aero stuff makes me feel jealous. get some wind, y’know?”

He was already moving, so that left the sister and the siblings alone. In a matter of moments, it was just them.

“…wanna know plane history?”

Asriel nodded eagerly. For someone like him, being able to get off the ground at all was a dream, a dream that was about to come true, despite all odds. Frisk, however… There was an itch in the air, something they could feel. It was strikingly familiar, yet they couldn’t quite put a name to it…

Regardless, for the moment, they were able to tune it out to listen to Malory.

“Well, firstly, biplanes are already better than their predecessor monoplanes…”

And yet, outside, Wilienthal could only grumble and mutter under his breath.

—•—

Malory brought Asriel and Frisk over to the second hangar, its large doors already wide open.

“I’ve been so excited to be able to show you this! This has been my pride and joy ever since we found this place, and with that, I am happy to announce to you-!”

She threw her hands forward and toward the inside of the hangar.

“Red 1!”

And with a happy gasp from Asriel, there it was: sitting proud and up front was a striking crimson-red biplane, nearly glowing in the light of the one o’clock sun. You didn’t need to know a single thing about planes to know that it was something that was lovingly cared for.

“We took a variety of human plane parts and managed to stick ''em’ all together,” Wilienthal stated, coming in from the side with pride in his voice. “Took weeks taking her apart and putting her back together, but in the end, it was very much worth it.”

“THAT’S SO COOL!!” Asriel shouted, running up to its side, Malory there along with him with the biggest grin imaginable.

“Not only that, it took some monster engineering lessons, so this baby doesn’t even need fuel!”

While the excitable pilot took to explaining all the new technologies the plane had to the goat, Frisk happened to glance over at Wilienthal, who they caught staring at them. He made a surprised grunt when they caught him, and he looked away, trying to look anywhere else.

“Sorry, just…” he sighed, looking back, the previous pride he had seemed to have vanished from him. “Didn’t think this day would come, at all, really. Just… ‘s a bit weird, ‘s all.

“‘M’s been frettin’ over that thing like it’s her only child. Ever since we made it… me and ‘Leb have been runnin’ wicked trying to design and incorporate what she wants into it.”

He let out a low chuckle. “Burden of the elder sibling, I guess.”

Frisk tilted their head. “You’re the eldest?”

“Middle - ‘Leb came first, as he likes to gloat, but I’m the mature one here! ‘M came some long years later; we had no idea! She was a wee lass when Ma and Da passed together, so we’ve been takin’ care o’ her.”

He quickly raised a hand. “And don’t worry, we were already adults by then. Right lucky we were, but we tell her stories about our parents when we can. Loved her to the grave, they did…”

His expression grew forlorn. “…to the grave.”

Frisk, sensing the sadness, casually switched topics.

“So, you’re all plane experts?”

That seemed to brighten his mood. “Yeah! Well, experts in the way someone reads a lot about them, at first. And probably just reading a lot and first-hand experience working with them. It started when we found human aeronautical books in the Underground. Me and ‘Leb found ‘em nifty, took ‘em home. Went from a fancy to a hobby, if it wasn’t obvious.

“Now, ‘Leb collects as many model planes as he can, and we both work on plane machinery. Able to get a plane flying without fuel was all me, I will brag!”

That made sense. All that was left…

“And Malory liked it too?”

Another sigh. “Malory… where do I begin?

“She learned to read and speak with aeroplane manuals! She learned how to be dexterous at a young age with model planes! She made that aviator outfit herself, by needle and thread, just because she saw a biography of a famous human pilot! In hindsight, it’s kinda our fault that we surrounded her with so much aviation stuff when she was little, but it is because of her that it went from a hobby to practically our job.

“It wasn’t before long that she wanted the real thing. We couldn’t do a full mechanical one, so we settled for gliders. Man, the look on her face when she flew for the first time…”

Wilienthal couldn’t help the grin that was spreading across his face.

“Didn’t know how to land. Crashed in a heap. Yet she was laughin’ and laughin’ and we laughed with her. Ahh, the good ol’ days…”

The smile faded.

“But, that’s just it. Over time, she just got more and more into it, and me and ‘Leb… well, being some ten, twenty years her seniors doesn’t make us as spry when we were first into it. She was always about the flyin’, rather than the buildin’, and now-“

He was interrupted by Malory coming over. “Hey! D’you know where all the extra caps are- ah! There they are!”

She scooted past Wilienthal to grab and pull out a small box, and started going through caps, while her brother looked on confused.

“Wait, what? What do you need the old caps for? It’s not like-“

“We’re flying! Duh!”

This sent Wilienthal reeling. “W-what!? I thought you were just showing them the planes!”

Planes? As in plural? Frisk looked again, only to realize that behind Red 1, having been overlooked, was another biplane that was identical, save for a yellow coloring, instead of red.

“Showing, and piloting! What’d ya think we were gonna do? I told you to start the engines, of which I hear a distinct lack of!”

“I- But- I didn’t think you meant it literally! It’s a two seater, you can’t-!”

“Wil’, they’re our guests, and I already gave my word, so I’m not backing down on this,” Malory gruffly said, standing up with two caps in her hands. “Frisk can sit in my lap, not that big of a deal.” She tried moving past her brother, only for him to stop her by grabbing her shoulder.

“No, no! That’s not how this works-!”

Malory twisted out of his grasp, facing him.

“Oh, what’s it to you, all of a sudden? You were perfectly happy minding your own business, but now, of all times and days you start caring about what I do? Well, I’m sorry that bringing the human along is what got your rear in gear!”

“That’s not the point and you know it damn well-!”

“What point?!” Malory yelled back at him. “What point is there to speak of?! I’ll give you one, the point is that you don’t care!”

She shoved a finger in her brother’s face.

“Months I’ve been working on this! Months that I’ve flown these machines, had to convince you to get into them and enjoy the time doing so, yet you barely so much as crack a smile anymore! Getting you and Olebri to even tinker with the problems I find is enough hassle!”

“Well, maybe if you weren’t so pushy about it all, we’d actually have the time to acclimate to the workload you push on us!”

Malory put a foot down. “No, you want to know what’s really going on? The truth is, you don’t care. I have done everything in my power to try and make it up to you, but you regard everything I do with nothing but indifference! If you’re not gonna give me the time of day to try and humor you, well then maybe you aren’t worth my time!

“I’m taking the human up on a flight and that’s final!!”

The veneer Wilienthal had shattered as he staggered back from the weight Malory’s words had on him. Several emotions went through him before he simply looked down.

“…alright. I see how it is.”

Without another word, he left, simply walking out of the hangar and out of view. Malory just stood where she was, panting, before looking over and realizing Frisk was standing there, having witnessed the whole thing.

“Oh! Uh, er…”

She tried to think of an explanation, but couldn’t find one, and in the end, sighed.

“Just… don’t worry about it. He an’ I will figure it out later. Let’s… let’s get you on that plane…”

She tried to have positive reinforcement, but it was clear that the match had taken its toll. She handed one cap to Frisk and staggered off to give Asriel the other, leaving the human pondering the events that had transpired.

—•—

Asriel, unsurprisingly, had been gushing over the plane too much to hear what had happened, and it wasn’t like Frisk was going to ruin his mood.

With Frisk being Frisk, they got to sit in the front, with Asriel in the back. He didn’t mind much, he just wanted off the ground. Even then, strapped in as he was, he was close to exploding with how much excitement coursed through him. Frisk’s arrangement was in the front on Malory’s lap, getting the rundown on what all the cool stuff in front of them did and showed.

Half of it barely made much sense, but it helped Malory to get out of the funk she was in, at least for a while.

Alongside the caps that Frisk and Asriel put on were headsets, and it became apparent that they were there for the noise when Malory started the biplane. It was loud, though not unbearably so. Asriel had to finagle his somewhat to fit on his head and ears, but he managed to make it work.

“All of the headsets go through the same frequency, so we can all speak to each other!” Mallory’s voice came through to them. It was a little radio-y, Frisk supposed, but it was better than nothing.

As they wheeled out of the hangar, Sans and Papyrus were already by the side, giving a wide berth, but there. The taller brother was waving and trying to shout something, but whatever he was saying was lost over the din of the engine. Frisk and Asriel, of course, waved back anyway.

“i don’t think they can hear ya,” Sans noted as the three began making their way out to the field.

“It’s the thought that counts, brother,” Papyrus responded. “Whether or not they hear me is not the point, for they will always know I am cheering them on!”

But then, he rubbed the back of his neck while pointing at them. “Though, uh, shouldn’t they be going towards the long pavement, and not the grass?”

“biplane wheels are different from other plane wheels. they work better on softer ground like grass; they can catch on pavement and possibly burn and ruin the wheels.”

“Ohh… wait, how do you know that?”

The shorter brother shrugged. “i read up.”

“As in, you looked it up online.”

“maybe.”

Papyrus rolled his eyes. “As usual. You turn laziness into an art form.”

“my pride… though, say, where are the other two?”

“Other-? Oh! You mean the twins!”

Papyrus tapped his chin.

“You know, it was strange. Wilienthal came up to me and Olebri, pulled his brother aside, and they spoke in hushed tones. Wilienthal seemed… angry? And his brother became angry too… and then they both left. Not even a word to me, but then I heard the engine turn on, grabbed you, and ran here.”

“that so…?” Sans tried looking around from where he was standing. No sign of the twins anywhere.

From across the field, Red 1 had started moving forward, picking up speed while they had been talking. By the time he looked back, they were beginning to sail into the air. “oh, well, there they go.”

“Heh, they have indeed! I might have to ask Miss Nosehart herself for a ride after this! The rush of wind must be exciting!”

Then, he shot a smug look at Sans.

“Though, I guess with you, the stakes would be too high?”

“me? in the air? pssh, nah, I’m happy remaining on land. keeps me grounded.”

“As if you would-“

However, he was interrupted by the sound of an engine.

Before Papyrus and Sans could even round the corner, the second yellow biplane, which, going by naming conventions, was probably called Yellow 2, was already leaving the hangar. The two skeleton brothers watched as Wilenthall and Olebri, the pilots of Yellow 2, paid them little attention, and were already going faster than what Red 1 had done, skipping the taxiing and full on speeding out onto the soil and beginning to fly after the original plane. Both of them watched as the twins climbed steadily into the air, leaving the other two behind.

“…umm, Sans?” Papyrus asked, a worried tone in his voice as sweat dropped down his skull. “I know we promised Miss Toriel to watch over Frisk and Asriel, but I just realized that… uh, we can’t exactly do that while they’re up in the sky…”

“…yeah… i’m starting to think that, too…”

As Yellow 2 disappeared into the clouds, Sans sighed, casting his gaze down to the ground.

“good luck up there, kid.

“you’re gonna need it…”

Chapter Text

“WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!”

Asriel was loving every second of this! This single-handedly beat everything that he could have imagined it being! Dozens of feet off the ground and climbing, he couldn’t get enough! Not to mention the wind, the sound, the pounding of his SOUL in his chest…

This is what he had been missing.

Frisk was in a similar state of awe - just the act of watching the ground grow smaller and smaller as they climbed higher gave them a sort of reality check that, yes, this was very much happening, and happening right now. With goggles over their eyes, they could see the full splendor of not just the forest, but the countryside, and in the distance, the city, and the ocean beyond that. Above a hundred feet in the air, this was immediately the most powerful and freeing thing they had experienced, from being under a mountain.

So, they decided, what was the harm in acting like what they were? They threw their hands in the air and cheered alongside their brother.

Malory cheered, though only mentally. She just leaned back in her seat as Frisk whooped and hollered, a grin on her face that wasn’t coming off any time soon.

This… it was everything she wanted and more.

The chorus of amazement she heard in her ears was everything she had hoped this afternoon would go. The human loving every second of flying… if only Ma and Pa were here. At least then Wil’ and ‘Leb-

Just as quickly, the smile did vanish from her face, as a pang of guilt went through her.

All at once, her victory was soured.

She… she hadn’t meant most of what she said to Wilienthal. It- it was just a lot of frustrations that boiled over. It wasn’t anything serious, it wasn't real. But now, up in the air with all other distractions behind them, and the only thing left but the open sky, all she could think about was that crushed expression Wil’ had on his face when she said those final words.

‘…well then maybe you aren’t worth my time!’

The dog winced. For people like her, that was one of the worst things you could say, and she just outright said it to Wilienthal. And by extension, Olebri too. Cripes, that was going to be the worst landing…

She growled, massaging her temples. This was supposed to be her moment! The Malory Nosehart, taking the savior of Monsterkind, ambassador of them even, on a flight that they were clearly enjoying! This was supposed to be the highlight of her (admittedly unofficial) aeronautical career!

And this is what hangs it up? One argument with her brother, and it’s all just ruined? That’s not how this was supposed to go!

And yet, that feeling of guilt didn’t go away.

“Uh, Malory?” Frisk eventually asked, noting the dog’s uncharacteristic silence. “Everything alright?”

“…’s fine.”

Her voice indicated that she was, in fact, not fine.

“Are you sure? You don’t exactly sound good.”

“I’m- I’m fine. Finer, really! All’s good-“

“Oh, is that how it is?”

The three flinched when a new voice came through their headsets. Malory recognized it immediately.

“W-Wil’!? What are- how are you-?”

“Left. Below.”

Frisk, Asriel, and Malory all looked over in unison, only to see a rapidly approaching yellow shape. Malory had to swerve the biplane to the right just to avoid getting hit, and before they knew it, another biplane was level with them, this one with a contrasting yellow, and two familiar pilots.

“Wil’! What the dickens are you and Olebri doin’ in Yellow 2?!”

The twins were indeed the ones in the separate aircraft, and even while they were a fair few feet apart, even Asriel could feel the malice they radiated.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you wanted us to make time for you! I thought you wanted us to give a darn! Well, here we are!”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it!” Malory shot back. “Yellow 2 is experimental, it’s faster, too fast! There’s a reason I had you two fly Red 1 instead!”

“Oh, don’t even try to frame this like you were the one who did anythin’!”

Asriel frowned. ‘What did he mean by-?’

“What does that have to do with anythin’?!”

“EVERYTHING!!” Came an enraged shout from Olebri that made everyone wince. “It deals with everything! You’re over there, gushin’ about flyin’, meanwhile me an’ Wilienthal are BUILDING everythin’ for ya!”

Suddenly, that stutter from when Malory was on their porch made more sense to Frisk.

“So?!” Malory snarled back. “Wasn’t like you were doing much else with your life! With how much hoverin’ you were doin’ over me, what else was I supposed to do?!”

This was getting ugly, but neither Frisk nor Asriel could find a suitable place to jump in. De-escalation was far out the window, and went into a free fall at this point.

“And you were MORE than happy to actually do all of it when we were cooped up Underground! What would Ma and Pa think abo-?”

“Don’t you DARE BRING UP-!!”

In Wilienthal’s haste to shout at his sister, he accidentally slapped his control stick, jerking Yellow 2 on a collision course with Red 1.

Frisk, with all their time dodging magic projectiles back in the Underground, had developed what they would call a “pretty good” sense of when to duck, dodge, and roll out of harm’s way. But here? There was nothing, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nowhere to duck, dodge, and roll. Not as the human they were: they were now in a large plane, in the air, which meant the only way to dodge something was to move the plane. While they couldn’t understand the large majority of what Malory had talked about, one thing they did at least learn? The control for the plane was inverted, and the more you pushed and pulled, the tighter the plane would try to move.

So, when Frisk saw the plane coming near, they reacted on instinct, leaning forward as best they could, throwing their hands into the control stick, and forcing the plane down to try and dodge.

“GET DOWN!” They yelled, though they had no idea if anyone heard.

The plane’s nose tipped sharply; whatever monster magic helped fuel this thing was pretty beefy. Vertigo gripped Frisk as the plane tipped towards the ground, and fast. There was some sort of thunk sound that they heard, but there was no time to verify what it was; they just needed to know that they were safe from an in-air collision. When none occurred, they risked a look, thankful to see Yellow 2 speeding away.

But then that left them with a new problem: they were still heading towards the ground.

With gravity assisting, they were starting to rocket down at an incredible speed, not to mention that the quick nature of their turn downward meant that they were now actually flipping upside down. And Frisk made the mistake of looking up - or in this case, down.

And all they saw was the ground speeding towards them.

Fear froze every nerve. Frisk could only stare as impending death approached, and an unsettling calm and silence overtook them.

You know, dying in a giant fiery explosion as a result of a botched attempt to save yourself from a mid-air collision in a biplane you don’t know how to pilot was actually new. Good on you, Universe, you won this round.

The only thing they heard in the quiet before the end was their heartbeat, as time seemed to slow. Frisk could even count the seconds before they crashed-

“I don’t wanna die.” Came a soft voice that, instinctively, Frisk knew came from behind them.

Somehow, Frisk managed to turn from where they were, turning around enough to see Asriel in the back seat. He had balled up, his hands holding the sides of his aviation cap, eyes closed tightly as his face was twisted in fear.

I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna die.”

It was the only other thing Frisk could hear in the silence that deafened all else. He couldn't even scream, he just mumbled the words.

“I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna die. Please, please, I don’t wanna die…”

The choked sob that escaped him was engraved into Frisk like an epitaph on a headstone. And then all at once-

‘What the hell are you doing, you idiot?! Wake up!’

‘WAKE UP!!’

Reality snapped in and, with every last fiber of will in their being, Frisk grabbed the control stick and pulled back with everything they had. Whether that same strength was willed into the biplane itself was a mystery, but the result was the same: before they just hit the treeline, the plane finally evened out and began to turn skyward, rocketing back into the sky.

Laughter came from Frisk, though they couldn't tell if it was from joy or the fact that they looked death in the face and defied it again.

Within moments, they were back to around the same height that they were before, the human breathing heavily, and Asriel finally opening his eyes.

“I’m… I’m not dead? Am I useful…? F-Frisk-?!”

“I-I think we’re o-okay, Asriel, just… just…”

They were shaking. That was way too close. But before they could truly appreciate how lucky they were-

“What are you ON, Malory?!” Came a miffed Wilienthal.

Asriel had to blink, for once responding faster than Frisk. “Malory-? You idiots were the ones who nearly crashed into us!”

“Don’t drag yourself into family business, goat boy! This is beyond you!”

“‘Beyond’?! We nearly died because of you, you son of a-!”

“Uh, Malory?”

Frisk was more focused on the canine they were partnered with. Strangely, she had her head slumped and was unresponsive to Frisk tapping her for attention.

“…Malory?” Olebri’s worried voice came through.

The human twisted in their seat to be able to grab Malory’s snout to look at her face, and… uh oh.

Spiral eyes.

Everyone knows that spiral eyes mean unconsciousness!

The memory of a dull thunk replayed in Frisk’s mind, and they grimaced. It seems they did have an in-air collision… just not with two planes.

“Uhh… it looks like she’s unconscious.”

Three seconds of silence.

“…WHAT?!”

Three monsters shouted in their ears.

“How?!”

“How can you even tell?!”

“Spiral eyes!”

A trio of “Ohhh”’s.

…

“…how dare you.”

Frisk had a double-take. “E-excuse me?”

“How dare you?!”

The voice of Wilienthal was brimming with rage. Frisk contemplated taking the headset off before his voice bled through and melted their head.

“You butt into our family business when it doesn’t concern you, and you have the gall to knock our sister out?!”

“Wh-I didn’t do-!”

“You flew the plane down, didn’t you?!” Olebri’s voice was just as angry as his twin's. “You caused this to happen!”

“We were gonna crash!” Asriel rebutted. “If we didn’t move, we’d ALL be dead!”

“But it just HAS to be at OUR expense! It is always OUR short end of the stick! First the Underground, then Ma and Pa, then takin’ care o’ Malory…!

“Well, you know what?!

“How’s about YOU have it for a change?!!”

And just like that, the point of no return was crossed.

The entirety of the scenery was bled dry of its color,  becoming nothing more than a monochromatic black and white. The ground far below had lost color as well, leaving trees as nothing but their hollow white outlines. Even the planes lost their charming Red and Yellow color schemes, with their supports turning white while everything else lost color. With the horizon nothing but a white line, that left only the current space they occupied as the only thing worth keeping an eye on.

Frisk’s red SOUL appeared in front of them, though it didn’t go into the box they were familiar with, instead staying right in front of them for the moment.

“Uhm, Frisk?”

Asriel’s voice made them look back at him, only to discover that his SOUL was now outside of him as well. The look on his face was one of creeping terror. “I don’t… I don’t think it’s just you that’s in danger…”

Frisk was stunned; never before had they had to try and survive with another person on their side, not like this. And Asriel was in the backseat… with the human as the only possible pilot - and completely unqualified at the same time - they were going to have to dodge for both of them. Their entire survivability hinged on Frisk managing to operate a biplane with inverted controls.

…

Oh, they were so dead.

They were so dead, it wasn’t even funny.

Frisk’s heart sank to their toes; how were they supposed to do this?! Dying by themselves, sure, that they could handle, but having Asriel as a possible casualty because of all this was unthinkable. Never in a million or so runs could this have been a possibility, Frisk considered.

This wasn’t how this day was supposed to go! This wasn’t how this was supposed to end! This was supposed to be final, be complete! Everything had gone right! Everything was perfect!

Why was it now all wrong?!

On cue, as if perhaps sensing his sibling’s inner turmoil, Asriel stretched out a hand to lean forward in his seat. He could just speak into the headset mic he had, but, well, he wanted to be a good brother.

“F-Frisk? Uhm… I just want to let you know… this-this looks bad, and is bad, but…

“I’ll be… I’ll be here for you. I wasn’t there for… for them, when it counted, but…”

He gathered his courage.

“I’ll be here for you! No matter what, I will!”

That, in turn, rallied Frisk’s resolve. The situation was dire, sure… but perhaps…

** It’s not the greatest of places to be…

** Hundreds of feet off the ground…

** But you’re not alone.

** And you’ve made it through worse.

These people… these three… these are not people intending to kill. They were a family that was high-strung, and the boiling point had been found. A bit of an ego problem, sure, but who didn’t have that nowadays?

** You’ve done it before.

** You can do it again.

** No time like the present, is there?

You are filled with

DETERMINATION

And before they knew it, four distinct orange buttons appeared.

“Are you two done cryin’?” Olebri jeered. “If you’re done muckin’ about with-“

** You SPARE them both.

…

“…excuse me.”

Frisk merely looked back, the only emotion their expression could convey was simply ‘Determined’.

“…you think this is a joke? One act of Mercy and everythin’s wrapped up and neat for you?!”

Wilienthal finished for his brother. “You only make it easier for us!”

So the FIGHT began.

Chapter Text

(MUSIC START:)

(Alti-Duel/“Chairoplane” by Orax)

** Olebri and Wilienthal fly into battle!

Alright, first things first: Malory. She must’ve taken a nasty hit to be knocked out immediately…

And what Frisk saw made them grimace.

** Malory Nosehart

** HP 5/75 ATK 4 DEF 24

** That’s gonna leave a headache.

Heavens - the only reason she was alive was likely because of that DEF stat. That or a miracle… Other than that, she had one foot in the grave if she didn’t get any healing.

…healing.

Frisk clean forgot: they had nothing to heal with! Not a single scrap of monster food on them. And with only 20 HP to spare, they weren’t exactly liking their odds. There was Asriel, sure, but the last thing the human wanted was to put him in harm's way…

…wait a minute. Asriel.

“Asriel! Can’t you heal?”

It took the goat a second to realize what Frisk was asking, but once he did, he nodded vigorously.

“Oh, yeah! Mom’s been teaching me- Frisk watch out!”

Oh, right, Sparing took a turn. Right. It had been so long, they forgot that too.

Frisk turned around only to spy a magically created plane heading right towards them. For a moment, they wondered how Tsundereplane had somehow found them, only to realize that that wasn’t Tsundereplane. The human managed to dive at the last second, under the attack, only to hear a tell-tale whistle of a bomb fall.

Of course, there was.

Frisk desperately tried to remember if Malory had said anything about moving the plane forward. A burst of speed? Anything? To move forward?!

As soon as they thought about it, the plane lurched forward, much faster than the plane would’ve gone either up or down. It took Frisk by surprise, causing them to move forward at a jittery pace, leaving the resulting explosion able to clip the plane’s rear wing. There was a resulting pain in Frisk, like their whole being was suddenly singed for a few seconds before the pain vanished. They had nearly forgotten what magical pain was like. But in those moments, Frisk finally noticed their HP.

** HP 37/40

…40? But they were still LV1…

But then, on a hunch, they looked back to Asriel again. He was clutching his shirt, panting. In pain. And all at once, it clicked.

In lieu of them not being on the ground and instead, in the air, the plane itself acted like Frisk’s SOUL. Which meant a larger hitbox… how great. But not just that, with Asriel there as well, their HP was combined, likely because the twin brothers had lumped the other two siblings together by association. On that same note, that did at least mean that Malory wasn’t in danger of death by an indirect attack, but she probably wasn’t a non-combatant by FIGHT rules… she still needed a Check after all.

Instead, that meant if Frisk and Asriel went down, she was going down too. And not only that, if the brothers did end up hitting her directly…

All these rules made Frisk’s head spin. The inverted movement was different depending on direction, the combined health, and the fact that they also had to watch Malory’s health, and that was on top of the fact that Asriel would have to pick between healing them both or Malory.

All this, and they were going against two people who were too angry to realize they were putting their sister in danger.

…

Frisk swore right then and there, if they managed to survive this, they were taking Undyne up on those sparring lessons. And Asriel would be dragged to them, kicking and screaming.

As for right now…

** Engines roar.

“Asriel, can you heal Malory?”

“Y-yeah! One second-“

A ball of fire appeared in his palm and cycled through a few colors before settling on green. With that, he sent it towards Malory, where Frisk noticed a green “+15” appeared above her for a moment. 20 out of 75, that should keep her safe for a bit. If it worked with Frisk throughout the Underground, it could work here.

“Flying high?” Olebri began.

“We’ll bring you low!” Wilienthal concluded.

Another plane came barreling at them, and Frisk was somewhat more prepared this time. With how their movement was, all they had to do was wait until the attack was close, then zoom under and forward to dodge.

Well, at least, that was the plan, until alternating red-orange lines highlighted the area where they were.

“What the-“ Asriel stammered.

Frisk managed to fly down just in time before a barrage of magic bullets peppered the area they were in. Then, more lines appeared, and Frisk found themselves flying in a circle around the plane as it flew stationary, peppering them with magical lead. Now knowing what was expected, Frisk managed to get by with no damage this time around.

** Don’t look down.

With that out of the way, now Frisk just needed to know the crowd she was dealing with. One Check later…

** Olebri Nosehart.

** HP 50/50 ATK 3 DEF 18

** The scar makes him look angrier.

** Wilienthal Nosehart.

** HP 50/50 ATK 3 DEF 18

** Wants what’s best, at all costs.

Wow. They really were twins. If Frisk doubted before, the doubts were gone; the same stats? Not at all surprising…

But what was surprising was the difference.

Malory had an ATK of 4 and DEF of 24, and her brothers, despite being older, were weaker than her. Now, Frisk wasn’t entirely certain if age played a factor in all this, but even older monsters seemed to keep their stats all the way through to falling down, and younger monsters only got stronger. If the twins were weaker…

Wilienthal had mentioned that their parents had fallen sometime after Malory was born…

But for the moment, the thought was pushed to the side as the brother’s attack began. This time, they dipped between clouds (clouds? Where did they come from?) and started appearing from the obfuscation to try and ram the human and Asriel. Frisk could only hope this wouldn’t turn out like their near pre-FIGHT crash, but at the very least, they could dodge this easily enough as well.

** As high as a free bird.

After that relatively fast attack, Frisk was left in a bit of an option bind. Their HP was okay, and Malory was alright for the time being… maybe trying to talk to the two? Seemed as good as any other idea.

Between the two canines, Frisk hadn’t spoken to Olebri that much. Him first, maybe they could use that inexperience as an advantage…

** You try to talk to Olebri…

“Olebri,” Frisk began, “think about what you’re doing! Trying to get at me is putting your sister in danger!”

“Yeah!” Asriel chimed in. “We only got here because you were the ones who escalated this!”

“Oh, so now it’s a problem, and we’re it, huh?” Olebri snarled. “Can’t live with the idea that your fame brought us here, and now you need a scapegoat? I don’t think so!”

** Olebri bolsters his offense!

Well, that could’ve gone better.

And just like that, a swarm of magical planes began flying around them, leaving Frisk to dodge and weave while Asriel yelped at all the twists and turns they were having to make. Bombs and bullets scraped the plane as they did so, invisible daggers raking across them both to simulate the damage and pain.

** HP 24/40.

Ouch.

Something felt odd with the count, but Frisk couldn’t focus on it. Right now, they had to try again, this time with Wilienthal.

** You try to talk to Wilienthal…

“Nothing about this is fair! There has to be some other option you can think of!”

And we’re not even attacking you!” Asriel argued. “We didn’t start this!”

“We’re here in the ‘here and now’, not whatever fantasy you two have cooked up! It started because of you, and will end with you!”

** Wilienthal bolsters his offense!

The large magic plane returned, only this time, it was faster than before. Frisk barely had any time to move before it was already highlighting the area in which it would fire. This time, they were peppered outright, even Malory getting two hits on her, at least.

“SON OF A-!”

Asriel’s curse was lost to the wind as Frisk had to pull forward just to escape the brunt of the attack and pulled up and away to keep moving out of the firing line of this plane. By the time their turn came around, they were feeling terrible.

** HP 12/40.

Oh, jeez. With Malory getting hit, the mental math said they were both the same HP right now. The next course of action was obvious.

“Asriel, heal Malory.”

“U-uhm, Frisk, not to be totally pragmatic here, but we sorta need it-“

The human shot a look towards their brother. He might’ve had a SOUL, but they were still working on the habits. The fact they were in a FIGHT complicated things. Still, the look said it all, and while Asriel grumbled, he obliged and hit Malory with a healing flame.

** HP 27/75.

Another attack, another attempted ramming, but this time, there was a trail of exhaust that Frisk ran into, not expecting it, only to take another instance of damage.

** HP 8/40.

** Smells like motor oil.

“Frisk-?!” Asriel nearly shouted.

“Hold on, hold on,” Frisk grit their teeth. That attack was now 4 damage, and they had to know why. They Checked.

** Olebri Nosehart.

** HP 50/60 ATK 4 DEF 20

** No longer pulling punches.

** Wilienthal Nosehart.

** HP 50/60 ATK 4 DEF 20

** Has had enough of this.

They… they got stronger…? But… if that’s the case…

“FRISK?!”

Asriel’s shout reached their ears and they moved instinctively out of the way of another magical plane, skirting around another few as they passed, bullets and bombs flying. By some miracle, they made it through unscathed.

“What are you thinking you idiot!?” Asriel was yelling. “I thought you wanted us to NOT get killed! But yeah, sure, stay still in the middle of an attack! Go ahead and ignore Fl-Asriel when he gives advice!

“If you die because of this I’m never forgiving you.”

Frisk wasn’t sure if they wanted to agree or disagree with him.

They were still reeling from the fact that the dogs just… got better. Sure, their HP was still 50, but that didn’t stop their ATK and DEF from now being higher. If anything, they were now more in line with Malory… though she was still stronger to an extent, just in HP and DEF.

Frisk just put their face in their hands. All sense of normalcy was being thrown out the proverbial window, and being so close to death as an addition to it all just compounded the stress. That didn’t make the moment any less real, make the pain hurt less, but that didn’t mean Frisk couldn’t groan and complain about it.

How? How were they just stronger all of a sudden?

There had to be a rhyme to the reason, a method to the madness…

…

** You recall that the brothers’ parents are dead.

‘Well, sure, but that doesn’t help much… also, insensitive.’

** You recall Gerson’s words.

‘Oh, yeah, the boss monster thing-‘

Frisk stopped for a moment to think over the words:

‘We call ‘em Boss Monsters. When they have an offspring, the SOUL power of the parents flows into the child… causing the child to grow as the parents age.’

Why was that eerily familiar…?

‘Since Ma and Pa passed…’

Was it too far a stretch to say that Malory could be a Boss Monster? But then, she still would have needed to draw SOUL power from somewhere…

Then, Frisk looked over to Olebri and Wilienthal. They just got better stats by wanting to protect their sister. It was misguided, sure, but they did. Assuming their parents or one of them was a Boss Monster, and those two came out as twins… it was entirely possible that, between the two of them, they might have been a Boss Monster as well. Perhaps even both of them were Boss Monsters.

And was it too far to say that Malory could draw SOUL power from her older brothers to keep living, growing, and learning? It may not have been parents, but they were still family. Family that, at the time, might’ve been as young as she was now, was in their prime…

Assuming they were connected like that, and now that Malory was out cold…

Time settled back into place as Frisk mumbled “That’s what we need…”

“What? What’re you-?”

“That’s what we need!” Frisk excitedly exclaimed. “That connection! They’re connected by familial bond!”

They turned around in their seat to give Asriel a wide grin.

“I know how we can do this! We just need to heal Malory to full!”

Asriel frowned. “What? That doesn’t make any sense!”

“When has anything I’ve ever done made sense?”

“…touché.

“But can we heal ourselves first, please?! I don’t like being two steps away from death!”

Oh. Right.

“Yes yes, do that, but we gotta heal Malory!”

Asriel wasn’t sure how that would do anything, but as he sent a healing flame toward Frisk-

** HP 23/40.

-he couldn’t help but be infected by Frisk’s positivity. If they were certain, well, he could be certain too!

“Stop treating this like a game! This is the real world!”

Frisk scoffed, this coming from Wilienthal was perfect irony. But they had had enough guff out of the brothers already.

And, slowly but surely, they had their plan.

—•—

** HP 27/75.

** Heal Malory.

** HP 42/75.

** Dodge.

** HP 19/40.

** Heal Malory.

** HP 57/75.

** Dod-

** HP 3/40.

** HP 45/75.

** Unfortunate. Heal self.

** HP 18/40.

** Dodge.

** They’re not letting up. But neither should you.

** Heal Malory.

** HP 60/75.

** You’re almost there. Do-

** HP 6/40.

** Unfortunate again. Heal self.

** …

** …heal?

—•—

Frisk turned to look at Asriel, only to find him with a hand over his chest, breathing heavily.

“One… moment… I… I can…”

Weakly, he stuck out a hand, the sputtering of a green flame appearing in his palm. Before Frisk could protest, he sent it to them.

** HP 21/40.

“…useful…”

Then, he slumped in his seat, breathing hard, unable to focus much at all.

And just like that, Frisk was now bereft of healing.

Dammit, they should’ve realized this! He couldn’t just keep healing indefinitely, he was still a child like them! This meant now, past this point, it was ‘do or die’. The stakes had officially moved higher.

** Just keep dodging.

The only hope now was for Malory to wake up on her own, but there was no possible way to determine that. So, that left Frisk with only one choice left.

“Fine then…” they muttered. “I see how it is…”

With that, two new ACTs appeared. Might as well try them out.

** You did a barrel roll!

** …

** It was an aileron roll.

“Am I supposed to be impressed?” Olebri questioned.

“‘Cuz we’re not buying it!” Wilienthal finished.

Bombs carried by parachutes fell around them, skirting about on the air currents. Their random pattern had one hit Frisk due to their wingspan.

** HP 17/40.

** The wind howls.

Trepidation gripped Frisk. Of all the times to waver, it just had to be now. The problem was, this wasn’t just the fear of death, it was the fear of losing all this progress. When dying became meaningless, the only thing you had left to watch out for was how much of yourself you put into something… and with Asriel here, Frisk’s whole body trembled.

** You did an aileron roll!

** …

** It was a barrel roll.

“Just give up!” Wilienthal started this time.

“If you think not fighting back is strength, it’s not! It’s just a declaration of weakness!” Olebri affirmed after his twin.

Was… was that a bullet tornado heading after them? With actual calibers? Whatever these attacks the brothers were sending out were now symbolic as they went along. And, once again, a few rounds ripped through Red 1, and in turn, Frisk.

** HP 9/40.

** The reaper comes for his due.

The trembling got worse, alongside the pain. Their grip was starting to slip, and their teeth felt like they would crack. A creeping feeling slithered up over Frisk’s shoulder and into their chest like a cold hand and gripped. Hard.

Unbeknownst to them, there was a stirring behind them.

** You Spare Olebri and Wilienthal.

“You must think you have it all so tough. Well, what about us? Aren’t we allowed to have our pain as well? Allowed to deal with it? Or is that even real to you?!”

Wilienthal’s venom infected every word. Of course he was angry, he didn’t know everything. To him, his pain and knowledge were singular, to the three’s family and them alone. But he wasn’t the only one who had to bear weight.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like bein’ pushed around out of Love!? Ma and Pa died loving Malory, and we had to do that too! And we DO love her! Why else are we here?!”

But then why were they all here, right now? If all of this was done out of Love, why was Frisk’s death on the to-do list? Why put your sister in danger over something like this?

These two were lashing out, but the why of it all escaped Frisk. Something was missing, some critical detail they couldn’t understand. All of this, something started it, but it was so nebulous or something so beyond the human that they couldn’t grasp the concept. And with how things were going…

They were too wrapped up in their thoughts to dodge properly. They didn’t even see the plane coming until it became something they could only graze by, not fully dodge.

** HP 1/40.

** …

(MUSIC END)

“…so this is it, huh…?” Frisk murmured. They just… didn’t know what to do. They didn’t have the full story, they couldn't convince the twins, they couldn’t… they couldn’t…

It was almost poetic. They were nothing without their SAVING and LOADING. Everything Frisk was, it was distilled into a couple of buttons on a game screen. Take that power away, and you have someone who was just as afraid, just as mortal as anyone else.

…maybe the two were right. Frisk had spent so long living in a cushy home with friends and a new family, they had forgotten the ordeal taken to get there. As ambassador, their word carried so much weight that very few else could match it. With all the speed taken to make sure monsters could be accepted on the surface, Frisk hadn’t taken the time to evaluate how their choices affected others past that. Sure, monsterkind had freedom, but what was “freedom” if the death of one child could rip that all away? If every time Frisk died, they had to start from the beginning all over again, was any of them truly free to begin with? All the other monsters, could they live their lives? Did they have good lives, both Underground and overground, to begin with? Were they worse off or better off?

Frisk was special, sure, but that didn’t mean everyone else was, either.

The way the Nosehart family had it, maybe it was better for it to be like a bad dream…

** …

Not even they could give a reassuring thought. That’s just how disastrous this was.

Frisk knew on some level that they were probably not the ones who should be trying to ask this question, but the thought haunted them regardless. They were a child, at the end of the day. They didn’t ask for this burden, but it was heaped upon them anyway.

It was such a moment of clarity, that Frisk could only laugh. Because there was only one thing they could do.

** You… You Spare Olebri and Wilienthal…

There was nothing else to do. In any other fight, Frisk would have figured it out, but… these two required multiple tries. And Frisk didn’t have that.

Olebri began.

“Everythin’ we’ve had to deal with, we’ve dealt with, but you, you just had to fly, just had to get Malory all worked up! Now she’s throwin’ us to the side just to please you! I bet you don’t even know what it’s like!

“We’ve been her magic and dust for years, and then you go and upend it all! All the while we’ve been playin’ her game!”

“And as if that wasn’t enough,” Wilienthal continued, “we’ve been bearin’ that brunt for as long as she’s been alive! No breaks, no nothin’! We’ve bent over backward for her, but you just had to go and take advantage of that, didn’t you?

“Shoulda known - let all that ‘Savior’ and ‘ambassador’ pride get to your head. Only one place for folk like you!”

The twins pulled away, a veritable squadron of magic planes flying towards Red 1.

“When you walk up to ‘em pearly gates, tell ‘em Noseharts sent ya!”

Frisk could only stare at oncoming death.

** …is this it…?

‘I hope Asriel doesn’t hate me for having to do this all over again-‘

Suddenly, a second pair of hands grabbed the control stick from Frisk’s own. Within moments, Red 1 suddenly shot forward and, with an expert’s precision, began weaving through the onslaught of magical planes as though it were second nature. Twists, turns, strategic spins… what was once assured death was suddenly proven otherwise.

The crimson plane shot through to the end of the attack, emerging, still wounded, but still alive.

“What?! How?!” Wilienthal roared.

Olebri piped in. “We poured everythin’ into that! Are you just messin’ with us or some-?!”

“Why didn’t you tell me.”

All went silent at Malory’s monotone voice going through the headsets. Silent for a while.

“…what?” Olebri finally broke the silence.

“Everythin’ you just said. Why? Why didn’ you say it earlier?”

Silence returned once more. It brewed in the space between them like a tropical storm.

“…w-well…” Olebri trailed off, desperately looking at his twin for some sort of answer. Wilienthal himself wasn’t much better off. “I guess… uhm…”

“…it’s because of me, ain’t it…?”

“What?! No!” Olebri and Wilienthal shouted at the same time.

“DON’ MAKE THIS ANY HARDER THAN IT IS!” Malory finally exploded back. “THIS IS WHAT IT IS!!”

Tears were already forming in her eyes, as she stared away from her brothers.

“It always was like this…!”

She made a fist and angrily slammed it against the side of the plane in frustration.

“M’- Malory-“

“Don’t ‘M’’ me, you know I’m right!

“This whole, stupid thing! I caused this! Ever since I could remember, I’ve just been ordering you aroun’, not even THINKIN’ about what I was doin’ to ya! I just kept askin’ and askin’ and NEVER thought it was enough! I’ve wasted YEARS of your life, just at my whims! I NEVER gave you the time of day you needed, just kept thinkin’ of myself and my own selfish wants! And the worst part is that it took until only now for me to finally get the message through my thick skull, and I got KNOCKED OUT for it too!”

The dog slumped in her seat, tears streaming down her face before being blown away by the wind.

“This whole darn mess is my fault… I’ve been a terrible sister, from the very start…”

“M’, don’t- don't say that,” Olebri pleaded. “This… we did this, this ain’t got nothin’ to do with you.”

“We- we flew off the handle, we didn’t…” Wilienthal couldn’t make himself sound convinced in his words.

** There’s a… standstill.

And Frisk… didn’t know what to say. They could only stay silent as the weight of… everything, just sort of settled on them all.

“…if I can say something,” came a small, goat’s voice, “I don’t think… any of you intended for this to happen.

“But it did.”

Three dogs flinched.

“I know I don’t have any idea of… of what’s gone on in your lives, but… to me, it sounds like all three of you have been bottling up a lot, for a very long time.”

Asriel looked out over to the black-and-white horizon, leaning on the side of the plane with his arms.

“When I was… in the Underground, I used to look up at the glowing rocks in the ceiling and wonder how stars worked on the surface. Would they be similar? Or different? But over time, the more I thought about it… I just grew more and more resentful. I was… angry. Confused. In the end, I got so mad, I just… looped around to being indifferent, I guess.

“But when I actually got to the surface… when I actually saw the night sky, for all its splendor, for all that it was worth… when I actually saw what it meant to see them…I realized… all that hate and anger I built up over time was just…

“…not really worth it.”

He leaned back into his seat, choosing his words carefully.

“I used to think, that… if I just, ‘experienced’ everything, if I ‘knew’ everything, if I tried everything, did everything, every and anything that I could possibly do… that I could just ignore all this bottled-up pain I made for myself. It didn’t work, I was still hurting. It took Frisk coming along to… well… All I wanted was for everything to go back to normal…”

He sighed, lifting his gaze to the blackened sky.

“I really did try to know everything. But it never really stuck for me. Moments flew by, one after the other. It was the old stuff I tried to get rid of, to forget, but I never did.

“It… might sound cheesy, and boring, but…

“…I think the boring stuff is the stuff I cherish the most.”

Another sigh, before he lowered his gaze to the pilots.

“What I’m trying to say is… all of you kept doing this, but never asked the other about what they wanted, either. And yet, you still made these amazing planes! You did great things! Instead of trying to lay blame with who did what, ask yourself this:

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Asriel spoke with the countenance of a sage, and his wizened words ended any doubt of what was to come next. Yet, the fact those words came from him, of all people, was what swelled Frisk with pride. He truly had gotten better.

** That’s my brother.

‘You and me both.’

Malory, Olebri, and Wilenthal stayed silent for a while, each of them in deep contemplation.

“M’… we’re sorry.” Wilienthal finally said, remorse in his voice. “We… we took this way too far.”

“We weren’t ever mad at you,” Olebri said. “When Ma and Pa passed, we had to take care of you… we never got the chance to actually live our own lives.”

“But we don’t blame you, or them!” Wilienthal quickly added. “Bringin’ you into this world was their choice, and I wouldn't trade all those years buildin’ gliders and planes with you if it meant guaranteed Heaven. I count myself lucky to be your brother. Just…”

“We might need a break from all the mechanical work, y’know? We never had a chance to pump the brakes for a bit. Get some time to ourselves, figure out other interests, maybe get a new perspective on what we want in life.”

“We’ll take a vacation. The three of us. We’ve just been scavengin’ yards and the hangars… maybe we’ll see the city, some. Get some ice cream or, somethin’ else. We’ll talk about what we can do to make sure this whole thing never happens again and… we’ll go from there.

“Does that… sound good to you?”

“…”

Malory had gone the better part of her life taking her brothers around with her, talking about what they should do, how to do it, when and where… and now, she was faced with something that her brothers were asking her for what she wanted to do. She was normally the one who knew, but now…

“‘Leb, Wil’…”

“…yeah?”

“First, let me apologize, too!

“I ran you two ragged over these long years. I never stopped to think if you wanted some peace to yourselves, it was just one project after the next, after the next, and the next after that. And what I said earlier… I doubly apologize for that. My head was just screwed on wrong, didn’t mean none of it! I guess…”

She leaned back in her seat with a sigh.

“…I guess I just wanted to distract myself and you two from our little bleak days Underground, and… I never really grew out of it. This whole thing… It's a wake up call. For the three of us, I think.”

Finally, she turned with a smile toward her brothers.

“So… I think I’ll mightily appreciate that vacation. Most definitely.”

** The Nosehart siblings have made peace.

That they had. The twins' names finally showed up in yellow, and with that…

** You Spared Olebri and Wilienthal!

Color finally returned to the environment, but before anyone could really appreciate, Frisk was suddenly struck with the realization that, if they were on 1 HP when their HP was combined, wouldn’t that mean it would be halved when-

“Hrrk!”

Frisk let out a strangled noise when agony suddenly consumed their form. Asriel was much the same way, doubling over in pain. They really had only enough time to notice their HP was 0.5 before they passed out in Malory’s lap.

—•—

Malory was understandably terrified when Frisk slumped over.

“Wh-hey!! Are you-?!”

She stopped herself, trying to look into the human’s face.

“I-is everything okay over there-?” Questioned Wilienthal.

“They- they’re out cold! What did-?”

“Uh, fellas?” Olebri interrupted. “Look down…”

The other two did so, only to realize another startling truth - no longer were they over a forest, but a crystal blue sea rolled beneath them. Malory turned her gaze this way and that, only to realize that sea was the only thing she could see for miles, out to the horizon.

How… How long had they flown? How far had they flown?! How fast had they flown!!?

“U-uhm… M’?” Came Wilienthal’s increasingly worried voice. “Have you… have you f-flown out this far…?”

“N-no! I kept it to the mainland, and at least where I could see land to begin with!”

“Oh- oh Angel,” Olebri murmured, beginning to hyperventilate, “we didn’t think this through, we didn’t think ANY of this through-!”

“Calm-calm down! We- we gotta figure this out-“

Wilienthal looked behind them.

“We, uh, we can turn back! If we’re heading away from the mainland we can-!”

“It doesn’t work like that, Wil’,” Malory said, grimly. “Air currents and any turns we have taken could mean we’re just throwing ourselves further off track.”

A suspenseful silence hung over them. The tropical storm was beginning to grow worse.

“Well we have to do something! Anything!”

“Can’t you figure out where we are with the sky or something?!”

“That’s with stars, ‘Leb, and it’s midday!”

“What about the sun?” Wilienthal tried.

“We don’t know what cardinal direction the mainland is,” Malory bemoaned. “I was knocked out before I saw where we were headin’.”

“Why didn’t we think of adding navigation to these things?” Olebri morosely complained.

“We probably wouldn’t even have service out here… not like we have the Undernet…”

Every pause meant a few seconds of speeding away from land. Malory’s SOUL pulsed with anxiety trying to figure out a solution.

Somehow, it found them instead.

“THERE YOU LOVELIES ARE!!”

All three pilots would have ejected out of shock if Malory had remembered to ask for them. The voice was, somehow, louder than it should’ve been in the headset.

“Wh-what-who are you?” Malory demanded.

“WHY, DOESN’T THE SOUND OF MY ILLUSTRIOUS VOICE FILL YOU WITH ANXIOUS FANSERVICE AT YOUR RESCUE?”

Malory looked over to her brothers. They looked back and shook their heads.

“Uhm… not really?”

“PLEASE! MY VISAGE IS EVERYWHERE! MY VOICE THROUGH EVERY RADIO, ON EVERY SCREEN!”

She shot another glance. Another headshake.

“We… didn’t really have a tv…”

A rare split second of silence, from who they were talking to.

“WHAT.”

“Yeah, no…” Olebri confirmed, “we were just kinda buildin’ every-“

“WELL,” the voice interrupted, “IT SEEMS THAT WE MUST CORRECT A FEW THINGS MORE THAN JUST GETTING YOU AND THE CHILDREN HOME SAFELY! THIS SIMPLY WON'T DO!”

Between the planes, a rectangular shape suddenly rocketed into view. It twisted toward Malory, who was surprised to see that it had a screen on one side… and a switch on the other.

“I’LL HAVE TO ASK ALPHYS DEAR TO INSTALL ROCKETS ON MY ‘REAL’ SELF, SO GET A GLIMPSE OF NOSTALGIA WHILE IT LASTS, BABY!”

Malory could just feel her brothers cringing.

“Okay, that’s nice and all, but we still don’t know who you are…”

“AH, WHERE ARE MY PERFECT AND PRESENT MANNERS? I, TO YOU, AM THE UNDERGROUND’S RISING STAR, THE SHOWBOT OF SHOWBIZ, THE ONLY ENTERTAINMENT HOST TO HAVE A MURDEROUS SONG SEGMENT WITH THE HUMAN-!!”

“Actually on second thought, can you just direct us toward land? We’re in a bit of a rush because Frisk is out cold… Asriel too, actually!”

One second. Two seconds. Three-

“…YOU LOT ARE CLASSLESS.”

“Wha-?”

“I AM METTATON,” the robot shrieked, “AND I WILL BE YOUR SAVIOUR! REMEMBER THAT, DEARIES!

“FOLLOW ME TO GLAMOROUS SALVATION!!”

Despite how eccentric and egotistical Mettaton seemed, he was really their only guide… as the machine turned, two planes turned to follow him back home…

Chapter Text

The real terrifying part for Malory was the realization that, if Frisk’s guardians were worried enough to send a flying robot after them, what else could be waiting for them?

And that wasn’t mentioning the state Frisk and Asriel themselves were in…

On the way back, she couldn’t help but worry, worry some more, and worry still. She did kinda aid in this whole mess, so she was just as liable… at the very least, she could (hopefully) bear the brunt alongside her twin brothers.

But… they did sorta assault the children of the former Queen… oh Angel, it was execution, wasn’t it? This was it, end of the line, no exceptions… the moment she set foot on land, she was a wanted monster. She briefly considered telling her brothers to make a run for it, but considering the robot - what was his name? Meta something? - was there, there was no way she could tell them that plan, so that was a bust…

In the end, she just resolved to stand her ground. Maybe if she tried hard enough, she could get ‘Leb and Wil’ a lighter sentence or something. She was the one, after all, with the offer that got them all into this mess.

Still, she was fidgeting. Something like this… she wasn’t exactly built for this kind of pressure. Neither was Wil’ nor ‘Leb. They just built planes… that’s all that had mattered. And she was the one who had pushed for… this. This all spawned from her fault, her initiative… when land came into sight, the pit in her stomach dropped even lower.

Did she really have the courage to face this…?

—•—

Landing on the grass again was like welcoming an old friend, only for the old friend to ask a very awkward question.

Malory, already having to juggle holding a nearly dead kid in her lap, trying to get a grip on her emotions, and attempting to formulate a plan, realized everything went haywire the moment fate caught up to you. No plan survived an encounter with the enemy, as they say, though admitting to a crime wasn’t exactly her idea of a battle strategy. At the very least, the two skeleton brothers from before were now waiting in earnest; whether Mettaton messaged them beforehand, she didn’t know, though she wouldn’t put it past the flying robot to be able to text a person in flight…

Papyrus was already at the plane’s side. Even with how dangerous it was to do so as the propellers kept moving, he still would’ve risked his health and more. He managed to pull Asriel out first, and wordlessly, Malory hefted Frisk out to him as well. He took both kids and hefted them back to the car as fast as he could while being gentle at the same time. Sans was merely watching from the side of the hangar’s front, as Yellow 2 pulled in first by Wilienthal and Olebri, and Red 1 came after it. Mettaton had gone with the taller skeleton brother, remarkably speaking in a much quieter tone that the dogs couldn’t pick up on.

With all the excitement dying down, and other than Frisk and Asriel, the other casualty was also Red 1, and Malory herself, to an extent. The plane had, for lack of a better phrase, seen better days. The fight with Wil’ and ‘Leb had garnered much damage to the plane: there were rips in the wing, punctures in the sides, dents nearly everywhere else, and one tire had popped while they were landing. Truth be told, it was a bit of a miracle that she had managed to land the thing at all. It would probably take a month to fix this sort of damage… but that wasn’t what she was concerned about. She nearly fell to her knees when she hopped out of Red 1, she was shaking that badly, a far cry from the cheerful golden retriever she had been earlier that day. Wil’ and ‘Leb were in a similar predicament: Olebri’s hands were shaking, and he was pacing back and forth, and Wilienthal leaned against Yellow 2, taking off his headset and merely placing it in the pilot seat of the yellow plane.

“This is bad, this is so bad,” ‘Leb was muttering. “We messed up. We really messed up.”

“‘Leb, ‘Leb,” Malory rushed over, trying in vain to give some measure of comfort, “I-it’s okay, it’ll be f-fine-“

“How could you say that? How could you say that at a time like this!?”

“I-I’ll take the blame for it!” Though saying those words cracked her resolve more than her voice.

“Like hell you are!” Wilienthal suddenly said, pushing away from Yellow 2 to point at his sister. “Snowball’s chance in there before I let you do that! That all was my fault, plain and simple!”

“Whaddya mean your fault?!” ‘Leb shot back. “I joined in, too!”

“But if I hadn’t told you to begin with and kept it to myself, we wouldn’t be here! I got angry too easily and roped you in!”

“But that’s because I said those things to you that I am still so, so sorry about,” Malory argued. “I instigated all this! I made you do those things! It’s not fair that you two get lumped in with me!”

Before their argument escalated any further, all three were quieted by a dull knocking on metal.

“knock knock?”

The three of them turned to Sans, having silently appeared and knocked on Red 1’s side. They didn’t say a word, having been caught in such an embarrassing circumstance. They didn’t say anything, long enough for Sans to prod them.

“y’know, this is normally the time when someone says ‘who’s there?’”

There was still silence.

“…okay, fair enough. tough crowd, got it.”

He shifted on his feet. “but, that’s fine: some days you don’t have the right people.”

The three dogs just stared at him in a sort of confused silence.

“sometimes, you have people who could probably use some work. lotta work maybe. but hey, we weren’t born perfect.”

“Th-this isn’t like it’s some sort of mistake!” Malory spluttered. “This was a complete disaster-“

The skeleton held up a hand to shush her. “woah, woah woah. hold on, lemme talk. after i’m done, then you can get on with your blame game, alright?”

He sighed, pulling a pink comb from his jacket pocket, and scratching his skull with it. “okayyy… how to explain…

“look: the kids have been through worse things than this, if I can be honest. yeah, sure, got a lil dicey there, but if I know them, even if it’s worth a dime, they’re real good at makin’ friends. I dunno what happened up there, but I’m willing to bet a lot of g frisk helped.

“i’m not the type of person to butt into family business, so I won’t. all I ask is that you don’t take this personally for Frisk’s sake. it may be months since they last did any fightin’, but they’ll forgive ya right after they get up. scout’s honor.”

He put the comb back into his jacket.

“they’re both probably fine by now, actually. if I know Papyrus, he’ll be extra thorough. he’s so cool. i’ll let you decide whatever you need to, and I’ll be waitin’.”

With that, the skeleton sauntered away. This left the three dogs in a state of befuddlement. But, after that, what was there really to discuss?

“We really oughta just take it together, shouldn’t we?” Wil’ mused. Olebri and Malory were quiet for a moment before solemnly nodding together.

“Yeah…” Malory agreed sullenly. Olebri wrapped an arm around her. “Hey,” he said, “it’s not all bad: at least we’ll be together through it.”

“Yeah, slapped in irons!” Malory bemoaned. Her brothers couldn’t find a spirited rebuttal and instead kept quiet, before all three started to slowly trudge out from the hangar.

—•—

“Papyrus?” Asriel began.

“Yes?”

“Why do you have an emergency briefcase full of spaghetti?” Asriel’s tone was one more of condescension and disappointment rather than actual curiosity, but Papyrus, whether he knew of it or not, replied anyway.

“Simple: for emergencies!”

“Of course.” Asriel facepalmed. “Of course.”

Why Papyrus had this stupefied him. And this wasn’t like the spaghetti was in a plastic bag, oh no, this was spaghetti that filled the entirety of the briefcase, no protection whatsoever. While the skeleton was getting the hang of cooking better meals, he still had a lot to learn about food preservation. The only upside to this was the fact that the spaghetti was magical, so it didn’t necessarily spoil to begin with, but that didn’t mean its taste was going to be the same as when it was first cooked. Asriel was just thankful that he was part magic and didn’t have to taste it himself. Sitting in the back of Papyrus’s car, the aches the day had given him were dulled, but not truly gone, yet.

The same could not be said for the human in his midst. Frisk had to eat the spaghetti. And that would last longer.

Sure, Frisk had eaten garbage on live television, but that was actual garbage: they knew what they were getting into. Food that was past its prime, and having to smile, so as not to break the heart of the person who made it? That was a whole other can of worms, though strangely, a can of actual fried worms didn’t sound all that bad at this point. At least it healed.

Papyrus, with his ever-eager gaze, knelt to Frisk’s level and asked, “So?! How is it!”

It wasn’t that the taste was indescribable: far from it.

Imagine chewy, almost gummy-like thin noodles, coated with a generous amount of marinara sauce, which was a day or two, or months, not kept preserved, coupled with a dash of Parmesan that may or may not have achieved mild mold status in the time it had marinated in that suitcase. Oh, right, and a distinctly “suitcase” aftertaste of plastic and fiber. And that’s “fiber” as in “threads woven together”.

It was, easily, one of the least appetizing meals Frisk had ever had. The only reason why anyone would ever call it indescribable was not to hurt the skeleton's feelings. So, they gave Papyrus a simple and very quick head nod with a strained smile, which made him straighten with a self-assured grin.

“HEH! I just knew my cooking could stand the test of time!”

“Yeah,” Asriel said sardonically, “it sure did. Maybe if it melts through the ground, we’ll even have fossils of it. Save it for the future.”

Papyrus didn’t quite get it, bless his SOUL, but before he could ask, the Earhart trio were on the approach. The skeleton turned about to face them as they sheepishly stepped forward. Asriel couldn’t help but feel sorry for them both for what they had gone through, and what they were about to go through now. For a while, there was a tepid silence before all three canines spoke at once:

“We’re really sorry.”

Then they looked at each other because they forgot that only one was supposed to speak. That being Malory, but it was a “gotta get this out” moment.

“Mhm,” Papyrus just nodded along.

“And, well,” Malory continued, this time alone, “we sorta let things get really heated and out of control… and we didn’t really acknowledge those problems until just today. So, really, saying sorry doesn’t really cover even half the things we did. It’s… inexcusable, really. We admit to everything.”

“Hmm,” Papyrus hummed. “Well… all is forgiven!”

This caused the dogs' brains to short-circuit for a duration.

“Wh- WHAT?” Malory shouted.

“You aren’t going to haul us off to prison for the rest of our lives?!” Wilenthal asked.

“Or execute us on the spot!?” Olebri added.

“What?! Good Angel, no!” Papyrus exclaimed in return. “Whatever gave you that idea??” He then turned to Asriel and Frisk. “I don’t have some secret terrible reputation, do I?”

“N-no, Papyrus,” Frisk reassured him, then turned to the dogs. “But he’s speaking the truth. I don’t hold it against you.”

“But-! But-!” Olebri was stuttering. “But we attacked you! The Royal children! You can’t seriously be saying that we’re getting off scot free!”

“Yeah, we are,” Asriel said with a shrug. This only served to deepen the confusion.

“But… shouldn’t something happen?” Wilienthal asked.

Frisk shrugged alongside their brother. “Should there?”

The idea of not receiving any consequences for this was mind-boggling. The Earharts just went from experiencing consequences from their actions building up over time, to suddenly having no fallout repercussions from what they had just done? It was such a rapid change of pace that the three just stood there, trying to come up with some good excuse, but now, they didn’t know what they were trying to have an excuse for.

To try and save them from embarrassment, Asriel tried to reassure them. “Listen. It’s just a lot easier if you just roll with it. Mainly it’s because it’s how we roll.”

“NOT SO FAST, DARLING!”

Everyone flinched.

Oh. Right.

Mettaton was here. To the dogs, he was admittedly kinda forgettable… which, to the supposed star of the Underground, was something that he could not fathom for the life of him. He wheeled over with a fawning gesture.

“DON’T YOU HAVE ANY SENSE OF DRAMA? OF INTRIGUE! OF-!”

“Yeah, okay, we get it,” Malory interrupted. “It’s awkward enough already with you here. We’ll figure it out, just… just not with you with the whole news shtick, okay?”

Mettaton just stared at her. He may not have had an actual face to read an expression off of, but he still made the motion to pinch his non-existent sinuses.

“You are a lost and backwards people.”

“What does that have to do with-?” Olebri tried asking, only for the robot to cut him off.

“WELL, MY RATINGS AREN'T GETTING ANY HIGHER, STAYING WITH YOU LAYABOUTS! I’LL SIMPLY GO TO WHERE I’M TRULY RESPECTED! COMIC CON!”

With that, Mettaton blasted off, everyone breathing a sigh of relief, though Frisk scowled.

“Seriously? Comic-Con again? He’s not exactly being subtle, is he?”

“When has he ever?” Asriel asked.

“Fair point.”

** You also nearly got yourself killed. That suggests a similar level of insanity.

‘Death and farming praise are two radically different pastimes,’ Frisk mentally chided.

** Yet they follow you still. How quaint.

Frisk rolled their eyes, not bothering to dignify that with a response.

“Well,” Papyrus said, breaking the silence before it formed too much, “as much as I’d love to stay further, I am afraid it is getting later in the day...”

Oh - he was right. The sun was just beginning its descent, the beginning streaks of yellow starting to creep out from the horizon. Malory promptly panicked.

“Aaogh, my GOSH! I forgot the time! It’s six or seven already!?”

She rushed to her motorcycle, leaving her brothers as she hurriedly had to remove her headset and don her biking helmet instead.

“I should’ve known we’d need a GPS and a clock in the planes…” she muttered to herself under her breath.

This left her brothers to freeze as Frisk approached them. Being near the human was one thing, but looking directly at them was another. Wilienthal, not wanting a vocabulary blunder, tried to speak, but his jaw seemed to be stuck. Olebri was much the same, and neither could give the human a full look.

“Look,” Frisk sighed, “I don’t hold it against you, and I never will. You’re not the first, and I somehow doubt you’ll be the last. My life’s just kinda a revolving door of danger?”

That made both dogs look at Frisk, each confused.

“That doesn’t…” Wil’ started.

“Make things better…?” ‘Leb finished.

** And I’ve been here since the beginning. No matter how correct that statement is, it truly isn’t any better.

Another response that Frisk made a point to not answer or respond to. Mainly to not seem crazy (or crazier) in front of the canine twins, and also not to give the passenger in their head any more leeway.

** You know I’m right!

…most of the time.

“…it’s complicated,” Frisk continued. “But I want you to understand that I really don’t hold any ill will towards you. I know that may seem unbelievable, but it really is the truth. I am not a grudge-holding person.”

Wil’ scratched the back of his head. “See, I get that, but… why?”

“We hurt you. Like, a lot!” ‘Leb added. “You sure that, like, you don’t wanna get even?”

Frisk scowled. “No, I don’t. I don’t know what kind of system you two lived under, but that’s not how I or anyone I know rolls.”

“Are you sure, Frisk?” Asriel called out. “I could always have two extra manservants!”

The two dogs blanched, and Frisk wheeled around to their brother.

“Asriel Dreemurr! You’re already MY servant, you don’t get any of your own!”

“HEY!”

Before that bickering escalated, Malory came back into the discussion, having managed to hide her hair under a bicycle helmet.

“Alright, I’m pretty much set. Sorry about clean forgetting the time…”

Papyrus waved his hand as if pushing away the concern that her words carried. “No need to worry, Ms. Earhart! Ms. Toriel is very much used to our antics.”

“Ah… great…” Malory anxiously trailed off, before asking, “Um… are you going to… to tell her about all this?”

“Not really,” Papyrus said plainly, putting a suitcase back in the trunk of his car, while the dog’s jaw dropped.

“What!? I mean, that’s good, but-!”

Before Wil’ and ‘Leb could chime in, Asriel facepalmed with a growl.

“Oh for crying out LOUD! When will you people get it?! How many times do we have to repeat it for you guys to get the memo!?! I went through a whole speech, don’t tell me you forgot that too!”

“Asriel!” Frisk scolded, though the goat boy only scoffed.

In the end, finally, Wilienthal threw up his hands.

“You know what? I’m not one to look a gift-monster in the mouth. I give up- I hope you had fun, hope you come back, or- agh, I’m getting a stress headache…”

With that, he turned, muttering to himself and rubbing his temples, and walking back to the middle hangar. Olebri looked at everyone else.

“I’m, uh, gonna make sure he’s okay. But I do hope at some point we can give you a far better flying experience!”

With that, he turned around to join his brother, leaving Malory behind to figure things out for herself.

“This is not how I envisioned this day going,” she mumbled.

“I don’t think any one of us did,” Papyrus said in a cheerful tone.

“…that doesn’t help much, but I appreciate the attempt.”

Papyrus gave her a thumbs-up. “I do my best!”

Despite all odds, she cracked a smile at just how optimistic he was. Perhaps that’s why he was tasked with watching over the two kids.

“Ah, I nearly forgot,” Papyrus asked, looking around, “has anyone seen Sa-?”

He stopped as soon as he spotted him. Sans, in his own Sans way, had somehow managed to get into the front passenger seat of Papyrus’s car and was sound asleep.

“Ah. Of course.” Papyrus said dryly. “He’s asleep. Why did I attempt to think anything different.”

“Well,” Asriel said, “it’s what I want to do right now, so I don’t blame him. Case and point…”

The goat hopped out of his car seat to grab Frisk’s hand, dragging them over to Malory.

“Shall we go?”

“You don’t have to drag me like luggage!” Frisk complained.

** You kinda are.

‘As if you aren’t!’

** Touché.

The canine nodded. “Oh! Yeah, helmets are in the sidecar where you left 'em.”

Watching them ready for the drive, Malory couldn’t help but feel a whirlwind of emotion. Things had gone so fast… and dropped as fast as they came, as well. Was this just how Frisk worked? Solve the current crisis and ‘forgive and forget’? Though, to be fair, they managed to get through the entire Underground and still come out on top, and not only that, they ended up becoming the ambassador to monsterkind. Perhaps there was some weight to that…

She was jolted out of her thoughts by Frisk calling her name, to which she responded with “Oh, sorry! Jus’ thinkin’.”

You’d think a dual sidecar motorcycle would be tricky to get into, but Malory had practice. That, and she jury-rigged the sidecars a little lower on the motorbike’s frame, she just had to be careful with the weight, but that was monster engineering for you. It still felt surreal - they had just moved on from a life-or-death situation like it was nothing. The Earharts had lived literally under a rock, the mountain, and the Underground, but this proved just how behind the times they were when it came to the outside world.

All that, battle and all, in the span of one afternoon. And now it was like it had never happened. If that were the human world, Malory wasn’t certain she’d last a day; she’d have a mental breakdown by the end of the week! Perhaps that was owed to the greater strength of humans… but she supposed she was happy either way.

Starting the motorcycle and beginning to go down the road, Malory did have the distinct sensation of feeling a little bit lighter. Despite the actions that led up to it, the heart-to-heart she had with her brothers put a new light on things. And that was done to the detriment of Frisk and Asriel. And now… they moved on while she and her brothers figured things out for the better. Had you told her in the past that this all would’ve happened to her benefit, she would’ve laughed in your face. She wouldn’t have had the guts to face that. A duel in the skies? At that high an altitude? Hah!

But it did happen. And a lot was lifted off of the trio’s combined chests. For their benefit.

Maybe it was just a massive coincidence.

Maybe it was fate.

Maybe it was just how things played out.

However, it did happen, and Malory knew one thing.

She was a little bit more Determined.