Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“We caught the last one, your majesty, Captain Undyne have it restrained!”

 Asriel turned to Astigmatism, clenching his sword’s hilt. Finally.

 “Lead me to them.”

 The one-eyed monster blinked, morphed their face and started to hop away through the crumbled houses and fallen corpses. Asriel followed, taking care of side-stepping a pile of dust that had started to crumble under the wind.

 Someone would have to take all the dust and bring it back to their proper family; a battle field was no place for a funeral.

The young prince walked through the small town and saw all his subjects busy cleaning everything up. As the Tamers were gently shooing the Amalgamates back to their crates, the Soul-Claimers were surrounding the fallen humans and bringing out colorful shining hearts of light out of their chest. At least, it looked like they got most of them intact this time. Human soldiers’ souls usually shattered quickly after death; Asriel was fairly sure their military had trained them to do so.

 …It meant this village had been mostly civilians; mostly non-combatants. As if to confirm his thought, his gaze met the vacant stare of a very small human, half crushed by a fallen roof.

 A strategic take-over, nothing more.

 The Boss Monster could not ignore the sharp pain in his soul. He just lost a bit of Hope. Monsters were not made for war; their soul thrived on hope, love and compassion. At this very moment, he could feel all of their beings slowly dwindling. Even as this went on for years, for all of their victories, for all of the ground they gained, they were still the dying specie.

 Monsters would lose. Humans were too persistent.

 “Here it is, your majesty,” Astigmatism announced, pointing to an assembly of monsters in the town square. The view was another blow to Asriel’s soul, because the whole area was a sea of dust and blood. There would be no way for the Pickers to separate the muddy powder on the ground; they would have to do a communal funeral for those. The human limbs lying around would not help; Asriel wondered which of his Royal Guards was responsible for this butchery. Then, he saw the two steel axes and the big armor lying around and he felt his throat constrict. When he neared the circle of monsters, his fears were confirmed.

 “Don’t lose hold of that thing!”

 “Is that it? Is that what killed Greater Dog?”

 “So small…”

 “So vicious…”

 “Dogamy and Dogaressa, they…”

 Asriel let sorrow invade him. It was after the fact. It was after they had won the town. They were three of his most respected Guards. Greater dog, filled with an even bigger love than his stature; Dogamy and Dogaressa, the most lovey-dovey couple he ever knew, stuck in a perpetual honey-moon…

 …All three of them sneakily killed after the battle. By a lone human.

 It was those kinds of blow which reminded the prince how much their victories depended upon their cunning strategies and magic. Humans were unbelievably strong. If it weren’t for the monsters’ knowledge of the souls…

 …If it weren’t for his father, the king…

 He caught sight of the human, under Undyne’s grip of steel. They were struggling feebly; their yellow skin, dark-brown hair and torn up clothes were barely visible under the blood and dust covering them. They were so small.

 Not as small as Chara had been, but still small; probably in their human teen.

Asriel shook off the thought of Chara from his mind; he could not… should not think of them now.

“The prince is here!” a voice proclaimed.

The human snapped their attention to Asriel; their squinted brown-red eyes were full of unrestrained fury. It was a rare eye color for a human; the same as Chara’s. Asriel had to force himself to stay still to avoid shaking his head and chase the thought.

Above the human, Undyne gave Asriel a serious nod.

“My lord, here is the silent killer.”

The restrained human lunged.

“Killer? You’re the killers here! All of you devils! All you… you beasts!”

Their voice was hoarse and their struggle mad, but Undyne was not budging. Her voice was stone cold when she continued.

“What is the sentence, my prince?”

They tried to kick her, but to no avail.

“You have no right to judge, murderers! You-you know what those dogs did? Do you? They killed Cam! They killed CAM! You… you killed mom and dad! You killed them ALL!”

Their voice pierced through the devastated town and echoed in the cloudy sky. All monsters around kept silent as the human spieled. They knew perfectly well what they did.

But this was war.

They tried to keep human prisoners before, they were still trying occasionally, but it turned out to be too risky. Captive humans never gave up, never stopped trying to flee and harm. A great number of monsters had been killed by successful breaks. Humans with strong killer intents could dust the toughest monsters with a single hit.

It was easier to kill them, better to wipe out the remaining survivors and take their souls as fuel for their war machines. Living humans would mean a more stable power source, but it was too dangerous.

When humans made monsters prisoners, they never lasted long either.

Asriel stared at the pathetic creature wailing insults and curses at the sky. They were so small, so broken by the war. All the surrounding monsters were broken as well. They all died a little each time they killed; each times their Level of Violence, the LOVE in their souls, increased.

This human would die, but the monsters would lose. Somehow, Asriel did not think this would comfort the small teenager before him.

The human shook again as they screamed and Asriel noticed a little blue heart struggling to jump at their feet: their soul. Monster magic could pull out human souls; it was one of their greatest assets, because human souls were vulnerable to magic. The human’s soul color showed they were constricted by a gravity spell. Asriel looked for its source and spotted the short skeleton holding his hand forward, his left eye glowing in an ominous light blue: Sans.

The slouchy skeleton chuckled darkly and walked to Asriel.

“What a nasty piece of work, that one,” he commented with a stilled smile, “wounded my bro, almost made him ‘fall’.” The skeleton was sweating a bit.

Asriel nodded shortly. It did not explain why Papyrus had been here, but it explained why Sans was. Sans only lived for his brother Papyrus and his work as a war scientist. As skilled as they could be, the two brothers were not made for the war; Papyrus tried, but he was too innocent; and Sans had too little ‘Hope’.

The human’s wail degenerated into mad sobbing. Their soul was still struggling against the blue magic’s hold.

“alphys would probably like having them as a test subject, though,” Sans pondered, his perpetual grin as forced at it usually was. “lotsa determination in that one… very dangerous… maybe too dangerous.”

Determination…

Asriel’s eyes widened a bit and he searched through the skeleton’s eyes to see if he meant the double-meaning. Sans’s expression said it all.

Alphys had asked for human ‘Determination’. Asriel did not know what this was for, but he knew she was occasionally draining their short stock of human souls dry for it. It was a very important energy they had in limited quantity, because a dead human could not create more Determination.

Asriel took out his cell phone and reached for his dimensional box; he pulled out the small canine skull-like object Alphys had lent him.

It was only a prototype; a new way of restraining humans’ powers; never tested. She told him it was for emergency only, with a huge chance of killing the human test subject. The prince figured he may as well try. He walked in front of the crying human. To their credit, their hiccups had mostly stopped when they saw their death approach; Asriel had seen older humans react with less nobility.

Not that there had ever been any kind of nobility in what Asriel did to them.

The town’s square had grown silent. All monsters gave an air or respectful gravity. The human raised their head. Through their unruly meshes, their eyes were still searching for Asriel’s gaze. Asriel stared back for a few seconds, before taking a breath and turning to Undyne.

“Shackle them.”

The captain blinked at the sudden order.

“But… my lord-“

“Do it.”

The fish warrior complied. She released her hold of the human’s hands and brought them to their chest. She quickly made two pairs of shackles appear from her inventory and restrained the human’s hands and feet. Her captive looked too confused to react. They still thought themselves to be put to death, so why was this needed?

Her work done, Undyne rose and took a step back.

“Your majesty, if I may, I believe this is a mistake. This human has killed, they have gained LOVE. They cannot be captured safely.”

Hearing Asriel’s intent, the human burst into an angry laugh.

“Heh! S-So… Now you want me alive, monsters? After…After all you’ve done?” They gave Asriel the nastiest sneer they could offer, their eyes burning with rage and sadness. “…I’d rather die a hundred times trying to kill you than letting you lay your dirty, disgusting paws on me, you damn goat-face!”

They finished their speech with a surprise spit. The snotty liquid landed on Asriel’s combat robe. He recoiled and the human made a victorious cry before Undyne bashed them roughly on the head, sending them on the dusty pavement.

“You will show respect when the prince give you their mercy, human!”

Asriel tried to ignore the nasty liquid on his clothes with all the dignity he could muster. Humans had given him worse than stained clothing. With a groan, the human pulled back up, a new trail of blood coming out of their nose. Even though it must have hurt, the look they gave the prince was one of smug satisfaction.

Asriel reported his attention to the little blue heart glued to the ground. He crouched near, but still outside the human’s reach.

“Sans,” Asriel called, “release your gravity binding.”

“okay, no bones about it.”

When the magic stopped, the little soul turned bright red and started to float up. Asriel caught it in the palm of his hand with his magic. The human flinched at the contact.

It was a pretty soul, Asriel thought. Monsters’ souls were colorless, but humans’ all had a unique shade to them. This one’s red was the same as Chara’s had been. It was really rare for two souls to have the exact same shades, but Asriel knew those two did. No wonder the human reminded him of them.

… No, he was better off not associating the two.

Asriel clutched the little skull-like object in his hand, then slowly, but firmly brought it to the captive soul. When it neared, the skull seemed to take a life of its own and snapped around the heart violently.

The human’s eyes went wide.

And they screamed.

All monsters took a step back. The cry was deafening; tearing up at their beings.

Then, it stopped, as sharply as it begun.

But the human’s mouth was still open. It was like no sounds could come out anymore. They fell to the side and started to contort in silent pain.

Asriel stared in horror. He could not look away.

They wriggled and their soul vibrated, as if trying to shake off the deadly maw of the skull. Asriel could see it lose its vivid color, turn into a pale pink.

When it neared to white, this was when the impossible happened.

A monster’s gasp brought Asriel’s attention back to the body and he could see, he could see the tuff of brown fur spouting on the human’s bare arm as they yelled voicelessly. They tried vainly to clutch their chest as their shape was changing, their limbs elongating. Asriel could hear the bones shifting; there was a sickening crack when the bony end of their spine burst out of their pants and covered in muscles and fur to form a long tufted tail. Through their obvious pain, the human managed to stare at it in pure horror.

Then, Asriel heard before he saw the two small horns bloodily piercing the skin of their skull. The prince winced and brought a hand to his own small horns before coming to a realization. He predicted it when the human’s ears turned floppy and fell on each side of their head, covered in brown fur like the rest of their body; he also predicted it when their fangs elongated and they vainly clutched at their muzzle as it grew in their hands. He predicted it when the change stopped once the human had taken the appearance of a goat-like beast.

He predicted it because it was that of a Boss Monster’s, like he was.

The skull released the shaking white soul. It hurriedly went back into its owner’s chest. Breathing quickly, the human… the ex-human did not even seem to register when it did, taken aback by their shaky new sets of claws. Slowly, they raised their gaze at Asriel, trembling from head to toes. Their wide eyes showed myriads of feelings, among which were confusion, shock and fear.

The monsters were shocked as well. They started to talk among themselves. Asriel could hear the words buzzing.

“A monster-“

“Turned into a monster-“

“But how, if the human-“

“Does this mean we can change the humans into our own?”

“We won’t have to kill-“

“We can show them our way-“

“We can win…”

A clamor started to erupt around. The air of fear and sorrow suddenly turned into joy, even as they stood in the middle of the corpses of the fallen. The monsters started to praise their ruler.

“The prince did it! The prince found a way!”

“We won’t have to kill! They can be like us!”

“We’ll show them our way! We can be one people!”

“We can win our peace! We can win the war!”

At each new claim, Asriel could feel the hope rise into their souls. Inadvertently, he partook into it as well. Everyone was in shock, including Sans and Undyne; including himself. But Asriel knew that, as a leader, he did not have the luxury to show his surprise. He did not think even Alphys would have predicted this result; he would have to ask her himself.

At this moment, however, Asriel was silently pondering the thought. Could they do it? Could they change the humans they captured into monsters? Increasing their ranks as well as offering a more peaceful alternative to both humans and monsters? They may not have been able to handle captive humans, but they could handle monsters. Humans would lose their unfair advantage in strength, as well as gain in learning love, hope and compassion with their new monster souls. They could be taught how to live among them; they could be taught to share their land.

It was a beautiful thought. Asriel wanted to believe it. His eyes landed on the former human again. They, too, thought the change had been on purpose, he could tell. And now that they heard the chants, now that their shaking had stopped, Asriel could see other emotions flickering through their new face: disbelief, outrage, anxiousness, fright…

…hate; Boiling, furious and deep hate.

Asriel felt a constriction in his soul. In life, things can never be this easy.

Chapter Text

Paper-filling: the real job of a monarch. Ever since he started ruling alongside his father, Asriel had learned to live with no time for himself. There was always so much to do for everyone, so many problems to solve, so many people to order and keep alive.

Sometimes, Asriel thought back to his younger days longingly, but he always managed to ban the loved memories away from his work. This recent event seemed to prevent him from doing so and his thoughts wandered back to his old family, back in the underground; back when everything was so peaceful.

Could he do it? Could he bring peace back to his people?

The war had been a mistake, a tragedy born of misunderstanding and suffering. Chara’s death hadn’t been accidental; Asriel was still burdened by his complicity in this. His mother’s, however…

His mother’s had been the final straw which brought his father to the brink of madness, the last hit needed to rip his soul apart. She tried so hard to free them all peacefully; she brought so many precious souls of naturally deceased humans back to the underworld to free all monsters. In the end, she was murdered; Chara’s soul crumbled to nothingness with hers.

Asriel’s father let his sadness and hate consume him. He absorbed the souls she had brought, went to the nearby human village, slaughtered them all. He absorbed seven souls and became a god; he broke the barrier trapping all monsters underground and promised his people all the lands of the overground.

King Asgore declared war on humanity. The first time his son Asriel ever saw the sky, it was barred in bloody clouds, as if predicting his future lot in life. About thirty years had passed and the war was still going.

The first time monsters and humans declared war on each others had been millennia ago. The humans slaughtered the monsters easily with their superior strength and sealed the survivors away underground with a magical barrier so powerful it needed the power of seven human souls to break it open.

Now, with their King having gained the power of a supreme being and humans having lost their science of magic, the monsters stood a chance. They decimated human towns, blocked humans’ weapons, missiles and planes. When countries sent out powerful bombs at their small force, the king redirected them to humans’ lands. It was a massacre; the humans stopped trying to kill off the invaders that way after that. They sent gases and viruses; useless on the magical bodies of monsters; they send out armed troops when they realized how weak monsters bodies were, and for a moment, it worked.

Then the monsters’ Royal Scientist found a way to use the humans’ souls against them, she created weapons with them, she created invulnerable monsters with the bodies of the recently fallen to fight off the human soldiers. The Amalgamates did a number on the human force even to Asriel’s present day. It had become a war of strategic upgrades of technology.

But humans were not losing, still. Humans were too numerous and too spread out. Many countries were in far-away islands and continents which could serve as refuge for those who were fleeing the attacked territories. They could regain their numbers and thrive. Monsters did not have the same luxury. After decades had passed, monsters had taken hold of a huge part of the land, but the resources they had, notably their hold of human souls, had decreased dramatically.

Human leaders had once tried to negotiate peace treaties and territories. At that time, however, Asgore was still consumed by his desire for vengeance, and his people were still drunk in his recent victories. They were overjoyed at the prospect of destroying the species which condemned them all once to an existence of underground prisoners.

By the time they had all started to realize the horror of warfare, the deed was done. Monsters could not leave this dangerous humanity alive, while humanity had to fight off their invaders and annihilate them all.

“Kill or be killed”; Chara once said to Asriel this was a human saying. The prince thought this phrase bitterly appropriate to the situation they were stuck in. There could only be one winner.

… But maybe they did not have to kill to win.

Asriel tapped his pen on the paper form lightly. He could not get anything done in this state of mind. He sighed and put his pen down. It was time to clear his head.

The prince stepped out of his office and took the time to take a breath of fresh air from the castle’s wall bridge, sighting a public transport in the sky flying above the town. Monsters’ magic allowed them to build homes fairly quickly, which had been yet another massive advantage in the war. At this time, Asriel and part of his force had retreated to Greenlake, a small town at the edge of the combat zone, but still safely out of reach. Monsters needed constant flux of good and calming emotions to keep their hopes up, so towns were built quickly for the fighters, and always overly colorful and nicely decorated. There was a guild specifically for that purpose.

Greenlake was not as garish as some other settlements, but it was still full of disparate kinds of housing with flowers painted all over and trees and greenery growing in streets and on the roofs; with of course a medium-sized royal castle in the middle of it.

Whenever Asriel walked through a taken human town, it was all dull and grey. Asriel wondered how humans could stand such a lack of vibrancy.

When the prince stepped out of the castle, he headed for the white square building on its side. Royal Laboratories were the only buildings in this color, mostly for convenience and an air of professionalism. Doctor Alphys had arrived as soon as she heard of the human turned monster. She had taken them in for studying. Asriel had asked for secrecy to the monsters involved in the human’s capture; he needed to have Alphys’s expertise to know if turning their enemies into their own was even a viable option. Still, rumors had spread around the kingdom in ushered hopeful tones. Asriel let them be.

He had also contacted his father about the matter. The king would pay him a visit soon enough.

“y-your majesty… I mean, prince Asriel.”

The short flustered lizard bowed respectfully as he arrived. In public, Asriel was mostly called by title, but Alphys knew him as friend as well, so it was sometime hard for her to decide how to act around him. The prince decided to shorten her embarrass.

“Howdy, Alphys; how’s the human doing?”

“Oh, uh, she’s-she’s awake right now, w-wait a moment,” Alphys turned to a monitor and started typing. Asriel noted the use of the pronoun. So, the former human was female; Asriel had a hard time telling them apart; he never even learnt Chara’s actual gender and always referred to them as neutral. Chara did not mind, but humans were usually more distinct in sex and gender than monsters. The prince knew human soldiers were usually males, though.

The screen lit and showed a rectangular room with bare furniture. The distinct form of a tawny brown Boss Monster was sitting on the bed, against the wall, arms around her knees and twiddling her fingers as if in deep thought. Alphys had taken care of washing off the prisoner’ dust and blood, and she had been given a clean white shirt and short pants. Her long tail was curled around her.

“I, uh, gave her a full checkup. T-to see the effect the Soul Drainer had… I-I have to say I… I never expected this result.” The doctor pushed back her glasses, muttering. “this could revolutionize everything we know about the souls and the link between monsters and humans…”

“Are there any side effect? Any problems?” Asriel asked, eyes still on the screen. He could hardly believe the monster he was seeing had once been that terrifying little critter, the killer of three respected dog soldiers.

“W-well, from my readings, I-I’m not sure this is a permanent change… uh, on the soul level, anyway; I can’t tell about the physical.” On the screen, Alphys made a diagram of a white heart appear. “The Soul Drainer was successful in draining most of the soul’s energy for future use, as it was meant to do.” Alphys pointed to the small canine skull Asriel had given her back on the table. “H-however, living human souls are constantly regenerating, and hers is gaining back what power it lost at a steady rate as we speak. I-I ‘m not sure how long it’ll take, but it’s going to get back at full power, I think.”

Asriel frowned at this news.

“What should we do, then? Do we let it revert back? Will you be able to hold the human here if she’s fully recovered?”

The yellow lizard winced.

“I think this could be an issue if we let it, but not just because of the hard time containing her. L-like I said, I don’t know if her physical change is a permanent one either. A-and her current body seems to have formed off her untapped magic alongside her physical mass. For all intent and purpose, she’s currently a hybrid of magical and physical. I-if we let it revert… human souls don’t help them make their bodies like ours do… I’m not sure her body will…”

Asriel shuddered and pushed back the dark implication.

“So… what should we do? Do we… use the Soul Drainer again?”

Alphys shook her head and turned to her work table.

“Too risky in her state. I was working on something to keep a human weak and easy to contain, but what I designed won’t do now.” She rummaged through her projects and finally pulled something out of the mess. “B-but when I arrived last night, I think I figured something that could work… temporarily at least.” She showed the prince what looked like a small black bracelet with a lock at one of its end. “I had designed a new extractor for soul use in my machines. I reworked the power a bit and I think I gave it the proper drain rhythm. We’ll have to monitor it closely, though, just in case.”

Asriel showed his hand and Alphys put the black bracelet on his palm. The prince could feel the faint current of magic coursing through it.

“When will you need to put it on her?" he asked.

“As soon as possible.”

Asriel straightened up.

“Let me do it.”

“A-are you sure? I-I mean, okay,” the lizard relented. “Just… be careful around her. She may not be as strong now, but she’s still partly physical. A-and she had gained LOVE… she knows how to…”

Asriel nodded darkly. Not many people around had not gained LOVE, in those times.

“Y-you’ll have to put the Extractor around her soul. I-it has a transmitter, s-so I can monitor if the speed of the draining is too high… as well as other things. Um… also, her soul is very weak, so… you’ll probably have a hard time pulling it out, l-like how monsters souls are.”

Asriel took this information to heart and headed for the cell.

--

When the door slid open, the prisoner’s gaze snapped on Asriel. The prince noted it was one feature that had remained unchanged; that and her dark brown unruly hair. She stood up from the bed, facing him with a closed expression. He could feel her surprise in her aura, but she did not show it on her face.

Asriel approached her carefully and found himself marveling at the change. She was taller now; about his height. He knew she was probably born somewhere in the last decades, but humans’ lifespan was very short compared to his, and he had lost a parent at a young age, so as a Boss Monster, he had not siphoned enough soul energy from his father to grow up properly.

She was pretty. She was pretty for a Boss Monster. This was a strangely unsettling thought.

When he stopped in front of her, she shifted position and crossed her arms. Only then did he notice the magic shackle tying up her ankle. The chain was made of a soft, pulsing force-field and attached to the far-wall of the room, allowing its prisoner unrestricted movement around the limited space of the cell.

“So,” she started speaking slowly, before he could think of what to say, “the little prince has come to admire his work? Well go ahead, take a look, whitey.” Her tail whipped the ground in a way Asriel did not think was intentional. “It’s not like you have beaten down the ‘nasty human’ enough.”

Asriel raised his hand slowly and took his softest tone.

“Look, we’re not going to hurt you-“

“Why not? So, now that I look like one of you, suddenly, I’m above your whole ‘judge the killer’?” she snapped, her long teeth showing, “The bad, bad humans deserve to be hacked and slashed with magic swords until they’re all dead, but turn them into monsters and suddenly it’s: ‘oh, we can take them with us’, ‘we can integrate them into the good monster society and make them good little servants to our demonic monster king’!”

Asriel forced himself to stay impassive. There was no point in arguing with her as she was now.

“Think what you will. I will need to see your soul for a moment.”

The human monster immediately clenched a hand on her chest.

“Why?”

“Your change made your soul unstable; I need to put something on it so that nothing bad happens to it.”

He showed her the bracelet and she took a step back.

“Yeah, no.”

“You have to, you could get ill.”

“What if I don’t care?”

“You could die.”

“So?”

Asriel sighed and scratched the area between his horn and ear.

“Look, you can be difficult if you want, but we’ll put it on you either way. You may as well make it easier for yourself. I don’t want to have to put you asleep for every little thing.”

She looked like she was going to be sick at the prospect of Asriel getting close to her while being unconscious. A bit shakily, she unclenched her fists and let her arms hangs by her side, looking down. Carefully, Asriel reached a hand near her chest. Her soul’s pulse had grown too weak for him to pull it out at a safe distance. He hoped she had no sudden urge to hit him, because even if she could not potentially dust him with one hit anymore, he could still be severely hurt.

When he felt the tendril of the soul, he pulled at it gently. The little heart emerged from her chest again, but kept close proximity, small translucent strains was still linking it to her body. The little heart was still upright, like all human souls were, and as opposed to the upside down hearts of monster souls. It was faint, but Asriel could see the small pinkish outline the heart had started to gain back.

The human monster was staring at her soul, captivated. Humans did not know how to reach out to their soul like monsters did. It was a rare occurrence for civilians like her to witness it. Asriel took the bracelet near the soul before he realized he was unsure on how to proceed. Like the Soul Drainer, however, the Extractor reacted to the presence of the soul. It quickly slid around all three of the heart’s side and closed itself. When the little lock snapped, it constricted violently.

The human monster flinched away with a sharp scream. Afraid, Asriel took a step back.

“Golly! I’m sorry! I didn’t- A-are you okay?”

The prisoner was leaning against the wall, panting and clenching her shirt where the soul had retracted back into her.

“Oh… Oh god… you lied, monster… you said you wouldn’t hurt me…”

“I’m really, really sorry I… we never tried this… I didn’t know it would… w-where are you hurting?” Asriel babbled, sweating and hoping he would not have to try and heal her, because he was still in training in this area.

“…It’s… gone now…” She finished, calming her breathing and slowly looking up, but not at Asriel’s face.

“Okay… okay…good.” Asriel shifted his stance awkwardly. “Uh… well, if it starts to hurt again… or if you need anything, call for us, alright?”

She snorted a bleat, then wrinkled her muzzle as if disgusted by the sound.

“Yeah, right. I’ll just call the creepy lizard watching me on her camera if I have any problem with how I’m treated, no biggy.” She turned to Asriel and the look she gave him was crushingly devoid of any hope. “You can’t give me what I want, or need, little prince. You already took everything from me… down to my body.” She shivered once and looked away, gripping her arms tightly, tail in between her legs.

She looked so fragile and lost. Asriel could not take it anymore.

“I’ll… we’ll be checking on you.” His voice was getting softer as he headed back to the door. “When we’re properly installed, we’ll give you a better room and… some distractions for you.”

“…It won’t work, you know?”

“Huh?”

Asriel looked back in surprise. She was looking at him again, but without hate, anger, or any strong emotion. She looked drained.

“Turning humans into monsters; it won’t work, you can’t stop the war this way.” A humorless smile stretched onto her face. “Humans… they… we will fight you. We’ll never accept giving up our identity like that. Those that would do are too few. You've caused us too much loss. Humans will fight; we will fight… even if there’s no gain in doing so, we will.”

After a moment of silence, Asriel asked:

“How are you so sure?”

She shrugged.

“I may look like one of you, but I’m not. I’ve been a human all my life; I know.”

Asriel tried to stop her words for draining his hope.

“We won’t know until we try,” he finally answered before leaving.

When the door slid back, the last thing Asriel heard from inside was the barking laughters of the former human.

Chapter Text

“Would you like more tea, my son?”

“Please.”

The king’s lip stretched into a tired smile and he carefully swept the teapot with one of his huge hands to pour Asriel another cup. When he put the herbs, the gigantic being, who had once been a monster, but who was now walking the lonely path of godhood, handed the tea to his son.

Asriel picked the burning cup carefully and started to blow air on it. Golden Flower tea; Chara had praised its virtues, a long time ago, but Asriel never had the chance of tasting it in the underground. After their first conquests, it had become a fairly widespread beverage among monsters.

King Asgore was sipping his own cup carefully. Asriel remember the joyous father he had once been, back when everyone was still trapped, but alive and happy. They had shared much quality times, in their small garden, growing up flowers; or near the fireplace, with Asriel’s mother, listening to the riveting tales and lore of both monsters and humans from lost books landing underground.

Now, this monster was no more; instead stood this powerful, yet sad being, sporting three pairs of large wings and a long tail, almost constantly hooked to a draining machine to prevent the screaming human consciousnesses inside his absorbed souls to take over and attack the monsters. Asriel could not bear to imagine what torture this must be like for his father, to hear their pleas, sobs, screams and insults full of hate.

They should have found out when Chara died and Asriel’s mother, Toriel, absorbed their soul, but she never said anything to Asgore and Asriel. Monsters could absorb humans’ souls, the legends told them so. This power was what made humans banish monsters underground in the first place.

However, what the legends never revealed was that a human soul absorbed by a monster was still conscious inside. If a monster were to absorb a human’s soul, the control over their powerful body would be split in between them.

King Asgore absorbed seven souls. He absorbed seven souls, three of which he had brutally killed himself. He had then declared war on humanity.

The seven consciousness inside had been furious. He almost lost it; he almost destroyed his own people. Were it not for their former Royal Scientist, W.D. Gaster, the king would have lost his mind completely. With a device to control the souls and keep them in check, Gaster successfully enabled the King to go with his invasion plan and declare war on the human race.

Then, Gaster tried to use the device on himself and one human soul he absorbed. It failed spectacularly. Apart from Boss Monsters, none other monster-types seemed to be able to bear the soul control device. Boss Monsters were too rare and most belonged to the royal family; none wanted to try absorbing a soul. Monsters had become very careful about not absorbing a human soul by mistakes since then. Once the soul was bond, it was permanent. The few that had went mad and had to be…

Asriel took a sip of his tea. Human souls were better used as fuel for war machines than gaining additional individual powers.

“So, tell me: what is the state of your… project with the human?”

Asriel put the teacup down. It was good tea.

“It’s… a work in progress,” he admitted. “She’s not… violent, so that’s something… she’s also talkative and reads all the books we give her… but…”

Asgore waited for his son to find his words.

“It’s… the thing is… she doesn’t like us… no… she hates us. Usually, all she does is throw a few nasty comments at us, but… but you can just feel the hate pouring out of her.” Asriel stared at his cup. “It’s like it’s growing stronger each day.”

Asriel looked up at his father, who looked back with a small smile.

“Well, is that not expected of her, given the circumstances? Us monsters, wage war on her people since before her birth, our troops wiped out her village, probably her entire family.” The old god-like monster’s expression darkened. “And now, here she is, the lone survivor trapped in a body and an environment she has no idea of how to deal with, surrounded by the enemy and forced to fraternize with it. I would not enjoy her position.”

Asriel suddenly feels wracked with guilt at his father’s words, because, even if he tried to be nice to her on his visits, he had never truly tried to put himself in her place. He had a brief thought of himself, young and innocent, losing both his parents and Chara to humans, then be turned into one and forcefully trained to act like one of them. The thought made his stomach churn. He looked down to the side.

“I do not believe I should meet this young lady, for reasons that are evident,” the old king continued regretfully, “however, Asriel, I do believe that you and your friends can help her. Stay close to her needs; listen to her words, share your dreams with her.”

Asriel grimaced.

“She told me once it won’t work. That we won’t be able to turn humans into proper monsters; that they’ll fight it off even if they have nothing to gain.”

“She may be right, or she may be wrong,” his father answered philosophically, “my son, as noble as your goal may be, I believe you should start everything on a smaller scale. At this moment, you succeeded in doing something that has not been done for more than thirty years past: you have allowed a human to be on speaking terms with monsters again. As shaky as this ground may be, this alone could be the start of a new hope for both our kinds.”

Asriel looked at his father, then down to his knee.

“She’s not Chara,” he finally said.

“No, she is not, and never will be,” the king agreed, “she can be her own person. She can be her own version of the future of our relations. Humans… are a troubled species, Asriel; as much as we became now… but they can be capable of love, hope and compassion as much as we are, if we give them the chance.”

The king finished his tea and rose up, getting out of the soul-control device for the time it would take for his trip. The souls would not be able to regain their senses by then.

“I am sorry I have to shorten my visit, Asriel, however, with what is… happening at the west coast, I shall have to invite you for tea another time.”

“I understand,” Asriel replied softly, his gaze lost somewhere to the side.

“Please, do think about what we discussed, although, in the end, I trust your judgment above all. Farewell.”

Asriel closed his eyes as the king left the room.

“Farewell, father.”

--

Asriel was caught by surprise when he saw Sans in Alphys’s lab. The short skeleton was a war scientist as well, so it was not an unusual place to find him, but he had stayed at his brother’s side since he had been so gravely wounded. Papyrus must have had gotten better.

…And now, Sans was observing his brother’s aggressor through the monitor as she busied herself with a crossword puzzle, a bored look on her face. A crossword puzzle that was probably from Sans. The skeleton loved to share them with Asriel; usually they were filled with tasteless puns.

“heya.” Sans saluted Asriel without ever looking away from the screen. Asriel frowned and hoped the skeleton was not planning something stupid.

“How is Papyrus?” the prince asked instead.

“better than ever. he’s been asking to see the human since he learned they were still alive and captured.” He chuckled a bit. “i think he’s got the idea that it’s thanks to his encouragement that the human is well and a monster now.”

“He’s not allowed in the lab,” Asriel told the skeleton bluntly, “no civilians are. She doesn’t need their attention.”

“heh, no worry az, i’d never let ‘im anywhere near that one. it’s cute, but a bit too stabby-happy. he can get his own pet rock instead.”

“She hasn’t attacked anyone since she’s been here. In fact, she’s really cooperative most of the time.”

Asriel was not sure why he felt the need to defend her so much. In truth, she was not that gracious with them, either. Maybe he should take his father’s advice and have a talk with her.

“well, that’s a great news there, bud. maybe papyrus’s puzzles and word-searches he’s sending over to the lab helped, or maybe it’s his stellar cooking… or maybe being turned into a furry goat monster made her revise her perspective on us.”

Sans finished his spiel with a shrug. Asriel was pretty sure that none of those options were correct.

“I’m going to her cell with new books,” Asriel announced, showing his package freshly taken from the local library. “When you see Alphys, tell her I want to talk to her.”

“sure thing, az. don’t get into a knife incident in there.”

Asriel did not point out the absence of knife in her cell, because the skeleton has been watching the screen for long enough to know that. Instead, he took the familiar path to her room. When he arrived, she had finished her crossword and was looking at a junior jumble sheet. She raised an eyebrow at him.

“You’re early; Alphys comes to visit before you, usually.” She tapped on the table in annoyance. “Or maybe you’re on time and she missed a visit; it’s not like I can tell time that well, stuck in here.”

“I’ll get you a watch next visit,” Asriel promised as he put the three new books on the table, “here; it looked like you enjoyed the one I got you on the magic of the souls, so I figured I should get you some more about it.”

She nodded and took one of the tomes with a frown.

“I’ve got a question for you.”

Asriel looked at her curiously.

“What is it?”

“Why… why are you allowing me to learn so much about the magic of the soul?” She leant back on her chair to view him more fully. “You know magic is one of the few advantages you monsters have over us, and in there, it specifically says that both humans and monsters can learn it. Aren’t you even the least bit worried that, should I turn back human and escape, I use what I learned in there against you?”

Asriel blinked blankly, because this possibility had not even crossed his mind. Now that it did, he felt a little stupid not having thought of it. Alphys had told him Frisk was unlikely to be able to do monster magic with a human soul, so he had not deemed useful to ban magic books from her studies. That she even thought of bringing it as a new technology for her kind had been beyond his thought-process. At his loss of words, the human-monster showed her fangs in a large smile, and started laughing with a derisive shake of her head.

“Oh, little prince, that you could last so long against us is nothing short of a miracle.”

He felt heat coming to his face at her soft mockery and straightened himself.

“Well, maybe I trust you not to; ever think of that?”

“No, because you don’t. You’d be really foolish if you did.”

“We’re not your enemy, you know.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re not allies,” she replied with a snort, her eyes looking up at the ceiling. “What could we be, if not enemies?”

“We could be friends.”

She instantly burst into a sharp laugh.

“Is this what this is about?” She said in a disbelieving tone once she stopped. “You visit me because you want to be friends?”

Asriel shrugged and calmly sat on the other chair.

“Why couldn’t we be?”

She stood up, hands on the table.

“Do you really want me to list all the reasons or can’t you use your precious little head for once?”

Asriel felt the usual burst of hate coming from her. He did his best to make his own aura an appeasing one in contrast.

“I’m not saying it’ll be easy… or that I don’t understand why you’re so mad at us for what we did to you… but… but I really think we can make something good of this for everyone’s sake.” He looked through her eyes in search of understanding. “Please, think about it; wouldn’t it be better for all of us to make peace at each others? Not just for us, but for all the humans and monsters that will succeeds us. Shouldn’t we offer them a future outside of eternal war and conflict?”

For a moment, she said nothing. Asriel found himself drowning into her beautiful brown red-colored eyes.

Then, she flipped the table.

Asriel’s chair crashed to the ground and he scrambled away hurriedly, taken by surprise.

She was almost literally burning with rage, with red flames in her aura. She was baring her teeth.

“I can’t believe how much of a selfish little prick you’re being,” she says lowly, “or are you really that dense? I’ve been talking to two of you and I’m starting to think this is just a species trait to be this obtuse.”

Asriel half-pulled himself up and raised a hand up to her.

“Please, I-I’m sorry if I-“

“You don’t even get it, do you? Mister ‘I want to be friend’ comes at me with all his talk about peace and a better tomorrow or whatever like we’re on some equal ground? You didn’t ask my village if they wanted peace! You didn’t ask Cam when your dogs chopped him off for existing! That stupid lizard woman keeping me here didn’t ask my parents if they wanted to be crushed alive when one of her magic missiles hit my home!” She turned to the camera with a venomous look. “You didn’t know that, did you, Alphys? Or maybe you did, and that’s why you never asked? It’s always so much easier to pretend your little test subjects are white rats raised in a comfy lab!”

Asriel’s throat was constricted. Tears started to blurry his vision. When he stood up, he found himself submerged in equal measure by intense fear and a strong desire to hug her and ease her pain.

“I-I… Look , I-“

“Save it, little prince,” she snapped. That was when he heard how her voice wavered, but she went on. “You-you only make it worse every time you open your stupid goat mouth. You caused all this. You started the war! You started the pain! You talk about children not suffering from our conflict anymore? I was born into the war. Cam and I were; we didn’t ask for it. I’ve never known peace, I’m not like you! I didn’t get a comfy childhood in a safe little kingdom and then chose the path of destruction along with my crazy god of a father!”

 She stopped yelling again. Asriel did not try to reply this time. He felt himself hiccup and vainly tried to repress it. The human-monster’s eyes did not leave his face; this was why he instantly saw when they started to tear up.

“I know you don’t want to be friends,” she said lowly, “not really. Do you wanna know how I know? …Well, do you, Asriel Dreemur?”

When she caught sign of his surprise, she smiled bitterly.

“Yeah, little prince, of course I know your name. I read it in that history book you lent me, remember?” She picked one of the fallen books and tapped the cover lightly. “You’re surprised I know so much about your life, even though most of it is public knowledge; but we both know why that is, don’t we? You don’t talk to me; not really. You offer me books, you give me small talks, but this is surface stuffs, because you’d rather learn more about how I tick than who I am. I’m yours and Alphys’s little pet project for mankind. I’m the future you want to give us all.”

She swiftly threw the book at him, but missed by a long shot. Asriel knew it was on purpose.

“I’m your enemy, and I know it.” She growled. “Yet I still treat you with more respect than you hypocrite assholes have for me. I’m your enemy and I still give more shit about you than you give about me.”

Her aura had slowly shifted to a melted mix of pain and bitterness.

“I’m your enemy…and I still bothered to learn your fucking name.”

She turned around when the tears started to slide down.

“Just…just go home, Asriel. I’m sick of your ugly crybaby face.”

--

When Asriel left the cell, he was not surprised to see Sans at the door; he was more surprised that Sans had waited at all.

“heard the sobbing; figured i should wait before busting in and save your royal butt,” he explained the silent question with a shrug, “it sounded pretty heated up in here, like undyne’s cooking lesson.”

Asriel wiped his remaining tears before answering.

“I… messed up… big time.”

“yeah…”

No more was said on the subject as they went back to the main laboratory. When they did, they spotted Alphys, looking busy with tampering a huge skull-like blaster; Asriel knew this was one of deceased Doctor Gaster’s original designs.

When she turned, Asriel spotted her slightly puffy eyes and guessed she had been watching the human’s outburst.

“h-hey, guys. uh, y-you wanted to work with me on those, right sans?”

“yeah,” the skeleton acknowledge with a shrug; “figured if you gotta shed your skin over trying to salvage my old bro’s tech, i gotta be there.”

“y-yeah, o-of course… thanks.”

Her voice was incredibly mumbled. Asriel looked from afar as the two scientists started their work. The “Gaster Blasters” were not the most used cannons, because they needed a huge power-source they could not really afford, however, the few times they had been used had been critical battles for monsters. Asriel shifted a bit uncomfortably, because he wanted to talk to Alphys, but without Sans around.

“Um, so, Alphys, what are you doing with the cannon, exactly?”

“oh, uh, yeah, right.” Alphys looked back at the prince, a slight shine in her eyes. “Th-this proto-cannon could potentially send a blast powerful enough to reach next continent! It could be used as a great diversion if the humans try another sneak attack from the sea!”

Asriel started to think of battle diagrams in his head and found himself agreeing with the doctor. It could bring the war on the continent into a turning point and a decisive victory for monsters if they were to distract the other continent’s humans from helping. Used well, it could make them pull their greatest progression yet.

“When do you think you can make it operational?”

“uh, that’s the thing, actually.” Alphys looked down. “this, uh, project was th-the main reason i was looking for a live human subject. it, huh, requires a lot of soul energy, specifically determination… a-and determination is only present in a limited quantity in souls of deceased human. i-i would need a live human… of course, we have a live human, but i didn’t expect… her soul isn’t… well…”

She shrugged dejectedly.

“suffice to say, i don’t know when i’ll be able to make it work.”

Asriel’s mind went back to the angry and hateful hybrid in her cell and he suddenly felt a wave of guilt. She had yelled at him about his warmongering only a few minutes prior and he was already thinking about how to effectively use a cannon that could wipe out human towns whole.

She had been right, he realized. She had been right about everything.

…And he still did not know her name.

“I need to visit the human again; I’ll be right back.”

“o-okay…”

Asriel stormed back into the corridor, stopped a few seconds in front of the door before taking a huge breath and opening it.

She had put back the table and the books in order. She was lying on the bed, fully clothed, facing the wall. Asriel did not step in. For a moment, he wondered if she was asleep, until she spoke in a weary tone.

“…I thought I told you to go home… but you can’t even give me that, can you?”

“Sorry…”

There was a moment of silence before he took a breath again.

“And… I mean… I am sorry… sorry for everything… everything I’ve done to you… everything I’ve done to your… your family… I’m sorry for the war… I’m sorry we… I’m sorry we even took that path…” He gulped back the lump in his throat and restrained himself from crying. “Mom… mom would never have wanted all of this… she… she wanted monsters to get freed peacefully… and… and when she was killed by those villagers… dad… he…” Asriel gripped at where his soul was and closed his eyes. “But mom… she never would have wanted that… we… we betrayed her ideal… all for petty revenge… I betrayed her too… and when we realized what we had done… it… it was too late…”

Asriel had to clap his mouth shut to prevent the saliva of his stimulated crying to fall on the ground. Disgusted with himself, he swallowed it back and wiped his tears again with a small breath. The human had not moved from her spot, but Asriel knew she was listening. He continued.

“I… I’m not a good monster… I've got quite a lot of LOVE… a lot of Levels Of Violence… over the years… mostly from public executions, like… like yours would have been. In another time, I’d be rightly shunned for what I did… but… but we’re not in those times anymore… most of us… most of my people have been turned into savage killers… murderers capable of putting to death human children without remorse in the off chance that they might turn on us and kill us in turn. It’s… it’s a maddening circle of violence that I can’t stop anymore… Honestly, I’ve been so tired of it… I’ve been tired of it for years…”

Asriel found himself sliding down against the door’s entry way. It was strange; it was like everything he had been holding onto himself for so long had started pouring out. The dam was broken.

“You hate me… and I understand that, because I would hate me too, if I were in your place.” He stared at his clawed hands and started massaging his soft white fur. “Honestly, I think you’re right to hate me, because I’m not a good person; I’m a disappointment to everyone that ever mattered to me.” He chased off the painful memory. “I try to be a good monarch, but I make so many mistakes all the times… I could pass it off as my age’s fault, but that wouldn’t be right; it’s because I’m just bad at it. Dad isn’t very good either. Our people suffered from it… so do your people…”

He breathed out again. “And you were right about me… not wanting to be friend with you, too. I… didn’t even think of you as a person. When you… when this happened… all I thought about… all I cared about was how it would benefit my people… how, maybe… I could bring their Hope back up again, like before the war.” He bit back a snort. “It had been one of dad’s main reason for going to war against humans, did you know that? He wanted to keep their Hopes up after mom… after everything. I guess… I guess I’m like dad in all the bad ways.”

Asriel fell silent again, listening to both of their breathing.

“… Look…I can’t… I won’t force you to like me… or even to talk to me again… because, frankly, that’s just mean and unfair after all I did to you. But… I just wanted to say… I do want to do better. I do want to get to know you… actually know you… even if we never get to… even if you always hate me… at least, please accept my help in getting you a better future. There’s… there’re so many things I can’t give you… give you back… but I can help you get a new life… I can get you to be happy… as happy as you can be… and free… as free as you can be… at least in Monster Kingdom… because… that’s all I can offer…”

He bumped his head on the door’s entry in frustration and finally stood up.

“Sorry… I’m bad at this… I’ll… I’ll leave you alone now.”

“…isk.”

“Huh?”

He looks back at her. She had shifted away from the wall and was now looking at him with puffy red eyes.

“My name: it’s ‘Frisk’.”

“’Frisk’?” he repeated, trying out the sounds with his mouth before smiling softly. “That’s… a nice name.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Save the compliments, you said enough things you didn’t mean today.”

He could see how the side of her lips lifted slightly. Very slightly.

There was no hate in the aura, this time, although there was definitely no friendliness either.

Asriel considered it a good start.

Chapter Text

The next week went slightly better, as far as Asriel’s discussions with Frisk were concerned. They had not brought up her outburst again, and most of their exchanges were still small talks, but there had been an obvious shift in wariness. Asriel was finding himself looking forward to talking with Frisk about her readings, or even figuring out crosswords and word-searches together. In turn, it had made his paperwork an even more menial task than it already was, because it meant less time spent in the lab.

Alphys had been the opposite, however. Asriel had a talk with her about what his father had suggested in befriending the human, and she had agreed with the assessment. However, from what Frisk told him, her own visit to the cell had shortened to the point that she barely did anything more than drop food and new word puzzles. Asriel also saw how Alphys seemed to have distanced herself from watching the screen of the cell, and instead focused most of her time on the Gaster Blaster Cannon. It made Asriel uncomfortable, but he could guess why she did so. The knowledge that the human monsters not only figured out her biggest contribution to the war, but was also (rightfully) blaming the scientist for her parents’ death created an irreversible rift in their already shaky relationship. Alphys hated fighting, hated seeing or participating in combat. Ironically, it meant her LOVE was one of the lowest in his group of close friends, even if her contribution caused the most deaths.

Frisk was the living embodiment of Alphys’s sins. The lizard scientist could not bear to look back at them.

Asriel was traversing Greenlake back to the lab again, this time his dimensional box containing an old TV set and some VHSs he had asked to be delivered from his old underground home. Human books, movies and games were all collected when they could be, because almost every monster had a taste for at least one of those. Back in the underground, years ago, teenagers and adults alike would go to the garbage dump and collect those treasures fallen from the human’s civilization. It had become one of their main bases for entertainment. Monsters had created their own stars and products from the example they were given, though even today, they admitted to the higher quality of most human products.

Back in the old days, Asriel’s father and mother had acquired quite a big collection of human movies, which he and Chara had watched, with fascination, for him, and soft derision for Chara. Asriel once loved movies so much her mother had given him his own portable human camera to practice with.

…After Chara… he quit his filming hobby.

Still, he hoped Frisk would enjoy his old movie collection. Alphys was a human good fanatic as well, but most of her interests were into a genre of mostly hand-drawn animated pictures called ‘Anime’, which Chara used to like and which she occasionally shared with her group of friends, with mixed result. Asriel was alright with the genre, but Sans was clearly uninterested, and Mettaton outright disgusted by it.

With how excited she was about Anime, Asriel guessed Alphys probably talked to Frisk about watching some with her, but given their current relationship…

When he arrived at the lab, he was not surprised to not see Alphys. Sans was nowhere in sight, either, but he was sure at least one of them was present, because with Frisk here, they could not afford to leave the lab without surveillance. He did not bother to look for them and headed straight for the cell. When the door slid open, the lights were off. He heard a low moan. Frisk switched on the cell’s light from the interrupter near her bed and blinked at him owlishly. For half a second, Asriel was afraid she was not decent, but she was fully clothed and over the bed sheets.

“Oh, sorry. I…didn’t realize you were asleep; I should have checked.”

Frisk groaned as she sat up, massaging her head near one of her short horn.

“…Wasn’t asleep… just tired.” She made a frustrated grunt and rose suddenly, kicking and sending the magic chain on her ankle up in the air. “I’m just so cramped in there! I think it’s messing up with my head! Can’t you let me out already?”

Asriel looked down with guilt.

“Sorry. I don’t think my military would approve of me letting you out in town… you know? With you being a war prisoner and all…”

She sighed and put a hand on her head again.

“Well can you at least find something to help me keep in shape or something? I think I’m dying of boredom in here!”

“I’ll talk about it with Alphys,” Asriel promised.

Frisk looked at her new watch and wrinkled her muzzle.

“Urg, and it’s that time of the day already? I missed lunch!” She checked the table with a frown. “Alphys didn’t bring anything?”

Asriel glanced back at the table and shrugged.

“She… probably saw you sleeping on her monitor and didn’t want to disturb you.” Asriel took a step out of the cell. “If you’re really hungry, I can go and bring you some food from the lab?”

She shook her head.

“No, stay. I’m not in the mood for instant noodle again… or that weirdly undercooked-burnt pasta.” She headed to the sink hidden under a private square part of her cell, covered by blue curtains. “I’ll be with you in a sec; I just need to drink and wash up a little.”

Asriel took a seat at the table as he heard the water rush out of the sink and splashing noises. He was not entirely sure what the deal humans had with water, but each time he went to see Frisk after she had taken a bath, he had to stop himself from giving her too many tips on fur cleaning, because she was definitely washing too much. He even brought one of his brushes once and showed her on himself how to properly comb so that she stopped being so shaggy looking. She had, of course, taken offence at the time, but judging by the brown strands on the brush near her bedside, she had taken his advices seriously.

She was still washing too much. When she came out of the “bathroom square”, it was with half-dried messy face-fur and a smell close to that of a wet dog.

“Maybe it’s that awful cooking making me ill,” Frisk pondered as she sat at the table with a sigh. “I mean, it would explain why I stopped having to go to the bathroom for almost two weeks now.”

Asriel threw her a weird look.

“… But you’ve just been to the bathroom.”

She made a face and shifted on her seat. She looked embarrassed, not an expression Asriel was used to see on her.

“That’s not what I meant! I mean the bathroom... you know? The toilet? The bathroom Alphys made me go to? For… you know…”

It took Asriel a certain time to recall why the word ‘toilet’ was familiar, before he remembered Chara having similar issues when they first arrived to the underground.

“Oh, that! Uh, yeah… we don’t really have that, here.” Asriel shrugged matter-of-factly. “Monster food is made of magic, so it doesn’t really digest like human food does. Instead, it’s just all absorbed into our body and turned into energy. Water doesn’t really go through us either. It mostly evaporates.”

Frisk just stared. Asriel felt slightly uncomfortable with her intensity.

“Wait… seriously? You can create whole food out of magic and you don’t even have to poop it? What can your freaking magic do that isn’t better than what we have?”

Asriel wasn’t sure what to answer to that, and instead replied with a question of his own.

“Shouldn’t you know this by now? You’ve been reading all those books about magic. Surely there was something about monster food.”

“Yeah, but nothing is ever written about the ‘not having to poop’ thing; it just says the energy is absorbed, not how much of it, or if there’s non-absorbable parts.” She clenched her muzzle with her hand in deep thought. “Actually, that’s probably because all those books were written by monsters and for monsters. They never had to mention the whole ‘completely assimilated’ thing because it’s just self-evident for you, isn’t it?”

“Uh… I guess?”

She hummed and took one of her books to look at it.

“It really makes you wonder how much I missed on all those explanations without knowing the proper context… I bet mom would’ve loved to…”

She trailed off, her expression darkening. Asriel figured this was time to change the topic.

“Anyway, I brought something different from the usual this time,” he announced as he stood up, looking around for a place to put his cumbersome gift. “Let’s see…”

He spotted an empty spot near a wall and reached into his dimensional box. He carefully deployed the TV set and the VCR with some tapes on the ground; then took a step back for Frisk to see it, with a bit of excitement in his soul.

“Here it is!” he proclaimed with a wave of hand. Frisk, her aura still a bit darkened by her thoughts, stared at the devices questioningly.

“Is that… a TV?”

“Yup!” He waited for… something to change in her expression, but she remained the same.

“…It’s old.”

Asriel blinked and shrugged; a hand on his neck.

“I… guess?”

“…It’s really old.” Frisk concluded, still looking a bit baffled. “I think my uncle had a broken one that looked like that… wait…” She threw Asriel a disbelieving look. “Is that even working?”

“Of course it’s working!” Asriel felt a bit insulted at the comment (and disappointed he had not impressed her with his human tech). “I’ve had it since I was a kid. I used to watch movies on it all the time!”

Frisk walked near the set, looked at it, then back at Asriel with a strange expression.

“Asriel, you’re old.”

For some reason, he felt slightly hurt by the very matter of fact statement and crossed his arm with a huff.

“I’m not; I’m pretty young for a Boss Monster.”

“You’re still really old.”

“You just say that because you humans’ lives are so short,” he retorts.

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me how you’re helping with that particular thing about us,” she sarcastically answered, looking at the tapes on the ground instead of Asriel, who had flinched in shame. “And what are those? Those aren’t disks,” she said as she took one of the small rectangular boxes.

“Uh, oh! Yeah, those are VHSs,” he explained, taking the one she was holding from her hand and putting it against the clapped opening of the VCR. “You just slide it inside and you can watch what’s on it on the TV screen.”

She seemed to understand and nodded. “Yeah, okay, so it’s like a- no, wait, I know what a VHS is!” She slapped her front in realization, then looked at Asriel. “Wow, you really are old!”

Preferring to abstain from replying this time, Asriel focused his attention on the VHS label instead.

“So, this one is a movie called ‘Ghostbusters’,” he read before smiling. “Oh I remember that one! Ch-I used to really like it! It’s about those ghost things that invade a human town!”

Frisk’s attention perked up.

“With a group of four men hunting them down, right?”

“You’ve seen it already?”

She shook her head.

“Nah, but Cam used to have a copy.  He raved on about it all the time.” Her expression grew sad again, but before Asriel had time to figure out how to react, she looked at him hopefully. “Think we could watch it?”

“Ah, sure! Hang on!” he answered right away, putting the tape into the device carefully, a slight flutter in his heart at the realization that she asked for ‘we’ to watch it instead of doing it on her own.

… Granted, he had yet to explain to her how to make the VCR work. That may have contributed to her wording choice.

He switched the screen on, the whole device powered by old monster magic. They both took a chair and positioned themselves in front of the TV; not that close to each other, but still not too far apart. Frisk moved her tail swiftly to accommodate her seating position and Asriel marveled at the speed she learned how to control her new limb. His own tail was thankfully too short to cause him much trouble.

Once comfortable, Frisk switched off the cell’s main light and Asriel started the movie. The copy had a few jumping glitches from all its uses and age, but it was still watchable. The young prince found himself rediscovering the story, filled with nostalgia. After a few scenes, he checked on Frisk and saw she was enthralled in the movie’s scenario, which made him happy. He occasionally gave small comments about it. Frisk did not seem bothered, and even looked interested by them, which made him even happier.

“You know, I know a few ghosts personally,” he casually mentioned. “They don’t look like that at all, though, and they don’t attack people.”

Some kind of expression flashed on her face and her eyes narrowed further than usual.

“Didn’t you use to fight human forces with ghosts, though? Before we found out some electromagnetic field frequencies could hurt them.”

“Well, yeah,” he admitted, throwing her a strange look. “But that was years ago. I’m surprised you even heard about that.”

“My dad died in a ghost attack,” she offered as an explanation. Asriel frowned.

“…I thought your dad died when your house… you know…”

“I meant my biological dad.”

It was all she said on the subject; Asriel knew better than asking further.

Three fourth into the movie, Asriel saw Frisk’s head starting to wobble from sleepiness. He thought about stopping the tape until an idea came to his mind. It was a bit stupid, but Asriel slid his seat next to hers and brought her head near his shoulder for support. She flinched at the contact and he felt a burst of hate in her aura that vanished as quickly as it appeared. The emotions replacing it were not anything coherent; Asriel could not really place a name on any of them. Instead, the whole package felt… grey. The young prince did not know what this meant, but Frisk had not said anything, so he supposed she was at least ‘not angry’ with him for his bold move.

By the time the movie reached its climax, he was certain that Frisk had fallen asleep. He hoped she would not be too disappointed later. After the final battle, Asriel heard the door cell slide open and felt Alphys’s aura near. He could not really move without disturbing Frisk, so he waited for her small steps to grow louder.

“h-hiya,” she called softly when the credit started to roll. Frisk shifted, either awoken from the song from the TV or Alphys’s presence. She massaged her eyes and stretched her arms. Asriel took this opportunity to turn and greet back the scientist, who was still standing at a safe distance.

“Howdy Alphys. How are you?”

“i…i was just bringing some new food for frisk,” she said as she put a few noodle packages on the table. “a-and some new word games… too.”

Frisk looked over at the table, blinking sleepily, then at Alphys, then back at the movie credit and wrinkled her muzzle.

“Missed the end… damn.”

“You can still watch it later,” Asriel offered.

She nodded and put her hand on her head groggily.

“Still so sleepy…”

“y-yeah, i-i thought you might still be,” Alphys mumbled back with a sad nod. “y-you should probably rest a little. we’ll… we won’t bother you more today.”

Since Frisk did not protest and started to head for her bed, Asriel figured it was time to go. He pulled out the VHS without rewinding it and shut off the TV. He would have time to explain Frisk its use later.

“I’m heading out, Frisk,” he announced as he joined Alphys at the door. “Today was… nice. I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?”

Frisk had already snuggled into her bed sheet, fully clothed. She barely raised a hand as an answer.

“Well, have a good night.”

When the door shut behind them, Asriel waited until they had walked further away into the corridor before addressing the scientist.

“Alphys, I know it’s hard for you to spend time with Frisk because of your… issues… but I really think you should give it a try. She’s… she’s not gonna hurt you, you know? She may not like us still, but she’s willing to hear us and give us a chance.”

“i… yeah, i know that,” Alphys said, looking down to her shaky hands. “but… but that isn’t… that’s not the most important thing right now…”

Asriel frowned at her tone. Her aura was giving out mixed feelings he did not like at all.

“What do you mean?”

“i… it’s that… i… i checked the readings… on the extractor on her soul… to see if… but there’s no issue on its draining speed… it’s something else i can’t…”

A sense of dread filled Asriel’s soul.

“Alphys, what are you saying?”

She took a breath and looked at him with distress.

“Asriel, Frisk is dying.”

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you can’t decrease the Extractor’s power? O-or even remove it altogether?”                                       

It was not the first time Asriel had asked Alphys that, but he was going in circles both in the lab and in his mind. The prospect of losing Frisk after all their works… to let yet another beacon of hope slip away from his people…

…The prospect of losing another one…

No, he shook the thought away because he knew it was not the same. She was not like them. She was not his friend… right?

“i-i already told you it’s too dangerous to do right now!” Alphys’s replied, her sweaty claws tapping on her computer’s keys. “Not only do we not know if her physical form can be rearranged again, but with all the time the Extractor had been grafted in there, if we turn it off now, the energy contained by it will blow out inside her soul for sure, like a… a small Determination bomb! I haven't perfected the Soul Drain to work around it yet! A-as for changing the draining speed… the draining speed is perfect as it is! Any more and she’ll be a goner, but any less and we’re back to the possibility of her physical form failing!”

He massaged his front frustratingly.

“Then, how do we stop that?”

“I. Don’t. Know!” She was almost screeching, which she never did unless Anime was involved. “The Extractor shouldn’t cause that! And according to the readings, it doesn’t! Something else is causing it, and I don’t know what it is!”

Asriel approached the computer, but he could not understand what the graphs on it meant.

“Don’t you have even a small clue as to what it could be Alphys? Even the most little thing you can think of?”

Alphys stopped her mad tipping and took a deep breath.

“there…there may have been something… about the way her energy is going down.” She enlarged one of the graphs. “according to the time stamps, she was already getting bad from the get go, then last week… after… you know… there had been a small peak of improvement, then it’s started to get bad again… but at a slower rate.”

Asriel looked at the graph and frowned.

“So… when she lashed out… it did something to improve her state? Can we… should we try and recreate what happened back then?”

“i-i'm not sure… we’d… we’d need to figure out what exactly in the soul is impacted by it. i-if only we-“

“heya.”

They both turned at the new voice.

“Sans.” Asriel kept his tone neutral.

“i… i called for him. i figured he could help.”

It made sense, even if the way the skeleton was staring at Frisk sleeping on the screen gave Asriel chills.

“heard the good news, figured I’d come and skele-brate.”

“That’s not funny,” Asriel stated. Sans turned his almost perpetually smiling face to him.

“nah… it’s not.” With a shrug, he walked toward them. “so, how can i help a skeleton crew work themselves down to the bone about a little lab rat’s life?”

Asriel glared.

“She’s not a ‘lab rat’, Sans. She’s a person like you and i.”

“really? doesn’t look like it when she’s in there and we’re out here.”

“Back to the point,” Alphys called out before this could escalate. “I believe it’s something else Frisk is losing, aside from the energy drain and Determination, that is causing her to get ill.” She concentrated on the graph on the screen. “If we could just figure out what variable changed during this week and before, we could find out what’s depleting exactly.”

“depleting, huh?” Sans looked at the screen with mild curiosity. “Say, alph, that’s a neat extractor redesign you pulled, there.”

“thanks, but there’s no time for a profound explanation of my tech,” the lizard woman snapped back distractedly.

“yeah, ‘f course; I was just wonderin’.” Sans continued looking at the screen, a hand on his chin. “if I recall, it’s an extractor meant to mostly siphon determination, as well as additional magic energy, from the human souls we have for cannon use, right?”

“it’s been redesigned to leave enough time for a living human soul like frisk’s to regain energy naturally to keep its form intact,” Alphys snapped back in frustration before turning to the skeleton. “Can’t you focus on the situation at hand?”

Sans raised his hands innocently.

“hey, sorry; it’s just that I’ve been gone so long without thinking about this stuff, I forgot some things… like… hey, alph, what do human souls need to persist again?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Determination, mostly; but it’s self-creating in Frisk, so it can’t-“

“yeah, sure, but… I forgot too… what do monster souls need to persist?”

She opened her mouth. Then she closed it. Asriel watched her repeat the process a few times, eyes widening.

“a-are you... no… it can’t… I can’t believe I forgot this variable!” Alphys started typing fast again, only more methodically. She brought up a few charts and read them, then closed them and went through multiple files. Asriel watched her do with a racing heart.

“What? What is it?”

“I think I know… no… I know why Frisk’s soul is depleting!” She exclaimed, almost in triumph. “I was so used to seeing human’s soul as a source of… I was checking Frisk’s change on the magical and I still hadn’t taken into account how humans and monsters are similar!”

“Alphys,” Asriel said in between his fangs. “What is the variable?”

She stopped and turned to him, looking perfectly assured.

“Human souls are very different from ours in many aspects; mostly because they perpetually create energy, especially Determination, and that allows them to persist after death. Us monsters aren’t naturally physical like human and need to use our soul power to make and hold our physical form, because of that, we cannot depend on physical bodies or an enough amount of Determination to thrive on like humans do. We have to rely on things that are present in both types of souls, but only essential to ours-”

“Get to the point!”

“Hope!” Alphys exclaimed, hands in the air. “Love and Compassion as well, but most importantly ‘Hope’! Hope is what prevents us from falling down! …Humans have ‘Hope’ as well, but aren’t dependants on it; however…”

Asriel’s eyes widened.

“…However, If a human soul like Frisk’s loses access to both its main energy and Determination; it would need to rely on ‘Hope’,” he finished in a whisper.

Sans shrugged his slouched shoulders, his grin slightly down.

“yeah… and we all know what happens to monsters who are captured by humans and put in cells, don’t we?”

The prince nodded gravely; it was a secret to no one.

“They ‘fall down’… because they have no hope.”

He took a breath and turned to Alphys.

“We need to let her go free.”

“yeah, with respect to ya, my lord, i don’t think so.”

Asriel turned to the skeleton, furious.

“She will die!”

Sans looked back with his usual expression.

“and? she’s not one of us.”

“Are you… would you just look at her!” Asriel threw an arm toward the screen. “She looks like us; is made of magic like us; is living of Hope, Love and Compassion like we do… in what way is she not one of us?”

“uh… all the other ones?” The skeleton answered, back, winking. “heh, you know, me think your developing goat monster’s soulmate searching instinct is making you miss the forest for the tree, if you'll excuse the expression.”

Asriel’s anger hid the furious blush on his cheeks.

“That… is not the point! She could look like any monsters, she would still have to be treated as such! You don’t know her like I do, Sans, you never tried to look past what she was! But she has dreams, hopes and feelings… like any of us do! We’ll truly become like the monsters from human tales if we don’t acknowledge that!”

“oh, I acknowledge it, alright, my royal pal; and if you allow me to say so, I acknowledge who she is more than you do now.” Sans closed his eyes. “and what she is still is a human; one of our enemies. she’s something that won’t hesitate to either kill us or escape at the first opportunity she has, because she knows very well we’re enemies. maybe alph is right and she can’t get her bones rattled enough to change back, but if she’s not, and that thing you keep does turn human again, not only will we have to deal with a very determined being who has proven to be able to kill trained royal guards, but one who has a good knowledge of our magic… and our kingdom’s functioning, at that.”

 Sans opened his eye-socket again, but this time, the usual white glow in them had vanished, leaving two black holes.

“And   let   me   tell   you,   your   majesty… if   our   kingdom   falls   because   of   your   foolishness…   it   will   mean   a   bad…   bad   time   for   us   all.”

It took all of Asriel’s willpower to hold his stance against the skeleton’s crushing aura. Sans was not a fighter, but he was powerful in his own right; one of the most skilled magic user the prince personally knew. Even if his Hope was in contrast the lowest Asriel had ever witnessed in a non-fallen monster, he had gained LOVE. And Sans used the little energy he had for the cause of monsters, mostly for Papyrus’s sake.

He would oppose anyone who endangered his brother, even if it was the heir of the king himself.

But Asriel would not back down. As a prince, he would fight no matter what due to the weight of his position. And as a Boss Monster, he was naturally stronger than any other type of monsters. Even with his half-stunted growth and his lack of stature, even against someone as magically inclined as Sans, Asriel knew he would have the upper hand.

…But Asriel also knew that the skeleton was in the right. His first duty was for his people.

…Even if it meant losing-

“Undyne!”

Both Sans and Asriel turned back to Alphys, whose fist was currently hitting her palm.

“…what about undyne, alph?”

“Undyne is coming with her troops tonight! She’ll be on a leave for a while,” the lizard explained to them with a smile. “Undyne is one of the strongest monsters in the kingdom; one of the few able to physically restrain adult humans! She… she already dealt with Frisk when she was at her strongest, when she was human! She’d have no problem watching over her if we let her wander out in town!”

Asriel was a bit put off by the scientist’s enthusiasm, but as he thought about it, the idea grew in its appeal. He could not release Frisk, but he could organize actual outings for her! It would need to be very strictly controlled, of course… but it would also help in a potential integration if she met other monsters; maybe even monsters who had no idea of who she was and would talk to her as an equal. She could see with her own eyes the inherent goodness of his people!

She had asked for more space and physical activities… it would solve this need as well.

Asriel let his hope germinate.

Sans was no fan of the idea.

“alph, no offence to your fishy crush, but even if she’s willing to throw us a bone and help… and she may not, given what the human did to her royal guards… even if she helps, that would still be too risky because the human managed to turn herself into the strongest type of monsters we know of. undyne deals well with humans, but huge magical beings like asriel over there are still a pretty tough league. even one who doesn’t know how to be a boss monster and who has a limited hope is still too much of a threat in open ground.”

Alphys shook her head.

“But Sans, we don’t just have Undyne, we have you! Your use of blue magic is the best-“

“second,” Sans corrected.

“-Second best in our entire kingdom! Her soul is still human-shaped, you will be able to ground Frisk easily if she tries anything, and Undyne will be able to capture her back without risks if you do!”

Sans shifted uncomfortably.

“uh… thanks for the pep talk, alph, but uh… there’s a few reasons why that plan won’t work.” He shrugged and winked. “the first reason being that… even if i weren’t so lazy, i would still refuse to participate in a plan i think is bad in the first place.”

Asriel took a step forward and faced the skeleton.

“Sans, as one of the co-ruler of our kingdom and your prince; by Royal Decree, I am ordering you to guard the human monster Frisk during her trips out of her cell. You shall both watch over the town citizens and Frisk herself. You shall restrain her if she tries to either flee or wound, and help in her safe recapture.”

The look Sans gave Asriel was a mix of annoyance, disappointment and admiration.

“aw, az… why did ya have to ‘royal decree’ me into this? You know i hate those…”

Asriel crossed his arms with satisfaction.

“Consider it a repayment for that little power-surge you just lashed at me. You should be glad; there was once a time when the sentence for that was forced labor… with no Union Approved Breaks.”

“wow, don’t you talk about those dark times to me, i’m gonna have nightmares tonight.” The skeleton shifted his stance and glanced back at the camera screen. “’f course, the real nightmare begins tomorrow.”

Asriel looked at the screen as well. He watched Frisk shift in her sleep, unaware of the future Asriel had mapped out for her. This time, he could truly see an alternative to her suffering; he could truly see a way to peace.

Maybe not all humans could accept it…

…but maybe Frisk could be one of the few who did.

Chapter Text

Asriel spent the night and the next morning planning out Frisk’s day. He knew better than to bring her to crowded areas, where her potential to harm was higher. Instead, he chose a safe place in Greenlake’s main inner park. The town had been built around a small lake surrounded by bright vegetations, and a wall had been built over a small green area, which was mainly used for civilians’ leisure, but was occasionally requisitioned for the training of the king’s troops. Asriel reserved it easily.

A closed off space would be easier to seal off to contain Frisk, would she try anything stupid.

Asriel wanted to believe she would not, though.

He had informed Undyne of the plan the night she arrived. She had not been pleased by this, but did not protest the demand. Undyne was loyal to the kingdom above all, and if her prince believed he could help his people doing this, she would follow his lead.

With his crew, Asriel could give his prisoner at least a few hours of (restrained) freedom. The thought made his spirit lift a little.

“I still can’t believe it, even when I’m looking right at it,” Asriel heard Undyne mutter as he entered into the lab. Undyne’s attention was on the screen showing Frisk, who was busying herself with making the bed, clearly having just woken up. “To think this… thing killed three of my best soldiers and gets to live a new comfy life instead of getting what it deserves… it makes me boil inside.”

Asriel stepped to the Royal Guard captain; she was wearing her strongest armor, the only piece lacking being the helmet.

“You know that’s unfair to her,” Asriel defended the captive as he joined Undyne. The fish monster turned sharply to look at him. “Our forces invaded her home town and killed her people. Your Royal Guards would have killed her if she gave them the chance. She was just defending herself; we don’t judge our own harshly when they kill humans in self-defence.”

Undyne’s lips stretched into a hissing snarl.

“She attacked Papyrus, Asriel; Papyrus! You think this was self-defence? Do you see Papyrus trying to hurt anything?” She turned back at the screen just in time to see Frisk disappear under the blue curtain of her bathroom’s square and made a whizzing sigh. “Losing Greater Dog, Dogamy and Dogaressa in one go was painful enough already, Asriel; but of all the time to use this weird machine, why did you have to do it then?” She looked back at him with bitterness and restrained pain. “Why did you have to choose this human to become one of us? Why did you have to choose this killer?”

Asriel looked at his friend with sadness, then gave her his carefully thought out response.

“Who among us is no killer, Undyne? Who among us has brought no harm to others? Even…” He closed his eyes. “Even Papyrus’s trap designs were used and modified to prevent any human from reaching our borders, in ways that are almost always lethal.” He looked back at her mirthlessly. “She… and many humans… have dust on their hands… but none of us can deny that we have the blood of their fallen on ours.”

Undyne clenched her fist, then she looked down and did a small chuckle.

“You know? Humans’ books and movies made me think they were kind of ‘cool’, back when I was little. Then, when I got in age to fight, I saw that most of it was a lie. They had no grand knights, or giant swords; they didn’t send their warrior princesses or robots to fight us… instead, everything was so… grey… grey and red. I… humans are liar. They… they lie about their glorious wars and fighting prowess all the time. I was wondering if, perhaps, they didn’t send out wrong information about themselves to us, underground… so that we would be too cowardly to fight… so that we would never dare to declare war on them.” She crossed her armed and looked into the distance. “Now that I’m older… I think the ones they try to fool are themselves. Humans lie about their skills to give themselves hope if anything comes their way and strikes at them… like we did.”

Undyne looked back at her prince with a serious expression.

“Don’t lie to your people, Asriel; don’t lie to me: what you’re doing… what you make us do… this isn’t just a stunt to keep monsters’ hope high, is it? This… this is more than that, right? This is something that will bring peace again, like the rumor says?”

Asriel stared back into her intense and unique eye, searched for the answer within himself and declared:

“I believe it. As… as hard as it is to imagine… I do.”

He saw the subtle shift in her gaze. Asriel knew he had won her over, at least partially.

“heya; looks like heavy thinking goin’ on, here.”

They both turned in startle and noticed Sans beside them.

“NGAH! SANS, YOU SLACKER! AT LEAST GIVE US A WARNING YOU’RE HERE!” Undyne burst out loudly, as she was prone to do when angered. The short skeleton gave her a half-assed shrug and looked at the screen.

“didn’t want to intrude. so, is the little human princess ready for her trip yet?”

Asriel shook his head.

“She’s showering right now. She does that way too often,” he added in a mutter. “Anyway, we have to wait until Alphys is back with her restrictive shackles. We’ll probably be ready for lunching over there.” He raised his phone. “I bought some food from our local spider pastry seller and others.”

“ah, a picnic under the trees. awesome. too bad I didn’t warn my bro, though,” Sans said, “he could’ve made us some of his best pasta recipe.”

“Oh YEAH!” Undyne exclaimed, pumping a fist. “I hope the sack of bones didn’t use his bed-ridden time to slack off on improving his cooking skills, or I’m gonna be MAD!”

Asriel thought back to the pasta plates Sans was bringing to the lab for Frisk to eat and felt glad he did not warn the skeleton.

Alphys joined them a good twenty minutes later with four little blue bracelets in pair.

“Okay, so I finally found the models I made for the last MTT show with the square box of water and, uh… yeah…” She presented the bracelets to Asriel. “So, those two go onto her wristles and the other two on her ankles. She’ll be able to walk and move freely with those on until you give it the word command. I managed to specifically tailor it to your voice, Asriel. When activated, it will link both her hands and legs to each others; this should gives us enough times to deal with… anyway, the activation range is thirty feet, and the activation words are… uh, “got legs”.

“…”

“…”

“… ‘Got legs’…” Asriel repeated slowly.

“…uh… yeah…” Alphys looked on the side while sweating bullets. “B-be careful n-not saying it by mistake.”

“yeah, az, careful when you give your lady compliments.”

Asriel threw a short glare at Sans before heading off to get Frisk.

When he arrived, He found her combing her still damp fur, sitting on the bed. Asriel had to resist the urge to take the brush and do it himself, because she had the look of a wandering street cat after a rainfall. Instead, he pulled out some new clothes he had gotten for her and put them on the table.

“Howdy, Frisk. How are you feeling today?”

Instead of answering, she frowned and looked at her watch.

“Okay, now that is super early for you. I thought you were all into your paperwork at this hour. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he casually answered with a shrug. “I just figured you could use some fresh air today.”

The human monster stilled and stared.

“…what.”

Asriel massaged the back of his head.

“Well, you did say you wanted out, right? I’m organizing a little outing for you.”

“…now?”

“If you’re willing to…”

“Oh, my god, seriously.” She put her brush down with a baffled expression. “I know I’m your prisoner and all, but a little warning would have been nice!”

“Sorry, I… kind of had to decide quickly,” he answered with a shrug. “If you still want to go out, I got you some street clothes to wear.”

“Of course I want out; better than rotting here all day long.” She suddenly perked up. “Wait, is this why your fish lady soldier is here? To escort me?”

Asriel looked behind him, but no one else had arrived yet.

“Her name is Undyne, she’s the captain of the Royal Guard, and yes, she’s here to escort you.” He looked at her curiously. “How did you know she’s here, though?”

“She smells like sushi,” Frisk gave as an answer.

“… Who’s ‘Sushi’?”

“Wh- erg, ‘sushi’ aren’t a person,” she corrected with a hand in her hair. “They’re… urg… it’s just a human food.”

“HEY! WE HAVE ‘SUSHI’ HERE TOO, YOU KNOW?” Undyne’s voice boomed from behind Asriel, where both she and Alphys had arrived. Asriel walked into the cell to let them in. “Alphys made some for us during our Anime night; it was GREAT!”

Undyne's words reminded Asriel that 'sushi' was indeed a thing in those Anime Chara, and later Alphys, watched. Frisk had stood up in surprise from the noise and was now looking at Undyne with an eyebrow raised.

“…You had sushi.”

“Yeah!”

“Alphys gave you sushi.”

“They were pretty good, too!”

Frisk threw a weird look at the lizard scientist, who was sweating hard for a reason Asriel could not understand.

“Uh… Asriel… you should, uh… put the bracelets on, now,” Alphys stuttered.

“Oh, right.” Reminded of the matter at hand, Asriel walked to Frisk. “I need to put those on you.”

Frisk did not ask what the bracelets were; Asriel figured she had guessed. She raised her arms to him and let him put the blue bands on each of them. He then repeated the process on her legs… She really did ‘got legs!’…

…Damn it, he really needed to get this out of his head.

“Uh, now, hang on, Frisk, I-I’ll just have to…” Alphys trailed off as she slowly walked to the prisoner and produced a key to open the lock on her thin magical chain ankle. “There! N-now you’re ready to go!”

Frisk massaged the ankle the chain had been on and walked toward the pile of clothes. She took one in her hands and turned back at them with a pointed look. Asriel took an embarrassing moment to figure out what she meant and pushed the two other monsters outside the cell along with himself.

“We’ll, uh, wait until you’re ready.”

She just nodded with an unimpressed face.

“I’ll call.”

--

When the group stepped out of the building, Frisk, who was behind Alphys, but in front of Asriel, Undyne and Sans, stopped walking and looked up to the cloudless sky. It had been weeks since she had seen it, Asriel realized. He and the others waited silently for her to stop her sun basking.

She had decided on wearing a blue and purple stripped lose sweater and a wide pair of grey shorts. Asriel figured she must have been uncomfortable wearing things that were touching her fur, like he often was. He reminded himself to give her some of the robes he had. Her fur had not dried up completely in the lab, but now that she was out, she had stopped shivering, and her face had relaxed into an expression close to bliss as the sun was giving her fur a golden sheen.

Seeing her like this, with her eyes closed and an air of peace she never wore; Asriel was reminded of how beautiful she was.

“I thought I’d never feel this again,” she muttered softly, before opening her eyes. There was a wet shimmer in them. “A-and so… this is where I was all this time?” she asked in a wavering voice, looking at the town. A civilian transport flew through the sky and she observed it curiously.

Asriel nodded and gently pushed her forward.

“Yes. This is Greenlake, a town near the border,” he presented. “I, uh… I would say, ‘welcome here’, but, uh… ah, whatever! Welcome to Greenlake!”

“It’s so colorful,” Frisk noted as they walked again.

“All monster towns are,” Asriel told her as they headed to the park. There were not many monsters around at this time, but Asriel wanted to arrive before the street filled and people noticed their group. Monsters were pretty friendly and would try and talk to them. Asriel wanted Frisk to have some times to acclimate before being confronted by them... not to mention the rare soldiers on their leaves who had been present during her transformation might use this opportunity to talk and find out more about her. Given reviving such painful memories might prevent her 'Hope-lifting', Asriel made a note to ask them to keep their distance for now.

“Why’s that?”

“Huh?”

“Why are your towns so colorful? Your border towns, I mean,” Frisk asked again. Asriel shrugged.

“Why wouldn’t they be?”

“Doesn’t that take time to do?”

“Not much.”

“Magic?”

“Yeah.”

They continued walking the streets filled with trees and drawings of blue flowers. Alphys was leading, awkwardly because of her short legs and Undyne had positioned herself beside Frisk and Asriel to keep her eye on the captive. Sans was in the back still, getting much further behind even though their group’s speed was pretty slow.

“…Why, though?”

“OH MY GOD! WE JUST LIKE PRETTY COLORS, ALRIGHT?” Undyne exclaimed, her hands at the sky in frustration. “Seriously, am I asking you why your towns are always so dull and grey all the time, hu- uh, you little punk?”

Frisk looked at Undyne with surprise.

“Our towns aren’t colored mostly because it makes them easy target for your missiles from afar; I thought this was obvious,” she replied with a shrug. “And we can’t use green or brown paints because most of those are kept for the military and we can’t afford it.” She crossed her arms and cocked her head at the fish monster. “But why aren’t you doing the same, though? I know our forces throw bombs and missiles regularly at you. Aren’t you worried to get hit?”

Undyne snorted and waved her hand.

“Please, the King can deflect those easily! He sees those things coming from miles away! Not to mention the magic field every town has!" She took an air of superiority. “Your… I mean… human militaries are just wasting their time doing this.”

“Oh.”

There was another silent walking time before Frisk looked around and commented:

“Say, the town’s pretty empty. Are they all… fighting?”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Asriel reassured her. “It’s just very early in the day. Most monsters here are on leaves, or are civilians.”

“Ah.” Frisk frowned and grasped one of her arms. “You know, this reminds me of something… I’ve seen a captured monster once.”

They all looked at her in surprise. Even Alphys, who had to twist her neck. Frisk nodded to herself and continued.

“Yeah… I remember it was some sort of giant frog with spikes. You monsters had attacked a town and were surprised from behind or something. Anyway, they caught one of the monsters alive. It was a great celebration, because it had been our first victory in a while. The military had paraded it all around the streets. It was strapped like a meat sack onto a tank. People around were cheering our men and throwing stuff near the frog... but not at it, because we all know how weak your bodies are; it had big eyes that were all watery, like gelatin… I thought they might get hit and burst all over …”

Asriel felt himself getting sick as he heard her tale. He could see Alphys and Undyne were as disturbed by it as he was.

Frisk made a small chuckle and stopped walking.

“So, I was remembering this the other day, and thought: ‘hey, what has been missing from this whole ‘getting captured by the enemy’ thing? Oh, wait, I know: A parade of victory'!” She spread her arms wide, making Asriel and Undyne take a step away. “Where’s my parade, little prince? Aren’t I supposed to be some sort of symbol of hope for your people? Am I not supposed to be the future of mankind incarnate? Why hide me away when you can just showcase me as new product? Why-“

“Frisk!” Asriel exclaimed in horror. “I’m not… We’re not going to do that to you! We’re not… we’re not like this! You don’t… you don’t have to show yourself to people! I mean… when you’re ready… you could present yourself if you want… but we’re not going to force the spotlight on you! You could even… you could even live as a normal monster if you want…”

He trailed off when he saw Frisk’s surprised look on him.

“…so… they don’t know? The monsters here… they don’t know who I am?”

He shook his head.

“We’re not going to parade you around bragging we beat you. These monsters will get to know you on your own term, without any kind of false opinions about you,” he told her softly. “It’s… only right.”

She stared at him with a baffled expression, and for a moment, he wondered if she would cry. Instead, he saw a smirk forming on her lips and felt a strange unease growing inside.

“…So,” She started slowly. “What you’re saying… is that if I were to hypothetically find a way to leave the lab and flee in town, no one would be able to figure out who I was? I could hide among them?” Her smile grew a little wider. “Did you think of that when you decided to take a war prisoner into a civil town and make her take nice little walks?”

He had not. He found himself cursing his lack of foresight as much as Frisk’s blatant provocation, because Undyne had clearly tensed up and was making a gripping motion with one of her hand which signaled she was ready to create one of her signature magic spears. Undyne did not know about Frisk’s usual jeers at his bad strategy-making. He hoped he could ease the newly created tension.

“But you won’t do it,” he replied with a shrug he hoped was casual. “You wouldn’t have mentioned it if you wanted to try.”

She crossed her arms.

“You’re too trusting,” she said, then sighed. “How many others like me have you made, anyway? It’s been a few weeks already; surely you- gwah!“

She suddenly jerked forward with a small yelp. It took Asriel a few seconds to realize Sans had used his gravity spell on her soul.

“a’right, enough info-gathering, princess; time to go to your rendezvous,” the skeleton said in a seemingly relaxed tone. “you can get all our secrets from the prince when you two are on your own.”

Frisk, a hand on her chest, threw him a dirty look and Undyne made a whistling sound.

“So, that little small talk was to grill us, huh?” the fish lady asked with a tone between disgust and admiration. “You really are a sneaky little punk, aren’t you?” Her expression darkened. “…In addition to being a cowardly killer.”

Frisk, having recovered from Sans’s surprise magic hold, stood up to the taller monster with an impassive face.

“Don’t expect me to be sorry for it.”

Undyne’s eye locked into the human monster’s ones for a few seconds, before she snorted a bitter laugh.

“Heh; yeah, I really shouldn’t, right?” She closed her eye with a sigh. “Damn it… You killed them… all three of them… we haven’t even had time for their funeral yet… I should hate you… I don’t like you, but I know I should be feeling more strongly against you…” She looked at Frisk again with a tired eye. “It’s weird… I really thought seeing you again would make me want to pierce your soul right away, but… you’re just a victim in this, too, huh? You’re a killer… but you’re a victim at the same time… just some kid who have been force-fed lies by their people and turned against us… like we have been doing to our own for millennia.”

With a mirthless smile, she turned to Asriel.

“I guess you were right about this, huh?”

Frisk looked at her with a strange expression, then at Asriel, then back at her again. She then flicked her tail and made a frustrated growl.

“You too? Even you? Is your entire species mental? What are you getting so compassionate about?” She stomped her foot and her aura flashed with hate and disgust. “All of you killed more of my own than I could ever kill of yours and you still judge my killing like this is some common ground! You’re war criminals! You decimate whole towns! Countries! You think you’re the only ones who lost…” Her throat constricted and she swallowed. “You’re getting all sappy when you see me… you’re getting all pitying and comforting… but you don’t give the same treatment to the other humans you cross, do you?” Tears started to stream down her face and she glared at Undyne. “Yeah, your stupid dogs had no problem hacking a little kid alive after blowing up his whole town! Goat-face over here has no problem finishing off the survivors, execution-style! You have no problem killing us! WHY ARE YOU BEING COMPASSIONATE TO ME! WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS TREATMENT?”

Most of the monsters present gave her knowing and saddened looks.

“Frisk,” Asriel said softly, raising a hand to her. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She turned to him, aura flaring with anger.

“Neither. Did. Any of us! We did nothing to you! You just started going on a rampage against a whole species because some of them killed your mom! You judge me badly when I kill those who murdered Cam in front of me, but you did even worse to everyone! You kill us and your great idea for restoring the peace you broke is the genocide of my entire species! Even if it means having to turn us into one of you! Do you even have an idea of how fucked up this all is, Asriel?”

“I do,” he answered, trying to send to her his calm and understanding. “But you know we can’t stop the war anymore, Frisk. If… we’d stop everything in a heartbeat if we could. We have to make compromise… we have to find solutions to stop it now… and… and finding those solutions will take time…”

“I’ve got a solution for you,” Frisk said in an impassive tone. “Why don’t you all just die?”

Asriel had to take a step back to recover. Frisk continued in the same low emotionless voice.

“You said you’d stop the war if you could, right? Why don't you just die? Or even, why don’t you all crawl back into the hole you came from and never come back? We were here first, after all; why don’t you leave? Why is it that we have to disappear? Do you think of us all as dirty magicless violent primates that don’t deserve to exist? Do you think yourself as morally superior, with your soul working on “hope, love and compassion” that the nasty human soul has no need for? Do you think we’re just useful as a fuel for your machines?”

“F-Frisk… that’s not-“

“You only have compassion for me because I look like you, Asriel. You’re all blinding yourself if you think this is due to anything else. You kill human children all the times without mercy, and only grant me the honor because you decided that day that I would be your little experiment for your project of mass extinction.”

“I…” Asriel gulped and tried to find the right words. “Frisk… we don’t… we don’t want to make humans disappear-“

“But you would if you could, wouldn’t you?” She cut him, “That’s why I’m even here, after all. I’m the control case.” She snorted. “I asked if you made others, but I already know the answer; all I have to do is see who keeps me company.” She waved at him. “The prince of monster himself comes to see me every day.” She pointed at Undyne. “I got THE captain of the Royal Guard to watch over my little outing, and most important of all:” She threw her arms toward Alphys. “I got the Royal Scientist herself to built ugly little devices to snap on my soul that are doing I don’t know what in there, making me all weak!”

“i-it’s n-not the extractor doing that,” Alphys protested lowly, her head down in shame.

“Oh, it’s not? Well, thank you for the info; I feel much better about the little thing stuck on my inner self now!”

“ok, lassie, enough barking around; it’s time for your visit to the park.”

As he said that, Sans magically threw her soul forward again. She caught herself, looked at Sans, laughed bitterly and started to walk again.

“Well, little prince; be glad at least someone on your side understands how this all works.”

Chapter Text

 Asriel had hoped the tension would ease at least a little once they reached the park, but her words were still ringing in his ears. He thought… he thought he had reached her at least a little; he thought her cooperative demeanor and willingness to talk meant she was at least trying to see their side, at least understand it a bit.

Now, he was not even really sure she had been the one needing to understand the other side. Asriel knew he could be a bit slow on the uptake.

He did not like his role in the war. He wanted nothing more than ending all the death and suffering it was causing.

…But still, what more could he do than try to help her? The one he could actually help. He could not stop attacking his enemies, and he could not stop defending his people. The only human he could spare, for the sake of his people, was Frisk.

He thought back to what she said about creating more of her kind. No matter if she was thinking this was wrong, it could help. It could help if he could at least save others.

…But if they were as full of hate for his people as Frisk, how was he to proceed?

“…It’s nice here.”

He looked at Frisk in surprise. She was looking up at the green and brown leaved trees, speaking with a soft tone. There was a light wind rustling her ears back along with her mid-length hair. Seeing her calm like this made Asriel ease a little in turn.

“Yeah, it is.” He pointed above Alphys at the lake. “We should settle near the shore to eat. I think we’ll be able to find a good spot over there.”

“cool, all this workout have tired my old joints,” Sans commented from the back, earning a glare from Undyne.

“Get yourself in shape already, Sans, you’re not even that old!”

“i didn’t get a good calcium intake when i was a baby bone.”

The two kept their friendly banters going until the group found their spot, under the shadow of an old tree. Asriel pulled out a big picnic sheet from the dimensional box in his phone and Frisk sat cross-legged on a grassy spot, seemingly enjoying the contact with the fresh vegetation. She looked at the sheet with a wry smile.

“Wow, it even has red and white squares on it like in the pictures… you really are doing this by the book.”

“careful, az, you really don't wanna work yourself ‘down to the bone’ on stuffs like this; we don't need additional competition in the skele-buisness.” Sans sat against the tree, spreading his legs in front of him in the perfect stance of someone ready to take a long nap. Undyne’s armor creaked and squeaked when she tried to sit.

“Urg… damn it!”

“heh, that’s what you get for bringing an armor to a picnic snack, huh, undyne?”

“I swear I’m gunna… urg, and  it’s too freaking hot today!”

“Uh…m-maybe y-you could take it off?” Alphys suggested with a flushed face. She had sat the farthest away from Frisk, but much closer to Undyne than the others.

“…Okay, you know what? Fine! I’m getting this off!” The fish lady stood up and violently started to strip off the metallic parts, sending them flying around.

“NGAAAAAH!”

A part from the leg coverings bounced back on the ground near Frisk’s tail; she bleated and recoiled in fright.

“Ah! What the- are you insane?”

Undyne ignored her and removed the last piece triumphantly. She exposed her black top and shorts to the world, a big fanged smile on her lips.

“Aw, YEAH! Now, THAT’S much better!”

Asriel blinked at her.

“You'd better clean all that up now.”

“… Yeah, okay.”

She went on to pick all the pieces of her armor under Alphys’s gaze, who was very red-flushed, and Asriel finished pulling out the picnic food, drinks and napkins. Frisk was watching all this with a baffled look and glared at Sans when he chuckled at her.

“Alright,” Asriel said when they were all finally installed. “I’ve got us some of the best pastries in the kingdom today, plus some Nice Creams. I’ve got your favorite flavors for you, guys.” he looked at Undyne and Alphys, mostly. Sans was not really the Nice Cream type. “...Plus, some more different ones to pick.” He took a ring-shaped purple pastry and handed it to Frisk. “Why don’t you try this, Frisk? This donut is one of our spider bakers’ specialties.”

Frisk took the donut slowly and gave it a careful bite. Asriel watched her munch it with a thoughtful expression.

“It’s… not bad,” she finally decided after swallowing it. “It’s a little rubbery, though… I can’t really figure out how the paste is made… What’s in there?”

“Spiders,” Undyne answered casually as she took a donut for herself. Frisk spat out the other bite she had taken and coughed violently. Asriel watched her with concern until she got her breathing back and stared at them with boggled eyes.

“Are you- I-I though spiders were the bakers?”

“Uh, th-they are,” Alphys helpfully told her with a slightly worried look, “s-spiders eat spiders, so-“

“Oh my god, are you serious?” Frisk threw her arms up in the air in disbelief. “Undyne eats sushi; spider monsters eat spiders, and we’re supposed to be the savages here? What the heck is wrong with you all?”

 “What’s wrong with me eating sushi?” Undyne asked with an eyebrow raised as they all puzzled at her outburst. Frisk did not look like she heard her, though. It was like an awful realization had dawned on her.

“Oh, god… don’t tell me you eat humans too, like the rumors say?” She looked at them pleadingly. “You’re not eating us, right? You’re not making me eat humans, right?” She clenched her hands on her chest and muzzle. “Oh, my god, is that what the sauce in those awful noodles is? Is that human stew?”

“nah, we don’t eat humans, princess,” Sans reassured casually from his spot under the tree as she was hyperventilating. “too many bones and matters for us. We prefer lighter, non physical stuffs.”

“Uh, look; you can try this cinnamon bunny instead.” Asriel hastily shoved in her hands the rabbit-shaped cinnamon. “I promise it’s not made with bunnies… or anything that, uh, was moving or talking.”

It took a while for Frisk to calm down and relax. She had started to eat again hesitantly, but was careful to always ask the content of the food. The atmosphere had eased a little and the monsters started to lightly converse with each others. Asriel sometimes addressed Frisk, but it looked like she was content in listening, so he did not force her.

When it came the time to eat the Nice Creams, Asriel presented a few flavors for Frisk to choose from. She picked a chocolate flavored one, which made his soul jump a bit from an old memory. She looked at the wrapper, read the message asking if her claws were natural with a short humorless laugh and started to lick the cream cone appreciatively.

“Sans, no; you can’t stack hotdogs on a dog’s head, even for ironic reasons!”

“aw, but come on, undyne; imaging how hilarious all them dogs would look all piled up and swinging like this weird human monument tower that leans to the side? It’d be great!”

“NGAH! The dog wouldn’t just stand there, Sans! Dogs aren’t lazy like you are!” Undyne was wiggling her arms in protest, making Alphys slide away a bit.

“yeah, you’re right. it would be too much work.” He then looked at Frisk, winking. “hey, why don’t we stack hotdogs on a human's head instead? i know you don’t much look the part now, princess, but you can pull off a dog face with those cute ears of yours; how ‘bout it?’

“Sans,” Asriel scolded warningly. The skeleton shrugged innocently.

“hey, i was just kidding, az, hope i didn’t 'get your goat'.”

Frisk did not look particularly offended, however. She just raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

“I’m your prisoner; it’s not like I can protest much with what you want to do with me.”

Her words made Asriel’s heart constrict. Before he could reply to her, however, Undyne jumped on her feet with her fists at the sky.

“NGAAAH! All this talk about stacking things on people’s heads makes me want to find boulders and stack them on MY HEAD! Yeah! I bet this would be awesome training stuff!” She started to look around. “Okay, now where did we put the rocks?”

Asriel shifted in front of Frisk protectively.

“Undyne, we’re not throwing boulders anywhere near here!”

“GAH! You’re such a kill-joy, sometimes, Asriel!” Her face brightened again. “Hey, why don’t you and I do a sparring match near the lake instead? It’s been like forever since we did that!”

Frisk looked at Asriel curiously.

“You actually know how to fight?”

Asriel felt embarrass at her questioning his skills.

“I’m the heir to the throne; of course I learned how to fight!”

“Pff yeah!” Undyne agreed with a huge smile. “And he’s been pretty tough when he was younger, you know, since he’s a Boss Monster and all! Now that he spends all his time filling papers sitting on his butt, though, I bet even SANS could take him on!”

“Okay, now that’s low,” Asriel protested, standing up, “and a completely unfounded assumption!”

Undyne was beaming.

“It’s game, then! Alright! Come here, your majesty!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward her before pointing a finger at Sans. “You and Alphys watch the fort, and you, hu- uh, punk,” she added, pointing to Frisk. “Just sit here and admire the glory of our fighting spirit!”

She dragged Asriel away before he could say anything.

Chapter Text

Frisk watched Undyne correct the prince of all monsters on his stance tauntingly. Soon, they were swinging and trading magic blows, laughing.

Monsters were seriously messed up.

… Not that she had not known before, but she found herself learning all the additional ways in which they actually were. She bet every single human strategist would have a field day with everything she had learned.

Wind blew softly on the tuft of her tail and she shifted it around her with disturbing ease; finding herself, like she often was now, loathing every single part of her being. She took a soft breath, let a mask of impassiveness slide on her monstrous furred face and licked the Nice Cream to distract herself from all this. The frozen chocolate touched a row of bestial teeth in her mouth and she had to let the uncomfortable cold feeling pass.

She had to cover the mirror above the sink.

She had to take the time every mornings, when prying herself awake from blurred nightmares, to recite in her head everything that had happened… to stop herself from going mad.

She had to look everyday at the faces of those responsible for Cam and her parents’ deaths.

She still had to stop herself from throwing a fist or a kick at Asriel’s annoying… disgusting goat face.

She had to remind herself everyday what that face was like when he looked down at her, back then; back to before. When everything was clear-cut: she was human, they were monsters. Everything was simple. There was not this weird muddy ground of confused feelings and hypocritical understanding.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to tear at them, making them wriggle with the same pain they had dealt her and all humans… and she was not even human enough to do that, now. The thought made her ill. She looked at the pretty trees and the peaceful water of the lake. The sky was a beautiful deep blue. Nature looked the same as before, back home, when she still had a home to return to.

Everything around was so sickening.

“uh… u-undyne’s pretty good, isn’t she?”

Frisk turned her head to look at the stuttering sweaty lizard sitting afar. Even as she tried to converse, it looked like she was closing off, looking away from Frisk’s neutral face. Her look of guilt gave Frisk both a sense of satisfaction and frustration. She was glad the monster was suffering from what she had done, but also incredibly angry knowing that she would get away scot-free from it. They were all above consequences here. They were all praised for the murders and the suffering they caused. Unless she found a way to drag their bodies away and to the human-side of the border, this was the awful, sickening truth.

…And if she crossed the border as she was now, her fate would be no better than the frog monster she once saw being paraded on a tank. She had never felt so powerless and desperate knowing this.

“our prince doesn’t do too bad either,” Sans added, even more slouched against the tree. “ y’know, considering he lost his spine to a pretty head of a human.”

Frisk turned her attention to the skeleton. He looked completely relaxed, but she knew better than to think he really was. Her dad could look like that as well, but he was never truly relaxed since coming back from his service with a missing leg.

Thinking of him made Frisk’s expression darken.

“He lost his spine on his own,” she answered with a disdaining shrug. “I’m not the one who took everything away from him and trapped him in a cage while pretending to be nice.”

She took another lick of the Nice Cream and savored it. She had not had good food since she arrived. Until today, she had started to assume the downside of monster-food was its taste. It turned out the food at the lab was just terrible.

“nah, I don’t think az’s pretending to be nice to you,” Sans said casually. “i think you already noticed, but our prince is bone-dry simple for most things.” His eyes were two very small shiny beads inside his eye-sockets when his gaze met Frisk’s. “he’s not exactly capable to fake affection for someone… or to play with others’ feelings.”

Frisk managed to restrain the spike of anger at his implication, but did not bother to hide her outrage.

“So, what? I’m supposed to feel sympathy for my captor now? Because he’s nice?”

“nah, kid; honestly, i got your little speech back there and i agree.” Sans shrugged airily. “you owe us no sympathy. you owe no sympathy for the prince either. we’re enemies, no matter what the others think… no offence, alph. anyway, that wasn’t an advice i was giving you.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Good, because I’ve got enough of being judged around you lot.” She took another lick.

“nah princess, i don’t judge; i got no position for that.” He closed his eye-sockets; Frisk had no idea how that worked. “consider it more of a warning. i don’t exactly have a bone to pick with you, personally, but if you hurt my royal pal with false pretences, i’ m gonna have to step in.”

Frisk barked a small laugh.

“False pretences? What?”

Sans opened his eyes again and managed to make it look like his eyebrow was half-raised.

“uh, so… you’re… interested?”

Frisk stared at him. She did not know if she was more put off by the fact that he was even asking that question, or that he was so forward about it.

“I’m not a goat-fucker,” she answered in a neutral tone.

“heh, yeah, that’s what i figured,” Sans agreed with a wider smile and a nod. “not blaming you for that; i got no interest in humans either; too many organs. still, uh.” He made a head nod toward Asriel still sparring near the lake. “think you could maybe tell him that?”

She looked at the prince, then back at the skeleton.

“Why should I?”

“‘cause he clearly got the impression he can win you over is what.”

There was a crushing sound. Frisk took a few seconds to realize it was the Nice Cream cone she had compressed into her fist and was now dripping on her legs, but she was so consumed by her rage she could not care any less.

“f-frisk…” She heard Alphys’s wobbly voice. “a-are you-“

“If he ever thinks that, then he deserves the heartache he’s gonna get,” she spat spitefully. “Next time he tries to win someone over, he should think of not killing everyone they love and trapping them in a cell to be experimented on.” Her tail swiped involuntarily as she glared straight into the skeleton’s shiny pupils. “If you’re such a good friend to him, you can give him that advice.”

Sans’s continuous smile had not disappeared, but he was looking back at her in thought. Still fuming, trying to control her breathing, she took a napkin and started to wipe the cream off, frowning when she saw a few brown spots at the edge of her brand new shorts.

“…so you’re not gonna tell him, huh?”

She snorted derisively.

“I like my head where it is, okay? I know he’d probably just be a crybaby about it, but…” She slowed her cleaning and closed her eyes shut. “… as much as I hate him… as much as I hate all of you… he’s… he’s useful to me… without his support, I’m pretty sure Alphys over here would just freely do all the nasty things she needs to do on me to see how I tick.”

Frisk heard the scientist gasp softly at her accusation.

“n-no, f-frisk i-I would never-“

“Even if your king orders you?” Frisk asked back, looking straight into the lizard’s eyes. When she clammed up, Frisk snorted bitterly. “Yeah… that’s what I thought.” She looked at the awful claws she was sporting. “I’m not gonna help you do this to other people, Alphys… even if I have to die… I don’t want to die, though, so I do what I can to stay alive and be the safest I can be. And if I have to stand some stupid royal brat’s advance to have a more comfortable cell, I will.”

Maybe then, she could at least keep that promise…

For a moment, all that was heard was the blows of magic attacks Undyne and Asriel were trading from afar.

“… so I take it you still haven’t lost hope in turning back human and escape, huh?”

She shrugged and looked back at the skeleton. For some reason, she felt drained.

“I’m your enemy, Sans; you said it yourself… and I’ll do what I can to live long enough to get back at all of you for your crimes.”

“… you’re gonna get hurt, princess.”

“Don’t call me ‘princess’, I don’t belong to the goat kid.” She brought her legs close to her and curled her tail around herself. “And I don’t care for your threat.”

“’twas no threat, just saying,” he said softly. “you keep this messed-up thing you have with az, and everything will just get more confusing for you. trust me, pr-kid, if you really wanna keep seeing us all as the enemy, you should stop offering so much of yourself and taking so much back. it will only make it worse when everything goes to hell.”

She snorted.

“I thought you didn’t give advices…”

“i thought too,” Sans said with a shrug and a wink. “but you can really pull at a monster’s sense of compassion with your little speeches. heh, no wonder even undyne can’t seem to hate you.”

Frisk frowned at that. She was about to retort when the three of them heard exclamations of surprise and turned to look at the sparring match. Another monster was present, holding a plate of what Frisk recognized as the awful half-cooked spaghetti Alphys sometime brought for her. Frisk also recognized said monster after a moment, the tall skeleton bringing back to her memories of dust and blood scattered across a sea of human body parts.

“HI, UNDYNE! I HEARD ABOUT THE PRIVATE PICNIC FROM DOGGO, AND THAT MY LAZY BROTHER WAS HERE, SO I BROUGHT SOME SPAGHETTI!”

Behind her, Frisk could feel Sans’s aura flare up. Its taste of cold dry bone gave her a flash of recollection. The first time she had seen the short skeleton, it had felt like that. He had been looking at her with rage and fear, pushing against her soul as she pushed back. His left eye-socket had been burning blue with murderous intent.

She had to suppress a shiver.

The tall skeleton did not look worse for the wear; he had his arm back, for one. His eyes scanned the area until they stopped on Sans and he almost jumped at the group sitting on the grass.

“SANS, THERE YOU ARE YOU LAZY BONE! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THE PRINCE AND UNDYNE INVITED YOU TO THEIR LEISURE TIME? I COULD HAVE MADE MY SUPER SPECIAL SECRET RECIPE FOR THE GREATEST OCCASIONS FOR YOU TO BRING!” The tall skeleton stopped right in front of Sans and showed him the plate of cold spaghetti. “I HAD TO GET ONE REGULAR PLATE FROM MY GROWING CULINARY COLLECTION INSTEAD! I’LL HAVE TO MAKE DOUBLE OF THEM FOR THE HUMAN NOW!”

Well, that was a mystery Frisk had been in no hurry to solve. The loud skeleton was at least Asriel’s height (and hers, by the same occasion), which was high for a human, but given how tall Undyne was as well, monsters could probably grow this height, and more, regularly. He was sporting some kind of… thing? Armor? It looked like it was made of mashed papers… and had felt about as strong when she had hit it back then. In fact, she could still see the dents of the axe in it. He had kept the same armor, as well as a long red scarf around his neck, coming down his back in the simile of a cape.

She remembered seeing it float into the wind, when he had stood in front of her, both his arms spread as if trying to embrace her small stature covered in blood and dust.

Sans probably had a flash as well, because he glanced at her shortly before turning his attention back to the tall skeleton. He shifted up slightly, and even if he kept the same expression he had before, Frisk could feel how tense he truly was.

“ah, uh, yeah, bro. sorry ‘bout that.” He winked. “tibia honest, we had a marrow skele-dule to plan it.”

Frisk took a few seconds to decipher all the word plays. The tall skeleton looked downright outraged at them.

“OH MY GOD, SANS! IF YOU COULD PUT AS MUCH EFFORT INTO MAKING THOSE HORRIBLE PUNS AS YOU DO WITH CLEANING YOUR PART OF THE HOUSE, I WOULD STOP WORRYING SO MUCH ABOUT YOU ALL THE TIME!”

“aw, but bro, i like it when you dote on me. it makes all my skull-king around worthwhile to see your toothy smile.”

“WE ARE SKELETONS, SANS; WE SHOW OUR TEETH ALL THE TIME! THAT IS PROBABLY THE MAIN THING WE ARE DOING… ASIDE FROM BEING GREAT ALL AROUND, OF COURSE!”

In the movement he made to throw his head back and pose dramatically, the tall skeleton finally noticed Frisk sitting near. His eye-sockets widened and his whole features seemed to light up.

“SANS! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR NEW FRIEND???” In one long step, he was standing right in front of Frisk’s surprised face. “HELLO, NEW FRIEND! I’M PAPYRUS, THE GREATEST OF BROTHER FOR SANS, WHO IS ALSO PRETTY GREAT, I SUPPOSE.” He threw a hand in the town’s direction. “WE HAVE BEEN BOTH LIVING IN GREENLAKE FOR A YEAR NOW; SINCE IT’S WAS FOUNDED. I’VE BEEN PETITIONING TO CHANGE THE NAME TO ‘THE TOWN OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS’, BUT THE KING AND THE PRINCE SAID IT WAS TOO LONG, SO ‘GREENLAKE’ IS FINE, I GUESS.” He mumbled a bit before putting his offering hand right in front of her eyes. “ANYWAY, AS COOL A SKELETON AS I AM, IT IS MY DUTY TO HELP ANY NEW MONSTER SETTLE IN AND HAVE A GREAT TIME HERE! PLEASE, ACCEPT THIS CUSTOMARY HANDSHAKE OF WELCOME!”

Frisk stared at the offered hand and tried to process everything Papyrus had been blabbering on. The look Sans was giving her was pretty clearly threatening, and she had a feeling he would make her regret even laying a finger on his brother. She could understand this, given what happened the last time Frisk had met him.

But a look at Papyrus’s hopeful face made her hesitant to disappoint him. As… unusual and loud as he was, he also clearly had no idea of who she was. It meant Asriel had not lied about keeping her secret, but it also put her in a small conundrum. Because, on the one hand, he was the first among them to actually treat her as he would someone normal, which, even if it was as a monster, did lift a small weight inside her that had started to feel really heavy… and his earnest offer was… endearing? On the other hand, Sans would probably kill her on the spot if she did… and it would be lying to Papyrus’s face about herself.

… Not that lying to monsters was anything she regretted doing, but the others would know.

“u-uh… p-papyrus, i-i-i don’t think that-“

“HOLD IT, PUNK!”

Before Alphys could end her protest, Undyne ran straight to Papyrus, took him by the waist and suplexed him away from Frisk with a roar. There was a booming noise when he crashed and Frisk found herself wincing in sympathy.

“OW, UNDYNE! PLEASE DON’T SUPLEX THE SKELETON!” Papyrus whined after recovering from his sudden skull-trauma.

“NGAAAAHAAHAAH! THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FROM RUNNING AHEAD WHEN I TOLD YOU TO WAIT!” Undyne was laughing, but Frisk could tell it was forced. The look she gave Frisk was a clear confirmation that she had not forgotten how Frisk once almost hacked the skeleton to dust.

Asriel caught up with the group as well, his muzzle slightly wrinkled in worry and his purple eyes wide.

“Papyrus, you can’t touch her!” He told him. Papyrus recovered from the assault and threw at his prince a worried look.

“WHY IS THAT, YOUR MAJESTY? IS SHE SICK? IS THIS WHY ALPHYS IS HERE INSTEAD OF AT THE LAB TO WATCH THE HUMAN?” He put a gloved hand on his teeth in worry. “OH, NO… IS IT BAD? IS SHE GOING TO BE ALRIGHT?”

There was an awkward silence before they all started to speak at unison.

“That’s… uh… you see…” Asriel tried.

“Well, uh, she got this thing that…”

“Sh-she’s very shy!!” Alphys blurted out before looking down at her claws grasping her tail. “Th-that’s why… you can’t really, uh…”

“OH NO! A ‘SHY’ ILLNESS? I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW BEING SHY WAS AN ILLNESS MAKING YOU UNTOUCHABLE!” He looked at Frisk in apology. “I’M VERY SORRY, NEWCOMER; I PUT YOU IN THE AWKWARD POSITION OF ALMOST GIVING ME YOUR ILLNESS BY RESPECT FOR CUSTOMARY RULES! ...I HOPE WE CAN STILL PARTAKE IN THE NON-CONTACT INDUCING PART OF THE FRIENDSHIP RITUAL AS DESCRIBED IN THE ‘HANG OUT’ RULE-BOOK FOR GREAT PALS!”

Against her will, Frisk found herself smiling. He was too much. Just like…

She chased the thought away and looked around. Aside from Papyrus, they were all sharing awkward glances at their deception. It was fairly obvious they had no intent of revealing the truth to the skeleton. Not even Sans, who was watching everything intensely in the back, looked like he wanted to intervene. She had a strong feeling they were not lying for her sake, though.

It was a short deliberation within herself before she decided to go with her envy instead of apprehension. She stood up, dusted herself down and looked at the tall skeleton.

“Well,” she started cautiously. “In truth, ‘shyness’ is not contagious. In fact…” She raised her own clawed hand at Papyrus with a smile. “… It’s something that can be cured with a good handshake.”

Papyrus was almost literally beaming at her. He grasped the hand and gave it a healthy shake. He was cold, and she could feel the bones of his hand within the glove.

“NYEHEHEHEH! WELL, THAT’S A GOOD THING THAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS HERE TO CURE YOU OF THIS DISEASE! I AM PROUD OF YOU FOR MUSTERING THE COURAGE AND SOLICITE ME FOR HELP! I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT YOU WON’T REGRET IT. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT, AND BY ASSOCIATION, ALL MY FRIENDS ARE! WHAT’S YOUR NAME, NEW GREAT FRIEND?”

 “It’s ‘Frisk’,” she introduced herself. “I’m… I just arrived recently.”

“OBVIOUSLY YOU DID, OTHERWISE I WOULD ALREADY KNOW YOU, AS I KNOW EVERYONE IN TOWN!” He cocked his head to the side. “SAY, YOUR FACE IS ACTUALLY PRETTY FAMILIAR…”

Frisk tensed at his word, but Papyrus looked at Asriel, then back at her.

“OH, I KNOW WHY NOW! FRISK, ARE YOU ACTUALLY THE PRINCE’S BROWN CLONE? WAIT… NO, THAT’S NOT RIGHT…” He scratched his skull, then his face brightened. “WAIT, I KNOW! ARE YOU FROM THE ROYAL FAMILY? ARE YOU A BOSS MONSTER FROM THE CAPITAL?”

Frisk relaxed slightly when realizing he did not actually recognized her. She had forgotten she shared Asriel’s ugly mug… or she had tried to, anyway.

“Well…” she started hesitantly, checking other monsters’ faces for clues, “I’m not actually from the… the royal family… but… eh.” She shrugged uncaringly. “Sure.”

Might as well go with the flow on this.

The skeleton seemed overjoyed by this news.

“REALLY? WOWIE! AN ACTUAL BOSS MONSTER FROM THE CAPITAL WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND! NYEHEHEHEH! SEE? IT’S ONLY BEEN SECONDS SINCE WE’RE FRIENDS, AND ALREADY MY AURA OF COOLNESS IS AFFECTING YOU FOR THE BETTER!” He brought the cold pasta plate he was holding right under Frisk’s muzzle. “HOW ABOUT INCREASING YOUR GREATNESS FURTHER BY TAKING A BITE OF MY EXPERTIVELY COOKED SPAGHETTI? IT IS SO GREAT OUR LOCAL HUMAN GUEST IS GIVEN IT AS A MEAL REGULARLY… OH, DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE HUMAN GUEST WE HAVE IN TOWN? IT’S THE ONLY HUMAN IN THE ENTIRE KINGDOM! ...THOUGH NO ONE HAS EVER MET THEM OUTSIDE OF THE SCIENTISTS AND THE PRINCE.”

He looked disappointed about that. The others were waiting for Frisk’s answer with apprehensive look.

“…I… vaguely?” Frisk replied cautiously, a wary look at the plate. “Uh, thanks for the offer, but… uh,” She pointed at the rest of the picnic. “We just finished eating… so…”

“OH. RIGHT.” Papyrus deflated a bit and pulled the plate back to some hidden inventories Frisk regularly saw monsters use. It looked pretty handy. The skeleton brightened. “OH, I SEE! THAT’S WHY THE PRINCE AND UNDYNE WERE SPARRING! YOU WERE DOING AN AFTER-MEAL TRAINING SESSION! NYEHEHEH! WHAT A GREAT IDEA!” He took her wrist animatedly. “COME ON, FRISK! WILL YOU JOIN US IN THIS ENDEAVOR? I HAVE TO GET BACK IN SHAPE AFTER A SMALL INCIDENT INVOLVING AN AXE AND HAVING TO REATACH SOME LOOSE BONES!”

She felt the tension rise all around her as the skeleton started to drag her. With a wince, she resisted.

“Uh, I’m sorry; that’s… not a good idea.”

Papyrus stopped and looked at her worriedly.

“WHY IS THAT, FRISK? ARE YOU AFRAID OF HURTING ME BY MISTAKE BECAUSE BOSS MONSTERS ARE THE STRONGEST TYPE OF MONSTERS THERE IS?” He tapped his chest reassuringly. “BECAUSE YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ME; IN SPITE OF BEING ENTIRELY MADE OF BONES, MY MUSCLES ARE PRETTY DEVELOPED, AS SHOWN IN THE PICTURES I SHARE WITH MY HUGE GROUP OF FRIENDS ON SOCIAL MEDIAS!”

There was a moment of silence. Frisk blinked.

“… The ‘strongest type’, really?” Frisk saw the other monsters tense and smirked at them. “That’s very…. Interesting.”

In truth, she knew what a Boss Monster was already from her researches, and she had already figured she was one, but it was nice to see the prince and everyone squirm like she had stumbled upon some big discovery. She took all the fun she could get from those little things.

“YEAH WELL, WHATEVER!” Undyne almost literally carried Papyrus away. “Anyway, Frisk is not fighting!”

“REALLY? WHY? WHAT’S WRONG WITH FRISK?”

“N-nothing’s wrong with Frisk,” Alphys assured, sweating profusely as she neared Papyrus as well. “Sh-she’s just… she can’t use magic! Sh-she has a… a condition!”

Papyrus could not have looked sorrier if someone had told him Frisk had lost the use of her legs.

“OH, FRISK, I’M VERY SORRY FOR MAKING YOU UNCOMFORTABLE AGAIN… I… THOSE ARE SUCH GREAT MISFORTUNES THAT HAS BEFALLEN UPON YOU, BETWEEN YOUR SHY ILLNESS AND THIS… I CAN’T IMAGINE HOW INCONSIDERATE I MUST LOOK TO YOU…” He looked down, devastated. “…I… I’M SUCH A TERRIBLE FRIEND…”

For the first time in weeks, Frisk felt something pull at her heartstring. She raised her hands and blurted out her answer without thinking.

“No! Papyrus, you’re a great friend! …Or rather, I bet you are, for the few minutes I’ve got to know you,” she amended. It was a bit strange she felt involved so quickly, even though she had an idea why. “Look, it’s fine.” She shrugged. “I’ve been magicless all my life; I’m used to it. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Papyrus nodded gravely. There was a lot of respect in the skeleton’s eye-sockets… however that worked.

“YOU ARE VERY STRONG, FRISK. I CAN FEEL THE LIGHT OF YOUR SOUL TOUCHING MINE AND I CAN FEEL MY SPIRIT GROW STRONGER FROM IT. I HOPE YOU CAN GET STRONG IN RETURN FROM MY OWN LIGHT.”

His demeanor changed again and he scratched his chin.

“WELL, IF I CAN’T SHARE MY COOKING WITH YOU AND WE CAN’T SPAR, WHAT’S A PAIR OF NEW PALS LIKE US TO DO? …I KNOW!” He raised a finger to the sky. “YOU CAN COME TO MY HOUSE! NYEHEHEHEH!  I WILL PARTAKE WITH YOU IN THE BEAUTIFUL ART OF PUZZLE-MAKING!” He looked at her hopefully. “YOU LIKE PUZZLES, DON’T YOU? YOU DON’T NEED MAGIC TO TRY MINE; HONEST!”

“Sure,” she agreed without thinking. Of course, she liked puzzles because she only had that and reading to do in her cell.

“GREAT! THEN WE CAN HEAD OUT!”

“i don’t think so, bro.”

Frisk turned swiftly. She had not noticed when Sans had moved from his spot under the tree to place himself in between Alphys and Asriel. Papyrus turned to his brother, annoyed.

“SANS! WHAT NOW? CAN’T YOU SEE I’M IN THE PROCESS OF FRIENDSHIP MAKING?”

“yeah, but, bro… she can’t come to our house. i haven’t cleaned the place, remember?”

“YOU NEVER CLEAN THE HOUSE!”

“whoops, yeah,” Sans said with a shrug. “still, you can’t really invite a new friend over when your place is a mess; and with my mess being all over, that’s gonna make a bad first impression.” Sans only winked at Frisk, but she got the clear message he was warning her off. “sorry, pap.”

“YOU BOONDOGGLING LAZY BONE! FINE!” Papyrus huffed and looked back at Frisk. “I GUESS WE WILL HAVE TO GO TO YOUR PLACE INSTEAD, FRISK.”

“Uh…”

“YOU KNOW WHAT? I JUST HAVE THE GREATEST OF PLAN!” Undyne saved Frisk from answering, waving her hands nervously. “Why don’t we ALL head up to MY house instead? You know, ALL OF US TOGETHER… as the GREAT FRIENDS we all are!”

There was a short beat before Asriel added his voice with a nervous nod.

“I-I think this is a great idea, Undyne. We… we should all go to your place!” He clasped his hands together in a way that reminded Frisk of her mother when she was teaching class. “It’s decided, then! To Undyne’s house!”

“Uh… YEAH!” Undyne added, going from nervous to actually pumped. “We could even watch this new Anime Alphys wanted to show me instead of doing those boring puzzles!”

Frisk noted the lizard’s reddening cheeks.

“U-undyne… I’m not sure that-“

“HOW CAN YOU SAY PUZZLES ARE BORING, UNDYNE!” Papyrus looked offended. Undyne just laughed at his face.

“BECAUSE THEY ARE! PUZZLES ARE FOR NERDS!” She stopped laughing and looked at Papyrus with a challenging look. “But you know what? We’ll have a cooking lesson after that! I need to see how your skill improved since last time!”

That cheered up the skeleton instantly.

“WHAT A GREAT IDEA! THAT WAY, FRISK WILL HAVE THE CHANCE OF TASTING IT!”

That made Frisk’s prospect of finally going somewhere else than back in the cell slightly less endearing. This was not something she was looking forward to. It must have shown on her face, because she heard Sans's mocking chuckle.

“Alright!” Raising a fist in the air, Undyne led the group out of the park. “Let’s go!”

… She then let the lead to Asriel sheepishly, because she had forgotten she was to walk beside Frisk to prevent her potential escape. Papyrus had placed himself at her other side, where Asriel had previously been. Frisk liked the change.

Asriel did not seem to mind her disinterest in him. In fact, he had been looking at her interaction with papyrus attentively. She had noticed how the base of his ears had twitched up, as they always did when the prince was looking at her with hope.

… Well, she did tell Sans she would do what she could to live comfortably until she could escape. It was probably why she could feel his intense magic looming over her soul as his brother chatted with her… ready to intervene at the first concern and saving Papyrus from her potential strike… just like he had done so before.

Sans was a smart monster.

But her father had warned her: when dealing with monsters, you bid your time and wait for the right opportunity.

Her tail twitched nervously and she took a breath. Frisk knew how to be patient. She knew how to be persistent.

…She would wait.

--

The outing was going much better than Asriel had feared it would go.

…Mostly, it was thanks to Papyrus.

Asriel did think Frisk would have a better time making friends with monsters who did not know the truth, yet he had not expected her to go along with Papyrus’s enthusiastic friendship offer so readily. Up until then, she had shown no signs of warming up to any of them; even her relationship with him was tense and full of barely contained spikes of hate.

Maybe it was just Papyrus’s natural innocence which made the human monster hesitate to blame and snap against. Asriel knew Frisk was not a bad person, from the way she was clinging to her ideal of justice and the obvious love she still felt for her lost family. Frisk could probably tell the skeleton had never harmed anyone… knowingly, anyway.

…It was strange to think that, weeks prior, she almost beheaded him with an axe. If she had remorse about that, she did not show it. Asriel knew Papyrus held no grudge from the numbers of his famous puzzles and spaghetti plates he was sending at the lab. According to Sans, Papyrus had confronted the human back then by trying to talk her down and sparing her repeatedly. There was a reason Papyrus was never actually allowed to come to the taken human towns. That day, he had been brought there by a mistake in paper-form; he was supposed to work on new traps ahead of the town to stop humans from trying to retake it.

If what Sans told Asriel was true, Papyrus still had nightmares of this day. Yet, here he was, trying to make new friends and move on with his life. Asriel could understand the reason why Sans always talked so proudly about him.

 Asriel did not know Papyrus that well. From Undyne, he knew Papyrus had tried really hard to enter the Royal Guard, and she had trained him until she decided he did not have the proper skill-sets… specifically the ability to kill in cold blood. Because he had been devastated by his crushed ambition, Undyne had taken upon herself to give him cooking lessons to get him something to do with his life instead. The cooking idea had been a bust as far as the reforming went, but Papyrus’s skills in puzzles and traps had been recognized by Undyne and he had been integrated in the Trapper Guild. Undyne was still sparring and cooking with him, but as a friend instead of a superior.

From Sans, Asriel knew Papyrus’s dedication in everything he was doing had been an inspiration for his brother. His positivity and excitement was somewhat off putting, but his presence in any town gave a clear boost in everyone’s moral, so he was always requisitioned near the fronts. In spite of that, Papyrus hardly had any close friends. In fact, apart from Undyne, Asriel was not sure he had any.

…Until Frisk, that is?

Asriel did not know how to react well when confronted to Papyrus. He could come off both as extremely overbearing and proud of himself. He was always referring to Asriel by his title, clearly because he wanted to show his loyalty to the kingdom. It was still making it hard for Asriel to actually get to know Papyrus when most of his words were about praises to himself and to the crown.

Frisk did not seem to have this problem, though. She showed clear attention to the skeleton’s rambling.

“…SO SANS TOLD ME THEN THAT THE RUMOR WAS TRUE AND THAT THE HUMAN HAD REALLY BEEN TURNED INTO A MONSTER! CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT??”

To her credit, Frisk kept her face mostly devoid of her contained amusement.

“Hardly.”

“I KNOW, RIGHT? IT’S INCREDIBLE! I WONDER HOW ALPHYS EVEN MANAGED THAT!”

“…Yeah, Alphys, how did you manage it?” Frisk turned her head to look at the lizard lagging behind. The poor monster made some embarrassed mumbling as she was fumbling with her white coat. Asriel saw Frisk frown slightly.

“Huh? What was that? I couldn’t hear.”

Alphys made a few more noises while playing with her claws and shrugged, looking down. Frisk’s frown intensified and she looked like she was about to ask further. Before Asriel could rescue Alphys, however, Papyrus kept on speaking.

“CAN YOU IMAGINE IF THE REVERSE IS POSSIBLE? EVER THOUGHT OF HOW YOU WOULD LOOK AS A HUMAN, FRISK?”

She snapped her attention back with a startle.

“Huh? Uh… vaguely?”

“OH, SO YOU THOUGHT ABOUT IT AS WELL?? WHAT IF MONSTERS COULD TURN INTO HUMANS, TOO?”

“Uh…” She clearly had not thought of it. Neither had Asriel, for that matter.

“SANS SAYS THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF THE PHYSICAL STUFF NEEDED WE DON’T HAVE, BUT IF A HUMAN COULD HAVE A BODY OF MAGIC REPLACING THEIRS, THEN, WHY WOULD THE PHYSICAL STUFFS BE UNCREATABLE?”

“Hum.” Frisk nodded, a hand under her muzzle. Asriel was not sure he liked the direction this conversation was going.

Papyrus crossed his arms reflectively.

“I WONDER WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO BE HUMAN… THEY HAVE SO MANY STUFFS IN THERE ASIDE FROM THE SKELETON PART… OH, DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE SKELETON EVERY HUMAN HAVE INSIDE THEM? I WAS SO SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT! CAN YOU IMAGING ALL HUMANS HAVE SKELETONS LIKE ME INSIDE THEM?”

This brought a chuckle to the former human.

“Papyrus, I don’t think another skeleton like you exist out there; you’re truly unique.”

“NYEHEHEH! THAT IS TRUE, FRISK. NO ONE CAN EQUAL ME IN GREATNESS… THOUGH SOME LIKE YOU MAY APPROACH IT CLOSELY.”

She restrained a laugh; though it sounded kind.

“Thanks. It’s a great compliment.”

“I KNOW! …BUT BACK TO THE POINT, I WOULD LOVE TO TRY BEING A HUMAN FOR A WHILE, PERSONALLY, EVEN WITH ALL THE GROSSY STUFFS INSIDE.” He looked at his gloved hand. “I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO FEEL THINGS WITH YOUR SKIN. I HEARD YOU CAN FEEL HEATS AND COLD WITH THAT, FOR EXAMPLE; YOU DON’T HAVE TO USE YOUR MAGIC.”

Frisk cocked her head.

“Well, monsters with skins know that, though. No need to be a human.”

“…I GUESS YOU WOULDN’T BE AS INTERESTED,” Papyrus agreed with a hand on his chin. “IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE NOT HAVING FUR, THOUGH? WOULD YOU NOT FEEL EVERYTHING DIFFERENTLY?”

Frisk’s expression darkened and she squeezed her arm with her hand, softly gripping the brown strands under her claws.

“It’s… It would feel colder, without the additional layer to protect the skin… Also… you don’t… you would not like to be… to be as readily caressed by… by things if you have no fur… like, brush… brushes feel nice on fur, but they’re terrible on the skin.” She closed her eyes for a bit. “But you would love to pet fur in contrast, because fur feels… it would feel nice and soft under your skin…” She snapped her eyes open and finished quickly. “That’s how… that’s how I think it would be like, anyway.”

There was a short beat. Both Undyne and Asriel gave her knowing looks. Papyrus looked at her with a sudden intensity.

“…WOW, FRISK, YOU REALLY THOUGHT OF THIS… YOU MUST BE… YOU MUST BE PRETTY ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT BEING OTHER THINGS AS WELL, THEN!”

Hi earnest admiration made Frisk snort.

“Yeah, no; believe me, that’s probably the last thing I’m ‘enthusiastic’ about.”

“WHICH IS VERY FINE, BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF BETTER THINGS TO BE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT! …LIKE PUZZLES! …OR COOKING!”

This time, Frisk had a burst of laughter.

“That is very true!”

“NYEHEHEH! YES, LIKE MOST OF WHAT I SAY, IT IS! …ANYWAY, THERE IS ANOTHER THING I WOULD LIKE TO TRY AS A HUMAN THAT WOULD NOT INTEREST YOU: HAVING HAIR!” He touched his skull longingly. “I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A NICE KIND OF FLOWING HAIR SO THAT I CAN FEEL THE WIND INSIDE IT WHEN I DRIVE…” He looked at Frisk’s head. “IN FACT, I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THE KIND OF HAIR YOU HAVE, FRISK! THE PRINCE DOESN’T HAVE HAIR LIKE YOU, EVEN IF HE IS A BOSS MONSTER TOO, BUT YOUR HAIR LOOKS SO NICE AND SOFT! I BET IT FLIES WELL IN THE WIND!”

Asriel felt a rush of actual happiness coming from Frisk, which threw him off, because up until now, the best he ever felt from her was a mild form of pleasurable satisfaction. Smiling softly, she self-consciously grabbed a few strands of her hair and caressed them.

“…Thank you…”

The happiness was mingled with a nostalgic sadness however. Asriel realized that her hair, being one of the two things that have not changed with the rest, must have been something she thought of fondly.

He had a sudden urge to hug her.

…There was more than one reason why this was a terrible idea, however, so he restrained himself.

“IT KINDA MAKES YOU WONDER HOW THE HUMAN IS TAKING THE CHANGE, THOUGH,” Papyrus continued, either having missed Frisk’s reaction, or deciding to ignore it. “I MEAN, I WOULDN’T MIND TRYING TO BE A HUMAN FOR A WHILE, BUT I DON’T THINK I’D EVER WANT TO BE CHANGED BY FORCE… OR BEING TRAPPED IN A CELL… OR BEING CHANGED INTO A HUMAN AND TRAPPED INTO A CELL AFTER HUMANS HURT SANS AND EVERYONE ELSE…” The upbeat skeleton’s expression grew uneasy. “IT… AS GREAT AS I AM, I DON’T THINK I WOULD BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT WELL.”

Frisk had a pained look. She looked away and closed her eyes.

“No… you wouldn’t, would you?” she answered softly after a small snort.

“IT… IT’S LIKE WE TALKED ABOUT EARLIER; MONSTERS ARE PRETTY DIVERSE AS FAR AS PHYSIQUES GO COMPARED TO HUMANS… I KNOW WHY SANS DOESN’T TELL ME MUCH ABOUT THE HUMAN, BECAUSE THEY’RE STILL A ROYAL SECRET, SORT OF… BUT I WAS WONDERING HOW DIFFERENT LOOKING THEY ENDED UP.” He looked down at his hands thoughtfully. “I… I’VE SEEN THEM, YOU KNOW? BEFORE THEY WERE CAPTURED… THEY LOOKED… THEY LOOKED ABOUT THIS HIGH.” He put his hand half down his chest plate. “HUMANS DON’T GROW THAT BIG, BUT I THINK THEY WERE STILL PRETTY SMALL, FOR A HUMAN… THEY WERE PROBABLY BARELY OLDER THAN A BABY BONE.”

Frisk only glanced at Papyrus to look at his hand gesture before looking away again. Asriel felt his soul constrict and he caught Undyne’s closed look; a mask she usually wore in the midst of battle. Alphys was hiding her muzzle in her hand as she walked behind them.

“I KEEP THINKING: DID THEY GROW SCALES? DID THEY GROW FUR? ARE THEY… ARE THEY A SKELETON LIKE SANS AND I? …IT WOULD …IT WOULD PROBABLY BE STRANGE LOSING EVERYTHING YOU’RE USED TO HAVE ON YOU AND BE LEFT BARE-BONED.”

Frisk did not really laugh at the pun, but she breathed out a little more strongly. She put a hand on her muzzle with a pained look.

“IT JUST… IT MUST BE PRETTY HARD FOR THEM… YOU KNOW? BEING TRAPPED AND ALONE IN THERE…”

Asriel could see the shine of beginning of tears in her squinted eyes. The hand on her muzzle squeezed.

“… SO I WAS THINKING ABOUT ALL THAT WHEN I WAS BED-RIDDEN AND THOUGHT: WHY DON’T I TRY TO CHEER THEM UP? IT… IT’S NOT LIKE I CAN GO AND TELL THEM I’M OKAY, AND THEY DON’T HAVE TO BLAME THEMSELVE FOR WHAT HAPPENED… BECAUSE I REALLY DON’T THINK IT WILL HELP MUCH WITH MAKING THEM FEEL BETTER, ANYWAY… AND I CAN’T VISIT THE LAB, BECAUSE ONLY AUTHORISED PERSONELS CAN…” He raised his hands up and the corner of his constant grin lifted. “THEN I HAD THE GREAT IDEA OF ASKING SANS TO BRING THEM THE PUZZLES I MAKE, BECAUSE WHO DOESN’T LIKE PUZZLES? ESPECIALLY… ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE’S NOT MUCH ELSE FOR THEM TO DO IN THERE… AND THEN, I THOUGHT: THEY WOULD LOVE SOME SPAGHETTI TOO, BECAUSE WHO WOULD WANT TO EAT THE SAME LAME LABORATORY FOOD, OR WHATEVER THEY’RE BEING FED EVERYDAY?”

The tears in Frisk’s eyes had started to stream down her fur. She put her other hand on her muzzle as well.

“I’M NOT A ROYAL GUARD OR A SCIENTIST; I DON’T KNOW ALL THAT BORING STUFF ALPHYS AND SANS DO, AND… AND I’M NOT STRONG ENOUGH FOR THE WAR AND FIGHTING THE HUMANS… BUT… BUT IF I CAN AT LEAST GIVE THEM GOOD FOOD AND A NICE HOBBY, MAYBE I CAN HELP THEM REACH THEIR OWN GREATNESS AND… FRISK! YOU’RE CRYING! WHAT’S WRONG???”

They all stopped walking to let the skeleton dote on his new friend in concern. Asriel had never seen Frisk show this much of the sadness she must be often feel around him. All the same, when Papyrus approached a hand to her shoulder, she swept her tears away and took a constricted breath.

“It’s… it’s okay, Papyrus… it’s nothing.”

“IF THIS ‘NOTHING’CAN MAKE YOU CRY, THEN IT’S NOT ‘OKAY’! MAYBE WE CAN FIND A ‘SOMETHING’ TO REPLACE THAT NASTY ‘NOTHING’ WITH!”

Frisk started to laugh. It was a clear, very different sound than the one Asriel was used from her, which made something flutter inside him. Tears were still coming out, but when she smiled at the skeleton, it had a genuine warm.

“Th-Thank you… Papyrus…”

“WHAT FOR, FRISK?”

“…For being a great friend.”

Before anyone could react, Papyrus had dragged the human monster into a bony embrace. Asriel felt the flaring surge of blue magic around Frisk as Sans watched the contact with a frozen smile. Frisk probably felt the weight on her soul, but she did not say anything. Instead, she started chocking a few hiccups and squeezed her arms around the comforting skeleton. Her tail also wrapped around. One of her ears and horns rested against the red tissue of the scarf and she started to wail against it.

Although everyone around them was staring in silent shock, Papyrus concentrated solely on Frisk and started to pat her back softly.

“THERE, THERE… NYEHEHEH… THAT’S RIGHT… I DON’T HAVE TO HAVE THE BOOK ABOUT HOW TO MAKE GREAT FRIENDSHIP LAST ON ME TO KNOW THAT A GOOD HUG IS THE BEST WAY TO COMFORT A VERY COOL FRIEND IN OBVIOUS PAIN!”

She both sobbed and hugged back harder. The others watched the skeleton and the human monster in respectful silence until she stopped crying and they started their walk again. Asriel could feel a distinct change in Frisk’s aura. It was a sort of drained, but weightless calmness. The simple feel of it made Asriel happier and hopeful.

He was glad; he was glad she was finally able to be freed from the burden of her hate, if only for a while.

…And yet, he felt a pang in his soul at the thought that he had not been the one to help in removing it.

Chapter Text

The streets had started to crowd a bit. Probably due to Papyrus's presence, though, no monsters approached them; Papyrus was the one doing the approaching, not the other way around.

Like most monster houses, Undyne's home was the expression of herself. It was blue and shaped like a large angry fish, with one of those sliding door teeth that had lost popularity for at least four decades because they could be pretty dangerous to anyone going through it. Undyne loved it.

Being captain of the Royal Guard meant a lot of space granted to house building, and contrary to Asriel's bare castles, Undyne's houses were always furnished with her things. The walls were painted a nice cream and the floor had a dark blue and white square pattern. It was like she deliberately contrasted the threatening fish-face of an outside for a cosy and spacious hideout.

The living room they entered in had two big couches placed in front of a large flat screen. Frisk, her eyes still puffy and red, found within herself to comment out loud, anyway.

"Heh, Now, that looks a little more like a TV. Seeing Asriel's old cube made me think you were all technologically stuck or something."

Undyne waved a hand to push away the thought.

"Pfff, nah; Asriel's just that kind of old nostalgic monster who likes to keep relics around!"

"I'm not old!" he protested again; because this accusation was tiring.

"Um... Yeah? YOU ARE?" Undyne retorts with a laugh. "You Boss Monsters just age so weird and slow compared to us all!"

This seemed to perk Frisk's curiosity.

"How old are you, anyway, Undyne?"

The fish lady looked surprised the human monster had even bothered to address her directly, but she just shrugged.

"Eh, somewhere around fifty-two? I reached my maturity at thirty-five, if you want to know."

"Huh." Frisk blinked like she had not expected that. Beside her, Papyrus decided to chime in.

 "UNDYNE IS A VERY TALENTED MONSTER, FRISK; SHE TOOK ON THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD'S DUTY EVEN BEFORE SHE WAS OF AGE! OF COURSE, SHE HAD A SLOWER GROWTH THAN US. WE OF THE SKELETON VARIETY REACHED OUR MATURITY AT TWENTY LIKE MOST MONSTERS!" He pointed at himself with pride. "SANS AND I HAVE THE RESPECTFULL AGE OF FIFTY AND FORTY-EIGHT!"

Frisk's eyes widened.

"...Wow; I never would have guessed."

"NYEHEHEH! YES, I SUPPOSE FOR YOU THAT WOULD BE PRETTY YOUNG, BUT LET ME ASSURE YOU THAT WE ARE OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE ALL OF THOSE IMPORTANT DUTIES ON US!" Papyrus perked up at her. "HOW OLD ARE YOU, FRISK?"

"Sixteen," she answered, then wrinkled her muzzle. It was clear she had blurted out the answer without thinking. Asriel tensed. Papyrus was staring in shock, his jaw hanging.

"WHAT?? I... I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT-"

"Forty! She meant forty!" Asriel corrected, raising his hand in a calming notion. "Which, uh... would be pretty close to the equivalent of 'sixteen' for most monster kinds!"

Papyrus seemed to deflate.

"OH, YES, THAT MAKES MORE SENSE..." He suddenly concentrated on Frisk's sweater. "ACTUALLY, NOW THAT I LOOK AT YOU, I GUESS I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WERE STILL A YOUNG MONSTER, SINCE YOU STILL HAVE THE CONVENTIONAL STRIPPED SHIRT ALL KIDS ARE SUPPOSED TO WEAR. FORGIVE ME FOR ASUMING YOU WERE ALREADY ADULT!"

"heh, you should have figured she was a 'kid', pap," Sans commented, mimicking horns with his finger. "not to 'ram' into a metaphor, or anything."

Frisk was still busy checking her striped sweater questioningly and missed his jeer. Papyrus looked offended.

"SANS, DO NOT BRING YOUR POLITICALLY INCORRECT HUMOR INTO THIS! YOU KNOW THE ONLY PUNS THAT HAVE ANY GREATNESS TO THEM ARE SKELETON BASED! EVEN AS A SLACKER, YOU'RE WORTH MORE THAN THAT!"

"sorry, bro. i'll putt more backbone to my try next time."

"YOU BETTER!"

"NGAH! WHATEVER! LET'S GET SETTLED!" Undyne interrupted the brothers with a light punch at Papyrus's side, which send him against one of the couch. "We'll have to start watching now if we wanna binge the full series!"

Alphys looked up nervously.

"uh, i-i don't th-think w-we'll be able to, uh, watch it in full today, undyne...."

"BUT, UNDYNE! WHAT ABOUT OUR COOKING LESSON?" Papyrus protested, having recovered quickly from the hit. "AND WHAT ABOUT MY PUZZLES? I HAVE TO SHOW THEM TO FRISK; SHE HASN'T GOT THE CHANCE TO TRY THEIR INGENIOUS ELABORATED DESIGNS YET!"

Undyne turned to Papyrus with a thoughtful expression, which then brightened.

"...Say, GOOD IDEA, Papyrus! Why don't you..." she took him by the shoulder and pointed at the stairs. "...Go to my office and take the papers here to create some NEW AND IMPROVED puzzles for Frisk! We'll be all getting the Anime watch ready until you finish and show them!"

Papyrus seemed delighted at the prospect.

"THAT’S A GREAT IDEA, UNDYNE!" he started to head upstairs before turning to his new friend again. "JUST WAIT HERE FOR A BIT, FRISK; I PROMISE YOU MY PUZZLING SKILLS WILL MAKE YOUR TIME SPENT HERE WORTHWHILE! NYEHEHEHEHEH!"

"yeah, kid, pap can create some mean crosswords, you'll see."

"CROSSWORDS ARE TOO BORING AND EASY, SANS! I DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW A SCIENCE-MINDED PERSON LIKE YOU COULD CARE FOR THOSE!"

With that last protest, the skeleton disappeared from view, leaving Frisk alone with the other monsters. After a short silence, Undyne turned to Frisk.

"Listen, hu-" She glanced at the stairs nervously. "Human; I'm glad you like Papyrus, and are willing to... to be nice to him and all." There was a flash of some soft emotion in her eye, but it was covered quickly by a stern expression. "But I swear, if you try ANYTHING to hurt him... especially like... like what you did last time... then I don't care if Asriel over there still vouches for you, I'm gonna beat your sorry ass so hard you won't even be recognizable as a monster, is that clear?"

There was a sense of some strong and negative emotion into Frisk's aura, which was covered up before Asriel had time to figure out what it was exactly. She then shrugged casually, her arm crossed.

"That's fair."

"And Sans will send you pin-balling against every wall until you're nothing but a gooey ball of magic."

"I don't doubt it," Frisk answered, eyeing the grinning skeleton in the corner.

"Good." Undyne took a deep breath and a wide toothy smile appeared on her face. "Now that's cleared up, CONGRATULATION ON MAKING YOUR FIRST FRIEND HERE, PUNK!" She raised a hand as if to give a hearty slap to Frisk's back, but froze mid-move when she saw the human monster flinch and brought her hand down. "I gotta say, when you gave us all this speech about us being enemies still, I never expected you'd just go and try to be nice as much as you did!"

If there was embarrass in Frisk's face, it was quickly covered by a closed expression.

"I only give to criminals the reception they deserve," she snapped back coldly, before her eyes softened and she looked at the stairs. "He's... still innocent... isn't he?"

"...yeah, pap's got no 'execution points' on his soul," Sans confirmed with a fond nod. "he ain't got no LOVE, but he still have a lot of 'love' to give," he finished with a soft chuckle. He turned back to look at Frisk and his left eyes briefly flashed blue. "ain't ya glad now you didn't get to chop off his head with that axe of yours?"

If this was supposed to raise guilt within Frisk's soul, it did not work. Instead, her aura flared up with anger.

"He should have never... someone like that should never have been brought to a battlefield in the first place..." Her muzzle wrinkled and she showed her clenched fangs. "You... what kinds of monsters... what kinds of friends are you for letting him go see that?? ...all of that??? ...Is that how the Kingdom of Monsters treats those who are like him? Are you really that heartless?"

"It... His presence there had been an accident," Asriel explained to her, feeling his soul constrict. "A... it was a mistakes in forms... he was supposed to be sent elsewhere. When... when we realised, he was already... already confronting you."

She made some weird thing with the lips of her muzzle, as if trying to bit them, but having a hard time with her tusk-fangs. She clenched her arms together.

Undyne groaned and pumped a fist in the air.

"...Well, whatever! Enough of this! We have to get this Anime watch ready, I wasn't joking! Quick! before Papyrus can bore us all with his puzzles! Get us those DVDs, Alphys!"

"uh... but uh that show may be... uh... frisk is a minor... it's not..."

"What? Oh, come on! No one will know!"

"... i'll uh... i'll find something we can all watch..." Alphys answered in a mutter before heading to a corner and pulling out jackets from her dimensional box with sweaty claws. "uh... let's see..."

"Alright then! Let me get the couches in orders!" Undyne started to push the couches with a laugh. Frisk and Asriel watched her do until Frisk threw at Asriel a questioning look.

"...How old are you actually, little prince?"

Asriel's eyes shifted to the side.

"Fifty-four," he admitted. Frisk blinked in surprise.

"Okay, I really thought you'd be older, actually, but after learning the others’ ages, I guess you're sorta young for belonging to a kind that's pretty much immortal."

Asriel felt himself relax a bit at her words, for a reason he was unsure of. He nodded.

"Yeah, I know. Mom and dad were both more than a few thousand years old when they had me. It probably seems a lot to you, but given that having kids means a Boss Monster have to give them their soul energy and grow old, it is a pretty big deal and can take a long time to decide." He looked through one of the window. "Mom... mom had wanted to wait until they were sure I would be safe... that humans... wouldn't come and attack us as I was still young and innocent..." He made an involuntary sad chuckle and looked down. "I don't think she could have predicted we would be the aggressor in the next war..."

He had expected Frisk to make a snarky comment to him at this revelation, but she said nothing. He was grateful to her for that.

"...well, your old mother couldn't predict the future," Sans finally commented with a shrug, hands in his vest's pockets. "heh, personally, if i'd bet my left hand in how all this would have turned out weeks ago, i would be short of one handshake." He directed the glowing lights of his eye-socket on Frisk. "what about you, kid? i bet you'd never thought you'd find yourself with all of us right now, huh?"

Her expression darkened.

"I never would have in a thousand years," she muttered softly, looking at the ground and clenching her arms still.

"heh, you won't even live that long... or will you?" Sans raised an eyebrow and Asriel saw her shiver. "ah, whatever; this is the now, after all... remember what we'd discussed earlier?"

Frisk looked at him, but made no other move.

"...well, take my advice as you want... s'not like i can force you either way." With that last comment, Sans walked to a couch and slouched into it as much as he could. Asriel wondered what this was about, but since Frisk would obviously never tell him anyway, he let it drop.

"Come on," he told her, raising a hand to her back and softly leading her to the couch. "Let's just forget about all this for now."

--

The Anime Alphys picked was some cute romantic comedy from back to before the war. It told the life of a tomboyish girl who was given a magic trinket to turn into other people and who was using it to both her own entertainment and to solve everyday problems people had. Undyne was disappointed by the lack of magic fighting princesses, but obviously enjoyed the cool transformation and the girl's tendency to punch her problems in the face.

Frisk seemed to enjoy the story alright, from what Asriel could tell. She was in the middle of one couch surrounded by both he and Undyne, who was occasionally shaking her fist with a passion at what was happening. Asriel found himself grateful for Alphys to have picked a show so mild, because from what he remembered watching with her, anime could be pretty violent. The last thing he wanted was to make Frisk uncomfortable with bad memories.

"YEAH! DON'T LET THAT GUY MESS AROUND WITH YOU!" Undyne exclaimed as the girl was arguing with the boy who was also a recurring lead. "FIGHT! Punch him the face!"

"She has a thing for him," Frisk commented casually as she was digging into the bag of chips they were passing around. Undyne turned to her with a boggled eye.

"WHAT? But... she can't stand him! They fight all the time!"

"Yeah, but when he makes fun of her, she's blushing almost as much as Alphys does when you talk to her." On the other couch, Alphys made a half-strangled squeal and put her head under her claws. Undyne's cheek tinted red.

"Um... yeah... no I-I don't see what that has to do with all the fighting!"

Frisk shrugged. "It's a common thing in movies and books to have a lead couple that keeps bickering, but are in fact oh so into each other or something." She rolled her eyes at that. At the other side of Alphys's couch, Sans, who was apparently not as asleep as he made everyone believe, opened one of his eye-socket.

"heh, you mean like az and you?"

"No."

Wow. Asriel had literally shivered at the sudden and intense chill of cold hate coming from her aura. He felt something inside him constrict sharply, though he was unsure why. Of course Frisk did not like him that way; she liked him in no way at all, and for good reasons. Why would she?

...Why would she ever?

Asriel cleared his throat loudly, feeling like he should change topic before she accidentally froze him and Undyne over.

"Did you watch Anime before, Frisk?"

The aura went back to its more common neutral grey feel and she shook her head.

"No; I'd heard of it, but never watched it. We don't..." She frowned. "We didn't have many movies to watch or anything. The TV is... the TV was mostly for the daily news and to check the progression of the war."

Another uneasy silence came, broken only by the sound of the TV.

"w-well, d-do you..." Alphys's voice finally rose up. "do you like it?"

Frisk looked back at Alphys neutrally for a while, before looking ahead with a small shrug.

"...It's okay."

"...r-really?" The lizard's face lightened a bit, clearly relieved Frisk had deigned to even answer her. "i-uh... i'm glad you... you like it."

She then looked down at her laps. They continued to watch silently until Papyrus's large pair of big red boots was heard coming down the stairs. The jolly skeleton positioned himself in front of the TV, a big chunk of papers in his arms.

"HERE, FRISK! I DESIGNED THOSE ESPECIALLY FOR YOU! I DIDN'T KNOW YOUR SKILL-LEVEL? SO I MADE MANY OF DIFFERENT LEVELS! THAT WAY, YOU CAN EVEN GET THOSE YOU DON'T FINISH TODAY HOME AND IMPROVE BY YOURSELF! NYEHEHEHEH!"

"OH MY GOD, PAPYRUS! GET OUT OF HERE! THIS LOOKED LIKE A GREAT PART AND I WANTED TO WATCH IT!"

"BUT I TOLD FRISK I'D SHOW HER MY PUZZLES TODAY!"

Undyne stood up to pick the skeleton and put him away from the screen.

"Later, ok? We're watching this right now!" She then turned to look at the screen. "OH, GOD! WHAT DID I MISS?? IT WASN'T IMPORTANT, RIGHT? I BET IT WAS IMPORTANT!"

"u-undyne, i-it's okay, i'll just, uh, rewind a bit."

Alphys was getting up and fumbling with the remote. Frisk looked at Papyrus's defeated face and stood up.

"Actually, I'd like to see them, Papyrus; let's just find somewhere quiet to sit."

Papyrus beamed at Frisk's smile and grabbed her hand to drag her off.

"GREAT IDEA, FRISK! WE'LL SPLIT THE FUN GROUP! BORING ANIMATED HUMAN CARTOON FOR SOME, BRILLIANT AND EXPERTLY CRAFTED PAPYRUS-MADE PUZZLES FOR THE OTHERS!"

"NGAH! ANIME 'S NOT BORING, PAPYRUS! IT'S FREAKING AWESOME!"

"heh, good idea, bro," Sans agreed while standing up. "i'll come with ya too."

Papyrus looked at his brother suspiciously.

"SANS, I HOPE YOU WILL GIVE YOUR ALL AT PUZZLE SOLVING IF YOU COME, I WON'T LET YOU SLACK OFF ON MY WATCH!"

"aw bro, you can trust me. after all, you can see right through me all the time."

"SANS!"

And with that, the three of them went and Asriel felt a pang of uncertainty. Should he have gone with them? He was no puzzle-fanatic, but he did some crosswords with Sans occasionally, and helped Frisk with them a few times... maybe he should keep an eye on Frisk? But Sans was already with them... and given her complete cooperation up to now, it would be overbearing to just follow her around.

He had organized this outing for Frisk to raise her 'Hope', and, well... he would have to check the result at the lab with Alphys, but it seemed to have worked, since she had no decrease of energy during the day like before... and she definitely looked more upbeat.

His effort had paid off... but...

Asriel turned his attention back on the TV. Whatever he was feeling now was too confusing, and probably unimportant. He should just feel glad he was making so much progress with Frisk.

...Right?

Right.

--

Papyrus's puzzles were pretty enjoyable for Frisk. Mostly because, contrary to what level of difficulty he claimed they were, most of them were easy. Some were even literal child's play; like a few jumble junior jumbles. Yet, they always had a little hidden fun message or a nice presentation to them. When Frisk thought about it, she realized how much it showed Papyrus's actual skill; because making so many world play in easy and fun puzzles was, ironically, not that easy at all.

She was also pretty sure he had dumbed down the level a bit for her to make her feel good about herself, which was sort of adorable. She did note a gradual increase in difficulty, however. It was a pretty good grinding level, because each new puzzle introduced another concept for the next. Frisk pretended she did not know most of them already from all the puzzles he already gave 'THE HUMAN' to complete in the cell.

She did not regret attacking him with an axe that day... but she was glad she had not successfully killed him.

... Right now, he was the only monster she would be glad to not have to kill.

"hey, bro; i found another one for you in my pocket."

"SANS! STOP GIVING ME YOUR SILLY CROSSWORD PUZZLES!"

"pap, you gotta step your game a bit and do them properly, one day."

"THERE IS ONLY ONE PROPER WAY TO DO A CROSSWORD PUZZLE, AND THAT IS TO BE BORED TO DEATH DOING IT!" He handed Frisk another paper. "HERE, HOW ABOUT YOU TRY THAT ONE? ONE CLUE: IT’S BASED ON THE HOROSCOPE!"

She had to resist making a face and forced a smile at that, because he probably meant the monster horoscope, which was a pretty different one from human one. She had a brief read about it in relation to monster magic, but did not have time to learn it. She sighed and bit the end of her pen thoughtfully as she rummaged through her memory.

Papyrus was looking at Sans's completed puzzle with an approving nod.

"ON ANOTHER NOTE, SANS, I'M GLAD YOU TOOK THE INITIATIVE TO WORK YOUR BRAIN OVER SOMETHING ELSE THAN YOUR JOB AS A SCIENTIST. I KNOW PUTTING SO MUCH INTO YOUR WORK IS IMPORTANT, BUT YOU REALLY HAVE TO CULTIVATE SOME HOBBIES OUTSIDE AS WELL."

"aw bro, it's okay, i’ve got a ton of hobbies." He winked at Frisk. "... a skele-ton."

"SANS!"

Papyrus always seemed to swing in between being amused and downright offended whenever Sans made a pun. Even Frisk had to admit this was pretty funny.

"hey, come on, pap, you know that was a good one; you smiled."

"IT'S A SMILE OF DESPAIR, SANS! AND NO, NAPPING AND PUN-MAKING ARE NOT REAL HOBBIES!"

"would making crosswords be a real hobby?"

"SANS!"

BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK!

Frisk jumped on her chair at the first violent hit at the door. She even felt how the muscles in her ears tensed up in a hopeless tentative to raise them up. She turned to look at the living room where the door was. It was still bonked repeatedly. She heard Undyne curse loudly.

"Wait a moment, you all, I gotta take this...."

Frisk heard the door splice open, then close again. From outside, there were muffled sounds of a tense conversation she could not decipher. She turned back to Sans and Papyrus with a questioning look, but it did not seem like the two brothers had a clue of what this was about. After a moment, Papyrus stood up and she did the same. By the time they were in the living room, Undyne was coming back in.

"... And that's final, kid," she finished with a stern look. "Come back tomorrow for the usual if you want, though."

The door shut before Frisk could have a good look at who was at the other side.

"WHO WAS THAT, UNDYNE?"

"Huh? oh!" She noticed Frisk and the skeleton. "Yeah, it's nothing much," she told them with a shrug. "It's just some kid I started training last time I was here. This dumbass wants to integrate the Royal Guard for our next mission. Obviously, I said no, because I don't take underage squirts."

Frisk felt something cold squirm inside.

"... By 'mission'... you mean going back to the war, don't you?" She asked in a small voice, trying to keep her tone neutral.

Undyne locked her unique eye on the former human. Frisk wondered how she had lost the other one.

"... Yeah, I meant that." Undyne then shrugged. "But... we already know how that work, punk... it..." She looked away, a haunted look in her eye. "...It's not pretty."

Beside her, Frisk saw Papyrus holding his left arm with a sour expression. She felt a pang in her heart remembering it was the arm she had chopped off. Her tail shifted close to her feet. Hesitantly, she made a move to take his hand and was glad when he grabbed it back. He forced a grin and looked at her.

"OH, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY, FRISK... THE… THE WAR IS PRETTY FAR... I... I'M SURE WE'RE OKAY, HERE. THE HUMANS WILL... THEY WON'T GET PAST THE GREAT DEFENSE THAT I, PAPYRUS, HAVE MADE FOR THEM!" He pumped a fist to his chest. "DID YOU KNOW THAT I WORK IN THE TRAPPER GUILD? WE BUILD UP PUZZLES SO DAZZLING HUMANS CAN DO NOTHING BUT GIVE UP AND GO BACK HOME! NYEHEHEH!"

She had to stop herself from crushing his hand at hearing both his concern for her and the clear deception he was suffering from. Frisk was well aware of the deadly traps preventing the troop from progressing into the Monster Kingdom. They were nothing like Papyrus's fun puzzles, though. All the tentative humans have made had been utter butchery. As far as she was aware, the military had completely given up for now, because all those dead men occasionally meant some of their souls did not shatter and would serve as fuel for monster's machines.

But Sans told her Papyrus had not killed. Papyrus did not know.

The skeleton who could not even push his magic on her when she was wielding an axe at him could not know his ingenuity was used for killing.

It drove her furious inside, but she repressed it. It was like a weight of lead was resting in her stomach.

"Why..." She breathed, looking down. "Why would any kid want to... to go there... to... to do all this..." She tried to contain her tear. "Don't they know? ...Don't they realize what this is all about? What this mean to them? To everyone?"

After a short silence, Undyne answered.

"... Unless you've been there, you can't really know. All they know about it are the nice slogans, the nice TV images, the cool heroes." She snorted. "We have to keep up hope, like y- like humans do on their side, I bet." Frisk raised her head and looked at Undyne's face. Her ear-fins were down and she was looking to the side with a grim smile. "...Heh. Kids are... they're just another casualty, in the end."

There was nothing Frisk could answer to that, so she did not. She caressed Papyrus's gloved hand instead. The skeleton looked troubled again.

Undyne had a look at Papyrus's face and suddenly raised her fist high.

"NGAAAH! You know what? All this Anime watch and serious talks have been making me HUNGRY!" She grasped Papyrus's shoulder tightly. "Come with me, you bag of bones! TO THE KITCHEN!"

Papyrus blinked in surprise.

"UNDYNE, YOU... NYEHEHEH! YOU'RE RIGHT! IT'S TIME FOR DINNER SOON! LET'S USE OUR LESSON AS A MEAN TO AN END AND FEED US ALL! ESPECIALLY FRISK!" Papyrus turned to her enthusiastically. "YOU WILL FINALLY HAVE THE JOY OF TASTING MY EXPERTIVELY COOKED, CULINARY WONDROUS CUISINE!"

A different kind of weight dropped in her stomach at that idea.

Chapter Text

Asriel heard Undyne's loud proclamation and sighed. Well, she did have some fire extinguishers handy in the kitchen since last time, so at least they would be prepared. Still, it would mean Papyrus would be busy at the kitchen instead of entertaining Frisk, so now was a good time as any to join them... or bring her back to the Anime watch... but he had been a bit distracted for a few episodes already, so he was not sure he was looking forward to continue.

When he stood up, Alphys glanced at him from the other couch, then rested her eyes on her laps. Asriel wished he could cheer her up more, but apart from giving her a gentle squeeze on her shoulder when he left, he did not know what to do.

When he entered the kitchen, he felt the atmosphere growing tense like the shaky ground of an upcoming earthquake. Sans was watching, smiling in the corner, Papyrus and Undyne were heatedly looking for all the ingredients around and preparing the stove. Frisk was standing behind them apprehensively. Asriel joined her and gave her a reassuring look back when she glanced at him.

"ALRIGHT! HERE WE ARE!" Undyne proclaimed loudly as she showed her assistant the tomatoes on the counter. "REMEMBER YOUR PASSION, PAP, REMEMBER YOUR FURY! THOSE HEALTY VEGETABLES ARE YOUR GREATEST ENEMIES! PUNCH THEM LIKE YOU WOULD THE OPPOSITE SIDE!"

"UNDERSTOOD, UNDYNE!" Papyrus faced a tomato and raised his arm dramatically.

He stroke.

The Tomato rolled to the side. Undyne raised an eyebrow.

"...Papyrus... THAT WAS WEAK!" Undyne turned to him with a glare. "I could accept a hit this weak before, BUT IT'S BEEN YEARS NOW! YOU SHOULD AT LEAST SPLAT IT TO THE GROUND!"

"BUT... UNDYNE! WHAT IF I HIT THE ENEMY TOO HARD AND THEY'RE HURT?"

"OH MY GOD PAPYRUS! IT WAS JUST A METAPHORE!" She faked pushing up her sleeves, because she did not have any, and hit the tomato at full force. The juice splattered all over. Some drops even reached near Frisk and Asriel, who recoiled.

"Oh, god..." Frisk muttered in a panicked voice.

"It's, uh, okay... I'll... intervene if anything bad happen," He reassured her.

"...Oh, god," she repeated, eyes still on the two 'chefs'.

"THERE! Scrape it in a bowl or something!" She told the skeleton. Both of them were covered in tomato juice. Papyrus found a bowl and started to push the juice on the table in it with his glove. Frisk covered her muzzle with clear signs of getting sick, her ears dropping down a bit.

"Uh, Frisk," Asriel said softly. "It's okay... you... you don't have to watch this."

"I'm eating this," she muttered to herself. "I'm eating this."

Undyne drawn out a cheap pack of pasta as Papyrus was finishing his job. Once he did so, she showed the box to the skeleton.

"Go, now! As we practiced... SHOW ME YOUR HEART IN THIS DROPPING OF PASTA!"

"I DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE A HEART, BUT I CAN SHOW MY PASSIONATE SPIRIT INSTEAD! NYEHEHEHEH!"

Papyrus then took the box, violently tore the package and threw it whole into the pan. The dry spaghetti spread all around the container.

" THAT'S MUCH BETTER!" Undyne punched the air in satisfaction. "Now we can do the best part: RISING THE FIRE OF YOUR PASSION TO FRUITION!" She showed him the temperature button. "COME ON! RAISE THE HEAT TO RIVAL YOUR INNER LOVE OF COOKING!"

"YES, UNDYNE!"

"There's no water," Frisk realized with a horrified wince. "Oh, god, there's not even water..."

"Uh," Asriel started hesitantly. "You know what; you... won't have to eat anything... I'll, uh, make sure that..."

But Frisk was not listening; she walked to the two monsters waving her arm.

"Alright! Stop this at once! Don't touch that button!" She exclaimed as Papyrus was about to turn the heat on.

"FRISK? WHAT IS IT? I CAN'T GIVE YOU SPAGHETTIES THAT AREN’T COOKED! ...OH, WAIT..." he put a hand on his skeletal grin, still covered in juice. "DO YOU PREFER YOUR PASTA DRY INSTEAD? I MUST ADMIT I NEVER TRIED THIS VARIANT, BUT IT SHOULD NOT BE TOO HARD FOR ME TO IMPROVISE IT FOR YOU! NYEHEHEH!"

For once, Frisk's expression stayed stern even at Papyrus's enthusiast. She looked at Undyne and Papyrus, then back at their sorry try at cooking, and took a breath.

"Okay, no." She shook her head, a hand on her front and eyes closed. "No. I can take a lot of mons- a lot of weirdness from around those parts... but this?" She pointed at the mess empathically. "THIS I can't stand!"

Undyne raised her tomato-covered eyebrows and put her hands on her hips.

"What are you blabbering on about, punk?"

"This!" Frisk pointed again. "All this food destroyed... all this..." She gestured at Undyne's dripping shirt. "it's so... so... wasteful!" She clenched her fangs and gripped her hair, her tail whipping the floor. "All that food that could be used for many more lunches… just thrown all around and destroyed! How can you stand losing so much food supplies??"

Papyrus looked at her in concern.

"FRISK, ARE YOU WORRIED YOU CAN'T GET MORE FOR YOU TO BRING HOME?" The skeleton brightened. "BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY IF THAT'S THE CASE, AS I AM COOKING EVERYDAY! MY FRIDGE IS A CULINARY ART SHOW OF PASTA DELICACIES! I'LL GIVE YOU SOME LATER, I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT!"

Undyne, for her part, cocked her head to the side.

"You know this food is magic-made, right? We got plenty of them."

Frisk raised her head up in frustration.

"I don't care if that's magic food! I don't care if you have unlimited supply of that thing, you are NOT wasting any more of that in front of my eyes!"

"... BUT, FRISK-"

"Okay, you know what? Fine! I'm doing the cooking!"

Frisk headed to the drawer and took out a large kitchen knife. Asriel's eyes widened at the sight of her handling a potential weapon. Before he could make a move to stop her, Undyne was already on the case. She grabbed the knife out of the former human’s hand swiftly.

"You are NOT touching this, punk." Her voice was low and clearly threatening. "Now, GET OUT OF THAT KITCHEN!"

"U-UNDYNE IS RIGHT, FRISK; THE KITCHEN CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS!" Papyrus put a hand on her shoulder softly. "AND... AND YOU'RE THE GUEST, HERE... YOU... YOU SHOULD LET US, YOUR HOST, ACCOMODATE YOU!"

Frisk, however, was not backing down. She met the fish warrior's fierce gaze without flinching.

"Let me cook."

"Absolutely NOT!"

"Fine. I'll supervise, then."

Undyne laughed harshly.

"Yeah, right, punk!"

Frisk looked impassively for a few seconds, before opening her mouth and taking a breath.

"You're gonna take this knife, go to this not yet destroyed tomato over there, cut it delicately in slice, mash it carefully in a bowl, put it in a skillet with a bit of oil, add some salt and pepper and let it cook at a very low heat and covered for a while. I'll direct you in to how to handle the pasta while it's heating."

Undyne stared at her, probably wondering how Frisk even had the gale to order her like that, then burst in laughter.

"NGAHAHAH! AS IF!" The fish woman then huffed and crossed her juicy arms. "It's sounds so fake, anyway."

"HUM," Papyrus put a hand on his chin hesitantly. "I MUST ADMIT, I HAVE A HARD TIME FIGURING OUT WHERE THE MANDATORY VIOLENT AND PATIONATE STRIKES ARE IN THIS RECIPE, BUT MAYBE I NEED TO TRY IT FIRST." He looked at Frisk curiously. "IS THIS HOW SPAGHETTI IS COOKED IN THE CAPITAL, FRISK? I HAVE TO SAY, I’M A BIT CURIOUS ABOUT YOUR LOCAL CUSTOM!"

Frisk looked at papyrus for a few seconds and smirked.

"Why, yes! It is how cooking pasta is done in the Capital." Her smile softened a bit. "I'm very sorry if I impose on you, Papyrus, but, uh... I want to share some of my customs with you too! It's... it's only fair, after all those puzzles you made for me!"

Papyrus's face brightened and a shine appeared in his eye-sockets.

"I UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY, FRISK! IT IS TRUE THAT, UP UNTIL NOW, I'VE BEEN THE ONE TO MAKE YOU PARTAKE IN MY FUN ACTIVITIES! AS A GREAT FRIEND OF YOURS, IT IS MANDATORY FOR ME TO PARTAKE IN SOME OF YOUR CUSTOMS AS WELL!"

"Thank you," Frisk answered sincerely. She made a gesture to take his hand, then gave up when seeing the state of the whole skeleton's upper body. Papyrus turned to Undyne animatedly.

"IT’S DECIDED! TONIGHT, WE’LL DO FRISK'S SPECIAL RECIPE FROM THE CAPITAL! IT’S ONLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO, AFTER ALL, IF OUR CULINARY CUSTOMS UPSET YOU SO MUCH, FRISK! AS YOUR COOL FRIEND, I HAVE TO BE AWARE OF THOSE THINGS AND REACT ACCORDINGLY! NYEHEHEH!"

Undyne looked pretty sour at that exchange, but relented with a groan.

"Alright, punk. You win this time. We'll try your stupid recipe." She looked at the human monster warningly. "This has better be good!"

Frisk crossed her arms and flipped her tail.

"Is that a challenge you're giving?"

"Heck YEAH!"

"Then I dare you to follow my instructions down to the letters."

Undyne raised her fist and spread juicy drops everywhere.

"I AM UP TO ANY PATHETIC CHALLENGES YOU COUD POSSIBLY THROW AT ME, PUNK!"

Frisk raised her hands in protection.

"Okay, but before we begin, there's two things you guys need you do."

"What?"

Frisk pointed away from the kitchen.

"Shower. Then..." she pointed at an unused pair of white clothes. "Aprons."

--

Asriel was not sure if Frisk's order came from her water-obsession or not, but he was relieved the two monsters obeyed. Once they were back, Papyrus's 'battle body' still dripping, but with clean liquid this time, they put the aprons as indicated and started to follow Frisk's instructions.

Asriel found himself marveling a bit at the former human's ability to direct the team. For someone as young as she was, it was even more impressive. He knew sixteen was slightly below adulthood for a human; the equivalent of around fifteen years away from his age, though he was a young adult with growth problems. Her maturity was astonishing to him.

 Undyne looked like she was barely restraining herself from punching through everything as sweat was pouring from her front and her clenched knife slowly sliced through the tomatoes. Whenever she looked ready to give up, Frisk was clearing her throat, which was sending the fuming fish lady into a cold anger and doubled her determination to take up the human's challenge.

Papyrus and his upbeat passion were faring better, though against the power of an onion Frisk had miraculously recovered from somewhere, the skeleton had trouble.

"I DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW WATER CAN FLOW FROM MY EYE SOCKET DUE TO THE DESTRUCTIVE POWER OF A PLANT, FRISK. WHO EVEN INVENTED THIS THING?"

"I don't know, but any food that can make you CRY without even punching you in the face have my respect!" Undyne retorted with a wide smile. "NGAHAHAH! Why did I never use this thing in recipes? It's genius! I LOVE IT!"

Frisk, for her part, looked baffled the skeleton could even cry in the first place.

"...You don't even have tear-du... you know what? Nevermind. Uh..." She pointed to the sink. "Why don't you try slicing it under running water? It should prevent its juice from affecting you."

Asriel kept watching the group as the skeleton took her advice. He kept watching, just in case anything bad happened. With Frisk around, he could never know.

...Even though she gave him no reasons to doubt her until now.

“got some time to indulge me with a word or two, az? i probably need an actual pair of eye-balls for this.”

Asriel looked to his side where Sans was standing, waving a crossword sheet with one of his regular grin. By force of habit, Asriel picked the paper and started to go through the letters. After about thirty seconds when Asriel mentally completed two remaining words, Sans spoke once more.

"she's pretty good at this, uh?"

Asriel looked up at Frisk, then down at Sans, who was grinning at the hybrid's back as she directed the cooking of the sauce.

"she got them in the palm of her paw, there," he continued with a chuckle. "seems the kid's a natural at pushing people's right buttons, huh?"

Asriel sighed exasperatedly.

"She's not that manipulative, Sans; she may know how to assert herself to people, but she's honest."

"heh, why would she be honest to the enemy?"

The prince rolled his eyes.

"Well clearly, she has no problem with that. She keeps berating me on my bad planning you know? And about letting her learn of our customs and magic."

"uh, that's probably cause she's right." The skeleton winked. "getting those kind of info to a war prisoner is partibularly ridiculous."

"Sans. You see how she is with your brother. Frisk is a nice person; she's not manipulating anyone."

"...yeah, okay; i agree that she's probably 'nice'," Sans admitted with a sad chuckle. "but, az... you know all this ain't about the 'nice' against the 'nasty'. the two of you stand on two opposite sides of a conflict, with very different end goals. that's where the whole issue is."

Asriel frowned at his friend's words and looked away.

"She's... Frisk is not warmongering... she doesn't like conflicts."

"yeah," the skeleton agreed, his eyes darkening. "but this ain't about liking conflicts either. You heard what she said 'bout us. It's clear that for her, it's about 'justice'."

"...Justice..." Asriel repeated in a mutter. He recalled Frisk's outburst and realized the skeleton was probably right.

"yeah," Sans said with a nod. "and probably 'revenge' as well. like most humans, she can't really let by-bones be by-bones this easily. ya see how she is at the kitchen; she's a very determined human." Sans chuckled darkly. "you remember, az? you remember the time that human single-handedly took back their village by killing all our troop? she's that kind of human."

Asriel could not suppress his shivering in time. He remembered that human; that town... Asriel was not present, but simply reading the reports about all the deaths had been unbearable.

"...So you..." Asriel gulped, trying to find his words. "...so you think she could... do that? Try to... to kill us all?"

Sans shrugged.

"i know that, when i saw her weeks ago, back then, i could certainly believe it." Asriel caught a haunted look in Sans's gaze before the skeleton continued. "don't know much 'bout now, though."

Asriel breathed out.

"Yeah... she's changed a lot."

"...maybe... but so have you, az; before, you could still see the big picture."

The prince grew annoyed.

"Are you insinuating I'm putting her needs before my people, Sans?"

"probably not intentionally," Sans answered casually, "but yeah."

Asriel dropped his head down; a remaining trait of when he was angry and would charge at things when he was very young.

'When did I ever-"

"ya don't remember what frisk made a remark about? about parading her in towns and making everyone know her?" Sans looked back at Asriel. "that would have been for the benefit of your people, az. you could have presented a solution for the conflict to all of those, who, like us, are tired of killing. you could have raised everyone's hope for a better tomorrow." Sans winked humorlessly. "instead, you are offering your involuntary guest a chance to be anonymous, nice little quarters, access to information that could be used against us, and occasional hope-lifting outings with your friends. not exactly siding with your people there."

"You know it's not like that at all," Asriel protested with a frown. "Parading her around could only have been a temporary improvement in our troop's moral, and it would have alienated her even more from us. Frisk has to stay a secret for now, until we figure out if her situation can be recreated for the benefice of all. If..."

Asriel winced. He scratched near one of his horn.

"Look Sans... I don't know if Alphys told you... but Frisk's transformation was completely accidental. We don't know the first thing about what caused it. If... if we want to use it again... we have to figure out how this all work: if we can recreate Frisk's circumstances with another human, if we can make sure this transformation sticks and if we can convince the transformed humans to accept it."

This time, Asriel had managed to surprise the skeleton.

"huh, so you still don't know why she just changed like that for some reason?" Sans looked back at the former human with a 'hum'. "okay, i can see why you're so hesitant now... still..."

Asriel breathed out tiredly.

"Sans..."

"no, az, as you friend, i gotta say it: you need to keep a wall apart from her, even if it hurts." Sans stared at the goat monster dead in the eye. "she doesn't like you, az; she probably never will. ya gotta give it up."

"...You think I don't know that?" Asriel raised a brow. "Even if she didn't straight up tell me, the hate in her aura makes it pretty clear."

"glad to know your head is aware of that; can it tell that to you heart now?"

Asriel unconsciously clenched a hand on his chest.

"I... I don't get what you mean."

"really? think about it well. think about the time you spend with her, the times you look at her precious, but completely phony boss monster figure; doesn't that make something flutter in your chest or something? ...not that i'd know how this feel to have flutters like that, given i'm all empty inside, but-"

"Sans, you don't even make sense."

"heh, good one."

"I'm serious," Asriel frowned, feeling something disturbing his inner right as he spoke. "What do you think this is about?"

"let me spell it out for you then: l-o-v-e; all in lower case, of course."

Asriel's eyes widened and he recoiled as if he had been slapped.

"No."

"uh, yeah."

"You're completely out of it, Sans."

"nah, i'm pretty sure i hit the nail on it."

Asriel shook his head in denial.

"I am not in love sans. I haven't been in love for years! I..." He clenched his teeth and clenched his fist, before admitting. "...I don't even like Boss Monsters."

Sans raised an eyebrow.

"oh?"

Asriel shook his head.

"No... look... it's..." Asriel breathed out, blushing at admitting something so embarrassing. "I tried, okay? It's not like I don't find my kind... nice-looking, but... I never... I never..."

Sans looked at his friend with a pensive look. He then looked at Frisk.

"huh, now that's weird... because when i see you look at the kid-"

"I can't be in love, Sans," Asriel repeated assuredly. "The only time I've even felt something coming close to that was when I was very young and it was only with... with..."

Asriel trailed off at the painful memory of a smiling rosy face and beautiful brown-red eyes...

...then those same eyes on a bloody and dusty face with unruly hair...

...then, the image was replaced by an angry monster gaze sporting those two exact same eyes...

Asriel felt realization punching him in the gut.

"... Oh no..." he finally muttered in shock and dismay... as well as a glimpse of horror because he could not stand whatever implication this had for him. Sans, seeing that his prince had finally realized whatever he needed to accept his reality, shrugged and closed his eyes.

"... yeah, i think pretty much everyone caught on that for a while now... well, maybe not pap, but i bet even undyne, who'd barely seen the two of you interact, knows something’s up... as for frisk... well..."

Sans chuckled; Asriel was not sure if it was with humor.

"in her words: she's 'not a goat-fucker'."

Wow, as punchy and straight to the point as ever. Asriel was not sure Sans should have told him, though, because her straight-forwardness had been a quality he had admired in her for a while now.

And now...

...Oh god...

Chapter Text

About a good hour later, Asriel was sitting at the table with every one, except for Papyrus and Undyne, who were both busy getting the sauce and the spaghetti ready with excited cackles. The nice smell of tomato and cooked pasta was making him salivate for a while now.

...And he was still not over his realization.

The disposition of everyone’s seat was not helping him think straight. At one end of the table was Sans, then Alphys and he were sitting at each of the skeleton's sides, then Undyne would sit next to Alphys and Papyrus would sit at the other end.

This left Frisk sitting at his right side, eagerly waiting for the two remaining monsters to sit down.

He could see her tea-colored hair up close and guess its smoothness.

He could see how uncouth her beautiful tawny-brown fur was.

And damn it. He was in love.

He was in love for the first time in over thirty years now.

...And it was with the one person that would not reciprocate, ever.

It was both amazing and soul-crushing. At this moment, he hated Sans for making him realize.

...And he could feel the 'fluttering' inside, now.

…Yeah, he really hated Sans.

He forced himself to look away from her and met the skeleton's amused gaze. Asriel really wished he could throw a fireball or one of his signatures 'Star Blazing' on his sorry face without risking dusting him.

...At least thinking of hurting Sans was distracting him from the bigger problem at hand.

"ATTENTION TO ALL MONSTER KINDS PRESENT, AND TO HIS MAJESTY HIMSELF," Papyrus broadcasted loudly as he was holding the very big pasta plate. "WE PRESENT TO YOU A RECIPE OF CULINARY NOVELTY, A MEAL THAT COME STRAIGHT FROM THE CAPITAL AND HELPFULLY PROVIDED BY OUR AMAZING GUEST-STAR AND EQUALY AMAZING FRIEND: FRISK!" Asriel saw a red color appearing through Frisk's furry cheek and was reminded how Chara seemed often to have a healthy blush on their cheek.

His heartbeat accelerated and he chased the image off as best as he could. Damn it.

"HEREBY, BEHOLD: A CREATION OF THE AWESOME UNDYNE AND THE EQUALLY AWESOME AND ALSO VERY GREAT PAPYRUS: SPAGHETTI, CAPITAL RECIPE! NYEHEHEHEH!"

He and Undyne put their two plates down with a brutality that almost made Asriel fear it would break the recipient. Then, they both sat down with a laugh, removing their aprons in the process.

"NGAHAHAH! YEAH! So, uh, the punk proposed we separate the sauce from the spaghetti and we all individually pick how much we want of each, since we can NEVER agree on the quantity unanimously, anyway!"

"NYEHEHEH! THAT'S RIGHT! BECAUSE FRISK IS SO CLEVER!"

Frisk had a hand covering her head in obvious embarrass. It was not an expression he had seen often on her. Asriel thought it was kind of cute.

Damn it.

The skeleton had wanted to serve every one, but Asriel asked to do it in his place, first to make sure no one would break anything at the table, second to distract himself from his thought.

He even served Frisk first to make sure she would not come in his thinking too much. He heard Sans chuckling.

Damn it.

How did this even happened? Why now? Why her?

He had never gushed over Boss Monsters before, yet he had been checking her out for at the very least a week, if not more, now that he realized it.

This was bad and made no sense.

... Granted she was pretty unique looking even for a Boss Monster, due to her unusual darker color... but then, she was unique on every front.

...And that was his fault.

Right. There was that, too; she hated him.

He killed her family. Not directly, but he did.

He still had her trapped here...Even over a nice friendly dinner, she was still his captive.

The flutter turned into a weight of heavy guilt and self hate. His throat constricted.

"ALRIGHT!" Undyne yelled when Asriel finished the serving. "I think it's time for us to see if you can really deliver what you claimed, punk!"

Frisk nodded, looked at her plate and closed her eyes, muttering a small 'thank you for the meal' under her breath. Sans raised hi fork and wiggled his eyebrows.

"as the humans say: 'bone appetite'!"

The monsters started digging into their plate. Asriel, still heavy-hearted, twirled the sauce-covered pasta with his fork and shoved it in his mouth. He had been expecting it to be better than Papyrus's usual spaghetti, but... this was actually much more than that. The spaghetti were the perfect mix in between soft and hard when he bit in them, and the sauce had a bit of spice in it, just enough to bring out the tomato and pasta marriage. The warmth of the food seemed to spread down to his heavy heart like a comforting hug.

It was excellent. It was amazing!

...Okay, he was probably biased, because the last time he ate any kind of noodles, it had been Alphys's instant ones in the lab, but still...

But still, from the others reaction, his opinion was shared by everyone.

"It's..." Undyne finally started after savoring her first bite. "...it's good." She smiled and dug her fork into the spaghetti. "ALRIGHT! NGAHAHARMPH!"

Her stuffed mouth stopped her laugh, but not her enthusiasm.

"y-yeah, f-frisk," Alphys added in a small, but admiring voice. "y-you're a pretty good cook at your age."

"...yeah," Sans added with his usual smile. "you’re a true skull-inary chef, kid."

Frisk swallowed a bite.

"... yeah... it's okay," she finally decided. "We had to do with what we had on hand, but it came out pretty good." She made another fork-twirling of spaghetti. "My parents both cook... both used to cook... and I had to learn and teach it to my... my sibling, later."

Asriel felt his heart constrict when he saw her face fall again.

Papyrus's eyes were gleaming at his friend.

"FRISK! YOUR SPAGHETTI COOKING SKILLS ARE AT LEAST ON PAR WITH MY PUZZLE-MAKING EXPERTISE!" Papyrus commented joyously. Asriel knew this was a big compliment, coming from Papyrus. "THIS KIND OF WONDROUS SKILL IS SOMETHING THAT PROBABLY PUTS YOUR DATING POWER AT HUMONGOUS STRENGHT."

Frisk half-chocked on her bite. She coughed and looked at the skeleton bewildered.

"D-Dating? What?"

"YOUR 'DATING POWER'! AS EXPLAINED IN THE DATING MANUAL!" Papyrus then pulled out from his inventory a little pink manual and started to read it. "IT SAYS IN IT THAT 'BEING ABLE TO EXPERTLY COOK THE HIGHEST QUALITY MEAL IS ONE OF THE BIGGER INCREASE IN YOUR DATING POWER YOU CAN PROVOKE'!" He pulled back his book and looked at Frisk assuredly. "IT MEANS YOU MUST HAVE A LOT OF LUCK ATTRACTING A SUCCEFUL DATE!"

Frisk listened to the skeleton with a short laugh and shook her head.

"Heh, I've never actually dated anyone yet," she told him with a smile. She did not seem bothered by that confession.

Papyrus, however, looked shocked.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT, FRISK! HOW COULD SOMEONE SO GREAT AND PASSIONATE ABOUT PUZZLES AND SPAGHETTI NOT HAVE EVER BEEN ON A DATE BEFORE??"

Frisk started to laugh again; Papyrus's face morphed into one of realization as a red blush spread on the bone of his cheek.

"...WAIT A MOMENT... THE PUZZLES... THE SPAGHETTI... COULD IT BE... FRISK... YOU... HAVE YOU BEEN... HAVE YOU BEEN 'SECRETLY FLIRTING' WITH ME ALL DAY???"

Frisk tried to contain her laugh with her hand, but was doing a bad job at it. After calming herself down, she looked as Papyrus fondly, and declared in the most serious voice she could muster.

"...Yes, I've been learning spaghetti and preparing to this day solely for the chance of 'secretly flirting' with you, the great Papyrus. You caught me."

After seeing Papyrus's actual eye-construction bulging out of their eye-sockets, she started snickering again. Asriel himself had to shove another fork of pasta in his mouth to prevent his laugh from being heard. He could hear Alphys's soft whine from her covered muzzle and see Sans silently chuckling. Undyne had her eye on the scene and looked like she was dying from her chockfull spaghetti bite.

"FRISK!" The skeleton exclaimed, hands on his red cheekbone. "I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW CUNNING YOU ARE AT DATING! YOU... I.... I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SAY THIS... BUT... AS GREAT AND WONDERFUL A PERSON YOU ARE, I... I'M SORRY...I CAN'T MATCH THE PASSION YOU HAVE FOR ME!"

The skeleton deflated in sadness for his friend. Frisk was laughing out loud again.

"OH, FRISK... P-PLEASE DON'T CRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT YOUR FEELINGS!"

"That's... hehe... that's okay, Papyrus, hehe, I-I'll be able to move on, promise!"

"yeah, pap, don't worry, the kid's tough; you don't have to feel 'sheepish' about it."

This time, Frisk even laughed at Sans's pun. That was new.

"SANS!"

The two brothers started bickering about puns; Frisk was still laughing, though Asriel and the others had calmed down a bit. Asriel looked at her. She really looked so lively, now; nothing like how she had been this morning.

...And with all that, she did not tell Papyrus she was 'not a skeleton-fucker'.

...wow...

…Was this a jealous spike he had just launched in his head?

This was bad; being jealous of Papyrus... of all people to be jealous of...

Asriel chuckled humorlessly. It went unheard in the cacophony of noises the two brothers, and then Undyne joining in, were making. Frisk had stopped laughing and was eating her spaghetti in silence, seemingly deep in some sort of heavy-thinking.

Welcome to the club, he thought bitterly.

... This was really bad.

Chapter Text

This day… This day was good… actually good.

…As good as they could ever be again for Frisk.

When she was at the table with the group of monsters, she soon found herself thinking back to the warm dinner her little family had been sharing every night.

First, someone, usually mom, would bring the plate, then, everyone would sit and enjoy. Then dad would say a small prayer in half a whisper, which Frisk always did too, because even though she had never seen God and had started to have a serious doubt that any kind of benevolent creator would put their creations into so much misery, her dad believed, and if her dad believed it, then he had a good reason to. Cam would always need to be corrected in his use of the cutlery, usually by Frisk, and would blabber on excitedly about planes and spaceships… when mom was not the one talking about her next lesson, or an obscure history fact. Dad and Frisk were usually the silent ones; the two of them spending the most time at her dad’s improvised clinic.

When she looked at the monsters around her, a little voice whispered in her mind: ‘those times are gone forever; you’ll never see them again.’

She felt a hurt in her soul; one that was no where physical, and yet, causing pain, like any real blow. Because that was the truth. They would never come back. They were dead.

Their souls were…

…And now, the best she had ever felt in weeks, it was here, surrounded by their happy and laughing murderers.

Traitor.

She forced herself to finish the plate, because she could never waste; and mom would be disappointed.

Traitor.

Dad told her the nice souls of the dead went to heaven, but what happened to a soul claimed by monsters?

Traitor.

…Or did the souls needed to shatter and disappear, like those of the trained soldiers? She was so confused.

Traitor.

She was afraid to ask. She had been afraid for weeks.

“THANK YOU FOR INVITING US HOME, UNDYNE!” Papyrus turned to the former human. “AND THANK YOU, FRISK, FOR SHARING SO MANY THINGS WITH US! ESPECIALLY THAT SPAGHETTI RECIPE! IT WAS TRULLY A REMARQUABLE EXPERIENCE FOR MY HIGHLY DEVELOPED TASTEBUDS!”

Frisk did not have to force herself to smile at Papyrus. Papyrus was the ‘Cam’ of the monsters; the innocent genius caught in a place he could never belong to.

She hoped Cam would understand if she thought that. He probably would.

“I had a great time with you, too, Papyrus.” Then, an idea came to her mind. “Oh, why don’t you try my recipe for the human? I bet they would love that!”

Two birds with one stone, as they say. Papyrus looked delighted at the prospect.

“THAT IS YET ANOTHER GREAT IDEA COMING FROM YOU, FRISK! YOU ARE CERTAINLY A VERY CLEVER MONSTER FOR YOUR AGE! I BET IF YOU KEEP THIS PATH OF BRILLANCE, YOU COULD BE AN EXCELLENT CHEF! …OR EVEN MAKE YOUR OWN PUZZLES FOR THE TRAPPER GUILD LIKE ME! NYEHEHEHEH!”

Frisk’s hands tensed in fist at the mention of those ‘trappers’. What a repugnant concept… And she bet Papyrus’s ‘friends’ were complicit in their deceit as well.

You may as well follow his path and bring harm to your own people. You’re already halfway through collaborating with the enemy.

Traitor.

Traitor.

Traitor!

“…FRISK? IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT? YOU’RE SHAKING…”

Deep breath… Take a deep breath.

Frisk managed to finally relax her tensed body, forced a grin and shook her head.

“It’s… it’s nothing.”

Papyrus raised a hand in concern.

“IS THAT THE SAME NASTY ‘NOTHING’ THAT MADE YOU CRY EARLIER? DO YOU NEED ANOTHER FRIENDLY HUG OF COMFORT?”

She felt a lump in her throat and bit back her tears.

“No, I… I’ll be alright, now,” she assured, wishing her voice would sound more convincing. “Um, but, thank you, Papyrus.” She took his hand in hers and pressed gently. “I… I’m glad to have found a friend like you here.”

She felt the slight pressure of Sans’s blue magic on her soul, but ignored it, like she had learned to. Sans would not do anything to her with Papyrus watching.

Papyrus did his usual smile again; only, there was a little more maturity than before.

“I AM VERY HAPPY TO BE YOUR FRIEND AS WELL, FRISK! REMEMBER TO COME TO ME WHENEVER YOU FEEL THE NEED TO! WHILE I AM NO CERTIFIED EXPERT PSYCHOLOGIST, I MAY AS WELL BE, WITH THE AMONT OF GREAT PEOPLE WHO LEARNED TO TRUST ME WITH THEIR FEELINGS! NYEHEHEHEHEH!” The skeleton turned around to look at his brother. “COME ON, SANS! LET’S GO HOME!”

The shorter skeleton shrugged.

“Sorry, bro; gotta go to the lab for something ‘gasterly’ to work on; i’ll be home late.”

“OH… WAIT A MOMENT! FRISK!” Papyrus turned back to her. “YOU’RE NEW HERE, RIGHT? AND YOU’VE NEVER BEEN AT UNDYNE’S HOUSE BEFORE! DO YOU NEED ME TO GET YOU HOME?”

Frisk shook her head. She did not need the other monsters’ prompt to know this was not a good idea.

“No, that’s okay; Asriel knows where my home is.” She accentuated her sentence with a glance at the white Boss Monster, who quickly shifted his gaze away from her.

…Huh. What got his goat?

…Heh.

“Anyway,” she continued, waving a hand, “have a safe trip home, Papyrus!”

“AS ALWAYS I WILL, BECAUSE ALL MY TRIPS ARE MADE WITH THE HIGHEST SAFETY POSSIBLE! NYEHEHEHEH! HAVE AN EVEN SAFER TRIP HOME, FRISK, YOUR MAGESTY AND ALPHYS! GOOD NIGHT, UNDYNE! AND SANS, TRY TO DO YOUR LAZY SIX HOUR NAP IN YOUR BED INSTEAD OF AT THE LAB THIS TIME, OKAY?”

“uh, pap, that’s called ‘sleeping’,” Sans corrected with a mirthful smile.

“A MADE UP WORD JUST FOR YOU, I BET! WHO WOULD EVER BOTHER NAPPING THIS LONG WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO DURING THE DAY! NYEHEHEHEHEH!”

With that, the joyful skeleton finally departed under the twilight light of the falling night, leaving Frisk alone with her jailors. Undyne turned to her with a wide smile.

“ALRIGHT! You know what? You’re not half-bad at all, for a little human punk!” She decided with an approving nod. “I really wasn’t expecting you to have this much guts and pushing me and Pap to cooking perfection! THAT was IMPRESSIVE AS ALL HELL!”

She made a move as if to slap the human monster’s back amicably. Seeing this, Frisk recoiled and stared at the fish lady with widened eyes.

Undyne looked at her in confusion and concern.

…This morning, she had been looking at Frisk with an impassive wariness.

Had she really warmed up to her this fast?

Could she feel it? Could the fish feel the doubt?

She could feel Frisk’s confusion, Frisk the traitor.

…No.

No!

Frisk thought back to that day; thought back to Cam and her parents; to the deaths and destructions.

Her cold hurt and rage came back; she finally regained her neutral face.

“…Have you forgotten already, ‘captain’? We’re not friends.”

She’s a killer. She’s a human killer.

Undyne’s expression slowly morphed back to impassiveness… only, Frisk could still feel her real emotion in the fish monster’s aura.

Pity.

It made her boil.

“… Do you think we’ve shared a moment? Do you think this change anything to our positions?” Frisk asked Undyne coldly. “I’m fine with playing pretend with you for Papyrus’s sakes, but this changes nothing in between us.”

Undyne and Frisk stared at each other with the same closed expression. The fish warrior’s eye was shifting in between Frisk’s two eyes, as if trying to dig through and reach Frisk’s soul. After a moment, Undyne made a soft snort and closed her eye.

“Heh, of course it doesn’t change anything about you, punk.” She crossed her arms in a way that reflect both her strength and her resolution. “I stand by my judgment from earlier: you’re just a victim of the circumstances.”

She had the gale to judge. She had the gale to judge!

… And she was still so full of pity.

Disgusting.

Unbearable from someone like her.

Frisk’s anger increased and she sneered.

“Do you know how I did it? How I killed the three of them?”

Undyne tensed. It made something in Frisk jitter in excitement.

“I did it… sneakily… like you said…” It was a harder memory to revive than Frisk had realized, but she pushed herself to do it. She pushed herself to revive this day of blood and dust. Red and grey. “They were busy finishing off the survivors…th-those… those half-crushed in the debris… the wounded.” She remembered; she remembered old Caleb’s half-cry for help… little Matilda chocking on her own blood… herself hiding against Jerome’s corpse, with its entrails spread everywhere…

She shuddered, clenched her fist. Her claws were digging in her palms. It felt horrible. It felt good.

“Th-they…they were heading for the square, where Cam… where I had to go… but I met them first…”

She had to make a detour… to avoid a bigger threat… she lost precious minutes.

“I started with the biggest,” she continued, so entranced she barely remembered she had an audience. “I was up in a ruined house. They couldn’t see me… but I could. They were heading for the square, and all I had was this wooden sword toy.”

She brandished the imaginary toy in her hand… no… not a toy: a tool for war… it always was. Every human child trained with toys like that. Just in case of monsters.

…Because you are better off killing a monster quickly rather than giving it the opportunity to hurt your soul with magic.

“I waited… I waited until it was right under me… I jumped. The armor went ‘clang’ and the dog was yipping at me like an ordinary dog… only it wasn’t… I… I aimed for the eye.”

It was what her dad had said: go for the weak spots. Go for the eyes, the nose, the throat, the mouth…

She made a stabbing motion. She repeated it; over, and over.

“Didn’t die quick… it was yipping… it was dog-crying… never killed before… heh…” She involuntarily smiled. Her cheeks hurt. “Then…”

She made a waving gesture all around.

“Pfeeoo! It flew everywhere! The dust!”

She remembered her cry of horror and satisfaction; she remembered when the large armor fell with a loud noise and she had to roll away to avoid getting crushed and her shoulder had hurt! …But she had not cared for that.

“The other… the other two haven’t heard… they hadn’t heard its call for help through their search for survivors.”

Her breath grew stronger. If only she had been faster… if only he had not panicked so soon…

“Then… then Cam ran off the bushes, because they had smelled him… he-he had been scared… They gave him the chase like… like hunting dogs after a rabbit… ha…”

A lump was in her throat. She had been too far. She had taken too long with the first.

“Went after them… caught up with one.” It had heard her and had turned to her, snarling. She had wanted to go past it and straight to Cam, but it had been in her way. “Swung the axe at me… missed.” For a split second, it had felt like it had actually hit her… she had thought herself hit and dying. Then, the moment had passed and she had dodged to the side. The dog had looked surprised. “Then I stabbed.” She threw her fist forward. “Right through the mouth.”

The dog’s eyes had bludgeoned in shock and it had tried to throw her off its caped body.

“I twisted it… twisted it a lot… heh… made a ‘gurglgurle’ sound… like it was drowning… then…”

She let her arm down, her voice cracking.

“Dusted. Just like that.”

She had inhaled some. It had hurt.

“The other, though… the female… the male had screamed. It… she had noticed instantly.”

And while Frisk had killed her lover, she had hacked off Cam.

“The toy… was useless now… so, I looked at her…. I picked the other dog’s axe and…”

Frisk blinked off the memory, realizing she had just been swallowed by it. Shivering, paws sweating, shaking herself awake, she noticed the monsters’ faces around her. Alphys had a look of sheer terror; the little prince looked like he was in between shock and about to cry out of compassion. Typical.

Sans was not smiling. There was only one time she saw him ‘not smile’ before, she recalled.

Undyne… Undyne had her face completely devoid of any emotion.

A mask of war… something Frisk had seen on human soldiers.

‘Dissociation’, her dad had told her… Get away from the pain… get away from the horror… Become spectator of your own body.

She did not know why, but it made her smile.

“You know how it felt, when I finished her off, don’t you?” She asked in a soft, almost sweet tone; even though it was anything but.

Undyne kept staring at her, impassive, with unreadable aura.

But Frisk did not have to read it. She knew.

She was like the female dog warrior.

She was like Frisk.

“Yes… I rejoiced in it, Undyne; I rejoiced in making her pay; I rejoiced in tearing her neck apart; cutting her head off with her dead lover’s own axe!”

Undyne lunged.

Frisk did not have time to move.

And yet, Undyne missed. Sans magically threw Frisk away from the warrior’s furious punch. She was sent to the ground with a yelping bleat. Her arm hit a stone and a white pain spred through it.

“Undyne, no!”

“Frisk!”

Just like that, Asriel had sprinted to her side protectively. Frisk rose on her knees and looked around blearily. Alphys had put restraining claws around Undyne’s muscled arm, preventing the fuming large monster from throwing herself at the fallen ex-human. Could the fish warrior have killed her with that hit? … In any case, Undyne’s gaze on her was positively furious.

The glee Frisk was feeling came from no happy place.

“Undyne, don’t make another move,” Asriel warned with a growl. He sounded a bit like a dog. Did it sound like that when she did it? She had not noticed. She always tried not to. The prince turned his worried purple gaze at her, his stupid goat face full of concern. “Frisk… you’re hurt!”

A bit slower on the uptake than usual, Frisk turned her attention to where the prince was staring.

Her arm was stained red.

Frisk blinked and twisted it to check at the wound. Ah, there was the gash.

Huh. It was deeper than the skin… and there were a bit of stone powders around. No muscles were cut, though. She would have to wash all that before her dad could do stitches …

…Wait…

Once again, Frisk was brought back to the present. She grasped her injured arm and stared at the red liquid. Goat-face was saying something to her she did not hear. On impulse, she brought her tongue to it and licked.

It tasted of copper. It tasted of blood.

She was bleeding.

All this time, she had blood, and she did not know.

Monsters did not have blood.

Humans did.

“Frisk,” Asriel repeated, louder and an intrusive hand on her shoulder. “I said: I can heal you. Just… just let me see that.”

Frisk looked at him blankly. How could he know how to heal that? Did monsters even had to do stitches?

She had blood.

Gently, he took her arm and she let him, because there was a bigger concern in her head than personal space right now. When his hand lit with a white light and she felt a calming wave of magic through her wound, she instantly brought her attention back to what he was doing. Slowly, softly, she felt the tissues inside the wound repair themselves. Asriel’s muzzle was wrinkled in concentration as the last bit of the sides of the gashes closed off, pushing away the small potentially infectious stone debris.

“…You can heal with your magic,” she remarked in a mutter. She knew of healing magic, but in the books, it was mentioned that monsters preferred healing through food than the direct use of magic. Frisk thought this was a silly notion.

It looked like Asriel shared at least partially her opinion on this.

“Yes… my… my mother knew a bit of healing magic herself, so I decided to learn it.” He then gasped when he saw the palms of her hands. “You’re hurt here as well! Hang on.”

Huh. It looked like her claws had dug through the skin when she had clenched too hard. She let him work on her minor cuts and thought of the implication.

She had been careful because of the promise. She had been so careful to not hurt herself because she thought she would just burst into dust, like any monsters, but she had blood.

… And she remembered seeing the white heart that was her soul weeks ago, when Asriel had pulled it off her. The heart had been up, but the book she read on the souls said monsters’ soul were an upside down heart.

She had blood. She still had a human soul.

… It looked like Alphys’s curse on her was literally only skin-deep.

She had to bark a laugh at that. Finally, something else to work on…

Undyne did not look amused when Frisk looked back at her. She had her mask back on her face, but her aura was filled with pain, horror, anger and guilt.

It made Frisk feel glad to have someone suffering almost as much as she did about all this. She kept a smile on her lips as Asriel helped her standing up. Undyne's glare was stabbing through Frisk's eyeball like it was one of her magic spears, but Alphys was clenching her arm some more, so the fish woman finally took a breath.

“Alright, human; you made your point.” Undyne’s look shifted into something in between resentment and sadness. “Nothing is changing between us; you killed mine; I killed yours. No compromises are made about that.”

“Good,” Frisk answered coldly, and a little reassured as well. She shoved away the goat prince’s hands on her because he was still in her personal space. “Glad to have brought you back to your senses.”

Undyne’s only response was a depreciative snort. The prince cleared his throat.

“Thank you for your help today, Undyne; I think… I think we can handle it on our own for tonight.”

Wow, was he confident in their skills or what? Did he think with such a certainty that Frisk would not try anything?

… She would not, but she was almost tempted to do so to spite him.

Bid her time. She had to remember to bid her time.

Most likely, Asriel was sending away Undyne because he did not want to keep the tension as high as it was now. Frisk would bet those kinds of situation could hurt one of their poor fragile monster souls if it was too frequent.

Undyne shared a look with her prince and relented.

“Alright.” She breathed out. “I… I trust you all with this.” She started to head back home and turned one last time. “You all be careful with her, and have a good night. Oh, and, Alphys?” She looked at the yellow lizard with gratitude. “… Thanks.”

The small scientist flushed red. Frisk wondered how it was that those two did not share a house already.

“It’s… it’s n-no problem, Undyne…”

With that, the warrior disappeared in her home and the remaining monsters and Frisk started to head back in silence. The tension had dropped a bit, but everyone’s uneasiness was high enough for Frisk to feel a little better and worse at the same time. It had been a nice break; it had been a much needed pause from the horror of her life. But now, she was back again; back to known territory, back to being a prisoner in a foreign land.

She was back to being the lone human trapped in a sea of terrifying human-killing monstrosities.

She had blood.

“ya really went out of your way to antagonize her, huh?”

She ignored Sans’s comment. She had more important things to think about. She looked at her arm again. The blood on her coat had turned it a rusty brown; the strands had meshed with each other when it coagulated. She touched one of the blood clots, but did not pull, because it would probably hurt. She would have to wash all that.

It was disgusting; it was beautiful.

“… just saying, it doesn’t really ‘rib’ me as a smart thing to do. personally, i would probably just try and make friends with everyone until i got my chance, if i were in your situation.”

It was human. She touched her hair and it was human. She breathed in and out because she was human. They could not change that about her.

She would find a way.

She would be free.

“in a way, it kinda looked like you were trying to kill yourself back there.”

She closed her eyes in frustration, because he was still talking to her.

“What do you want?” She finally snapped at the smiling skeleton. His white eyes had an annoyingly amused air to them.

“me personally?” He shrugged. “you being dead would be a start. you never getting close to pap again and staying inside your little cell in the lab for the rest of your life would be close second. i’m not picky.”

She stared at him for a bit in silence.

Then, she too, shrugged.

“Maybe you’ll get your wish. It’s not like I’m free to decide what to do with my life anymore,” she remarked.

Sans did not answer her for a while. Sans may be a smarter monster than most, but to Frisk, he was the easiest to deal with. He was the only one who never forgot where they all stood in this. She could suffer his threats easily because she knew she would… she could reciprocate.

… But there was Papyrus to think about, now. Papyrus obviously cared for his brother. Frisk did not want to cause the skeleton pain.

However… if she had to…

Sans chuckled.

“yeah, kid, you really don’t make it easy for me, here.” He closed his eyes. “first, with my bro, then with this honesty stuff you’re pulling… you really makes it hard for me to hate you.”

“Then don’t,” she answered with a roll of her eyes, because what did she care if he hated her?

“… you don’t mind me telling i’m warming up to ya, but you throw a fit at undyne?”

“You’re not warming up to me,” she retorted. “You just don’t care for me as a person. That’s fine, because you’re not supposed to. You kill humans, like all monsters do.”

“my bro doesn’t.”

“Then what is this Trapper Guild thing all about?” She snarled involuntarily, because that was still disgusting on every front. “You’re his brother and you’re not even telling him what his puzzle skills are really used for!”

Sans looked into her eyes.

“…yeah, i never told him,” he admitted. “but it’s not like ya said anything about it either, huh? even though it looks like you know exactly what this is about.”

She stared back for a moment.

“… Maybe if I have the chance, I’ll tell him?” she suggested, a slight smile forming on her lips. “Maybe I’ll tell him all about how his brother and his friends abused his trust by never telling him what his job really is about? What do you think, Sans?”

“…huh…”

Sans’s smile had faltered a bit. He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a crossword puzzle. He looked at it, as if in deep concentration. Seeing he was finally ignoring her, she snorted derisively.

“Yeah, it’s easy to see the risks in others, right Sans? But I bet it’s kind of hard for you to admit how much of a bad influence you are on your brother. Think about it: had his brother not been a war scientist, would someone like Papyrus be so close to a bunch of criminals like you lot?”

Sans’s eyes was fixated on the sheet of paper. She was not sure if she was annoyed or glad she finally got him to stop paying attention to her. She laughed.

“You drag the few good people around here down with you; you all do. You’re ready to lie and deceive in order to achieve your goal, and then call us humans sneaks and liars or whatever when we do the same. You monsters are truly the greatest of hypocritical bastard of a kind!”

“hey, az; think I got them all down; ya think i’ve forgotten anything?” Sans completely ignored her accusation and handed the crossword to a frowning Asriel. Now that Frisk thought about it, the prince had not been ready to intervene as much as he usually did to defend her. Maybe he was finally realizing their position?

“I bet I could even tell Papyrus the truth about me, and he’d still be on my side,” she pondered out loud. “I could even tell him how much all of his so called ‘friends’ have been readily lying to him because they think so lowly of his ability to understand reality.”

Asriel looked at the paper in dismay.

“Sans, you forgot ‘legs’.”

SHLACK!

“Gwah!”

Suddenly, the two bracelets she was wearing on her arms snapped together violently. Those on her ankles did the same and she fell painfully on the ground struggling.

“Ow! What the…”

“f-frisk!”

“Frisk! Golly! I’m sorry! A-are you…” Asriel had run to her (again), to help her stand as she was struggling with the shackles. With a flustered face, he turned to the yellow lizard. “Alphys! H-How do you deactivate those?”

“j-just repeat the activation key words!”

“G-got legs,” He said with a very flushed face. The blue bracelets returned to their dormant state and Frisk managed to raise herself on her hands, silently wondering who ever thought ‘got legs’ were ever good activation words for freaking shackles!

What; was the prince drooling on her monster legs? Gross!

When he saw she could pull herself up on her own, the goat monster turned to glare at the skeleton.

“Sans!”

“heh, sorry, az,” Sans said, not sounding the least bit sorry. “'twas just a joke.” He looked at Frisk again. “By the way, kid; that stuff you said about telling pap:”

He paused, his eye sockets turning entirely black.

“Don’t.”

His aura was so strong it surrounded Frisk in coldness and the smell of dry bones. She found herself back on that day again.

She felt pure fright.

…Then pure rage.

What was his deal? He had her at his mercy, he had her captured and powerless; not even human enough to kill him, and he was still purposely trying to… well… ‘get her goat’, so to speak.

It felt so petty. It was like he wanted her to hate him.

…She then had a brief flash of Undyne’s angry face. Her eyes widened in realization.

Oh.

Irony: her mom’s favorite kind of humor. Frisk did not bother answering anything; she just let Asriel help her stand up again and did not listen when the prince scolded the skeleton. In a way, it was reassuring knowing she was not the only one here bothered by all this madness they were into.

She could not do him the favor of hating him, though; it was too much effort.

If anyone could understand the feeling, it would be him.

Chapter Text

Sans had gone too far.

…But Frisk…

Asriel looked at the human monster walking beside him. Her blood-covered arm was still in full view. Bleeding looked so strange on a monster… so scary.

That was because she was no real monster, of course. She was a hybrid of magical and physical, like Alphys said. How could they turn her fully magical? Should they turn her fully magical? Would Frisk ever forgive him if he did this to her?

…Well, she would not forgive him either way, of course, so it was a moot point.

She had looked like Chara.

She had not just reminded Asriel of the child, she had had the same creepy smile that was not a smile for a moment… when she told Undyne about…

Asriel had known Chara had a troubled past. When he was little, he did not really understand what those creepy smiles and laughs meant; what pain they actually hid. When he stepped into the war, he understood; he saw it on other people’s face. Better smiling and laughing than crying and be vulnerable, especially in the midst of combat.

Frisk was so young, and already broken; like so many others. She was in a similar state to his own, a decade ago, after his first kill. She was not alright. She was hurting.

And he had to bear the responsibility for that. So did Alphys and so many. Poor Alphys; she could not even look at anyone in the eyes as they walked.

And Sans…

Sans was frightened. Sans was frightened of Frisk for a reason Asriel could not understand. He never acted so straightforwardly hostile unless he was scared. But Frisk was just a kid; just a captive in both body and environment. She was literally at their mercy… and she had not even made an attempt to flee, or hurt anyone. Why would he be so scared of her? Because she was human?

…Because she was like Chara?

Chara… Chara had been scary. Asriel had loved Chara deeply, but, after growing up, he could reflect on his memories and admit that this was true; it did not change anything about his love for them.

Frisk and Chara; were they really that similar? Chara had been snarky, like Frisk; they had loved to show their opinion vocally and straightforwardly, like Frisk; they had loved puns and wordplay; he was not sure if Frisk liked them, but she did laugh at one of Sans’s that time?

Chara had loved; Chara had loved their adoptive family deeply, profoundly, almost with an unhealthy passion, even.

Frisk still loved her family. Frisk was always clearly thinking of them. She had no time to mourn them… she had no time to let go…

Chara’s greatest weakness had been their sense of justice; their attachment to revenge for what was done to them… the tendency to see everything in good and bad, black and white; bad humans, good monsters.

Frisk believed in justice; she probably believed in revenge. She showed no sympathy to those she deemed guilty, like him, like Alphys, like Undyne… even in the event that it would hurt her.

To Frisk, humans were the good, monsters were the bad. Their opinions were an opposite that was the same.

Chara would have loved being turned into a monster. Asriel bet they had enjoyed sharing the control of his mother’s body; Chara had hated humanity so much they could barely stand their own face, even if Asriel had found everything about them nice and pretty.

Frisk loathed being turned into a monster. Asriel could tell she did, because of the face she pulled, sometimes, when no one was talking to her; he could tell because he’d seen the way she had covered the only mirror in her cell. Frisk hated monsters so much she could not stand looking at herself, even if Asriel could not stop appreciating everything about her.

Had they switched places, would they have been the same? They, who shared the same red soul color, would they have acted any different from the others? Would a Frisk growing up outside of war, but with a horrible past be as excited about her monster family as Chara had been? Would she have sided with them and willingly gave up her life for their cause?

…Would a Chara with Frisk’s upbringing have hated Asriel as much as Frisk did?

Asriel could not bear thinking about Chara hating him this much; he was not even sure Chara had still loved him after their suicide. He was afraid to think about it.

…After all, Asriel had failed them; he had doubted them when he said he never would.

If only…

“welp, personally, i’m done with that,” Sans declared once they stepped into the lab. Frisk was looking at the screen showing her cell with an expression that was hard to read. The skeleton looked at the lizard scientist. “alph? you gonna work on the blaster cannon too, right?”

“y-yeah; i-i’ll go too… if… if that’s okay?” She looked up at Asriel’s face, who nodded in approval. The poor monster had a tiring day already; the prince knew he could not ask more of her.

“o-okay… h-here’s the keys; to the bracelets and to the chain in her cell. um…” She turned to Frisk with a forced and sad smile. “h-have a good night, frisk…”

The prisoner stared at her with a strange expression and shrugged. Frisk was probably really tired too. Alphys followed Sans, mumbling quietly to herself, while Asriel led Frisk back to her cell.

Once the prince put away the bracelet and the chain back, Frisk threw herself on the bed with a heavy sigh. Asriel looked at her with an empathic smile.

“Yeah; it was a pretty long day, wasn’t it?”

Frisk’s answer was a mumble in her bed sheet. After a moment, she turned her head and looked at him curiously with her beautiful brown red eyes. Another thing she shared with Chara.

Did Asriel fall in love with her because she was like Chara, or did he just have some weird human attraction disorder from back when he was little? Was it because of their soul color they shared?

…Was it actually the same reincarnated soul?

Asriel did not think he wanted the answer.

“We’ll, uh…” He cleared his throat, trying to organize his thought. “We’ll be doing more of those later… that is, if you want.”

The human monster frowned.

“…You mean… after what happened with Undyne? After Sans’s… what, you will still let me out after that?”

Asriel shrugged and waved dismissively.

“Those were very minor incidents, don’t you think? You behaved pretty well during the day, and you at least enjoyed part of it, right?” He observed her. She had closed her expression, but he could see a small blush on her face. He smiled slightly and continued. “Beside, I’m pretty sure Papyrus expects to see you again; it would blow our cover if you don’t at least spend some time with him, don’t you think?”

He saw a small spark of hope in her eyes and felt the flutter inside him grow again, since it was because of his words, this time. But then, she closed off and looked down.

“Sans won’t let me.”

“Sans’s not his brother’s guardian,” Asriel replied assuredly. “Believe me; Papyrus can take care of himself. I trust you to be nice to him, like you were before.”

She locked her eyes to him again with a derisive snort. For a moment, he expected some snark out of her, but instead, her expression grew serious.

“You should not trust me so much, little prince; you should not put so much faith into me.”

Asriel looked back at her and felt her aura. It was ‘grey’, as often, but he could feel the truth in her words.

…But when he pondered it, he realized it changed nothing.

“I understand,” he answered softly; “but I’m doing it anyway.”

“…I’m your enemy.”

“I know.”

“You’re going to get hurt, Asriel,” she warned him, her voice containing an emotion Asriel did not catch. “You’re going to regret getting so close and open to me.”

Was it sadness it her aura? No. Not exactly… but something close…

 …Inevitability? Something of that nature; something... determined.

“I still hate you, you know?” she told him point blank. “Today changes nothing about that. I…” She sighed and looked away. “I’m grateful… for today…” Her voice wavered. “It’s the only thing I’m grateful in all that; it’s the only thing I’m thanking you for.” She looked at him, then, with eyes that were still stone-cold in spite of the tears. “If I have the chance, I’ll kill you, Asriel; I’ll kill you and all of you who… all of those responsible.”

The truthfulness of the words made his stomach turn and sent a shiver down his spine. And yet, it was still changing nothing.

“I understand.”

Such was the power of this terrible affliction that was love. Seeing his decision was made, Frisk sighed and looked down, almost like she was relieved about something. Knowing there was not much else to discuss, Asriel started to turn around.

“Well, if you don’t need anything else-“

“There’s something…”

Asriel stopped and looked back at her again. She had sat on the bed, her head still down, a slight tremor travelling through her body, her tail close to her feet.

“There’s something I…” Her voice died off and she swallowed a lump before continuing. “There’s something I need to… to kn-know…”

Her voice had wavered again. Asriel waited for her to calm herself, in spite of his concern.

 “Th-the… M-my… my town…. Th-the… the souls from my town…” She raised her shimmering eyes to him again. “…C-Cam… M-my parents… they…”

Asriel felt a weight of deep sorrow and compassion drop inside him. He could tell it had been something she had wanted to ask for so long, but had been afraid to.

Afraid of his answer…afraid of the truth.

“I…I’m sorry,” He finally managed to tell her. “I don’t know where they have been sent to. I… I will ask about them.”

If they were not used as batteries cannons, they were used in an assembly machine, or were drained of their magic for it to be stocked somewhere.

He could not tell her that.

She looked down again with a small nod.

“Th-thanks,” she choked out.

It was not something she should have thanked him for. Asriel was feeling ill.

She did not have the time to mourn. The souls of her departed still existed somewhere. She had read books on the souls. She probably had read about the times Asgore fused and what was discovered, about the consciousness of the humans inside the souls, usually dormant, but still there and persisting.

“Have a good night, Frisk,” Asriel managed to say before he left.

He could not tell her.

Chapter Text

When Alphys and Asriel checked the readings of the Extractor, they were happy to find out that their hypothesis had been right and that Frisk’s health had stabilized. They decided to organize regular outings to both keep and increase Frisk’s Hope. At first, those were highly strict and with the full group, but after the second week and a few interactions with Papyrus, it was decided after deliberation that they could increase their frequency and allow her to go to town with only one or two persons with her. Most of the time, it was Asriel; a few time, Alphys with a reluctant Undyne. The only one who did not participate at all in those was Sans.

Whenever Frisk was anywhere near Papyrus, however, Asriel had spotted the short skeleton.

Those outings only lasted for a few hours, either at early mornings or late afternoons to avoid the bigger crowd. Even if Frisk exchanged a few words with shoppers and passersby monsters, she was still overall pretty distant with the town’s people. Papyrus had spread the word about her, however, so no monsters looked particularly surprised about another Boss Monster aside from the prince being in town. It looked like the majority of the citizens who had no idea of her origins even assumed she was living at his castle, something Asriel actually considered making a reality, because she just could not spend her whole life in a lab cell.

…Well, the fact that she straight up told him she hated him and had full intention of killing him if she had the chance was worrisome, but…overall, Asriel thought he could manage to give her better quarters, at least. He would probably need to install a bath and shower in her new room, as well.

Of course, this pondering would have to wait until he finished reading this report. Sitting at his desk, Asriel sighed and continued his lecture. While the east-side of the front, where he currently was, had progressed at a good rate in the monsters’ favor in two years of careful plannings, the west-side, the one his father maintained, was currently heavily attacked by human forces coming from the sea. There had even been yet another case of a human in a town almost entirely decimating Royal Guards single-handedly, until they met an unfortunate end against three Amalgamates. Amalgamates made such a difference in direct assaults.

Sans said Frisk had been this type of human, the type that was determined enough to decimate a whole monster battalion alone.

Humans were truly terrifying adversaries.

Asriel finally put the report down and pondered. Sans was not wrong about one thing: his duty was with his people. Frisk’s situation could be kept as it was only if the end result would help the monsters, otherwise, he could not really afford to care for her… as much as it pained him to admit it.

Frisk needed to be a stepping stone for monsters’ victory; she needed to be the mean to bring back peace, no matter what her opinion about all this was. In the end, she was right as well: she was his prisoner; no matter how much he wished to treat and consider her as an equal, her will in all this mattered little.

He never even investigated what happened to the souls from her town, like she had asked him to…and she never asked about it again, either. It was yet another thing that had soured their already pretty messy relationship; that and Papyrus’s friendship. It looked like once she found someone else to share time with, she did not miss the prince at all…which actually came as no surprise, but Asriel still found himself feeling a little bitter about that.

Such was the curse of love.

The prince sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. No, he should stop thinking about this. Sans was correct about that, too; he needed to keep a wall apart from her.

But then, as Asriel looked through the window and at the beautiful sun going down, he thought back to the gift that had just been delivered from his old home underground for her. Now, at this time of the day, was the perfect opportunity to go to the lab and give it to her; maybe even having a little walk with her as well.

It was just a good opportunity; it had nothing to do with his feelings. It was just a good opportunity like all the other times he went and took her out by himself.

Frisk told him once she thought monsters were terrible liars. He had to agree. He hoped Frisk was not a good liar in contrast; though he was not sure what she could have lied about.

Stepping into the lab, he spotted Alphys quickly. She was at her computer, checking a little white heart and a bunch of diagrams Asriel guessed concerned Frisk.

“Howdy, Alphys,” the prince saluted as he approached. “How is it going?”

“Oh! Hey, Asriel,” she answered, pushing her glasses a little up her muzzle, looking more upbeat than usual. “I-I’ve got some good news about Frisk! It looks like her condition is finally back to being healthy! W-well, for a hybrid like she is, anyway, I think it is.” She glanced at the results in thought. “I would certainly think she is ‘Boss Monster healthy’, at least.”

“That’s great news,” Asriel agreed with a nod. “So I take it our ‘Hope treatment’ was a complete success.”

“Yes!” She nodded back and started tipping. “Which means we can finally progress on our tests.”

Asriel’s heart pounded a bit faster at her words.

“…What are you suggesting?”

“W-well, now that she’s stable with the Extractor on, I, uh, think it’s time to figure out how to stabilise her with something else. Th-the Extractor was only a temporary solution in the first place, after all.” She licked her teeth in concentration. “I need to figure out something less dangerous for her, because right now, all the Extractor does is sap her soul energy and Determination and stock it. If it keeps on too long without being emptied, it could break, so we’ll have to do that as well.”

Asriel thought about it and gulped.

“How soon?”

“Oh, it can still last a good five months at least; though maybe we should empty it sooner anyway, just in case.” She observed the screen in reflection. “Also, I really need to check and see if the change that happened to Frisk was caused by the Soul Drainer itself, or if it was a specific component in her soul that did it… but for that… w-well….” She looked at Asriel with clear unease. “w-we would need to try the soul drainer o-on another… a-another human, so…”

The prince’s expression darkened. Testing it on another human… Unless he waited until the next border progression and took another town… or perhaps try to capture some stray ones at their border… there was not many ways for them to get a live human.

Either way, Asriel was not looking forward having two cases like Frisk’s to deal with, right now. One was time-consuming enough.

“y-yeah…” Alphys fumbled with her tail. “i…i’m not ready for another one… personally… b-but that can wait.” She looked at her screen again. “Anyway, there is another thing we should work on first, and that is to make Frisk’s transformation stick.”

She showed the white heart diagram to Asriel. “I told you before how her soul is still human, and how her body created itself out of magic and her human physical matter. I… I already know how to reverse the polarity of a soul, at least temporarily.”

She showed a poster of a human-looking robot face. “Th-this was how I managed to fuse Mettaton with his new body actually. I devised a system to turn around his soul and give it the property of a human one: the ability to rely on a physical body instead of creating one made of magic. O-of course, Mettaton is a ghost monster, a kind made for possession of physical things, so this was much easier to do than it would have been with, say: you or me. Also, Mettaton’s soul is still a monster one and doesn’t produce as much, uh, additional energy and the high amount of Determination present in a human one.”

She turned back to the screen and made a small diagram pop up; it was showing a heart with an arrow beside it pointing at an upside-down heart.

“Y-you already know my main core Color Magic is ‘yellow’; my specific yellow magic, uh, allows me to shoot small projectiles directly from my soul energy without having to create a bullet patterns like usual. It’s… not a very strong attack by any means…” She looked down. “A-and against either monster or human, bullet patterns are the superior magic… h-however, I-I managed to create my own tech to make it resonate with some human souls I used for testing… and I did manage to make them use yellow magic.”

Asriel nodded.

“So, with your tech, you allowed yourself to use a core Color Magic without training, like Sans’s and Papyrus’s blue gravity one, or Undyne’s green shield one.”

She nodded slightly.

“Y-yeah, th-that’s right… but…” She showed him the diagram again. “But the difference with them is that my Color Magic does not just put a spell on a human soul. I… I managed to inverse their polarity as well.”

“The polarity…” Asriel looked at the diagram and his eyes widened. “You mean you can turn a human soul upside down, like that of a monster’s?”

“Temporarily, yes,” the lizard confirmed. “I-it’s because my soul magic is an offensive one; s-since human souls are by nature passive, they… they need to adapt themselves in order to resonate with my magic.” She fumbled with her claws. “With my research on my magic, I managed to create Mettaton’s system, but I… I have yet to find a way to… to make the reverse last for the human souls. My guess is that their souls are tailored to depend on their physical bodies, so they naturally revert back to their original state, even in the absence of a body.”

She put a hand on her chin.

“N-now, on Frisk’s case, however… h-her soul did create a body, at least partially, out of magic. I-it may be a chance for me to try my reversal tech on her soul and see if this sticks… but…”

Asriel cocked his head.

“But?”

“W-well…” Alphys scratched her large head spikes. “Her soul would still be a human one, even with a reverse polarity spell on it… It… it might be still tailored to revert back to its normal state. Not to mention, human souls are so much more powerful than monster ones, with so much energy and Determination… If… if we do force a reversal polarity spell on it and make it stick… we would still have the high creation of Determination to deal with and… well… there’s a reason monsters don’t make as much determination as humans do…”

Asriel frowned. Alphys sighed and looked at him.

“you know of the amalgamates, don’t you? h-how i first made them? i… i injected fallen monsters with human determination to try to make their monster souls last and use them as fuels… because determination makes human souls persist…”

Asriel’s inner constricted.

“…And the fallen monsters started to fuse with each other instead,” he deduced. She nodded.

“y-yeah, t-the monsters didn’t turn into dust, like fallen monsters do… they… they woke up and… well…” She looked down on the ground. “without a physical body to hold all of that determination… monster’s magic alone isn’t enough, so they fuse with each others to maintain themselves… and because of their determination… they can’t die either… so…”

She visibly suppressed a shiver and sighed.

“without the extractor on, frisk’s soul might still create determination even when it’s reversed like a monster… if… if we don’t want to run the risk of turning her into some sort of amalgamate herself, we… we will probably need to sap off anything inside of her that may convince her soul to create as much determination as it does now… we need to make her entirely dependent on magic so that the soul doesn’t use its ability to produce energy into additional determination…”

She looked at Asriel gravely.

“we… we need to get rid of all her physical matter first, even if it never caused her problem to be partly physical until now, she needs to become a full monster with a magical body for the soul reversal to stick… i think.”

 Asriel thought back to Frisk’s look of hope each time she had looked at her blood flow and felt a weight drop inside him.

Frisk… Frisk would never accept that.

Alphys probably saw his reluctance on his face or in his aura, because she sighed tiredly.

“Asriel, look… I… I like Frisk, too, I really do, but…” She took a breath. “But Frisk… isn’t why… she isn’t who we’re rooting for. I… I do all that I do… for the Monster Kingdom… Everything I’ve worked for all those years have been for Asgore and everyone here… Right now, Frisk is… she’s a possible way to revolutionize the war… she’s a way to peace. If… if I can do what I need to do while making Frisk suffer as little as possible, I will… but…”

“I understand, Alphys,” Asriel said, closing his eyes. Because… yes, as much as it pained him to admit it, Asriel knew she was right. “How…” He swallowed. “How do you think we should… proceed… with this? And… Frisk… she will not take it…”

“…yeah…” Alphys looked down. “i… i don’t think we should tell her about all this… it… it will need to be… to be very subtle.” She then looked up with a small hope in her eyes. “o-one the other hand… if… if we do manage to turn her soul into a monster one’s, she might… she might not be as resentful to us as she is now… b-because human souls tend to have a potentiality for stronger negative emotions; but if she has to completely rely on hope, love and compassion… well… she’ll probably be less angry with us.”

Alphys’s revelation made some strange mix of confusing emotions grow into Asriel’s inside. One part of it was a strange kind of hope for a new start. Another, however, was sending waves of uneasiness into his whole being.

“That…” He breathed out and looked back at Alphys. “Would that be… right? Would it be right to… to change her… her personality like that? Is that… is that an ‘okay’ thing to do?”

“uh…” Alphys looked down with a sad face. “i-i’m not… sure… but, well…” She shrugged desperately. “we…we’re talking about tampering with her soul; the very… the very culmination of her being… so…”

The lizard took off her glasses and started to rub her eyes.

“Is it right? I don’t know… Is it necessary for our kingdom, though…”

Asriel breathed in and out a few times. In the end, it was always going back to that, after all.

“S-so, uh,” he finally managed to say, “when…when do you think you will be…”

“well… there’s the extractor thing to think about first,” the lizard answered in a tone that felt both relieved and saddened. “uh, i… i’ll have to design something less dangerous to replace it… e-even potentially, i could try and consider the way we will proceed in how to extract her physical matter and make her create a full magical body with this new tech as well…uh…” She turned back to her computer. “suffice to say… i… i will need a few months to work on that first… only then… only then we could-“

“Alright, I understand,” he cut her off; because he was not sure he could take much of this anymore. “Thank you, Alphys… thank you for… for all your work on this. I’ll be… I’ll be seeing Frisk now.”

Alphys mumbled an answer under her breath he did not hear. He was already going to the cell.

--

He was barely at the door when he heard Frisk’s voice yell inside

“Ah, Wait! D-don’t come in yet, Asriel! I’m not… I’m not decent!”

Surprised, he waited until she told him it was okay to come through the sliding door. When he entered, he saw her sporting another stripped shirt, only, with yellow and brown instead, and yet another short. Her damp hair and fur indicated she had just finished showering (again).

She had the TV on with some old black and white movie on it. She often had a movie on even though she almost never watched. Asriel figured she liked having some noises in her cell.

“I thought you checked on the camera before coming to see me,” she remarked with a slightly annoyed tone as she took her brush. “You surprised me.”

“Sorry, I forgot to do it this time around.” He looked at her curiously. “How did you know it was me, though? Usually, Alphys checks on you at this hour.”

Her brush stopped in the middle of her fur and she froze. She then looked at him with an expression in between wariness and guilt and sighed.

“I, uh, I may have felt your…uh… your aura a bit.”

Asriel brightened and clasped his hand together.

“Oh, so you finally learned how to recognize auras?”

She threw him a clearly surprised look.

“You’re… you’re not… mad, or something?”

He blinked.

“Why would I be mad? The ability to feel aura is a natural part of being made of magic.” He shrugged. “I’d have been more worried if you could not feel aura, honestly.”

She gave him a weird look, until she breathed out and started to comb her fur again (badly).

“Actually, I… I learned to recognize you and Alphys for a while now.” She shrugged. “I didn’t tell you because I figured you wouldn’t like me using magic or something.”

He walked to a chair and sat on it.

“Well, feeling aura is a pretty passive monster skill, anyway. Being influenced by other people’s aura is one of the biggest reasons why humans’ killing intent can harm us so much. You don’t need to train to read an aura; you just need to familiarize yourself with it.”

It made Asriel wonder if Frisk could use actual spell in her state. Her soul was still human, after all, Alphys seemed to believe it would prevent her from learning monster magic like bullets paterns. And even if humans could potentially learn magic, Asriel knew enough about the subject to know this was a different process from the expressive and natural magic of the monsters. It required a lot more training, for one, at the very least a few years without a teacher, and humans’ soul reserves were much greater in return. But with Frisk’s energy being sapped all the time by the Extractor, would she even be able to use it?

Did Frisk even try? She discussed magic with him, but he never saw her do anything, and she was tapped and watched all day long. In the event that she would succeed doing magic in her state, however, he was certain to find out quick. Magic tended to be noisy and very visible.

He supposed if somehow she did succeed, he would have to teach her how to properly use it, regardless whether she still wanted to dust him or not. Physical attacks were more dangerous, and improperly cast magic could be riskier than offencive magic. Not to mention he was better off knowing her skill set in case she tried to attack.

...In a few months, none of those concerns would be relevant anymore, anyway.

Asriel's heart felt heavier.

Frisk put her brush down and sighed excessively. Her hair was as smooth as her fur was a mess.

“Yeah, well, anyway, you wanted to show me something?”

“Ah, right.”

Asriel reached into his dimensional box and pulled out his gift. He stood up to let her see the long, smooth and purple dress he had brought for her. Dresses and robes were ideal for people who disliked strong clothes contact with fur.

Frisk stared at it, then at Asriel, and cocked her head to the side.

“Is that… is that some sort of royal gown or something?”

“Just a regular dress, actually,” Asriel replied with a shrug. “It used to belong to my mom when she was young. I know it’s a bit outdated and all, but, eh, on Boss Monsters, it’s not an issue.” He shrugged again, hoping she would not be too mad, at least. “Nobody’s going to use it, so I figured you should have it.”

She stood up and inspected it more closely. She then put a clawed hand on the symbol in the middle of the dress with a snort.

“Heh, even on casual dresses, you royal folks put your emblem on, eh?”

Asriel looked at it.

“You mean the Delta Rune?” He nodded, showing his own chest with the little winged circle and the three triangles under it. “Yeah, it’s a pretty old thing; it symbolizes the Kingdome of Monsters since the time before we were even sent to the underground.”

Frisk took the dress with a thoughtful sound.

“Yeah, I read on this ‘Delta Rune’ thing; seems like there was quite some lore about it.”

“Still are.”

“Hum…”

She inspected the dress, snorted, then turned it toward Asriel with a wry smile.

“That way, everyone can tell I’m your kingdom’s property, huh? Heh, not that it’d be wrong, right?” She shook her head in a derisive sadness that made Asriel’s heart sink.

“Frisk…” He tried to find his words, but the conversation with Alphys earlier came back to his mind and made everything difficult. “You… you don’t have to wear it, you know? We… we could go and buy some clothes you like instead.”

…Because Frisk was not wrong, and it hurt.

She looked at the dress with a thoughtful gaze, then shrugged and shook her head.

“Nah, it’s fine, I’ll put it on. Just give me a minute.”

“…Okay…” Asriel was not sure if her compliance was a good sign, but he knew better than to argue with her. “I’ll wait outside.”

To his surprise, she swung her tail and waved dismissively.

“You can stay; I’ll use the bathroom quarter.” She headed to the blue curtain and gave him a last stern look. “But if you peek, I’ll kill you.”

Asriel gulped and nodded as she disappeared behind it. To distract himself from the changing noise, he checked what the film was about. After a bit, he remembered it as a gangster flick he had watched with Chara. They had liked it, even if they had mostly laughed at it as well, like they often did.

After a minute or two, the curtain pulled back and Asriel looked. As he had guessed, the dress was very fitting and wide enough to accommodate her movement. Wearing his mother’s dress did not make her look any more like his deceased parent, however; she was just Frisk in a dress. He liked the look it gave her.

…Though if he was honest with himself, he liked her in every look he’d seen her pull.

Frisk took a part of the dress and did a half twirl.

“Heh, wow; I haven’t worn a dress in ages! It sure is weird.”

“It suits you,” he blurted out without thinking; then he blushed because this was completely inappropriate to say to her.

Instead of being angry, she snorted again and her aura gave a mocking air beyond its usual grey feeling.

“Of course you’d think that,” she replied in an overall neutral tone. She then pulled up one of her sleeves. “Wow, those are pretty long, though.”

“Yeah, it’s an old style, after all,” the prince admitted before his eyes fell on a cut near her wrist and his eyes widen. “Frisk! Did you hurt yourself?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Frisk brought her wrist up to look at it. “Yeah, I… one of the books fell on it earlier today.”

It did not look like something a falling book would do. Asriel was worried. Ever since their first outing when Frisk fell and saw her blood, he had seen her getting open cuts and other injuries. In no way did he think this was a coincidence, or accidental, given the fascination she seemed to have had with the sight of her blood that day.

He could guess the reason she was doing it was to see something else remaining of her humanity, but another, more worrisome possibility was something called ‘self harm’ humans in emotional distress sometimes did. It was something that Alphys told him about when she saw it on her screen. Asriel remembered her mother having filed down most of their tools and knives when Chara had arrived. Now that he had a perspective on it, he was worried this was another trait they and Frisk shared, even if he had never seen such marks on his sibling.

“Let me see that,” he asked her softly. “I’ll heal you.”

Frisk complied, as she always did when he noticed a wound. At least, she let him heal them, so she was probably not that keen on the hurt. As he worked his magic on it, Asriel pondered what she would do once she had no more blood inside. Would she still try to cut through the magic? Would she still try to let her dust out? He suppressed a shiver.

“Healing magic is pretty handy,” she noted as she watched. She always watched him heal her with interest.

“It is,” he agreed, “though it’s not the most widespread kind of magic. I… I could teach you if you want.”

She tensed suddenly. Something weird flashed in her aura.

“You…” she slowly started, looking at him like she was trying to decipher one of Papyrus’s puzzles. “You would teach me magic? Are you… are you even thinking straight when you say that?”

“Well, not now,” he conceded. “But, you know; in a few months, maybe?”

There was another violent burst of… something… in her aura. That one took the prince by surprise and he flinched. He looked at her hardened face in worry.

“Frisk, what is it?”

She stared at him with the same indecipherable expression for a while, before sighing loudly.

“You’re a real joke, you know that?”

He was not sure what she meant, or what to respond to that, so he did not. Since he finished healing her, he released her wrist, which she clutched protectively. At least, it had not been a burst of hate this time.

…In fact, she did stop having those as violently as she did before Papyrus. To Asriel, it showed the power of friendship making.

“Okay,” Asriel finally said, rubbing behind one of his horn with a clawed hand. “Well… If you’re interested, I… I was thinking of walking a bit tonight. Not too long, just until the sun set. What do you think?”

She seemed to ponder it a moment before shrugging.

“Eh, why not; I didn’t get much to do, today.”

She shut the movie off while Asriel prepared the four blue bracelets to put on her. Once she was ready, the two of them were off.

--

He took her to a path they already started to walk before. It was higher than the park surrounding the lake and offered a good view of all of it behind a protective stone border. Frisk stopped walking occasionally to lean on it and enjoyed the view of the trees colored by the orange light of the twilight time.

Asriel watched her do so in silence, ignoring the occasional car that would drive on the road bordering their path. The dress did suit her well, he admitted. She was not exactly moving with the grace of a noble monster, or anything like that, but when she stopped and seemed to forget her situation, he could see a sort of calmness and soft care for the world in her. The more he was looking at it, the more Asriel thought this was probably close to what her true nature was, when unhindered by constant thoughts of revenge and sadness.

He found himself pondering: had she been a monster from the start, had she grown up into one of those noble monster families from the capital, would he have grown to love her as well, then? Would she have reciprocated? Would it have been like how his mother and father had fallen for each others? Would they have married?

…Could they marry once she turned into a full monster?

He shook his head and chased the ridiculous thought away, because it was both silly and probably harmful thinking. Even in the event that Alphys was right and Frisk would stop hating monsters so much, it would still not bring her to like her captors and the murderers of her family. There was too much baggage in between them to even consider something so idyllic. The best he could potentially hope would be for Frisk to learn how to integrate well into monster society and stop antagonizing them so much.

…Really, when he thought about it, she would probably go live with Papyrus if everything went well. Asriel knew Sans would not like it, but Frisk was right about Papyrus’s unintentional involvement in the war being unjust to him. The prince wondered if he could not send Papyrus and her away, deeper into the kingdom, once everything was done. He could bet the skeleton would not mind helping his friend integrate once he learned the truth of her origins, and Frisk would not harm her friend; of that, Asriel was certain.

…As for Sans, well, he would have to deal. Once Frisk was a full monster, there would not be much the short skeleton could protest against, after all.

“Life is strange,” Frisk commented softly as she leant on the stone border once more. “The birds sing, here, the trees are green and healthy… yet, not far away, war is happening; people are suffering, and nature is dying alongside them.”

The prince looked at her reflective face sadly. It was rare when she was in the mood to just discuss those heavy things with him.

“Life… life keeps moving on,” he finally said, leaning on the border beside her. “It’s something I always see, even as… even as I grow older and this whole thing keeps going… In the end, nature always comes back, no matter how much damages it takes.”

Frisk frowned, looking into the distance.

“…What if it stops coming back? What if either side hits one time too strongly or too many and breaks everything?”

Asriel shrugged.

“Honestly, I don’t think either side is strong enough to destroy all nature on earth.”

“… But you could destroy entirely part of it; like humans.”

Asriel’s soul constricted and he clenched his claws together. In the end, it always came to that. When he did not respond, Frisk glanced at him and back at the horizon.

“I know you told me once you didn’t want to make humans disappear. Maybe that’s your personal view, Asriel, but after seeing what other monsters are like, I don’t believe it’s shared by the majority here.”

He caressed the fur of his hand. He could not deny her words on that.

“Humans… us… we’re too dangerous for you, isn’t that right?” She asked neutrally, her eyes dropping on her own clawed hands. “You’re so weak to our physical bodies and killer intent you can’t even afford to keep our children alive in your conquest. We’re like… we’re like wild animals for you.” She snorted sadly. “I’d be the equivalent of a very smart and angry tiger running around a playground full of kids if it weren’t for what you did to me.”

“Frisk,” Asriel started, raising his eyes at her with a sad look. “I don’t… you’re not just some wild animal to us.”

“…You ever heard of ‘vampires’, Asriel?”

He cocked his head. The term was familiar to him, but he was not sure from where. Seeing he did not know, Frisk started to explain.

“It’s… they’re monsters from human lore, from very old legends; they were still quite popular in movies and books a few decades ago; before… Anyway…” She shook her head and waved her claws a bit. “Vampires are supposed to be dead bodies of humans that have been reanimated to life, only, instead of just being shambling corpses like zombie… uh, zombies are another type of human monsters,” she explained quickly. “Anyways, vampires are undead humans that look like normal people, only they’re very pale and can’t stand the sun. Also, they kill humans by sucking all the blood out of their bodies.”

Asriel felt himself going sick at that notion.

“A-and they’re real human monsters?”

“What? Oh no!” She shook her head, then stopped and put a hand on her chin. “Uh, at least, I don’t think they are? Heh, I guess if talking skeletons and everything else can be real, then, why not vampires? But, whatever; the point isn’t really the vampires in question; the point is what everyone made of that vampire idea.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Well…” She frowned, as if searching for her words. “Like I said, they were once very popular monsters. They have been used in many movies and books. Mom… she… she had this small book collection and I read some with them in it… a lot of them were romance novels.”

The prince felt his heart jump in his chest at the word. He heard a car pass by behind them.

“R-romance?”

“Yeah,” Frisk answered without even a glance at him. “Most of them weren’t very good. The point is there was this creature that sucked human blood dry to survive, hypnotized their victims to submission and which could only create more of their own by turning humans into vampire themselves. This creature… this thing that was the very definition of a parasite to the human race… a silent wolf predator among the sheep… this thing was romanced as being good, to be pitied or even envied by all those boy and girl readers, because somehow, having such an unbalanced relationship between a human and a vampire was the epitome of true love of something.”

She snorted loudly at that notion and Asriel felt something very uncomfortable inside him. He was wondering if she was not trying to tell him something else about their relationship under all this vampire talk.

“I could never get it,” she told him, shaking her head. “I could never get how anyone would want to fall in love or feel so much compassion for something that was pretty much a predating force that needed humanity submitted to their will. I was thinking: 'if I were in those people’s place, I would try and find a way to destroy them all, to get rid of all of those terrifying beasts that were seeing humans as nothing but food source'.”

Asriel looked back to his hands. He had no doubt in Frisk’s words.

“And I started to think: monsters are sorta like vampire to us, you know?” She smiled wryly. “They don’t suck our blood, and they… and you don’t eat us either, apparently, but…” She looked down again. “You take our souls, you take our lands; you… you are a true parasite for the human race.”

He felt a lump in his throat at her accusation, but did not answer her. Frisk stayed silent a moment, before sighing loudly.

“But, maybe I was sorta wrong about that, uh? Monsters… monsters aren’t exactly like vampires, after all. You… you’re not predator to us… you… you can live without hurting us. In fact… in a way…” She straightened a bit and chuckled. “Maybe we’re like vampires to you instead?” She looked at him with a strange shine in her eyes, something that was almost, but not quite, playful. “We’re creatures of legends to you; we’re those beings who condemned you underground after almost slaughtering you all. Even at this age, we were so superior in strength to you, and we abused it. We almost killed you all; and… and perhaps…” She looked away again. “Perhaps even if… even if your mom succeeded in freeing you all peacefully, us humans would have slaughtered you, anyway, because of fear and misunderstanding.”

Asriel was surprised at the consideration she was giving his people. Even in those days, she was occasionally reminding him of his responsibility in the war. Yet, it did look like her time captive here had given her some new perspective. He waited for her to continue as another car passed by.

“I don’t know about ‘what ifs’ like that; I don’t like to think about it,” she continued with a shrug. “But in a way, that’s what I am to you right now.” She snorted. “I’m like a vampire captured by humans whose fangs have been filled down. I’m that terrifying creature to which you and everyone can have compassion for, because I’m similar to you in just enough way, yet, I’m still potentially a beast that could kill you all in a few hits. It’s ironic really.” She shook her head. “I don’t even like vampire as a fantasy creature, and yet, I find myself in a position to be one.”

“Frisk,” Asriel finally said, his throat constricted, “You’re… you’re not a vampire to monsters either… You’re… humans aren’t predator to monsters either.”

“No,” she agreed, a sad smile on her lips, “but we both need to annihilate each other, anyway; because no peace can be made ever since your father declared he would have humanity destroyed. No humans… no human countries would let a species so readily willing to kill all humans alive.” She sighed and her voice’s tone went neutral. “There can only be one winner in this war of natural selection, or whatever.”

Her words made Asriel think back to Alphys’s discussion again and he shivered. Vampires… when he thought about it, Frisk’s comparison to them was not that far off. Asriel would be a vampire to Frisk… he would suck the blood she loved so much dry of her veins… he would increase the ranks of his kind by turning her, a human, into one of their own… even the hypnotism thing would be true, in a way, once Frisk’s soul was definitely transformed.

…After Frisk, Asriel’s people would truly become the vampires of the human race.

He clenched his fists and teeth. Another car was approaching.

“Asriel… little prince…” Frisk took a large breath and clutched the stone border under her claws. “You… you’ve been here for about a month now… watching me… but… but that’s not what you usually do, is it?” She turned her head to him, but without raising her eyes. “You… you go to the battle fields… you go to the taken towns… like you did last time…” She gulped. “You… when will you go back? And when you do… will you… will you do it again… what… what you did to me… will you do it again to another human?”

The car noise was close. Asriel swallowed with difficulty and searched for her beautiful eyes.

“Frisk… I-“

“FRISK! YOUR MAJESTY ASRIEL! WHAT A GREAT SURPRISE TO SEE YOU HERE!”

They both turned to see that the car had stopped near them; Papyrus was at the wheel with a joyful skeletal smile on his face. His vehicle was a red roofless sport car. When he thought about it, Asriel figured it suited the skeleton.

“Papyrus! Hey, it’s so nice to see you!” Frisk exclaimed honestly as she approached him. “Wow, is that your car? I’ve never seen it before! It’s pretty nice!”

“YES, I KNOW IT IS! THANK YOU FOR SHARING AGAIN YOUR EXCELLENT OPINION ON ALL THINGS IMPORTANT IN LIFE, FRISK! NYEHEHEH!” Papyrus looked at Frisk’s clothes approvingly. “AND FOR MY PART, I MUST SAY THAT I LIKE YOUR DRESS VERY MUCH! YOUR CHOICE OF CLOTHING IS ALWAYS GREAT, BUT I THINK THAT THIS ONE, EVEN IF IT’S A BIT OUTATED, PUT YOUR FUR AND HAIR COLOR TO THEIR ABSOLUTE BEST! YOU COULD EVEN BE FEATURED IN THE MTT MONSTER BEAUTY PAGENT CONTEST IF YOU WANTED TO!”

Frisk gave a healthy laugh.

“Thanks Papyrus, that’s very sweet.”

Asriel once again wondered how the skeleton did so that Frisk always enjoyed whatever compliment he gave her. Most likely, Frisk cared less about the compliments themselves and more about who was giving them.

“THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S TRUE! SAY…” The skeleton looked at the two Boss Monsters nervously. “I WAS NOT… INTERRUPTING ANYTHING THERE, RIGHT? BECAUSE IF I DID I-“

“No, no, Papyrus,” Frisk assured with a wave of her hand. “You could never bother me for anything; really, we were just enjoying the view, no big deal.”

“OH, OKAY, THEN.” The skeleton’s face illuminated. “SAY, FRISK, IF YOU ARE FREE THIS EVENING, I’VE GOT AN EXELLENT NEWS FOR YOU:” He raised his arms wide. “I CLEANED SANS’S PART OF THE HOUSE! WHICH MEANS THAT YOU CAN FINALLY PARTAKE IN A ‘HANGOUT’ WITH ME AS IS DESCRIBED IN THE ‘HOW TO HANGOUT’ MONSTER MANUAL! DO YOU WISH TO VISIT MY HOUSE AND DO IT? ...PLATONICALLY, OF COURSE!”

“I’d love to, Papyrus!” Frisk blurted out without thinking, as she often did when confronted to the skeleton. She then caught herself and threw a worried side-look at Asriel for his approval.

…Of course, Asriel knew he was completely unable to say no on the rare occasions when she actually asked something of him, and she already said yes to Papyrus anyway; refusing would make the skeleton wonder why Frisk felt the need to obey the prince on this innocuous invitation.

He would have to text Alphys to prevent her from getting worried.

After Asriel’s nod, Frisk rushed to the car, opened the door and sat beside Papyrus. It left Asriel the seats in the back. He reluctantly sat behind Papyrus and pulled on his seatbelt. The skeleton looked at him with a smile.

“I HOPE IT WILL BE WORTHY OF YOUR TIME AS WELL, YOUR MAJESTY ASRIEL! I ASSURE YOU THAT EVEN IF IT'S NOT A CASTLE, MY HOUSE IS A HEALTHY STRUCTURE OF QUALITY MATERIAL AND TIMELESS STYLE!”

Asriel forced a smile at him. At least, Papyrus had started to refer to him by name now, after all the time he had been with Frisk when the two hung out. The human monster grinned at her friend.

“If your house is anything like you, Papyrus, then it is definitely worth ‘perusing’ it!”

“IT’S INDEED A REFLECTION OF MY GREATNESS… AS WELL AS SANS’S LAZYNESS,” Papyrus amended with a frown. “BUT I DON’T LIKE TO THINK ABOUT HIS PART OF THE HOUSE. SINCE I JUST CLEANED MOST OF IT, THOUGH, ITS GREATNESS’S QUOTIENT SHOULD BE AT LEAST UP BY THIRTY PERCENT!” He turned the car back on. “ENOUGH TALKING, LET US DEPART FOR OUR GRAND EVENING! NYEHEHEHEH!”

With that, the car sped up. There was a big ‘whooosh’ sound through Asriel’s ears as they were thrown back by the rush of the wind. Said wind was also going through his mouth and was making his eyes too watery to see anything.

“Urg!”

The prince caught his ears in his hands to prevent them from going back again and slouched in his seat to protect himself against the rushing air. He guessed Papyrus, being a skeleton, had no problem with this.

“YEEEAAAAHAHAHAH!”

Frisk’s loud laugh surprised the prince. When he looked at her, he saw that her ears were also flushed back by the wind, alongside her mid-length hair. She did not seem particularly mad about it, however.

“HAHAHAH! Oh, god! It tickles!”

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth wide and she laughed. It was making the lips of her muzzle flutter like those of a dog in the wind. Asriel thought it was the definite first time he had ever seen her appreciate something about her monster physique. He thought back to what was discussed at the lab again and decided that this was a good sign.

After all, she would have to learn to love herself as she was now, eventually.

Chapter Text

When Papyrus finally stopped his awesome ride, Frisk was feeling like her ears were plugged with extreme prejudice.

…Whatever, it was worth it.

They had stopped in front of a curiously innocuous house, compared to most of the other town’s ones. Ironically, it made it stand out. It was built in the style of one of those northern country houses, even with a bit of snow on the roof top (probably thanks to magic, because it was too warm for any snow to stick). There were some Christmas themed garlands around the door and Frisk could see a small candlelight through the window.

A human themed house, especially decorated completely out of season, was a pretty strange sight here.

Frisk regretfully climbed out of the car. She had never been in a roofless car before… and she did not count that time she and mom had travelled through the country in the back of a refugee truck when she was little, because it was not the same at all.

When she stepped out, a soft wind made her dress flutter and caressed the fur on her legs. She had the strong feeling that this would not have been as pleasant on the bare skin, but she had to admit that she did prefer her legs exposed over having clothing on them. The feeling of tissues against fur could get pretty uncomfortable. It was one of the weird things she got used to, like walking barefoot all the time. Not that she could see any size of shoes that could fit her, anyway, and her padded foot-plant usually protected her well against most rugged surfaces, but when you spent all your life wearing shoes, it took some times to lose the habit.

Her tail did feel a bit constricted by the dress, on the other hand; maybe she could figure out how to make a hole to pass it through?

…What an important dilemma in her life: whether or not to cut through goat-face’s creepy gift.

…And it was his mom’s too… god…

“HERE WE ARE! WELCOME TO SCENIC MY HOUSE! PLEASE COME IN AND ENJOY ITS EXQUISITLY DECORATED INTERIOR!”

Papyrus invited them inside. Contrary to Undyne’s house, the skeleton brothers’ house had a consistent theme on the inside. The couch was a bit ragged, but seemed comfy enough, and was in a shade of green which clashed with the red of the wall as much as a winter holyday decoration. In fact, Frisk spotted the Christmas tree against the wall under which there were a few gift-wrapped packages. The table near the kitchen was bare with the exception of a sprinkle-covered rock on a plate, and there was a flat TV near a set of stairs. Said TV was smaller than at Undyne’s. The house was overall smaller, even though two people lived here.

In other words, the house was horribly stylized, but incredibly cosy-looking. Frisk loved it.

“AS YOU CAN SEE, IT IS DEVOID OF ANY OF SANS’S LOST SOCKS RIGHT NOW. I HAD INTENDED TO MAKE HIM PICK THE LAST ONE HIMSELF, BUT IF I DID, THE HOUSE WOULD NEVER HAVE MET ‘HANGOUT’ STANDARD, SO I HAD TO GIVE UP FOR NOW,” Papyrus said in a disappointed tone.

“This is pretty cool.” Frisk walked toward the tree. It seemed alive, probably sustained with magic. “I love the Christmas theme you guys have.”

“CHRISTMAS? OH! ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE HUMAN VERSION OF ‘GIFTMAS’? YOU KNOW ABOUT SUCH AN OBSCURE HUMAN FACT, FRISK?”

Frisk winced, luckily when turned away from Papyrus. She often forgot their deceit of Papyrus, since she never had to hide any of her human origin from the others.

“Uh, yeah!” She turned with a small laugh, scratching near her horn. “Yeah, I… saw it in one of Asriel’s old human movies. He has a whole collection of those!”

Papyrus’s eye-socket widened.

“REALLY? I DIDN’T KNOW THE PRINCE TO BE A HUMAN CULTURE CONOISSEUR; I ALWAYS THOUGHT ALPHYS AND METTATON WERE THE MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT THAT!” He swiftly turned to Asriel, who cringed. “YOUR MAJESTY ASRIEL, WHY NOT SHARE THOSE ‘CHRISTMAS MOVIES’ WITH EVERYONE LATER? I’M SURE METTATON WOULD LOVE TO SEE THOSE AT LEAST!”

The goat-faced monster looked uncomfortable at the skeleton’s closeness.

“Um, yeah, I… I’ll think about it.”

With a satisfied nod, Papyrus turned to Frisk and approached the tree as well.

“ANYWAY, FRISK, SINCE YOU ARE FROM THE CAPITAL, YOU MAY NOT BE AWARE THAT THIS ‘CHRISTMAS’ THING HUMANS HAVE HAS INDEED A MONSTER EQUIVALENT, ALTHOUGH ONLY AS A LOCAL TRADITION FROM SNOWDIN!”

“Ah?” Frisk did not know that, in fact. She had read about Snowdin, however, and knew it to be an old town from the monster underground.

“YES! ALTHOUGH THE MONSTER VERSION IS MUCH COOLER, SINCE IT OCCURS PRETTY MUCH EVERY DAY INSTEAD OF ONCE A YEAR. SANS AND I GOT TO KNOW OF IT DURING OUR YOUNGER YEARS, WHEN THE BARRIER WAS RECENTLY LIFTED AND THE UNDERGROUND WAS STILL POPULATED. WE HAD TO TRAVEL TO SNOWDIN FROM THE CAPITAL FOR…”

Papyrus trailed off like he was remembering something and shook his head.

“…ANYWAY, SNOWDIN HAD THIS TRADITION FROM THIS LOCAL MONSTER NAMED GYFTROT. THE OLD GYFTROT WAS ALWAYS TORMENTED BY TEENAGERSS WHO WOULD PUT GARLANDS AND OTHER CONTRAPTIONS ON ITS HORNS. LOCAL MONSTERS GAVE IT GIFTS TO MAKE IT FEEL BETTER. SOON, IT BECAME A TRADITION TO DECORATE A TREE LIKE GYFTROT’S HORNS AND PUT PRESENT UNDER FOR THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE TO MAKE THEM FEEL BETTER. WE EVEN HAVE A MONSTER CALLED ‘SANTA’ WHO BROUGHT GIFTS TO EVERYONE REGULARLY!”

“Wow,” Frisk commented, eyes widened. The origin was completely different, but it was pretty much Christmas. And they even had a ‘Santa’?

“I KNOW! IT WAS AN AWESOME TRADITION!” Papyrus’s head dropped down. “… BUT WHEN MONSTERS STARTED TO LEAVE SNOWDIN FOR GOOD, VERY FEW OF THEM KEPT THE TRADITION GOING. EVEN THE MISTERIOUS ‘SANTA’ HAS DISAPPEARED SINCE WE WENT TO THE SURFACE.”

“Oh…” Santa disappearing? Wow; that was pretty sad.

“YEAH…” Papyrus brightened again. “BUT EVEN IF GIFTMAS IS NOT POPULAR ANYMORE, I DECIDED TO TRY AND BRING IT BACK AS A TRADITION FOR MONSTERS ALL OVER THE SURFACE FOR A WHILE NOW! THIS IS WHY I PUT THE TREE IN THE HOUSE INSTEAD OF OUTSIDE LIKE IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE, BUT I HOPE I CAN MAKE ENOUGH MONSTERS APPROVE OF IT TO PLACE THE GIFT TREE OUTSIDE INSTEAD! THAT WAY, EVERYONE WILL BE ABLE TO SHARE GIFTS AGAIN!”

Frisk found herself smiling at the skeleton’s ambition.

“That’s such a cool idea, Papyrus! I bet people would love being able to show their affection like that!”

“NYEHEHEH! I’M GLAD YOU THINK SO, FRISK, BECAUSE…” Papyrus fetched a box under the tree and presented it under her muzzle. “HERE IT IS! YOUR FIRST GIFTMAS PRESENT!”

Frisk felt her heart melt. She took the wrapped box with trembling clawed hands.

“Papyrus… I… thank you…”

“NYEHEHEH! AS I SAID BEFORE, IT’S A TRADITION TO MAKE YOUR LOVED ONE FEEL BETTER, SO I FIGURED THIS WOULD BE A GOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU, BECAUSE OF THAT NASTY ‘NOTHING’ THAT MAKES YOU HURT SOMETIMES!”

“It’s… It’s very sweet…” And it was; Frisk’s throat felt a bit constricted. Her tail touched the ground. “Really, thank you…”

“NYEH!”

The skeleton took another box and shoved it in the prince’s white paws.

“AND THIS ONE IS FOR YOU, YOUR MAJESTY ASRIEL, FOR BEING FRIENDS WITH ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND FOR HELPING FRISK SO MUCH!”

Frisk heard the goat prince mumble a ‘thanks’, but she was too busy staring at her own gift to pay him mind. Papyrus was the embodiment of kindness. Frisk vowed to find a way to repay him somehow. The skeleton turned back to her with intensity.

“WELL, FRISK, WHY DON’T YOU OPEN IT? I BET YOU WILL BE QUITE SURPRISED! HERE, USE THE TABLE! I’LL JUST HAVE TO PUT SANS’ PET ROCK DOWN FOR NOW. MY LAZY BROTHER ALWAYS FORGETS TO TAKE CARE OF IT, SO I HAVE TO FEED IT MYSELF!”

That answered Frisk’s not yet asked question about why there was a rock here. As suggested, Frisk used the table to unwrap the gift. When she caught a glimpse of the pasta plate in it, she laughed.

“I KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, FRISK, BUT THIS IS NO REGULAR SPAGHETTI, IT HAS BEEN FINELLY FINELY AGED AND SERVED WITHIN CAPITAL TRADITION, AS YOU LIKE IT! I FIGURED WE WOULD NEED SOME GOOD AND HEALTHY FOOD FOR OUR HANGOUT!”

“That is so thoughtful of you, as usual,” Frisk told him with a smile. His cooking skill had definitely improved over the two weeks she had known him, even if it was still either a bit burned or undercooked. At least, he was trying. From the corner of her eyes, she could see the prince had also received a spaghetti plate.

“YES, IT IS RATHER WELL THOUGHT OF ME, I ADMIT; ALTHOUGH THIS IS NOTHING NEW! NYEHEHEH!” The light in the skeleton’s eyes brightened. “SAY, FRISK, SINCE YOU ARE HERE, WHY DON’T YOU HELP ME PREPARE SOME FOOD FOR THE HUMAN AFTER DINNER? I’M SURE THEY’LL APPRECIATE YOUR SPECIFIC CAPITAL WAY OF COOKING!”

“I’d love to!”

She would love to. Good food was still hard for her to get in the lab.

Of course, she once again forgot goat-face was here and had to remind herself to ask him with a look if it was okay for her to be anywhere near a knife now. From the way he just shrugged and looked up the ceiling, she believed that was a ‘yes’… Either that or ‘it’s not like I can stop you anyway, because I’m a wuss with every small unimportant things you ask of me’, but she did not speak goat monster well enough to distinguish the two subtleties.

Either way, she went on and ‘helped’ Papyrus in the kitchen after dinner. That was when she noticed to height of the sink.

“IMPRESSED? I INCREASED ITS HEIGHT TO BE ABLE TO PUT MORE BONES UNDER IT. GO AHEAD, TAKE A LOOKSIE!”

She opened the cupboard… then recoiled with a surprised bleat when a small white dog jumped from it, a bone in its mouth. Papyrus started raging against the dog.

“BLAST THAT ANNOYING DOG! QUICK, YOUR MAJESTY! CATCH THAT MEDDLING CANINE BEFORE IT FLEE OUTSIDE!”

To his credit, Asriel jumped on the little dog before it reached the door. To his misfortune, the dog proved to be much stronger than its height made it look and it dragged the Boss Monster to the door, just as Sans opened it. The dog went in between the short skeleton’s legs and Sans fell on Asriel with a thud, freeing the small thieving animal.

“umph! woops, sorry ‘bout that, your royal pal. if it’s any consolation, I’m a light weight with bare-bone needs.”

“SANS! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO FIND THE MOST INOPPORTUNE TIME TO OPEN A DOOR!”

“well, pap, ‘tis what they say: comedic timing is everything.” Still spread on the prince, the skeleton pulled out a trombone from his inventory. “which is too bad, because this little adventure made me miss my musical cue.”

“SANS!” Papyrus raged as Frisk approached, looking at the instrument with approval.

“A visual pun, huh?” She noted with a nod, a hand under her chin. “Okay; I’m impressed.”

Sans’s gaze met hers and he chuckled.

“well, i’m glad you find it ‘humerus’, princess.” He nodded at her clothes when she frowned. “and i’m reserving the right to call you that when you dressed for the occasion, there.”

“SANS, FRISK MAY BE A BOSS MONSTER, BUT SHE’S NOT ROYALTY, YOU CAN’T CALL HER SOMETHING THAT SHE CLEARLY DISLIKE BEING CALLED! THAT’S INAPROPRIATE!”

“well, maybe she’ll be a royalty once az ask her hand.”

“WHAT??” Papyrus looked at the stiffened form of the prince still sprawled under his brother. “IS THIS TRUE, YOUR MAGESTY? ARE YOU AND FRISK-“

“Of course not, Papyrus,” Frisk denied firmly with a wave of hand, “Sans’s just joking… though it’s not one of his best joke.” She raised an eyebrow in clear disapproval at the short skeleton, who shrugged.

“my bad kid; but ‘ewe’ know… ‘sheep of a flock’ and all…”

“Yeah, anyway, I’m… much too young for the prince,” Frisk said simply with a shrug. “And putting two monsters together because they look alike is just stereotyping.”

“THAT IS VERY TRUE, FRISK,” Papyrus approved with a firm nod. “I WOULDN’T WANT TO LIMIT YOUR CHOICE OF DATE BASED ON YOUR LOOK, ESPECIALLY WITH SUCH A HIGH ‘DATING POWER’! YOU SHOULD ONLY SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST! …AND BY SECOND BEST, I MEAN SOMEONE ALMOST AS GREAT AS ME!”

“Exactly!” Frisk agreed with a laugh. It was only after the prince started to groan loudly that Sans finally released him.

To the silent displeasure of Sans, Frisk and Papyrus were back in the kitchen. From what Frisk could tell, Sans had found out too late about his brother cleaning the house to invite her and had rushed from wherever he had been lazing around to supervise her when Alphys had told him on the phone.

Frisk did not really mind Sans, actually, because it meant the short skeleton could talk to the prince and distract him away from the fun-time she was having with Papyrus preparing the food for ‘THE HUMAN’. Her two jailors were observing her from afar, but she could still discuss easily with her one and only monster friend.

“I’M ACTUALLY REALLY GLAD YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH THE PRINCE AND UNDYNE AND EVERYONE AS WELL, FRISK. I THINK YOU ARE THE TYPE OF MONSTER WHO BENEFIT FROM HAVING A LOT OF DIFFERENT RELATIONSHIPS. IT WOULD BE PRETTY UNHEALTHY TO HAVE SUCH A PASSIONATE FRIENDSHIP FOR ONLY ONE PERSON!”

She felt her heart drop as she was slicing the tomatoes. There were always time when Papyrus’s words carried an amazing insight on her situation, even as he was unaware of most of it. She swallowed a lump and took a breath.

“I… I used to have… to have friends before at my… at the Capital,” she confessed in a small voice, not particularly wanting for the other two muttering on the couch to hear. “But I… I had to leave everything… everyone behind…” She felt her eyes sting at the thought of her village and swallowed again. “It’s… it’s hard for me… even now…” She stopped cutting the vegetable and took a breath. She then threw a sad smile at Papyrus. “To… to be honest… you’re the only one here I really relate with, Papyrus… the others…” She put a hand on her watering eyes. “…I-I just miss everyone s-so much…”

Papyrus interrupted his own vegetable cutting to give her one of his comforting bony hug she learned to appreciate so much. She wished she could show him a more upbeat side of her, but he was her only emotional crutch in this nightmare of a life.

“IT’S… IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY, FRISK. I… I KNOW IT’S HARD TO LEAVE PEOPLE YOU LOVE BEHIND…” His voice had a distinct nostalgia that made Frisk suspect that he was speaking from experience. “IT WAS… IT WAS HARD FOR SANS AND I WHEN WE HAD TO LEAVE SNOWDIN FOR THE SURFACE TOO… SO DON’T WORRY! YOU WILL HAVE PLENTY OF HELP ADAPTING HERE! AND NOT JUST FROM ME! LIKE I SAID, THE PRINCE AND THE OTHERS ARE YOUR FRIENDS AS WELL, AND I’M SURE THEY’LL READILY LEND YOU A SHOULDER IF YOU NEED THEM TO!”

Frisk made a strangled sob into his hug, but did not have the heart to answer.

--

“wow, uh, you gotta admit that’s always pretty awkward when she just turns into a fountain in my bro’s arm. Kid always finds a way to make a skeleton feel horrible about wanting her dead.”

Asriel glanced at Papyrus and Frisk hugging, then quickly looked away, because that was just too intimate and heartbreaking.

“Frisk isn’t in an easy position,” he answered in a mutter. “I’m always so amazed at how much she can hold back around us, honestly.”

Sans chuckled lightly.

“it’s not like you help much with that, your majesty. i may be wrong, but i don’t think she’s the type to wear a fancy dress on her own.”

Asriel sighed and massaged his head.

“It was just to help her get some comfortable clothing.”

“the only thing you’re helping with in giving her all this stuff is to confuse the both of you, az. i bet she doesn’t even tell you how much it freaks her out most of the time ‘cause she’s afraid you’re gonna leave her rotting in her cell if she’s refusing you straight up.”

The prince felt a wave of guilt, closed his eyes and breathed out.

“I would never do that to her.”

“but she doesn’t know you enough to know that. ‘sides, s’not like you didn’t do worse to her already.”

Ouch; straight where it hurt… but the skeleton was right. Asriel looked down to his knees.

“I… look, I know I’ve got no chance with her-“

“then, give up, az. she’s a war prisoner, anyway... and you’re the prince of monsters; stuffs like that don’t even work in those silly human fairy tales.”

“She’s gonna be released soon, you know?” Asriel informed him. “Alphys… Alphys is going to work on a way to make her a full monster, with no chance of being human again. She’ll be… she’ll be the first human turned monster in the war…”

Asriel’s throat constricted and he glanced at her, but Frisk could not hear him, too engrossed in talking with Papyrus. Sans’s gaze fixed on her back as well with a ‘hum’. He then met Asriel’s gaze with his little beads of light.

“and i suppose, once it’s done, you’ll finally be parading her to everyone around as a message of hope?”

“Sans…”

“oh, yeah, i forgot you promised her you wouldn’t do that.” Sans winked with a sad smile. “ya’ll just present her as your fiancée instead, that way she’ll be the real beckon of light showing that monsters and humans can be one big people.”

“Sans… please…”

“hehe, yeah, sorry, az.” The skeleton closed his eyes. “but frankly, i can’t see her liking monsters happening. no matter how much you change her, she’ll be a human; enemy of monsters.”

“Alphys says that once her soul is turned into one of a monster, she’ll naturally stop hating us so much.”

There was a short silence in between the two.

“…wow, okay, that, uh… is just bone-chilling there.” Sans shifted like he was uncomfortable. “'mind-controlling’ our enemies…that’s a new low.”

Asriel closed his eyes, feeling his throat constrict.

“I… I know.”

There was another small silence until the short skeleton cleared his throat.

“so, uh… you intend to ask her out when she’s fully done, then?”

Asriel shook his head.

“O-of course not… even… even then, there would be no way for it to work after… after everything… but…” He sighed and turned to his friend. “Sans… Papyrus… he…”

“pap’s got no view on her, bud.”

The prince frowned in annoyance.

“I know that! …But… Sans… Papyrus… he’s…” Asriel looked at the kitchen with a soft gaze. “He’s Frisk’s only friend here…”

“she’s not welcome in our house.”

Although the tone was relaxed, the prince caught its slight edge. Asriel shook his head.

“Sans… Papyrus is not made for the war…”

“…az…”

“He could be sent in a safe place…”

“az, please…”

“And Frisk needs to be away too…”

“she cut his arm with a freaking axe!”

“…You know that was before, Sans; back when we attacked her town. She likes Papyrus now.”

“ She’ s  not  taking  my  brother  away  from  me .” the skeleton hissed suddenly, his left eye flickering from a light blue to yellow. Asriel felt his heavy aura and his only response was pity. When the skeleton released his magic, he looked at his prince, trembling. After a few seconds, Sans slouched back down and his expression softened into pleading.

“az… please… that human… that hybrid or whatever she is now… i can’t stand that… i can’t stand her taking him away from me… he’s… he’s all i have left, az… please…”

Asriel felt a wave of compassion at his distress. He reached for the skeleton’s hand, but Sans recoiled away like the Boss Monster had been a grown human with a stick. Seeing this, Asriel breathed out.

“Well… nothing’s decided yet,” he finally muttered. “And… and when it will be… it won’t be for a few months at least, so…”

Sans said nothing in response. Asriel knew better than pushing it.

--

Frisk watched carefully when Papyrus lightened the stove with a fire magic spell, trying to get a feel of it with her aura. From what she read, fire magic was one of the most widespread and used sorts by monsters, due to its practicality. Even people like Papyrus, whose main magic cores were closer to cold, tended to learn its basic if only for cooking. According to the books, Boss Monsters were most attuned to this magic, but she had never seen the prince use it; even when practicing with Undyne, he was throwing those weird shiny stars instead against the fish’s crazy spears.

Monsters were attuned to their natural magic and learned to express it in widespread ‘bullet patterns’ around them, creating shapes that were unique to the core of their being. In times of peace, those patterns were used as greetings for monsters to each others, or even were tailor-made for special events, like birthdays. In times of war like those, however…

Frisk felt her mood sour at the thought. She put the pasta in the pot to distract her mind and stirred.

Human souls were drawn to monster magic, ‘because magic calls magic’ according to the tome of ‘Magic of the Soul’ she had read. Humans may have had lost their knowledge of magic, for reasons that were still unclear to Frisk, but souls were still magical in nature. And while human bodies were usually not as affected by magic as they were from naturally physical things, human souls were weak to magic. A simple bullet pattern greeting card from a monster could harm a grown adult, and seriously endanger a child.

…In times of war, a birthday or a greeting card was a deadly weapon against humans.

Monsters… monsters were truly a corrupted species.

“THIS ONE LOOKS EVEN BETTER THAN THE ONE WE MADE THE DAY WE BECAME FRIENDS, FRISK! UNDYNE WILL BE PROUD OF US! NYEHEHEH!” The TV was switched on by one of the two monsters on the couch; it distracted Papyrus from properly putting the spaghetti in a container. “SANS! YOU REMEMBERED THE NEW MTT SHOW WAS TODAY! I WAS SO BUSY LIGHTENING THE FIRE OF MY PASSION THAT I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN IT MYSELF!”

Frisk tried as she could to catch the spaghetti pot and finished the skeleton’s botched job when he ran toward the TV. Once the deed done, she put the container in the fridge, already chockfull of even more spaghetti containers, and joined the other monsters near the couch.

“yeah, i figured you had ‘other things on your plate’ and forgot your sexy robot star, pap.”

“I’M STILL UNSURE OF HOW THIS ‘SEXY’ TERM YOU KEEP USING PERTAINS TO ROBOTS, SANS, BUT THIS IS AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY FOR FRISK AND I TO TRY SOME OF METTATON’S ‘COOKING WITH A KILLER ROBOT’ SPECIAL RECIPE!” The tall skeleton turned to his human monster friend with a smile. “OF COURSE, BEING FROM THE CAPITAL, YOU ALREADY KNOW ALL ABOUT METTATON; DON’T YOU, FRISK?”

“Sure,” she lied without deliberation, because she knew better than to debate on those things. She looked at the screen showing a man…

No, wait; that was a robot… a human-looking robot with heavy make-up, a weird hair-cut and wearing a pink and grey armor.

Okay.

“ISN’T HE THE GREATEST MONSTER-STAR, FRISK? HE PUT ALL THOSE HUMAN SHOWS THAT WE SOMETIME COLLECT TO SHAME! HE’S SO POLYVALENT!”

“Yeah...”

The way he moved reminded her a bit of that weirdly dressed man from that ‘Labyrinth’ movie in Asriel’s collection. Frisk was still slightly unsettled by that one. The robot was facing the camera with a shiny smile and talking fast, like one of those people in quiz shows her mom used to watch when she was very little.

“…Aaaand as promised, folks, tonight will be the opening of the second MTT Monster Beauty Pageant! Please, give a big round of applause to all of our candidates for the first round!”

“OH, RIGHT. I FORGOT THE PAGEANT WAS TONIGHT. I GUESS WE WON’T HAVE OUR SPECIAL RECIPE… WELL, NO MATTER! COME, FRISK! LET’S SIT AND ENJOY THE SHOW INSTEAD! NYEHEHEH!”

He grabbed her and made her sit on his laps as he positioned himself in between Asriel and Sans. Frisk did not think this was the best seat arrangement, especially for Sans, whose small form looked like it was crushed by both his bony brother and the end of the couch. He looked so down about it; Frisk felt almost sorry for him.

With what she grasped from the show and Papyrus’s blabbers, she understood Mettaton was a robot built by Alphys, originally as a human-killing machine, but who then turned into the first monster TV star of the kingdom. Even today, he seemed to be the most popular of them all. His style mostly consisted in taking original human entertainments and revamping them to be more monster-friendly: news shows with bombs and laser-beams, cooking programs with intense time-limited chase scenes, etc.

From what Frisk gathered, the dangers were faked, but who could be sure with monsters?

This beauty pageant, for example, had a couple of fire-pits in it, as well as some strange colored tile puzzles with overly complicated rules the contestants had to pass through. Frisk did not know what being able to solve riddles or going through a wall of flame had anything to do with a ‘beauty contest’, but she found herself enjoying the sight of prettied up monsters in those perilous situations.

She still had no idea why a robot was considered a monster, though; or why Alphys even built a human looking robot in the first place. It was not like Frisk expected her kind’s look to be so popular, given they were enemies.

“…Aaannd now it’s time, gorgeous, for our Union Approved Break! We’ll be right back after these messages! Also, don’t forget to stay tuned for the new MTT Newscast pertaining to the veracity of the latest rumor: is there a human hidden within our midst? Has the prince truly found a way to turn those dangerous and beautiful beings into civilized monster-folks? Find out on our next amazing show!”

“WOWIE! METTATON WANTS TO INVESTIGATE THE HUMAN? THAT WILL SURELY BE A TREAT! I WONDER IF HE ASKED ALPHYS ABOUT THEM?”

Frisk’s stomach churned at the thought. She saw the prince frown in concern beside her.

“He’s not allowed to see Fr… frankly see anything.” The Boss Monster winced and grinded his teeth visibly at his almost slip up. “It’s a matter of national security!”

“yeah, az, but it’s too bad, we still have independent journalism allowed in the country.” Sans shrugged uncaringly. “i guess unless you go full despotic on us, you’ll have to throw him a bone if he finds out.”

“DO YOU THINK HE ALREADY KNOWS WHERE THE HUMAN IS? I… I MAY NOT HAVE BEEN THE MOST PRUDENT WHEN IT CAME TO TELLING EVERYONE THEY WERE IN OUR TOWN…” Papyrus scratched his chin meekly. “I HOPE THE HUMAN WON’T BE TOO SCARED… METTATON WAS ORIGINALLY A HUMAN KILLER ROBOT, AFTER ALL!”

It was too late. Frisk was scared, for more than one reason. She glanced at Asriel to assess the situation, but the prince looked too deep in his own thoughts to notice her, for once.

“I have to make a phone call,” the goat monster said, suddenly standing. “I’ll be right back.”

As he left through the front door, Papyrus put Frisk delicately on Asriel’s former seat and stood up as well

“AS FOR ME, I WILL USE THIS OPPORTUNATE UNION APPROVED BREAK TO RELIEVE MYSELF… AND BY RELIEVING MYSELF, I MEAN TO USE MY COLLECTION OF NEAT FIGURINES TO FORMULATE AN EXTRA-CAREFUL PLAN OF OUR ‘HANGING OUT SLEEPOVER’, FRISK! NYEHEHEHEH! WAIT RIGHT THERE!”

With that, the tall skeleton ran up the stairs, leaving Sans and Frisk alone on the couch. Alright, so apparently, a sleepover was involved as well. She’ll have to mention it to the prince once he was back. Frisk shifted position to allow a more comfortable way for her tail to rest against. The dress was not helping things, but sitting on Papyrus had been an unpleasant experience for her extra appendage.

“welp, congrate, kid,” Sans commented after an uneasy silence. “looks like ya got both my bro and az at your feet. heh, i’m sure if you tread well, you could take my house as well.”

Frisk made a small snort.

“Believe me, I wish I could be more of a threat to all of you.”

“…even pap?”

She turned to look at him. Maybe it was just her imagination, but the short skeleton looked more tired than usual. Perhaps he forgot a nap.

“Eh, you know?” She shrugged with a sigh. “'The exception proves the rule’ and all…”

“…kid, i don’t know about you, but this whole situation freaks me out a bit.”

“…Tell me about it,” she muttered back, playing with one of her bracelet ‘impending shackles’. “Nothing about this is ‘right’… It’s… it’s a load of bullcraps from the get go… heh… or, you know… ‘goatcraps’.”

“hum…” Sans eyes shined a bit. “if i recall my human lessons correctly, ‘craps’ are those weird matter stuffs you physical beings expunge from your behind? from your movies, it’s like you’re at least partly obsessed with it.”

Frisk feigned being outraged.

“Wow, way to have your bones rattled over some natural process like that! And don’t pretend you monsters got the high ground on this; I did my research: you can poop too if you eat physical stuffs!”

Sans chuckled.

“heh. you really are just a kid; all about ‘toilet humor’, whatever a ‘toilet’ is.” He nodded appreciatively. “nice of you to think of the pun-loving skelebro, there, though.”

Frisk shrugged. She wanted to answer him something about how it would not stop her from killing him, but that sounded too much like a joke in this context, so she kept silent. She was already getting too far with too many people already; no need to include the only one who still had a somewhat sane reaction toward all this.

“…yeah… i don’t feel much like flapping my jaw either.” Sans looked down to his laps. “the worst part about all this, it’s that i can’t even put the blame on you for all the trouble you’re causing.” He seemed somewhat sad, in spite of his constant grin. “but kid, you’re still a terrible thing to happen in my life.”

She observed him a moment before turning to the TV.

“I’d… I’d really love to be as terrible for you monster folks as you believe me to be,” she confessed, bringing her knees up with her arms, careful to not lift the long dress. “I wish I could be your fall… I…” Her throat constricted. “…I wish I wasn’t just some dumb lost kid so I could hurt you even more than you hurt me… me and everyone else…”

“yeah…” Sans closed his eye-sockets and nodded. “i know the feeling… though, kid? you’re not exactly as defenseless as you think you are. no matter how much it chill me to the bones, you got the prince of monsters on your side here. az is a pretty powerful ally.”

“Pffff!” Frisk rolled her eyes. “Goat-face’s no more allied with me than you, bone-head. He just can’t keep his pants on around me; that doesn’t mean we share goals.”

“nah, you don’t share goals; but that doesn’t mean you have no impact on him.” He shook his head sadly. “he even forgot what tomorrow was, because he’s been so head over heels for you.”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Tomorrow? Why? What’s tomorrow?”

“…not sure if i should tell ya, given ‘tis one of the only thing i can really blame on ya.”

She waited for him to continue until he relented.

“tomorrow is the day lesser dog, doggo and the rest will finally end their mourning period.” He looked at her as if trying to find something hidden “tomorrow is the funeral for your three kills: greater dog, dogamy and dogaressa.”

Frisk blinked the time it took for her to process what the skeleton was saying. Then, the flashes of blood and dust came back to her and she averted her eyes. She had not exactly ‘forgotten’, but she had gotten good at not thinking of it directly. Even her nightmares had grown more blurry.

“…It’s still not done?” She finally asked. She felt like she was distancing herself, like in a dream.

“nope, they hadn’t got the time for that,” he answered. “monsters don’t have a body that rot, so those kinds of things can take many days to prepare for the family.” Sans looked at the front door, behind which goat-face was still on the phone. “az is supposed to make a whole official talk tomorrow and he forgot… all because he’d rather spend time daydreaming about you.”

“… The moron,” she muttered, even if she was less friendly in her head. She was so sick of this. She was so sick of this hated monster giving her soft caring eyes after murdering everyone she loved and trapping her here.

…He never even told her about her family. She knew he did not intend to…However...

She straightened up on her seat and looked at the sad skeleton.

“Sans…”

“hum?” The skeleton fixated the light of his eye-socket onto her. Frisk took a breath and tried to calm the beating of her heart.

“You…” She trailed off and unsuccessfully tried to bit her monstrous lips. “You were here… you were there too that day…”

It looked like he was evaluating something in his mind, before he finally answered.

“…yeah… nothing i wished to see… but…” He gave her a half-assed shrug. “you know that already.”

“Do you know…” She swallowed a lump in her throat and grasped a pang of her dress in her claws. “Do you know where they’ve been sent to… th-the… the souls from my…” She stared intensely at his bleached white skull. “… Do you know what happened to them?”

He looked at her with his usual forced grin, seemingly pondering his answer.

“…i think this ain’t something you ought to shed fur over, kid.”

She frowned, refusing to give up at his rebuttal.

“Sans… please… I… I need to know.”

He shrugged.

“then, ask az.”

“He won’t answer me because he likes me, Sans.” She gripped her dress further and her tail twitched from intensity. “But you hate me, so you should be able to tell me, right?”

He did his weird ‘eyebrow rising with a skull’ thing.

“i don’t think i hate ya, kid. wish i could, but you’re not easy to hate.”

“But you don’t like me,” she retorted in between closed teeth, “you wants me gone from your life and away from your brother; you have no reason to hide the… to protect me from…” She breathed out and closed her eyes, head turned at the TV again. “You want to hurt me, Sans; why don’t you do it when you actually can?”

If the short skeleton had an answer, it was drowned by the running steps of an excited Papyrus coming down the stairs. The tall skeleton was holding a few things, among which was a piece of paper.

“NYEHEHEH! SO I CAREFULLY PLANNED OUR SLEEPOVER NIGHT AND LAID IT OUT ON THIS PAPER SHEET! HERE FRISK!” He handed her the paper, on which were written in a neat scribing two good pages of potential ‘fun times’. “OH, ALSO, USE THOSE TO ENACT WHAT I WROTE, I KNOW I ALWAYS THINK BETTER WITH VISUAL HELP!” He then shoved in her hands four very detailed action figurines of sexy robots in hard to do poses. Frisk, who was still recovering from the mood shift, was both disturbed at the sight and slightly envious at the skeleton for having such quality models when most of her toys used to be broken or of cheap quality when she was little.

The skeleton then sat in between Frisk and Sans, hand-gesturing excitedly.

“SO, ACCORDING TO THE BOOK, WE SHOULD START WITH A STANDARD ‘ASKING THE PERSON IF THEY WANT TO HANG OUT THING’, THEN IF THEY WANT TO ‘SLEEPOVER’, THEN WEAR NICE CLOTHES TO SHOW YOU CARE, THEN EXCHANGE HOBBIES, THEN GIVE GIFTS, THEN WATCH TV, THEN PRANK PHONE-CALLING, THEN PILLOW FIGHTING, THEN HORROR STORY MAKING, THEN STARGAZING-”

“and when’s the ‘sleep’ in ‘sleepover’, bro?”

“DON’T BE NAIVE, SANS. THE ‘SLEEP’ IN ‘SLEEPOVER’ IS OBVIOUSLY METAPHORICAL. WHY SHOULD THERE BE ANY KIND OF SLEEPING INVOLVED? …WHATEVER YOU BELIEVE ‘SLEEPING’ IS?”

“ah, sorry pap,” Sans said with a wink. “guess i shouldn’t believe in every ‘fibulas’ i heard about those.”

“SANS!”

“Looks like we got a few of those covered already,” Frisk noted while reading through the list. “We did spaghetti for the ‘hobby exchange’, you gave the little prince and I gifts and we watched TV together-“

“AND YOU ALSO HAD THE FORESIGHT TO WEAR NICE CLOTHES TODAY, FRISK!” Papyrus added brightly. “THAT’S ANOTHER ONE WE CAN CROSS!”

“…Seems we missed the second item, though.” Frisk pointed to the sheet. “You haven’t asked me to have a sleepover with you.”

“OH, YOU’RE RIGHT! WAIT A MOMENT…” He cleared his throat. “MY DEAR FRIEND FRISK, I, PAPYRUS, WOULD LIKE TO SOLEMNLY INVITE YOU TO MY FIRST ‘SLEEPOVER’ AT MY HOUSE TONIGHT!”

Frisk threw a side glance at the door, then shrugged and answered.

“Sure thing, Papyrus, I’d love to!”

The prince may not agree, but ‘absentees are always in the wrong’, as her mom would have said.

Papyrus looked ecstatic.

“REALLY?? WOWIE!!... GUESS WE CAN GO DO THE NEXT STEP, THEN…” Papyrus checked his notes again. “LET’S SEE… NEXT IS ‘PRANK PHONE CALLS’…”

“heh, okay, i like this item, bro.”

“I KNEW YOU WOULD, THAT’S WHY I SELECTED IT. AS YOUR AWESOME AND GREATEST BROTHER, I WILL DEFINITELY NOT LET YOU BROOD IN YOUR ROOM ALL NIGHT WHEN I ORGANIZE MY FIRST AND BESTEST SLEEPOVER IN THE HOUSE! NYEHEHEHEH!” The skeleton pulled his cell phone. “READY YOUR PHONE, FRISK!”

“Uh…” Frisk shifted uncomfortably. Seeing her do so, Papyrus frowned.

“WHAT’S THE MATTER, FRISK? ARE YOU WORRIED OUR PRANKS WOULD BE TOO HARD ON PEOPLE? IF SO, HAVE NO FEAR, BECAUSE I, PAPYRUS, AM A MASTER AT PRANKING SUPERVISION!”

Frisk smiled slightly and brought her feet back on the ground.

“I’m sure you are, but, uh…” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t really have a phone.”

The tall skeleton’s own device fell on his laps from the shock.

“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, FRISK?? WHO DOESN’T HAVE A PHONE IN THIS DAY AND AGE? HOW DID YOU MANAGE FOR SO LONG WITHOUT ANY KIND OF DEVICE WITH WHICH TO CONTACT YOU?”

She wrinkled her muzzle and decided on a half truth.

“I… used to have one, but… I… I lost it when I came here.”

It was not actually ‘her’ phone; it had been for both Cam and she for when they would play outside or go to friends' houses. They had not been far enough that day to even think of taking it. Papyrus’s expression shifted and he nodded.

“AH, I UNDERSTAND MORE NOW… THIS IS WHY YOU FEEL SO ISOLATED HERE… YOU CAN’T EVEN CONTACT YOUR OLD FRIENDS ANYMORE!”

She nodded, a lump in her throat.

She could never contact her friends again, even with a new cell phone.

“WELL, HAVE NO FEAR, FRISK; I SHALL LEND YOU MY PHONE FOR THIS PECULIAR SITUATION! THAT WAY, YOU CAN PARTAKE IN THIS FUN ‘PRANK CALLING’ ACTIVITY!”

He shoved the phone in her claws before she even had the time to say ‘thanks’ just as Asriel reentered the house.

“AND THE PRINCE IS FINALLY HERE! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN NOW OFFICIALLY DECLARE THIS SLEEPOVER ‘STARTED’!”

Goat-face only had the time to blink before he froze.

“…Wait, what?”

Chapter Text

As Frisk expected, the master prank-caller of the group was Sans. Whenever it was his turn, Frisk could not help but chuckle at his jokes, even if she hated to. This was something that made her sympathize with Papyrus’s irritation at Sans’s puns quite a bit, especially when her turn to prank came and she revealed herself to be really bad at it. The short skeleton’s constant soft mockery did nothing to help. Papyrus, in contrast to her, was very bad in an extremely fun way. For one thing, he knew nothing about disguising his voice; for another thing, it seemed almost every monster he called knew him in one way or another and were very confused as to why the local skeleton was pretending to have a pizza delivery service, or to be an agent from the MTT-TV show.

Asriel was a surprise to her, however, because his strategy consisted in revealing straight up that he was the prince doing phone pranks. Monsters were often completely disbelieving at first, but it seemed the prince’s voice was famous enough around the kingdom for some of his victims to seriously hesitate in calling him out. Frisk had to admit that this was a riot to listen to, especially that time when he called one of his sergeants, probably fully intentionally too.

After the prank-calling, Papyrus led everyone to his room for the pillow fight. It was around this time that Sans either told Asriel about tomorrow’s funeral or he remembered it on his own, because he excused himself hurriedly and told everyone he had some papers to work on. He did not leave the house to do so, though, he used the table in the living room. Frisk had not expected him to leave her alone with the two skeletons, anyway.

Papyrus’s room was wonderful in all the right way for Frisk; everything from its tidiness to his race-car bed, to his neatly arranged figurine collection and his small bookshelf. Half of said book-shelf was filled with puzzle-making craft books, while the other consisted mostly of illustrated series for children. Frisk asked to borrow some of the puzzle books, to which the skeleton had whole-heartedly agreed to.

There was also a box filled with bones (because skeleton?) as well as a computer. Frisk found herself once again slightly envious of Papyrus, because she would have liked having one for herself at home, even a model as ancient as his.

The tall skeleton opened his closet and pulled out a good amount of white fluffy pillows from it.

“ALRIGHT! I BELIEVE WE CAN START THE NEXT EXTRAORDINARY FUN-TIME NOW, NYEHEHEH!”

“uh, pap, remember to be careful when throwing those around,” Sans said, looking pointedly at Frisk, “wouldn’t wanna have broken bones over a quality good time.”

Frisk, who had taken one of the pillows, rolled her eyes at the thinly-veiled warning. She knew she could hurt them badly due to being partly physical, but she was also confident enough that she could contain her killing intent while swinging around a soft pillow.

“HAVE NO FEAR, SANS, I KNOW HOW TO RESTRAIN MY PILLOW HIT AROUND FRISK AS WELL! AND FRISK DOESN’T FIGHT, REMEMBER? SHE WON’T BE ABLE TO HIT HARD ENOUGH TO DEPLETE YOUR HOPE.”

Hearing this, the human monster frowned.

“Hope? What does ‘hope’ have to do with a pillow fight?”

“OH… UM…” Papyrus looked at Sans nervously. The other skeleton’s grin had the stillness it usually had when Frisk stumbled upon something he did not like her to learn. Papyrus gave a helpless look at his brother and scratched his head. “I… SUPPOSE THIS IS A BIT AWKWARD TO TALK ABOUT… BUT SANS IS… SANS HAS A CONDITION…”

Frisk looked at Sans, who just shifted his footing uncomfortably. Out of all the monsters she had seen yet, she would not have pegged Sans as being the one with a condition. His brother continued.

“UM… THAT IS… SANS’S HOPE IS… VERY LOW. IT HAS BEEN LIKE THAT FOR YEARS NOW, AND WE’RE NOT REALLY SURE WHAT’S CAUSING IT.” Papyrus put his hands on his hips. “I MEAN, HE NEVER SHOWED ANY SIGN OF ‘FALLING DOWN’ EITHER, SO IT LOOKS LIKE THIS IS HIS NORMAL STATE, SOMEWHAT, BUT… WELL… YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHY HIGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES CAN BE DANGEROUS FOR HIM.”

She did not, actually, but given she was pretty sure knowing what ‘hope’ had to do with physical activity was a monster thing, she could not exactly ask Papyrus for clarification either. She looked down, squinting. She knew monster souls were made of ‘hope, love and compassion’, but until now, she had assumed that saying was either some pro-monster propaganda thing, or was in relation to the weird way of thinking they were demonstrating compared to human.

…Like being willing to turn their enemies into their own and integrate them into their society; humans would never truly consider that, even if they managed to turn a monster into a human, as Papyrus suggested.

Sans apparently decided to help her figuring it out.

“yeah, it’s like pap say, kiddo, i’m a hopeless mess.” He shrugged fatally. “you know how ‘hope’ can be hard to maintain on those times. but hey, i’m lucky i ain’t a prisoner, or else my hope would go down so fast i’d be a goner before you could say ‘without’ in french.”

“SANS, STOP BEING SO HARD ON YOURSELF! YOU KNOW THAT, AS MY DEAR BROTHER, YOU AWESOMENESS QUOTIENT IS MUCH TOO HIGH FOR EVEN A LAZY BONE LIKE YOU TO BE CONSIDERED ANYTHING LESS THAN A HIGH QUALITY MESS AT WORST!”

“that’s a sweet joke, pap; i like it when you tickle my funny bone like that.”

“SANS! I WAS SERIOUS!”

Frisk thought back to what the short skeleton just revealed and her eyes widened. If ‘Hope’ was actually something that impacted the monsters’ ability to survive, then it explained why she was feeling so bad a few weeks prior. She had been dying. She clutched the pillow to her chest at the realization, then looked at Sans, still joking with his brother. The short skeleton probably hated trusting her with the knowledge that he was constantly at the brink of death, but he had. It made something close to unease swirl in her gut.

Too close... too much sharing...

“Uh,” she started softly. “You know, Papyrus? I…I think maybe we should do something a little different instead.” She kneeled to the pillow mess. “Like… how about building a pillow-fort? That way, we can use it when it’s time for when we'll tell each-other horror stories.”

Because she may trust herself not to kill a normal monster with a pillow, but if Sans was as weak as Papyrus claimed he was, then she was taking no chance at ruining her first and only fun-night outside the lab with an accidental killing.

Papyrus clearly liked that idea; even Sans looked a little more relaxed.

“YES, I AGREE WITH YOUR ASSESSMENT, FRISK! NYEHEHEH! AS USUAL, YOU KNOW HOW TO SOLVE CONUNDRUMS WITH EQUALLY FUN ENDEAVOR! COME ON, SANS! LET’S BUILD THE GREATEST FORT THAT CAN EVER BE BUILT!! NYEHEHEHEHEH!”

The three of them went to work. By the time the prince joined them back for the horror story time, the fort was covering more than half the room.

Papyrus eagerly declared himself the first story teller as the four of them sat down in a circle in the middle of the sheet fort with only a torch light to see.

“…AND THEN, FLUFFY BUNNY AND ALL HIS NEW FRIENDS LIVED IN THEIR NEW HOUSE HAPPILY EVER AFTER! THE END!” He proclaimed loudly as he closed his story book.

“man, bro, that was almost as bone-chilling as when i tell it to you,” Sans commented as Frisk was stifling a small giggle. “i swear the part when his friend the mole suddenly burst through the ground would have made me jump out of my skin, had i any skin to jump out of.”

“NYEHEHEHEH! YES, I KNEW THAT CLASSIC WOULD BE A SUCCESS, AS IT ALWAYS IS!” He then looked around until his eyes stopped on the prince, who looked ready to fall asleep on his seat. “OKAY, WHO WILL BE NEXT IN OUR WONDERFUL STORY-TIME? WHAT ABOUT YOU, YOUR MAJESTY ASRIEL? SURELY, AS GREAT AS YOU ARE, YOU KNOW A STORY THAT COULD BE AT LEAST HALF AS GOOD AS ‘PEEK-A-BOO WITH FLUFFY BUNNY’!”

“Uh? Um… well…” The Boss Monster rubbed his eyes, trying as he could to stay awake. Frisk guessed he had a lot of work today, and going sleepless for a whole night was definitely the last thing he would have wanted to do at this time.

…That was too bad for him, because Frisk would not lend him her shoulder to sleep on.

“Well…” He squinted and barely suppressed a yawn. “Let’s see… once upon a time… uh… there was this… uh… little skeleton that… uh… had many friends and…. And one day she met a dog that… uh… was very hungry?”

“OH, NOW THIS IS ABOUT TO GET REAL SCARY!” Papyrus whispered-yelled excitedly. The prince massaged his front a few more times before continuing.

“And then…uh… the dog ran after her until… until the dog fell into a pond and the skeleton was safe… the end?” Goat-face finished with a shrug.

“… wow, that was a bare-bone story, my royal pal.”

“HUM…” Papyrus put a hand under his chin as if trying to decipher a hard riddle. “I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT I EXPECTED MUCH MORE HIJINKS AND SHENANIGANS WITH THIS BEGINNING. THAT WAS A BIT… UNDERWHELMING…”

The prince looked annoyed.

“Well, someone else can try, then.”

“i got one,” Sans chided in with a mocking smile. “i’m warning you all, though, that one’s a doozy.”

Frisk threw him a pointed look. She was starting to know him enough to guess when he was about to throw a jeer at her. Papyrus put his hands on his hips warningly.

“SANS, YOU’D BETTER TELL AN ACTUAL STORY THIS TIME INSTEAD OF ONE OF YOUR ‘KNOCK KNOCK’ JOKES!”

“yeah, pap, it’s a story, I can assure ya.” The skeleton took the lamp and put it under his chin, making it so that only his bleached skull was visible in the dark. He closed his eye-sockets dramatically.

“once upon a time, there was a little monster kid who lived near the wood with his family. He was a nice little kid, who only knew how to please his family and friends. his parents had warned him, though: ‘don’t go into the wood, because behind it thrives the humans. the humans are strong and nasty beings that can kill the toughest monster with one well placed hit, and who can capture little monsters for their own enjoyment, until those little monsters die without hope.”

Frisk could guess Asriel’s face turn into a frown and Papyrus stiffening in the dark. For her part, she merely glanced away from the skeleton’s face. It was not exactly a story for her, after all.

“one day, though, the monster kid found himself wandering in the wood. why he did so is not important, most likely, he was trying to find some nice food for his monster friends. but what is important is what he met: a human. the human was scared because they were a kid like the monster, the human attacked because they were as scared of monsters as the monster was scared of them. then, the human tripped on a branch and hurt themselves, because the monster kid had tricked them to do so.”

Frisk rubbed her hands in the dark. She felt the hardness of her claws through her hand-padding and suppressed one of those waves of self-loathing she was still occasionally getting.

“the monster kid looked at the fallen human and took pity of it. he saw that they were a kid like him, and that they could get hurt, like any monsters, so he decided that he would bring them home. he wanted to take them as a pet like humans sometimes did to monsters, he wanted to teach them how to love like a monster.”

Her ear muscles tensed at the low growling sound coming from the prince.

“when the monster kid took them home, his parents grew worried at the sight of the human. they told him things like: ‘you shouldn’t have brought it here, humans are dangerous, why are you endangering us all?’ but the monster kid would shake his head and say: ‘humans and monsters feel pain and hurt all the same, they feel scared and sad all the same, then surely, a human can be taught how to love all the same.’ because the monster kid believed so, because he had faith in the human, all the other monsters decided they should have faith as well.”

She shifted to stir her legs a bit and accommodate her tail. She thought this was dragging on a bit.

“the human warmed up to the monster, it seemed; they became very close. even though the monster kid was trapping them here, he tried as he could to teach them how to be a good monster, how to be loving and compassionate. soon, the human played with him like any monster would; soon, the monster village saw them as one of their own. they decided to organize a great feast in the honor of their new village member. they danced, they ate a lot, they played. the monster kid spent all night with his new human friend and fell asleep happy.”

Sans made a small pause in his story. Frisk was pretty sure she could guess where this was going.

“…but when the monster kid woke up the next day, the village was entirely silent. the monster kid started to look for his friends of yesterday, but as he crossed through the streets, and as he called for someone, anyone, nobody answered.”

The skeleton’s eyes were still closed. His head was wobbling rhythmically as if hearing a sound nobody else did.

“the monster kid then went home. it, too, was empty. he started to rummage through his parents’ belongings, desperately trying to find the reason why everyone else seemed to have left, leaving him all alone behind. that’s when he stumbled upon a box at the deepest end of a closet, a box that was long and heavy. he pulled the box out, he saw it was locked; so he took a sharp tool from his father’s tool box and pried it open …”

Sans opened his eye-sockets. They were pitch-black.

“…what he found inside… were the remnants of his human friend’s parents… put there by the monster kid’s relatives after they attacked and took the human village for themselves…”

Frisk heard Papyrus’s soft gasp. She felt a slight shiver going through her spine.

“…and that was when the monster kid saw the dust at his feet and heard the door close behind him. He turned and saw his human friend, smiling, a knife in their hand. The human approached and the monster screamed for help…”

Sans shut off the light, making Frisk’s heart skip a beat. In the dark, she heard the short skeleton finish.

“…but nobody came…”

After those words, he felt silent once more, until Frisk heard shuffling and the torch light was lit again in the center of their circle. Sans put his hands in his pockets.

“…and that’s it… that’s how it ends…”

Frisk looked at the other monsters. Papyrus’s bones looked like they had gone through an intense bleach process and he was rubbing his gloved hand together nervously. Asriel looked like he was suppressing some furious emotions in contrast, emotions that were leaking in his aura. Frisk took Papyrus’s hand and squeezed it in reassurance.

“I… I DON’T REALLY LIKE THIS STORY VERY MUCH, SANS… IT… IT WAS VERY SAD… AND SCARY…”

Sans shrugged.

“yeah, bro, but that’s what ‘horror stories’ are about. you’re supposed to have your bones rattled over this.” He winked. “but ya don’t have to worry, bro; ‘twas just a story, after all.”

Asriel cleared his throat.

“Yeah, well… I think it’s time we stop the stories here, don’t you think?”

“heh, are you sure az? we just started, really.” Sans turned his gaze on Frisk, a weird twinkle in his eyes. “besides, the princess didn’t get her turn. come on, kid, tell us some chilling tales from ‘the capital’.”

Asriel frowned and Papyrus straightened up.

“SANS, WHAT DID WE SAY ABOUT CALLING FRISK THINGS SHE DOESN’T WANT TO BE CALLED?”

“did we say we liked it?"

“NO, WE DID NOT!”

Frisk cocked her head and snorted.

“Why would I bother learning any horror stories when real life is already so terrible?”

Sans’s smile widened.

“nothing’s stopping you from taking inspiration from real life, kid. if anything, i bet it’ll be more interesting.”

“Sans, I think you’ve done enough now,” the prince protested. Frisk took the lamp before anyone else could say anything and put it on her laps, closing her eyes with a sigh.

After a small deliberation, she chose her tale.

“…Once upon a time… there was a little girl… a little monster girl…” Frisk breathed in and out a few times to jolt her memories. “The little girl was afraid of many things… especially when it was dark… especially when she was alone in her room… in her bed…”

She opened her eyes and looked up; half-formed memories of a forgotten time danced in the dark.

“…When her mother was sending her to bed… the little girl was shivering under the sheets. She thought… she thought she heard noises in her closet… she thought she heard noises under the bed… she thought there were mon… she thought there were very bad things under it… bad things all around… things she couldn’t really see… unless she caught their shadows on the walls of her room.”

She let a shiver travel her spine at the thought.

“M… her mother often came when she cried… telling her there was nothing to be scared… that she was safe in the house… she even put a little light near the bed to keep the bad things away…”

It had been her actual mother, not her aunt that became her mom later. She could barely remember anything about her face… people said Frisk looked like her.

“…But one night, the little girl decided she wouldn’t be scared of the m… of the bad things anymore… so, she took the little light her mom gave her and brought it close to her heart… she rose from the bed, trembling… She jumped from the bed… far away, because she didn’t want the hands under the bed to seize her by the ankle and drag her deep, deep underneath, to the bad things’ underground domain…”

Frisk grasped the lamp with her claws strongly.

“Then… standing in the dark… in the silence of the night… the frightened little girl crouched slowly… she brought her little lamp down and… she looked under the bed…”

She swallowed before continuing.

“The lamp showed… nothing… She swept the light through the whole area under the bed, multiple times… in the silence of the night… with only the beat of her heart resonating in her head… but… but there was nothing under the bed.”

Breathe in; breathe out.

“Then… then the girl decided to look in the closet… She… she approached slowly… very slowly… she strained her ears to hear it… the noises that had kept her awake and frightened her every nights for so long…”

Step after step… her first trial of courage…

“She heard nothing… nothing but her own steps and her heartbeat, so… so she kept going… slowly. She reached for the handles…”

She had paused then, still straining to hear anything.

“She took the handle quickly and she pulled even quicker, jumping away… in case the beast inside wanted to grab her hand and drag her into its maw…”

Frisk sighed and looked down at the torchlight.

“…But like under the bed, there was nothing… the closet only had clothes… no furry beasts… no nasty things… nothing.”

A slight smile started to slide on her lips.

“The silence of the room… was not oppressive anymore… because there was nothing…. The little girl was safe… She was happy… so relieved to have braved the danger… so proud of herself to be so courageous. She decided she would go to her mom and tell her.”

The calmness of the house… a silence that had become welcoming just like that.

“She opened the door and walked the corridor to go see her mom… That’s when…” Frisk frowned. “That’s when the big ‘boom’ happened… the big explosion outside… Th-there was a big light… there was an even bigger boom… That was when… The sound was so big… so deafening that when the little girl screamed in terror, she couldn’t hear her own voice.”

She tried to still her shaking hands grasping the lamp. It was making the light tremble.

“She ran… She ran to her room… she ran to her open closet. She closed it. She sat. She cried. She cried so much…”

It was getting hard to talk, but she continued.

“She stayed there… in the dark. She… she still had her little light, clutched to her heart. She waited and cried… until her mother found her… she was… her mother was so scared… she told her they couldn’t stay… that they had to flee, because the m… because they were coming…”

She blinked back the tears; she refused to cry for that. She looked ahead and met Sans’s little beads of light. She felt her resolve harden.

“That’s when the little girl stopped being afraid of what was under the bed in the dark. That’s when the little girl learned the real face of the bad things that plagued her nights. The end.”

She placed back the light in the middle of the circle, a bit too quickly, a bit too violently, but decidedly. There was yet another discomforting silence as she stilled her breathing. At this point, she did not really care what those monsters thought of her.

They were responsible. They were responsible for everything. She did not forget; she would make sure that they remembered as well.

She flinched when she felt something grasp her hand and had to calm herself when she realized it was Papyrus, who was looking at her with a grave look.

“THAT… WAS A SAD STORY, FRISK… TRULY… TRULY SAD…”

His gloved fingers caressed her fur softly and she basked in his comforting touch as she nodded.

Chapter Text

Papyrus led them on the balcony for the next item in his exhausting list of fun sleepover activities: stargazing. Asriel could barely keep his eyes open, but he followed everyone else, anyway. Surprisingly… or maybe, unsurprisingly, given Frisk was here, Sans looked perfectly awake.

Asriel had no clue how Papyrus managed to rope them all into doing a sleepover, but at least, Frisk was happy?

…Well, overall, she looked happy, Asriel thought. She seemed pretty good at ignoring Sans’s sour mood and borderline hurtful comments most of the times.

They sat on the chairs of the balcony and looked up. This night, the stars were perfectly visible shiny beads of light in the blackness of the sky, with the additional gleam of a moon crescent. Asriel loved the stars. They had always been an important symbol in monster culture. His mother even once told him how the monsters’ name as a people came from the asters: with ‘moon’ and ‘star’; the people of the brilliant night sky. They were the people who would find their dreams and wishes in the stars.

She also once said humans had a similar origin, but just different enough: the ‘hue’ was the colors of the Earth, which all humans possessed in their hair, skin-colors and souls; the ‘man’ came from ‘min’, another name of the moon; thus, the people of the earth and moon.

Monsters associated with the stars, humans with the earth, yet they both united together under the pale and beautiful white light of the moon.

…It had been another time; the time before humans banished the monsters underground and took the earth and sky for themselves.

Back in the underground, Chara had promised Asriel once they would make him see the stars one day. The prince tried to ignore the lump in his throat.

“Wow, you have a telescope, Papyrus?” Frisk asked, looking at Asriel’s right. The prince looked as well and caught the sight of the engine. It looked well cared for.

“THAT'S NOT ACTUALLY MY TELESCOPE,” Papyrus corrected. “THAT ONE BELONGS TO SANS, BECAUSE WHILE MY BROTHER HAS A HARD TIME GETTING INTO REAL HOBBIES, HE STILL HAS AN OCCASIONAL PASSION FOR SUCH AN IMPORTANT MONSTER ACTIVITY AS STARGAZING!”

“yeah, but i ain’t got the time to do so in a while,” Sans added, slouching in his chair with a wide grin. “normally, i’d make you pay a fortune to even try it, but since i know ya, you can have a peek for free, princess.”

Frisk looked at the skeleton suspiciously.

“…Yeah, no; I think I’ll pass.”

“heh, what are you afraid of, kid?” He winked at her. “s’not like i could predict you would come here; it’s safe.”

She looked at him with squinting eyes, then shrugged and stood up with a challenging look that reminded Asriel of Undyne, heading to the telescope. She cautiously put her eye on the end of it and started to work the wheels meticulously. To Asriel, it looked like she had a basic practice with it.

“Wow... I think I just spoted Orion here… This is a good telescope,” she complimented as she observed the night sky.

“’course it’s good, kid; i’m a science guy, i only get top quality stuffs.”

“…And there is Venus, I think… so shiny…”

“I DIDN’T KNOW YOU LIKED STARGAZING ENOUGH TO LEARN THEIR NAME, FRISK, THOUGH I MUST ADMIT I DON’T KNOW WHAT A ‘VENUS’ IS. IS THIS A TERM FOR A STAR FROM THE CAPITAL?”

“Sure,” Frisk lied distractedly, still looking through the lenses. “Though, I’m not that passionate about it, actually. It’s just… I had some friends who loved the sky and anything that flies in it… We stargazed together once or twice…”

Her voice had grown soft, like it often did when she recalled her lost loved ones. Asriel’s ear fell down a bit and he stood up to walk next to her.

“Would… would you mind if I try it after you?”

“Hum.”

She nodded and started to pull back, but then stopped and growled in annoyance, showing her fangs.

“Ah, god… Sans you bone-headed bastard! Ow!”

She pulled back and Asriel saw the wet red paint around her eye. The sticky liquid had ripped a few strands of fur that were stuck around the lenses. Frisk reached the red circle with a clawed hand without touching it.

“Seriously, out of all the stupid pranks you could have pulled, you picked the one with intense face pain, you jerk!”

“SANS!” Papyrus turned to his brother with a reproaching look. “WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT PRANKING PEOPLE THROUGH TIME AND SPACE??”

Sans merely shrugged.

“sorry bro… in my defense, though, i actually set that one in advance with un-drying paint without knowing who would fall for it.” He winked again. “though i admit this one would have been better ‘polished’ fur another public.”

Asriel threw a glare at the skeleton before taking out a handkerchief for Frisk, who took it and started to wipe the paint, grumbling. She would probably have to wash the rest later. That sure would not help her water obsession one bit.

“hey, look on the bright side, princess, i think red eyeliners make your eye-color stand out stunningly. you should try putting on makeup more often.”

She rolled her eyes to the sky. Her gaze fixed on something and she stilled. Seeing this, Asriel followed her gaze and looked at the darkness. For a moment, he saw nothing; then, he noticed the black triangular shape blocking some of the white dots of stars. Asriel frowned, a feeling of wrongness in his chest. He did not know what it was, but it was either pretty big or pretty close.

“SANS, MAYBE MY EYES ARE PLAYING TRICKS ON ME, BUT I DON’T BELIEVE THIS BLACK SPOT OVER US IS A MONSTER… OR EVEN A BIRD!”

Papyrus had noticed as well. This increased the prince's discomfort. He had an urge to take Frisk by the shoulders, but restrained himself just in time.

“…okay, i just texted our local working scientist about it… we should be fine…”

Sans had done the smart thing. Asriel knew he should have thought of doing that first.

The four of them observed the craft gliding over the town silently. Then, a yellow missile shot up from the white building that was the lab. It impacted on the craft with a blinding light and a sounding explosion. Frisk flinched down and brought her hands on her head with a frightened bleat. Asriel instinctively crouched down and put his arms around her. She swapped them out violently enough to scratch him and he recoiled away to give her space.

“Frisk,” he spoke in a soft tone, ignoring his pain, “it’s okay… the… it’s okay now…”

“FRISK! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” Papyrus jumped to his friend. She did not resist when he started to massage her back reassuringly. “HAVE NO FEAR… THE… THAT HUMAN MACHINE WAS SHOT DOWN BEFORE IT COULD HURT ANYONE…”

Asriel looked at the point where the small missile impacted the triangle in the sky. He could spot the black traces of smokes and guess its crashing course. He turned his attention back at Frisk to see her slowly looking up from her hands, staring in space.

“That was… that was a drone…”

Asriel nodded, relieved that she was still coherent.

“We’ll warn the Royal Guards,” he promised her. “We’ll… make sure any human survivors are well treated.”

The least he could do was assuring her that the humans in that plane would not be executed. She did not need to think about additional death of her kind. Frisk’s gaze snapped on him and a weird emotion came forth through her aura before disappearing again in her shades of grey. She made no comment, however. Asriel did not know what to make of it.

“I THINK… I THINK WE HAD ENOUGH STARGAZING FOR TONIGHT,” the tall skeleton announced, still rubbing his friend’s back. “MY NEXT SUPER FUN TIME PROPOSITION IS… CARD GAMES! YES, AND GREAT CARD GAMES ARE PLAYED INSIDE! COME ON, FRISK!”

“great plan, pap.”

As Papyrus brought Frisk inside and was followed by Sans, Asriel stared at the night sky one last time with a deep frown. Until today, he had never seen a human plane able to cross their magical barrier and fly over a town like that. Did humans develop a new cloaking technology? This was troubling; they would not even have noticed it, had they not been there, stargazing. And if humans could go through by air and send their trained soldiers into monster towns…

The prince readied his phone. He would have to stay on alert tonight, as well as warn his father about it.

--

Before joining the other at the table of the living room to play the card game, Asriel inspected his scratched arms. There was no dust leaking; he could tell it had not been any kind of strong hits, or with any killing intent, given how benign the wounds were. Frisk would not have been able to hurt him this severely with that attack, at any rate, but he was relieved to see that even with her hatred and her partly physical body, this was all the damage she could accidentally deal. Also, it had been the first time she ever hurt anyone since coming here; Asriel had to admire her restraint.

Slowly, he gathered his magic and started to work on the wounds. He caught Frisk’s observing his work. He was not sure what her expression transcribed, but he did not think this was guilt.

When the four of them were installed, Papyrus had to explain the rules, mostly for Frisk, because she was ‘from the Capital’. They started playing, but when Asriel received a hurried text from Undyne and his active Royal Guards in town, Asriel knew he would not be able to concentrate on the game.

By the time he was over with directing his troop, it was Frisk’s time to get sleepy. Contrary to the prince, however, the human-monster had no real incentive to stay awake, apparently, and asked for Papyrus if she could take a small nap. Papyrus offered her his bed; Asriel could tell Sans was unhappy about this. Before the short skeleton could voice his dissent, Asriel asked Papyrus to nap as well, but using the pillow fort in Papyrus’s room. Frisk only threw the prince a suspicious glance and asked Papyrus if she could sleep on the couch around everyone instead. Papyrus flatly refused her napping anywhere that would be uncomfortable, and brought everyone back in his room instead.

“THIS WAY, WE’LL JUST PLAY SOME CARD GAMES QUIETLY WHILE YOU RECUPERATE, NYEHEHEH!”

Frisk made no further protest as she lied down on Papyrus’s race-car bed. Asriel and the two skeletons did a few turns in silence until Asriel was texted by Alphys about the human machine and he excused himself once more. After that, it looked like the two brothers had given up on playing and Papyrus started to work quietly on new puzzles while Sans was pretend-napping on the remains of the pillow-fort, his gaze fixated on a sleeping Frisk. Asriel, for his part, followed Alphys’s description of her night’s event with a frown.

The Royal Guards found the plane; there was no sight of a pilot. According to Alphys, the remains of the machine showed no sign of having a human being inside.

-From what I can see, this is a completely distance-piloted flying structure. This could spell trouble, because this means our current human tech scrambling system is seriously outdated.-

Asriel frowned and typed a response.

-Frisk called it a ‘drone’ when she saw it.-

After a short pause, he received Alphys’s answer.

-ah, yes. i remember that’s what human call their robot-piloted crafts. they haven’t used those against us in a long time if that’s what it is. our anti-air defense is usually very good against them. i guess we’ll have to work to upgrade it as a top priority now. on the plus side, it probably means no humans have crossed the borders yet. ‘drones’ are mostly for reconnaissance and bombing, and given how silent this one was, it was probably here for the first option.-

Asriel read the lizard’s explanation with a constricted heart. Frisk knew what a drone was, yet, she did not say anything when he had erroneously assumed the human plane had a pilot. Frisk may not lie to them directly, but she would keep things away from them if she could. The prince should not be surprised she did; she had no reasons to cooperate with them. He should stop forgetting where they all stood in this mess.

-Start working on it right away, Alphys, we need our borders secured at all cost. Warn father.-

-Of course.-

Asriel let his hand holding the phone down with a sigh.

“…anything new on the side of our scaly fellow?”

The Boss Monster turned to look at Sans and replied in the same muttering tone.

“The craft was only a reconnaissance robot; there were no causality on either side this time.”

Sans nodded with a small hum. Papyrus was digging his head in his papers, but Asriel could tell he was listening as well.

“…guess we’re gonna have to reiterate against them, otherwise they’ll keep pushing whenever they can.”

Asriel closed his eyes and massaged his head.

“Maybe… but for now, our top priority should be to upgrade our defenses. Who knows how long those crafts could have been observing us silently like that.”

“yeah… the thought of some silent and looming danger over our head’s nothing to joke about.”

Sans’s words brought back to the prince’s mind Frisk’s story and he shivered. In concept, he knew what their missiles had been doing to human towns, but hearing first hand their effects had been gut-wrenching. Frisk did not have just the loss of her village to deal with; the impact of the war had been a life-long trauma for her.

As if summoned by his thinking, the human monster shifted in her sleep. For a moment, Asriel expected her to wake up, but she only trembled and made a small whine. Papyrus abandoned his half-made puzzle to the ground and went to her side, massaging her hair softly in between her horns. A nightmare. Asriel never watched her when she was asleep. Did she have those often? He would not be this surprised if she did. His throat constricted.

Papyrus’s touch seemed to have calmed her down. She relaxed and the skeleton walked to Asriel, sitting near. For the first time, Asriel heard the skeleton take a ‘normal’ kind of voice volume.

“Sans usually comfort me with magic when I have nightmares, and Frisk said she liked her fur to be pet, so I hope that helped a bit,” the skeleton explained, looking back at his sleeping friend in concern. “It… Things are not okay with Frisk… are they, your majesty? She… she never say much, but… she looks always sad about something… even when she’s happy.”

Asriel threw him a soft look and shook his head.

“No… there’re not. Frisk has… She had a difficult time before coming here. She needs a while to heal… and good friends.”

Papyrus nodded.

“Yes, I figured that’s what she needed; which is why I’ll be there to help her deal with this, as a great friend should be.” The skeleton stretched a wide smile. “But I’m sure she’ll be fine with all of us! After all, if even the prince of monster is here to help, there’s no way we can fail in lifting her spirit back up! Nyeheheh!”

The prince forced a smile and nodded. Sans threw him a strange look.

“you know what, az? today’s a long day. ya should rest your tired bones a bit, 'nless you wanna fall asleep at the funeral.”

The Boss Monster sighed and agreed with a nod. There was not much else he could do at the moment, for either Frisk or the drone situation. Right now, he had his duty as a ruler to take care of, and he could not do it half asleep. He silently lied down on the pillow fort, looked at the bed’s occupant one last time and closed his eyes for at least a few hours.

Chapter Text

An axe struck at Frisk’s head and woke her up with a jolt. Eyes wide and panting, facing an unfamiliar wall, she had a sudden fear of having been taken away in her sleep again. She then felt a hand on her hair and turned sharply. Her gaze lost itself into Papyrus’s eye-sockets and she slowly calmed down, closing her eyes and drowning in his soft petting while she recalled the event of the night.

“GOOD MORNING, FRISK! YOU’VE NAPPED FOR QUITE A WHILE; IT LOOKS LIKE DAYLIGHT IS UP ALREADY! I GUESS THIS MEANS OUR FIRST SLEEPOVER FUN TIME IS OFFICIALLY OVER! NYEHEHEH! I CERTAINLY HOPE YOU’VE ENJOYED YOURSELF, BECAUSE I PERSONALLY DECREED IT TO BE THE BEST SLEEPOVER I’VE EVER HAD!”

She chuckled weakly and opened her eyes again.

“Mmmyeah… I think so too, Papyrus. I had a lot of fun.”

Sleeping in a race-car bed would always be a plus compared to at the lab.

“SANS IS STILL NAPPING, THAT LAZY-BONE!” Papyrus continued, still in his usual voice-volume, which made Frisk’s ears ring a bit this morning, even if it was always welcoming. “BUT THE PRINCE RECENTLY WOKE UP AND WENT TO MAKE SOME TEA. I, FOR MY PART, HAD DECIDED TO STAY AWAKE TO WAIT FOR WHEN YOU’LL BE UP! NYEHEHEH!”

“That’s… very sweet of you,” she told him as she rose up and sat on the bed. For anyone but Papyrus, Frisk would have thought of this as a creepy endeavor. He was always a bundle of joy and she silently thanked him for that. She looked at herself and saw that she had slept in the prince’s gift. She wrinkled her muzzle, because she did not like making a habit of going to bed fully clothed. “Uh… Sorry to be rude, but… where’s the bathroom?”

“…THAT QUESTION IS NOT RUDE AT ALL AND IS ACTUALLY A VERY GOOD ONE, FRISK!” Papyrus answered, stepping back to give her space to stand. This was when she noticed Sans spread on the remains of the pillow fort, watching her with one eye open. “IN FACT, I WAS ABOUT TO SUGGEST TO GUIDE YOU THERE, SINCE THE PRINCE MENTIONED YOU LIKE WATER SO MUCH! FOLLOW ME!”

She wrinkled her muzzle as she went after the skeleton. Truthfully, she did not like washing herself that much, especially when every time she did, she always came out smelling worse than before due to the disgusting fur that covered her whole body. It was sticky and long to dry, too. But she had a schedule to hold, and this was the best way she found to maintain it.

Papyrus let her graciously alone into the bathroom and she relished in this time of solitude. Apart from her cell, in which she was under constant surveillance anyway, she had no time for herself at all. The room was clean, like most of the house, and painted with a nice soft relaxing blue. There was a small window, too small for her to fit her current body in, and the place had a shower, a bathtub and a sink with the typical assortment of towels hanging from the wall. As expected in a monster house, there was no toilet; Frisk did not miss those that much, even though she still had the very occasional need to pee, probably due to her remaining physical mass. Like most people raised on water conservation, though, she had learned to relieve this in the shower.

Her mom would have probably fretted on the amount of water she was wasting on showering, but this was for a good cause.

Well, she had no need to pee right now, anyway, and probably would not for a few days. She glanced at her watch; it was still early morning. She supposed she could take a bath, but she did not want to intrude on Papyrus too much. She looked at the purple dress with annoyance. She did not have any clothes to change into, or any of those very neat inventory goat-face and his friends always used, so she was doomed to keep wearing it until she was back at the lab; not a place she was looking forward to go back to, anyway.

Sighing, she approached the sink and flinched when she caught sight of her tawny-brown fur in the mirror. Wow, she had almost managed to forget what she looked like since her arrival at the lab. She had a sudden urge to punch her reflection, but restrained herself. Even discounting the fact that she had the head of a hideous goat beast, she did look like a mess; with small bags under her eyes, messy hair and a very distinct red smear around her left eyes. She grunted when she remembered that she had no time to wash off Sans’s prank last night and ran the water to do so.

“aw, too bad you’re getting rid of it; i thought the ‘black eye’ look was good on you.”

Water flew all around and she jumped with a bleat. As humiliated by the sound as the way she reacted, she balefully glared at the short skeleton who was watching her, hands in his vest pockets, until her surprise and anger shifted into incredulity.

“What? How the… The door was closed! How did you-“

“don’t look so surprised, kid; this is my house, after all, i know a few shortcuts around it,” he said with a shrug, clearly amused by her reaction. “honestly, though, you didn’t expect me to leave you all alone at my home, did you?”

She did not answer, because she clearly should have expected him to do that. Instead, she frowned, turned back to the sink and finished the job, pointedly avoiding the mirror. His presence definitely put a stop on her plan to wash herself; there was no way she would let him have a peek, even though she was pretty sure he had no view on furry goat beasts. Still, as she was here, she took great care in washing both hair and face, even with the unpleasant odor it would cause. With any luck, the prince had a brush in his inventory and she could comb a little.

“heh, you know what, i changed my mind, the ‘wet dog’ look you’re pulling there is simply the finest of taste.”

She ignored him and left the room to join Papyrus and the prince downstairs. She found her friend skeleton ‘perusing’ his fridge while the prince was pouring a few cups of a hot liquid that was more than likely the tea Papyrus had mentioned. The Boss Monster visibly frowned at the sight of Frisk’s wet face, as expected, but made no comment. Papyrus turned to them with a smile.

“OH, SANS, YOU’RE FINALLY UP AS WELL, GOOD! I GUESS THIS MEANS WE CAN START OUR BREAKFAST, THEN.” He showed one of his multiple spaghetti containers. “I BET YOU’LL LIKE THIS ONE, FRISK! IT’S A SPECIAL MORNING RECIPE! NYEHEHEH!”

She forced a smile and silently vowed to herself that she would teach her friend how to cook something other than spaghetti one day. It would not be today, though, as he had yet to master the simple art of ‘not burning the pasta to a crisp’. Frisk often wondered if monsters were just generally bad at cooking or if it was just those in the prince’s entourage. They were almost worshipping anything she cooked when she was just averagely good at making edible meals.

Asriel showed them the chair and gave a hot cup to each of them. Frisk sat and enclosed the warm beverage in between her claws, blowing on it softly. She was an occasional tea person, though her mom and dad had been both passionate about making them themselves.

“This one is a ‘Golden Flower’ tea,” the prince helpfully told her as he picked his own cup. “It’s a classic among monsters; it’s my and father’s favorite.”

When he mentioned his father, Frisk felt a weight drop in her stomach. She clenched her cup. His father, the king… king Asgore, the god-like being who declared war on humanity… the one who dropped those human bombs on their own towns and killed more than two third of Frisk’s relatives before she was even born… King Asgore, her enemy from before she was even aware she had one…

…And now, here she was, in company of his equally murderous son, drinking their favorite tea. She looked at his white goat-shaped head and concluded that her life was surreal in all the wrong way.

The prince must have felt the intensity of her gaze, because he looked away. Frisk looked down at her cup.

“So, uh,” the Boss Monster started softly. “Today is… a very special day… I… I believe most of the town will be there.”

“I CERTAINLY WILL BE! THOSE ROYAL GUARDS WERE HEROES AMONG US, EVEN WITH THEIR ANNOYING TENDENCY TO JUST STEAL FROM MY BONE COLLECTION!” Papyrus pulled out a full box of bones from his inventory. “IN FACT, I FIGURED THE FAMILY WOULD LIKE TO INCLUDE IT IN THE DUSTING CEREMONY, SO I’LL BRING IT WITH ME TODAY!”

“wow, bro, that’s a ‘marrow-velous’ idea you got there.”

“YES, INDEED IT IS! NYEHEHEHEH!” Papyrus looked at Frisk with a grin. “EVEN IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW THEM, FRISK, I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU COME! A FUNERAL IS A WONDERFUL OCCASION TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS!”

Frisk was both fairly off put by his joyful tone and by the notion of going to the funeral of her three kills. She unconsciously shifted her gaze both at Asriel and Sans before looking down at her cup again.

“Uh…I… I don’t think this is a good idea, Papyrus… I… I just arrived here… It’s… it’s intrusive…”

She would not want her potential murderer to be present at her funeral, personally.

Her reticence did not seem to have any effect on Papyrus’s mood.

“THAT’S NONSENSE, FRISK, OF COURSE IT’S NOT INTRUSIVE! FUNERALS SHOULD ALWAYS BE A TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING! YOU BEING NEW HERE IS EVEN MORE OF A REASON FOR YOU TO PARTAKE IN IT!”

She did not answer. Clearly, ‘funeral’ meant something else for monsters she had no time to learn yet. To her surprise, Asriel nodded.

“I think it’s a good idea, too, Frisk. It is an important community sharing. Beside, most of the town will be there, so you’ll probably be home alone if you’re not with us.”

‘Home alone’ was code for ‘The lab would be deserted’. It meant Alphys and Sans would be there as well; and Frisk was sure Undyne would be too. She took a big breath and nodded. This would be a long day out, so she should not complain, but the idea of getting so close to death concepts so soon after what had happened was leaving a sour taste in her mouth.

…After all, she had never got to make a funeral for everyone she loved.

“THEN, IT’S DECIDED! WE’LL GO A LITTLE BEFORE NOON, THAT WAY, WE WON’T MISS ANYTHING IMPORTANT! NYEHEHEH!”

Papyrus went on to heat up the spaghetti and Frisk decided to try out the tea and get her mind off this trail of thoughts. When it reached her tongue, she had the strong feeling that it would have burned, had she still been human. As it was, the liquid was warmly pleasant, and the aroma was… the aroma was… pretty good.

…And the taste… familiar?

“…Are you okay, Frisk?”

It was only at the prince’s query that she noticed she had started to tear up. She sniffled embarrassingly and wiped her eyes.

“I-It’s nothing…” She looked at her cup again. “It’s just… it’s a very good tea.”

After a moment of silence, Asriel’s soft voice rose again.

“…Yes; it is.”

--

The prince lent her one of his brush, to which she was begrudgingly grateful for. Sans also offered to lend her his comb, which raised way more questions to Frisk than it answered, until she just concluded this was probably an item for comedic purpose rather than convenience. By the time they had all finished preparing, it was time to head out.

Frisk had expected funerals to at the very least mean that everyone would dress in black, but both Sans and Papyrus had their casual clothes on. Only the prince had switched to a more formal wear; it was a kind of purple combat robe similar to the one he had been wearing back when he captured her and her town, with armored shoulder pads and the Delta Rune painted in a shield on its torso. This made Frisk uneasy, both because it brought to her bad memories and because the robe matched her own dress and made it seem like they were in together on something. She had literally nothing else to wear now, however, and going at the lab with Papyrus was not possible.

Frisk did not think the weather was a proper set for a funeral, either. There were a few clouds, but the sky was still bright blue with a nice breeze. Every times she had assisted in funerals, the sky had been grey, sometimes with a bit of rain. She would not complain about that, though, because they had no umbrella and rain meant another case of severe wet fur. With the inclusion of the dog family and any potential furry monsters, Frisk had a feeling rain would be fairly dreaded on this occasion.

…Speaking of wet things, something smelled pretty damp, and for once, it was not her. She wrinkled her muzzle in displeasure and searched around for the source. Instead of finding it, her eyes stopped on an outrageously pink and black shop, with an equally outrageous robot face featured on the store’s glasses. She approached and read its name: ‘MTT STORE BRAND: FOR ALL THINGS MTT RELATED ™’.

“AH, I SEE YOU FOUND GREENLAKE’S LOCAL MTT SHOP, FRISK?” Papyrus joined her with an approving look. “THAT’S WHERE I BOUGHT MY MTT-BRAND STOVE AND MY MTT-BRAND MICROWAVE! BOTH WERE FEATURED IN MY FAVORITE METTATON COOKING SHOW! WE’LL HAVE TO ORGANIZE SOME SHOPPING TRIPS HERE LATER! I KNOW WE’RE FAR FROM THE CAPITAL, BUT WE’RE STILL SUPPLIED WITH THE LATEST PRODUCTS! NYEHEHEHEH!”

It sounded like this Mettaton robot had gotten very good at selling derived products to unaware customers. Frisk suspected monsters had yet to be truly familiarized with how ads and product placements worked. She was about to turn away when the store door slid open.

She found herself facing a huge, frenetically trembling gaping hole, in which was emanating the damp smell. It was dripping clear liquid all over the ground.

Frisk forgot to scream. She forgot how to move her legs as well

Had she been human, she might have wet herself. Papyrus’s gloved hands took her by the shoulder and moved her away from the door. This shook her off enough for her to find refuge behind the skeleton with a whimper, shivers travelling over her whole body.

Thankfully, Papyrus did not share her fear.

“OH, HELLO, MX. DOGS, HOW NICE SEEING YOU HERE! I EXPECTED YOU WOULD BE AT THE CEREMONY ALREADY!”

The ‘Mx. Dogs’, that was nothing like a dog to Frisk, started to shift out of the store, morphing and squishing its body until its huge white towering mass was outside. Now that Frisk saw it in its entirety, she could see that it was, indeed, dog-like in some aspects. While its massive shifting form possessed eight paws to walk on, it was in the shape of a dog and possessed a tail which it waved wildly. It had pointy ears on its head, but its face was nothing but a gapping black opening dripping with saliva. After a more careful observation, Frisk could also see multiple shapes of dogs shifting and twisting inside, making the thing’s whole being constantly tremble like a huge cup of gelatin.

Frisk felt her heart tightening. She had seen this thing before.

…And it had been ‘that day’.

“Hello? That was the tall skeleton, right? Wait a moment.”

The grouchy voice was not coming from the dog monstrosity; instead, it came from behind it. A bipedal dog, a little shorter than Papyrus, came out of the store in turn. He (Frisk assumed from the voice it was a ‘he’; monsters could be hard to identify just by their look) was white with black fur covering his head, ears and eyes, travelling down his back. He was wearing a shirt with a dog face and polka-dotted pants. He looked at Papyrus, who was waving at him, with squinty and shifty eyes.

Frisk knew that monster as well. She remembered his blue magic sword going through her side as she stood still. She had thought herself dead.

She could not stop shivering.

“YES! IT IS INDEED I, PAPYRUS, HERE TO GREET YOU AND YOUR FAMILY! HELLO TO YOU, DOGGO! HOW ARE YOU DOING?”

The dog looked at the skeleton a moment before nodding his head in satisfaction.

“Papyrus, right. We’re doing fine, you know… given the circumstances.” He then looked around nervously. “The short skeleton’s not with you today?”

“OF COURSE SANS IS HERE! WE WOULDN’T WANT TO MISS THE CEREMONY!” Papyrus pointed as Sans, who just stood there with a grin. Doggo’s eyes seemed to pass right through the short skeleton, however, until they stopped on the shivering Frisk.

“Uh, right… well, since I don’t suppose your brother grew a few inches since the last time he deigned to show himself to me, I’m guessing you two aren’t alone here?”

“OF COURSE WE AREN’T!” He patted Frisk’s shoulders, preventing her from hiding behind him again. “THIS HERE IS MY DEAR FRIEND FRISK WHO RECENTLY CAME FROM THE CAPITAL,” he presented her, before pointing to the prince, who waved his own hand. “AND OF COURSE, WE HAVE HIS MAJESTY ASRIEL TO ACCOMPANY US HERE!”

The dog’s eyes fixated on the prince’s moving hand, widened and he made a short salute.

“Prince Asriel, it is an honor for us to have your presence at the funeral of our peers.”

Asriel shook his head, in a way that looked exaggerated.

“The honor is mine, Doggo; you and your family have always been an important part of our kingdom’s order. We would never forget your loyal service.”

“I’m glad you think so, my prince,” the dog answered with a nod, closing his eyes. The giant dog monstrosity at his side brought its head down; dripping saliva on his head like it was trying to comfort him.

“ANYWAY, DOGGO, MX. DOGS, I SUPPOSE YOU WILL GO TO THE CEREMONY SOON? WILL YOU PERHAPS JOIN US ON OUR WAY THERE?”

To Frisk’s relief, Doggo shook his head.

“We will soon, but for now we’re still looking for a nice collar to put on my family’s neck,” he told them, pointing at the giant white thing. “I was thinking of some spiked collar I heard Mettaton was wearing in one of his show, but they don’t exist in XXXL size, so we have to keep looking for something.”

“OH, I SEE…” Papyrus nodded. “WE WILL SEE YOU BOTH LATER THERE, I SUPPOSE, THEN?”

“Yes, I suppose that’s how it will be. Well then, we’re going to keep on looking.” Doggo patted the giant thing and it started to walk away. “It was nice talking to you, Papyrus, my lord, and…” He looked at Frisk’s trembling form again. “‘Frisk’, right? That’s nice of you to move like that for me, maybe we could chat later.”

With that, the two dogs took another way and left Frisk’s monster group alone.

“THAT WAS DOGGO AND HIS REUNITED FAMILY AMALGAMATE,” Papyrus explained to Frisk as she took time to breath in and out. “IF YOU’RE FROM THE CAPITAL, I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ANY AMALGAMATE FACE TO FACE; I ADMIT THAT IT CAN BE A BIT DISORIENTING THE FIRST TIME. HOWEVER, DO NOT WORRY; MX. DOGS ARE A VERY SWEET, NON-THIEVING CANINE, FOR ALL THEIR IMPOSING MULTIPLE COMBINED DOGS STATURE. AS FOR DOGGO, HE HAS A SIGHT CONDITION THAT PREVENTS HIM FROM SEEING THINGS THAT AREN’T MOVING, SO SANS ALWAYS DOES NASTY PRANKS TO HIM.” Papyrus threw a reproachful look at Sans, who just shrugged, as he always did when his brother criticized his sense of humor. “ANYWAY, WE SHOULD PROCEED TO OUR DESTINATION NOW! NYEHEHEH!”

They started to walk again, Frisk still recovering from the encounter. God… she had known about those ‘Amalgamate’ things from human soldiers. They were called ‘hyper-monsters’, and described as invincible being which looked like they were made of living liquid. No humans who confronted them ever survived. When she had read about them in a monster history book, she had started to dread their name. They were yet another awful creation by Alphys made of multiple ‘fallen’ (equivalent of ‘comatose’, as far as Frisk gathered) monsters. The scientist had fused them using some technique related to the power of human souls or something.

In monster culture, those kind of unethical experiments were widely known to the public and approved of.

In human countries, those kinds of things, while probably practiced, were hidden from the public from the obvious fear of people protesting against it.

Monsters were insane.

…And to think that, had she not been paralyzed by fear that day, Doggo would have seen her and sent his horrifying Amalgamate ‘family’ to splat her to the ground. She even had dreams of that very thing happening; she had dreams where the huge gaping hole of the Amalgamate had swallowed her whole…

And those terrifying things were allowed to roam around freely on monster territory? True insanity.

“Look, Frisk, we’re here.”

She looked up where the prince was pointing. The place looked a little like the park, but was elevated, and bordered the lake beautifully. There were trees planted around, mostly with red and orange leaves, and the whole little area was covered with grass. Frisk rejoiced with the feel of soft greenery under her feet. She always enjoyed walking on grass bare-feet, but now, she liked the feeling even more due to it being the softest surface her monster feet could walk on outside.

There were already a few monsters around, mostly canine types, busy bringing various quality of objects at the center of the park, most of them dog related.

“OH, LOOKS LIKE THEY STARTED GATHERING THE PRECIOUS PILE FOR THE DUSTING! PERFECT!” Papyrus grabbed Frisk’s hand before she could protest. “COME ON, FRISK, LET’S SAY HELLO TO EVERYONE! NYEHEHEHEH!”

Since she knew literally nothing of what was going on, she decided to trust Papyrus and let him drag her to the crowd.

Monsters were insane.

…But ‘when in Rome’, after all…

--

Letting Papyrus guide her had been the right idea, she decided. While Frisk could hold up a conversation when addressed to, she always did tend to be introvert in nature. Getting marooned in a society of deadly creatures did nothing to help in this matter. She may have been vocal when voicing her opinion, but she knew it was a bad idea to let the town monsters know anything that could make them deduce she was human. Using Papyrus as a filter to talk to other monsters and learn of their culture seemed like an effective technique which allowed her to stay mostly silent and observe.

When she reflected on it, having her, a lone human, stand among this huge mass of monsters without an ounce of hostility toward her was nothing short of amazing…well, she was feeling Sans’s hold of her soul ever so slightly, so it was not like it was completely without hostility. Still, it was pretty impressive how quickly monsters learned to trust her to roam among them like that.

Monsters were too trusting, especially the prince…Not that she was complaining.

“… AND THIS HERE IS FRISK, LANI; I TOLD YOU ABOUT HER ALREADY, I THINK. MY BOSS MONSTER FRIEND FROM THE CAPITAL?”

“Ah, y-yes, uh…” The stuttering mouse monster looked at Frisk from head to toe with wide eyes before hunching over a little. “Pleased to meet you, lady Frisk.”

Frisk waved dismissively, trying to ignore the weight in her stomach.

“Just ‘Frisk’, please; I’m no royalty.”

“Oh, a-alright.”

Frisk continued the conversation with a forced grin. Wearing the dress had been the biggest mistake she had made in those past two days. In the few times she had interacted with monsters before, she had been wearing her casual outfit, but now, it seemed that everyone were seeing the king’s emblem and expected her to belong in some sort of old noble monster family, which was apparently more than often the case for Boss Monsters.

It was a huge mistake because she had arrived with the prince wearing similar attires. And Asriel was still her most common guardian whenever they allowed her out of the cell. She could guess where everyone’s mind was going with this and it was making her very uncomfortable. It was also making her contacts with other monsters harder, because they all assumed. They either assumed she was nobility and were distancing from her out of some weird form of respect, or they assumed she was with the prince and…

Urg… She could not even finish the thought. The worst part about this was that it was actually harder to deny, given the exceeding amount of time outside her cell goat-face was spending with her. She had no idea how to deal with this.

“ATTENTION EVERYONE!” Undyne’s voice bellowed out from some sort of podium. She was wearing her armor yet again; like with Asriel, Frisk guessed it was a form of military respect. “GATHER UP AT THE PRECIOUS PILE, BECAUSE THE SPREADING WILL BE STARTING SOON!”

“OH, GOOD, IT’S MY CUE!” Papyrus pulled out his box of bones again and started to head to the center of a monster formed circle. “WAIT HERE, FRISK! I JUST HAVE TO BRING MY COLLECTION AND BE RIGHT BACK.”

Frisk watched as the skeleton put the box on the pile, in between a bowl of dog food and a leash. Most of everything inside the pile was dog related, like used squeaky toys, some dog treats and… a hotdog and a box of raisin? After the skeleton, Doggo, who had joined them since, walked near it and solemnly put a half-empty bag of dog-food. After him, an armored smaller cream dog approached and…

Frisk felt something constrict in her when she saw the axes. They had been cleaned off blood and dust, thankfully. They were still giving to Frisk imageries of death and grey sky.

Then, the big Amalgamate, now sporting a blue scarf, brought the big armor.

Memories of dust in her mouth and throat came back to her. She had to hold her muzzle closed to restrain her urge to vomit. It was the last item brought to the pile. After a moment of silence, which seemed to last forever, the fish warrior’s voice rose again.

“NOW, LET THE SPREADING BEGIN!”

A giant silver cup Frisk had not noticed before was opened. Inside, Frisk could see the dust, and guess their origin. To her horror, she could see the way some particles were still stained brownish red. No one commented on it, however.

First, she saw Doggo approach, scooping some dust in a smaller cup and head to the pile. He stopped before it, raised the cup and spoke.

“For your kindness, for your love and affection, I thank you all. Now, be free, be happy; just as we shall be!”

Doggo spread the dust on the pile and a big clamor arose from the monsters all around Frisk, making her flinch.

“Be free, be happy; just as we shall be!”

All the monsters around were chanting, huge smiles on their lips. The human monster watched them all with incredulity. They were supposed to honor their dead, so why were they so joyful?

The smaller cream white dog in the armor imitated Doggo. They raised their cup and barked. They used no words, but just the same, when the dust spread on the pile, the monsters’ voices rose again.

“Be free, be happy; just as we shall be!”

The Amalgamate wobbled to the big dust pile; Doggo scooped a cup for them, as it had no arm to hold it. As they walked to the ‘treasure pile’ again, Frisk was wondering if she should partake in the chanting as well. She was no monsters; she was an intruder… worse, she was their killer… yet, if she did not chant with them, the real monsters would notice…

With a heavy heart and a guilty conscience, she waited until the huge Amalgamate finished its horrible multi-lapsed barking, and for Doggo to throw the dust on the pile. Then, she raised an arm, like most of the others around her, like Papyrus, Alphys and Undyne did, and she chanted alongside the others.

“Be free, be happy; just as we shall be!”

There was no smile on her face, however; she just could not smile doing what she was doing.

She could guess why monster funerals were like this now; she could understand why they were so upbeat; so hopeful. When you thrive on Hope, Love and Compassion, you have to value those above all, even with an event as sad as letting go a departed person. You do it with a smile and a hope for a better future. She could understand, and even respect this attitude toward the dead.

…But she was not supposed to be here. It felt dirty; it felt wrong in so many ways. She was no monsters, she was an enemy hidden among them; she was their killer…and if this kept on, she may end up as an unwillful enemy to humans as well.

She just could not smile. She had to escape; she had to change back.

“Be free, be happy; just as we shall be!”

She had to escape.

Chapter Text

When the last remain of dust was scattered, the chant stopped and the real festivities began. Food was brought up on nicely decorated tables, mostly dog food, but it did not seem to bother most monsters. There were musicians playing folklore-like songs with instrument Frisk did not know the name of, but which looked close to guitars. Some people were dancing and laughing.

It was surreal. Everything around was.

Papyrus had dragged her around, first to the table, then at the dance floor. She pretended to be a bit tired and watched him dance with the others instead. All this time, she was feeling the small pressure of Sans magic on her soul, even when she had lost sight of the short skeleton. On the dance floor, she saw Undyne, however, grasping Papyrus forcefully and dragging him in a deadly waltz.

Frisk saw the prince, watching her. She threw him a look, warning him against coming close and ask her for anything. To his credit, he seemed to understand the message and kept his distance. She felt a slight relief at that.

Then, she noticed Alphys, wearing a nice black and white polka-dotted robe, watching Undyne and Papyrus dance enviously. After a small moment of deliberation, Frisk approached her.

“So, why aren’t you dancing?”

Alphys flinched at her sudden query, wide-eyed, then looked away.

“f-frisk, i-i, uh...” She twirled her thumb. “y-you, uh… you’re not dancing either…”

The human-monster shrugged.

“The difference is that I don’t want to dance; you clearly do.”

“i-i-i… don’t really want to, either…” The yellow lizard’s eyes shifted to Undyne. “it’s just that…”

Frisk rolled her eyes.

“I bet Undyne would wanna dance with you if you ask her.”

“u-undyne?” the lizard squeaked, “n-no… undyne wouldn’t… not with…” she looked down. “n-not with someone like me…”

“…You mean a human-killer like you?” Frisk asked, an eyebrow raised. “Don’t worry about that, I’m sure the two of you are equally sinful.”

“i-i-i… s-sorry i… i have to go…”

The scientist skittered off into the crowd. Frisk found out she was feeling no guilt at her surprise verbal attack on the scientist. She had no idea she could become so mean-spirited before all this.

…Then again, if all she could do against the murderer of her parents was being mean to her, then it was a meager revenge…Still… it was no habit she should cultivate; neither of her parents would have wanted that.

When she looked back at where Asriel had been standing, she saw him speak with Doggo and remembered he was supposed to deliver a speech of some sort. Indeed, a few minutes later, the song had stopped and the prince was talking at the podium about how great the human-killer Royal Guards were. How loyal they had been and how loving and blah, blah…

She was so tired of this day.

Everyone was happy, everyone was dancing.

Everything was so fake.

She left the main place. She walked slowly, showing she had no intention of running away to Sans, who was still pressuring her soul, wherever he was.

If he was so busy with guarding her, then at least, he was suffering this day alongside her and it was a nice thought.

She went to the border separating the place from the lake. She knew it was still a safe distance, because quite a few other monsters were sitting and chatting there. She carefully sat on the stone border, looking behind at the blue water and the rocky cliff under her. Even in the event that she could survive a fall like that, there would be no way for her to flee without being caught, since the town surrounded the lake.

Of course, Sans would probably throw her to safety with his magic if she ever attempted something so stupid, so this was a moot point.

Still, the air here was good; and she almost had the illusion of being finally alone and free, with everyone busy watching the prince speaking. It felt… nice.

She looked into the sky. It was still so blue, in spite of the few clouds here and there. She was reminded of the drone from last night and frowned. Just thinking of it was making her heartbeats go faster. Up until now, she had never heard of human aviation being able to penetrate the monsters’ magic barrier, but that drone did it. There was probably more than one that did, too… Humans… the Union had recently upped the monsters in technology.

… She hoped her seeing it and making Asriel and the others notice last night had not set back whatever human forces had planned on doing…

…But whatever would go down soon would be her window of escape if she was careful.

…And she had to seize the chance, because if she had deduced right, she may only have ‘a few months’ before her. She clenched a hand on her chest.

She looked at the assembly of monsters before the prince; she looked at Asriel and shivered. Almost everyone in town was there, according to Papyrus. If the drone had been armed… if the drone had come up during the day when everyone was busy dancing and singing…

Flashes of bombings and screams came to her mind and she rubbed her eyes tiredly.

They were monsters; they were the enemies. Many were military; many were human killer.

But… there were a few Papyruses in there as well. There were children here. She did not want to think of killing their kids, no matter their species, no matter what their parents had done. This would not be right.

Up until now, humans were the ones who lost towns, never monsters. What if Greenlake was the first of many?

She shivered and looked at the sky again, dreading to see another triangle. She almost had a heart-attack when she saw something yellow stream past and she froze.

Upon closer inspection, it did not look like a human craft; it did not look like a bird either… in fact… it almost looked like a… dragon?

…No, it was some kind of lizard.

…It was a yellow lizard flapping some sort of weird orange colored energy wings to stay airborne.

…What the…

As if reacting to Frisk’s confusion, the ‘wings’ flickered on and off and the lizard started to come down in circle toward the funeral feast. Frisk stood up from the border and watched the monster lizard flapping frantically and falling. She watched them heading straight toward her at a great speed, their round eyes full of fear. They saw her and screamed. The wings disappeared completely and their legs carried them, running straight toward Frisk; straight toward the border and the cliff.

Frisk’s reaction was instinctive.

She side-stepped the threat. Right when the yellow lizard hit the border and toppled over, she caught them by the tail and yanked hard. The lizard’s scream was cut short and they landed on Frisk. Given they were merely a little more than half her size, she caught them easily, careful not to scratch them with her claws. She kneeled, bringing their fumbling body down to the ground to calm them.

The monster was wheezing and coughing as she was shushing them, trying to control her own heartbeat.

“Shhh; it’s okay, it’s okay… you’re safe now, it’s okay!”

Unsure of how firmly she should hold them, she caressed their scales in reassurance as they started to gain their breathing back, finally stilling their trembling body. Their eyes met hers and they waited a moment, probably still processing the whole incident.

“Wh-whoa… dude… you… you just saved my hide there…”

Their voice gave Frisk no clue as to what their preferred gender was. From the language they used, they must have been fairly young. She supposed they could actually be genderless, as was about one-third of the monster population, if the statistic she read had been correct.

“Feeling better now?” She asked them quietly, still feeling what must have been adrenaline pumping in her veins.

“Y-yeah… thank you so much, dude! I thought… I thought I was a goner there!”

They made a move to sit up and Frisk released them. It was only then she noticed they were armless. From what she had seen, however, their magic must have allowed them to create limbs somehow. They gave her a timid smile, still covered in sweats from their very close encounter with death.

“OH MY GOD! YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE, PUNK!”

They both startled at the sound and turned to see a very furious Undyne run straight to them, followed from afar by some old tortoise monster. Seeing the fish lady so furious against her, Frisk felt a surge of outrage at the injustice and was about to call her out on it, but the fish warrior completely ignored her and grabbed the armless lizard by one of their four head spikes instead.

“YOU MORON! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT FLYING, HUH? WHO TOLD YOU YOU WERE ALLOWED TO DO THAT OUTSIDE OF TRAINING HOURS, HUH?”

“I-I’m so sorry, Undyne!” the lizard wailed as the armored knight was raising them up at eye level. “I just… I was late to the funeral and I thought… I thought…”

“YOU THOUGHT NOTHING, YOU IDIOT! THAT’S HOW STUPID KIDS LIKE YOU GET KILLED BEFORE THEY CAN EVER ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING! WERE YOU REALLY GONNA WASTE ALL YOUR WORK FOR ONE STUPID TEST FLIGHT?”

“I’M SORRY!” they bawled.

“OH YEAH? WELL I’M-“

“Now now kiddo; I don’t reckon there’s any need to get so worked up over it when everyone’s fine. Bwahaha!”

It was the old tortoise that had spoken, stopping on his cane to look at the scene with a smile. He was wearing clothes that were reminiscent of an archeologist from old times, down to his beige hat, and his right eye looked like the lids would never lift up again.

Undyne looked at the tortoise with a frown.

“WELL THAT’S… Yeah, okay, fine,” she grumbled, putting the lizard back on their feet. She threw them a glare. “You’re still the biggest of idiot!” She threw her arm at the ex-human, still kneeling on the ground. “If Frisk hadn’t been there, you’d be dust on the cliff’s side! NEVER do that again!”

“I-I won’t,” they promised with a small voice but with assurance still.

Undyne nodded firmly.

“Good. Now, go to the funeral and enjoy yourself until I decide what kind of punishment you’re getting for doing a stunt like that!”

“Y-yes, Undyne!” They straightened up, started running before stopping to look at the human-monster again. “And, uh… thank you, uh, Frisk; that was cool of you to catch me like that… l-later!”

They ran again and Undyne turned to Frisk with a weird expression. She was frowning, but it was not with anger or anything harsh. From her aura, Frisk caught on feelings of relief and tiredness.

“As they said, punk; thank you for what you just did… you didn’t have to… yet… but seriously, thanks.”

Frisk could feel her whole sincerity and had neither the heart, nor the motivation to shot her down, so she just gave her a curt nod in return. Some kind of understanding passed in between them for a short moment, before the fish lady turned and walked away. Frisk watched her go; wondering if that was a good thing, until an amused chuckle brought her attention back to the tortoise.

“Wow, it looks like ya got her respect, kiddo, not sure what else you did to make Undyne treat you like that, but now, you've got my attention, bwahahah.”

Frisk looked at the old tortoise laughing, getting a good view of his missing teeth, before shrugging and standing to sit back on the border again, losing her gaze into the reflecting sky on the lake. It was such a long day. She was still feeling the pressure on her soul, after all this time; she wondered if Sans was getting tired of using his magic constantly like that.

“…So you’re the quiet type, huh? Hum, I don’t really mind that, to be honest. It’s nice to teach youngsters how to live, but taking time for yourself occasionally is a good thing.”

Frisk silently agreed. If only she could truly be alone once in a while. She could not do anything anymore without thinking about how all her observers would react to her actions. The constant need to check her attitude was tiring. They sat in silence for a moment, before the tortoise spoke again.

“You know, it’s been a while since I visited the capital, and my memory ain’t what it used to be, but… I don’t recall ever seeing ya there, kiddo… even though you Boss Monsters aren’t that numerous anymore. I don’t think I’ve seen that many of you since before the first war, honestly.”

She was not going to answer, until something in what he said clicked and she looked at him in surprise.

“You… you lived through the first war?”

The tortoise laughed.

“That I did, kiddo! And I’m quite famous for that, too! Never heard of Gerson, the Hammer of justice?”

The name did ring a bell, actually. She switched position to face him fully.

“Gerson… ‘the Hammer of justice; one of the few monsters who fought against the humans and lived to tell the tale’,” she recited out loud, still a bit baffled. “I didn’t know you were still alive!”

“Bwahahah! That I am, kiddo!” the tortoise affirmed, hitting the ground with his cane. “I know most monsters that aren’t your type fall from lack of hope often before reaching their thousand or something.” He pointed to his chest with a mirthful smile. “But me? I’m over four thousand years old and still alive and kicking! I don’t intend to die before the end, either!” His expression darkened. “Of course, with what’s going on, the ‘end’ could be for very soon.”

His foreboding words reminded Frisk of the drone and she gripped her arms, looking up.

“…You… you really think…”

“Hum… hard to say, honestly,” the tortoise admitted, stroking his small white beard. “To tell you the truth, I don’t think I could ever have predicted how those thirty years on the surface went down. I mean, I feel like it was yesterday when king Fluffybuns and I we agreed that waging war on humans again was a bad idea.” He snorted humorlessly. “Clearly, the deaths of his wife and adopted child have been enough to change his mind… but look what it brought to us all?”

Frisk cocked her head.

“Fluffybuns?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, king Fluffybuns!” the tortoise reiterated with a laugh. “That’s the nickname I gave to the king; we both go way back, after all!”

She frowned.

“…Why ‘Fluffybuns’?” Try as she might, she could not see how a term like ‘Fluffybuns’ could apply to the terrifying goat-headed six-winged monstrosity she had seen on TV since she was little.

“Why? Well, that’s a funny story, actually! It’s…uh…” The tortoise frowned and blinked. “…I forgot. Oh well, I guess you’ll have to ask me again later.”

Frisk shrugged, because it was not that much important to her, anyway. Asgore would still be the enemy of her people, no matter what tragic past had pushed him to do all the horror he did. She started to massage her arm, looking down.

“… How… how was it? The war against humans, I mean…”

“Hum, well…” The tortoise looked away, still stroking his beard. “I don’t think I’d have called that a ‘war’… It was… it was more of a massacre.” His expression grew sour. “Even today, the monsters are not even the tenth as numerous as they once were.”

The tenth… It sent a shiver down her spine.

“…So… It’s true then… that no souls were taken before… not even a single one?”

Gerson shook his head.

“As far as I've gathered, yep; no soul was ever claimed before the king and his wife did, in this war." He looked to the side, squinting. "Now, there were tales of legendary beings who were the combined souls of a monster and a human... of a sort, but in my time, there were no recorded traces of them.”

Frisk looked at the horizon with a frown.

“So… there were no recorded traces of them… but the legends talk about them, so it must have happened before, right?”

“Mwahahah! Probably.” His lips twitched and he massaged his cane. "...Otherwise, I don't really see how the old timers at the times would have known it was possible."

An uneasy feeling tinted Frisk's soul and she frowned.

“…But if no souls were taken before the war… how did they find out the legend was true? … why did the humans of this time even attack you?” She put a hand on her chin. She had wanted clarification about this for a while, now, because she was sure the monster side of thing was missing pieces. “Monsters… were monsters even a real threat to a human society with magic?"

Gerson raised a brow at her quiery and shrugged. She looked down her laps and continued.

"… Even with whatever fear they could have for the monsters to take their souls… realistically, if a monster at this time wanted to take a soul, they could easily find a deceased human to get one, like… like Asriel’s mom started to do when she went and freed the monsters from the underground… the humans from that times would have no way of controlling that…”

“Heh…” Gerson nodded with a smile. “That’s right, they couldn’t.”

“So… so the humans at that time wanted to prevent that? But… no… that… there's still something I don't understand.” She scratched behind her horn. “How could something like soul fusion only happen in old legends if it was so readily accessible? It should have happened more often! …but no souls were taken before the war, and… and you only learned about the shared control of humans and monsters in soul fusion when Asgore did it… Why did the legend omit that in the first place?”

The tortoise's lips twitched like she had said something funny.

“Why, indeed?” Gerson agreed with a short laugh, "That legend wasn't even well known on my time, actually. It was nearly forgotten for eons. Only got an inklin' of it it as a pretext to the war myself. My guess is that that's why no monster tried to get human souls the way you mentioned."

Her eyes snapped on his face. He had a strange expression of expectation, similar to the one Papyrus sometime gave her when he was watching her do a puzzle.

“So, wait… By, uh, by the time the war happened, soul-fusion was only a legend… but humans wanted to destroy monsters over something that has no recorded traces in history? Just like that, after thousands of years of cohabitation?”

“Pretty much.”

“…That… that makes no sense when I say it like that.”

The tortoise burst into another laugh.

“Bwahahahahah! Tell me about it, Kiddo!”

Frisk looked at the old monster intently.

“…So then… why?”

The tortoise stopped his laugh to give her a sad smile.

“…You’re not the only one who wishes to know the real answer to that, kiddo.” He looked to the side. “Unfortunately, I was but a youngster caught in a conflict I couldn’t understand at the time. Even Fluffybuns and his future wife were fairly young monsters. The older generation died off quickly, both during and after the war, so whatever real cause for what happened was lost with it.”

Frisk looked at her laps and started to fiddle with her claws.

“…The thing is... it's possible that a monster absorbing a soul happened, and confirmed the legend... but would it not have been announced by the humans to motivate them further against the monsters? And wouldn't the whole 'sharing control of the body' be known, then? ...Unless..." She caressed one of her smooth claws softly. "If… if we suppose that the legend of the soul fusion was the real cause for the war… and that it had not caused any until then… then, it should mean that the legend was lost for at least a long time like you said; to both humans and monsters, otherwise, there would have been more cases of monsters absorbing a human soul…”

The tortoise scratched his head and replaced his hat.

“…Possibly.”

Frisk squinted.

“But if the legend resurfaced again, it means that at least someone had to know about the soul fusion even at the time it was forgotten… Then… then that someone had to tell the humans and monsters about it to start the war…”

This time, the tortoise's lips stretched into a mirthful smile.

“You caught on quick.”

She straightened up, searching for the old monster's gaze.

“So, you think it could have… you think it could have been foul play? Someone, or a lot of people, wishing to motivate humans to kill off monsters?” 

He snorted.

“Foul play? Well, what war doesn’t begin with a foul play, kiddo?”

Frisk blinked and looked thoughtfully at where Asriel was still speaking. The tortoise frowned after following her gaze at the podium and nodded.

"Hum... Well, anyway, yes, you've reached my conclusion on this. You’re pretty smart for your age.”

Frisk frowned and shrugged.

“No, not really… mom is… mom used to be a historian before becoming a teacher. She used to say war often had two different reasons: one for the public at large, and one for the ruling elites.”

“Bwahahah, yeah, I suspect that a human would have a better knowledge about this than us.”

Frisk had started to nod before his words fully reached her. She tensed and made a conscious effort to mask her aura.

“…I… don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Hah, really kiddo? You’re closing off now?” He looked at her humorously. “You pretty much revealed yourself from the way you talked about us, saying things like ‘you’ instead of ‘we’. Also, the way you keep calling Asgore and Asriel by their name instead of their title. I know they both refuse to be titled by their close friends, but even if you’re close to the prince, I’m certain you’re not close to the king, given he’s too busy warring on the humans to befriend youngsters.”

He gave her a smile.

“Besides, even if I couldn’t catch on your human mannerism, as far as circumstances go, the arrival of a new Boss Monster at a border town apart for the prince is always strange, given how precious your kind is. That the 'human turned monster' rumor started not too far before your appearance in town, or that you’re always seen either with the prince, the Royal Scientist or the captain caught my attention as well.”

Seeing the old monster had found out, Frisk had no good reason to lie and just shrugged helplessly. She had to admit that it was not like they even were that discreet; most of their deceit seemed to rest upon monsters’ tendency to just accept everything at face-value.

He made a nod to her clothing.

“Here’s the thing that pretty much convinced me: I remember queen Toriel wearing this, meaning the prince must‘ve handed it to you. No Boss Monsters from the Capital as young as you are would have worn a hand-over dress this old, even gifted by the prince. If you wanted a dress with the Royal crest emblem and if you were the prince’s sweetheart or something, he would have bought you a new one.”

Frisk snorted at this and played with the dress’s sleeves.

“The liar… he said it wasn’t dated on a Boss Monster…”

“It wouldn’t be on someone’s the prince’s age, but you barely look over forty. You’re way too young, that, I can tell.” The monster paused. “Well, he barely looks over forty himself, due to not being able to properly grow up when the queen died.” Gerson’s gaze softened. “If he gave you his mother’s dress, then he must care a lot about you.”

Disgust filled her soul. Her tail twitched inside her dress.

“I don’t reciprocate.”

He chuckled sadly at her quick and blunt answer.

“That’s fair, kiddo; no one’s forcing you to like anyone.”

She frowned, feeling the pressure on her soul once again. She clenched a hand on her chest.

“… Maybe not, but I’m being forced to do most of everything in my life now.” She looked at her clawed hands in disgust. “I’m forced to live in a cage, I’m forced to live with all of you, I’m forced to be one of you…” She thought of all that she had lost again and the weight in her heart grew heavier. “…I’m forced to live among those who murdered my whole family and weren’t even kind enough to give me the same treatment…I…” He voice strangled a bit. “…I’m forced to be all alone without them and it hurts.”

She tried unsuccessfully to contain her tears before giving up. She was tired of her fountain work, but somehow, restraining it was worse. The old tortoise watched her silent crying for a bit before speaking up.

“…Yeah… I can tell you’re not in a good spot, kiddo. I can get why you would hate us for the war and everything else… It personally took me a good thousand years before I could look past and forgive what the humans did to us.”

Frisk showed her fangs with a growl.

“I don’t want to live a thousand years! Not like this!”

The tortoise gazed at her with compassion, then, after a moment, nodded shortly toward the lake.

“…What’s stopping you from jumping, then?”

Frisk took a ragged breath and looked at the cliff-side and the lake. For a moment, she was about to mention the obvious magic hold on her soul, but her most important reason came to mind.

“I made a promise.”

“…It was to someone precious to you?”

She nodded in silence.

When you love someone, you don’t let go of something like that.

Courage… be courageous and never lose hope.

Frisk sniffled and wiped her tears off.

“You’re…” She looked at the tortoise warily. “Are you gonna tell about me?”

Gerson hummed and looked at the festivities, where an angry Papyrus was chasing the little white dog from yesterday, dragging a bone in its mouth.

“S’not really my secret to spill, really.”

She mumbled a ‘thank you’ and looked up to the blue sky again.

She could not give up yet.

Chapter Text

When he finished his speech, Asriel was exhausted. Those had been two long days.

…And there was still the human plane contraption, this ‘drone’, to worry about.

He had taken the time he had seen the active Royal Guards to hear their full report on the situation before filling it to his father and the rest of the chain of command. Undyne had been on edge for quite a while, even when she tried to enjoy herself. The incident with the monster teen almost falling off the cliff had soured her mood greatly.

And he had Frisk to thank for preventing another funeral happening in town. Asriel had been both worried and relieved to hear that. Worried, because he had known very well most of the group would be too distracted to watch her, even if he had personally required for Sans to do so, since he was the one with the least duty that day. She could have died in this incident when she was almost completely alone.

However, the thought that Frisk did not think twice about saving one of their own had been both a relief and a joy to hear about. The prince had known before that Frisk was a good person, but this was an undeniable proof of that; maybe even Sans would see her differently now. Undyne certainly seemed less angry with her.

Asriel was walking through the crowd in search of Sans to relieve him of his duty and join Frisk when a set of claws tugged on his sleeves. He turned to see Alphys sweating nervously.

“A-Asriel, y-you need to get Frisk away from here!”

The prince frowned in incomprehension until the scientist pointed to a spot in the crowd where Doggo was interviewed by a suit-wearing robot in front of a camera. He felt his heart drop.

Oh no…

“I thought you said he didn’t know she was here!” Asriel hissed at the scientist, who blushed and shook her head.

“i-i said i didn’t tell him; not that he didn’t know! h-honestly, this would have been easy to find out: y-you’re here, after all, and the rumor says you’re the one that… you know…”

Asriel massaged his temple, looking at Mettaton talking to Doggo about the funeral. Of course, the funeral of three well-known Royal Guards was the perfect opportunity for Mettaton to travel here. He could not have arrived for long, though, since travelling here from the Capital took a while and he could only have departed somewhere around yesterday. With any luck, he had not captured Frisk on screen yet.

In Greenlake, he could pass off Frisk as a Capital Boss Monster, but any Boss Monster from the Capital would know this was a lie; they all knew each others, after all.

Decisions should be taken quickly.

“Warn Undyne,” he told Alphys. “I’ll warn Sans. I’ll get out with Frisk once you guys distract him.”

“Y-you’re not staying?”

He shook his head.

“The town monsters saw me coming with Frisk, if Mettaton hear them say so, he’ll ask me about her; you know I won’t be able to trick him on the spot.”

“y-yeah…”

“I’m counting on you,” Asriel finished, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly before heading out to Frisk, thanking heaven she decided to get away from people.

As he was moving away, Asriel could hear Mettaton’s boasting voice.

“And so, my dear skeleton friend, Doggo mentioned how you lent your bone collection for this great occasion. How thoughtful of you to think of this!”

“NYEHEHEH! THAT’S CORRECT, MY DEAR ROBOT INTERVIEWER! MY FRIENDS OFTEN MENTION MY THOUGHTFULLNESS; IT IS ONE OF MY GREATEST QUALITIES! NOW, IF THAT ANNOYING LITTLE WHITE DOG WOULD STOP STEALING MY BONES…”

Asriel winced when hearing Papyrus’s voice. Hopefully, the skeleton would not condemn Frisk with an innocent comment. From the way to the lake border, the prince finally noticed Sans eating from a bag of chips.

“Sans, Mettaton’s here,” Asriel warned.

“yeah, i saw that, your majesty,” The skeleton answered with a shrug. “that’s quality journalism right there.”

“Sans, I need you to distract him away from me and Frisk until we’re away from there.”

“so i’m helping you two elope? that’s bone-afide marrow-mantic, az.”

The prince did not bother answering and headed straight to where the human monster was. He found her talking to the old Gerson. The two looked at him in surprise.

“Frisk, we have to go; now,” he told her point-blank, making sure his tone was conveying his urgency. Thankfully, Frisk had caught on the fact that he was in no mood to argue and walked to him. Asriel took the time to nod respectfully at the tortoise.

“Gerson, I wish I could stay and talk, but…”

The old monster laughed.

“That’s alright my prince! You youngsters gotta do what youngsters gotta do!” He nodded at Frisk. “It was nice chatting with ya, kiddo; be careful out there! Bwahahahah!”

Frisk made a short nod back and turned to Asriel. He grasped her hand and started to walk fast through the trees.

She was luckily too surprised by his attitude to struggle away. When they neared the group of monsters and the camera crew, Asriel shoved Frisk beside him behind a large tree. Asriel peeked at the scene; Frisk did the same and muttered one of her typical ‘oh, god’ when she saw what was happening.

“And so, my beautiful wyvern youth, I’ve been told you had a close call earlier which could have turned this day of celebration into a tragedy. Will you tell our wonderful audience about this thrilling adventure you just had?”

The robot monster brought his mike to the muzzle of a yellow reptilian monster sporting a poncho-like brown and gold vest.

“Uh… well… it was pretty scary, yo! I-I really thought I was a goner for a moment… but then, there was this nice monster who-“

“HEY! WHO TOLD YOU YOU COULD GO AND BE NICE AND PRETTY IN FRONT OF THE TV, PUNK!”

Asriel’s Royal Guard captain sprung out of the crowd to grab on the monster teen, glaring furiously.

“U-Undyne! I-I’m sorry-“

“And if my eyes do not deceive me, dear viewers, the captain of the Royal Guard herself, Undyne ‘the Spear of Justice’ is here to answer our queries about this moving day!” Mettaton kept his character without a beat and put the mike near the fish warrior’s mouth. “Undyne, won’t you tell us your role this day, and perhaps even the prince of monsters’ participation in it?”

“OH MY GOD METTATON, CAN’T YOU SEE I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF GROUNDING HERE? GO FIND SOME OTHER SAP TO ANNOY!”

The robot kept his smile and coughed.

“Please, my captain,” He muttered in between his teeth. “This is a live broadcast.”

Before this could escalate further, a young one-eyed monster screamed through the crowd.

“Oh gosh, Mettaton, you have to go film this! There’s a skeleton stacking hotdogs on Lesser Dog’s head and it keeps going up! Both the hotdogs and the dog’s head!”

It seemed the stunt was news-worthy enough. Soon, the entire crowd was following the young monster to one of the buffet’s tables, freeing the way. Wasting no time, Asriel grasped Frisk’s hands again and dragged her out of the place. Although most monsters had followed Mettaton, a few of them caught their prince and Frisk run out together and exchanged complicit smiles and knowing looks. Asriel hoped Frisk did not notice.

They ran for more than two blocks in the deserted street. When they reached an isolated green patch in between two houses, Asriel stopped to let them catch their breath.

After a few seconds, Frisk spoke.

“…You’re hurting my hand.”

“Ah!” The Boss Monster released her with a flustered blush. “Sorry!”

Frisk massaged her fingers in annoyance and looked behind her with a growl.

“Didn’t expect him so soon…”

“…Yes, he surprised us as well.”

She shook her head.

“That’s the last time I’m saving someone around here.”

“I heard about it," he told her with a nod, a soft smile on his lips, "you did good, Frisk.”

She answered him with a dismissive shrug and looked around.

“So… now, what? We go back to the lab?”

Asriel leant on a wall and sighed.

“Bad idea… Mettaton is a friend of Alphys, even if she didn’t tell him about you, he knows how she operates. He’s probably going to see her later.”

He heard Frisk’s tail whip the grass under her dress.

“So… then… what?”

The Boss Monster closed his eyes to think for a moment, before the answer jumped in his mind.

“Let’s go to my castle. Like the lab, no one’s supposed to go there without authorization and your presence there won’t look suspicious if Mettaton pay us a visit.”

Frisk blinked and crossed her arms.

“Right… forgot you lived in the castle for a moment…” She leant against the same wall as Asriel and sighed.

“…Are you okay?” he finally asked.

Her answer was punctuated with a shrug.

“S’just been a long day…”

“…yes…it has…” He looked at her hopefully. “But… did you enjoy it?”

She did not say anything for a moment, then shrugged once again.

“Honestly, I’m just very tired.”

He decided to stop pestering her. He rose up and waved for her to follow.

“Come on, Frisk; we should go before everyone leaves the festivities.”

With that, they went on without another stop.

--

They crossed the castle's gate without issue. Frisk observed the new environment curiously. Asriel led her inside to a set of round stairs to his main tower. As they climbed, Frisk stopped to look through a small window.

“So, I know you’re royalty and all, but I’ve been wondering for a while…” She put a hand on the glass and softly traced her fingers on it. “What’s up with the human medieval look you’re pulling there? Is monsters’ old architecture just this close to ours, or…”

“Oh, no, not really,” he answered, head shaking. “Honestly, our oldest style of buildings underground has always been more… cozy looking… And our royal homes were built much smaller because everyone was so cramped down there.” He shrugged. “But, you know, since going to the surface, we leave most of those buildings’ construction to the Decorator Guild, and they tend to draw a lot of inspiration from human movies and such.” He glanced down the stairs in annoyance. “They do a good job on the decoration, but I really wish they would have built an elevator here.”

Frisk snorted and shook her head derisively before starting her ascension again. Soon, they arrived up the stairs and near his quarter. Asriel suddenly felt a little self-conscious, because he still had not invested the place all that much. He wondered what Frisk would think of the way he kept his furniture down to the bare minimum. They walked on the castle’s walkway and caught the fading light of the setting sun. This would be the longest time Frisk had been out of her cell yet. They both walked slowly and quietly, mostly due to how exhausted they were.

He opened his door and let her into his main room. The prince winced when he saw his desk and the disparate piles of paper on it. It would be work he would have to catch up tomorrow. Frisk glanced at the walls with interest. The tapestries on it were yet another job of the Decorator Guild, but one that Asriel personally liked. Whichever monsters illustrated those scenes of monsters playing in the snow of the underground, and of the field of echo flowers from Waterfall had great talent.

The prince walked to a few lamps and lit the place with the amber light of the fire magic reservoirs, then he went on to fetch a chair against the wall and put it near the other one at his desk. He and the human monster sat and he started to fiddle with his claws.

“So… yeah… welcome to my castle and all.” He glanced to the side in embarrass. “It’s not much to see, but… yeah…”

Frisk looked around once again and a small smile spread on her lips.

“I think it’s missing one potted plant or two.”

Relieved at her attempt at humor, he chuckled.

“Hah, yeah… I’m not father, though, so I’m not very good at taking care of those, uh…” He winced when he realized he probably should not have mentioned his father and finished quickly. “My father really likes gardening; he used to do it all the time before… before.”

“Hum.” It was all Frisk answered as she looked away. Asriel was glad she was as tired as he was, because he was in no condition to take on her anger spikes.

“Anyway, I’ve got to text Alphys to see how the situation is outside. We don’t know how long Mettaton and his crew are going to stay here.”

Frisk made a short nod and crossed her arms, slouching on her chair a little as the prince started to text the scientist. After a few back and forth replies, he licked his lips nervously and frowned.

“No good; it looks like they caught with her and are going to pay her a visit tonight.” He massaged his eyes. “They may not be allowed in the lab, but Alphys lives too close by; we won’t be able to sneak you in.”

Frisk shrugged.

“Then, what; you make me stay here?” She snorted and threw him an unimpressed glance. “Is this your way of making me do an intimate sleepover with you?”

He shook his head, a bit hurt by her tone, but trying not to show it.

“You can have my bed for yourself; I’ll even give you the key to my room so that you can have your privacy.”

She blinked and straightened up in surprise.

“…You’re letting me have a room of my own without surveillance? Really?”

He nodded, suddenly caught on to the fact that this was truly a first for her and made a face.

“Honestly, I think you’re long due for having a bit more privacy in your cell anyway. I’ll talk to Alphys about it.”

She did a short giggle like he had just told her a tasteless joke and shook her head.

“You really have to listen to what you’re saying sometime, little prince.”

He stood up.

“Up until now, you gave us no reason not to trust you.”

She looked at him, baffled.

“I straight up told you I would kill you if I have the chance and you’re giving me the key to your freaking bedroom.” She stood up in turn. “How do you know I won’t walk on you in the middle of the night and do it?”

He cocked his head.

“…Will you, though?”

She rolled her eyes and grunted.

“How do you know I won’t wait until you’re asleep and escape?”

He shrugged and started to walk to his bedroom.

“I’ll just lock the castle for the night and lock my own sleeping quarter. I think we both know you’re not the type to act on some rash plan like that.”

He heard her whip the floor with her tail while following him.

“You don’t know me at all, moron…”

He opened the door and walked toward the main lamp, lightening the bedroom. It was a spacious place, once again furnished to the bare minimum with a small table near a large bed surrounded with a curtain. The window was big, but Asriel was not worried she would escape through it; the tower was very high and every windows had safety runes preventing anyone from falling through them.

He walked to his closet and opened it.

“Alright, I know I have some of my nightgowns you can change to-“

Feeling a burst of hate from her, he turned sharply. He saw her staring at her reflection through his large mirror with golden decoration against the wall. The hate was quickly covered again, but she kept her expression neutral as she stood there, in her beautiful dress. Asriel’s expression softened and he walked back to her.

“There’re… there’re also a few books you can read if you want,” he suggested, raising a hand to direct her to the bedside table. She followed without a complaint. He opened one drawer and started to search through it. “Now, let’s see…”

He rummaged through the content for the few library books he had brought. Before he could find what he was looking for, he heard Frisk’s claws scrap on the wood of the table and looked up. He saw she was holding something in her hands and when he realized what this was, his throat constricted. Slowly, he straightened up until he saw the two heart-shaped lockets she was examining with a closed expression.

Silently, he stretched his open hands to her until she noticed them. When she did, she glanced at him in surprise and slowly deposed the two objects on his palms. His fingers clenched on the familiar metal and he brought them close to his chest.

After a short silence, seeing her puzzled expression, he spoke.

“It… those dates back to when I was little… underground… they…” He gulped. “One of them was Chara’s.”

It was literally the first time he ever mentioned that name to Frisk. Asriel almost never mentioned them to anyone, but he was especially frightened of talking about them to Frisk, for reasons that were hard to convey into spoken words.

…He felt like there was a strange kind of betrayal to mention them to his new crush.

Frisk cocked her head slightly, but kept a respectful air in spite of her clear curiosity.

“Chara… the human who fell into your kingdom… the one your family adopted?”

He nodded sadly.

“They were… we used to do everything together… It was like… it was like having a new sibling… and yet it often felt like I knew them for longer than that…”

That feeling had always been hard to convey into words. He did not think he ever mentioned this to anyone but his father, who also said he felt the same. Frisk stayed silent a moment before looking away with a pensive look.

“It’s strange… thinking that there was once a time you treated a human as a friend instead of slaughtering them like you do now.”

It was said honestly and probably without malice, yet it hurt him all the same. Asriel clenched his teeth and kept the two lockets close to his chest as he went to the closet. He pulled a nightgown for Frisk.

“Here, you can us this for the night.”

He put it on the bed and looked through the closet again until he pulled one gown for himself and clothes for tomorrow. He then headed to the door and made a small head nod to the left of it.

“The key’s hanging there, if you want. I’m going to lock the castle and prepare another bedroom for myself. Have a good night, Frisk.”

He did not even look behind when he shut the door.

Chapter Text

The dog’s howl turns into a gargling noise and his mass crumbles to dust, leaving her to fall through it on the soiled ground. She breathes the grey particles and tries to cough it out.

“H-hubby?”

She stands and looks at where the voice is coming from. The other caped dog is here; the female, with the red stained axe. She has a horrified look that turns into a maddening snarl. Frisk looks back at her, leans and pick the axe of the fallen monster on the ground. It’s heavy.

With effort, she brings it up and grips it tightly with both hands. It’s still dripping with blood.

For a moment, they stand facing each others, weapon in hands. There is an understanding. No more words are needed.

They are the same.

(Doggo and the Amalgamate are here, they scoop up the dust into silver cups. Doggo raises his cup like he is about to drink it.)

They lunge.

The axes clash. Frisk recoils and aims. She strikes and avoid. Hack and slash. Hack and slash. There are fallen human limbs on the ground.

(Those are her limbs. It’s for every times Dogaressa strikes her down, cuts her legs, slices her throat…)

Her soul might burst.

She screams. The axe lands on the dog’s neck. There is a slight resistance as it passes through the middle. The dog’s head flies off. When it falls back on the ground, it is dust.

(The crowd is smiling. The crowd is chanting and dancing and there is dust and a rain of blood is falling. They bask in it. Their fur is wet.)

Her grip on the axe lessens, but then she sees the tall skeleton with the red scarf, watching. Her fingers tighten around the handle once more.

(“CAN YOU IMAGINE IF THE REVERSE IS POSSIBLE? EVER THOUGHT OF HOW YOU WOULD LOOK AS A HUMAN, FRISK?”)

It’s another one. It’s another one of them. She raises her weapon.

Monsters in fights should be dealt with quickly, before they attack with magic. He keeps talking about capturing her, she ignores it. She runs at him.

He raises his hand. The red heart that is hers turns blue and her body feels so heavy. She staggers. She looks up and his eye-sockets are frowning.

(How do skeletons do that?)

The heart is red again and her body is light once more. The monster keeps talking. She lunges, she strikes.

She barely misses. She has scratched his armor.

(His battle body; he made it years ago at a costume party.)

He keeps talking. She doesn’t care. She hits again; another miss, but it leaves a dent.

The axe lands harshly through the ground and she has to use all her strength to pull it out. When she does, she is hit by a wave of calmness and welcome that is not hers. She looks up and the skeleton is spreading his arms to her like he wants to hug her.

(‘The act of ‘Sparing’ is when a monster purposely expands their love in their aura and shares it with their enemies. Any enemies whose resolve to fight is already dwindling will then stop fighting…’)

She does not hesitate. She strikes.

(‘…however, this move will not work on an individual determined to fight.’)

His arm flies off. The axe digs itself in the ground again. She pulls hard and the skeleton keeps talking. She has to finish him off quickly before others arrive. He keeps his arm spread out in Mercy.

“…ANYONE CAN BE A GOOD PERSON IF THEY JUST TRY! WHICH IS WHY I WILL EXTAND MY REACH TO YOU, HUMAN! O-OUR KINDS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO FIGHT! WE SHOULD BE FRIENDS INSTEAD!”

She barks a laughs. With a bigger pull, the axe is out of the ground. She catches herself and faces him.

“Is this what this is about? You… want to be friends?”

…

(… But… she did not say that... )

She blinks.

Something shoots through the night sky. She snaps her attention it. It's a triangular craft. What...

...That's right. The sky. The telescope.... Her fur still stings around her eyes. It was pulled out by the prank.

She blinks and raises a clawed hand at her face. She looks at it.

(Wait… something’s not right.)

“WHAT’S WRONG, FRISK? ARE YOU GONNA CRY AGAIN?” Papyrus asks. His left arm is still chopped off. There is dust coming off. “THERE, THERE! I SHALL OFFER YOU MY SHOULDER AGAIN. IT’S ONLY NATURAL FOR ME TO CONFORT A FELLOW MONSTER IN PAIN! IT MUST HAVE BEEN SO LONELY BEING SURROUNDED BY THESE HUMANS! BUT FEAR NO MORE, FOR YOU SHALL NO LONGER BE ALONE NOW THAT YOU’RE BACK WITH YOUR KIND!”

“He’s right, Frisk!”

She turns. Cam is here, smiling. He stands in a field of golden flowers, with bright green eyes and the axe she used to hold through his skull.

“I kept telling you you were always the best monster, Frisk! Now, we can show everyone we’re the bestest adopted siblings of the town!”

He raises his hands and show two heart lockets.

Blood is slowly dripping down his freckled cheeks. Some of his grey matter splatters on the flowers.

 “AAAAAAH! AAAAAAH! AAAAAAH!”

She trashed through her sheet madly until her voice strangled in her throat. She gripped at the sheets and ripped them apart because she could not breathe! She was trapped! She was trapped!

She was strangled by the tissues. She saw her hands; she saw the claws and screamed. The sheets were not what were trapping her.

She dug through. She dug through the skin of her arms, through the brown fur, until she saw the gleaming red. Then, she stopped. Her heart was still beating in her ears, her breath was still uneven.

But once she saw the blood, she was back.

“Frisk!”

Someone was pounding at the door…

…Asriel.

She did not sleep at the lab.

“Frisk! Are you alright? Frisk, answer me, please!”

The door was locked. She had locked it.

How long had he been standing there, worrying? Frisk did not care. There were tears in her eyes; she finally noticed.

“G-go away!” She rasped. Her throat hurt. “Go the fuck away! Leave me alone!”

She took some longer breaths. She could breathe. She could finally breathe; she was back.

“…Frisk,” Asriel’s voice came up once again. “At least, tell me you’re okay… please…”

His worry was genuine, his worry was sickening.

Cam had an axe through his head!

“…I’m fine,” She finally breathed out. “Now, leave me alone!”

“…Okay. Call me if you need anything.”

She heard his steps go faint; she stopped containing her sobs and let it flow freely. She was not in the lab; she could let go here, there were no cameras recording; there was no skeleton suddenly teleporting inside.

She had worried about Sans, but he did not come. Hopefully, he was still tired from using all his magic on her yesterday, she was sick of him.

She was sick of everything.

The bed sheets were completely torn apart, her arm gash was dripping on the purple sheets. Her white gown was spotted with red.

…Wow, she had not even meant to ruin the prince’s bedroom, but she sure did a fine job of it.

Maybe she could punch the stupid mirror as a bonus, given how well advanced into the project she was.

He probably would not invite her at his home again; Frisk was kind of torn about that. No matter which house, anything was better than at the lab, after all.

She recalled the way he reacted to her handling the lockets and wondered if he had any intention of inviting her again since that incident, actually. It had been the first time she had seen him so upset about something. Usually, he was either mildly annoyed or just full empathic crybaby. This reaction he had with Chara was on another level; much deeper.

Cam had been handling the lockets.

(“... you were always the best monster, Frisk!”)

“He didn’t mean it like that,” she hissed out, massaging her head. Her arm hurt. “It was just a game…it had been just a game…”

Cam had not said that in this context. It was just a dream. It was just a horrible dream. She looked at her wounds once again to prove it to her subconscious. She was human, with human blood, with human parents… four of them, at that.

It was just a bad dream.

“Cam… I’m so sorry,” She whispered, wiping her tears away. “Dad, if you met God… tell him to make sure Cam and everyone are happy… God… please… let everyone be happy…”

She looked at her scratched arm again. Even in the low light, this looked bad. There was worse, but it looked bad. She thought she had managed to contain herself, but the nightmare had bested her for the first time in weeks. It was a good thing this did not happen at the lab.

Asriel could heal that, but she did not like showing him a wound that was not deliberate. If she was not careful, she could end up actually self-harm, like that patient at the clinic did. She could not self-harm; she had too much in her plate as it was.

She could not go crazy, either; she could not allow that.

She finished tearing off a part of the bed sheet and used it to contain the bleeding, at least for a bit, until she went to see Asriel. She did not know what she looked like, but she probably was a treat for the eyes. Sighing, she stood up and walked a few unsteady steps, shaking off the last bit of the dream…

…Because it was just that: a dream.

She took the key and unlocked the room.

--

The castle was quiet and the lights were off. Frisk glanced at a window showing the night sky. Probably as magically escape-proof as the one in the prince's bedroom, if her luck was any indication. She looked around, her low night vision was helping her distinguish blurry shapes in the dark. The fresh air was caressing her fur softly. She was pretty sure she would be a shivering mess as a human; the castle had no warmth at all.

She walked quietly, her paws hitting the stone and a few carpets with a light tap until she found a lamp. Fumbling quietly for a few seconds, she found the button and lit the prince’s main quarter. His workplace was pretty bare-bone, no wonder he always sounded like he hated paperwork.

…’Bare-bone’… Sans would have made that pun.

She shook off the thought, because he was a terrible person to think of, and rushed at Asriel's desk to search through his papers quickly. She wrinkled her muzzle when she recognized the old underground scribbling and silently cursed monsters' bureaucracy for sticking to the old writing instead of the more recent human-based ones her reading collection was made of. She quickly abandonned her search for valuable information when her painful wound made itself remember and went on to look for Asriel’s sleeping quarter. If he heard her scream, he probably was not too far away, the last thing she wanted was being caught looking through papers she would probably not understand anyway. Her arm was stinging a bit; she compressed her improvised bandage and kept looking. She noticed a corridor and went exploring.

The castle's style was pretty nice, Frisk had to admit. She never had been to a castle before, and being able to explore such a wide place on her own had woken up her childish sense of adventure. She wished she had a candle in hand, both for the atmosphere and for not having to fumble in the dark.

She had a flash to when she was very little, at her first home. She had seen this animated movie, Beauty and the Beast. Asriel had a VHS copy in his collection, but she had not watched it. She remembered liking it.

She thought of herself as Belle exploring the dark castle of the beast… Only, Asriel was no cursed prince; if anything, it was she that was cursed as a beast… Or was her cursed form her human one to the monsters? She did not know. The parallel was no good.

…Also, she hated him, this put a stop to the simile quickly.

She finally spotted lights coming from a closed door. Asriel must have been still awake in there. She stopped in front of it for a moment, took a breath, then refrained from calling and opted to knock instead.

The door opened quickly, revealing the prince wearing a white gown similar to hers. He did a double-take and his eyes widened in shock.

“Golly, Frisk! What happened?”

Honesty was more than often the best policy against people able to read your emotions in your aura, therefore, Frisk held her injured arm in front of her.

“Had a nightmare,” she said in a raspy voice. “Cut myself by mistake.”

She felt a wave of sympathy and sadness from him. For once, she was too tired to be angry. He slowly took her hand to examine the wound and she suppressed a wave of disgust from his touch. Once he took off her bandage, even she wrinkled her muzzle at the gape. She never did them so deep. That one was digging right in the middle of the two bones.

The prince licked his lips and put his other hand near the gash. Frisk forced herself to watch and feel the way his magic coursed through his limb and filled her wound. She had started to be able to tell where the starting point of the magic was; right through his chest, where the main point of his soul would be. Contrary to fire magic, healing magic needed monsters to be calm and collected. The focus seemed to reach for a positive emotion you felt for the other. If she had to give his aura a color when he did this, it would be… green. It would be a vibrant and lively green, like fresh grass.

The wound closed and Asriel released her hand, looking bothered by something.

“I… I should show you the bathroom for you to clean a little… Also, I’ll… I’ll go to your room and fetch you something else to wear.”

She nodded, let him out of his room and winced.

“Uh, also, I kinda wrecked your bed… sorry.”

She was expecting him to look a little more bothered than that, but he just shrugged.

“It’s fine. There’s plenty other places to sleep here.”

He led her to another door and lit the new place. The bathroom was spacious and well decorated, of course, but with few personal affairs lying around, once again. Frisk stayed away from the sink and its mirror as Asriel looked inside a drawer near it. Instead she focused her attention on the bath, wherein she could see patches of white fur stuck in the drain. His brush also had white strands. The prince always looked well-groomed, especially compared to her, but to her defence, she was doing the job without a mirror.

“I found some bath supplies if you want,” he told her as he showed them to her. “It’s pretty early for showering, but don’t hesitate.”

She thought about it and shook her head.

“I think I’ll wait.”

“…Okay.”

He nodded and went out to leave.

“I’ll fetch you another gown. You can lock yourself. I’ll knock.”

She took his advice and closed the door behind him with a deep breath. She welcomed the silence once again. She tugged at her bloody cloth and took it out. When she raised her head, her eyes stopped on the mirror of the sink again and she froze. Then, with another deep breath, she slowly walked toward it, looking at herself, bare-chested.

Well, she thought ‘bare-chest’, but it was not like there was anything resembling to a female human chest there. She had always been pretty flat, but she may as well have been a guy now. Of course, she guessed that, in spite of their goat-like appearances, Boss Monsters had no need for mammary glands. Most of her more personal monster anatomy was still a mystery to her, one she did not care about enough to ask Asriel books on the subject. Monsters were made of magic, and seemed to mostly feed of magic. They did not need breasts.

…Yet, Undyne and Alphys both seemed to have things that looked like breasts, and they were not even mammalian-looking.

…Was she abnormal somehow?

She grunted and went on to wash the blood away. Who cared if her monster form was abnormal? She was no monster anyway.

…She was not.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

After drying her arms, she went back at the door and opened it just enough to show him her face.

“Here’re the clothes. Uh…” He looked to the side and scratched his cheek. “If you want, you can take the bed of my other room… I’ll just migrate back to yours.”

She made a small nod in acknowledgment as she took the new gown. She made no habit of thanking him, but even she had to admit his kindness to her could be almost boundless.

…It did not repair what he had done, but it was no negative, at least.

Alone once more, she quickly donned her fresh gown and savored the feeling of being somewhat clean. Hearing his steps no more, she approached the sink, still avoiding looking at her face. Today was a small window of opportunity for this.

She closed her eyes and focused her thoughts and feelings in the center of her chest. She drew the memory of Asriel’s magic earlier and tried to recall the way it felt.

'Draw a blank into your mind. Breath and feel the flow.'

There was a familiar tug inside her. She frowned in concentration and drove all her senses to it. She felt her body go stiff a bit, then, there was a jolt through her whole being and she was projected forward.

…Not herself as her body, but herself as a soul. The view was strange, distorted in a way that felt right. Feeling herself stable, she opened her eyes and focused her vision through them. In the mirror, she saw the little white heart float before her chest, still wrapped in Alphys’s black contraption (she had called it an ‘extractor’) and still attached to her by small strands.

‘Monster souls are extremely hard to pull out when they are alive, contrary to human souls. This is because our soul is in charge of building our body, whereas a human or an animal soul is ‘incarnated’ into a body, and thus is potentially free to wander away, although restrictively most of the time.’

Humans had to work harder to pull out their soul on their own. Human magic was more cerebral, more practiced than natural. Humans could not feel auras like montsers did. She reached a trembling hand to the little white heart. Her fingers caressed through it and she felt a shiver coursing her whole being. She almost let go of her hold of the soul. She put a claw under the bracelet and pulled slightly. There was a small jolt of pain and she gave up with a wince. It never worked.

Once again, she noticed the light emanating from the heart change to a slight pink; once again, she felt the drain and it went back to white.

Her soul was still human; that ‘extractor’ thing was doing something that kept it white, like that of a monster.

She had to get it off; then, she could be free.

The slight beats of the soul lit at that thought. A feeling went on the verge of being born, then died out. She wondered what that was.

Regretfully, she let the hold of her soul go and it went back to her chest, bringing her vision completely back to her eyes. She could not spend too much time on this with Asriel around.

She went out of the bathroom and headed to Asriel’s room. She came in and headed to the bed, noticed the two lockets he had forgotten on his bedside table and stopped. Fragmented images from the dream came back to her mind and she winced. There would be no way for her to sleep tonight.

…In fact…

She paused for a moment, before sighing and taking the lockets, leaving the room.

When she headed back to her previous bedroom, she found the door slightly ajar, and the prince sitting on the destroyed bed sheets, looking like he was in deep thought. When he spotted her, he shot her a curious glance.

“…Frisk?”

She came in and showed him the lockets without a word. His eyes widened in surprise and she put the objects in his palms when he stretched them out. Then, she went on to sit on the bed as well, a little further away. She looked to the side until she felt his gaze leaving her and focusing on the lockets in his hands.

…The lockets had an inscription saying: ‘best friends forever’ each.

It was so simple, so childishly innocent.

…So beautiful.

When she first read the tragic tale of the prince’s family and the human, she had believed it to be an exaggeration of monsters; a sort of propaganda like many other things she read in their history. She had imagined Chara had been more kept as a pet rather than a sibling… That even perhaps, their young death had been caused by their captors growing restless and willing to kill a child for their precious soul, as they had done so many times in the war.

…But she was starting to know Asriel now. Asriel treated her with kindness no other monster, apart from her only friend Papyrus, had ever given her. Asriel looked downright incapable of hurting her now, even when she knew he could fight and hold off against a monster as strong as Undyne.

Asriel loved her, and clearly, he had loved Chara.

…Yet, it had not stopped him from looking at her impassively and coldly, that day; it had not prevented him from looking like that at so many humans before her …

…It had not prevented him from killing.

“How…” She cleared her throat and continued in a soft tone. “How do you do it? …How do kill so many when you’re like that? How can you… How can you even look at them… at us… without thinking of them?”

She received no answer for a while. She looked in his direction and saw his frown and the way his hands were grasping the memento lockets. His face was closed off; his aura was filled with something she would call ‘resignation’.

“The… it was the hardest the first time,” he began, then closed his eyes. “No… no, it was… It was much harder the second time… when I realized I could do it again and… again…”

His lips stretched into something that had nothing of a smile. His purple eyes started to shine.

“…I think… I think the actual hardest time…” He snorted and looked at her with an expression of tired sadness. “…It was when I realized I felt nothing at all anymore.”

She held up his gaze, but it was hard. She had felt the shivers travelling through her back at his answer. Nothing was said and she ended up looking away, through the window, at the sky that had started to take on a bluish tint.

Even the kindest person could learn to kill. Even the kindest person could learn to forget how to care.

…Would she stop caring enough one day, to be ready to throw an axe through a human with Cam’s face?

Would she stop caring enough that the side she was on would not matter anymore? Could she kill people she had started to care about? Could she still kill Pap-

“…It looks like it’s going to be another clear day.”

She sighed in relief when his voice broke her train of thought. She nodded.

“…Yeah… it looks like it will be.”

They kept watching the sunrise in silence.

Chapter Text

Once the sun was up, Frisk left Asriel to shower. The prince took this time to dress up quickly and clean his work desk a bit. The events of the night were still fresh in his mind; he did not feel like tidying up Frisk’s bed right away, he would do so once she was back in her cell. As he was sorting through some important documents, he heard a loud car speeding below and looked through the window. When he saw this was the news crew van finally leaving the lab perimeter, he drew a sigh. It looked like they had succeeded in evading Mettaton this time around.

…Still, Asriel wondered how long it would last; the robot could be very persistent.

Hopefully, they could deal with Frisk’s situation before the rumors escalated too much.

...Her situation...

Asriel swallowed and finished cleaning up the paper pile on his hands. He still was unsure how they would proceed once they were... done with Frisk. Of course, the first goal of an invention able to turn humans into monsters would be to improve his people’s Hope; to allow them to be something other than ruthless killers. The second goal would be to increase the number of monsters. His species may have been able to grow in population over the millennia, but they were still far below humankind in this area. Another point to consider was how it would save the humans they captured from certain death. Asriel may have been able to kill in cold blood, but that did not mean he took any pleasure in killing Chara’s and Frisk’s kind.

…Frisk believed humans incapable of accepting being turned into monsters, and Chara never had any faith in humanity. Yet, both of them had been shown to learn how to love and empathize with monsters.

…At least, he was certain Chara had loved them; Frisk definitely cared about Papyrus enough for Asriel to think this was love.

And she had not hesitated to save one of their own. Maybe this was because she wanted to show monsters a softer side, but Asriel doubted it, given how straightforward she was with her hatred.

Humans could learn how to empathize with monsters; they could probably learn how to be monsters. He would have to see how this went with Frisk, but he did think they had made a lot of progress with her. And when Asriel considered her circumstance of capture, he truly did think this was an impressive step.

All would not be lost, for both his people and the new human-monsters.

…Maybe he should consider how to integrate human monsters on a larger scale, maybe creating a guild for this purpose would help?

...Maybe if Frisk kept on making monster friends, they would not even need for her to be...

A bell on the wall made a tinting noise and Asriel turned to look at it with a frown. Someone was at the castle door. It was not unusual for guilds and some monsters to come and see him directly to ask for some service, but they usually called first and this was really early morning.

His phone buzzed with a text message right at that instant. After reading it, he stood and walked fast, knowing the time it would take him to come down. Once he climbed down all the stairs, he opened the ringing door, revealing Alphys standing there, looking sleepless.

“H-hiya.”

“Alphys...” The prince looked at her in soft concern. “Are you alright?”

She breathed out.

“I thought they would never leave.”

He nodded in understanding and side-stepped to let her in. The small lizard hurried inside, fumbling with her white blouse.

“I-I wanted to check if everything was alright with you. H-how did Frisk, uh…”

Asriel thought back to the human-monster’s nightmare, supressed a shudder at the memory of her open wound before finally deciding he would let her have her privacy on this for now. Frisk would not want it to be known and Alphys looked in no shape to take any more worrisome news.

“...Don’t worry, it went well. She’s showering right now.”

“O-okay… good.”

After a short pause, the lizard gazed into his eyes.

“Y-you know… Mettaton was very… insisting…”

Asriel‘s tention made his short tail twitch.

“...You didn’t tell him anything, did you?”

“O-of course not! B-but… well…” She looked to the side. “It made me think that… m-maybe we should… uh… f-frisk was right… you know? a-about the parade-“

“No,” he cut her out categorically, because that was the last thing he wanted to think about.

“i-i don’t mean it like what she described! B-but… Asriel…” She looked at him again. “We’re monsters; we would never treat her badly because of what she was! I-I think you should trust your people more than that.”

He wrinkled his muzzle and shook his head.

“This is her decision, Alphys; look at what she has to endure already! Do you really want to put even more attention on her when she can barely stand what she has now?”

“B-but it would be good attention, Asriel!” The scientist spread her arms. “J-just think about it: we both know that Frisk is… Frisk is a good person! She’s a good person who already saved a monster’s life and who succeeded in gaining your respect and… and even Undyne’s!” Her tail swung excitedly. “W-when you think about it, sh-she’s an excellent symbol of human integration, and…and maybe it would also help her appreciate us more if she get the support of civilian monsters!”

Something in what the yellow lizard said brought a weight into Asriel’s stomach. The human-hybrid's terrified screams echoed into his mind. He crossed his arms to prevent himself from shuddering and closed his eyes with a headshake.

“Frisk is… you know Frisk isn’t ready for that. She… she still hates monsters… well, maybe not ‘monsters’ in general,” he recanted. “But she still hates most of us, what we’re doing and being a monster herself. She would never support us in using her like that.”

Alphys breathed out.

“…but… asriel… it’s also about us… i-it’s also about monsters.” She looked down. “i-i looked up the rumor, you know? o-on social media… y-you should see the hope in everyone’s comments and theories… w-whatever happened with frisk… i-i don’t know how long it will take me to recreate it in a way that will be viable… it could take months… years…” She clenched her teeth. “but… but i can’t let everybody down on this, asriel… i… i can’t fail our kingdom… i-if i don’t succeed… if frisk’s case was a fluke… then at least… at least if monsters know about frisk… they… they’ll know it’s possible… they’ll know they can hope.”

The Boss Monster threw the scientist a pained look. He crouched and put his hands on her shoulders.

“Alphys, you have nothing to prove anymore, everyone is aware of your brilliance,” he assured her. “Even in the event that Frisk… Even in the event that you cannot recreate what happened, remember that you are one of the strongest contribution to our kingdom’s survival. We are all counting on you because we know how reliable you are, but no one will ever blame you if you fail on this.”

She swallowed nervously and her eyes met his.

“b-but i think i would, asriel… i… i want it to work… i want to finally contribute in creating something that will save lives instead of destroying them. the… i’m sick of this too…” Her eyes started to water. “ i… i’m just sick of the war… of the cannons… the souls… everything…” She coughed a sob. “i’m just sick of being a murderer, asriel, i-i’m sick of the blood and dust and pain and… and…”

He brought his friend in a tight hug. She kept her sobbing low and restrained. Alphys was too introverted to cry much in front of people, even her closest friend.

Asriel massaged her shoulders until she calmed down. He then let her pull out first and looked at her directly in the eyes.

“How about you stop worrying about all this and head to bed for now? It doesn’t look like you slept at all. I’ll just keep Frisk with me for a while.”

She looked like she was about to protest, then she licked her lips and sighed.

“y-yeah…yeah, okay…”

He stood up and led her back to the door. When he opened it, he flinched away in surprise at the sight of a pink and black metallic body.

“Alphys darling! I had forgotten to talk about your involvement with our future project, but you were already gone when I came back! It’s a good thing I thought of checking here! Oh my!” Mettaton turned to look at Asriel and winked. “It has been a while, has it not, my wonderful prince? It’s a shame I missed your appearance at the funeral; I heard your royal discourse was breathtaking!”

Asriel instinctively stepped back.

“M-Mettaton! I… I thought the news coverage for the funeral was gone…”

“Oh, they are, actually. But since I have some good friends here and a few boutiques of mine to check, I personally decided to extend my stay here!” He spread his arms. “And as it is, I haven't been to one of your castles for ages, my wonderful prince! Alphys and I have yet to have any breakfast today; have you?”

“…No-“

“Splendid! What a wonderful opportunity to renew bounds and share some iconic anecdotes with your close friends! Thank you for inviting us, Asriel dear! You’re as adorably kind as always!”

The robot brought himself in with two long leg swings and started to push a fumbling Alphys to the kitchen before Asriel had the time to refuse. Gritting his teeth, he followed the two and hoped he could lessen the damage for when Frisk came down.

Asriel had no real time to spend in cooking, thus most of his dishes were prepared foods and some pastries he stocked from the spiders and bunny industries. Mettaton looked around the room with a frown.

“Oh my, Asriel dear, it appears you lack the most efficient and advanced products of my personal brand in your castle.” He looked at the average stove and shook his head with a ‘tsk’ sound. “To think I contracted the Decorator Guild to make them install my ‘top du top’ utilities and they still put such old junks in your kitchen.”

Asriel merely shrugged, deciding to not mention he had been the one requesting non MTT brand machines furnishing his castles since the last time he had used one of the robot’s ‘burn everything to a crisp’ microwave.

“Ah, well, no matter, my beauties! As the master entertainer of our kingdom, it is a duty of mine to always come prepared!” He pulled out from his inventory a slick and shiny cooking contraption. “If my inspection of this unimaginatively cold fridge in correct, then we possess enough ingredients to make human-style pancakes! How wonderfully convenient that I have with me my new MTT-brand ‘Compactable-For-All-Transport-Pancake-Making-Heating-Plates’; it will sure brighten up our morning with exotic and tasty cuisine!” The robot brought out of the fridge eggs and milk, then emptied half a bag of flour into a large bowl. “Oh, speaking of humans, I heard from Alphys an interesting confirmation yesterday…”

Asriel refrained from looking at Alphys and went on to make his morning tea as calmly as he could manage. The robot broke the eggs and started to mix the paste with a ‘hum’.

“There had been rumors, my wonderful prince; rumors about a new miraculous feat.” The robot added some milk into the bowl with an exaggerated wink from his only visible eye. “I had a hard time believing it myself, but when I heard of Alphys’s travel to a small border town, the one where our prince had conveniently retreated with his troop, I had to ask myself: could my cute, depressed, human cartoon-lover of a genius friend have done the impossible? When I thought about it, if any monster could turn one of those terrible and amazing creatures that humans are into one of us, it would have to be Alphys darling!”

“Mettaton,” Asriel said in a neutral voice, heating up the water with fire magic, “You will not get any official confirmation from me. Either way, if such a thing were to have happened, you would not be allowed to film, see of even talk to them for your show.” Asriel looked at the robot pointedly. “I can’t impose you to let a news story go, but I also will not give you my support in putting out what could potentially be a state secret that could endanger the safety of our kingdom. Do I make myself clear?”

The robot stilled his hands and cocked his head.

“But my pretty prince, what could be so dangerous about telling your people the truth? A human with a monster’s face loose in our territory could be much more of a danger to an unaware population, would they not?”

Asriel frowned and closed his eyes. He decided to switch to a more honest answer.

“If… if such a thing as to what you’re referring to were to occur then… then there would be many imponderables we would have to face, like… like whether such a change was permanent or… or whether such an individual would want to avoid being publicly acknowledged as so different from us once integrated.” He gazed at the robot insistently. “I’m sure someone as involved into the entertainment business as you know that some people are more inclined at being a front for something than others, and that we should respect that.”

The robot’s visible eye widened a bit. He pulled out a small box of party glitters and threw a bunch of it in his pancake mixture.

“Ah, Asriel darling; how could I forget about your noble heart; it is such a damning quality of yours.” The robot shook his head and readied the machine. “As expected, speaking with you has satiated my curiosity in no manner! Still, as your dear friend, I respect your reticence,” he told him as he started heating his first pancake. “However, also as your dearest newscast friend, I hope you will reserve me the exclusive announcement at the very least.”

Asriel sighed as he poured a cup, then another. Such request was no surprise from the fame-seeking robot.

“I can assure you that, would any of this be true and official in any way, you will be the first informed,” he promised.

“Splendid!”

Frisk made her entrance at this moment, sporting one of Asriel’s casual robes, slowly and cautiously, probably having heard Mettaton’s voice. Asriel was not sure if he admired her bravery or was annoyed she decided to come down knowing the robot was here. She had clearly tried to brush; as always, it looked disastrous.

“Hi, Asriel,” she saluted him in a friendly tone, which threw him off. She looked at Alphys, then Mettaton. “So, you invited your friends? I don’t believe we’ve met yet.”

The robot looked at her from horns to paws, put another pancake to heat up and almost jumped next to her with an ample leg arc, presenting a gracious metallic hand and a wide smile.

“Indeed, I don’t believe we have, beautiful, I’d certainly remember a pretty face like yours. I believe I can, however, deduce you to be sweet Asriel’s friend from the Capital the town monsters were talking about at the funeral yesterday! And, your name might be…”

“Frisk,” she answered with a surprising smile, shaking his hand.

“Frisk…?”

At his pause, her smile widened forcefully.

“Frisk, yes.” She made a visible effort in checking his whole body. “And if my eyes don’t deceive me, you’re the famous Mettaton himself! My friend is a big fan of your show!”

Her obvious attempt at rubbing his ego seemed to work and Mettaton looked like he had forgotten his asking of her family name. Asriel was mildly impressed at her strategy. He also pondered how he never actually asked for her full name, either. She knew his, but he did not know hers; he knew humans had family names. He started to wonder if ‘Frisk’ was even her name in the first place; he did not recall seeing a movie or reading a book with a protagonist with a name like that.

Then again, ‘Chara’ was a pretty uncommon name as well. They never mentioned a family name either, but Asriel had a few guesses why.

“Your friend has an excellent taste if they watch my show, gorgeous!” Mettaton looked at her head appreciatively. “My, my, I love your style, darling.”

“…Ah?”

“Indeed! You pull the “stray dog in a storm” look perfectly! How unique!”

The burst of outrage from her aura and the way she was visibly trying to crush Mettaton’s hand in her grip would have been comical, had Asriel not feared she would strike the robot out of frustration. Luckily, being made of metal, Mettaton probably felt nothing. Her forced fanged smile stretched further.

“…Thank you…” She directed her squinting gaze on his head. “Your obviously plastic hair is pretty unique too, very synthetic.”

If anything, the jab seemed to amuse the robot even more as he let go of her hand.

“My, oh my! What a feisty reply! Coupled with your sweet disposition, it makes for a very interesting character you have here!” He glanced at the prince complicitly. “I approve.”

The robot turned his attention back to his pancake just as Asriel felt the wave disgust from Frisk. The prince took one of the tea cups and brought it to her as a distraction from her emotion.

“Here,” he said, handing her the cup.

“Same one as yesterday?”

“Yes.”

Seemingly satisfied with his reply, she went on to sit at the table and savor the tea. Asriel was glad she liked the beverage, given his fondness of it. Granted, it was not a popular flavor for nothing…

Frisk turned her attention to the yellow lizard, who was sitting at the table, fumbling with her hands.

“Hey, Alphys, how is your work at the lab progressing?”

Her nice tone seemed to throw off the scientist, who became a stuttering mess.

“fr-frisk, uh, th-that, uh… it… it g-goes well… th-thank you for asking.”

“Uhuh.” Frisk nodded, smiled predatorily and put an elbow on the table for empathizing. “And how’s it going with Undyne?”

“u-undyne?” Alphys made a squeaky noise. “y-you know that n-nothing’s g-going on with u-u-und-“

“Ahahah! Oh, Alphys!” Mettaton cut her off with a laugh. “See? I told you it was obvious!” He put all his pancakes into neat piles on plates. “And I can guess she did not even have to read all of those very detailed stories you wrote about you two doing domestic things together! You’re as obviously crushing on the captain of the Royal Guard as you’re attracted to Boss Monsters!”

Apparently, Frisk had not caught on to this second fact before, as she visibly swayed away from the embarrassed lizard with an uneasy glance. Asriel decided to show his support by sitting beside the poor Alphys, who was covering her whole face and had shrunken down on her chair.

“How about you tell us how long you intend to stay here, Mettaton?” the prince asked. “It doesn’t look like Alphys can give you a room, but you seem to have come here with the idea of some sleeping arrangement.”

“Oh, yes, indeed,” Mettaton agreed with a nod. “I was thinking about asking you a room at the castle.” The prince tensed visibly, but the robot continued. “However, I figured you and your friend would like some privacy, so I arranged to sleep in one of my numerous MTT-Resorts instead! I have yet to know how long I’ll be here, but since the MTT Monster Beauty Pageant is still ongoing, I had this wonderful idea of organizing one of the games here! It will make a change from the Capital, and perhaps we could set a broader town contest for next year! What do you think, Asriel dear?”

“I, uh, yes,” Asriel replied, “yes, I suppose it would be a good idea…”

“I knew I could count on your wonderful opinion, Asriel dear!” The robot went on to distribute a plate to each of the monsters. “And here comes breakfast! I brought the precious MTT-brand Human-Style-Syrup to go with it!”

Frisk stared at the content of her plate with horror.

“…Is that glitter?”

“Indeed it is! You have a fine eye for culinary detail, beautiful!”

 “…There’s pink glitter inside those pancakes.” Her voice tone was of one who was pondering some meaningful life question.

The robot sat with a joyful laugh.

“My, my, it appears someone has yet to try human-style cooking! Frisk dear; are you not aware that glitter is an essential part of human gastronomy?”

Her aura swirled with some indescribable mud of emotions, before going back to a resigned neutral grey and she sighed.

“No, I did not.” She closed her eyes and massaged her front. “Thanks for enlightening me on this.”

“Ahah! It is my pleasure! But if you are truly interested in human cooking, I highly suggest you do like your informed friend and watch my show regularly! It’s a fountain of knowledge for little human-tidbits such as this!”

The robot put a large amount of purple glittering syrups and started to eat with a smile. Asriel was about to tell Frisk she did not have to force herself to eat, but she caught his gaze and waved her hand dismissively.

“You don’t waste what’s on your plate,” he heard her mutter, before she reluctantly put a small amount of syrup and bit in a pancake with a sour expression.

Asriel bit on one of his pancake. It tasted of burned plastic.

…Oh, well.

--

“I enjoyed catching up with you, my prince. Alas, it appears that I must depart for now, I have a duty to check on my shop employees!”

Asriel nodded shortly as the four of them left the castle.

“That’s alright, Mettaton, I have works to catch up since yesterday, anyway.”

“Of course! Well, Asriel dear, Alphys darling, and of course…” He flashed a wider smile at the human-monster. “Frisk beautiful, I say to you: toodles! Until next time, for some more glorious human cuisine, perhaps!”

Frisk’s muzzle obviously wrinkled and her tail twitched but she waved back with a smile all the same. When they were sure the robot had left, they all let their hands down with various expressions of their relief.

“Well… I suppose it could have gone worse,” Asriel concluded, before looking at Frisk. “It was a bold move to let him see you, Frisk. You should have avoided that.”

Frisk made a face and snorted.

“Please! The monsters in town seem to all assume I live here, anyway. If Mettaton heard them and didn’t see me there, it would have looked even more suspicious!”

“I…I think Frisk is right, Asriel,” Alphys agreed as they (finally) headed back to the lab. “M-Mettaton is clearly not giving up seeing the human, and Frisk would have been the prime suspect because of her time of arrival. N-now that he’s seen her in a non-suspicious environment like that, h-he’ll probably deduce the monsters were correct about her living condition.”

“Not that what everyone assume is going on between us is something I enjoy by any means,” Frisk continued, showing her fangs. “But let’s face it; if you’re really going to keep me a secret, then it’s probably my best defense.” She shrugged. “You’d have to be a crazy ruler if you even consider a relationship possible in between you and a war prisoner.”

Asriel decided not to ponder on this particular remark about his sanity, instead massaging his chin and focusing on another element he was recently thinking of.

“Maybe… maybe we should make you a permanent guest to the castle, actually… at least until your situation is settled.”

Both female monsters stopped in their track to look at him with boggled eyes. It was Frisk who finally threw her hands in the air with a worried expression.

“Wow-no, wow! Slow down there, you... I… I know I’m a prisoner and all… but even I need to tell you this is a stupid plan!" She spat out the last part, straightening up to gaze straight into his eyes. "I. Am. Not. On. Your. Side. I... may not confront you directly on it, because I know I’ve no chance in winning right now... but that makes us friends in no way whatsoever! How many times do I have to mention this little factoid before you start to realize the truth?”

Asriel gave her a sad look.

“But you can’t stay a prisoner, Frisk. You’ll have to get out someday and… and you’ll have to get a chance to integrate with u-“

SLAP!

Asriel’s view was to the side before he realized what had happened. He heard Alphys’s gasp. The noise of Frisk’s slap finished ringing in his ears and his cheek itched in pain. He brought a hand to it and his fingers traced the small scratches her claws had left. He looked back at her. Her eyes were slightly wider than usual, her body was tensed and her jaws closed.

What surprised Asriel was the preponderant fear in her aura.

Alphys was stepping back, trembling.

“f-frisk! you can’t just… ‘g-g-g-got l-‘“

Asriel raised a hand and stopped Alphys from activating Frisk’s restrictive shackles. From the human-monster’s reaction and aura, it was clear she had not meant her rash action.

“It’s alright,” Asriel affirmed softy. “It’s… it’s okay…”

Frisk’s aura closed off again and she gripped her arms tightly, her gaze on him hardening.

“…Is it, though, Asriel?' she asked tonelessly, "Is any of this right? Are any of our relations right? Think about it, little prince.”

He threw her a pained look.

“…We’ll..." He swallowed. "We'll sort it out, Frisk.”

She blinked back the tears in her eyes and shook her head slowly.

“No... no little prince, I don’t believe we will.”

He had no idea what to respond this time.

Chapter Text

‘In the end, it could hardly be called a war.’

Frisk stopped her rereading and slammed the book shut in frustration. Her reason for requesting a more ancient history book had been to hopefully get some texts written in the older language. She had wished to try to compare and learn, but the dumb... stupid prince had been too thoughtful and had brought her a fully translated old tome instead. Regardless, she had taken the opportunity to figure out more about her captors' past. Her time was better spent doing this than ruminating on... things.

But she could find nothing new, even after her talk with Gerson. Monsters’ history books did not seem to cover much of anything from before the first war, and were pretty evasive and lacked in details about the war itself. When she thought about it, she supposed it did make some sort of sense, given their kind was not only banished from their lands, but also heavily slaughtered. It did not seem like the oldest and most knowledgeable monsters survived very long after the conflict.

Her mother would lament all of the cultures and beliefs that probably died off with them.

Monsters were an orphaned species; and she was unsure about the state of humankind.

She crossed her arms on the table and put her head into the created alcove. What she knew: monsters and humans once lived side by side. Humanity was about two hundred thousand years old according to archeology, and who knew how old monsters were? The war which broke in between humans and monsters was more the humans killing off most of the monsters, who seemed to have been as numerous as humans for a time, at least according to Gerson.

Humans at this time knew magic, and then lost it. Maybe it was Frisk’s imagination, but she had a feeling this was important, though she was unsure why yet.

Monsters were a strange species; they were different from any other living things on the planet. When the second war happened and monsters suddenly showed themselves again, scientists marveled at their body made of magic and every bits of known science their existence threw under the bus. She supposed if the war had not happened, many would have tried to understand how monsters worked, perhaps even with the help of monster scientists like Alphys.

Monster bodies turning to dust was making the birth of their kind hard to determine. Frisk was not aware of any monsters talking about preceding the humans but it did not mean they did not. However, given how unique they were, Frisk was unsure how they fitted within the Earth’s biological system.

Were they of alien origin? Did their spaceship land something like a few thousand years ago and they went on to live beside humans? They mostly looked animal based, however; Frisk could not see why an alien race would take on the shape of an earth goat or lizard.

…Were they connected to humanity itself, somehow?

Frisk groaned and raised her head. The things she read on the souls were bothering her. The book clearly stated that most living entities had a soul of some sort, yet, the only souls monsters were said to be able to absorb, or even pull out of their body so easily, were human souls. Human forces even used that fact. Frisk knew humans were pretty divergent from other animals in their intelligence aspects, or use of tools and language; however, she did not see how ‘intelligence’ was a determining factor for the souls. She could not see how it would have any relation with why a monster could pull out a human soul and not an animal soul.

‘Magic called magic’, but all souls were magic by nature, and the books did mention some animals learning magic, even animals as little as mice. What was the relation in between monsters and humans, exactly? Was there something which made their souls extremely compatible?

…Was it what had allowed them to curse her as one of their own?

She breathed out and massaged her head in frustration. She should not… she did not care all that much about monsters, anyway, so why should she spend so much time thinking about the first war?

…Maybe because, if her and Gerson’s deduction was correct, someone or many ‘someone’, had wished for it?

…And if monsters were still here after all this time, who was to say those ‘someone’ were not still around?

Caesus Cesar’s assassination; the Bay of Pigs invasion, Operation Ajax… human history was chockfull of people conspiring against other people. Monsters once shared their history with humanity.

Humans and monsters lived together for a long time. The legend of monsters absorbing human souls resurfaced. Monsters were banished, humans lost their magic.

Who had gained in this scenario? Did humans as a whole gain anything in losing monsters’ presence? Monsters who had yet to take a human soul in recorded history and prove the legend as true; monsters who were, even at this time, so weak and frail against humans’ killer intent? Did monsters gain anything in this?

Did some humans gain anything in this?

The door slid open, throwing her off her musing. The small lizard waddled in nervously.

“h-hiya, frisk…”

Frisk looked at the scientist, then made a small nod of acknowledgement.

“Alphys.”

The lizard trotted forward and put a pack of instant noodles on the table. Frisk forced down a grimace. She had hoped for Papyrus’s spaghetti instead, but it looked like he was still too busy, or Sans had yet to bring anything at the lab.

Since it must have meant Sans was still exhausted from his intense use of magic on her at the funeral two days ago, Frisk felt a sort of glee at that thought.

She picked the noodles and checked for all the equipment. Every package was magically equipped with a pan and a one use small portable stove. Plus, there was the flavor pack to add, because the noodles weren’t that good either. Frisk figured they were Alphys’s invention, given the lizard’s enthusiasm for Anime and Japanese culture; it was too bad the scientist was such a terrible cook… or had a terrible sense of taste.

Speaking of her lizard jailor, Alphys had yet to leave early, for once. Frisk watched her curiously as she danced from one paw to another, before sighing and sitting on a chair in front of Frisk.

“S-so… I-I know i… i know i’ve not been… been very forward with you… a-about wh-wh… about what happened to your village…”

Frisk’s expression darkened. Had the lizard tried to talk about this a few days prior, she would have gotten a vicious verbal attack, but as she was now, Frisk was too taken by other things to let her hate dictate how to act.

…It by no mean implied that she would forgive anything, but she would at least hear her out.

She fiddled with the package in silence as Alphys struggled to find her words.

“uh… i… i used to think i should be useful, long ago… i used to think that i should do everything for my people when Asgore appointed me Royal Scientist… It… it was a great honor and… and I truly wanted to make a difference…” The lizard’s head inclined until Frisk could not see her eyes through the reflection of the lights on her glasses. “…but… but i started to do terrible things… they were all for the good of my people… but they were terrible… the… the extraction of the soul power… the amalgamates… the… the cannons-“

Her voice strangled. Frisk opened the dry noodle package and wondered if she was going to get the scientist’s full biography and whether or not she should remind her how little all of this mattered to her.

“i…i read a lot of human history… i know… i know humans throughout the age did the same that i did…” She snorted. “w-well i… i don’t think this excuses me in any way… and it doesn’t reassure me about myself or monsters in general either but…” She looked up to the camera. “but i think… maybe… maybe this highlights how similar our two kinds are.”

Frisk prepared the pan and shrugged in acknowledgement. It was something she had reflected a lot upon, after all. Monsters and humans were pretty similar… It changed nothing about the conflict, but it was true.

“i…” the lizard sighed. “i’m not… i’m not asking for forgiveness… i don’t deserve it… but… frisk…” Alphys looked at her in the eyes. “you… you don’t deserve this pain… you… you don’t deserve to be filled with hate and resentment for us all the time. y-you… you should seek happiness again in your life.” Her gaze rested on her hands. “a-asriel is… he’s more trusting and hopeful than i am… but… i think most of us can tell that you don’t want to be at war with us… so… please… please consider your future here… c-consider being happy again… you don’t have to like us, but-“

“You want me to be happy?” Frisk cut her off as she filled the pan with water. “Consider this: you change me back, let me out and back to the human side, how about it?”

The lizard flinched down on her chair.

“i…i-i-i… y-you know i can’t do that…”

Frisk picked a few dry noodles in her hand and threw at the scientist a smile devoid of any happiness.

“Well, there lies the problem, does it not?” She thoughtlessly took a bite of the noodles and her eyes widened at the realization that it tasted much better uncooked. She let it crunch in between her teeth and took another chunk.

“i-i-i…” Alphys took another breath and looked at the human-monster with a serious expression. “Look, Frisk… I know you don’t like us, and have no reason to, but… but you’re not in a hopeless situation here… not… not as much as you may think… Monsters… you may think we won’t accept you, but… but we will! Humans… humans and monsters are not that different!”

Frisk cocked her head and frowned.

“So? What does that change that we’re not so different, Alphys? What does that change about what you’re doing to my people? What does that change about what you’re doing to me?” She had a nervous fit of giggles, which she stopped by biting on another noodle chunk. “You don’t think humans would readily accept betraying their country to another human country, because they’re ‘not that different’, do you? You don’t think some English kid would readily betray their country for Germany during World War II, do you? You don’t think I’m suddenly going to betray humans just because you gave me claws, fangs, horns and a tail, do you?”

“O-of course not-“

“Then what, Alphys?” Frisk put one clawed hand on the table and her tail swung in frustration. “Then what? What are you trying to tell me, exactly? That ‘because I should be happy’, I ought to betray my kind for yours?”

Alphys stared at Frisk for a moment, as if realizing something. Then, her face softened and she shook her head.

“F-Frisk… you’re not betraying anyone by seeking happiness here… I… I promise you.”

Frisk snorted and finished her noodle with a big chomp. She swallowed and looked away, because it was pointless.

“You don’t get it… you still don’t get it…”

“Fr-Frisk-“

“Imagine, Alphys, just imagine,” Frisk continued, a hand on her front. “Imagine getting caught by humans. Imagine those humans offering you some nice comfy life in exchange for one thing. Imagine said thing was that you would work for them in building magic cannons that would destroy your kingdom.”

It seemed like it finally clicked. Alphys’s aura filled with fright. Then, she slowly shook her head.

“…no…no, no, th-that…that’s different…”

“In what?” Frisk asked after a short laugh.

Alphys stood up on her chair, her claws desperately gripping the table.

“W-we wouldn’t kill, Frisk! I-I-I… I wouldn’t kill humans anymore! I-it would be better for everyone!”

Frisk barked a big laugh, because it was so funny.

“Heh... It’s all a matter of perspective, ain’t it?” She finally said once she was done, shaking her head in derision. “What you monsters call ‘Mercy’, we humans would refer to it as a soft genocide.”

“I-it would not be genocide! W-we wouldn’t kill-“

“You would kill our culture, you would kill our race, our species,” Frisk cut her off again, because she had explained it already. “Do you think it really matter if you lessened your kill count by doing that? In the end, humans, my kinds, would die off… All because we couldn’t share… all because we’re so scary for you… Our history would be annihilated in a few generations of monster propaganda.”

Frisk fell silent again. Surprisingly, Alphys did not answer. Frisk had expected her to protest more. The human-monster sighed and took the pan to throw the water down the cell’s sink. Once her deed done, she put the pan down and looked at the defeated lizard curiously. She thought back to her human-looking robot creation and a realization came to her.

“…You like Anime… you like human culture, don’t you, Alphys? You…” Frisk frowned and sat in front of the scientist again. “You may even like humans as a species…”

The lizard did not answer, but her silence was saying a lot to Frisk. Her expression softened and she crossed her arms on the table.

“…Would… would you be okay with this, Alphys? Would you be okay with human culture’s disappearance? Would you be okay with Anime disappearing?” She looked at her claws. “…Would you be okay… with humans disappearing?”

For a moment, the cell was silent. Then, the lizard sat back on her chair and brought her head in her hands in despair.

“…no, frisk… i would not… i… i was never happy with that part of the war plan… never…”

The silence following that declaration went on for an even longer time.

Chapter Text

When the lizard left the cell, she asked Frisk to prepare for a trip outside in an hour, which had surprised the human monster. Alphys was not one of her more consistent guardian, and Undyne was about as enthusiastic about participating in Frisk’s outings.

Still, the little prince had not come at all yesterday, a fact which she felt ambivalent about. His company was usually entertaining enough to make time pass quicker, but she was almost feeling that if she never saw him again after what he... what he had said to her last time , it would be too soon. Still, his absense told Frisk he was probably very busy, given he had yet to miss a single day to visit her for weeks now. Maybe he asked Alphys to get her out when he could not.

She donned the blue and purple sweater, which had soon become her favorite due to its bagginess, plus another pair of shorts. While she did enjoy robes, there was something delivering about being able to swing her tail freely.

She finished washing up and put the watch the prince gave her with a small frown. His attitude toward her had shifted so much since she had come to know him.

…But the scariest thing was how her attitude had shifted as well.

‘Stockholm syndrome’, named so after a town where a man ended up siding with those who took him hostage.

She took an uneven breath and closed her eyes with clenched teeth. She could not get soft with them. She could not get soft with her captors; with the murderers of her family.

She recalled Undyne’s hard grasp on her hands as she struggled; she recalled the heavy blow she felt when the fish lady had pushed her face to the ground and broken her nose.

She recalled the prince’s stone-cold gaze as he was towering her; she recalled the way his clawed hand had grasped the hilt of his sword.

She recalled the excitement on Alphys’s face as she had woken up in the lab, dazed and scared, in an unfamiliar and terrifying body; she recalled how distant and uncaring they all had been, because all they could see was her potential, not who she was. Those were easier times.

She then tried to remember her loved ones’ faces; her friends, her family…

…She stopped when she recalled the look of surprise in her dad’s and mom’s corpses’ eyes, impaled by the house’s debris, having barely protected her tiny body from death. She stopped when she recalled the smiling dreamy image of Cam with his axe and the two lockets. She brought her hands together and did a short prayer, as if to prevent the horror from haunting her. It never worked, though.

She felt both Alphys’s and Undyne’s auras, coupled with the distinct odor of sushi before the door slid open behind her.

“h-hiya, frisk-“

“Hey, punk! Are you ready to go yet?”

Frisk turned with a shrug. Undyne looked surprisingly happy; Frisk had not seen her like that since the time they all ate spaghetti together. It gave her a strange sense of foreboding.

Seeing Frisk’s somewhat agreement, the fish-lady pumped a fist to the sky.

“ALRIGHT, THEN! Let’s do it!”

“h-hang on a little, undyne!”

Alphys came to Frisk with the blue shackles. Being used to the process, Frisk let the scientist put them on calmly. Alphys rarely, if ever, came into huge contact with Frisk, but perhaps their little talk from earlier had eased up the lizard a little.

Frisk refrained from making a face at that idea. Making Alphys silently suffer for her crimes had been a small pleasure of her for a while now. That she would do like Asriel and turn on full compassionate instead was not something Frisk wished for. It was petty, but it was all she could do for now.

Once the lizard freed her of the cell shackles, she walked to the upbeat fish warrior with apprehension and frowned.

“I don’t know what you’re so happy about. You know-“

The arm Undyne shoved around her neck prevented her from speaking further. Her hackle rose at the contact and she flinched. Undyne did not seem to notice.

“Yeah, yeah, sure; ‘this changes nothing between us’, I know I know! You can be a kickass friend to my friend and go around and saving monster kids from imminent death, you’re still our enemy, I get it! THIS WON’T SAVE YOU FROM MY TRAINING HELL, PUNK! NGAHAHAHAHAH!”

Frisk grasped the fish’s arm and tried to pull it away. Unfortunately, the warrior was as strong as ever.

“L-let… go! Arg!”

She tried to kick her captor; unfortunately, Undyne maneuvered her easily, being an actual trained fighter.

“Hah! You’ll have to do better than THAT to defeat ME, punk! This is why you need me to show you how to do it!”

She started to drag Frisk through the lab, half-choking her.

“S-stop! Urg!”

“Asriel told me you asked for some exercises; you should have thought of telling me! I AM THE BEST AT WHAT I DO! AND TRAINING IS WHAT I DO BEST!”

Frisk was desperately trying to keep the pace; small lights were blurring her vision.

“You’re… ch-choking…me…”

“U-Undyne, release her! You’re strangling her!”

Frisk’s neck was finally freed and she stopped to cough madly, massaging her burning throat. Once she regained her breath, she threw a baffled glare at the fish lady.

“…Hah… Are… you… insane?” she rasped, “God…”

“See? This is why you need to train with me! All those weeks cooped up in there have made you all WEAK, human!” Undyne replied, hands on her hips. “NGAH! This makes me so MAD to see all your passionate spirit slowly drifting away like that! Someone like you need a way to DIRECT all this into something GRAND!”

Frisk, still breathing hard, finally caught on to what the fish was saying and felt extreme confusion.

“You… you would train me?” She snorted and shook her head, whipping the air with her tail. “You are insane! I’m your prisoner, remember? You don’t want to make me more dangerous than I already am!”

It was Undyne’s turn to snort at this reply. She gave Frisk a large fanged smile.

“NGAH! Please, kid! Don’t sell yourself so high! You’re clearly a novice fighter! You think I can’t WIPE THE FLOOR WITH YOU? You’re a joke for me, human!” She crossed her arms and raised her head high. “That’s right, you ARE our prisoner, and you know what we used to make prisoners do before?”

Frisk blinked and Undyne threw another fist up.

“THAT’S RIGHT! FORCED LABOR! WITH NO UNION APPROVED BREAKS! NOW, uh…” She scratched the back of her head nervously. “Those were pretty dark times back then, and, uh… we’re NOT as uncivilized now… still…” She straightened up again. “Still, AS OUR PRISONER, you’re under obligation to work! And by work, I mean WORK YOUR BODY!”

She took Frisk by the arm and dragged her out of the lab. As disgusted as Frisk was by the contact, she was too stumped to react.

“Now, COME ON, PUNK! I’LL MAKE YOU RUN SO HARD YOU’LL SWEAT MAGIC AND WATER FROM EVERY PORES OF YOUR BODY! NGAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!”

Frisk’s uneasy feeling was drowned by a strange apathy about her fortune and she let the fish warrior lead her through the town.

It was not like she had much choice left in her life any more.

--

Undyne led her behind her house, to a large field with actual running tracks. Frisk also noted the cotton-filled training dummies and other various equipments.

“Now…” Undyne, having finally released Frisk, walked to the tracking field and crossed her arms. “I think I got a good grasp of your spirit those past weeks, punk, and I gotta say I ADMIRE YOUR PASSION!” She gave her a large smile and her aura was so filled with positivity it made Frisk take a step back. “The way you fight so hard for what you believe, yet keep your sense of justice is SO GREAT! NGAH! I TRIED to hate you SO HARD, too, but your little bundle of determination is a light I can’t help but encourage, at least a little!”

Frisk listened to her with a wrinkled muzzle before swinging her tail and shaking her head.

“What is up with you, exactly? Do you seriously need a reminder of what I did?” She started to wave her arms frustratingly. “I KIL-“ She stopped and looked around before continuing in a lower tone. “You know what I did to your own…” She threw her a glare. “You know what you did to mine. In what universe do you live in to think that being suddenly friends or whatever you’re trying to say here is even a remote possibility! You should hate me! You said it yourself!”

Undyne watched her flay her arms with a nod and shrugged.

“Yeah, well, as much as you try so hard to make me mad, kid, I DON’T hate you; so, there!” Her expression darkened a bit. “You killed, yeah, but you were totally right when you said your kills were different from mine; I’m a warrior, a soldier. It’s my duty to fight. You? You’re a survivor; you fought because you literally HAD to, for yourself and your family.” She smiled again, a little more softly. “So, yeah, we can’t be friends, that’s fine; that’s not gonna stop me for appreciating you for who you are, kid.”

Frisk kept her frown, clenching her fist. She was about to snap a retort when Undyne spoke again, looking to the side.

“You know, I… I was a pretty hateful kid, too. I… I was very young when we all got out of the underground, but I did grow up learning how humans waged war against us and trapped us all down there.” She gritted her teeth. “It made me so mad, knowing what you… what your kind did to us… I… I wanted to make you pay… It would only have been justice if we were to fight back against you and kill you all, because you were the BAD guys and… we were the GOOD guys.”

Something unpleasant stirred inside Frisk at the warrior’s words. She growled.

“I don’t care for your past, fish-face!” She crossed her arms impatiently. “What, you think I’m your confessor or something? Get to the point!”

Her irritation only amused the captain, however.

“Heh, I forgot how much of a little shit we are at your age… Alright…” Her smile came back. “My point is that you reminds me of myself, kid; and as much as I’d try, I CAN’T HATE MYSELF, therefore, I CAN’T HATE YOU!”

Frisk’s snort came out uncontrollably. She took a step back.

“Get real! We’re not that alike!”

The fish laughed back at her.

“NGAHAHAH! You LITERALLY told me you KNEW you felt the same as I do when you fought! Stay consistent, punk!”

Frisk clenched her forearms enough for them to hurt.

“…What do you want from me exactly, captain? What the heck are you even trying to tell me, here? You think I’m gonna sympathize with you or something? I won’t!”

Undyne cocked her head.

“I’m not gonna ask you that, of COURSE you’re not gonna sympathize! I don’t NEED your sympathy, kid, I’m a big girl! Still…” She put her hands on her hips. “I thought I’d let you know WHY I even decided to take on Asriel’s request to keep you in shape: you’re a GOOD kid! There! You can have a shitty temperament, and you see us as your enemies, but you’re fucking GOOD, and I can’t ignore that! I can’t ignore someone who can see past their own prejudices enough to befriend one of our own and save a kid without even a second thought.”

A strange sort of warmth spread through Undyne’s aura.

“You’re like some Anime kind of human; you’re fucking NOBLE and I can’t ignore that, punk!”

Frisk stepped away from the aura like even being near it would contaminate hers, stared at the warrior for a moment before sighing. She shook her head tiredly and put a hand on her eyes.

“…I should never have saved that kid… It made you all even crazier.’

Undyne laughed triumphantly.

“NGAHAHAH! You can’t go against your nature, punk!”

Frisk threw her head back in exasperation.

“And Anime’s not real life, Undyne! You can’t be friendly with your enemy because you think they’re ‘noble’!”

“Pffff!” The fish lady dismissed her with a hand wave. “Anime can SO be real if you try! Believe me, Alphys and I even built a giant sword and I wielded it in training just to prove that point!” She pointed a finger at Frisk. “And you, like all humans, are full of Determination! And I bet you’re really DETERMINED to win! So, SHOW ME YOUR PASSION AND TRAIN WITH ME, PUNK!”

Frisk groaned and brought a hand on her hair.

“...Oh, my God, I WOULD LITERALLY KILL YOU IF I HAD THE CHANCE, UNDYNE!” the former human screamed in frustration. “WHY WOULD YOU EVEN SIDE WITH ME ON THIS?”

“I’m NOT siding with you!” the fish warrior corrected. “But like I said, I’m just impressed enough to lend you a hand on this!”

“WHAT IF I CHANGE BACK? EVER THINK OF THAT?”

“NGAHAHAH! THEN YOU’LL BE ONE ADVERSARY I’D BE ITCHING TO FIGHT AGAINST!” Undyne replied with a hearty laugh. She walked back to Frisk and threw an arm around her shoulders. “NGAH! Just thinking about it makes me boil with excitement! Imagine if you actually DID change back and went back with the humans? I bet with all you learned here, you could turn into their BEST WARRIOR! NGAHAHAH”

A part of Frisk decided to give up against the fish warrior’s craziness and she slumped down under Undyne’s fierce grasp.

“… I don’t want to be a warrior… I…” She looked down, sighing. “I wanted to be a doctor…”

“NGAHAHAH! Then you’d become the BEST WARRIOR DOCTOR! That’s even BETTER!”

Frisk let the obviously loony monster laugh a moment, before tugging at the arm tiredly and lifting it away.

“If… If I get out of this place, I’m never ever going near a battle field again.” She massaged one arm softly. “I’d just… I’d just make sure to never see you crazy monsters again for the rest of my life.”

As she said it, she realized how true this was. She still wanted to make them pay, but more than anything, she wished to be away from this madness, both the bad and the good. It made no difference.

Undyne, having finally calmed down, assessed her before nodding approvingly.

“Yeah… I hear you, kid… but…” She raised her fist up. “BUT ENOUGH OF THAT SENTIMENTALITY CRAP! I SAID I WOULD TRAIN YOU, AND THAT’S WHAT I’LL DO!” She pointed to the field track. “YOU’RE GOING TO DO ME TEN GOOD LAPS OF THIS, OR I’LL PUT YOU IN A HEAD LOCK AND GIVE YOU THE BIGGEST NOOGIES OF YOUR LIFE!” She smirked and neared closer to whisper. “Oh, and Alphys gave me access to the code words for your shackles, too, so don’t even think of pulling a hard one on me. NOW STOP GAWKING AND GO!”

Frisk had to roll her eyes at that. She was about to follow the fish’s order, when she noticed Alphys, who had just stood there watching the exchange, now looking like she was heading out of the field.

“Are you leaving, Alphys?” Frisk asked with a frown, because the monster scientist never left her alone with Undyne.

The lizard flinched and stuttered.

“uh th-th-that… th-th-the prince needs me to-“

“WHAT ARE YOU STILL STANDING HERE FOR, PUNK? JUST RUN ALREADY!”

Frisk made a frustrated groan and executed herself. She was no fan of Undyne, but she was certain she did wish to avoid her noogies.

This day was stupid.

Chapter Text

As her feet hit the ground, and her arms swung hard, Frisk reflected in how much she had missed running. She was not a particularly sporty person, but she always loved going through the fields near her town with Cam and her friends, playing pretend games.

The tracking field ground was feeling hard under her paws, the wind was flinging her ears back while refreshing the hair around her horns and her tail was swinging at every turn, helping her balance. All this was making her very aware of the wrongness of the situation. However, the euphoric feeling of the run and her long drawn out breath was occupying her mind away from those concerns.

The very important fact that she was untrained and unexercised caught up with her around her third laps, when a side stitch made itself known and she stopped, a hand on her belly, to catch her breath. Undyne raged against her stopping, but relented without the use of her dreaded noogies when she caught the exhaustion on Frisk’s face. Instead, she made her do stretches, which did brought a sort of relaxation in the human monster’s body. Then, Undyne proceeded to make Frisk fast-walk instead, walking alongside and encouraging her to finish her laps.

As silly as the situation was, Frisk basked into the detached tranquility this brought to her mind. Undyne was not over-exercising her, exactly, but she was demanding an attention constant enough for Frisk to just give in and follow what she asked of her most of the time. After weeks of being dragged all over and treated like some sort of guest, being ordered around was sort of reassuring.

The lapses were over both not quickly enough and in an instant. Undyne dragged her back to the training equipments; Frisk was still in a sort of dazed mindset when she watched the fish lady fumbling with a dummy.

“Alright! Now that your warm up is over, it’s time to get SERIOUS! NGAHAH!” She put up one of the dummy and fixed it to the ground. “This training dummy used to belong to Maddy, one of my neighborhood ghosts who helped me in my exercises.” She dusted the object with a frown. “Sadly, most of the ghosts have been requisitioned in the war to work on the s- uh… yeah!” She dusted her hands as if to chase off a thought. “ANYWAY, we don’t have a ghost to get this thing back together once we hit it, so we’ll have to be extra careful when we POUND IT TO THE GROUND! NGAHAHAH!” She stopped laughing to scratch her chin. “I guess I’ll just have to sew it back later after that…”

Frisk, still breathing deep, frowned at the fish lady.

“You… seriously want to teach me how to fight?”

“Pfff yeah?”

Frisk looked at her, baffled and shook her head.

“You’re insane… teaching your enemy how to fight… I’m gonna use it against you!”

Undyne whizzed out a snort.

“Please, kid! Like you could learn how to fight with one measly lesson from me! I’m good, but not THAT good! You’ll need more than a few years to catch up with me! …Or with ANY of my crew, really. Like I said, you’re not THAT dangerous to us as you are now!”

Frisk rolled her eyes.

“And, what? You’ll be fine with a human me having learned all this because I’d be challenging?”

“Pfff, YEAH!” Undyne smiled predatorily. “Though, let’s face it, punk, you know I can restrain you easily as a human, anyway. If you ever become a true hero of your people, it will be in years of intense training!”

Frisk’s expression darkened and she looked down at her claws.

“…There’re no heroes in this war, Undyne.”

The fish warrior raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

“Well, not with THAT attitude there won’t be!”

Frisk groaned and swung her tail.

“Seriously? Are you actually trying to turn me into your personal nemesis or something?”

“Well, you said you were our enemy, didn’t you?” Undyne straightened and put her hands on her hips. “YOU MAY AS WELL GO ALL THE WAY, PUNK!”

Frisk grasped her hair.

“Oh, my god, Undyne, LIFE IS NOT AN ANIME!”

“YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IT, PUNK, BECAUSE I WILL MAKE IT TRUE!”

“NO, YOU WON’T, BECAUSE THAT’S DUMB!”

“ANIME IS NOT DUMB! YOU WILL TAKE THAT BACK YOU LITTLE-“

“I FUCKING KILLED YOUR DOGS!” Frisk took a step away from the clearly insane fish lady. “I. KILLED. THREE OF YOUR OWN! I…”

Her voice rasped out and she stopped. She took a few ragged breaths, cleared her throat and stared back at the frowning captain.

“… I killed them… you… you all made me assist to their funerals… to those who… to those who hacked away my… What…” Her eyes watered and she quickly wiped them dry. “In what way I’m supposed to forget all this and follow you into this weird little fantasy world of yours where everything is about the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ fighting each others in glorious battle with giant swords and what not?”

Frisk stopped to catch her breath. She saw she had Undyne’s whole attention and continued after a sigh.

 “I… I’m young, I know that, but no, I’m not a fucking kid anymore; I… I know what death is. I know what’s real and what isn’t. I know stories aren’t real life…”

She straightened up and gazed at Undyne’s unique eye.

“You said you thought monsters as ‘good’ and humans as ‘bad’ when you were young… well I…” She licked her lips. “I don’t think in ‘good’ and ‘bad’ side. I know there’s good and bad in both side. I know it and it doesn’t change a thing about what you’ve done!”

Undyne raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

“Of course it doesn’t, punk; it’s about ‘justice’, not who’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’.” She snorted and shook her head. “I don’t know your opinion of me, Alphys or even Asriel, I don’t know if you’ve learned to see qualities you appreciate in any of us, but it doesn’t matter to you, does it?” She smirked with nostalgia. “Because you’re judging us for what we’ve done, what we represent to you. Any of our good qualities would just be a facet of our hypocrisy to you… because no matter what, we’re guilty and deserve punishment.”

Something traveled down Frisk’s spine at her words. She stilled and watched the fish warrior with a frown.

“…Why, Undyne? Why are you even doing all this?”

Undyne stared her down a moment, before shrugging.

“Is it THAT hard to believe I sympathize with you on this? I mean…” She shrugged. “I think you’re WRONG about most monsters deserving punishment for what we do to your people, I DO believe we’re justified still, both to fight for our survival, AND to get revenge on what your people did to us in the first war.” She looked to the side. “Now, after all those years, I DO think we were mistaken for declaring war on you, but NOT because our motivations were unjustified. We… we were wrong because all that war did was destroy both our kinds for over thirty years. It costs us too much.”

Frisk’s gaze was harsh on the fish warrior, but she did not bother arguing, because she could tell the captain was too stubborn to reason with.

“…And yeah,” the fish lady continued with a shrug. “I know Anime’s not ‘REAL’ real; I had years to discover that… But that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up bringing hope and glory to my people, punk.” She took on a prideful look. “Those stories humans and monsters made… they’re here for a reason! They… they give us an example to follow… a way of thinking that could help us improve who we all are as individuals.” She sized Frisk up. “Humans need heroes too, is it so hard to believe that I can see you capable of becoming one?”

Frisk made a face and sighed tiredly.

“Why would you even want me as a hero of humanity? It makes no sense!”

Undyne snorted and once again violated Frisk’s personal space with an arm surrounding her shoulders.

“Your people may be our enemies, but they deserve a fighting chance, punk! NGAHAH! Otherwise, I’ll just feel bad in beating you all to the ground! NOW!” She dragged Frisk to the dummy. “You’re going to STOP YOUR WHINING and BEAT UP THAT DUMMY!”

Once released, Frisk massaged her shoulders and threw an annoyed look at the fish warrior.

“…What? With my fist?”

“Pfff, YEAH? DUH?” Undyne rolled her eyes with a grin. “How else do you expect to defeat your foes? With a hug and some nice compliments? JUST SHOW ME YOUR PASSION!”

Frisk rolled her eyes and clenched her fist. She awkwardly raised it and tensed her legs. She swung it at the dummy. The hit made its soft muzzle move to the side and it wobbled feebly.

“…Seriously?” Undyne asked. “THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO? AND YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE OUR DANGEROUS ADVERSARY? PAPYRUS COULD HAVE KNOCKED OUT A TOMATO WITH MORE STRENGTH THAN THAT!”

Frisk shrugged.

“You said you didn’t want to damage it too much.”

“OH MY GOD, DO YOU HONESTLY THINK YOU’RE THAT TOUGH? You may be partly physical and a Boss Monster, but YOU’RE STILL JUST SOME UNDERAGE BRAT! DON’T OVERSELL YOURSELF! Here…”

Undyne came closer and took a stance.

“Okay, you’re gonna copy me THAT!”

Frisk looked at her and tried to mimic her with uncertainty. The fish lady came closer to correct her pose.

“Alright, you know what? I don’t think you’re much of a ‘fist’ person anyway, YOU GOT LE- uh…” Undyne stopped herself just in time from activating the shackles and scratched her chin. “Your legs are, uh, pretty long, so I’m gonna guess you’ll be more efficient with them. NOW!” She stood back and tensed. “You’re gonna follow my lead on this… NGAH!”

She swung her leg hard and quickly, bringing back her foot down in a swift motion and shifting her stance.

“Now, YOU do it! Remember your HEART! Remember your LOVE FOR JUSTICE!”

Frisk turned back to the dummy, a little more eager and anxious. She swung her leg like Undyne did. She grazed the dummy to the side and it wobbled again.

“…Okay, you’re gonna do that again, EXCEPT YOU’RE GONNA HIT IT THIS TIME!”

Frisk took a breath and kicked again, with a small yell.

“…Again!”

Another yell.

“AGAIN, DAMN IT!”

…And another. She breathed in and out a few times. She readied her stance and was about to swing again when Undyne spoke.

“… This dummy is Asriel and he JUST ASKED YOU OUT!”

“GWAAH!”

It was with both rage and disgust that Frisk kicked the dummy. This time, her foot impacted the dummy’s neck so hard its cotton filled head was sent away flying. As Frisk stumbled forward, Undyne pumped her fists in the air.

“YEAH! Now, THAT’S WHAT I CALL ‘FIGHTING SPIRIT’!”

“Wow, duuude!”

Both Frisk and Undyne turned in surprise at the sound of the voice. Frisk recognized the yellow lizard wearing a basket around their neck as the wyvern teen she saved at the funeral. They were looking at the human monster with admiration.

“That’s just awesome! You’re so strong! Are you training to be a Royal Guard too?”

Frisk suddenly felt awfully self-conscious. Undyne frowned at the yellow wyvern.

“What are you doing here, kid? Your training doesn’t begin until an hour and half!”

The lizard flinched and put the basket down.

“Uh… you told me to come earlier today? A-as a punishment f-for the flight?”

Undyne blinked and slapped a hand on her face.

“Fffuuu-frrriday, I forgot! Shhhhoot…” She passed a hand on her hair. “Well, since you’re here, I guess I gotta give you something to do.” She looked at Frisk again and smirked. “Actually, since you destroyed the dummy, punk, you’re gonna do ten more laps with Artie over there,” she decided, pointing at the lizard.

Frisk made a face.

“You just told me to hit hard!”

“NGAHAHAH! I DID AND IT WAS GLORIOUS!” Undyne looked at her with amusement and shrugged. “I guess I underestimated you, OR YOU JUST SUCK AT RESTRAINING YOUR STRENGTH; THAT’S TOO BAD! NGAH!” She pointed to the track field. “Now, GO AND DO IT WHILE I REPAIR THIS SHI- uh… this messy dummy! COME ON!”

“Yes Undyne!” the wyvern teen exclaimed as they headed to the field. Frisk gave Undyne a half-hearted glare and followed with a jog.

--

After the second laps, Frisk was done.

…Or rather, she should have been, but the little wyvern slowed down just as they saw her do so and she resolved herself to keep on a jogging pace. She was already worn out, but this was obviously not the case for the hyper yellow lizard.

“So, huff, yo! Frisk, right?” The teen took a big breath. Their smaller legs were making them run frantically to stay on the same pace. “I’m Artie, yo! Thanks again for saving me that time!”

Frisk only grunted in acknowledgment, concentrating on her run. Artie did not look bothered.

“I heard you lived with the prince, yo! Huff! That’s pretty cool! Huff!” They were smiling brightly, showing dulled fangs. “H-hey, does that mean you two are, uh-“

“No,” Frisk snapped in between gritted teeth. She kept her concentration on running, trying to ignore the side itch which had made yet another apparition.

“Oh, yeah, huff! Yeah, I thought this… huff… this would be weird, ‘cause…” The jogging lizard head-nodded toward Frisk’s shirt: “you wear a striped shirt. Huff! I… I thought mostly kids wore those… Huff!...Are, huff…are you a kid?”

Frisk made another grunt. The pain on her side was distractedly bouncing at each step. How did this lizard do to keep talking while running?

“Heheh, yeah! Huff! I totally knew it! Huff! What with Undyne calling you ‘punk’ and all; huff!” They made another sprint to catch up with her. “Man, you’re still a kid and you saved me! Huff! And you’re so tough! Huff! I’m not even really a kid anymore, huff! I… I’m fifteen! Huff! I stopped wearing stripes for a year now!”

Frisk snorted at that. For once, she met a monster younger than her and they were a true chatter box. They were on their fourth laps and she felt herself sweating. It surprised her a bit, because when she usually sweated, it was from her hand palms and her arm pits. Now, she was sweating like a human would and it was soaking both her front and back fur.

“So cool though, you train with Undyne too! Huff! I bet that’s why… Huff… you came here at Greenlake, huh? Huff!”

Frisk did not answer and concentrated on running. She did not like where this conversation was going.

“Man! Huff! Undyne is so awesome! Huff! She’s… Huff… she’s a true hero! Huff! She never let anyone down! Huff!” Their smile widened enviously. “I… Huff… I bet all the humans she beats up wet themselves when they see her coming!”

Through her effort, Frisk legitimately growled at that remark. It went unheard, however.

“I… Huff… I wish I could be as strong as her to kick some human butts! Huff! I bet… Huff! I bet you could be strong like that! Huff!”

Eighth laps; Frisk only had to stand this for two more. She sped up her jog, forcing Artie to do the same.

“And… Huff… and Undyne doesn’t want young monsters like us in the Royal Guard… Huff… But I bet if I train very hard, she would make an exception! Huff!”

She let her tired legs carrying her forward. Her vision was a bit blurry. She had let her tongue out. Maybe if she stared right ahead, it would go quicker?

“Imagine, though! Huff! We could be… Huff… we could be the next generation of Royal Guards! Huff! Man, it would be so awesome to go and give those stinking humans what they deserve- wha!”

Vlam!

Frisk’s legs tripped on the fallen lizard and her arms met the ground unpleasantly. Her jaws bit on her tongue and she winced when she tasted the coppery blood. She took a moment to puzzle out what had happened and realized with a small fear she was completely covering the small wyvern. She scampered back and checked on them.

“Ow… Oh god, are you alright? Urg!”

Her sweaty ears had smacked her muzzle when she leant near Artie. She pushed the warm floppy ears back with disgust. Yuk… they were all wet…

The lizard scrambled a bit to get their head up from their face plant. When they succeeded, they stumbled back a bit and gave the kneeling Frisk a big apologetic smile.

“I’m okay, yo! I… I always do that…”

“NGAH! I can’t even leave you TWO MINUTES ALONE, PUNKS, WHAT THE HECK?”

Frisk saw Undyne run toward them with an expression in between worry and anger. She must have been scared Frisk’s physical mass had squished the small wyvern. Frisk stood up and raised her hands to pacify her.

“They’re fine,” she reassured the warrior, wrinkling her muzzle when she felt the itch on her tongue. “We’re… we’re both fine!”

“It… it was my fault, Undyne!” Artie assured, putting themselves in front of Frisk. “I… I just tripped again and-“

Undyne cut them out with a raised hand, her gaze still onto Frisk.

“… Kid… I mean Artie… You’re gonna do TWO MORE LAPS for that PATHETIC STUNT you just pulled there!”

“Y-yes, Undyne!” They hesitantly started to jog again. Frisk made a move to follow and was caught by the arm.

“You’re benched for now, punk; take a break.” Undyne showed her the basket the little lizard had carried. “Artie should’ve brought some food in here; eat something to heal yourself.”

She pointed to her mouth and voicelessly articulated ‘blood’ for emphasis. Frisk nodded in understanding and headed away from the track with a sigh. Right; she could not let regular monsters like Artie see her bleed. Monsters did not bleed.

As she walked and calmed her breathing, she felt the wind cooling off her sweaty fur and pushed her wet ears back in annoyance. God; she hated fur. There were a few good points she could give it, like keeping you warm in a cold castle, or it feeling nice under a brush; but other than that, fuck fur.

She took a water bottle Undyne had brought for her and left on the ground and gulped down a large amount of it. She then looked through the monster teen's basket content until she found a cinnamon bunny. She took a bite and savored both the sweet taste and the feeling of her tongue and her painful elbows, probably scratched, repairing themselves. The healing property of monster food was amazing. She took a moment to watch Artie running under Undyne’s taunt, saw the warning look the fish was giving her and finally sat down on a patch of grass with a deep breath. She was too tired to run, but even without that, Undyne was much too fast and wary of her movements for the former human to try an escape and succeed.

So, the kid who had been harassing Undyne to let them join the Royal Guard happened to have been the one who almost rammed her into the lake. Wow. Frisk could see what Undyne had meant when she said they did not know anything about the war; they were so innocently horrible in their anti-human discourse it made Frisk’s stomach turn.

…Not that Undyne was any better now that she had gone fully hyper on Frisk for some reason. Frisk did not get it; she did not get monsters. She thought she had succeeded in making the fish warrior stop caring for being friendly, but it looked like her inadvertent act of heroism had convinced the fish woman to not only give her a chance, but to also see her as some silly story book character. It was so unnerving.

… On the other hand, Frisk could appreciate Undyne’s recognition of her ‘human and enemy of monsters’ status, because it was something both Alphys and the prince seemed to just want to forget.

…Or worse… make her forget…

…you’d be the best monster, Frisk!

She suppressed a shudder and took another bite.

The prince wanted to make her forget; he wanted her to integrate. He was ready to risk the safety of his sleeping place for that ideal.

…And the crushing part for Frisk was... as much as she hated his gut... she would probably not even hurt him this way if he did… just like he was suspecting.

She growled softly and massaged her muzzle. It was still sweaty.

She could not. She knew she could not kill in cold blood like that; even the murderers of her town and family, she could not kill. In the heat of battle, in the fog of war, surrounded with dust and blood, she could throw an axe at the enemy; she could charge with a cry and hope she would not be the one falling. She could not do it just like that… she could not just converse with someone and try and murder them a second later. She may have killed, but killing was not an instinctive thing for her; she had to be pushed, she had to will it out.

…Asriel had learnt to kill. He had learnt to murder the kind of the one he loved.

Even the kindest person could learn to be a murder. Frisk was not even the kindest person.

“ALRIGHT KID, TIME TO GET SERIOUS!” Frisk heard Undyne scream once Artie finished their lapses. “You’re gonna do a flight test. DON’T YOU DARE GET HIGHER THAN THIRTY FEET, OR I’M SPEARING YOU DOWN MYSELF!”

“Yes Undyne!”

Frisk watched curiously as the wyvern concentrated to make their energy wings appear. She had not seen many flying monsters apart from them. In fact, most of the monster forces she knew of where foot soldiers.

…Planes and drones were for humans.

The prince had made no mention of the object to her, but when she had reflected on it, she had wondered if the drone was the reason why Asriel did not come yesterday. Alphys mentioning having to go join the prince instead of discussing things at the lab seemed to confirm this hypothesis. If the Royal Scientist had to work outside the lab, maybe this was why Undyne was recruted alone to take care of Frisk; they could not leave her alone without surveillance, after all.

Artie flapped their orange wings and finally succeeded lifting themselves. Frisk finished her cinnamon bunny with a chomp.

Drones and planes could not penetrate monster territories, or so it was said; both the king and an elaborate magic shield were making sure of that. Yet… yet this drone had done it, and would have gotten away with it, had it not been for their impromptu sleepover.

…It had probably gotten away with it already a lot, just as others must have.

Frisk could not forget: in spite of all their progress and victories, in spite of their magi-tech, monsters were the losers from the last war. Humans were very scary for monsters; they were creatures of legends.

Frisk watched the small wyvern enviously. If only she had turned into a monster which could fly like that! How great would it be? A part of her wished to have done so, if only to flap her wings until she left everything behind and joined the horizon, never to care about the war or anything else like that again.

…Instead, she had to be a fucking goat head, the type of monster the prince, of all people, happened to fancy. It was a cruel joke fate was playing on her. Every time he did something nice for her, she was feeling something nasty squirm inside. She brought her damp legs up to her chest and surrounded herself with her tail, shuddering.

She did not lie to him; she hated him. She hated him and did not forgive. He had objectively done horrible things which he should pay for.

…But it was hard. It was hard to keep being constantly hateful against someone who was nice with you all the time. By no mean had she warmed up to him; and if anything, his disposition was making it worse, just as his infatuation did. She really wished she could make him pay more for everything; and she would not cry for him if someone else was to off him.

…However, she would have a hard time killing him still; she would have a hard time killing someone she came to know as much as she now had. In theory, she could still do it; she had the physical means, she had the hate.

…Did she have the killer intent, though? She thought back to the dummy and wondered if she could accidentally kill him in a fit of rage. She was only partly physical, though, and he was the strongest monster type; something told her she would not able to dust him with one hit.

“FRISK! WHAT A WONDERFUL SURPRISE TO SEE YOU HERE!”

Frisk’s heavy mood instantly lifted at the skeleton’s voice. She quickly stood and ran to him with a smile.

“Papyrus!”

She hugged him warmly, taking comfort in the smell of bone and spaghetti sauce.

Another Papyrus flashed into her mind, one who missed an arm and was leaking dust. She jerked away from the contact as if it had burned her. Luckily it did not seem like skeleton had noticed.

“NYEHEHEH! INDEED, IT IS I, FRISK! IT’S TOO BAD WE COULDN’T HAVE PROPERLY SAID OUR GOODBYES AT THE FUNERAL, THOUGH FROM WHAT I HEARD, YOU AND THE PRINCE SEEMED BUSY WITH SOMETHING… ANYWAY, IT’S NOT IMPORTANT!”

He pulled out a few papers from his inventory.

“I’VE COME HERE TO GIVE UNDYNE A FEW PUZZLE IDEAS FROM THE TRAPPER GUILD, AS WELL AS SANS’S CONTRIBUTING OPINION ABOUT THIS WEIRD FLYING HUMAN CONTRAPTION DOCTOR ALPHYS SHOT DOWN. OH, SANS CAUGHT SOME MONSTER FLU, BY THE WAY, AND BY FLU, I MEAN HE SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED TO DEPLETE HIS MAGIC RESERVE DURING THE FUNERAL!” Papyrus looked away with a frustrated look. “HE PROBABLY DID IT MAKING THIS SILLY HOTDOG PILE OF HIS! JUST SO THAT METTATON WOULD FILM HIM, CAN YOU IMAGINE, FRISK? HOW IMMATURE CAN MY BROTHER GET SOMETIMES? HE ALMOST LOST ALL OF HIS MAGIC AND IT WAS NOT EVEN WHILE DOING SOMETHING USEFUL, LIKE CATCHING THAT ANNOYING LITTLE DOG!” The skeleton shrugged. “WELL, I SUPPOSE THAT, AS AWESOME AS MY BROTHER CAN BE, EVEN HE IS NOT IMMUNE TO THE ATTRACTION OF QUICK FAME; AT LEAST, IT SHOWS HE CAN GET INVESTED INTO SOMETHING OTHER THAN SCIENTIFIC STUFFS AND SILLY WORD PLAYS.”

Frisk shook off the ghostly apparition from her mind and forced a smile.

“W-well… you’re taking care of Sans until he recover, then?”

“INDEED I AM! I OFTEN HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF HIM LIKE THAT WHEN HE EXHAUSTS HIMSELF, EVEN THOUGH HE DOESN’T LIKE TO BE BABY-SEATED AS MUCH AS HE PRETENDS TO BE!” The skeleton straightened. “HOWEVER, AS THE VERY BUSY AND IMPORTANT SKELETON THAT I AM, I HAD TO TAKE AN HOUR AWAY FROM HIM TO DO THOSE FEW THINGS. I EVEN INTENDED TO MAKE A STOP AT THE CASTLE TO SEE YOU, EVEN THOUGH SANS DIDN’T WANT ME TO, BECAUSE HE THOUGHT IT WOULD TAKE TOO MUCH TIME!” Papyrus pulled out a container of spaghetti. “THERE WAS ALSO THE SPAGHETTI PLATE WE MADE TOGETHER FOR THE HUMAN THAT I WANTED TO GIVE TO THE PRINCE FOR HIM TO GET TO THE LAB, SO I GUESS I’LL HAVE TO MAKE THE DETOUR ANYWAY!”

Frisk leered at the properly cooked spaghetti and salivated.

“Uh, hey, if you only need to see the prince for that, I can take it and bring it to him for you!”

The skeleton’s face lightened.

“THAT’S A GREAT IDEA, FRISK! AND MUCH LESS TIME CONSUMING TOO! HERE!”

He shoved the container in her hands just as Undyne jogged to them, followed by Artie, back on foot.

“NGAH! I thought I heard your voice, you bag of bones! HOW’S YOU LAZY BROTHER’S DOING? YOU BOTH NEED ANOTHER TRAINING SESSION? NGAHAHAH!”

She slapped Papyrus’s back amicably, making him stumble forward.

“AH, INDEED UNDYNE, IT WOULD BE A GREAT TIME FOR US ALL TO HAVE, NYEH!” The skeleton stopped and cleared his throat. “HOWEVER, I CAME FOR THOSE IMPORTANT TOPICS I MENTIONED YESTERDAY ON THE PHONE!”

Undyne blinked and seemed to switch into a more serious mode.

“Ah, I see… hum…” She eyed Frisk and Artie warily before pointing to the lizard. “Alright, kid, take a break and stay with the punk for a moment. I won’t be long!”

With that, she put a hand on Papyrus’s shoulder and dragged him a bit further away from the two monster teens.

Frisk threw an awkward look at Artie, who was wobbling on their feet.

“…Man… whoo! Th-that was… that was intense… huff... wha!”

“Careful!”

Frisk caught the lizard’s large snout before they fell on the ground. It almost slid from her damp fingers and she secured her grip on them like she would have a young child.

“Wow, th-thanks, dude… I… I think I need to sit down a bit.”

Frisk nodded and led them on a bench on the side. She was about to help them up, but the wyvern used their tail to lift themselves on the wooden seat. Frisk watched them do, then sat as well, wary that they might fall. She could not help it; she always took great care around children…Granted, Artie was no child, per se; they were in fact around the same height her human body was, maybe even a bit higher. Still, since Frisk had grown so tall, they were about Cam’s height in relation to her current body.

Thinking of Cam made her expression grew darker as the wyvern was catching their breath.

She was horrified by Artie’s anti-human’s view, but she would be a hypocrite if she did not admit that she had shared those sentiments for monsters before all this; and it was not like she had completely revised her way of thinking either.

…In fact, Artie’s view mirrored word for word the majority of her town’s opinion about monsters. Frisk supposed this only made sense. She had not much contact with the other monsters in Greenlake, but she knew monsters wanted humans gone as much as humans wanted monsters gone.

Well, Cam was an exception in her town; Cam thought there were some nice monsters. But that was because Cam had some weird idea that his guardian angel was in the shape of a monster. He had this strange belief even before he came alone to Frisk’s town when his mother died of exhaustion on the way. Cam also liked those weird pre-war video-games where young kids had monsters that protected their human from harm. Frisk forgot the name of this thing.

Cam had told her that, if he could ever find a copy of the game to play, he would name his main monster after her, because she was always here to protect him. Frisk snorted out loud at that thought, because the irony was so gut-wrenching it was almost funny.

Artie snorted sadly as well.

“Heh, yeah… that was a pathetic flight, huh?” The wyvern looked down with a sad smile. “Man… who am I kidding…I’m never getting into the Royal Guard at this rate.”

Realizing they took her personal musing for themselves, Frisk winced and took an encouraging tone.

“Well… I think your ability to fly is pretty cool.”

“…Thanks, dude…” Their cheeks reddened a bit and they turned their head away. “…But… yo… my… my sister used to be so much better…”

Recognizing the far-away tone they used to refer to their sibling, Frisk refrained for asking anything more. After a short silence, the lizard sighed.

“…It’s… ” They took another ragged breath. “Man… it’s… it’s so hard to talk about it… but… I… I think I need to get this out and… I don’t know who to talk to about this…”

The human monster noticed how their voice wavered in the end. She shifted her tail near her laps and her expression softened.

“…I won’t tell,” she promised.

It seemed to make the little wyvern relax a bit. They still took a few more breath before speaking.

“…So… yo… I… My parents were… they were both into the flight division, you know?” They were looking down on their laps, their clawed feet fiddling with one another. “It… it was at the middle of the war, when… when we still had a flying army…”

Frisk put her clawed hands on her knees. She had never heard of monsters having flying forces.

“… It was… they were… Humans just destroyed them all… with… with their planes and all…” They closed their eyes sadly. “Heh, my… my folks never stood a chance, yo… sis and I, we were all alone…”

They bit their lips, but even though they were obviously saddened, they did not cry. Frisk knew this must have been an old wound, like the deaths of her first parents.

“Sis, she… she took care of most stuffs… we… we had some exterior help, but mostly, it was just us, because… because everyone was so busy with their things.” They opened their eyes and looked ahead. “I… I could be such a little turd and… and yeah, she could be mean to me sometimes, but… but it worked, you know?”

Frisk nodded, waiting for them to find their words.

“…Then… then she met this monster. They were… they were some good Tamer, you know? They were on the front with their Amalgamate family, fighting…”

‘Tamers’… the name monsters gave to those who were directing the Amalgamates to attack the humans. Doggo was one of them. Frisk’s grips on her knees tensed slightly.

“Sis liked them… she ‘liked’ liked them… She was ready to give up her Decorator career for them… and… yo, I think they liked her back.” Artie frowned slightly and swung their tail. “Man… I… I didn’t like that dude very much, but… but they were making sis happy, so…”

They took another large breath.

“…I think… I think the two of them actually would have… but…” Their expression darkened. “But there was an incident in a taken town… Some… some human got to them… they got to the Tamer dude before the Amalgamate could eat them… sis…” The wyvern looked down again. “Sis took the news very badly… she… yo, she…”

This time, there were tears in the lizard’s eyes. They gulped and breathed with difficulty.

“Sh-she w-was s-s-s-so s-s-sad she… sh-she started to lose h-hope…s-s-so much she… I…” They started to tremble. “I-I-I tried to… t-to cheer her up, b-but sh-she… sh-sh-she f-f-f…”

Frisk put an arm around them and brought them close to a half hug, her own throat constricted. The lizard hiccupped near Frisk’s chest.

“Sh-she f-fell down last month… I…” They sobbed. “She was sent t-to… she was send like a-all f-fallen are…to the main lab… I… I st-still haven’t… I still d-don’t know what sh-she looks like now… I’m s-so scared!”

They squealed with a slight shiver. It took a small moment for Frisk to understand what was said, until she remembered what the ‘fallen monsters’, those who had not turned to dust yet, were still used for to this day.

The image of ‘Mx. Dogs’, with its constant shifting form and multiple dog silhouettes sent shivers through her spine. Artie calmed their hiccups down with a few short breaths.

“I…I t-take care of th-the flowers… f-from the echo garden she used to… to grow f-for the town…” They made another pause, then pulled out of Frisk’s hug. “I… I can get by, now… but…”

Their claws grasped at each other and they clenched their dull fangs.

“But I’m so sick of it, yo… I… I’m just sick of those stinking humans killing everyone I…” They glared to the distance. “I… I’m sick of being in the back and do nothing as everyone I care about die! I wanna help, yo! I… I wanna help get them what they deserve for all the evil they’ve done!”

Frisk brought her hands back to her laps and gave them a pained look as they vented their anger at their helplessness.

“I’ve asked Undyne personally for months… when sis was still… I wanted to show sis I could be strong for her! I… I wanted to give her hope and…” They closed their eyes. “And it wasn’t enough… but…” They opened their teary eyes again and looked at Frisk. “But if I become a hero like Undyne I… I could save so many people simply by bringing them hope! A-and even if I can’t do that, I…” They smiled and looked down again. “I-I could protect so many by being a Royal Guard… I wanna help, yo! I… I wanna be useful to our kingdom… to the king and the prince!”

The human monster watched the little wyvern and felt a weight in her stomach. Artie stopped smiling, still looking down with a far-away look.

“You know? I… I sometimes have dreams were everything’s different… where I got my entire family still and humans… humans don’t exist at all.” They breathed out a little quicker than before. “Some dreams, huh? I…” They frowned. “Those stupid humans… They… they take everything from us just because they’re stronger, those stinking bullies… they trapped us all underground for all this time and when we’re finally out, they still manage to slaughter us.”

They looked up to the sky.

“I hate them… I hate them so much…”

Frisk was almost surprised at how ineffectual those words were at angering her. But, after all, what could she answer to that? She made a small chuckle. Artie looked at her curiously and she looked down at her own laps, one hand clenching the other, both on her knees. She looked at this fur, at those claws she hated so much and suppressed another laugh.

“Sorry,” she told the lizard. “It’s not… it’s not funny, exactly, but… there’s this thing…”

She swung her tail and gripped her hands harder to keep them from trembling.

“It’s just…” She snorted nervously. “It’s just that… in the end we… we’re really not that different on this, either…”

“…Frisk?” Artie’s voice sounded slightly worried. She giggled.

If only they knew. If only they knew.

“Heh… yeah…” She was laughing, but it was not funny. “It changes nothing, but… but we’re still the same…”

She felt Artie’s head softly bump on her shoulder. It made her forget her laugh. She stilled herself, but the lizard was not budging. She was looking down her laps. She could have looked at Artie’s face, but she did not.

Then, she felt the wyvern’s scaly tail shift around her furred one and she flinched. The strange contact stilled for a bit, until the lizard finished enrolling their end tail with hers, like the weirdest handshake Frisk had ever received. Unsure of what to think, she relaxed and let it be.

“…Yo, Frisk,” Artie spoke again in a soft tone. “You… you didn’t just came here because of Undyne, did you?”

Frisk shook her head. After a short silence, she moved her arm around Artie again and encompassed them into a wordless hug.

Chapter Text

 The fish warrior and the skeleton came back sometime after. Frisk and Artie disengaged from their comfort hug, but not before Undyne caught the act with a raised eyebrow. Papyrus walked toward Frisk and she stood for him.

“NYEHEHEH, SO I DID WHAT I CAME HERE FOR, BUT BEFORE I FORGET, I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING, FRISK…” He pulled a box from his inventory. “I’M SORRY I DIDN’T WRAP IT LIKE A GIFTMAS PRESENT SHOULD BE, BUT WITH SANS SICK, I DIDN’T GET THE TIME! GO AHEAD AND OPEN IT!”

Frisk was still fumbling with her tongue to try and find the words to thank the generous skeleton when she opened the box. She pulled from it a black bulky rectangular shaped object.

“Ah…ah… thank you…”

Her hands were shaking a bit when she clutched the phone. The skeleton laughed joyously.

“NYEHEHEH, YES! I FIGURED YOU WOULD LIKE IT! I KNOW THAT, SINCE YOU’RE STILL A YOUNG MONSTER, YOU PROBABLY DON’T HAVE THE MONETARY FUND YET TO REPLACE YOUR LOST PHONE, SO I GOT ONE FOR YOU! IT’S NOT EXACTLY THE LATEST MODEL; IT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A JET-PACK… BUT IT DOES HAVE ONE DIMENSIONAL BOX AND I REGISTERED MY NUMBER IN THERE! THAT WAY, YOU CAN REACH ME WHENEVER YOU FEEL THE NEED TO! “

“Thank you, Papyrus,” Frisk repeated, her voice still wavering. “I… you shouldn’t have… but thank you…”

“WELL, OF COURSE I SHOULD HAVE! YOU’RE THANKING ME, AREN’T YOU? NYEH! I CAN’T LEAVE MY GREAT FRIEND IN NEED OF A COMMUNICATION DEVICE! WHAT IF YOU STUMBLE UPON A VERY DAZZLING PUZZLE AND THE EXPERT THAT I AM ISN’T AROUND TO HELP YOU? THAT WAY, YOU CAN REACH FOR MY HELPING HAND AND SMOOTHING VOICE TWENTY FOUR HOUR/SEVEN!”

She put a hand on her muzzle to stifle a noise in between a sob and a chuckle and hugged him shortly.

“NYEHEHEH! AS USUAL, MY GIFT-MAKING IS A THRILLING SUCCESS!” As he left the hug, Papyrus gave her a big skeletal smile. “WELL, I SHOULDN’T MAKE SANS WORRY, SO I’LL LEAVE YOU TO YOUR TRAINING, FRISK! I AM SURE THAT YOU’LL DO GREAT NO MATTER WHAT, SO DON’T GIVE UP AND KEEP THE LIGHT OF YOUR SOUL STRONG!”

Frisk did a hearty chuckle as the skeleton left the training ground with his usual laugh. Once Papyrus was gone, Frisk turned her attention to Undyne, her friend’s gift still in her shaky hands. The fish warrior looked at her, then at Artie who had left the bench, and pumped a fist in the air.

“ALRIGHT, PUNKS, ENOUGH DABBLING AROUND!” She pointed at Artie. “Do me a small jog of three laps, then we go back to flying!” When Artie left, she turned to Frisk. “We’re gonna practice your stance before we make you hit something again, kid!”

Frisk nodded and silently handed the cell phone to Undyne with a constricted heart. She did not need anyone telling her she was not allowed to keep a phone with a dimensional box in it. The fish lady took the device with a frown.

“…You know, I’m sure we can negotiate to let you keep it when you’re out,” she mentioned. “…But whatever! CONCENTRATE ON YOUR TRAINING, PUNK!”

Frisk shrugged and followed Undyne’s order.

--

“S-so, that new shield should make it impossible for another…another human device to get through, but… yeah, we… we still don’t know how long they’ve been doing this…”

Asriel clenched his hand as Alphys finished explaining the situation to the face of his father on the screen. The scientist had arranged a room in the castle for them to discuss the ‘drone’. Asriel’s father was too busy to come, but with the wonders of technology, he was now listening to the yellow lizard with a grave face.

“…I see,” the king finally said, a hand caressing his golden mane of a beard. “Those human flying robots could explain the difficulty we had on our side of the kingdom’s border. We were wondering how human forces always seemed to know where to position their troop for the maximum damage. We should have suspected spying.”

“Y-yeah… w-we’ve grown complacent on those things,” Alphys admitted, looking down while pushing her glasses up. “B-because we underestimated humans’ ability to upgrade their tech… I-I’ll have to get back Sans’s words on this, but… if I’m right, they… they probably progressed in soul-based tech… a-albeit crudely…”

Asriel frowned and his ears flopped down a bit.

“The understanding of the magic of the soul is our strongest advantage in this war… Humans are the ones who possess the biggest resources. If they learn how to harness it… or even rediscover how to use magic…”

Alphys gave her prince a strained look.

“Th-that… they’re still pretty far from it, as far as I can gather… f-for now, at least.” She looked down at her notes. “I-I think this looks like some sort of ritualistic magic… I-I bet they had the idea to call upon humans of faith to give out protections to their machines, probably whatever they teach their soldiers to make their soul shatter upon death also has a similar origin and they’re trying to apply it on other things.”

“And it appears they succeeded,” Asriel’s father noted from his screen. Alphys straightened up and hand waved.

“Y-yes, but… but it’s really nothing we can’t handle if it’s just that. I-it’s really only surface magic… it’s about as developed as ‘aura reading’ for us… h-honestly, the fact that they only managed to make it a success now after all those years shows how much they lost the craft.”

“…But if they could relearn this, they could relearn their stronger magic as well,” The king said, making the lizard flinch.

“th-that… y-yeah… i…i suppose they could, eventually, but…” Alphys sighed. “h-humans don’t know how to pull out their souls naturally. w-without this knowledge, they will not progress further, i think… e-even if they do, w-without monsters to teach them directly, it would still take them decades to master spells-“

“But from the moment they will relearn how to pull out their souls, they will be able to study the power of the soul, thus try to use it as a fuel for themselves.”

“Y-yes… that… yeah…” Alphys looked down at the table.

Asriel uncrossed his claws with a sigh and looked at the scientist.

“Alphys, you…” He took another breath. “Do you think turning humans into monsters could be a viable solution to end the war before humans relearn their magic?”

The lizard bit her lips and sighed.

“w-well… on the event… on the event that i succeed in reproducing it, i… i-i-i think i’d be able to recalibrate cannons f-for this purpose… b-but, uh… l-let’s face it, your majesty…” She gave Asriel a tired look. “If I do succeed i-in doing that… first, any human turned this way would be dangerous hybrid until… until physical extraction and… and this type of grand scale technology won’t be ready f-for years at the very least. i…” She looked at her intermingled claws. “i think this is the best solution we have at our disposal to avoid killing humans… but… but we probably shouldn’t count on it as a priority… f-for now, at least…”

Asriel sighed and massaged his head at the news. He was not surprised, but the recent increase in human offensive was precipitating things in an unnerving way. One the screen, Asgore caressed his beard with a hum.

“I saw you shared your findings with other scientist teams as well. Torria personally found me to say he had a few suggestions about it… But I suppose this will have to wait for now.” He turned his attention to Asriel. “My son, you were saying you were progressing with the human?”

‘Progress’ had been a word Asriel had used in his reports to his father. At this moment, however, he had to restrain the urge to touch his healed cheek, the echoing memory of the slap filling his mind.

“I… suppose we do…” He exchanged a tentative glance with Alphys to find support and got it after a few seconds in the form of a short nod.

“Frisk… Frisk is a good kid, your majesty,” The scientist agreed, a trembling smile on her lips as she fumbled with her claws. “She… has a noble soul and… and she can see past the differences in between us.” She looked down on her claws. “she’s… pretty smart too… and brave… i think… she… she’s the kind of person you can appreciate and like very easily… in spite of everything…” Her voice came to an absurdly low level as she continued. “…but even if mettaton-”

“Alphys,” Asriel hissed warningly. She clasped her jaw shut, eyes wide and her claws gripping the table. The king raised a curious eyebrow at his heir.

“Mettaton? Is something the matter with him, son?”

“…It’s nothing,” Asriel assured in dissmissal, “Mettaton has just meddled with affaire he should not concern himself with again.”

“…Do you mean this announcement he made on his program?” the king asked, “Is this what this is about? He wishes to show the human on his show?”

Of course his father had to know about the robot's anouncement. Asriel's stomach churned unervingly. He licked his lips and nodded. He heard Asgore's contemplative humning.

“...Maybe I am not knowledgeable enough on the subject, however, if Alphys is right about this young lady’s good disposition, what wrong is there in showing her to our people as a message of Hope?”

Asriel winced at the question and shook his head, standing to face his father’s screen resolutely.

“No, Frisk still hates us, father,” he told him, “she may not dislike all monsters… and she may have made a friend and saved a kid but… her heart is still human. She wouldn’t want us to…" He thought back to her screams of terror at the catsle and gulped. "She wouldn’t want to help us raising our hope.”

“…Then, perhaps, it could be up to us to help her instead?” his father suggested. “I a very sure that more than enough monsters would be supportive of her if they were to know who she was, regardless of what she thinks of us. Is it not a fundamental way of monsters to be welcoming and kind?”

Asriel licked his lips and took a breath, his unease growing.

“Frisk … Frisk wouldn’t like it… she… she won’t stand being a symbol of Hope.”

His father’s traits softened.

“…My son, do not sell her ability for compassion this short. Humans…  may be more disconnected from those emotions than us, however, with the help of loving friends, I do believe-“

“It didn’t work for Chara,” Asriel almost spat the words, surprising himself at their bite. “It didn’t work for them to be a symbol of Hope, you… you can’t just put something so huge on some kid’s shoulders, father!”

“…Chara’s death was a tragedy, my son,” the king reminded with a frown, a slight tightness in his tone. “As hard as it was for us both, we… there was not anything you could do about it.”

Asriel closed his eyes and clenched his fist, silently cursing the secret baring his soul.

 “…At least…” Asriel gulped and took a breath. “At least, let’s wait until she’s a full monster before we ask anything of her… She… the hate in her heart is too strong now.”

The words rolling off his tongue tasted sour. He regretted this concession as soon as he made it. Still, he tried to look resolute when he met his father’s gaze, until the king nodded with a sigh.

“…Very well; as I said, I trust your judgment on this.” The king turned his attention back to the scientist. “Alphys, while you keep working on our cannon and increase our defense, may I perhaps, ask of you to give additional time on the human monster project? You may recruit other labs on any of those topics, if you judge it necessary for faster results.”

“Y-yes, my king,” the scientist agreed with a bow. She sunk low until she almost entirely disappeared under the table, leaving only her shaky claws behind.

King Asgore turned back to his son.

“It seems you did remarkably well with the human, Asriel. However, do not forget your duty on the front as well. If this drone was any indication, we should be expecting an offensive soon on your side. Ready your troops. Also…” Asgore looked to the side for an uncomfortable moment before continuing. “Also, I had some news from Torria about the Council. He… was willing to relay them to you directly at the fort.”

The feeling of dread that had invaded Asriel’s soul grew heavier. Torria… he really did not need this on top of everything else. And if it was anything like the last time they had that talk, he had a feeling he would not like it.

…Although perhaps the end plan for him would be deserved… considering Frisk…

“…Asriel,” Asgore called out softly, “Are you-”

Asriel bowed down before his father could see the depth of his worry. Leaving Frisk to return to war was the last thing the prince wanted to do, but this was nothing new in his life.

After all, the future was something he had learned to face with dread.

--

By the time Undyne was done with their training, Frisk felt pain in every part of her body. She knew she was supposed to be at the very least somewhat made of magic, but she could tell no difference with physical feelings. Artie, who was clearly more trained than her, was faring much better when they finally departed with a grin and an energy hand waving at Frisk.

Once she was alone with the fish warrior, Frisk wasted no time to lie down on the grass with a sigh. She was going to feel it tomorrow, no doubt. Undyne looked her do so with a snort and raised her hand in an offhand manner.

“Come on, punk, let’s get to my house and get you a quick shower before I bring you back to the lab.”

Still full of sweat, Frisk made a short moan in agreement. Shower, an actual shower would be amazing now. With difficulty, she pulled herself up, under the mocking glare of the fish warrior. Once at her home, Undyne led her to the bathroom and pulled a few clothes from her clothe drawer.

“I think those will fit you. They’re a bit small for me now, so you can just keep ‘em.”

Frisk nodded with a grunt and appreciated the alone time within the confinement of a bathroom again. When she came out, it was both relaxed and annoyed that she could not brush herself properly. Undyne had lent her a hair brush, but the fish lady had no fur, thus no need for the proper brushing tool. Hair brush worked, but it felt less pleasant.

The clothes Undyne lent her fitted, at least. It was a black top with shorts, like what the fish lady was typically wearing. Undyne had given the short an accommodating hole for the human monster’s tail. Frisk was not particularly fond of them, however, because they stuck to her fur a bit too much, and her top was making her lack of breasts very visible. Not that she missed breasts much, but she did not want other monsters’ comments about this.

Undyne was waiting outside the bathroom when she came out. The warrior had no occasion to shower herself, since she had to watch for Frisk; thus, her sushi smell was even stronger than usual when she pointed downstairs.

“Made some water boil for tea, if you want.”

Frisk, still tired and not looking forward the trek to her cell, readily agreed. They made their way downstairs and sat at the kitchen’s table. Undyne poured two cups and handed one to Frisk while the human monster was picking her herb among the fish’s collection. When she saw her choice, Undyne raised an eyebrow and snorted.

“‘Golden Flower’, huh? Funny.”

Frisk blinked when she realized she had picked the flavor out of habit and shrugged before putting the little sachet in the burning hot water.

“Your stupid prince made me taste it; it’s good.”

Undyne made a sound in between a growl and a laugh.

“I swear, if you weren’t some human punk, I’d be sending you straight to the ground for your blatant disrespect of our kingdom.”

“Too late, you already did that, remember?” Frisk told her in almost a murmur, mixing the tea with a spoon.

“…Oh, yeah; man, I forgot about that!” Undyne’s remorse was quickly covered by a wide fanged smile. “Heh, even then you were a gutsy little thing, huh?”

Frisk’s only answer was to blow on her tea. Undyne sighed, drank a bit and looked to the side.

“…You know, back when I was a little brat, I… I wanted to be the best warrior of the kingdom.” She snorted. “So, of course, I was going around and challenging every celebrity fighters… Like old Gerson… then, Asgore…”

Frisk’s eyes widened a bit.

“The king? Seriously?”

Undyne laughed.

“Yeah, I was such a stupid punk; and he was already in his god-like state too, NGAH! I was so bad it was EMBARASSING!” Her smile softened and she looked down her tea. “…But Asgore… he’s pretty tough… even before becoming a god, he was… but most of all, this guy, he…”

She spat a mocking snort.

“He’s such a PANSY! Just like his son! Man…” She turned the cup in her palms. “I kept attacking and he NEVER hit back! Not that I could even lend a blow on him if I TRIED! NGAH!” She smiled wide. “I tried and tried until he just went all: ‘excuse me, do you want to hit me?’ … It made me SO MAD!”

Frisk blinked and did a half smirk.

“You just called your king a ‘pansy’. You really ought to punch your own head through the ground.”

“NGAHAH! Don’t you get all smart on ME, punk!” the warrior retorted without a bite in her words. “Anyway, he never hit back, but he’s been a good teacher for Asriel and me…” She shook her head in nostalgia. “Man… I felt SO BAD the first time I sent him on the ground, but he was just beaming at me, all proud!”

Frisk finished her first sip and put the cup down with a frown.

“…Asgore felt proud in teaching you how to be a murderer…”

“A warrior, kid,” Undyne corrected pointedly, putting an elbow on the table for emphasis, “I get you don’t see it like that, but soldiers are no murderers, no matter if they’re monsters or humans. We choose to risk our life for the good of our people, to protect our own and bring our side to victory. This is what war is about.”

Frisk giggled humorlessly.

“Is this what you tell yourself when you go through our towns and kill babies and elders?”

The fish lady’s expression closed off.

“Causalities are consequences of war, kid; nothing much to do about this.”

Frisk got a hold of her giggle and took a breath.

“…What if… what if it was the reverse that was true instead? What if you go to war to bring out causalities?”

“We don’t.”

“Heh, nah, of course you don’t.” Frisk rolled her eyes and licked her spoon. “You totally don’t war on us for complete annihilation or anything.” She stared straight at Undyne’s eye. “It’s not like ‘pansy king Asgore’ proclaimed ‘the destruction of humanity’, right?”

It was Undyne’s turn to roll her eyes.

“Please, even at the beginning of the war, Asgore never wanted to kill all humans. To defeat you as a whole, maybe, but the ‘destruction’ was meant for your kingdoms, not your people!” She shrugged. “You would have thrived on, eventually, like we did.”

Frisk shook her head, disgust feeling her.

“…You really need to listen to yourself, sometimes.”

“I told you; Asgore IS a pansy. He wouldn’t have killed you all.”

“And what? We’re supposed to guess that from his declaration?” Frisk asked with a frown, showing her fangs. “And what does that change for us? You would still have slaughtered most of us either way. What does it change that you wanted to spare a few of us, either as a sub-people in your new kingdom or as the new kind to be sealed underground by a magical spell?”

“To you? It changes nothing,” Undyne answered casually. “I told you, I get you, kid, even if I still think we were justified in our desire for revenge. And, yeah, from your point of view, you humans are justified in destroying us off, because we invade you.” She picked her cup and brought it near her lips. “I kill humans; you kill monsters; that’s how it goes.”

Frisk glared at the warrior drinking the remaining of her tea before sighing and bringing her own cup to her lips. It looked like they had reached the end of their position…

…However…as much as she knew the fish’s words to be true, they were hitting something in her heart unpleasantly, like she was missing something important.

“…Anyway, with everything going on and his son reaching maturity, King Asgore stopped teaching youngsters,” Undyne continued as Frisk was sipping her tea. “So, I ended up teaching most of them.” The warrior snorted sadly. “I think… I think the hardest is when those youngsters end up dying before I do. I got no kids yet, but… but I bet this is how parents feel when… when they lose their children.”

Undyne tapped the table with her fingers and bit her lips.

“Artie… when that punk came to see me, I… Heh… I could get where they were coming from…” she closed her eyes. “I never got to meet their parents in the flying force, but I get it. Still… It kinda pisses me off…” She gritted her teeth. “It pisses me off how many kids like them they are, who lost everything and are ready to give up their life like that. A warrior… Being a warrior… should come first from a passion, not… not despair.”

Frisk put her cup down and looked to the side, bringing her tail close to her legs.

“…No one chooses to lose everyone they love,” she muttered.

Frisk felt Undyne's look on her before the warrior shook her head.

“No, no one does, whether you’re humans or monsters… still…” Undyne met her gaze. “Still, I like to think my training helps, if only a little, at giving them something to release into… To turn their rage and hate into something positive.”

Frisk said nothing. She made a half-assed attempt at biting her monstrous lips.

“I saw you earlier with Artie,” Undyne told her. “I’m guessing they told you a bit of their past, huh?” The warrior shrugged with a half smile. “They’re a nice kid, even with all their prejudices and false ideas on war. They’re also passionate as hell, even… even if I don’t think they’d make a good soldier, personally.” Her eyes shifted conspiratorially. “Don’t tell them I said that… but… they remind me of Papyrus a bit. I bet they’re like him on many points. I… I’m not sure they could bring themselves to hit something, even if their life depended on it.”

Frisk cocked her head with a raised eyebrow.

“…You’re not telling me that to convince me to be friends with them, are you?”

Undyne snorted.

“NGAH! Please, kid; like you’d need my words to be friends with them at the rate you’re pulling off the hug quotas! You’re a big SOFTY, punk!”

Frisk rolled her eyes exasperatedly at the warrior’s small mockery, too tired to feel outrage at this statement.

“PFFF! Anyway,” Undyne continued, “I was thinking rather to get them to know Papyrus instead. I bet that goofy sack of bones would be a good influence on the kid! What do you think?”

Frisk blinked and shrugged.

“I don’t think you even need me to say it: you know I like Papyrus; of course I think he’d be a good influence.”

“So, you think it’s a good idea?”

“Sure.”

Frisk went on to sip the remaining of her tea. Undyne clapped her hands.

“Perfect! You can play matchmakers for them, then!”

The human monster chocked on her drink and coughed for a while. Undyne laughed out loud at her reaction, until Frisk threw her a baffled look.

“Urg… What? They’re fifteen!”

“NGAHAHAH! YOU SHOULD SEE THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE, GOD!” Undyne cackled maniacally. “SERIOUSLY? Your mind goes THERE first? Come on!”

“What am I supposed to understand when you just throw it out like that?” Frisk replied with a glare, her tail swinging around.

“Pfff, that you’re supposed to get them to be FRIENDS? DUH!” Undyne snorted.

Frisk frowned further.

“You know the two of them for longer than I do; why don’t you do it?”

“You seen how the kid LOOKS at me? They may as well worship every step I MAKE!” She tapped the table lightly. “I made a few tries to get them to know each others, but Artie never pays attention to Papyrus, and Papyrus is… well… you know?” She made a nervous smile. “You and I both know how great of a person he is, but… to be honest, he’s not… exactly… hum… ‘approachable’?” Her expression turned slightly more assured. “But you’re Artie’s age and Papyrus’s friend. I’m sure you can find a way to get them to notice each other if I’m not here for Artie to worship me.”

Frisk thought about it and massaged her head.

“…You can’t really leave me alone with either of them, though.”

“Oh, you won’t be alone,” she assured. “I’ll just QUIETLY follow the three of you while you work your friendship magic! NGAHAH!”

“…Quietly. ‘Friendship magic’?” Frisk repeated, dead-panned.

“NGAH! YEAH!” She pumped a fist to the ceiling excitedly. “You can use that weird human mind-control magic that makes everyone get all friendly with you, but in between THEM this time!”

“…I don’t mind-control people, Undyne,” Frisk retorted, rolling her eyes. “You monsters are just unbelievably quick at empathizing with me for some stupid reasons.”

“PFFF YEAH, RIGHT! You can’t hide your secret power from ME, kid! I’m not dumb! NGAH!”

“God, Undyne…” Frisk took her head in her hands. “Do you actually live in a cartoon?”

“I don’t, BUT IF I DID, IT WOULD BE THE BEST ANIME EVER! NGAHAHAHAHAH!”

Frisk made a moan of despair.

“Does that mean you’ll do it?” Undyne asked.

“…Sure; s’not like I got much to do.”

Undyne stood up from her seat.

“Great, you can do it tomorrow!”

Frisk looked up with a tired frown.

“…Really?”

“YEAH! I’ll make you buy some stuff in town with Artie and arrange for you to meet Papyrus! It’ll be the perfect plan!”

Frisk did not even bother hiding her eye-rolling.

“… Of course…”

“NGAHAHAH! AWESOME! Now that that’s settled, let’s get you back to the lab. YOU’LL NEED PLENTY OF REST FOR THE WORKOUT I’M GONNA GIVE YOU, PUNK!”

With a grown, Frisk stood up to follow the upbeat monster.

--

Asriel stopped in front of Frisk’s cell door to take a breath before entering. Like he had seen on the screen, she was sprawled on the bed, fully clothed and reading a history book with half-closed eyes. She did not even blink when he entered; she probably felt his aura before he came.

“…Been a while, there,” she commented neutrally, unmoving. He swallowed nervously.

“…Sorry, I had a busy day,” he walked to her and tried to ignore the way her clothes were fitting her form closely. “How did it go with Undyne?”

She growled and put the book on her chest, still lying on the bed.

“…Busy day too.”

“Did you like it?”

She started shrugging, then stopped and met his gaze with her brown red-colored eyes.

“That was your idea, wasn’t it?”

“I figured you’d like to really let yourself go, since you always have to contain yourself around us all the time.”

She snorted softly at his answer and looked up with a groan.

“Gonna feel this in the morning.”

“…Sorry, I guess this means you-“

“It was fine.”

“Oh.”

There was an awkward silence Asriel spent shifting his weight from one paw to another. The talk with his father in his mind. He licked his lips, a weight dropping in his chest.

“I… I may have to be away a few more days, so… you’ll probably spend more times with Undyne; if she’s okay with that, of course.”

“…You gave her some talk to convince her to replace you?”

“It didn’t take much convincing, honestly,” he told her with a soft smile. “I think she likes you.”

Frisk stretched her arms with a snort.

“Yeah, like almost all of you monsters. This is so stupid; you shouldn’t like me.”

Asriel leant against the table.

“I’m not sure why you’re so averse to the idea of us liking you, Frisk; you’re not that unlikable.”

“Please…” She rolled her eyes, then glared at him. “You know this has nothing to do with being ‘likable’ or not, it’s just common sense.” Her eyes met his again, her expression kept neutral. “And you have the worst common sense of them all.”

Asriel looked down. He was so used to her critique of him that he usually almost thought of them as back-handed compliments, but the slap from two days past was still on his mind. When he looked up, he saw that Frisk’s expression seemed pained. She looked away.

“…The worst of all, it’s how you don’t even notice how much of a problem it is” she mumbled almost inaudibly “… you’re such a spoiled brat, little prince.”

Asriel accidentally snorted this time, bringing Frisk’s gaze back on him. He shook his head.

“Sorry,” he said, his lips nearly straining a smile. “It’s just that… they called me that too, once…” He looked away and finished quickly. “Chara, I mean.”

Asriel had not exactly meant to address this aloud. Luckily for him, Frisk did not insist and looked up to the ceiling again with a frown.

“You’re… going back to the front, then?” she asked him in almost a mutter, her tone still neutral.

His ears went down a bit and his hands gripped the table.

“…There won’t be another attack. I’m just going there occasionally to monitor the border, nothing more” he told her. He had neither the need, nor the will to hide this from her.

“…I see.”

After another awkward silence, Asriel took a breath and straightened up.

“Frisk… I…” He swallowed again. “I… I’m sorry about… about that time earlier.” He gave her a hesitant look. “It was… wrong of me to insist on making you live in the castle when…” He brought his hands together and started massaging them. “…when you can’t even stand me…”  A lump in his throat prevented him from going further. The memory of Frisk in front of the mirror came to him again and he shook it off. “I just… I meant what I said before, you know? That… even though I can’t give you back what I-”

“Asriel,” her voice cut him off, her neutral tone let her tiredness through, “shut up.”

His jaws snapped shut. He felt the tears filling his eyes, but he said nothing as he perceived the swirl of unpleasant, barely hidden emotions in her aura. The voice of his father echoed in his mind as he watched her, stoic on the bed cell, her history book on her chest. A guilty thought surfaced, a desire to just let the hybrid go and take the fall; a desire to put her will of freedom above his kingdom's safety, even in the event that this would doom him.

…A desire that would probably lead to the human monster shot to death by humans, or captured and tortured…

…A desire leading to the Extractor on her soul being lifted, leaving her form to fail as her magical body disappeared… leaving the rest of her physical mass fall on the floor and-

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” she asked with a sigh. “Honestly… get some paperwork or something and leave me alone.”

“…Sorry” he answered softly, lick his lips. “I’ll be going now…”

“Asriel,” she called out again before he could turn fully.  She rose herself to be in a sitting position, gripping the book with one hand. “You…” She made a tentative to bite her lips and continued. “You have a kingdom to take care of. You can’t afford so much attention to my issues.” She stared at him intently and cocked her head. “I know that ...but sometimes, I wonder if you do.”

The prince eyed her for a bit before turning around and whispering her goodnight. He left the cell with a hard expression on his face.

Her desires were not his priority… except when they could be.

Chapter Text

“Man, I wish Undyne wasn’t so busy, I wanted more time for doing laps; I bet I could’ve beaten my record there!”

“Hmf…”

Frisk would probably have been more appreciative of this day if every single joint in her body was not hurting so much. As it was, just keeping up with Artie was taking most of her attention. She was pretty sure she was in no state to even try to escape, was she not aware Undyne was following them through the bushes, cackling. Artie was thankfully too excited to notice their idol watching them from afar.

“And it’s annoying to only shop for her instead of training. Well, at least she gave us those sale coupons for the great market today. They only happen twice a month, after all, so it’s cool we can go now… yo, Frisk, you’re from out of town, right? Ever been to one of those?”

Frisk shook her head and looked around. Now that she thought of it, this would be her first casual outing at that time of the day, when most monsters were awake and out in the streets. She recognized most of them from the funeral; she and Artie had greeted quite a few already.

There were also some who were throwing weird glances at where Undyne was hidden, but luckily, none commented on the captain’s strange behavior.

At least, Frisk was back to wearing her casual blue and purple sweater. She had asked Alphys to wash it when she was back at the lab. She had also been granted her new phone for the outings, although with the reminder that it would be checked thoroughly every times she would be back in the cell. Alphys had also mentioned the phone was restricted to monster number use only; unsurprising, given human technology was purposely scrambled in the kingdom. She reached for her pocket and clutched Papyrus’s gift with a smile. She had asked Alphys for a few gold coins to buy something to repay him, which the scientist readily agreed to. As horrible as Frisk’s position was, she had to appreciate the fact that monsters were so much more inclined to niceness than the humans would have been.

It was making them hard to fully hate, but it did have its good sides. This opportunity might help her get more than a gift to Papyrus. She might find something for those shackles...

“Yo, we’re here!”

Artie nodded to a glass covered building surrounded by greenery. To Frisk, it looked like a human market. The inside was fairly crowded, but manageably so. Frisk followed her lizard companion as they slalomed through the stands.

“Let’s see… Undyne asked something from Muffet’s pastries. I think I know where that is; come on!”

They started running, to Frisk’s annoyance. Every step she was taking was punctuated with a dull pain. She really needed to exercise more. Artie went in between the large white shivering form of the dog Amalgamate and Frisk stopped with a shiver. The giant monster turned its black dripping hole to her and made a shot of multiple barks of recognition. Its eight legs wobbled to her still body excitedly. Frisk had to force herself to take a step back to avoid getting crushed by the terrifying beast. It stopped before her, waving its tail fast, like would do a normal attention seeking canine.

Frisk stared at the panting beast for a moment. Then, as if taken over by a strange impulse, she reached out to it with a shivering hand and lightly scratched what would be the creature’s neck.

It make a stereo whine noise and slumped on the ground in a mass of shape shifting furry mess and presented its ‘belly’, to her. Frisk slowly brought her clawed hand down to it, shuddering every time the magic mass under her palm was forming an additional dog head, which quickly meddled back into the white body. The warm beast was panting fast under her terrified strokes.

Frisk liked animals. She liked dogs. She liked normal dogs.

There was something surreal with the way this monstrosity was acting like one would. She had always believed herself able to make the distinction in between animals and monsters up to now, even with most monsters possessing animal traits. Still, it was something she did not understand; the way they seemed to copy nature so much, both animals and humans, when they were made of magic and not limited by the flesh.

Monsters were beyond comprehension.

“There you are,” called out a gruff and familiar voice. “Quit running off every time someone nice goes and pet you!”

Frisk raised her head, still petting the Amalgamate, and saw Doggo running to them. He was wearing the same clothes he did for the funeral, only with the addition of a spiked collar. The dog squinted at her form.

“Huh, I recognize this trembling… ‘Frisk’, right? The Boss Monster who lives with the prince? That’s nice of you to remember to move for me; most people usually forget to do that.”

Frisk took a short while to nod shakily. The last thing she wanted was to be here and converse with the dogs, however there were not many ways for her to dismiss them that were not rude, and she was afraid the Amalgamate would pounce at her if she stopped petting. Her eyes locked on Doggo’s spiked collar and she blurted out:

“T-that’s a nice collar you have here.”

“Uh? Oh, thank you.” He put a paw in between the spikes in obvious satisfaction. “When we were looking for a collar for my family, I decided to buy one at the MTT-BRAND shop. I think it expresses my personality nicely, don’t you think?”

“Yes, definitely,” she agreed quickly.

“I thought so!” He grinned. “I guess all I need now is to find a leash and someone nice to take me for a walk.”

Before Frisk had any time to get weird out by that statement, Artie came to the rescue through the crowd.

“Yo, Frisk; what are you doing? Did you get lost? Oh, hello Mx. Dogs and Mr. Doggo sir!”

“Hello?” Doggo turned to Artie, squinting. “You’re the little wyvern kid Undyne is training, right?”

“Yo, that’s right! So, uh, yo, love to chat, but Frisk and I are kinda busy right now, so, uh…”

“Right, right; we need to get going as well, anyway.” Doggo patted the Amalgamate. “Come on, now, leave the lady alone; we have to go.”

With a disappointed whine, the enormous beast stood up to follow Doggo, releasing Frisk of her petting. Frisk watched them disappear through the crowd both with relief and a slight disappointment. She had forgotten how much she had missed animals; actual animals. Her neighbors had a nice boxer mixed breed who used to play with the kids around and a few military dogs had been her patients when she was assisting the village’s vet.

Artie nudged her a bit.

“C’mon, Frisk; the quicker we do Undyne’s shopping, the faster we can look for stuffs for ourselves, yo!”

This time, Artie trotted beside her until they reached a tent. Near its entry, a humanoid monster with a rectangular face was leaning sadly on a sign that said: ‘Spider bake sale: all donations go to spiders. All high quality products by spiders, of spiders and for spiders’. Frisk remembered the spider donut and winced at the memory.

“Yo, it’s over there, Frisk,” the yellow lizard nodded to the tent. “Let’s go!”

“That lady at the counter…” the humanoid monster muttered to himself, holding a donut, “I told her I didn’t want to buy anything… and she kept starring at me until… I… I spent all my money…”

“…You know, Artie,” Frisk called out cautiously. “Maybe we should avoid this one- You’re not listening, are you?” She finished tiredly when the small lizard disappeared inside the tent. She pondered staying outside to wait for them, then spotted Undyne giving her a thumb up while hiding behind a potted plant and sighed before entering as well.

She heard skittering before her eyes adapted enough to the dim light to spot the eight-legged little black spots running on the ground and shuddered, suddenly very aware of her lack of shoes. Raising her tail high, she carefully stepped to the party counter. Frisk had no arachnophobia, but she was not fond enough of spiders to touch any. Also, she was unsure whether those were real spiders or monsters, but either way, she was probably better off not squishing anything.

Artie was already browsing through the articles excitedly while the shop-keeper monster watched. Unsurprisingly, it was a spider monster, humanoid and probably female, if her attire and pigtails were any indications. Her five eyes were watching the little wyvern intensely. When she saw Frisk arrive, her mandibles quivered and she put a hand on them to mask a laugh.

“Ahuhuh, why, if it isn’t the prince’s sweetheart? Welcome to my shop, dear. I was wondering when you’d come and have a taste of our fine pastries. I must say, I was a bit disappointed to hear from the Capital that no spider ever met you in our boutiques. The prince’s visits always help boost our sales quite a bit. It’s good publicity.”

Frisk gave the spider lady an uneasy glance. In spite of her annoyance, this monster’s disposition was too unsettling for Frisk to find the words to rebut her. Luckily, Artie was here to do so.

“Yo, Frisk’s not with the prince! She’s just a kid that lives in the castle.” They turned to the spider with an excited twitch in their tail. “And she’s training to get in the Royal Guard like me! Isn’t that awesome?”

Frisk closed her aura as much as she could while putting her hands on her hips with a sigh. Well, that was one misunderstanding traded with another. Frisk was unsure which was better. The spider flustered a bit; but only a bit.

“Oh, you’ll have to excuse my mistake. I suppose I can’t ask you to come to my tea parlor with the prince for a romantic date, then! Ahuhuh!” She brought her six arms together on the counter with a smile. “Ah, well, no matter. Welcome to my shop, deary. I am Muffet, the main representative for the kingdom’s spiders. All proceed funds go to the cause of spiders here, so your contribution would really help out.” She took a flyer from the counter and handed it to Frisk. “Here are all our shops throughout the country. Please, check them out, dear.”

Frisk took the flyer uneasily. Artie looked at the article until pointing with their tail a large jug.

“Yo, this is what Undyne’s looking for!”

“Ahuhuh! My, what a connoisseur our captain is! Let me get that for you, my little Royal Guards!” Muffet trotted to the jug and started to wrap it in webbings. “Say, now that I think about it…” She gave Frisk a curious look. “That’s the first time I’ve heard of a Boss Monster joining the front army that is not the prince or the king. I’m surprised your parents let you do something like that.”

Frisk only shrugged, pretending to read the flyer. She could just tell Muffet that her parents were deceased, but something told her she was better off letting monsters imagining things than to blow her cover with a bad explanation.

Muffet announced her price to the young lizard, who winced and looked through a sachet around their neck with an energy hand. They pulled out all their gold at the counter in front of the spider, who frowned and shook her head.

“Oh, my, that’s not nearly enough, dearie.”

“But… that’s all Undyne gave me,” Artie looked at her pleadingly. “And… and we have those coupons-“

“Yes, sweet thing, I counted the coupons as well.” She shook her head sadly. “I suppose the captain of the Royal Guard is unaware of the recent rise of price due to the seasonal change, how unfortunate.”

Artie looked down in disappointment and Frisk looked at the scene with a frown. After a sigh, she pulled out her own gold coins and added them on the counter.

“…Is this enough?”

The spider blinked, eyes darting on the pile and sighed shaking her head.

“Oh, I’m sorry, dear, but you’re still too short. I suppose if you had another coupon-“

“DID SOMEONE ASKED FOR A SALE COUPON? NYEHEHEH! HAVE NO FEAR, FOR I, THE GREAT-“

“Papyrus!” Frisk turned to the skeleton who had entered the tent with a smile. The skeleton’s eye-socket widened at her sight.

“NYEH! IF IT ISN’T MY DEAR FRIEND FRISK! WHAT A SURPRISE! I WAS EXPECTING UNDYNE TO JOIN ME HERE! SHE TOLD ME THE SPIDERS HAD A GOOD REMEDY FOR MAGIC FLU!”

Papyrus gave Frisk a short hug. Artie looked at the tall skeleton strangely.

“Yo, Undyne’s not here, she said she was busy with something today.”

“REALLY?” The skeleton put a hand on his chin. “NOW, THAT’S VERY STRANGE, BECAUSE SHE JUST PHONED ME THIS MORNING TO COME TO THIS VERY SHOP SO THAT WE CAN PURCHASE THE JUG TOGETHER... IN FACT…” He pointed to the wrapped up jug. “THIS LOOKS LIKE THE MEDICINE THAT SHE SHOWED ME ON UNDERNET! WHAT A COINCIDENCE THAT YOU’RE BUYING THIS!”

“I bet Undyne sent us to buy it for Sans, Papyrus,” Frisk told the skeleton helpfully.

“…OH MY GOD, THAT MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE!” He exclaimed, putting his hands on his head and bulging out eye constructions. “NYEHEHEH! OF COURSE, SHE WOULD SEND A GREAT FRIEND LIKE YOU IN HER STEAD TO HELP ME BUY MY LAZY BROTHER’S MEDICINE! AS USUAL, YOUR FRIENSHIP POWER IS VERY HIGH TO DO THINGS LIKE THAT, FRISK!”

The spider lady coughed loudly, bringing the other monsters’ attention on her.

“If you’ll excuse me, perhaps we should proceed with this?” She pointed at the two coupons and the little pile of gold. “As I was saying, you don’t have the money for the jug.”

“OH, RIGHT, HANG ON!” The skeleton pulled out another coupon from his inventory. “HERE WE GO! UNDYNE HAD WARNED ME SHE PROBABLY DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH SALE COUPONS, SO SHE ASKED ME TO GET ONE, AND PER CHANCE, I FOUND IT WHILE SEARCHING FOR MY BONE COLLECTION!”

He added his coupon on the table. Muffet blinked, frowned and put a hand on her mouth.

“Oh, my; how unfortunate, dear. It appears you are still a gold piece short with those.”

“ONLY ONE? NYEH! THEN, HAVE NO FEAR, FOR I HAVE…” Papyrus searched through his shorts’ pockets with a frown. “…I…” He frantically went through them before smacking his skull in frustration. “BLAST! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! I JUST MADE A DETOUR TO PURCHASE A NEW FIGURINE FOR MY COLLECTION AT THE MTT SMALL SHOP AND SPENT ALL OF MY MONEY HERE! I DON’T HAVE THAT ONE GOLD!”

Artie and Frisk deflated while Muffet crossed all her arms with a ‘tsk’ sound.

“Well, dears, I’m afraid I can’t sell you this item without that one gold. What a pity!”

Papyrus shook his head and pointed to his chest.

“NO, ALL IS NOT LOST… I… I JUST HAVE TO GET THIS… THIS UNIQUE COLLECTOR FIGURINE BACK TO THE SHOP AND… AND USE MY MONEY TO BUY THE MEDICINE FOR MY PRECIOUS BROTHER! YES, THAT’S… THAT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO…”

Frisk saw his disappointment and her expression softened.

“Papyrus…”

“N-NYEHEHEH, THAT’S ALRIGHT, FRISK! IT’S A NECESSARY SACRIFICE FOR THE HEALTH OF SANS! I… I’M SURE HE’LL APPRECIATE THAT… AND HIS HEALTH IS WORTH AT THE VERY LEAST TEN GOOD COLLECTOR FIGURINES! NYEHEHEH!” He started to head out, side-stepping the skittering spiders on the flours with two large jumps. “WAIT HERE AND GUARD THE JUG, FRISK AND FRISK’S SMALL YELLOW COMPANION, WHILE I ACCOMPLISH MY NOBLE DEED!”

When he disappeared, Artie turned to Frisk uneasily.

“Yo, no offence, but your friend’s kinda strange.”

Frisk looked at Artie, remembered why Undyne arranged the outing in the first place and forced a smile.

“Papyrus is… a bit excessive at time, but it’s always for a good cause.” She felt warmth in her chest and looked down fondly. “Honestly, he’s… he’s the first and best friend I’ve made here. My first days in Greenlake wouldn’t have been as good if it weren’t for him.”

Artie’s eyes widened a bit.

“Yo, seriously? I mean… uh… he’s always struck me as a bit… of a weirdo? All the monsters in town only tolerate him most of the times because he and his brothers do all those wacky things together and it makes them laugh. Once I even kinda wondered if he wasn’t still a kid, too.” The wyvern frowned and looked to the side. “And he keeps saying those things about how there’s a human in town and how we should welcome them and be friends and all that.” They snorted derisively. “Like we should get friends with humans of all things! It’s like this stupid rumor about a human being turned into a monster; it’s just ridiculous, yo! Those things don’t happen in real life!”

Frisk looked at Artie for a while, made another small attempt at biting her lips and shrugged.

“Well, personally, I think his big heart is his greatest quality.” She clutched her chest and frowned. “In… In the times we live in… it’s a hard quality to keep… being so kind… even to…” Her throat constricted. “…Even to your enemy.”

Artie glanced at her and frowned sadly.

“…Not when your enemy’s a human it isn’t great.”

Frisk shrugged with a sigh.

“Perhaps. Perhaps monsters and humans are never meant to be friends.” She looked aside. “Perhaps we’ll just keep on warring on each other until one of us is dead and there’s nothing we can do about it… but…” She clenched her arms. “… But you know… I’ve been wondering for some times now if… if we could find something…” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t… I don’t really believe it, but… but maybe… It would be nice if… If we could find something…”

“…Like what?”

“Dunno…” Frisk shrugged, a weight in her heart. “I… I sorta wish I was smarter than that…” She snorted sadly. “I’m just some dumb kid, though; what do I know about those things?”

The yellow lizard looked aside for a moment, as if in deep thought, then gazed at her questioningly.

“So, yo… you think that… if there really is a human in town we should… like… try to treat them nicely or something?”

Frisk shrugged again with a sigh.

“I… I don’t know if… if that would change anything, honestly… maybe the human… maybe the human won’t change their way of thinking in the end… but…” Her expression softened. “I think that… perhaps Papyrus has the right idea overall… perhaps… perhaps kindness will end up saving more people than violence…”

There was a small silence until Muffet broke it with a laugh.

“Ahuhuh, let us not worry about the human, dears.” She winked with half her eyes. “If we can’t get peace out of them, then we’ll at least get some good ingredients for new pastry recipes!”

Frisk froze and stared at the spider lady in horror.

“…What?”

“Ahuhuh, never tasted humans, dear? It’s a delight for papillary glands, I assure you… even if we ran out of stocks for a few decades, sadly. Fallen humans from battles aren’t good enough; we need them freshly dead to get the best result!”

Frisk stood still, her horror grew stronger in her heart. She emitted a short whine.

“…Oh god… so it is true!” She took a step away and grasped at her head in despair. “God, oh god, oh god…”

“…Um… Frisk?”

She clenched her fangs before throwing her head up in frustration.

“…And they lied about it too! Sans lied about it; that goddamn bone-head!”

“WHAT DID MY LAZY BONE OF A BROTHER LIED ABOUT, FRISK? DID HE PULL ONE OF HIS ANNOYING PRANKS ON YOU AGAIN? WAS IT THROUGH TIME AND SPACE?”

Frisk stopped her moaning to look at the tent’s entry again. Surprisingly, Papyrus was not alone. He was in company of a very familiar pink, black and gray robot with heavy make-up and a wide smile.

Mettaton.

Frisk felt her inside grow cold.

Muffet straightened and made a sound similar to a squeal.

“Mettaton! You, here, in my shop? Oh, dearie!”

“INDEED, IT’S HIM, METTATON! NYEHEHEH, SO I WAS ON MY WAY TO GO BACK TO THE MTT SHOP, AND TO MY SURPRISE, HERE HE WAS! WE TALKED ABOUT OUR MONEY PREDICAMENT A LITTLE, AND OUR FAVORITE MONSTER-STAR DECIDED TO LET ME KEEP MY PURCHASE AND HELP US SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! ISN’T METTATON THE GREATEST, FRISK?”

Mettaton approached the counter with confidence and put a hand on his chest.

“Well, Papyrus dear, I could not refuse to help a dedicated viewer of mine with this…” He looked at Frisk and winked. “…Especially with such name droppings.”

Frisk forced her revulsion down and made a shaky smile, trying to calm her heart and contain her aura. Artie jumped up and down excitedly.

“Wow, Papyrus, dude! You’re friend with Mettaton? That’s so awesome!”

The skeleton crossed his arms and started to laugh, then stopped and scratched his head.

“WELL, ACTUALLY, ALPHYS AND HIS MAJESTY ARE MOSTLY FRIENDS WITH METTATON…” He straightened up and took a pose. “… HOWEVER, I AM ONE OF HIS MOST FAITHFUL FANS, AND I KNOW HOW TO ASK NICELY!”

“Wow, Frisk was right; being nice can get you neat stuffs!”

“Ahahah, yes, my dear wyvern friend, being nice will get you far… if you know the ropes. Now…” Mettaton leant on Muffet’s counter with a smile. “If I understood correctly, it appears there is a contention about one missing gold piece, yes?”

Muffet got off her dreamy states instantly and turned serious.

“Oh, yes dear, that’s right.” She gave him a coy smile. “Is the famous Mettaton proposing to pay for it?”

Mettaton laughed.

“Dear god, no! What kind of businessman would I be if I spent so much on charity cases?” He winked slowly. “Instead, I was thinking more of an… arrangement… as well as something that will benefit us both.”

Muffet cocked her head and crossed her arms with mild interest.

“…An arrangement?”

“Indeed! You see, darling…” his expression turned playfully sad. “Words go around that you, Muffet, are giving so much to the cause of spiders; Spiders who, unfortunately, still suffer from discrimination in our gracious kingdom. They, who are unable to find the right size of shoes, and still need to take the most expensive kinds of transport, even though they should at the very least get half price tickets.” He shook his head and spread his arms. “What a noble soul you possess, dear Muffet, for working so hard for them!”

She smirked admiringly.

“Ahuhuh, it’s nice to see you agree with this project. However, I recall hearing you say you wouldn’t spend money on a charity case?”

“Oh, I shall do better than that, my beauty: how would you like some publicity?”

Her eyes widened.

“…You mean… on your show?”

“As my sponsor here, darling! As an exclusive sponsor to my next show!” He spread his arms again. “As it happens, I recently decided to do the next round of my MTT-Monster-Beauty-Pageant here instead of the Capital! How would you like for your spider bake sales and tea parlors to get commercials during the Union Approved Breaks of our shows?”

The spider looked like she could hardly contain her joy.

“That… That would certainly be…” She caught herself and coughed before taking on a more professional persona. “Yes, I suppose it would be a sufficient trade for that one gold. We shall need to discuss a contract for this, however.”

“Hahahah! We most certainly shall! And let us not forget your personal participation on the show!”

She put one of her many hands on her chest.

“…My… my participation?”

“But of course, Muffet dear!” He took one of her hands delicately. “After all, I can’t have a beauty pageant without participants, and how could we represent Greenlake’s most graceful kind of monsters without you on the stage?”

The spider flustered and put a hand on her purple tinted cheeks.

“You… you really think I could be…”

“A star? Hahahah! Sweet Muffet, you already are a star in my eyes!” He winked again. “How about going under the camera and show the Capital monsters the true beauty of our countryside?”

“Y-yes!” She put a hand on her mouth to cover a giggle. “Ahuhu, of course, I shall do so! What charity leader would I be if I didn’t take every opportunity to preach to a wide audience for my cause?”

“Splendid! Your addition was of the most needed for a wonderful show, Muffet darling!”

“Wow,” Artie exclaimed softly. “Mettaton, doing a show here? So cool…” They gave Muffet an envious look. “Dude, I so wish I could get on it too…”

Mettaton heard their musing and flashed a smile at them.

“Well, what’s stopping you, my sweet wyvern youth?” The robot looked at them appreciatively, a hand on his chin. “Why, and if I’m not mistaken, your kind is very rare nowadays! What better expression of our beautiful countryside diversity than having you on stage?”

The yellow lizard’s expression brightened.

“Yo, wait… so I can participate too?”

“Oh my, you most certainly can!”

The wyvern jumped high.

“Awesome, dude!”

“WOWIE! EVEN FRISK’S LITTLE FRIEND IS PARTICIPATING!” Papyrus choked out, a bright gleam in his eyes. “METTATON, CAN… CAN I PARTICIPATE AS WELL?” He asked in a hopeful tone.

The robot looked at him gravely, shaking his head slowly.

“Ah… Papyrus dear…”

The skeleton made a strangled sound at his tone. Then, Mettaton brightened and threw his arms up.

“How could I organize such an important pageant without you in it, my wondrous, handsome, amazing assembly of bony perfection? Why, organizing such a contest without you in it would be a crime! You are mandated to participate, darling!”

“M-MANDATED??” His eye constructs bulged out comically. “OH MY GOD, I DON’T THINK I’VE EVER BEEN MANDATED TO PARTICIPATE IN ANYTHING THAT WASN’T FOR THE KING!” The skeleton cleared his throat and took on a prideful expression. “MY DEAR MONSTER-STAR METTATON, YOU MAY COUNT ON ME ON THIS MANDATED CONTEST! I PROMISE I WON’T LET YOU DOWN!”

“And I am convinced you will not, my dear skeleton friend!” Mettaton struck a thoughtful pose. “Now, the contest won’t be ready for a while, hopefully giving me plenty of time to work on each of your styles for your grand TV debut! However, this endeavor may take time and I should begin today with one of you!”

The robot gave each of them a look, then spun around dramatically and pointed his finger at a cringing Frisk.

“I shall start with you, Frisk beautiful! Let’s get you to my personal quarter and work on this magnificent fur of yours this instant!”

Frisk winced and brought her tail close to her legs and her hands up. She had tried to get by unnoticed, but she had the feeling that the robot would single her out.

“H-hey! Hold on! I didn’t ask to get on this contest thing!”

“Hahahahah! Oh, dear, there’s no need to be so shy,” the robot assured as he did a swinging step toward her. “I know I can be intimidating, but you shouldn’t suppress your inner beauty like that, sweetheart! Why don’t you follow your dreams and be the shining star you’re destined to be?”

“METTATON IS RIGHT ON THIS, FRISK!” her skeleton friend told her encouragingly. “I KNOW BATTLING WITH YOUR SHY ILLNESS IS PRETTY HARD, BUT IT SHOULD NOT STOP YOU FROM FOLLOWING YOUR DREAMS AND AIM HIGH! ESPECIALLY WHEN I, YOUR GREAT FRIEND PAPYRUS, WILL BE RIGHT THERE WITH YOU!”

Frisk suppressed a groan at Papyrus’s complete lack of support for her and shook her head.

“But I don’t want to be on this contest,” she firmly stated. “I’m… I’m not even from Greenlake, so why should I participate?”

“Yo, she’s right, dude,” Artie realized, blinking. “Frisk can’t be on a Greenlake contest, she’s from the Capital!”

“Ah, but have no worry, my reptile companion! Of course someone from the Capital like Frisk darling is needed,” Mettaton stated like it was the most obvious thing. “After all, how could my wonderful viewers from the Capital be satisfied without at least a representing monster? And how would our amazing countryside public show their greatness without a Capital monster to compare? Frisk dear, you must participate!”

“More like: ‘I won’t participate’!” she retorted, crossing her arms to prevent them from shaking.

The robot came close and took her by the shoulders. She flinched at the contact.

“Now, now, Frisk gorgeous, I know it’s always hard to be judged on a, ahem, ‘uniquely distinct style’, however, I can promise you my stylist can do wonders, even with a fur as uncouth of as yours.”

He grabbed a few strands of her ear fur and it took all her might to restrain herself from punching him and send him to the ground. She looked around and was invaded by a feeling of helplessness when seeing the hopeful looks Papyrus and Artie were giving her. She could not exactly hit the number one idol of monsters without repercussion. Papyrus would be disappointed and she needed the small freedom her captors were granting her.

Probably sensing her agressivity, Mettaton pulled away and snapped his fingers. A group of six small rectangular bulky mini robots appeared out of thin air and surrounded the human monster.

“Then, it’s decided, Frisk beautiful; let’s get you to my private quarter! Darling, I bet you won’t regret it!”

She already did. At this moment, it was not like there was much for her to do, though. With gritted teeth, she started to walk out of the tent with her escort.

“OH MY GOD, JUST LET ME THROUGH, YOU STUPID-“

Undyne’s loud voice welcomed Frisk outside and the human monster had an answer as to why the warrior did not come in and intervene when she saw Mettaton enter. The fish lady was surrounded by three very muscular monsters. One was a fish horse, one was a rabbit and the last one looked like a humanoid dragon.

They were all very bare-chested.

“But, captain Undyne… you, like, should so totally participate!” the buff rabbit told her. “It’s, like, your leave and all, and every kids in the kingdom are gonna watch it!”

“Hmf!” The dragon nodded in approval.

“NGAH! YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT THAT?” The fish lady flapped her arms in frustration at them. “Now, GET OUT OF MY WAY, I HAVE AN IMPORTANT MISSION FOR THE CROWN TO DO!”

The rabbit raised his hand in defense.

“But, like, Miss Undyne sir, you can’t be on a mission if you’re on a leave! It’s, like, totally not possible for you to be on mission now!”

“…It’s not,” agreed the dragon.

“GOD, SERIOUSLY YOU TWO! JUST LET ME GO! I DON’T CARE FOR METTATON’S STUPID CONTEST! YOU CAN’T FORCE ME TO JOIN!” She threw an annoyed look at the sea horse. “And why are YOU even here? You’re not even one of my men!”

“Don’t mind me, I’m just here for all the actions, ‘wink’,” the horse answered her… as he winked.

Mettaton came from behind Frisk and laughed joyfully at the scene.

“Oh my, oh my, if it isn’t the captain of the Royal Guard herself! How fortunate! I had just perchance sent those gentlemons to find you! What a coincidence to find you here!”

Undyne stopped struggling to send Mettaton a glare.

“Oh, god, you’re such a liar, you tin-head! We just met a few minutes ago before I sent your stupid mug off!”

“Hahah! Now, now, Undyne precious, what reasons would you possibly have to do that?” The robot raised his hands in a mock questioning. “What reasons would you have in warning me off buying those tasty spider pastries?”

Before the fish lady could answer, Papyrus and Artie came out of the tent.

“I THOUGHT I HEARD YOUR VOICE! HI, UNDYNE!” Papyrus, carrying the jug, waved at her. “I DIDN’T EXPECT TO SEE YOU; WHAT A GOOD SURPRISE!”

“Yo, U-Undyne!” Artie called out excitedly. “I thought you said you were busy today!”

The rabbit looked at Artie.

“Miss Undyne thinks she’s, like, on a secret mission for the crown or something.”

“01,” The dragon called the rabbit out. The monster flinched.

“Whoops, sorry, 02, you’re right; it’s, like, totally not appropriate to say.”

Hearing this, the young wyvern’s face brightened.

“Yo, is that true, Undyne? You’re really on a secret mission for the king?” They started fretting on their feet. “That is so cool!”

“NYEH! WOW, UNDYNE! I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE SO DEDICATED TO YOUR WORK THAT YOU TOOK MISSIONS ON YOUR LEAVE AS WELL!” The skeleton then straightened, as if struck by a realization. “…WAIT A MOMENT… COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE ON A MISSION CONCERNING THE HUMAN?” He put his hands on his cheeks. “OH MY GOD, ARE YOU HERE TO BUY SOMETHING FOR THE HUMAN NOW THAT THE PRINCE IS AWAY?”

Frisk saw the fish’s fear being quickly hidden by her frustration.

“NGAH! ENOUGH WITH ALL OF YOU!” The warrior grabbed the horse by his waist before the dragon and the rabbit could react and suplexed him with a roar. The monster landed harshly on his head.

“Ouch! Careful, there, pretty face, ‘wink’!”

Undyne quickly let go of the sea horse and sprinted to Frisk, grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away from Mettaton’s robot circle. She pointed a finger at the humanoid robot menacingly.

“Now, LISTEN HERE, you bozo,” she said with a growl. “I have NO idea what’s you game, here, but you’re NOT handling EITHER OF MY PUNKS in any ways, is that CLEAR?”

Mettaton put his hands high with a smile.

“Now, now, Undyne precious, you know I abhor violence! Have no fear for your beautiful students, it was never my intention to cause any harm!” He winked playfully. “As for my ‘game’, well, I believe you are aware of my profession, and what harm is there in a good old friendly TV show contest to bring out the spring of youth?”

Undyne’s hand on Frisk’s shoulders tensed.

“That’s a freaking NO you’re getting from me, tin-head! NGAH! Those kids have no times to play your STUPID GAMES when they train with ME!”

“But, Undyne,” Artie interjected pleadingly. “Y-you’re not training us today, so that’s fine! A-and we already agreed to this!”

Undyne threw a questioning look at Frisk, who vehemently shook her head. The fish lady snorted and sneered at Mettaton.

“Uh, NO? THEY WON’T? NGAHAHAH!” She straightened up and put herself before Frisk. “What, do you think I’m STUPID or something? You think I can’t see your plan? Well TOO BAD, TIN-CAN, YOU’RE NOT GETTING ANYTHING TODAY!”

“My, my, Undyne,” The robot shook his head. “What plan could you possibly allude to, I have no idea. However…” He snapped his fingers again and the rabbit and the dragon surrounded the fish warrior another time. “However, let me offer your inclusion into my show as well! After all, what good is a beauty pageant without the Spear of Justice herself as a prime participant? That way, you’ll be able to watch over your esteemed pupils during the filming! Wouldn’t that solve everything?”

Undyne struggled under the two monster’s grip, but it seemed like the dragon and rabbit had at least some good military training.

“NGAH! LET ME GO, YOU TWO! I ALREADY SAID I WON’T DO IT!”

“Miss Undyne sir, be, like, reasonable,” the rabbit said.

“…Yes, stay calm,” the dragon agreed.

 “We’ll, like, totally be included in the show too if you’re here! It’s, like, a great opportunity for all of us!”

“NYEHEHEH, THAT’S RIGHT, UNDYNE! YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE ON THE SHOW AS WELL!” the skeleton added with a quick nod. “IMAGINE HOW MUCH HOPE YOU WILL BRING TO YOUNG VIEWERS WHEN THEY SEE A GREAT HERO SUCH AS YOU ON SCREEN? AND IMAGINE HOW MUCH IT WILL HELP FRISK IN DEALING WITH HER ‘SHY ILLNESS’ IF WE’RE BOTH HERE TO SUPPORT HER!”

Undyne made a frustrated roar.

“NGAH! Do you guys even HEAR YOURSELF? CAN’T YOU SEE THIS STUPID ROBOT IS USING YOU TO GET ME? COME ON!”

“My, Undyne dear, how could you possibly think that?” Mettaton asked as his small robot helpers surrounded Frisk again. “Do you think so lowly of me to believe my intention to be so twisted?”

Papyrus but a hand on his chin and frowned.

“HUM… I THOUGHT IF ANYONE COULD BE ON METTATON’S SHOW, IT WOULD BE UNDYNE…” He made an exagerated shrug. “BUT I GUESS SHE’S NOT UP TO THE CHALLENGE…”

Undyne stopped her struggle, then sent Papyrus a glare.

“…Oh, so I’m NOT GOOD ENOUGH, HUH?” She clenched her fanged jaw. “Why, I’LL SHOW YOU IF I’M UP TO THE CHALLENGE, PUNKS!”

The robot clapped his hand together.

“Splendid! How wonderful to have your participation as well, Undyne precious!”

She turned back to Mettaton with a snarl.

“Oh, you won’t just get my participation…” She pumped a fist up, in spite of the two monsters restraining her. “I will ANIHILATE THE COMPETITION TO OBLIVION! NGAH, JUST WATCH ME WHILE I DESTROY ALL OBSTACLES! WITH MY FIST! NGAHAHAHAH!”

Seeing the fish had lost it, Frisk shook her head and stiffened a groan with her hand. Just as she did so, one of the small robots nudged her tired legs to move forward.

“Such passionate spirit; I love it!” Mettaton approved, before grabbing Frisk by the shoulders. Her struggles to get out of his grasp were countered by his swift manuvers. “Now, while my crew deals with each of your schedules, I shall take Frisk beautiful with me to work on! Toodles!”

“…HEY, WAIT A MINUTE YOU STUPID TIN-HEAD! YOU CAN’T-“

But by the time Undyne freed herself from the two buff monsters, Mettaton and his robot crew had already led Frisk outside the market and in front of a large shiny pink limousine that almost made the human monster gag from shear tastelessness.

“Now, let’s get in quick, darling,” Mettaton urged as he opened a door. Frisk had no time to protest when the small robots shoved her in and Mettaton followed suit.

When Frisk regained her sense, the car was already speeding up and she could see the angry fish lady waving frantically at them grow smaller and smaller.

Chapter Text

It was Frisk’s first trip in a limousine, and probably the most awkward trip in a car she ever had. Mettaton, for all intent and purpose, her kidnapper, was sitting in front of her and sipping some milkshake substance, with sequin on it. Frisk, feeling both very awkward and very anxious, was trying to find a comfortable way to seat and regain her bearing. Mettaton gave her an amused look.

“Why so tense, Frisk beautiful? Have no worry, you’ll be in the expert hands of professionals, I assure you.” He pushed a button and another drink appeared. “Why don’t you have this Starfait? It’s a personal brand of mine.”

Frisk wished she was not as shaken as she was now, because all she managed to do was vehemently shake her head. It had been so long since anything as unexpected as this happened, she had no idea what to do.

What did he want with her, exactly? Did he know she was human? Was she endangered?

Papyrus mentioned Mettaton was first built as a human-killing machine, but, surely, he would not do anything, right? And if he tried, could she get him before he got her? How good would a 'human-killing machine' be against her as she was now?

Should she try and attack him? Up until now, he did not act like he wanted to hurt her, but maybe he was just that good of an actor? He was a robot, after all; maybe he was a good liar, contrary to monsters.

…And how did a robot do to eat a milkshake? Why would a robot need to eat anything? What the heck, Alphys?

“My, you certainly are quieter than I pegged you to be, sweetheart.” He raised an eyebrow interrogatively. “I suppose Papyrus handsome was not exaggerating when he said you had a shy illness.”

Frisk felt her face heat up, humiliatingly enough, and grasped her arms to prevent them from shaking. She wished she had more time to prepare her act, but contrary to the time at the castle, she was taken by complete surprise. She brought her tail close and tried to calm her heartbeat.

“…Oh, you poor thing! Did I scare you?” His tone softened a bit and he put a hand on his mouth. “Oh, my, how unfortunate! You’ll have to excuse me if I came off as too forward, it wasn’t my intention.” He put down his ‘Starfait’ and waved airily. “Have no fear, gorgeous, like I told Undyne precious, I abhor violence; you will not be unkindly handled here, you have my word on this!” He grinned. “Anyway, I care too much about my friend the prince to harm a single one of your beautiful hair!”

The truth behind his tone calmed Frisk a little. Whatever he wanted with her, if he was at least ready to put the prince’s feeling forward, it could not hurt her too much. The outside daylight went out suddenly like they were driving through a tunnel and the inside of the limousine lit up.

“Don’t worry, gorgeous, we’re just getting into one of my private lair where no angry fish beauty can barge in and disturb our work.”

…Aaand Frisk was back to being scared again. It occurred to her that this would be the first time she was actually away from her captor, and this was to be in the hand of an even scarier unknown threat.

The car pulled over after a short while and a humanoid monster with something looking like a diamond for a head opened a door. Mettaton came out first and offered her a hand. Frisk had the thought of slapping it away before pondering and deciding that compliance was probably the better choice for now. Mettaton helped her out and her paws touched the red carpeted ground of a fully decorated cave. Frisk saw monsters around busying themselves with what looked like studio lamps, background screens and other TV equipments.

Waiting for them was what looked like a male lion wearing a wedding dress. The monster clenched his paws together when he spotted Frisk.

“Oh, my gosh, Mettaton, is that her? Our first contestant?”

The robot smiled and pulled Frisk forward by the hand he was still holding.

“Indeed she is, Gidelio gorgeous! Before you start working your miraculous paws on her, however, I would like to discuss a few things in private, if you don’t mind.”

“O-of course Mettaton! I’ll go prepare the dressing room right away!”

Taking part of his dress, the lion headed out into an opened corridor carved in the rock. Mettaton turned to frisk.

“Shall we go, then?”

Frisk looked down, knowing she had no choice in the matter at this point, and followed the robot. He led them both into another corridor, until they stopped at a pink door with a white star on it. The robot pushed it open. Inside, Frisk saw a large mirror surrounded by stars towering what looked like one of those make-up desk human artists had in their lodges. Only after she saw this did she notice a computer against the wall and the white semi-transparent floating mass wearing a headset. Frisk had never seen a monster like that, but from what she was seeing, she guessed in was a ghost. The phantom monster turned in surprise when they entered.

“…oh, mettaton; i didn’t expect you so soon… sorry, i didn’t finish the jingle you asked of me yet…”

Mettaton waved his hand dismissively.

“That’s quite alright, Blooky, you know you have all the time in the world to do it.” He pushed Frisk inside. “Now, why don’t you take a break and work on your own tunes while I work out a few things?”

“…oh, ok… i’ll be going then… oooohhh…” The ghost disappeared through the wall as Mettaton locked the door behind them.

“That was my dear cousin Napstablook, Blooky, for short,” The robot explained as he brought two comfy pink seats. “They are an adorable genius; unfortunately, with the kingdom requisitioning all the ghosts available, the only time they can work on their musical passion is when they’re on a leave, like now.”

Frisk cautiously oriented her red seat so that it faced away from the mirror and managed to blurt out her question.

“…‘Cousin’?”

“Why, yes,” Mettaton confirmed as he sat. “It’s… Ah, I see what’s troubling you!” He laughed. “Yes, indeed I am originally a ghost monster! Alphys darling built this wonder of a body for me years ago! She started working on it before she was even spotted as a potential replacement for the former Royal Scientist. I must say that her work on me was probably what got her the position.” He smiled with nostalgia. “We had built all this legend about me being originally a full human-killing machine, but it’s mostly known as folklore now.”

“…Ah.”

“Indeed, sweetheart,” He continued with a coy smile. “Have no fear of me, however, I never killed a human and I don’t intend to begin now.”

Frisk shifted on her seat. At least, he came clear in his knowledge of her quick, and she was mentally prepared for it.

“…You don’t look surprised, gorgeous.” He crossed his leg and cocked his head. “I suppose this means you’ll let the pretence drop without another try? How sad.”

She shrugged.

“You weren’t fooled the first time, clearly.”

He laughed.

“Oh, no, I wasn’t; though I’ll give you points for your performance, that was certainly entertaining, Frisk beautiful, you should cultivate your actress talent!” He brought a hand to smooth the large mesh covering his right eyes. “Honestly, your act was doomed to be found out solely because Alphys darling and Asriel dear never bothered to cover their tracks, and your appearance in town was much too opportune.” Finishing straightening his hair, he flashed her a smile. “A rare monster like you in a small town like this? Noticed instantly.”

Frisk rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Mettaton made a short laugh and pointed at his wrist.

“In addition, darling, I had a hard time seeing them with your robe last time, but right now, you’re clearly sporting my MTT-Brand Instant Shackles here! I know those are sometimes used by, ahem, a certain kind of public, but you strike me as too young to be into those kinds of things, so Alphys sweety must have put them on for you... and probably increased their restraining potential as well.”

Frisk wrinkled her nose in annoyance as she grabbed one of the blue bands.

“…So… now what?” She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Why am I here? What do you want from me?”

“Why, I wanted to meet you, of course!” He leant forward with obvious interest. “Believe it or not, I never had the opportunity to meet one of your fascinating kind.” He put a hand on his chin. “Additionally, I’m not sure if the prince warned you, but I’ve been dying to show the little miracle you are to the whole kingdom. Do you even know just how amazing your existence is, Frisk dear?”

“Honestly, I don’t care how amazing it’s supposed to be,” she told him, looking away with a frown, “I’m not sure how much you found out about me, but I didn’t come of my own will to frolic with you all.”

“Hahah, that would have surprised me, darling! As I have yet to find a way to broadcast my beautiful face on your territories, of course you would have no incentive to come!” He looked behind Frisk at the mirror and caressed his cheek fondly. “Unfortunately for humanity, they are prevented from discovering my exquisite talents as an artist performer! Why, dear, you must realize how lucky you are to be the first and only human to have ever come in contact with a legend like me!”

Frisk’s muzzle twitched and she opted to shrug uncaringly.

“Never been that much into TV stars, or TV in general, actually,” she answered before frowning. “I guess I’ll give you points for being the first robot-ghost-monster whatever I’ve ever met… But as a pro-tip: you don’t put glitter in human food.”

Mettaton had another big laugh.

“Ah, darling, finally easing up to quip? How wonderful!” He raised his hand in a shrugging motion. “Of course, the human expert that I am knows that human cuisine uses no glitter, however, as an entertainer and entrepreneur, I do know the importance of added exotic for better sales!” He wiggled his eyebrows. “And of course, such use of a foreign component was bond to provoke a reaction in a real human, as it certainly did!”

The human monster groaned tiredly and massaged her temples.

“Okay, fine, you got me; can I go now? I bet Undyne’s throwing a temper over this.”

“Go? Go back?” He straightened a bit. “Why, Frisk beautiful, am I boring you so much that you’d be willing to head back to this violent tornado that is the Spear of Justice? Or have you grown that fond of those detaining you here?”

“Neither, I just don’t get your point in trapping me here.” She raised her hands in interrogation. “I mean, it’s not like you’re actually coming to save me from this place, right? All you did was kidnap me from my previous kidnappers, I don’t gain anything from this.” She looked at him questioningly. “And if you really follow the prince’s will, then you’re not going to either let me go free or broadcast me as the human, because he wouldn’t want that. You can’t seriously have made all that effort just to talk to me!”

“Why, I haven’t, indeed,” he agreed with a wide smile, “Although I admit that was a very big additional plus. But no, darling…” He stood up and turned her chair at the mirror, making her flinch. “As I’ve said to all, I brought you here to work on your TV debut as one of my participant, Frisk beautiful!”

Frisk caught a glimpse of her reflection and shut her eyes close with a growl.

“Ah, I told you no!”

“Now, now, darling…” She felt his hand on her hair and quickly swatted it away. “Papyrus gorgeous is right, you know? You really need to work on that shyness of yours.”

“I’m not doing some stupid monster TV game!” She tried to stand up and was maintained by his metallic grip. “The little- Asriel won’t let you do it, you know?”

“Oh, sweety, Asriel dear may be our prince, but he hardly has any power on our media; the only reason I’m not revealing the juicy scoop that you are yet is due to my long lasting friendship with him.” He took her by the muzzle and her angry glare met his charming smile. “And if I can’t have you as a human star for our people, then I ought to at least have some footage with you as a monster star, do you not agree, darling?” He raised an eyebrow. “…Or perhaps you would rather make me break my words to our wonderful prince? As much as it would break my heart to do so, you are too big of an opportunity for me to pass on, gorgeous.”

Hearing his threat made Frisk boil with rage. She instinctively opened her jaw and snapped it shut near Mettaton’s fingers. The robot pulled his hand back and chuckled with amusement. She took a ragged breath.

“Okay, fine, I get it, stop touching me!” She swatted him away and he let go this time. She gripped her shaky arms and looked to the side. “You monsters are the worst, you know?”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m very sorry you feel this way,” the robot told her as he walked in front of her chair, looking actually saddened, for once… although Frisk suspected another act. “But Frisk darling, you don’t need to feel this bad about this!” He smiled softly. “How about you consider it an opportunity to express your inner beauty instead of a chore? It may even be fun for you, if you give it a chance!”

She rolled her eyes.

“Nothing about going through fire hoops and solving ridiculous puzzles sounds ‘fun’; it’s just tedious.” She twitched her tail in exasperation. “And isn’t that supposed to be some beauty contest or something? What does any of that have to do with ‘beauty’?”

“Oh, Frisk dear, if you have to ask that, then you have much to learn of our culture.”

“I don’t care for learning it!”

“My, oh my, please contain that temper of your, sweety. As endearing as it is, it will help in no manner with bringing out the best of your powerful soul. Now…” He stepped out of her way to stand beside her, leaving her full view of the mirror before she closed her eyes shut again. “Why don’t you help me see how we can make you pull your most magnificent look in front of all our wondrous viewers?” She felt his hand near her hair and swapped it away again. “Come on, now, open those pretty eyes of yours and let me see the inside of your soul.”

“There’s nothing ‘pretty’ or ‘magnificent’ about me!” she protested with a growl, still shutting her eyes. “I just…” she clenched her fangs. “I’m just some ugly goat faced monstrosity now…”

“Oh, Frisk darling, is this truly what you think of yourself? How saddening!” His tone was actually sad, and his soft aura reflected it. She felt his hand reaching her ear and she moved away. “…And I can understand your pain, dear… Having a physique so far away from the one you dream of… is truly a painful experience…” Perhaps she was imagining it, but the robot almost sounded emphatic. “And, as a human admirer, I can certainly understand your preference for human traits… But let me tell you straight on, Frisk sweetheart…” He murmured near her ear softly. “If your Boss Monster face is any indication, then your true human face must indeed be precious as well.”

Tired of his encouragement, she opened her eyes and glared at her reflection.

“…A goat face is a goat face. It’s all I can see.”

He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed before she could flinch away.

“And no one will fault you for not seeing anything else, darling. But as someone who walked a long road of finding himself, let me assure you:” He pointed at the reflection. “What you see here is but the rough surface of a beautiful diamond… a diamond you will learn to polish and show to the world, and, most importantly, to yourself. No matter how you look on the outside, nothing can erase the shining brightness of your soul, Frisk dear.”

She thought back to the little white heart inside her and her expression softened. She put a hand in the middle of her chest and pressed lightly.

The robot was right. No matter how she looked like on the outside, she was human, with a human soul.

The monsters would change nothing about that.

She would make sure of it.

--

“They’re coming close, your majesty.”

“…They don’t appear to be a soldier.”

Whimsalot shook their armored head and fluttered closer to the screen.

“No, my lord, they do not. They’ve been coming close to the puzzles for a few hours now. Shall we…” The small bug-like monster looked at Asriel hesitantly. “Shall we warn them off?”

The prince licked his lips nervously as he stared at the screen showing the human. He was unsure, but they looked bigger than Frisk had been. They did not seem to be in a good state either. Their clothes were tattered and old. They had white hair and a short beard some adults humans occasionally grew on their chin. From this detail, Asriel assumed they were probably male.

The probably male human was getting close to the first line of traps separating their borders in a fast limp.

“Get the smaller cannon ready,” Asriel decided. “Aim high, only one shot.”

The smallest cannon did not waste much magic, but it was still an important decision to fire one of their precious shot.

Maybe they were better off letting the lone human get killed on the traps. He was no soldier, after all; they could probably collect his soul.

The prince shoved the thought away as the crew inside the front fort readied the cannon. The multi-colored shot blasted through the cloudy sky, lightening it with a rainbow of magic.

Down on the road, the human did not even seem to notice. He kept moving forward, moving his lips as if muttering something to himself.

“…Should we reiterate our warning, my prince?”

Asriel clenched his jaw shut. One shot for one single human was wasteful enough… but…

“…Do it again.”

Whimsalot nodded and gave out the order. Another cannon shot went through the sky. Like the first one, it seemed ineffective at stopping the human’s progression. Asriel felt his soul constrict.

“It doesn’t appear like the human will be stopped, your majesty. Should we… should we proceed with an actual cannon attack?”

Asriel shook his head with a sigh. If the warnings did not work, then the human would not be stopped until the traps. And two shots was wasteful enough.

“Keep monitoring,” Asriel told his general.

“Understood.”

It would be another human death Asriel would bear under his kingdom’s name. He felt a weight on his chest and his throat constricted.

It would be Asriel’s first human encounter since Frisk.

He was reminded of Chara again… about how it had been for him to kill humans for the first time.

The limping man reach the first line of trap, a well crafted field of deadly spikes ready to spring from the ground and impale anything walking through. The human stopped in front of it for a moment, still muttering. Asriel had a small hope that, perhaps, he would stop and turn away.

However, the man took a first step.

The spikes sprung forth.

To everyone’s surprise, the man evaded to the side. Then, when the next row of spikes came through the ground, he ducked again, and again.

Monsters watched the screen with interest as the human progressed through the traps with a grace that was almost surreal, like a trained dancer, only stopping a few times in safe alcoves in between two spikes to catch his breath, still moving his lips madly. Parsnik, a snake-haired vegetable monster, cackled nervously.

“Hississsisss, it’sss been a while ssinsse we ssaw one do that…”

Whimsalot turned to the prince.

“My lord, may I be granted permission to send a Tamer to intercept the human?”

Asriel gave the screen one last pained look and closed his eyes with a sigh.

“…Yes, you may.”

Whimsalot nodded and turned to Parsnik.

“Tell Great Froggit to ready our family and get into the transport.”

“Yessss ssssiree.”

The snake-haired monster bounced away and Asriel massaged his head. It was not the first time he had seen a human going through one of their border traps like that, but it was still a rare occurrence. The last time was years ago. Alphys once mentioned how humans tapping into their inner Determination were able to accomplish such impressive feats like that.

Of course, against an Amalgamate, it would not matter.

Frisk… Frisk was very determined; would she have been able to do that?

His thought went back to her question: would he make others like her?

Was this human an opportunity?

…Or even…

“Whimsalot,” he called.

“Your majesty?”

“All of our transport vehicles have cameras and sound recording devices in them, do they not? Make the feed for those available…” After a thought, he added: “With a speaker.”

“…Yes, my prince.”

Asriel took a breath as Whimsalot left. Maybe it was time to try. Maybe it was time for talking instead of killing. Asriel had no real desire to make another human monster now. He did not have the Soul Drainer on him anyway, and Alphys was not prepared to detain another like Frisk… but maybe, just maybe, he could try something else. Maybe he could save one of them from his imminent fate.

What kind of ruler was he if he did not even try?

The transport of the Tamer and their Amalgamate took a good thirty minutes, even with the hovering car. The human had finished his trek into the spikes and had braved a strong line of fire and lasers. Currently, he was one third of the way, clothes singed and coughing, but no more limping than he had before. He was busy avoiding swinging spiked balls.

Asriel gave the order for activating the hovering car’s camera feed just as the human noticed it stopping over him. It distracted him from a ball coming to his arm. It grazed him and he winced. This time, the prince could hear his mumbling.

“Blasted devil beasts! Children of the Demon! Bringer of death and destruction! May the Lord curse you all!”

His swearing was nothing new to the prince. In the vehicle, Great Froggit made a resolved croak and the white mass on the seat beside them jumped out and took the form of a long chirping bird-like Amalgamate. Mx. Astiwhiggit descended down, body swinging like a pendulum as its head floated down. The human saw the amalgamate land near and froze.

Asriel took this opportunity to raise a hand, bringing all monsters present on the monitoring room to silence, and walked to the microphone. He brought it to his mouth, took a breath and activated the communication.

“Human,” he spoke. The human flinched and brought his attention back to the hovering vehicles where the prince’s voice was coming from. “This is the prince of the Kingdom of Monster speaking. Let me suggest you to stop what you’re doing and head back to your territory. We will take the necessary steps to guide you out safely if you accept. Otherwise, we will be forced to…” He swallowed. “We will be forced to attack you.”

The human stared at the car for a moment, before chuckling.

“Hah, so your demonic king has a prince?” He sneered. “Is your name ‘Satan’ by any chance?”

Asriel frowned before answering.

“…No, my name isn’t ‘Satan’, human. I reiterate my suggestion: please, turn away, or… or face death.”

“Are you opting to grant me pity, monster?” The human straightened up and glared at the car. “Are you pretending to grow a conscience and a soul after all your sins?”

“All we are doing is giving you a chance to go free and alive, human; let us avoid unnecessary suffering.”

“Unnecessary, huh?” The man growled and started to move through the swinging balls again. “You’re going to pretend the destruction of my home town was necessary, you devils? You’re going to pretend to care for my life when you didn’t care for any of them?”

One ball swung at his face and he caught it with a hand. The sharp spikes went through it and he winced in pain when his blood flowed out. From the car, Great Froggit made another croak at the Amalgamate below. The white bird shifted into a shapeless mass and started to travel through the spiked balls.

Asriel’s heart constricted.

“Human, please, stop!” He pleaded. “Don’t give out your life needlessly!”

“My life belong to the Lord, monster,” The human replied with ragged breath, moving through with great difficulty, trying to avoid the liquid Amalgamate that was heading at him. “It doesn’t belong to you! My wife and daughter’s life didn’t belong to you either, you beast! Neither did their souls!”

The man chocked out his last word, clearly in great pain. Asriel gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the microphone.

“Human… If…” The prince swallowed. “If you care so little for your life… even then, please consider… consider… would your loved ones wish for you to get killed in such a way? Would your daughter and wife approve of this?”

“How dare you… how dare you bring them into this?” Exhausted, the man stopped and sent his deadliest glare at the hovering vehicles. “You don’t know anything of me, you devil’s spawn! You don’t know anything about them! About…”

Suddenly, as if the ghost of his anger left him, the man crumbled into the ball field, quietly sobering.

“Anna… my love…” he choked out in between two sobs. “And… Matilda… my precious little Matilda… E-even you, Miguel, my friend…”

The Amalgamate caught up with the human. It shifted until it was in the trembling form of a humanoid with a bird-like head. Butterfly-like pellets sprung from its mass and covered its bird head, seemingly devouring it. The Amalgamate wriggled as if in pain.

The human barely paid attention to it, still too enthralled in his sorrow. He took a few breaths and brought his trembling hands to his face.

“…At least… at least I’m joining them all soon…” He made a short giggle and sent a hateful look at the car. “…And at least, I’ll have the satisfaction to know that you’re all going to die!”

The human’s giggle devolved into a mad laugh as a swarm of butterfly bullets surrounded him whole. He was still cackling when he started to cry in pain. His horrible screams echoed through the silent monitoring room. Finally, when the butterfly left, all that remained of the man was a few spots of blood, some bone parts and a single, floating, violet soul.

Monsters looked at the screen solemnly a moment before shakily going back to quickly affair themselves. Asriel finally released his trembling hold of the microphone and Whimsalot took it.

“Great Froggit, please carefully collect the soul into one of the recipient in your vehicle.” The bug monster put the microphone down and looked at Asriel. “You did what you could, my prince. At… at the very least, the human’s death left a soul.”

Asriel did not answer, the weight of his failure and sins pulling him into a small spiral of self-hate. The thought of his people managed to break his trance and he nodded after a sigh. The monsters around went back to their previous job. The man’s soul would join the others.

Still, as he walked back to his office, Asriel could not get the human’s last words out of his head.

Chapter Text

Mettaton led Frisk to Gidelio, the lion in a dress. The monster took a time to examine her whole like Mettaton had before sending her to shower.

“Of course the show won’t be today, but I really need to see you at your best to know how to work on your style,” he explained while giving her some cleaning tools and a light brown soap. “Use this, dear; it’s a special type of mix with Typha, olive and Echo Flower. It’s simply the best for any kind of fur and hair! Mettaton has it on sale in every shop.” The lion gave a shifty eye in the direction of the door before continuing in a lower tone. “…Although, I personally find the one from Bunny Industry to be of the better quality.”

She was at least given privacy to clean. Both because she had already showered that day and because no matter how nicely they tried to act, she was still kidnapped in a strange place and coerced against her will, she finished quickly. The lion had given her some clean white decent undergarments, but it was all he had allowed her to wear for him to help her groom. She was feeling extremely self conscious when he led her, shivering, to a much warmer room where he let her seat in front of a large mirror.

“Let me deal with that, dear; just relax.”

In spite of her unease at being handled around, she made a conscious effort to calm herself and closed her eyes, letting his hands delicately brush and heat up her fur with magic. Even with all her stress and worry, she found relief in his work. The lion may have been soft with his touch, but she could feel he was keeping the distance of a professional and this felt reassuring.

Probably sensing how she enjoyed the process, the lion chuckled.

“It feels great, doesn’t it? Mettaton and other furless monsters just can’t understand all the work that goes into a good grooming. My wife holds a salon in town, if you’re interested. She’s a much better practitioner than I am, and can give you a lot of tips!” She felt his claws on her hair. “Here, I’m done with the body. I think I can shine your horns a bit as well and, oh, how about a little claw trimming? You wouldn’t want to hurt anybody by mistake with those, would you?”

She would actually consider hurting someone, but she supposed her claws were not exactly her best weapons anyway. Most of the time, she only used them to scratch herself, and she could do that easily even with trimmed claws. He started to brush her hair and she took the time to open her eyes and look at the mirror. She had to admit that the lustrous tawny brown fur was taking the light much more differently than before, and she could appreciate the golden sheen it gave out in the underground light.

Although in all honsety, she would have rather see it on the fur of some competition dog than on her skin. No matter how you twisted the issue, no matter how much you shone its horns, a goat was a goat.

Mettaton came in as the lion finished trimming her claws and his face lightened when he saw her.

“Oh, yes! Now, that is more befitting of a star! But of course, this is just the beginning…” He looked at the other monster. “Gidelio love, you’ve found some costumes we can try, of course? As well as fur makeup?”

“Oh, of course, Mettaton!” The lion rushed to a line of clothing near the wall. “I managed to find a few of our previous contestants’ costumes that would fit her size and body types for now. And I always have my personal makeup with me; it’ll do for this time!”

“Splendid!”

Frisk’s mood instantly soured at the mention of makeup and costumes. It brought back to her mind that, yes, she was currently used as a dress up doll by a crazy robot ghost and her life was getting sillier every day.

“Do you have a preference in dressing, dear?” the lion asked. Feigning a casual air, she shrugged.

“Something that doesn’t stick too much to my fur would be nice.”

“Ah, yes, I understand the feeling,” the monster agreed empathically; “I have a hard time with pants myself. Well, let’s see what we have…”

The next thirty minutes consisted mostly of the two monsters putting her in a variety of costume, some silly, some outrageous, others questionable. She flat out refused an extremely skimpy dress.

“I’m a minor!” she protested, “seriously!”

“Ah, I agree with Frisk darling,” Mettaton told the flustered lion. “And if I recall correctly, this outfit was used in one of our less… family oriented shows… Let’s keep it fun and entertaining for all, Gidelio dear!”

“O-of course!”

They gave her a tutu, an old fashioned medieval dress, a maid outfit, a waiter outfit, and one of those royal monster dresses with the Delta Rune on it, at which she disdainfully wrinkled her muzzle at before tossing it aside. They went through half the collection before Mettaton insisted she put a very skin tight pink and black armor of the same style as his. Frisk wriggled uncomfortably in it.

“I said I don’t like when it sticks to the fur!”

“Oh, but Frisk darling, don’t you think you look fabulous in it?” Mettaton pulled her beside him in front of the mirror. “Just look at how precious you are paired with me! Why, we could be heroes of justice together, maintaining peace and order throughout the galaxy! Oh, my, what a great idea for a TV series! How would you like working with me on it, sweetheart?”

The glare she sent him could have burned a continent. The lion thankfully managed to make the robot drop the subject before any punch was thrown.

One of her favorite costumes was a combat-style pair of judo outfits and loose pants, which was quickly rejected by the two other monsters for not being pageant worthy. Frisk regretfully wondered if she could negotiate with Mettaton to keep it for her training time with Undyne.

Finally, they put her into a rich Chinese dress, probably modeled after the human movies and cartoon those crazy monsters had hoarded. The flower motifs were golden on the silk scarlet material. The dress stopped a little after her knees and was open on each side, letting everyone see a dark blue pair of shorts. Frisk was surprised at how smooth the silk was feeling on her groomed fur. She also appreciated the way the dress was split open to let her tail through.

The monsters admired their work with appraisal.

“I’ll, say, this looks quite fitting on you darling,” Mettaton declared with a nod. “It’s not a dress for the most intense games, but it would certainly work for the presentation.” He turned to the lion. “I don’t recall us using this; who was it for originally, Gidelio?”

“Oh, um, if I remember correctly, it was for a tigress from the Capital, but the lady was indisposed the day we filmed.” The monster turned away to look in a drawer. “Please, wait a moment, I’ll go look for my makeup kit.”

The lion busy, Mettaton turned to whisper to Frisk.

“I was not joking, darling, this outfit goes stunningly with your fur color and disposition. And, if I may ask, would you, by any chance, have some eastern human origin?”

Frisk caressed the silk and looked at her reflection a moment before answering softly.

“From my birth mom, but…” She shrugged. “I never got to learn much about her culture or anything…”

It was not like she had no regret about this, but she grew up with more pressing worries… and no matter how she looked at it, she was just some prettied goat-faced beast in a dress; hardly any of her human traits remained. She swallowed to ease up her constricted throat.

Gidelio started with pulling her hair up in a neat bun, leaving her front meshes softly brushed, before starting to work on her makeup. Frisk silently raged at the tools pressing on her closes eyelids.

“Burgundy will help making her eye color stand out, what do you think?”

“It most certainly looks like it will do,” Mettaton agreed before an upbeat music rose from somewhere on his hip. The robot pulled out his phone to answer the call. “Yes, hello? I’m kind of in a middle of something… oh really? Well, I won’t let her wait more, then!” He turned to the lion. “Please, continue without me for a bit, dear, I won’t be long!”

With that, the robot left. Frisk had to stand a few more minutes of fur painting before another phone rang distinctly in the room. She turned a questioning look at the lion, who shook his head.

“It’s not mine. In fact, it looks like it’s yours.” He pointed to her pile of clothes and Frisk stood quickly and rushed to get it. She had completely forgotten about her phone!

“H-hello?” she said hesitantly. The lion politely kept away and pretended to check his makeup case.

“HELLO, FRISK! HOW ARE YOU? IS EVERYTHING OKAY WITH METTATON?”

The skeleton’s familiar voice soothed her a bit.

“I’m… well… I’ll live,” she decided on answering. “What about you? And everyone?”

“WE ARE ALL DOING FINE SINCE THE LAST THREE HOURS YOU SAW US, THANK YOU! NYEHEHEH! I TOLD UNDYNE SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO WORRY SO MUCH ABOUT YOU, BECAUSE METTATON IS SUCH AN ESTEEMED PROFFESSIONAL, SURELY, HE WOULDN’T DO ANYTHING BAD TO YOU! BY THE WAY, IT’S A GOOD THING I REGISTERED THIS PHONE NUMBER BEFORE I GAVE IT TO YOU, BECAUSE IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE YOU GAVE YOUR NUMBER TO ANYONE ELSE YET! UNDYNE HAD NO WAY OF CONTACTING YOU AND IT RATTLED HER BONES QUITE A BIT… IN FACT, SHE’S WRESTLING WITH ME FOR THE PHONE RIGHT NOW… NYEH!”

Frisk heard a bit of a struggle before Undyne’s voice replaced Papyrus’s.

“Punk,” she said in a gruff and low tone, “where are you right now?”

“In a cave,” Frisk answered her. “It’s pretty big and full of monsters with studio props and stuffs.” She looked around and frowned. “I think it’s underground.”

The fish warrior stiffened a curse.

“Really? That bastard… he must be using the ancient military tunnels… what?” Frisk heard another voice faintly talking to the warrior. “…Yeah, okay…. Alright, listen up, punk,” Undyne said, “Alphys should be distracting Mettaton right now; you’re probably not alone, find a way to make them leave. Once they do, take your stuffs and head to the main cavern. Your rescue will be there. Understood?”

Frisk threw a glance at the lion before agreeing.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Good. Call Papyrus if anything goes wrong, alright?”

The phone clicked before Frisk had time to say anything. She tried to bit her lips while searching for a good reason to make the monster leave. When she decided on something, she made a conscious effort to calm her heartbeats and turned to the lion while clutching her stomach.

The lion watched her worriedly.

“Are you okay? Did you hear any bad news?”

She shook her head nervously, still massaging her belly.

“No, but… I… I don’t feel so well… would you… would you have anything that would help?”

The monster put a hand on his chin.

“…Well, apart for some good food… Oh, you’re probably tired, aren’t you? Hang on!” He headed to the door. “I believe we have some special curative sea tea at the cafeteria. I’ll be right back!”

Well, Frisk had thought to ask for medicine, because in all this mess, she had forgotten the curative use of monster food, but the result was the same, so she would not complain. Once the monster gone, she quickly shoved her street clothes into her phone’s dimensional box, like Undyne showed her how to, and went out of the open door.

Once in the corridor, she kept her expression decided and her aura neutral as she passed by the busy monsters, who were thankfully too taken by their works to pay much attention to her. She arrived at the big cave opening shortly and slowed down hesitantly, as Undyne had not actually given her a specific rendezvous point.

Looking at the large cave and galleries, she pondered her chance of escape into the underground tunnels. She realized with a wince that she was more likely to get lost and be caught again without knowing the tunnels’ layout. Perhaps if she could find a map…

A distinctive chuckle dragged her out of her thoughts.

“wow, you goat some fancy look there, kid, almost didn’t recognize ewe.”

She quickly turned and her eyes met Sans’s beady lights. Frisk had a few seconds when she wondered whether she was more relieved she had a way out of this crazy place or annoyed he was out of bed and walking again.

“…Looks like the spider juice did some wonder,” she noted cautiously. He chuckled again and shrugged.

“what can i say; eight legs are good for running some rusty joints.” He winked at her. “so, ready to take your train out of the cave of wonder?”

She nodded shortly, pretending she had not just thought of escaping alone and approached him, eyes darting around for any sign of a metallic body.

“Where to?”

He raised an arm to her.

“just give me your hand, kid, i’ll take the wheel.” She hesitantly took his cold bony hand and he scratched his head. “ah, actually, you mind if we make a detour to eat? i’m kinda sick of spaghetti right now, i need some junk food. you like junks, don’t you?”

Her eyes twitched. A familiar voice rose from on of the tunnel and she felt her stomach drop.

“As long as it’s more edible than Undyne’s cooking and it’s far away from this crazy place, I don’t care,” she answered in an urging tone. “Come on, let’s go!”

“heh, if you insist, i’ll be your chauffeur, then, my lady.” He started to walk, dragging her with him in a relaxed stride. “let’s get you to taste the best of monster junks our kingdom has to offer.”

She tensed at his words.

"...uh-What?!"

"exactly what i meant kid," The beady lights of his eye-sockets settled on her bewildered face, mockingly. "what, don't wanna try some junk food?"

She wrinkled her muzzle in disgust at his attitude, but ended up following his slow walk. She was about to ask him to hurry before the evening wind hit her face and she blinked. When she looked around and realized they were outside, she gawked.

“You… Did you just… teleport us out of the cave?”

“nah, kid, that’d be too much effort to learn a magic like that,” he answered with a shrug, still at the same pace. “i just knew a shortcut around there. you can let go now, by the way.”

She quickly released his hand and looked at the huge building greatly carved all around them, trying to regain her bearing.

“…Okay, I don’t think I recognize this part of Greenlake.”

“s’cause this ain’t greenlake, kiddo,” he told her with a shrug. “we’re in the capital right now, or ‘new new home’, as it’s official named.”

Frisk stopped her walk and gaped at the skeleton. Her heart felt like it had dropped in her belly.

“…What. You…” She swallowed and shook her head. “You took me into the middle of the kingdom?”

“yep.”

He stopped to watch her reaction clearly amused, the bastard. Frisk took a moment to take this in, then breathed in and out a few times and shook her head.

“God… the little prince might just kill you if he hear of this,” she finally said before checking her phone and asking testily: “What about Undyne and the others? Aren’t they gonna fret we’re not back yet?”

“no worry, i texted them,” Sans answered with a shrug. “i trust ya to keep this little trip in between us, though.”

She raised an eyebrow. She put the cell-phone back in her shorts' pocket and put her hands on her hips.

“…You trust me.”

He shrugged.

“yeah, it’s not like everyone else doesn’t already.”

She snorted.

“You’re not everyone else.”

“nah, i’m not,” he agreed. “still, you paid for half my cure and take good care of my bro, so…” He winked. “i’d be a real bonehead if i couldn’t see you ain’t the type to spite people without reasons, even if i’m only trusting you as far as i can throw ya without magic on anything human related; which is to say: not at all. now, how about we get that junk food i promised ya; my treat.”

The skeleton started walking again. Frisk watched him with a strange sense of dread before following cautiously.

--

Asriel’s hand stopped in the middle of the sentence he was writing and he lifted it up with a sigh. Once upon a time he believed himself able to live with his choice, but this last event had unsettled something deep in his soul.

You’re all going to die!

Closing his eyes, he pushed the half-finished report away and stood up from his desk. He could not work in such a state. He was better off clearing his head… and by all means did he need to clear it. What a mess everything was turning into.

…Talking would not work; of course.

What had he been thinking?

Somewhere in his mind, he envisioned Frisk’s tired and disappointed gaze.

She hated him… how much more would she hate him if she knew the whole truth? How much would his people hate him if they found out? And if his father…

He left from his office and walked through the long corridor, making short nods as a quick salute to his military officers when they crossed path. He headed away from the most crowded area, near the large windows showing the border and the traps. Monsters avoided looking at them when they could; the memories of their uses were more than often still fresh in their mind.

Asriel stopped in front of a window and stared at the horizon of trap lines; he stared further away to the distance covered by the grey sky.

The human side. Frisk’s side. That old human’s side.

…Of course, Frisk originated from lands they had already taken from the humans; she had told him so once. That old man must have come from this side of the border as well. Asriel felt a huge lump in his throat at that thought.

He had grown up with the knowledge that he had to do what he could for the good of his people… but at what price? How far could he go before it became too high?

…He had to atone to his people, that he knew. He had to atone to the humans and Frisk as well… But how could he save both sides without turning humans into monsters? Could peace ever be achieved without it? Would it even work, or would it fail as Frisk predicted?

...Maybe at this point, he would deserve what Torria...

A furred hand touched the end of his snout and he recoiled.

“Boop! Earth to the head on the moon, star-lover,” a familiar feminine voice mocked him softly, “well, I haven’t been able to do that since we were little fur balls!”

He stepped away to face Connine’s mischievous grin. The taller female Boss Monster was giving him her most playful gaze as she was readjusting her closed umbrella. It did not look like there was any real use for it inside. Asriel supposed she was carrying it to go with her luxurious dress; she had always been a fashion victim. Mettaton's shows did nothing to help.

“…I was just thinking of something,” he finally said once he regained his bearing, hoping his embarrass would not show too much.

“Ah?” Connine tilted her head to the side. “It must have been pretty heavy thinking for you to ignore my aura like that.” She took a coy look and she brought a hand under her muzzle. “Hmm… what could it be that put our prince in such a state, I wonder…”

 “I didn’t expect you to come for a visit,” Asriel remarked, choosing to ignore whatever she was implying as he shifted his stance, “This is not really a place for civilians.”

“Heh.” she shrugged with the airiness of a Capital monster. “You could say I just tagged along with father to see you, actually.” She flipped her wavy curls with a bright smile. “I wanted to be the one to tell you: Mardox and I will do the union ceremony three months from now, so you’d better have a clear schedule to come and assist it!”

He blinked in surprise.

“You… and Mardox? Ah… well…” He stretched his lips into a smile. “Congratulation, Connine! I’m happy for you.”

Connine put a hand on her hips and raised a brow.

“Are you still at it with Mardox? He told me you two made up.”

“No, no, I mean, yes we’re alright now,” he assured, grimacing at his difficulty with finding the right words. “It’s just… well… it just surprised me is all. Mardox is pretty old compared to you and... uh…”

She huffed slightly and crossed her arms.

“Oh, are we going on with this? Mardox is not that older, and we’re both adults… like you should be,” she remarked in half a tone before wincing and quickly changing the subject. “Either way, you’re invited, star-lover, so you'd better make due.”

“…Thank you for your consideration, Connine,” Asriel finally said with a sad smile before looking through the window again. “…I’m not sure I can promise you anything, however. I don’t exactly have a clear schedule.”

“That’s fine if we have to report it a few days later,” she told him with a shrug, “or a few months, really.” she licked her lips and brought her umbrella down. “…I’d just like for my old starry friend to be present on my union day… You should take times to be happy too, Asriel. You’re not just a ruler dedicated to your kingdom.”

He thought back to the picnic and the sleepovers with Frisk and the others and he felt his lips twitch. He was not sure if it was to go up or down.

“…I’ll keep it in mind, Connine,” he said softly, “thanks.”

The female monster nodded and trotted beside him to look through the window. After a few seconds, he wondered what this uncanny attitude was about. Before he could ask her, however, she blurted out her question.

“So, how is she?”

He stared at her and tensed.

“How… who… what?”

“You know,” she said with an excited mutter, eyes darting around before she put a hand near her muzzle and whispered: “the human you captured? The one Mettaton spoke about in his program?”

“That-that was only wild speculations on his part!” he denied with a fluster, cursing himself for his unpreparedness. “First, he’s not privy to any state secret if there even was one, second, how do you know she’s a girl- provided such human existed, which is only an unproved rumor as of-”

“Pfff!”

Her muffled chuckles interrupted his rambling and he glared at her as she caught herself and smiled

“Heh, sorry, but… you remember who my father is, right?” She winked. “You don’t think that the daughter of a monster of science wouldn’t know anything about the reports your scientist sends him, right?”

His cheeks heated up at his reaction and he opted to frown and cross his arms.

“Torria shouldn’t have shared this with you. This is not something civilians need to know of for now.”

She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion.

“Be at ease, your majesty, this subject of yours knows how to hold her tongue, not even Mamar knows of this.” She instantly pounced back on the offensive. “Is she cute?”

“…Wha-”

“Oooh, that face you’re pulling tells me everything there!” A large grin spread on her lips and she leant forward, umbrella back on her shoulder. “Is she a little bookworm? The report said she was reading a lot. Does she look like those human females in human media who wear glasses and have to learn how to be beautiful?” Her eyes widened and she straightened, clasping her umbrella before her. “Oh! Is she in need of a make-over? Does she like nice clothing? Did you buy some for her?”

Her words brought back the uneasy weight Asriel was feeling earlier and he snapped out of his bewilderment to frown at the female monster.

“She’s not a doll for us to play dress up with, Connine, she’s a person like you and I!”

Connine blinked and pulled back with a puzzled look.

“I never said she wasn’t, but-”

“Her entire family died by our hands, Connine,” he spilled harshly, “her whole world was torn apart that day; she’s held up against her will in a cell and she was robbed of everything down to her body!” The lump in his throat was back, he swallowed before continuing. “Make-over and dress ups are the last things on her mind! …and… attention the last thing she needs...”

He finished with a strangled voice, Connine brought a hand to cover her mouth as he did, her shocked face full of guilt. After a short pause, she let her hand slide down and looked at him apologetically.

“…I didn’t mean… I didn’t want anything bad for her, I-”

“Imagine yourself captured by the humans and turned into one of them,” Asriel continued, his father’s words echoing in his mind, “imprisoned and Torria dead. Would you want anything with the humans who held you captured?”

“I… no…” Her lips trembled and she looked down, letting the tip of the umbrella hit the ground. “That… I didn’t think of it like that at all…” Her voice wavered and she swallowed. “Sorry… “

Guilt filled him at his harsh words and he massaged his head with a sigh.

“No, it’s… sorry… I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.” She could not realize. Those words were not really directed at her, he knew. “I’m just…” He drew a heavy breath. “I’m just tired of it all.”

“…It’s really eating you, isn’t it?” Connine asked softly, looking at him with a compassion he felt was undeserved. Asriel shrugged before letting his shoulders sag.

“I just… I don’t think I’m prepared for this,” he admitted, letting his gaze wander into the corridor as he brought a hand on his hip, where his trusted Floral Dagger rested. “I wasn’t prepared for her; I’m not prepared for this choice and actually…” he snorted derisively and shook his head. “…actually, I don’t think I’m prepared to rule at all.”

“You’re Asriel Dreemur,” Connine declared in an assured voice and he brought his attention back to her serious face. “You’re the son of Asgore and Toriel and a monster commander who had his first victory at forty-six. You are kind, brave and admired by your entire kingdom. Regardless of how unfit you believe yourself to be, your people know better, Asriel.”

He felt the assuredness of her aura and failed to grasp it. Still, he nodded at her to mask his uncertainty. She frowned further and sighed.

“Asriel, what…” She licked her lips. “What you brought us with that human monster… it’s a chance at hope and peace.” She let her ears drop a bit. “I… I understand that the human is angry and sad about it… and I can see how this affects you, but… but I feel I should tell you how much this means to a lot of people at the Capital, and probably everyone else too. You brought us a chance at peace without bloodshed. You brought hope for something new and I feel like you should be reminded of that.”

This time, he managed to smile a bit. He let the bittersweet comforting words fills his soul and let go of his apprehension slightly. He gave her a grateful smile and her face lit up at her small success. She looked down after a bit.

“…But I can see why you feel bad about it,” she conceded, “that poor human sounds like she’s suffering.”

“…Yeah.” He looked down as well, his throat tightening once more, guilt filling him.

“…I wish I could come back with you and help her now,” Connine continued, caressing the back of the hand holding the umbrella. “She sounds like she needs it.”

“…I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he finally told her, “not for now at least… we…” He swallowed to clear his throat. “We should give her time.”

“…Okay.”

They stood for a bit in silence before Asriel sighed again and looked up.

“…I suppose I should go see your dad now. I’m guessing he wants to see me soon.”

“…Yeah,” Connine replied before bringing her umbrella back up her shoulder and walking a few steps away from him. “And I’ll go to the civilian quarter for now.” She took a moment to look back at him with a soft smile. “And star-lover? Don’t hesitate to come by later, okay? I know things looks bad for you right now, but don’t let everything drag you down.”

“I won’t,” he assured with a grateful look. “Thank you Connine; for the invitation… and this, too.”

She gave him a thumbs up before they both parted ways.

Chapter Text

Asriel made the trek to the fort’s science quarter quickly. When the door slid open, he immediately spotted the impressive figure of the cloaked adult Boss Monster. Torria turned to give the prince a weary smile, the wrinkle around his lips even more pronounced than the last time Asriel saw him. He had always felt unease as seeing one of his kind show signs of age, but the old monster was holding well, considering his magic alone fed his daughter’s soul now. Torria shut the small notebook he was holding.

“Good day, my lord, I am pleased to finally see you here.” He nodded to the humanoid monster at his side. “Thank you for that clarification. I must go now, Doctor Neroi.”

 “Of course, feel free to come back for more.” The shorter monster answered with a large smile.  He bowed shortly as Torria left the lab. The large monster adjusted his glasses as he and Asriel took the direction of the prince’s quarter.

“How are you, Asriel? It has been a while since we had the pleasure of having you home. I know Connine was looking forward seeing you again. Did you two have a talk yet?”

“We did,” Asriel confirmed, acknowledging a passing officer with a nod before continuing, “and I’m doing alright.”

“That is pleasing to hear.”

Asriel’s answer was another nod. He knew the other monster could feel his unease through his aura, but he also knew the matter Torria came for was too important to discuss in a public setting. It was only when they were seated in Asriel’s office that Torria pulled his small notebook again and flipped through it.

“Of course, your father told you of my venue here.”

“He did,” Asriel answered, bringing his hands to his laps, “although he did not expand much on the reasons.”

“You may have already guessed it, but the rumors of this ‘human turned into a monster’ spread throughout the kingdom and up to the council’s ears,” Torria said, eyes scanning a page, “and while they had no way of confirming it themselves, they did call on me for further information, which I received from Doctor Alphys.”

Asriel closed his tired eyes with a sigh.

“And they pressured you to tell them everything.”

“I could not lie on this in front of the council,” Torria said, pushing his glasses up and giving Asriel an intense look, “you know where my loyalty stand, my prince.”

“Of course…”

Asriel used to adore his distant uncle when he was young and searching through his large library for tales of wonders. Now, though, it seemed all of their meetings consisted in the older monster softening the blows of the Boss Monster council’s decisions.

“Asriel, what happened with this human is a truly remarkable opportunity for us. You know this, do you not?”

“Yes,” Asriel agreed softly, looking away from the other monster.

“And the council had to know of the existence of another Boss Monster in our rank.”

“Yes, I don’t…” Asriel sighed and closed his eyes. “I don’t fault you for telling them, but Frisk isn’t…” He turned his gaze back on Torria. “Frisk isn’t a Boss Monster.”

“Yet.”

“… ‘Yet’,” Asriel conceded with a frown, looking down at the hands on his laps, a twisting sickness in his stomach.

“From what I have read of her situation, her other option is death.”

Asriel felt a shudder course through his back at this statement. Torria thankfully did not push the subject further and looked down at his book once more.

“In any case, I have studied Doctor Alphys’s notes thoroughly and have requested from Asgore the reports you sent him on her progress. Baring the fact that we have yet to have an opportunity to try the Soul Drainer on another human, from what we found on their souls and what we could study of young Frisk’s, it is more likely than not a wide-spread ability of the living humans’ soul to convert their form in such a way upon being drained,” the older monster said as he turned a page, “in such a case, then we may think of the application we could give to this new discovery in the war.”

“Turning humans into monsters,” Asriel stated with a faraway look, “winning the war not by killing, but by converting.”

There was a short silence before Torria spoke again.

“…You sound troubled by your own words.”

Asriel swallowed fumbling with his claws.

“It’s… you read the reports… so, you know what Frisk said of this… I…” His thoughts came back to the cry of despair of the old human and he shook his head. “I know it’s what the people want to believe when they talk about the rumors, but I’m afraid most humans won’t accept it…” He repressed a shudder as Alphys’s words echoed in his head. “…Even with… the possible change in emotions the whole process should give them, I… I’m not sure this will be enough.”

He was a bit surprised when Torria nodded.

“And you would be right, I believe. The monsters hoping for such a thing have no idea of how humans work.” Torria shifted his position and pushed back his glasses once more. “Granted, they do not have to know everything, as you are aware. The people at large must have hope, and it is up to us to give it to them… like your father knows so well,” he finished with a sad smile. Before Asriel could reply anything, Torria cleared his throat. “To go back to the problematic at hand, the use of this transformation device is still to consider, even with the knowledge that most humans would not tolerate it and most likely rebel. Not all humans are necessary for our population to thrive or for our people’ hope to be raised, however. Potentially, a selection could occur.”

A wave of cold unease filled Asriel at the Boss Monster’s words.

“A… selection?”

“Yes.” Torria nodded and flipped through more pages. “I have been studying the question of integration and it seems clear to me that most grown up humans would be fighting the change, especially if they were to be soldiers. However…” He stopped his flipping and brought the notebook down on his laps. “However humans and monsters, among many things, share a childhood state where the mind is more receptive to new ideas and malleable. From this, I can deduce that this technology would find a much more practical and less dangerous use on the youngest ones of their species.”

“You… you wish to turn children?” Asriel asked with a strangled voice. This brought a slight smile on Torria’s lips.

“A fate certainly better than the death our troops are inflicting upon them, would you not agree?”

He could not deny Torria’s words, even as the mental image of Frisk he had conjured sported a look of horror at the thought. He grimaced and clutched his claws.

“That… we would require homes for them…”

“Indeed,” Torria agreed, “and from my analysis of our people’s households, many older monsters mourned the loss of their child in battle, not mentioning the young couples who fear to have children themselves and see them live and die in such a world. I believe it is more than likely that half of them would readily agree to raise the new monsters while the other half could be convinced by the promise their child would be fully shielded from the conflict.”

Valid observations, as expected from the old monster. It still brought something nasty in Asriel’s heart. It was strange; this should not disturb him so. His troops slew both children and adult without a difference, Frisk rightfully criticized his kingdom’s terrible actions against civilians.

…Had monsters made that difference before Frisk was captured, Cam may have still been alive…

…That old human male crying in the middle of the spiked balls and losing blood may have had fewer people to mourn…

“This is…” Asriel gulped and gazed at the other monster questioningly. “What about… the children’s relatives? Would they not… I mean…”

Torria cocked his head slightly, letting one of his long ears dangle.

“Do you know of many parents who would let their child die, Asriel? I know your father made sure you had the proper skills to live.” He smiled slightly. “Should a human parent have the opportunity to know of our intent, I believe they would readily let us keep their children alive, even in such a form. And who knows, maybe some of them might be more inclined to be subjected to the transformation as well.”

“…So you would do this for their parents as well?”

“Under exceptional circumstances, why not?” Torria brought a hand up and caressed his short goatee. “I grant you, though, it would be unsafe to leave those parents and their children unsupervised; the older transformed humans might try to influence their children away from our cause and we cannot have that. Maybe separation could be considered for those cases if the risk is too high.”

“Separation,” Asriel repeated, the sick feeling in his stomach growing stronger. Torria’s aura seemed unperturbed as he continued.

“Indeed, and other than the children’s education to think about, there is also the concern that some others, or maybe that all humans turned monsters, would end up as Boss Monsters.” He kept stroking his goatee, squinting. “In such cases, given the peculiar growth of our kind, physical mass extraction may have to wait until they reach adulthood, or at the very least late teen years. It could cause problems for their learning of magic, but it would avoid creating a need for them to siphon other Boss Monsters’ souls to grow. As it appear young Frisk’s soul still show signs of maturing as a hybrid, this would be a potential way to do this.”

“…Yeah,” Asriel conceded, still feeling an incredible weight in his chest. He felt Torria’s gaze on him, but the older monster turned his attention down to his notebook when Asriel looked up.

“Another thing to consider,” Torria said slowly, “is the use of this technology as a weapon on the field. Now, from Doctor Alphys’s findings, it seems clear that using them on mass scale military human troop would be too burdensome, first for the sheer energy needed, second because even if such transformation would diminish the power of the humans' killer intents, as well as perhaps cause wild confusion within their ranks, said confusion would not last, and they would still have their guns at their disposition, as well as their will to use them.” He licked his lips before continuing. “But this could be used as it is somewhat done now on young Frisk: that is, as a restriction device and interrogation tool.”

“I-interrogation?”

“Yes.” He brought his glasses up again. “We could never perfect the proper ways to render a human defenseless enough for captivity until now, but using such device on a human would likely allow us to secure a military human safely and push them to reveal what they know. It is a well-used method of info-gathering throughout human history, and one our kind thankfully cannot stand long enough for the humans to use on us. Who knows how much of an edge such bargaining capacities could bring us?”

There was a moment of silence before Asriel fully registered what had been said.

“That… is… you mean... ” Asriel clenched his claws, “as in…”

"As I said: it would be a helping tool for us."

Asriel's jaw slammed shut. He felt like something huge and heavy had slammed into him. Torria looked at him and the old monster’s traits softened sadly.

“…But hopefully, we will not have to go there. Those are mere suggestions, my prince.”

Suggestions, yes. Merely suggestions. Asriel wished he could believe that.

…But at the rate everything was going…

“Setting aside the matter of monsterification”, Torria said, closing his book with a frown, “After hearing of the drone situation and what is happening at the west coast… the council once again…” The Boss Monster licked his lips. “The council once again brought your potential ascension on the table.”

Asriel was prepared for this, but the added stress was making him feel like his soul was about to burst. He nodded.

“…Of course.”

“As you can guess from my intense research on the subject, I made an effort to push forward the human monster project as a counterpoint to this,” Torria said in a lower tone, his lips uncovering his fangs in frustration, “however this scared flock is hardly convinced by new ideas.”

“You-you can’t really fault them,” Asriel commented softly, clutching his shaking claws, “it’s… they have reasons to be scared.”

Torria’s aura flashed with restrained anger and he growled.

“They love to ask for protection with nothing in return.” The older monster’s brown eyes softened slightly. “As of now, the matter was pushed back again, but the next few months may be critical for this decision.”

Asriel closed his eyes.

“It’s my duty. I’m… I’ll do what I have to do.”

“You were raised to be a king, not as a sacrificial lamb,” Torria spat out in disgust, “and for the greatest mistake your father made in declaring this war, he would never wish this upon you, Asriel. Neither do I.”

Asriel breathed out, opening his eyes to look at his claws and stroke the fur on his hand. After a short silence, he heard Torria sigh.

“That human, Asriel, that Frisk; what are your feelings for her?”

The sudden change of topic threw Asriel off. His face heated and he stared wide-eyed at his great uncle.

“Th-that… what does that have to… I mean… it’s not… I don’t… I…”

He trailed off when he saw the sad smile spread on the older monster’s lips.

“So, Connine had guessed right. You do like that human.” Torria leant away a bit and his gaze lost itself somewhere beside the prince. “I suppose there is a precedent for your preference to them, after all.”

At that mention of his past, the dizziness brought by the sudden question cleared and Asriel looked down with a frown, a lump in his throat.

“I… I hurt Frisk too much for this to be more than what this is now. I just… I just want her to be able to live well and happy.” His head snapped up. “Please don’t tell father!”

“He certainly would not let you see her if he knew,” Torria remarked with a nod, stroking his goatee once more. “She is a big security risk.”

“She’s not… she doesn’t deserve the harm we… I…” Asriel clenched his arms. “What’ll happen to her if… I can’t…”

Unable to form his worries, Asriel trailed off in defeat. He felt Torria’s intense gaze on him for a moment.

“… Were I less cynical, Asriel, I would reassure you of how our kind is much too compassionate and loving to do more harm to her than what we already did, but I believe the two of us have outgrown this phase of delusion.” Torria caressed the cover of his book before continuing. “In any case, putting the issue of your feelings for her aside, what she might bring to the kingdom as a symbol of hope for a new beginning was something many around me brought on the table.”

“I said to her I wouldn’t force her to do that,” Asriel replied softly. “It… it wouldn’t be fair to her…”

“From what your father told me last night, you also believe she would be more receptive to the idea once she was fully turned.”

“She’s not… It’s only a possibility and… no…” Asriel shook his head quickly. “No matter what… no matter what, it’s her decision to make. Her decision only.”

“…And you do not believe she would, in actuality.”

“She’s not just some prop to use at our convenience!”

The hissed words hurt his throat as they came out. The beats of his soul resonated in his ears. Why was he so worked up over this?

…Because in all this mess, it was the last remaining thing he could do to protect her. The realization hit him like a brick. Frisk was cornered, and so was he about her situation.

…Unless he considered treason…

“…Here is the thing, Asriel,” Torria said calmly after a bit. “What you feel and what she is feeling about all this does not matter in the slightest.”

Asriel brought his horns forward and glared at the older monster.

“What? How can you even say-”

“It does not matter for the public,” Torria cut again, his voice holding a stern calmness, “her true feelings about this? Your wish to respect them? No monster in the kingdom has any need to know of this.” He raised his head higher, his large wavy horns disappearing behind his front. “What the monsters in the kingdom need to see, and what the council needs to believe in, is a bright future and a new hope for monsterkind, Asriel.” His eyes squinted slightly. “…and furthermore, what the council needs to have is the belief that you found a potential soulmate for the future. This human’s strong soul power would be valued as such.”

“S-soul-no…” Asriel stood up and straightened to tower his monster brethren. “We can’t force that on her! That…” He felt an urge to throw up and shook his head. “That’s not the monster way! We can’t go that far! Never!”

“Asriel,” Torria said neutrally, “do you know what the council told me two days ago?” His hand twitched on his notebook. “They told me that if Asgore’s effort to take the west coast is not met with success within the next two months, the possibility of you being asked to absorb the souls would have to be considered seriously.” His brown eyes pierced straight through a deflating Asriel. “Of all people, you know the consequences… the permanent consequences.”

Asriel knew, indeed. How could he not? The nightmares had come back the first time Torria told him, this time ending with him hooked into the same machine that was keeping his father in control, haunted by the crying voices of captive human consciousnesses for the rest of his life. The prince caught himself on the chair and sat back shakily, his breathing uneven. The older Boss Monster looked at him for a moment before opening his mouth and continuing softly.

“You are young and looking even younger. The council would want the royal line to continue, but you have expressed no interest in the rare unmarried Boss Monsters. If the council sees Frisk as a potential bride for you, they’ll consent in waiting for your union until she is of age. Given the potential sterility your ascension could cause, like they believe it did to your father, this would give us a few more years of respite before the issue of you absorbing the souls is brought up again. Perhaps even by this time, it will be entirely unnecessary, Asriel.”

“She’ll… no… She’ll never accept this…

“And she does not have to know. If we’re optimist, she may not have to ever know if the war ends before the next decade has come and gone.” The horned monster squinted slightly as he finished. “Let the council believe that, play your part and you will save her as well, my prince.”

“But that’s…” he trailed off and looked down. “She won’t see that as saving her…”

“Does she have a choice, Asriel?” Torria asked, tilting his head to the side, “Is she even aware that the Extractor on her soul cannot be removed safely anymore? That her human form is very likely lost forever?”

Asriel swallowed the lump in his throat and gripped his arms, blinking back the tears in his eyes as he fell silent.

Of course he never told her that; how could he? The way she had looked at herself in the mirror that night… If he went and dashed her hope, she might…

…He could not do that to her…

…No, he could not make the mistake of letting go… not again…

“We do what we can to protect those we love, Asriel,” the older monster stated softly, “sometimes, what we do for them may look bad from an outsider’s perspective, but we do what we do for their own good.” Torria let a firm feeling of resolution in his aura. “And I’ll do my part so that my cousin’s son does not become an additional sacrifice. You understand that, do you not?”

Lips pursing, Asriel nodded and wiped his tears away with a restrained sob. He heard Torria’s long robe shuffle as he stood.

“I cannot force you to do this, but know that I will press the idea to the council and that you resisting it would only lead to more misery. Right now, your people need hope, but remember that they will also need a competent ruler once the war is over. They will need you to step in and bring forth a peaceful reign following your father’s destructive one.”

Asriel chocked and swallowed with difficulty, his legs trembling as he stood up as well. When he met Torria’s gaze, he was surprised at its hopefulness.

“You may be your father’s son, but you are also your mother’s. I truly believe you can bring back peace, my prince.” He made a step to the door, before stopping again and looked at Asriel with a nostalgic smile. “As for that young Frisk you became enamored with, just let things settle for now Asriel… but you never know.” He chuckled. “It was quite a rough beginning in between my wife and I… but with time, we both came around…” His traits softened. “And Connine was the most wonderful gift she gave me before passing away.”

As Torria stepped out, leaving Asriel alone with his thoughts. After a few seconds, he let his trembling body seat back on his chair and glanced at the piles of reports on it wearily.

Enacting a duty… Protecting those he loved… He knew those things already, did he not?

…But…

His phone buzzed in his pocket. The dread came back strong before he even made a move to answer.

Chapter Text

New New Home; the ‘Capital’ for everyone who thought its original name was lousy; it was the largest monster town and the seat of the kingdom’s royalty (for what that was worth when the prince and the king were always away). Frisk could see the mountains surrounding it, and the largest one towering them, which she guessed was mount Ebott. Mount Ebott was where all the monsters emerged from the ground and started destroying human towns. The new monster Capital was built on the remains of the first invaded human village. Frisk felt a shiver crawl her back at this thought.

Feeling the silky fabric of the dress, she was very self-conscious as she walked into the large streets. In Greenlake, she would have been noticed instantly, however, it looked like the Capital monsters had much more diverse styles and she found out she was fitting right in. As she observed the garish look some monsters sported, she concluded that either Mettaton took a lot of his personal style from it, or that, worse; he was responsible for most of them.

She looked at the skeleton walking ahead of her, his eye-sockets’ lights away from her form for once. He had brought her here. She was currently at the heart of the kingdom; where no living human had set foot for decades over. On one hand, her chances of reaching the border were considerably slimmer than at Greenlake, were she to try and escape. On the other hand, she was alone and no one knew her here. How easy would it be for her to fit in and find a transport leading to the front? How easy would it be to club Sans from behind, given how physically unfit he was supposed to be?

…How easy was it to incapacitate Papyrus’s brother without dusting him straight away?

“enjoying the view, kid? i know i’ve got a cranium to die for.”

He turned just enough to give her an amused, and probably warning, wink. She felt her face heats up and she looked away with a wrinkled muzzle, massaging her arms.

This was a silly thought. Whatever she gained in potential freedom from this would not be worth all the effort she had made until now. Limited freedom within their kingdom was what they had planned for her, and if she acted now, all she would gain was to be a fugitive in addition to this. Was she to even cross the border, with her current appearance, she was more than likely to be killed or detained by any human troop crossing her path. And as horrible as it was, she had the feeling that she was better off as a prisoner here than with her kinds.

…Furthermore, if she truly wanted to take revenge upon the prince and the rest… if she wanted to make her family’s murderers pay… where she was now may ironically have been the best position; the closest position. She looked at the back of the skeleton’s head. He said he was ‘trusting’ her. She did not think she believed him… but…

Undyne’s fanged smile came into her mind. Her grip on her arms tensed.

Trust… such a dangerous thing…

Trimmed claws… were not her only weapons.

…but how easy would it be to act on it now? And how hard would it get in the future?

Sans avoided the denser quarter and led her to a more peripheral part of the town, where outrageously dressed monsters were rarer and people looked a little more normal. It was still well decorated, however. Even a large building further away, which looked like a human style factory, was covered in painted murals and trees. Frisk’s gaze stopped on it for a moment.

“hey, kid, let’s grab some grub before you go and sight see, alright?”

She turned her attention back to Sans and saw he was casually pointing at a lit establishment which looked very much like a human bar. The words “Grillby’s” were blinking on and off on its façade.

“if ya wanna grab a quick meal in a warm place, i don’t know anywhere better than here. heh, don’t tell pap i brought ya here, though, he has a big allergy to any mention of greasy food.”

He opened the saloon-like door and let her through. The dinner room had both round tables on her left and more typical dinner couches around square tables on her right. It was fairly crowded. The short skeleton led her to two lone seats at the bar as an obviously drunk rabbit shifted up when he passed by.

“I-is that you S-Sansy?” the rabbit called in a high-pitched feminine voice. “I missed you! You always know how to par…p-p-p-partey!”

“heh, missed ya too, twirley.” He shrugged. “you know how it is, though, even if all work and no play is hare-dly fun.” He sat and gestured to Frisk. “here, kid, have a seat.”

Frisk sat. A big fart noise came from under her and she instinctively blushed before remembering that she had yet to have any bowel movements for weeks now. She quickly checked under her seat as Sans had a good laugh.

“heheh, geez, i can’t believe you fell for the old whoopee-cushion on your seat trick! wow, ya really became complacent while i was gone, huh?”

She threw him a dirty glare and took the cushion with bafflement.

“…Seriously? A fart joke? Monsters don’t even fart!”

“heh, yeah, that’s the beauty of it,” he explained as he grabbed the whoopee-cushion from her hand. “i like the trick, but almost no one gives me a fun reaction because they don’t know what farting is.” He looked at the object with something close to fondness. “to be frank, i was kinda looking forward using it on ya a little; your offended pretty face never disappoint.” He winked at her. “and i see you took my advice, i told ya red eye-liner would look good on ya.”

Frisk frowned and resisted the urge to touch her face. She was not used to makeup and right now, she felt like a small mask was covering her. She forced herself to ignore the sensation, shifted on her seat and thought back to what the skeleton told her with a frown.

“…Why do you even have a whoopee-cushion in the first place? I mean… I know you like jokes and all… but like you said, almost no monsters know what this is about.”

His smile did not leave his face as he answered with a hum.

“…let’s just say it’s for sentimentality value. ah, whatever, it ain’t important, kid.” He put the object in his inventory and turned to the bartender, who was a humanoid monster, wearing clothes, in spite of being entirely made of fire. “hey, grillbz, how about you give us one burg and fries each?” He looked back at Frisk as the bartender monster left. “you like burgers, right? you’re not going to make a scene like last time?”

She threw him a dirty look, grabbed the counter and swung her tail.

“I ‘made a scene’ because you monsters are crazy and eat very weird stuffs and, oh, yeah, you eat humans too!” she hissed back, wrinkling her muzzle, trying to contain a wave of disgust. “Seriously, did you have to lie to me about that? The spider at the bakery straight up told me she used humans when she could!”

Sans raised an arcade brow and scratched his head.

“she did huh? weird… ah, i suppose some crazy monsters like the spiders could maybe eat humans, but spiders have no standard, anyway: they eat spiders. they ain’t really the most representative monsters, ya can’t really trust all of those shifty eyes they got, though they make some healthy juice.” He turned back to the counter and tapped on the table lightly. “yeah, anyway, if you’re wondering, the burgers' meat ain’t real, like many of our meats. we tends to use substitute, y’know? since we don’t raise all of those poor defenseless cows and sheep to get eaten.”

As if struck by a thought, he turned to her with a grin.

“Say, if ya eat sheep meat, would that be canni-baah-lism?”

She rolled her eyes and looked ahead.

“It’s not like we have… had much meat to eat. Big animals were rarer and provided milk and other products. Apart from the occasional chicken or pigeon, we mostly relied on what we could grow. And what we got from rationing…” She released her grip on the counter and her expression grew tired. “…But… you didn’t bring me here to talk about foods and jokes, did you?”

After a short silence, he snorted.

“nah, kid. i wish i did, though, ‘cause i just hate being serious.”

Frisk observed him a moment and made a short huff.

“Must be really serious if you made the effort of separating me from everyone... or go so far as to spend some lone time with me,” she remarked cautiously. She saw the bartender coming back with their order and brought her fries close, still trying to find ways to relax and act casual. She spotted a bottle of ketchup on the counter and put a small quantity on them before showing the bottle to Sans. “Want some?”

He raised a hand and shook his head.

“nah, I stopped drinking that stuff years ago.” He took his burger, still smiling as usual, but without joy. “heh, when you go to battlefields and see all of your kind’s inner stuffs spread around, it has a way of making you disgusted with anything resembling blood.”

She looked at him a moment before nodding and taking a fry. Maybe it was ‘junk food’, but it tasted alright. She was pretty sure she would have needed some water alongside it as a human, though, but clearly monsters did not need as much hydrating. It was probably another thing worth exploring later.

“…grillby always serves that instead of water. he just doesn’t touch the stuff, as you may have figured.” Sans made a nod to the fire monster busy cleaning the glasses a little further away. “i took a liking to it when i first started coming to his bar. heh, before all this, i used to be almost made of this stuff too,” he continued head shaking. “i had this idea that if i were to be killed by a human, i would just let all the ketchup splatter out so that i could die seeing the look on their face. my last prank.”

Frisk thought about this and frowned.

“…It’s not funny.”

“nah,” he nodded, “it’s not. s’why i stopped.”

They started to eat in silence. Feeling an unspoken tension, Frisk broke it.

“…You been to a lot of battlefields?”

“nah. only a few in the beginning. for work. wasn’t really fit.” He threw her a look. “you?”

She swallowed the bite she had taken from her burger and shook her head.

“Until you came to my town, never.”

“…yeah… figured as much.”

Another silence fell in between them. Frisk’s ears were peaking at the monsters’ conversations around them as she ate. There were laughter and joy, as expected from those kinds of places. Her parents sometimes brought Cam and she to an establishment like that one on special occasions. Monsters were not the only ones who needed to have relaxing times.

She swallowed with difficulty and pushed the thought away. Now was not the time for this sort of thinking.

It was when Sans finished his burger and started to eat his fries that he brought her out of her musing.

“…you still think ‘bout it, don’t you?” He twirled a fry in between his phalanges as he spoke. “that one day.”

Her mouth full, she grunted in response. Yes… of course she did; how could she not? She tried to push the memories away, but the skeleton continued.

“back at the sleepover, i saw you when you slept. i’ll take a guess and say you didn’t use to dream ‘bout whatever you were dreaming that night before all that.”

Claws gripping the remaining bits of her burger, she swallowed and sent him a warning glare.

“Don’t go and pretend you know me, monster.”

“heh, never dreamed of it; just sayin’,” he said, a hand raised in appeasement, “your sleep didn’t seem like the kind of sleep you’d get with a peaceful mindset, ya know?”

She huffed nervously. ‘Peaceful’. What a joke.

“And whose fault do you think it is?” Struck by a thought, she blinked and raised a brow. “…What? Are you trying to apologize for that or something?”

“me? apologizing? nah.”

She snorted disdainfully and bit the remaining burger part down. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the skeleton’s elbow rest on the counter.

“…though i’m a bit curious now what ya think i ought to apologize to ya for.”

She huffed and swallowed.

“The dreams? The fight? This?” She pointed at her horns, her muzzle wrinkled. “There’s a lot to choose from, don’t you think?”

“‘the dreams’, huh?” Sans’s beads of lights flashed and his plastered smile seemed to stretch further. “you dream of me? man, that certainly is somethin’. what will poor az say when he learns about that?”

“Fuck off,” she snapped in frustration, picking up a fry and looking away from his disgusting face. “You know that’s not what I mean.”

She bit on the fry and let the awkward silence set in between them, her tail twitching. The skeleton observed her for a moment before turning back to his fries.

“…nah, i think i got a good idea of what you mean.” He picked some fries before continuing. “you dream of ‘that day’, don’t you? you keep repeating your last minutes of freedom.”

His words brought an involuntary shudder through her back and she concentrated on her fries to ignore the flashes of blood and dust which came to her. The skeleton looked up with a hum.

“yeah… s’amazing how much can happen in one single moment in time, huh? all ya need is one decision taken and everything’s changed.” She felt his gaze back on her. “whadya think, kid? what would you do differently that day if ya could go back right before you were caught?”

She eyed him curiously before looking down at her fries.

“…What does it matter? I can’t go back.”

“why don’t ya humor me? i could use some jokes today.”

She flashed him a glare before looking away again, finding herself considering the silly fantasy. What would she do differently that day, after waking up in her shambled home in the middle of her parents’ corpses? Would she still go through the trapdoor, pick up the toy sword and go in search of Cam? Would she flee the fights? Would she abandon her brother? No. Never. Would she still attack the dogs? Would she try and find another way to save him? Was there even a way for her to remain dust-free if she tried to save him? Was there a way to kill the dogs that would save him?

…Would she still attack Papyrus if she was to fail again?

…That answer, she knew, yet she elected on frowning, a lump in her throat at the painful memories.

“…In the end, what’s done’s done. No point thinking about it.”

She felt Sans’s beads of lights on her.

“hmm… yet you do think ‘bout it, don’t ya? s’what your dreams are for.”

“Stop.”

“stop what?”

“This,” she said in a growl, turning to the skeleton again with a lowered head. “This monster way of psychoanalyzing me or something. You’re no doctor and I’m not your fucking patient. We’re no friends and you’re not getting me to open up to you this way. I think that, out off all the crazy assholes around, you’re the best at getting the ‘we’re enemies’ thing and I don’t feel like being traitorous today. So you can shove all your interrogation techniques up in between your pelvis and coccyx for all I care for them!”

 Sans raised a, arcade brow and chuckled at her outburst.

“heh, now, trust me, I ain’t ever gonna forget this; i’m not his majesty.” He shrugged casually and turned back to the counter. “…just figured you’d be interested in figuring out why you die so much in your dreams is all.”

Her glare decomposed and she froze, a wave of coldness filling her chest.

“…Wha… how-”

“how’d i know this?” he cut her off, picking up a fry with a disinterested look. “hmm… s’a funny reason; same reason why i know you know what it feels like to be pierced by bone attacks without ever having suffered one from me.” He gave her an amused look. “when i saw you back there, you looked like a kid who died a lot.”

She stared at him in disbelief, forcing her jaw shut, a clawed hand grasping the counter. She never told any of them about her dreams… and certainly not about… that. Surely, it was just a lucky guess on the skeleton’s part. He was smart enough to figure it out.

…But that statement just now…

“… ‘a kid who died a lot’,” she repeated slowly.

“yeah.”

She snorted, fangs showing as she turned back to her fries.

"...Yeah, hate to break this to you, but there’s this tradition of dying only once where I’m from.” She felt her memories cling to her again and clutched her handful of fries. “There’re… some exceptions to the rule thanks to advanced medical procedures, but actual resurrection isn’t a thing."

A hard truth she knew long before her parents and Cam left her, no matter how much she wished for the contrary. Her throat tightened. She munched the fries down to get rid of the feeling.

"…hm... what if you were to avoid your death?"

Frisk swallowed and furrowed her brows.

"What, like... being immortal?” She thought back to Asriel and his demonic father, then shook the memories away. “That’s your thing."

"not what i meant; what if you don’t reach the point in your life when you die?" His phalanges glided on the counter. “what if a decision you made took you to another path altogether?”

Frisk threw him a confused look, wondering what he was on about. She grew all the more annoyed by his attitude when the skeleton looked like he was basking in her bewilderment. He hummed and examined a picked fry offhandedly.

“…what if time wasn’t as inflexible as we are led to believe?”

Frisk stared at him a moment, then recoiled and wrinkled her muzzle.

"What? Like… time travel? …Like in the movies?" She blurted out in disbielief, Asriel’s VHSs collection on her mind.

“heh, sure, why not.” The skeleton shrugged. "like the movies."

She stared for a while before turning back to her fries in annoyance. She should have guessed she was in for another joke.

“That was lame, bonehead.”

“…ya think i’m pulling your leg on this?”

She picked a fry, rolling her eyes.

“Look, I know there were some tries before to invent machines that could go back to the past by one government or another, but those never worked.” She swung her tail. “And your implication that I or anyone else would have time traveled when no scientists ever found a way to make this work: that’s silly. I mean, we’d know about it if we time traveled.”

“heh, maybe we would… or...” Sans slouched back on his seat, tapping the wooden counter. “maybe the previous realities merely leaves a small imprint on our limited mind. Unconscious knowledge; i’d say that’d be enough to prevent yourself from repeating mistakes again and go down another path. What’s the expression humans use for that? déjà-vu?” He huffed and stopped his tapping. “yeah, that’d be a thing that could be provoked by a time-traveler’s shenanigans.”

His beady lights fixed on her.

“ah, yeah… ‘déjà-vu’… ever had those, princess? i know i did.”

That day, she did. She remembered. She has many. Impressions; feeling of ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’ at certain key times…

…But… that had nothing to do with anything… right?

She suppressed a shudder and swallowed, picking up her last fry.

“Brain misfiring… that’s no proof of time travel.” She suppressed a giggle. “I mean, come on! If time travel happened every time déjà-vu was a thing, it’d be way too common! How would the timeline even stand this?”

“heh, who knows? maybe the timeline is much more flexible than we credit it to be.” He raised an arcade brow at her. “…and maybe that’s why humans are so dangerous to us.”

She stopped herself from eating the fry and frowned at him.

“…What, you mean, the whole ‘being able to kill you with one single hateful hit’ is not enough? We’d need to have time travel too?”

Sans shrugged and leaned further down.

“your killing intent may be a bit of an issue, but not so much if we can just attack your soul with magic from a distance, which you happen to be weak against. physical beings are a little tougher, but far from invincible.”

“But humans from the past could use magic too,” Frisk countered, engaging him in spite of herself, shaking her fry around as she did so, “and our magic looked like it was even stronger than yours!”

“magic’s just magic to us. as monsters; we’re naturally resilient to it.” He eyed her amusedly. “in fact, i bet even you have a bit of magical resilience as you are now.”

She unconsciously put a hand on her chest as she frowned at him. He cocked his head to the side.

“determination. ever heard of it?”

Guessing he probably meant something else than what the usual use of the word was, she waited. The skeleton looked at her a moment before picking up the ketchup bottle on the counter.

“figured you might have already read ‘bout it in a history book or somethin’, but back near the beginning of the war, we monsters tried to find out what made human souls so strong; so powerful that they could last so long after their death.” After examining the bottle, Sans put it back on the counter’s border. “what we found was, human souls have this specific energy in them, a sort of magic that allowed them to persist after their physical shape died. This energy was called ‘determination’ and was used in many things, like in the creation of amalgamates.” Sans frowned. “monsters have determination too, but not nearly as much as humans. inject a huge dose of it into a monster and they gain invulnerable body… but… you know the cost of that.”

She gulped when the memories of Mx. Dogs came back to her. She remembered how its huge gaping hole had swallowed her so many times in her dreams. She slowly put the half crushed fry she was holding back in the plate.

“now, here’s the thing,” Sans continued, putting his hands in his pockets and leaning back. “if injecting determination into monsters give them such power, what ability does it naturally give to ya humans?”

She looked at him with an uncertain frown.

“…you think… that this energy gives us the power to… go back in time?”

That… was impossible, was it not? Time-travel… that only happened in fiction, not real life.

…But once upon a time, so did magic for humans.

He closed his eye-sockets with a hum.

“you, who is so full of love for justice, princess; don’t you think that, if such a power existed, it would be the duty of the one wielding it to use it to do the right thing?”

She looked at his slouched form warily. It was the first time she heard him speak so softly. It felt off in the strangest way.

“what would you do if i told ya i could send you back to before you were captured with this? would you do the right thing then? the right thing for everyone?”

She stared at him, an uncertain, wavering and fleeting hope went through her mind. Back to before… Saving Cam… being free… away from this nightmare… It should be impossible… but…

“…How?” she asked hoarsely.

The slouched skeleton stayed silent for a while. It was only when she was starting to tense on her seat that he shrugged.

“heh, easy peasy…”

His black eye-sockets snapped open.

“All  you  need  is  to  die.”

A surge of magic surrounded her.

Bone. Dry. Cold.

…Blood.

CLANG!

The bottle of ketchup clattered on the ground when she jumped away, spilling on her furry paws. Her tail had hit the counter and knocked the container over. She stood there, in front of the skeleton, eyes wide and hands into trembling fists, ready to swung, as his aura was still heavy on her.

He had brought her here, far away from any people that would be fast on their feet to protect her, in spite of their stance as captors. Why?  She thought back to the feeling of gravitational hold the skeleton could potentially weight on her soul. He could easily find a way to end her life right here and now before any monster could help.

If anyone could do this to her, it was Sans.

It was only when the skeleton raised an appeasing hand at the fire-bartender that Frisk realized the dining room had fallen silent when she had stood up. The skeleton’s aura returned to normal, leaving her panting.

“‘s all good grillbz,” Sans assured the fire-monster before looking back at Frisk with a smile. “sorry ‘bout that, kid, that was ‘cold’ of me. i’m guessing that joke was a miss, eh?”

When she answered nothing, he blinked and chuckled.

“heh, what’s that look for, kiddo? you really think i’d go to all this trouble making this prank for ya just to do something like that? i’m not pap, but i got standards.”

She kept staring, his words barely reaching her.

“…A... prank?”

“heh, yep.” He gave her an amused look. “c’mon, now, kid; you didn’t really believe this was true, right? humans? time travelers? man, how easily are you fooled?” he patted her seat meaningfully. “now, c’mon, let grillby pick that bottle and sit back; people are starting to stare.”

She blinked out of her stupor, then relaxed her stance. She bit back her disgust at the skeleton’s attitude before slowly sitting back down, her tail still throbbing painfully from when it had hit the counter. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right on one thing: he probably was not about to kill her here. Her eyes did not leave his form until the conversation around started again and the fire monster picked up the bottle and went away.

“heh, you know me better than that, kid,” Sans muttered as he turned back at the counter with a shrug. “I ain’t gonna act before you try anything. I don’t kill war prisoners for no reason.”

She felt the truth behind his words and coiled her tail close to her legs.

“…You brought me here, in the middle of civilians I could hurt so easily,” she remarked, her voice still constricted.

There was a short moment of silence before the skeleton chuckled.

“heh, yeah. i gotta admit, the fact that you can focus your hate on individuals instead of a whole people is something i can respect. it's slightly endearing.”

“‘Endearing’?” She repeated with a nervous snort. “God, no.” She brought a hand to her head and massaged it. “Don’t start having sympathy for me. I don’t need you to like me too.”

“well… ‘like’ is a strong term… ‘appreciative’ is probably closer to what i feel for ya. i appreciate that you’re a good person, that you’re a good friend for papyrus and that everyone i know seem to have grown a little and gain some hope since they came to know you.”

She felt an indefinable unease at his words and brought her legs closer together. He shrugged and continued.

“tibia honest… for all you being our enemy and such, i agree with az that you ain’t a bad person; anyone who can genuinely like a cool bro like mine and appreciate some good puns has an integrity i can’t deny.” He cocked his head again. “and i guess you could say that, like you with the innocent monsters around you, i’d much rather find a less dusty approach to deal with the problem you are to me if i can.”

Something in what he said hit on the strange and unsettling reflection she had been having for a few days. Her eyes settled on the remaining crushed fry on her plate. The hand holding her head slid down to one of her long ear, which she caressed softly and with a shudder. Magic and matters mingled together… human and monster.

“…Is there such a way anymore?” she pondered aloud, “Is there a way out of this that will involve no blood or dust spilled?”

“…no idea, kiddo,” he answered her with a snort, “if there is, i haven’t found the equation.”

She chuckled humorlessly.

“And I guess if you haven’t found it, there’s not much chances for me to.”

“…eh, who knows?” he replied with a surprising lightness to his tone, “i’d say given how unexpected this whole situation became, i’d rather not bet on anything anymore.” He stood up from his seat and brought his hands in his pockets. “now, c’mon. don’t wanna worry the crew more than they do on their own. hey, grillbz!” he called to the fire bartender wiping a glass clean away from them. “put those lunches on the lady’s tab!”

Fridk stood up and raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. He chuckled.

“heheh, okay i ‘kid’ ya. grillbz! you can put them on mine instead!” He waived at Frisk. “let’s go. i gotta show ya something before you’re back at the lab.”

She followed him cautiously outside with a worried expression. The night had fallen, the fresh wind caressed her fur. She hugged herself, then stopped when she realized she had put grease on her beautiful Chinese dress. After consideration, she shrugged it off. The dress belonged to a crazy kidnapping robot anyway; what did she care? …At least, her purple and blue sweater was still clean.

“i saw ya were looking at the factory before we went in,” Sans spoke, pointing at the large rectangular building from earlier. “you know what this is for?”

She looked at the building, then back at him. He put his hands in his pockets, his smile stilling.

“s'actually the reason i brought you here; i found ‘em.”

Frisk blinked, then frowned.

“…You found what?” she asked; although just as she did, something clicked in her mind and her eyes widened, her heartbeats accelerating.

Sans’s smile widened, although it was without joy.

“…yeah, i found where the souls from your town went.” He shrugged and looked at the building. “they’re not all there, a few of them are used in a great cannon on the west, the closest one from here. don’t know where your family was put. this factory does occasional energy drain, but i know they alternate the souls regularly to prevent them from breaking too quickly.”

Frisk covered her muzzle and tried to calm her ragged breath. A cold shiver spread through her.

They were here.

They were just here.

Cam… mom…dad…everyone…

Her vision blurred. She took a step, but of course, this was useless, the familiar cold blue magic warped around her soul warningly. She was hyperventilating. Breath in, breath out, come on! There… There… She took a long breath and wiped her tears away, smearing her makeup. She turned to Sans, her lips trembling. She swallowed.

“I…I-I-I r-read that…. that the souls are… conscious… when they are fused with a monster…” She looked at the building again. “When… when they’re like this…are… are they…”

“hum…” Sans looked at her a moment, then back at the building. “when they’re fused, that’s true.” He made a tired chuckle. “wish i could un-see that, frankly; when the two consciousness fight, this ain’t pretty… but… yeah… i don’t know how aware they are in this state, i don’t think it’s much… though i heard the reason why they requisitioned all ghosts to work here is because they can hear and talk to the souls, so there ought to be at least some form of semi-consciousness in there.”

…Semi-conscious; trapped and drained.

Her hand went back to her muzzle and she stiffened a chocked cry. It was hard to breathe again. She tried to calm her hiccups. Sans looked at her with something close to empathy.

“yeah… i’d offer to make ya visit, but I think ya goat your bone rattled enough for today. better get yourself home and make you count yourself to sleep.”

He was making puns. At a time like this. A nervous giggle erupted from her pained throat. She shook her head at him, lips trembling.

“You’re… you’re such a horrible person…" she swallowed and took a ragged breath. "...And I bet you’ll keep being one to-marrow.”

She saw the beads of light in his eye-sockets gleam at her reply.

“heh, now, that's cute. looks like you still got some hope in ya even now, huh.”

Hope; what she depended on to stay alive now, according to the skeleton. She felt almost devoid of it. There was something burning inside her at the sight of the building, however; a spark that was almost as quickly stiffened out by the machine stuck on her soul.

Determination. Sans’s supposed prank.

…What if-

“by the way, kid, before we go, i gotta remind ya…” He looked at her in the eyes. “we keep the soul sight-seeing in between us, alright? az wouldnt want you to see; dunno what he'll do if he finds out, but it probably won't be that good for either of us. even that time travel prank earlier, forget ‘bout it, alright? it’s just not a very fun prank at all; not up to my standards. i’d rather it stays in between two hopeless jokesters like us.”

As Frisk considered his words with a frown, he took a step toward her and showed her his hand. Frisk looked at it, then back at the factory a moment, reciting a silent vow to herself. Then, she wiped out her tears, taking a deep breath and grabbed the bony phalanges with her clawed hand.

Chapter Text

The trip back to Greenlake was quick. Asriel could see the medieval-type castle from the car and it had barely been three hours since he departed. The prince looked at his phone again. His eyes spotted Alphys’s last message and he frowned in frustration at the memory. Mettaton; of all things… He should have been more prepared for this! He knew the danger of leaving town when the robot was around, but he had figured Undyne would be enough of a protection. That Mettaton had succeeded in roping both Frisk and his Royal Guard captain into his TV show was doing nothing to help Asriel’s mood. The only good thing about all this was that Mettaton had assured Alphys that Frisk’s identity would be kept secret to respect the prince’s wish.

Torria’s words came back to his mind and he clenched his teeth, pocketing his phone back once more. The saddest irony about this was that it would play straight up with his uncle’s suggestion for her. Even if Mettaton did not reveal her human nature, any Boss Monster watching would guess it easily, especially the Council. There had not been any new Boss Monster found within the monster kingdom for over seventy years, after all. Their population had been steadily declining over the centuries; none especially expected to find any more born outside of the known couples.

But maybe… maybe this would be a good thing… if Torria’s plan for the Council was to make them think of Frisk as a… They would not even need of meet her this way… and she would not even need to know anything about this… If Frisk was shown as a monster instead of a human to the kingdom, then he would keep his promise to her and the council might get satisfied with what they see of her. She would stay a state secret.

...And Torria said he'd use her as an excuse to keep Asriel from absorbing human souls like his father did... as the facade of a potential bride...

He felt a pang in his heart. He wholy believed he deserved a fate as cruel as his father's for all the wrongs he did... but Frisk... she would definitely be opposed to him turning into another god-like adversary for humanity. Using her as a shield like that, however... it felt despicable. He brought a hand to the emblazoned Delta Rune on his chest and squeezed. The kingdom was seeing him as the kinder ruler, a counterpoint to his misguided father, the prince who would bring back peace, bring back Hope, as the rumor of the human being turned into a monster was demonstrating.

Of course, no one knew the horrible truth. He was the only one left alive who knew. He even made a point to destroy the videotapes out of fear of being found out years ago.

Sometimes, he thought back to her… his mother, smiling for the last time. She knew; she had to know, because Chara knew.

If Frisk knew… what would she say? How much more would she hate him for this?

He recalled her fearful and teary eyes, after she had slapped him. At that point,  she had moved beyond hate, onto a terrible place.

The man from yesterday had done the same. The man went from hateful to broken in a second.

Humans… humans broke down just like monsters did.

There were many monsters who thought that, because humans could live without Hope, Love and Compassion, that they didn’t need those things. Asriel knew that to be false. Asriel knew it was untrue from the time they knew Chara.

Chara had been many things; soft-spoken, daring, snarky, loving, compassionate, driven…

They had been hopeful as well; not all the time, but when they were, it was with a passion that had dragged Asriel along.

…But the times they had no hope, the passion turned into a black hole of obsession, swallowing everything they cared about into darkness... Asriel included.

Humans’ emotions were so peculiar to monsters. Maybe it was because monsters, being made of magic, were so much more attuned to their soul. Because they were so attuned, monsters instantly felt what they and those around felt, but humans…

Humans wore a mask of flesh all the time; it often covered their emotions, made them hold on and ignore… until the emotions came and blew in their face… until they fell down, like that man, like Chara, like Frisk almost did.

Asriel knew humans fell down too. They did not lie down and rest like monsters, humans still moved, talked and could even pretend nothing was wrong, but they were falling down all the same.

Humans needed Hope, Love and Compassion as well.

Frisk needed all that, regardless of her form.

‘You’re all going to die!’

Asriel shut his eyes and chased the human’s last words from his memory. It was probably nothing; only the dying threats of a condemned man. It was not the first time Asriel heard something like that.

…But the last time, there had not been ‘drones’ flying above monster towns…What if…

When he finally arrived in town, the night had fallen. Asriel was exhausted from the work at the fort and at the thought of his waiting paperwork for tomorrow. He sighed as he walked through the calm street. He did not really need to now, but he really wanted to go see Frisk. He wanted talk to her about Mettaton; see if she was truly fine with participating in his show or if Asriel needed to intervene. He also wanted to learn more about her time with Undyne and how she felt about all this.

There was another thing he needed to say to her too… something he should have told her a long time ago. Torria had pointed it out.

He entered the lab and saw Alphys at the computer. The screen on the wall showed Frisk’s cell, but Asriel could not see the human monster. From the vapor coming from behind the blue curtain, he guessed she was bathing. Voice noises were coming from the cell’s speaker, which Asriel recognized from a movie the VCR was probably playing.

Alphys turned when he stepped in and gave him a tired smile.

“h-heya, asriel.”

“Howdy Alphys.” He worked his worn legs until he was facing the sitting scientist. “Busy day?”

“y-yeah,” she said with a sigh. “i… i had to work on our defense again… then the cannon… now…” She took out her glasses and massaged her eyes. “with…. with the help of another crew, i think… i think i’ll be able to figure out a way to turn a hybrid like Frisk into a full monster within a month or two.”

Asriel felt the weight inside his soul drop again.

“…Ah?”

“yeah…” She put back her glasses to look at the screen. “right now, the process i have discovered will be… will hurt, but… but i think i’ll be able to work it out to make it painless.”

He swallowed with difficulty before nodding.

“…That’s... good.”

“yeah…”

Perfecting the full process was better than leaving the Soul Drainer onto a soul for all her life, right? It was better than leaving her in such a precarious in-between state, potentially failing to maintain her form and...

...And yet, he felt a heavy weight at that thought. After a moment of silence, Alphys sighed and spoke.

“y-you know, i… i spoke to frisk a bit… b-before the meeting with asgore… and…” She looked at her claws. “…i know… i know what we’re doing… i know it’s for the good of the kingdom… but… asriel...” She looked up at the prince. “if… if we do it… if we perfect the technology that turn humans into monsters… should we… should we do that to all humans? can we… do you think we can… spare some from it? …a-alive… i mean..”

Asriel looked at his obviously worked up friend with a constricted throat. He was not alone, it seemed. He was not alone in having those thoughts... what did that say about what they were doing?

He felt it in the lizard' aura; a pain in her akin to his own. He could almost feel the hope dwindling from her. Torria’s words came back to his mind. Then, the laughing human engulfed in butterfly bullets... falling down...

He swallowed, taking deep breathes.

“... Maybe?" he adventured trying to mask the disbielief in his voice. "I... I suppose we can't rely on only one scenario."

He saw Alphys's eyes lit up and forced a slight smile, trying to formulate his warning in the kindest way.

"…But we can't forget, Alphys…  why humans keep fighting us after all those years..." He felt his voice consitrict. "… You know we… we swore their destruction.” He looked down. “Maybe we could pretend to stop fighting once they’re on the brink of disappearing… we could pretend to give them Mercy… but…” The laughter of the condemned human resonated in his mind. He looked at his hands and saw that they were shaking. “…We’ve killed too many… we’ve gone too far to pretend this does not matter… Humans are…” He closed his eyes painfully. “I mean… look at us; look at what we did. Humans almost killed us off more than four millennia ago, and now we take revenge and do the same to them. What… what will happen to the humans we bring in such a state? What do you think their descendants will do to us once they grow back in strength and numbers like we did?”

Alphys was not a Boss Monster. She was not made for this kinds of hope-draining reflections. She was not the leader he had been raised to be. Alphys was his subject, and he owed his subjects Hope.

As a friend, however, he owed her to be truthful. It was a hard balance he knew he still had trouble to maintain.

There was no answer from the scientist. When the prince opened his eyes, he saw the lizard looking down to the ground, grabbing her tail painfully. Asriel sighed and continued softly, trying to spread a hope he barely believed in in his aura.

“That… we can change humans into monsters is already miraculous, Alphys; that we can save even one of them from having to be killed is already amazing. If… if we can save more… if we can save them from death … maybe we should... but we cannot count on this as a priority." He took a breath and spoke more earnestly. "You save life with what you're doing, Alphys, you save your people. We managed to live on after the last war, but there are still so few of us compared to before… we have to think about how we will be able to live first, before thinking about how we can spare our enemies.” His gaze landed on the cell’s screen and he licked his lips. “It’s… I think we should concentrate on what we can do now, Alphys… we… we have to remember who we’re fighting for… and take care of who we can reach out first.”

Looking away, Alphys nodded, still twisting her tail.

“y-yeah… i… you’re right…”

There was no confidence in the scientist’s words. Her aura remained subdued, but no worse than it was before. Licking his lips, Asriel shifted position and massaged his head.

“Look… I… You’ve been working all day, Alphys. Why don’t you let me take your shift and go take a nap? It… it’ll probably help you relax a bit.”

After a short moment, Alphys nodded again and stood from her chair.

“y-yeah… you’re right… i-i-i’m going, then, uh…” She looked at Asriel one last time before leaving the lab, a tired smile on her lips. “…don’t over exert yourself either, asriel.”

Forcing a smile, Asriel nodded back and the lizard left. She had less hope than she used to, but she was still in no danger of falling down, if he had read her correctly. It had not been his best cheering job, but it was better than nothing.

...He felt so tired. He winced when he realized it. Boss Monsters were less likely to fall down... but they had their limit as well. He would need to be careful. Now was not the time to ruminate on things.

The prince took a breath and sat shakily in the scientist’s chair. He looked at the overcomplicated diagram once before turning to look at the screen of the cell. Frisk was still behind the curtain. He had to wait before seeing her. Perhaps it was for the best.

After a tired stretch, Asriel closed his eyes and tried to guess which movie the VCR was playing. The voices were familiar, so were the replies, he probably watched it more than once. It meant he probably watched it with Chara; Chara had a few favorites they picked. One of the voice seemed male and young; the other was male as well, but much older… they talked about gig watt something… and a car, maybe? Ah, he thought he remembered now; it was something about time-travel…

The chilling feminine laugh was not something he recalled, though.

…Wait… that laugh was…

Asriel’s eyes snapped open. He still could not see her on screen, but that was Frisk who laughed like that. Also, the vapor coming from under the curtain was much denser than before, clouding the screen.

Frisk was laughing mad.

He stood up from the chair and rushed to her cell. He did not bother knocking. He ran in as soon as the door slid and spread the curtains wide open.

She was there, immerged in the bath’s bubbling water up to her neck, staring ahead and still giggling madly.

“Frisk!”

Not again!

He sprung toward her and tried to pull her out. His hand touched the boiling water and he recoiled with a hiss. Boss Monsters may have been attuned to fire, but they had their limit. The water was literally cooking her! He made another attempt and managed to grab her under her arms. Gritting his teeth and bearing the pain silently, he pulled her out. He laid her on the bathroom floor gently and assessed the damage. When he saw the bright red burns through her thinned fur, he winced in sympathy.

Frisk, still choking out a laugh, seemed to have finally noticed him.

“Heheh, why… hello there! Heheheh, look at what I’ve done… man, isn’t it great? Hahah!”

“Golly, Frisk, why?” Asriel asked fearfully, trying to stop his burnt hands from shaking as he crouched near her. “With the water this hot, you could’ve…”

Her eyes met his worried gaze and she giggled again, her whole body trembling. Asriel quickly sent healing magic to his hands so that he could work on her burns with them.

“…Heh, ‘why’? Why not, heh,” she answered in between two giggles. “No reasons not to, heheh; no reasons to stop half-way on anything! HAHAH! Man… heh, and you’re here too? Hahah! This is great! You’re always here when I need you, huh? My little prince! Hahahah! Wow, my little prince in shining armor… my little white ‘sheepish’ prince… heheh, get it?”

Seeing he would not get anything coherent, he shushed her.

“It’ll be okay, Frisk; you’re just delirious a bit.”

He concentrated on his healing magic again, hands hovering over her burnt body. He would need to spend a lot of energy to cure wounds like that. Frisk, still chuckling, took some ragged breaths.

“Hahah, heheh, wow… hah. You came straight away. Heheh, you even got a peek for your effort; aren’t you happy for that? You little perv…”

“Shhh; I promise you I’m not looking,” he reassured her distractedly, concentrating on sending his magic into her wounds.

“Hah, no, of course you’re not… Heheh... not that there’s anything to look at, anyway… hah, I don’t get your weird monster bodies! Hahah! I really don’t get anything about myself nowadays, hahahah! Ever had that problem?”

“Sometimes,” he answered her without much thought, still busy with smoothing the burns. The prince felt immense relief when he saw them disappear. He never had to heal anything this severe before.

“Heheh, well, heh, imagine that, but all the time! Ain’t that great? Heh, ain’t that awesome? Hah, c’mon, you goat to BEEEH impressed there! Hahah! Ewe goat to beeeh ‘wool’ling to get the ‘ram’ ification of all this!”

“Frisk,” Asriel muttered in an unnerved tone. “Please, calm down.”

“Hahah! Why, you think I’m not calm? Hah, why wouldn’t I be calm in the safety of your arms, little prince? Hahah, why wouldn’t I be safe in my nice little room, where nothing bad can reach me? Hahah! Look at how happy we’ll all be, frolicking in the fields of… of interspecies friendship! Hahahah!”

Tightening his jaws shut, Asriel ignored her delirious talks and concentrated on healing. As he progressed on it, her breathing calmed down. Her fits of giggle became rarer. A small silence stretched for almost a minute when she spoke again.

“I’m a terrible person.”

Asriel stopped moving his hovering hand and looked at her face. She had a far-away look and she seemed drained of energy.

“…You’re not-“

“Sans told me yesterday,” she cut him off. “He told me where the souls are.”

There was a short silence when Asriel had no idea how to respond, his soul hurting at the suffering he could feel from her. Before he could think of anything, she continued in the same matter-of-factly voice.

“They’re there, getting sucked dry. I’m here, getting groomed like a little royal pet.” She was looking at the ceiling. “I could try anything. I could try to flee. I could try to kill. I could try to die. But I don’t.” Her eyes became pained. “I’m just a coward.”

“…Frisk,” Asriel said, shaking his head. “You’re not a coward for wishing to stay alive.”

“…After he said those things, I had those thoughts,” she continued. “I thought it could be quick... I thought I’d get the will. But… I just woke up, followed fish-face and trained like nothing happened.” She huffed. “I could go, but I'm afraid to. I could stop, but I keep on going, and I’m not even sure if it's worth the shot... I'm not sure why…”

The wave of despair he felt from her urged him to comfort her. He delicately lifted her and let her head rest on his laps. Her brown red eyes met his.

“Frisk,” he whispered, barely grazing her hair with his hands because he knew how much she hated contact. “Don’t go,” he pleaded. “I… I know I… I’m not someone you respect or… or even like… but please, don’t give up… at least…” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “At least… don’t give up for Papyrus… Don’t give up for your friend…”

Chara had given up. Given themselves up for what they believed in. Asriel could not let Frisk follow in their footsteps.

He owed them that. He had to try.

There was something weird in her aura; the kind of muddy feeling he often felt from her; the muddiness of human emotions. She swallowed and looked away, her head digging on his laps.

“…You’re a terrible person, you know that?” She huffed, shivering slightly. “You’re a terrible person and I hate you. Even worse is that…” Her lips trembled. “No matter how much I know that, I still let you get so close.” She made a sound in between a sob and a chuckle and dug further into his lap. He felt the tips of her horns through the fabric. “Ha… and… And I still find comfort in your kindness, even though you basically murdered my whole family and trapped me here. Ha… Ha…” Her eyes started to gleam from tears. “That’s so messed up… I’m such a messed up kid… human… monster… goat hybrid whatever! Haha!” She tiredly brought her hands up to cover her eyes. “You’re a terrible person and I’m the worse for hanging out with you…”

“You’re a good person, Frisk,” he told her firmly, feeling his own tears slide from his cheeks. “You’re… it’s because you can see the good in all people… even… even your enemy… That… that doesn’t make you the worse of anything.”

She had another fit of giggle in between her sobbing. Asriel had to resist the urge to caress her hair. When he saw her body was shivering from the wetness and cold, he managed to grab a large towel while still kneeling and covered her newly healed body. She grabbed the towel and pulled it around her, finally rising off his laps. They sat still for a moment on the cold floor of the bathroom, the sound of the movie playing in the back ground before Frisk made another tired chuckle.

“Heh… Hey, Az, think you could watch the rest of ‘Back to the Future’ with me tonight? You know, for the irony of it?”

Asriel had no idea what was so ironic about it, but he nodded all the same, feeling slightly light-headed from all this. He left the bathroom quarter to let her dress privately, and arranged the seat for their second movie night.

'You do what you can to protect those you love', Torria had said.

Alphys needed to have hope. Frisk needed to have hope.

...And so...

Asriel clenched his lips shut and left the discussion for another day.

Chapter Text

 Run. Keep running. It feels good.

Frisk was panting, but she was far from out of breath. Her sure footing brought her ahead of Artie. After this embarrassing episode with the prince yesterday, she basked in the simple action. She wanted to run and forget everything. It was her eighth lap and she was not even tired. Sweat was pouring from her back and she did not even care; she was wearing the clothes Undyne gave her anyway. That had been bad. She did not want to think of this. Why did she have to think of this?

Progress; she should think of the progress made. Stop thinking about the rest. Stop complaining.

Sans’s prank filled her thoughts. She shut her dry mouth and swallowed. Damn him… he and everything else.

Dangling such a hope in front of her like that...

She swung he arms harder. A prank, he said; he probably just wanted to throw her off, making her wander away from her goal, maybe even making her off herself...

...And he almost could...

What did she have to go for after everything? What would she even do if she survived this? Most of the people she knew were dead, and she did not know how well the others fared. If Sans told the truth... but he could not have... right?

She breathed out with a pained grunt and ran faster. It did not matter; she should stop thinking about it! What mattered was that Cam and the others were still trapped and she needed to find a way to free their souls; to make them pass away peacefully. She could not risk dying for some stupid skeleton prank!

She just had to get this out of her head and-

“Wah!”

It was all the warning she had. She felt Artie head-butting her back in their fall. She was thrown to the ground with them. They had made her fall yesterday as well; they told her they used to fall all the times when they were a kid. This time, she was prepared and landed limply to avoid hurting herself like she had yesterday. She had been so tense she had twisted a hand, luckily something easily fixable with monster food.

The ground grazed her forearms a bit. Artie was spread on her back, catching their breath. She contained a wince, reached her pocket and bit into a monster candy bar Undyne had given her for such occasions. She felt her bruises heal and the lizard on her back apologized.

“Man, Frisk, I’m so sorry! I… I keep getting it wrong all the time!”

Frisk shrugged with a forgiving sound. The wyvern moved off her back and she stood. She dusted her clothes as Undyne yelled at them.

“GAWD YOU PUNKS! Why do you always have to be so USELESS every time you’re starting to get good? NGAH! It makes me so MAD!”

Frisk brushed her sweaty ears away with a huff. Everything was making the fish warrior mad. The panting lizard hunched their back in shame as Undyne stomped close.

“I-I’m sorry, Undyne, it… it’s my fault again, I-“

“ENOUGH EXCUSES, PUNK! You may suck at staying on two feet, but don’t take ALL the blame!” She pointed to Frisk accusingly. “You BOTH fell because this HORN-HEAD wasn’t paying attention, AS SHE SHOULD HAVE!”

“…Okay,” Frisk said, rolling her eyes. It seemed to make the fish lady even madder.

“WHAT’S THAT SNARK YOU’RE PULLING, PUNK? You think you’re SANS or SOMETHING? You’re both gonna do me some stretches and THREE ADDITIONAL LAPS! NGAH!” She put a big boulder she had been lifting violently on the ground. “At this rate, you’ll NEVER be ready for that stupid tin-face’s contest!”

Frisk whipped the ground with her tail and put her hands on her hips.

“Well, you’re the one who told everyone she would ‘pound the competition to the ground’, after all, so why would we have to try anything?”

“Um, Frisk’s right, Undyne,” Artie agreed with a nod before flinching and looking down, bringing their tail near their legs. “I… I think it’s very cool I can compete and all, but… but with you and so many great monsters in it, I… I don’t think I got much chance at all, anyway…”

Frisk winced and turned to the wyvern.

“Hey, hold on! You’ve got all your chances in the contest too! You can fly and throw those wing bullets around; that’s gotta count for something big!”

She saw red tints on Artie’s cheek and they looked up at Frisk with a flattered smile.

“…Thanks, yo; it’s cool that you think like that.” They straightened up. “But really, Frisk, I think it's you who's really got your chances! I mean, you’re so strong and tall and your fur is so pretty!”

She raised her hands up.

“Wow, let’s calm down a bit, there; sure, I’m taller than most, and maybe a bit tougher, but there’re plenty of tougher and taller monsters around; it’s nothing unique.” She crossed her arms, wrinkling her muzzle. “Beside, fur is really overrated, trust me.”

“NGAH! Enough with the flattery quips, kids! GET BACK TO WORK! THIS AIN’T A BEAUTY CONTEST!”

“…It is a ‘beauty contest’, Undyne,” Frisk replied in a dead-panned tone, “it’s in the freaking name.” She rolled her eyes and threw a hand up. “Seriously, what did you think ‘beauty pageant’ was about?”

Not that Frisk knew anything about why a ‘beauty contest’ was so athletically challenging, but appearance had to play a big role, considering Mettaton.

“I am SERIOUSLY thinking of shoving all that smart attitude you got up your booty, kid, so you and spike-head are gonna SHUT UP and DO ME THOSE FREAKING STRETCHES before I get REALLY MAD! NGAAAAAH!”

Punctuating her words, Undyne pulverized the rock with her fist. Frisk and Arties took a step back to avoid the debris and quickly obeyed the warrior. She watched them strain their muscles with a cackle.

“Yeah! THAT’S RIGHT, MY PUNKS! NGAH! Now, I don’t want to hear ANYMORE of you two beating yourself! You’re training with ME, kids; meaning that BY DEFAULT, you’re instantly BETTER THAN ALL THOSE OTHER LAME CONTESTANTS! NGAHAHAHAH!” She threw her arms up the sky in triumph. “That’s RIGHT! We won’t just get first place, we’ll get ALL OF THE WINNING PLACES ON OUR OWN! NGAHAHAHAH! Take that, tin-head; my victory will be ABSOLUTE! That’s what you get for trying to RILE ME UP! HAH!”

“She’s riled up, though,” Frisk muttered just loud enough for Artie to hear. “She’s so obsessed with winning she doesn’t even realize she’s playing into Mettaton’s hand.”

Stretching their tail, Artie snickered.

“So true, yo!”

“…WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT TALKING, PUNKS?”

“S-sorry, Undyne!”

After a few more stretches, Artie whispered again to Frisk.

“…By the way, yo; I…” They hesitated nervously. “Well… we got this thing this evening, me and my friends… they came when their families got together in Greenlake ‘cause their parents took leaves from the front. It… it would be cool if you joined.”

Frisk stopped her stretching of her arms to look at them in surprise.

“Join… with your friends?”

“Y-yeah! I mean, uh…” Their eyes darted around. “I-I mean, we’re teens and… and you’re still a kid, right? Or, a teen, like us? You’re not an adult, at least.”

“…Yeah, I’m a teen,” Frisk confirmed slowly “…But uh…”

“I-it’s cool if you come, you know? I-I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to, but… but they’re all nice, I promise! I… I bet you’d like them too… if you want?”

The offer was so genuine in made Frisk’s heart bleed. Still, she licked her lips and gave them a sorry look.

“Artie… I don’t think I-“

“SPIKE-HEAD, QUIT CHATTING AROUND! You’re gonna add TWO MORE laps to your punishment! STARTING NOW!”

“Y-yes, Undyne!”

The wyvern started to jog away quick and Undyne turned to Frisk with a serious expression.

“Punk, you’re really gonna turn ‘em down?”

Frisk shrugged helplessly, then raised an eyebrow.

“It’s not like you’re going to let me… wait, are you?”

Undyne looked at her a moment, then smirked.

“What? You think I can’t watch over some punks like you when they have fun? Ngah!” She crossed her arms and nodded. “You know what? You may be a smart little thing, but you’re still just a kid; you really should hang out with people your age more. Most of those punks are ACTUALLY around your age, too, though you shouldn’t tell them your real age, ‘cause, uh, you know...”

Frisk cocked her head in self-evidence.

“Well… yeah… but…” She looked down with a frown. “I’m still me. You… you trust me with a bunch of monster kids?”

“Pfff yeah?” Undyne slapped the human monster’s shoulder, who winced. “I trust you with Artie already; you think I’d let you anywhere NEAR my protégé if I didn’t? HAH!” She crossed her arms assuredly. “Just go back to your laps and say ‘yes’ to Artie, kid; let me worry about the rest!”

Frisk did not bother protesting. With a sigh, she started running again.

--

After a quick shower, which frisk took the time to enjoy, and a change of clothes at Undyne’s house, Artie and Frisk said their goodbyes to the fish warrior… only not really, because she was still following them through the bushes and behind trees, with audible snickering. Frisk was a bit embarrassed for her; even Artie had noticed this time, and was occasionally giving nervous looks at her various hiding places.

 “…Yo, Undyne’s a bit… uh, weird today, ain’t she?”

“She’s always weird,” Frisk replied with a roll of her eyes, which made Artie throw her a worried look.

“Yo, not so loud, Frisk! She’ll hear you!”

“It’s fine,” Frisk assured with a hand wave. “There’s no way she’ll confront us about it now.”

“Well… maybe… but what about tomorrow?”

“We’ll get extra training; big deal.” She shrugged.

“…Wow, that’s true! And extra training means getting into the Royal Guard faster! Good thinking Frisk! We should annoy her more often so that she trains us even more!”

“…I didn’t say that…” Frisk sighed and massaged her front in exasperation.

Artie still had not given up on their aspiration to go to the front and learn how to kill humans. She still hoped their time spent with Papyrus would qualm their urge to prove themselves this way.

“Still… that’s pretty weird, man,” Artie said in a mutter. “Why’d you think she’s following us like that?”

Frisk made a face and tried to find an explanation that would not revolve anywhere near the truth.

“…Maybe… Maybe it’s because she’s worried about the contest? I mean…” She wrinkled her muzzle. “We’re heading out to meet a group of teenagers, after all; adults never trust teens with not getting into trouble.” She huffed. “I bet she thinks we’re gonna do something illegal or something.”

To Frisk’s surprise, Artie blushed guiltily. She stopped and sent a concerned look at the lizard.

“…Wait… we won’t actually do something illegal, are we?”

Having stopped as well, they quickly shook their head.

“Yo, no, of course not… but, uh…” They looked to the side, still with red cheeks. “It’s, uh, not something adults like teens to do.”

Frisk waited for them to continue, then glanced at the bushes Undyne was hidden in and scratched near her horn.

“So, uh… what is it, then?”

“Uh, well, you know how our shopping trip at the market was interrupted last time?” They gave her a smile. “Well, there’s another shop tonight, yo! You know about the Temmies, right?”

Frisk thought about it and shrugged. Artie explained.

“They’re those weird monsters that are completely obsessed with collecting stuffs. They’re almost all called ‘Temmie’, too and have their weird dialects and histories. Anyway, there’s a Tem Camp that has settled at the outskirt of the town and Tem Shops always have those cool neat stuffs for sales! They even have a lot of human items they collects around, since they’re crazy for humans for some reasons.” Artie wrinkled their muzzle. “Yeah, they’re very weird. Anyway, adults don’t really like it when we go to Tem shops because they can’t really supervise what we buy and some items in there can be… uh… not really legal... for monsters’ that aren’t Temmies, anyway.”

“Ah.” Frisk nodded in understanding. She then thought about it and cocked her head. “So, they collect human things?”

“Yeah, mostly from taken towns.” They started to walk again, followed by Frisk. “I don’t really get it personally, yo; but seems there’re lots of older monsters who still collect human stuffs for some reasons, even if it’s discouraged.”

Frisk put a hand on her chin.

“Ah, like Alphys and her Anime.”

“Alphys?” The wyvern looked up to Frisk with a questioning look. “Who’s that?”

Frisk raised an eyebrow at them.

“Yellow lizard lady? Often wearing a lab coat? She’s the one Undyne’s crushing on.”

“Yellow… Oh! Alphys the Royal Scientist, you mean!” Artie’s eyes widened in recognition. “Yo, I never spoke to her, didn’t know she collected human things too… wait…” They stopped in realization, tail twitching. “Undyne has a crush on the Royal Scientist?”

Frisk heard a muffled protest noise from the bushes. She ignored it and kept walking, prompting Artie to follow.

“Sure she does. Those two give each other doe eyes all the times. I don’t even get why they’re not together already.”

Frisk had seen enough couples getting torn apart from war to know quiet times for lovers was very fleeting in those days. In a way, those two’s inability at confessing their feelings was grating on her nerves.

“…Man… So even Undyne can have a crush? Uh…” they looked behind them in worry. “N-not that I think Undyne can’t love or anything like that… but, uh…” They walked beside Frisk, finishing in a mutter. “I just didn’t think Undyne would be… uh… too shy to act on her feelings. It’s… in a way, that makes her much more like… like us, you know? Normal people.”

“Hum; I guess?” Frisk refrained from throwing a look at the bushes. When she thought about it, she could see Artie’s point; Undyne was always so straightforward about everything that her hesitance with Alphys was almost out of character. Then again, Frisk knew that both in literature and real life, people could act very differently when they were in love.

“…So, wait, d’you think Undyne would wanna buy something for her crush at the Tem Shop too? Oh! Frisk!” They leant in closer to whisper, tail swinging excitedly. “You think we could help them get together? I bet Undyne would like that!”

The human monster’s eyes widened.

“Get-” Frisk threw a wary look at the bushes and refrained from speaking further, a hand on her chin. “Huh…”

She was not particularly fond of either monsters, and even if their hesitance annoyed her, she did not care enough to actively coerce either of them; it would be intrusive, anyway.

…On the other hand, Artie was pretty excited and it could be entertaining to annoy Undyne about it.... and distracting. She would probably send them both to the track run until they sweated dust and blood, but Frisk was not that worried about the fish warrior with the prince watching out for her. Regardless of the results, Frisk did not think she had that much to lose in trying.

…How would she do it, though? Alphys would never make the first step because she did not think she was worthy, and Undyne did not look like she went all the way to seduce the lizard. If Undyne were as passionate about asking Alphys out as she was about the contest…

Frisk tapped her fist on her palm in eureka motion.

“I got it.”

Artie’s expression brightened.

“Yo… really? Already?”

“Yeah…. Kinda…” Frisk nodded. It was not a one-hundred percent chance of success, but it would certainly be entertaining if pulled off, and that was what mattered. “I think it’s gonna be up to you, though.”

“Me? Sure! What can I do?”

Frisk walked close beside the lizard and whispered her instructions.

--

They were heading to the lake and frisk found herself reflecting how strange her life had become, and yet, how mundane it felt. She was a human in a shape that was not her own, mingling with an enemy population. She was also a regular teenager doing regular teenager things with her friend, like what she used to do before all this. Was it how a spy felt when they were infiltrating another country? The weight of the secret she kept were only becoming noticeable in those few times when she was ‘alone’ with Papyrus and Artie, but the fear of the consequences of them finding out kept her in check.

In Papyrus’s case, she was more concerned about Sans’s warning, but Artie…

Her eyes wandered on the short lizard’s form and she diverted her attention to the lake.

…Everything was so messy. Too messy.

She was the last pillar left of her whole family, probably her whole town. And it hurt. It hurt knowing that once she was gone… or if she failed… everything left disappeared with her.

She could feel herself faltering sometimes and it scared her. She could feel her mind and her emotions about all this evolve and it scared her. Getting so close emotionally to your captors was never a good thing.

…But they would not let her distance herself.

…And she was not sure she wanted to distance herself too much either, because where could she go then? With whom could she find a haven of emotion now that she had lost everyone?

Monsters were dangerous. They were a danger to humanity. She was surrounded by monster criminals all the times.

…But monsters as a whole were not ‘bad’. Just like humans, they had their criminals like the prince, and their innocents like Papyrus and Artie. It was a concept she could have pondered without consequence before, when she was still home, with her kind. Here, this thought was a source of constant anguish.

How did Undyne do it? How did Asriel do it? How could they both be accepting of the fact that they were murdering innocents and willing to keep on doing it for a greater cause? How could they know her, talk to her and even respect her, yet keep on doing what they were doing? Did Frisk actually wanted to know the answer to that last question?

“Yo! The river person’s here! Awesome!”

Artie trotted excitedly to a black hooded form manning a small wooden boat in the lake. Realizing they would take the ship, Frisk looked at the rock behind which Undyne was hiding. Well, Undyne was a fish monster; it was probably within her capacity to swim and follow them.

Frisk saw the fish warrior’s head rise up from behind the boulder, a phone near her ears. She caught Frisk’s gaze and made an encouraging swipe of hand, turning back to her conversation. Seeing this, Frisk shrugged and joined Artie.

The hooded figure saw her approach and bowed slightly.

“Hello, newcomers; I am the river-man.” They cocked their head. “…Or, am I the river-woman? It doesn’t matter. I like to travel on my boat; would you care to join me?”

Artie nodded.

“Yo, we need to get across the lake! To the east side!”

The figure nodded.

“Then hop on. The water is very calm today.”

Frisk followed Artie into the boat, careful not to fall as it wobbled, and sat in front of the lizard as the river-person rowed their boat far from the coast, singing a soft melody.

Rocked by the movement of the wood on the water, Frisk looked up to watch the declining sun.

Humans killed monsters, monsters killed humans; it was a logical conclusion to the war. It was a notion she had grown up with as evident; as much as ‘the sky is blue’ or ‘the water is wet’. Whether you liked it or not, it did not matter, because it was a fact of life.

 And the thing was, as time passed, she had grown to question this evidence; and she had no idea if it was whether she truly believed it was avoidable, or because she did not like it.

She did not like it, she knew that now. She did not like the thought that Papyrus had to die with the rest for humans to finally be freed from the war. She flatly refused for her species to die out for monsters’ peace as well. Monsters had shown themselves to be much more civilized than she had imagined before, true. Artie told her of how they helped the orphaned of war like their sister and them. They had told her of those who offered to adopt them and all those who donated food and helped in building their home.

Monsters were not a people that would let one of their own pass out from cold and hunger in the street. As much as it bothered her, it was something they had over her people; even with the tight community she belonged to, strangers were more seen as potential threat than potential friends.

Monster books claimed their soul was made of love, hope and compassion, and as much as she had snorted at that, she had started to see what could comfort them in that idea. Monsters were civilized, very much so, contrary to what she used to believe before. They did not steal from each other; they paid great respect to their dead; they loved music, dancing, art, and to have fun; they loved good food and pleasures of life; their customs were strange, but completely understandable.

Monsters, with each other, could very much display the love, hope and compassion they claimed to have. With humans, this was another story altogether.

Her gaze fell on her blurred reflection in the water and she frowned. The thing was, as much as it made her angry, and as much as she thought they were wrong, she understood. Monsters looked out for their own, like her village did. It just so happened that ‘their own’ for the monsters encompassed all the monsters in the kingdom, not just one village. If there was something that was clear for Frisk from her discussion with Alphys, and from what she remembered of the monster soldiers that were present during her transformation, it was that, in their own twisted way, they truly believed changing humans into monsters was the right thing to do.

They truly thought peace could only be achieved if everyone belonged to the same race; to the same ‘village’. They thought their supposedly inherent nature would override humanity’s pride and will to survive. Frisk did not even want to think of a world where humanity would accept this. It never would. Monsters’ plan was doomed to failure. They could not twist a human mind enough to make them accept. There was no way!

The shudder she had at that thought spread through her body. Her tail twitched violently and she brought her hands on her arms. Artie looked at her quizzically and she forced a reassuring smile until they smiled in turn and she looked up at the sky with a sigh.

Monsters killed, but monsters wanted to kill with kindness. They wanted to make their enemies disappear, but by wiping them out softly. Monsters only had hope, love and compassion for their own.

…And yet, they did not enjoy making her kind suffer like she once thought they did. And their history said that once upon a time, their good disposition extended beyond their own kind. Once upon a time, a lone human child was taken care of by the Royal family and raised as one of their own... Asriel’s sibling. Once upon a time, monsters had no problem in being compassionate to a human without robbing them of what made them human.

Frisk believed that humans would probably have reacted badly to the sight of monsters, even if the queen had succeeded in freeing her people peacefully, but perhaps she was wrong on that, just as monsters and humans were wrong in thinking a peace was impossible. The two species coexisted for a long time before all this; what could prevent this old history from becoming the norm once again?

The painted factory at the outskirt of the Capital flashed into her mind and her throat tightened. The boat bumped into a dock softly, bringing her out of her musing.

“Tralala, here we are,” the river-person announced. Frisk and Artie disembarked and the hooded figure made a last salute. “Come again sometime; tralala…”

Frisk returned the nod and followed Artie through a road surrounded by red trees. Shining magical lanterns were starting to light up as the sun went down. Frisk liked them, even though she rarely had the opportunity to see them, since she was usually back at the lab at this time of the day.

She spotted a bunch of monsters waiting at an intersection. The biggest one, who was a a little higher than Artie, looked like a duck, or a blue-white feathered reptile. Their head feathers and beak were forming a large kite shape and their beak had saw-like teeth in it that seemed to move inside their gum, like the teeth of an electric saw would. Another smaller one looked like a little volcano with four twig-like legs. They had their eyes closed in an expression of bliss and their cheek had a healthy blush… which, maybe, made sense for a volcano? The smallest one was a four-limbed flying bug about the size of a pet rabbit. They sported a pair of antennas and their face seemed to transcribe either intense stress or discomfort.

Artie’s face lit up when they saw the group.

“Awesome, yo! They’re all here! C’mon, let’s introduce you to them all!”

They broke into a run, forcing Frisk to catch up with a small jog. The white reptile-bird-like monster saw the wyvern coming and raised a wing. Crescent shaped glassy bullets materialized out of thin air and flew toward Frisk. She barely had the time to stop her jog before Artie’s white wing bullets flew to the transparent crescents and collided with them in little sparkles. The bird-like monster fluttered in obvious satisfaction.

“Hey, Artie; it’s so ‘fresh’ that you could come!”

“Yo, Snowy! Hehe! Yeah, it’s so ‘cool’! Hahaha!”

The bird monster ruffled their feather superiorly as Artie and Frisk joined them.

“Please, kid, let the pro-fresh-ional dishes the good puns.”

“Haha, yeah, sorry.” Artie nodded at the human monster. “Anyway, this is Frisk, the young Boss Monster I was telling you about.”

The bird presented a wing, which Frisk took after leaning a bit.

“’Ice’ to meet you!” they told her, staring with their yellow gaze expectantly. Frisk raised an eyebrow.

“…Thanks? ‘Ice’ to meet you too.”

Once they got their wing back, they gave Frisk a disdainful look.

“I just made that joke, you copy-cat!”

She frowned down at them.

“That wasn’t a very creative-”

“Yo! Snowy, that was a good one, hahaha!” Artie interrupted Frisk’s reply urgently. “A-anyway, yo, Frisk, here’s the gang:” They nodded to the bird. “That’s ‘Snowdrake’, or ‘Snowy’, for short. His mom and dad are into the Royal Army.” They then showed with their tail the small volcano. “This is ‘Vulkin’; their parents usually do small road excavations near the front.” They finished by turning to the trembling flying bug. “And here is ‘Whimsun’; one of their parents is also at the front.”

Frisk turned to the smaller monsters and gave a nervous hand wave.

“Hi, all.”

Whimsun looked liked they might cry at her attention; Vulkin seemed pleased, however.

“Aaah, so nice! Hiii!”

Snowy fluttered impatiently.

“Okay, okay, let’s… ‘hailstorm’ out of here and get on with it already!”

They started to move out; Frisk gave Snowy a questioning look.

“…So… Sans’s thing is mostly skeleton puns; you’re mostly snow-based puns?”

The bird snorted.

“What? That slouchy grinning bonehead? He’s snow-thing compared to me! I mean, my dad used to be an actual professional comedian before the war, and I’m even better than he was! In a few more years of practice, I’ll even have my own stage!”

“Ha, yeah, Frisk!” Artie grinned. “Snowy’s dad was a comedic legend in the underground! You should see the recording of his shows!”

“…He wasn’t that great,” Snowy protested with a grumble. “I’m like, ‘snow’ much ‘cooler’!”

“Haha! Of course, yo! I mean, you already practiced for over thirty years, yo! I bet you’ll be ready in a year or two!”

The bird fluttered toward Artie with a glare.

“Are you mocking me?”

“What? O-of course not, Snowy! Y-you know I wouldn’t-”

“Wait, you’re over thirty years old?” Frisk interrupted with a frown. “I thought we were all teenagers here.”

The bird monster turned his ire away from Artie and at Frisk.

“…I’m a ‘drake’, we grow up like that.” He snapped his beak a few times. “You’re not the only type of monsters to grow snow-ly, horn-head.”

Frisk raised her hand in defense, rolling her eyes and cursing herself silently for forgetting the disparate aging of monsters.

“I get it; geez, you got to ‘chill’ a bit, for a snow monster!”

“Would you stop stealing my thing, goat-face?”

“Aaaah.” The little volcano sighed in pleasure. “I thought this was funny!”

Snowy flapped his wings in frustration.

“That’s because you have ‘snow’ taste! I seriously have to find a better public around!” He turned to the little bug. “And you’d better laugh at my jokes next time, Whim-snow, or we’re ‘hailing’ on you!”

Whimsun looked frozen on the spot; tears were threatening to fall from their eyes.

“I…I…”

Having enough of the drake’s attitude, Frisk turned to him, hands on her hips.

“Okay, I don’t know who ate your candy when you were little, but you’ve really got to stop taking your personal issues on your friends!” She then turned to the little trembling bug with a soft expression and a helping hand. “Hey… it’s okay, he’s just-“

“Frisk, wait!”

Artie’s warning came too late. Whimsun burst into tears and flew away before Frisk had a chance to speak her first words. Snowy huffed at her.

“Come on! How ‘cold’ you be so uneducated? Don’t you Capital morons ‘snow’ that baby ‘whims’ are so wimpy they can’t even stand attention? Now, they’re far away!”

“Aaaahhh; poor little thing,” Vulkin agreed with a sad face.

Frisk winced guiltily, annoyed more at herself than anyone else for doing so poorly with Artie’s friends. The wyvern gave her a reassuring look.

“It’s fine, yo! They’ll be back soon! They always do that!”

“Yeah, it’s ‘snow’ problem; they’ll be fine!” Snowy agreed dismissively. “Whatever, let’s go before hail freeze over!”

They started to walk again. Frisk’s thoughts strayed away from Whimsun and back at the drake. She lightly punched her palm in realization.

“Wait a moment… I think I get it! Your dad’s a comedian and your name’s ‘Snowdrake’; as in ‘snowflake’! You’re name’s a snow pun! Wow, it took me a while to get that one!’

Snowy gave her a weird look.

“What? My name’s not a…” He trailed off and his face melted into one of horror before he fluttered up angrily.

“Oh my god! Dad, why? You gave me a pun name! You actually dared! I hate you so much! AAAAAH!”

Frisk, Artie and Vulkin watched the drake freak out around the trees. Frisk lowered herself to whisper at the wyvern.

“…Dude’s got some ‘daddy issue’, huh?”

Artie gave her a grave look.

“Yeah, but better not talk about it, yo… He’s always like that when we do.”

“Gotcha.”

By the time the drake calmed down, Whimsun had joined them again. Frisk was careful not to look at them when the group finally moved forward.

Welp; she was off to a good start there. She checked behind them occasionally, but she could not see Undyne anymore. This worried her a bit. After all, no matter how free they let her be, they would still not take it well if she was without any kind of surveillance…Especially since Snowy had made them cut away from the main road and close to a steep red wall, above which extended another road.

“Alright,” the drake said with confidence. “If we don’t ‘flake’ off, we’ll get to the Tem Shop in ‘snow’ time this way! We’ll even avoid the most annoying crowd if we hurry!”

“So true, dude,” Artie agreed with a nod. “Man, I hate it when that guy follows us.” They checked the edge worriedly. “How we gonna climb that, though?”

“Piece of frosted cake! Like this!”

Snowy flapped his wings and landed up the red edge. He turned to the remaining monsters expectantly. Artie looked bothered.

“Uh, yo, Snowy, I don’t think most of us can just fly up there like that…” They looked down. “And, uh, Undyne ‘grounded’ me, so…”

Snowy puffed his feathers.

“Please! You’re not gonna let grownups tell you how to live your life! What are you, some monster kid?”

“N-no, but…” Artie looked sideway. “…I almost died last time I did it,” they muttered.

Frisk checked the red wall, running a clawed hand on its rugged surface.

“Hum… You know, I think I could probably climb that, it’s not that high for me,” she chipped in, eyeing Vulkin and Artie. “I bet I could give you a lift before I go, too.”

The wyvern’s face brightened.

“Yo, good idea, dude! That way, I’ll keep my word to Undyne and Vulkin can climb!” They turned to Whimsun. “Yo, you don’t need help, right? Can you fly that high?”

Frisk gave a smile to the flying bug.

“If you have any problem, just tell me and I’ll give you a hand, okay?”

Whimsun stared at Frisk frightfully, lips trembling.

“I…I… I’m sorry! Waaah!”

Before Frisk could say anything, they zoomed away again, to her annoyance. A nasal voice rose from behind her.

“Wow… Awkwaaard…”

Frisk heard Artie sigh before she had the time to turn fully. Beside Vulkin, there was a new monster. Their shape was…strange… like a saucer-type, almost. They had four legs and two arms, two rectangular eyes, some black spots on their high greasy front and large nasal cavities.

Frisk noticed the nasal cavities instantly, because the saucer monster was very visibly picking their nose.

“You guys suck at sneaking out, you know? Like, how dumb can you get when you get stuck at one wall? Laaame!”

“…Hey, Jerry,” Artie said in a tone that seemed to reflect intense weariness. Even Vulkin’s happy mood seemed to have soured. “How’d you…uh, know we were here?”

‘Jerry’ snorted derisively.

“Uh, like, it was obvious? I can’t believe you forgot me back at the park, guys! Good thing I found you again; how can you even hope to have any fun without me?”

Artie turned to Frisk and whispered urgently.

“Hurry up and toss us, yo; they can’t follow us up there!”

The little volcano bumped into Frisk’s legs urgently, warming her legs.

“Aaah! Tossy bump first!”

Having gotten a good grasp of the dynamic of the situation, Frisk quickly picked the volcano monster. Their burning body was almost her last bath’s temperature and she winced. She looked up at Snowy.

“Catch, please!”

She threw the volcano high. Vulkin made an excited ‘hiiiii’ sound. Snowy sent an icy row of bullets under them and the little fire monster glided safely on the above surface before they melted off. Once she was sure they were alright, she turned to Artie, who looked a bit reticent.

“Uh… You’re not gonna throw me too, are you?”

She assessed the height of the wall and looked back at the lizard.

“…I think I can make you climb on my shoulders if you want.”

They flustered a bit at her words.

“Uh, o-okay, dude!”

They approached and she picked them up. Frisk was unsure if it was because they were young monsters, but she found them pretty light. Of course, they were made of magic, not physical matter. Now that she thought about it, even tall or big-looking monsters were probably pretty light compared to her. She sort of wanted to try and lift one now.

She had a mental image of herself lifting Undyne, Papyrus or the prince and she found herself chuckling.

“Okay, Snowy? Help Artie out!” she said as she raised the armless monster up. The drake huffed.

“Don’t tell me what to do, goat-face.”

He still caught the lizard by their clawed foot and lifted them up. Frisk felt the saucer monster’s body bump into her leg and her hackle rose.

“So, can you give me a ride too?”

Frisk refrained from wrinkling her muzzle with difficulty and gave Jerry a strained smile.

“Yeah… I’ll, uh… I’m gonna climb first. Wait here.”

She reached for the wall a little more quickly and carelessly than she should have. Her claws, even still a bit trimmed from her episode with Mettaton, found their grips easily on the wall. However, she felt the red rocky side rip through her pads' skin in her hurry and she winced. When she reached the edge, Artie and Snowy both helped her up. Artie saw the state of her hands and cocked their head.

“Man, I didn’t realize the paint on this wall was so fresh, yo!”

Frisk looked at her wounds and silently thanked the color of the wall before crossing her arms and shrugging.

“…Y-yeah… bad quality paint or something…”

Snowy flapped his wings impatiently.

“Whatever, let’s ‘snow bail’ out of here before Jerry realize we’re ditching them!”

“Yeah, good idea… Hey, is that Papyrus’s brother over there, yo?”

Frisk looked ahead the road and saw Vulkin had stopped at a small wooden stand manned by Sans. The short skeleton was busy with putting what looked like a hotdog inside a piece of bread.

“here ya go, buddy,” Frisk heard him say as she and the other monsters approached. Sans handed the hotdog at the small volcano. “though, you seem a little ‘short-handed’ there. usually i don’t give in to charity, but i’m feeling generous today, so i’ll give ya a bony hand.”

He shoved the hotdog into the volcano’s hole. Vulkin’s blush deepened and they gave out a pleasant smoke.

“Aaaah! Lovely toasty bun! Hiiiiii!”

Sans recoiled in what Frisk believed was a bit of discomfort at the little monster’s action.

“uh, yeah, sure thing, buddy… just, uh, keep it warm, ‘kay?” He looked at the other teens with a wider smile. “hey, look at this re-beeeh-lious ‘cool’ crew we got there! wanna get a quick warm up of teenage independence at my illegal hotdog stand? only fifteen gold for fifteen year old.”

Artie’s face brightened.

“Awesome! Hotdogs! Man, I’m so hungry, yo! We didn’t get to eat much after Undyne’s training!”

Snowy rolled his eyes.

“I have ‘cooler’ tastes, thanks. You guys hurry. We gotta meet much ‘chiller’ guys than this bag of bones at the Tem Shops!”

The drake moved away from the stand to join a happy Vulkin. Sans went on to prepare another hotdog, clearly amused by the teen’s attitude.

“man, that was ‘cold’ of him, heh. usually, he doesn’t get his feathers ruffled this much.”

Frisk looked at the skeleton warily. She had half a mind of asking why Sans even had an illegal hotdog stand in the first place, but decided this was not worth commenting on. It was pretty clear Sans had been called by Undyne to watch over Frisk and the teens. That he had yet to use his gravity magic on her showed he was either more trusting of her or not willing to get another magic flu from overuse that quickly.

The episode at the Capital fresh in her mind, Frisk did nothing to hide her frown as she followed Artie, silently wondering if Asriel confronted the skeleton about what he revealed to her. She leant on Sans’s counter and raised an eyebrow.

“So… I take it since you’re breaking the law yourself, you’re not gonna give us any ‘sternum’ warning for being out after dark, huh?” she tentatively quipped.

Sans chuckled, looking more amused than anything else.

“nice, kid; you thought of that one yourself?” He shrugged, finishing preparing the hotdog. “nah, i got other things to do than lamb-atsing any of ya; s’no good for biz, ya dig?” He looked at Artie. “man, another ‘armless’ hooligan raiding my shop? where do i put your booty there, captain?”

Artie conjured his orange limbs with a wide smile.

“Yo! It’s fine, dude! My magic’s pretty, uh… ‘handy’ when it comes to this… uh, get it?”

“heh, yeah, i certainly ‘got that’, what about ya?” He threw the hotdog in the air; Artie’s energy limbs caught it. The ‘hotdog’ made a surprising ‘meow’ sound when they did.

“…oops, sorry,” sans said with a shrug. “looks like i gave ya a ‘hotcat’ instead, buddy.” The skeleton’s smile widened and he glanced at Frisk before looking back at the lizard and winked. “hope that’s okay for ya. from the look of it, though, you really like all sorts of ‘hot animals’, so it shouldn’t matter much, right?”

“H-huh?” Artie blinked in incomprehension, then some sort of realization passed through their face and they blushed. “Y-yo, man, this, haha, I don’t know what you’re on here, uh…” Their eyes shifted to Frisk nervously and they started to back off hurriedly. “Uh, I’ll just wait with everyone till you’re done, Frisk, hahaha!”

When they were out of range, Frisk threw at Sans a disgusted frown.

“God, you’re such a creep, bonehead. They’re just a kid!”

The skeleton shrugged uncaringly.

“and? so are you. heh, i bet at this point, alphys already wrote a dozen fan fictions of the ship.”

She felt a weight on her head. She reached for it and recognized the hotdog at the touch.

“here, kid; ya gotta heal yourself a bit. i’ll just put it on az’s tab or something.”

Frisk sighed in annoyance and took the hotdog off her head.

“Okay: one, adults getting involved into kids’ relationship is super creepy; two: I don’t know what those terms you just used mean, but I have a rough idea, and that sounds even creepier.” She glanced at the hotdog in her hand. “On an unrelated note: that doesn’t look like real meat either.”

“that’s ‘cause it’s made with ‘water sausages’, a type of aquatic plant.” Sans watched her take a cautious bite of the healing food with a grin. “though, to be ‘frank’ with ya, i’m surprised you’re unfamiliar with those words, i figured a young romance reader like you would be aware of them. they’re pretty widely used even on humans’ web, if i’m not mistaken.”

Frisk swallowed a bite and frowned.

“Do you seriously think a family like mine could even afford a computer for leisure times? We weren’t so close to the monster border just by choice, you know?” She wrinkled her nose. “And who told you I liked romance, anyway?”

Sans shrugged.

“you seemed to have a pretty good idea of romance genre back when we watched that anime at undyne’s; also, you mentioned reading those kinds of books to pap.”

Frisk rolled her eyes.

“So, what; I read my mom’s books because there wasn’t anything else for me to read; doesn’t make me a romance expert, exactly.”

“heh, fair enough.” Sans bit on one of his hotdog and swallowed quickly. “well, anyway, if you want a full explanation of the terms i used, just ask alph or pap about it.”

Frisk huffed uncaringly before finishing her hotdog with a wrinkled muzzle.

“Still… ‘hot animal’? Seriously?”

“hey, it’s objectively true, scientifically speaking,” he defended, raising his hands. “i mean, we monsters ain’t no animals, after all, but humans are both that and warm blooded.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“You’re not just a creep; you’re a scientifically accurate creep; thanks for the clarification.”

“hey, now, sarcasm ain’t funny, ya know?”

“Life isn’t funny.”

“heh, yeah, but that’s a good reason to make our time here pun-tastic, don’t ya think?”

“…Only a skeleton would find this particular brand of coping mechanism ‘humerus’.”

“hehe, wow, kid, you on fire today, or was it yesterday?”

“Shut up.” Her mood soured at his reference of the episode with the prince. Of course, as one of the main lab scientists, he probably watched the camera recordings. He also knew the part he played in it.

She bit in her remaining ‘water sausage’ furiously at that thought. She was not even sure she could fault him for wanting her demise. It was such a honest and human sentiment.

After a moment, he nodded at the monster group afar.

“so, you gonna lead them on too, or are you interested this time ‘round?”

Her muzzle wrinkled at that remark and she started counting with her fingers.

“One: piss off; two: I’m not leading on anyone; three…” She gave Artie, who was busy chatting with Snowy, a wary look. “…There’s no proof anything’s going on here.” She shrugged. “They’re probably like that with any new acquaintances they get.”

“hehe, uh, wow; you’re not this blind with either az’s crush on ya, or undyne and alphys’s ‘will they, won’t they’ attitude. looks like ‘denial’ is a thing for ya too, huh?”

Frisk’s expression darkened and she gripped her arms.

“I’m just… sick of all this… this weird attention on me all the time… What’s wrong with being just friends to people?”

“In your position? Being ‘friends’ would probably be equally wrong, kid. that’s called ‘fraternizing with the enemy’.”

The shiver came back and her teeth grinded. Frisk sighed and straightened up.

“Sans?”

“yeah?”

“I’m so glad I’m not your friend.”

“Feeling’s mutual, kid.”

With that, she joined back with the group of teens.

Chapter Text

“That bone guy is so annoying! Snow, what? Just ‘cause he’s got his own standouts, suddenly, he’s cooler than me? I can so tell fresher jokes!”

On the one hand, Frisk felt a certain kinship with the drake for being annoyed at Sans; on the other hand, Snowy’s constant push for attention was grating on her nerves. Artie seemed completely taken over by the older teen; it was like they had turned into a ‘yes man’… not like Artie did not have those tendencies with her or Undyne, actually.

Vulkin was still slowly… digesting their hotdog? …well, Vulkin was busy doing their thing, so apart from listening to Snowy’s ranting or Artie’s occasional piping in, she did not have much to do but sigh and look around to see if she could spot Sans, who would obviously still follow them around.

“I mean, he thinks he’s soo cool just because he snow all those human jokes,” the drake continued with a wing wave. “But I know about humans too! I even played with the royal children when I was little!”

This caught Frisk’s attention.

“You’ve met Chara?”

Snowy turned to her in surprise and huffed, looking suddenly defensive.

“Yeah, snow? ‘Wet’s it to you, goat-face?”

Frisk looked at him a moment and cocked her head.

“…What were they like?”

The bird monster seemed to deflate a bit and she felt his aura’s tension slightly shift into a calmer form of wariness. He seemed to ponder it as they walked, his eyes squinted.

“They… they had good taste… in jokes, and… and for a human, I mean.” He shrieked a short laugh. “I remember the prince complain about it after a prank! He'd say: ‘Hey, stop with those puns! You’re worse than mom!’ And they would say things like: ‘why. Asriel. I wool never ram my punny meeeh-taphor through your sheepish disposition. This would be ‘lamb’ of me!’ And then we would throw word-puns ideas at each other while the prince would just keep asking for another game!” Snowy seemed to brighten at the memory. “I was barely colder than a ‘flake’dgling, but seriously, they were good. Dad is dumb and doesn’t understand the real strength of pun humor most of the time, but that’s because he was too busy doing his stupid comedic shows to get to know the human as well as I did, or he would have gotten how superior this kind of humor is!”

The ice monster then looked sideway, a warmth nostalgia feeling in his aura.

“…Mom got it, though; she… she used to listen to us all, laughing at our puns and bringing bicicles for everyone… That was before she fell down, of course… Now she… She…” He fluttered suddenly and took a proud stance. “Now she’s just the coolest mom on the planet! Snow competition at all! Man, Artie…” He turned to the yellow lizard encouragingly. “You know, you and your sis should snooow pay a visit, since we’re hail here and all! I bet mom would have chills just from the idea of seeing your sister’s new look!”

Frisk felt Artie’s unease at the change of subject before it was quickly covered. They gave the bird monster a nervous smile.

“Uh, well, sis is… I… she’s not back from the lab yet…”

Snowy cocked his feathered head.

“What? It’s still not done? It’s been a month! You sure you shouldn’t check to see if everything’s all ‘cool’ with her? I’ll bet she’d love to see you!”

Artie masked their pain again; poorly. Frisk gave them a sad look. The little wyvern was always so joyful; Frisk often forgot they had their own loss to deal with. The yellow lizard looked down.

“…I… I was about to do that tomorrow,” he confessed with a small voice. “But… what if… what if she’s happier with… with the other monsters’ families? I… I’m just one lone kid… I can’t even take care of her… I can’t-”

Snowy stopped walking and took Artie’s torso in between his wings.

“Snow matter how little you think it will help, it will!” He assured his friend with a determined glare. “So, maybe you can’t have her home all the time, you will share her with other families and become part of their family as well! That’s how it worked out for mom, you know? We’re monsters; we love to share! And your sister…” Snowy’s gaze softened. “…Your sister still loves you, Artie. Snow matter… snow matter what; she does! She’ll never not love you and wish to see you, so… so you should stay strong and go see her! I… I prom-ice you won’t regret it…”

His heartfelt speech seemed to have an effect on the wyvern. Artie gave their friend a thankful look and they nodded.

“Y-yeah, man… Y-you’re right.” They nodded more decisively. “You’re right! I’ll… I’ll go. I’ll visit her! I… I’ll visit her soon!”

“Tomorrow,” Snowy demanded. “Do it tomorrow, Artie, like you said you would! You’ve made her wait long enough!”

“But- no, I mean… yeah… Yeah,” Artie conceded uneasily before they stepped back, eyes darting around nervously. “S-so, uh, hey Snowy! Since, uh… you know about humans and all… what’d you think of that rumor going around about that human turned into a monster?”

Snowy frowned, probably at the obvious change of topic, and snorted derisively.

“Puullease! Ice if turning a human into a monster was possible! Adults believe in the stupidest thing!” He started walking again, prompting the whole group to do the same.

Artie, looking a bit relieved at the (apparently) lighter conversation, ran up to catch their feathered friend.

“Yo, there’re soldiers who spoke of it, though, and even Mettaton on his show talked about doing an investigation on it. Also, we have this tall skeleton at our town, Papyrus? He said it was true!”

Snowy rolled his eyes.

“Probably one of Sans’s pranks; he always did that to his brother when they lived in Snowdin. Hon Ice-tea-ly, though, even if it were true, this human will never compare to the fallen human, even if they’re changed into a monster!”

Artie raised an eyebrow.

“How’d you know that, Snowy?”

“Obviously, they’d be human!” the drake ruffled his feathers. “The royal child may have looked like a human, but they were truly a monster at heart! They didn’t even like humans! They told me they’d rather be born a monster, because humanity as a whole was snow wicked!” His expression darkened. “…After what happened to their mom the queen, we know how right they were… Anyway…” He went back to his usual ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude. “Anyway, that human was an exception! No true human would accept being turned into one of us, even with force!”

Frisk had to repress a wince at having her own words unwittingly thrown back at her in such a different light. It was not even like she had changed her position on them, either.

Still, as Snowy’s rambling stopped and Artie switched the topic once more (to the noisy explosion they had heard a week past, which Frisk knew to have been caused by Alphys shooting the drone), she had to admit having learnt some useful things from the bird. The first being that, as much of a bragger and an annoying person he could be, he was at least a caring friend for Artie. It was good; Frisk had no idea how to breach the subject of their sister to them, but if Snowy’s mom had fallen down and been turned into an Amalgamate herself, he would know how to help Artie cope with the tragedy better than she would.

The bit with Chara was new, too. Apart from the lockets, some history books and a few casual mentions from the prince, she did not get much information on them; definitely not enough for a clear picture. She was unsure where to put the ‘pun loving’ facet on the jigsaw puzzle she had made of them, but it was certainly an intriguing, and much more personal fact about them she had stumbled upon.

When she thought about this, she found it strange how few mentions she had of them, given how much of an impact they had on monster history, and how recent their disappearance was. Monsters were fairly long-lived, after all; considering the age she knew they had, they all had a chance to have met Chara when they were younger. Maybe Papyrus had? …Or maybe Sans had? Her mind strayed back to the whoopee-cushion…

She shook her head, because there was no use in theorizing when she could just ask each of them when she had the chance. Who knew? Maybe other monsters around had things to say? Thirty years was not much for monsters; even for humans, it was a relatively short time.

…On the other hand, their silence about the royal human child was concerning. Probably, bringing up the human who basically started up the war, though unwittingly, was discouraged.

…And it seemed that Chara did not like humans. Frisk could certainly imagine they had experiences with humanity’s monsters before finding their benevolent magical counterparts. Maybe it even mirrored Frisk’s experiences with the most terrifying facet of monsterkind; it would certainly be ironic.

Frisk had a brief moment when she wondered how they would feel, seeing what monsters had become now. Would they still hold them in such high regard compared to humans? Would they feel betrayed by how monsters exploited their and their mother’s sacrifice?

…And if they hated humanity that much, did they disagree on their mother’s view that monsters should be freed peacefully, or did they agree in the hope that monsters would be protected from a dangerous conflict with humans? Did they help or hinder their mother when she went into graveyards at night to collect human souls?

…Did Chara the human wish for the war?

Frisk suppressed a shudder and stopped her train of thought. She was being ridiculous. Sometimes, a war was just a misunderstanding, not a conspiracy.

Right.

“What did I say about picking on me, huh?”

“OBEY THE OVERMIND!”

“F-forgive me for this! Aaah!”

Frisk saw the fluttering butterfly bullet patterns before the three monsters. She spotted Whimsun flapping their wings frantically to fly away from the two bigger monsters. The biggest one, about half Artie’s size, was a bipedal horned monster whose main body was composed of a large mouth and one single large eye. The smaller one, also bipedal, was a bug monster with antennas that resembled a cockroach. Said cockroach monster created bug-shaped bullets to counter Whimsun’s butterfly bullets, screaming loudly.

“IN UNISON, NOW!”

“I’ll teach you to send your magic at me!” the one-eyed monster yelled against Whimsun, projecting their own bullets: trios of rotating orbs. One of the orbs reached Whimsun’s wing and they fell down, wailing and in tears.

“Waaaah! Ah… ah….”

“Not so tough now, huh?” The one eye monster grinned in victory.

Realizing what was going on, Frisk broke into a run.

“Hey! Leave them alone, you two!”

“Frisk!”

She ignored Artie’s warning and stood in front of the fallen monster, arms spread out protectively. Probably because of her imposing stature, the two monsters stepped back, though both with a glare.

“What? What? Are you trying to pick on me too?”

“FILTHY SINGLE MINDER!” the cockroach hissed at her. Frisk looked at the two and frowned.

“From what I see, you two are the ones picking on my friend, you bullies.” She put her hands on her hips. “Stop harassing smaller than yourself!”

The one eyed monster frowned and conjured their orb trios in the air.

“You’re the bully who picks on smaller than you, you snipe! Take that!”

“HEED THE SWARM!”

Seeing the large amount of bullets coming at her made Frisk realize how dumb of a move it had been to confront two magical opponents when she could neither hit back physically nor magically. She ducked to the side, but a few bug patterns grazed her arms and she winced, gripping it. She did not know if it was due to her partial magical body, but it did not look like she had visible wounds from this, thankfully. She maneuvered away from the bullets, then growled at the young monsters warningly.

“Listen, I don’t want to hurt either of you!” She crouched and picked a small stick on the ground, clutching it warily in front of her. “But if you keep on attacking, I will defend my friend and myself.”

If anything, it seemed to anger the two even more, though their auras were tainted with a glimpse of fear.

“What’s with you? Why aren’t you using magic, you creep!”

“HEED THE SWARM! HEED THE SWARM!”

“Oh… oh no…” Whimsun muttered in fear.

Frisk licked her lips nervously and reduced the fighting intent in her aura to a minimum, just in case she would have to hit the young monsters. Bullets flew at her again and she crudely dodged part of it while slamming into the rest. No matter how much running she was doing with Undyne, it just was no help in this situation. She found herself crouching down in a daze, a vague fear she would be killed right then filling her mind. Sans had said she should have built a magic resilience, but her soul was still human. Humans could be killed by average magic bullet patterns.

Her heartbeat sped up at that thought. The one-eyed monster sneered.

“Not so tough now, huh?”

“LEGION, WE ARE LEGION!”

Bug bullets surrounded her and Whimsun as trios of orbs floated at her, baring her from attacking the two monsters directly. She put the stick in front of her in a futile attempt at a defense.

Very suddenly, she felt another magic surround her inner soul. For half a moment, she believed it to be Sans, but the feeling was warmer and felt orange tinted.

“Frisk!” She heard Artie scream. “Run through the bullets! Don’t stop!”

She instinctively obeyed. She rushed through with a yell, slightly surprised at feeling their tickling presence pass harmlessly through her body. Soon, she was out of the bullet hell and in front of the wide-eyed monsters. With a roar, she swung the stick, restraining her strength at the very last second. The one eyed monster was sent flying up and back to the ground again.

For half a second, Frisk recalled the time she killed and was filled with fear at the prospect of having done so again. However, the one eyed monster slowly picked themselves up and stared at Frisk with a wide teary eye.

“Y-you DARED! Y-you dared... you bully! Waaah!”

The cockroach sent her a terrified look.

“N-NO! HEED THE SWARMFfff!”

A wall of ice encased them before they could finish speaking. Snowy skidded in front of them dramatically, puffing his feather.

“Hah! You just got ‘freeze-zoned!”

Frisk, panting, stared at him until he started to look uncomfortable.

“…That was a joke; why aren’t you laughing?”

“Uh, the… context isn’t really appropriate for that one…”

“Who asked you, you physical brute?”

“Yo, Loox!” Artie called out the crying one eyed monster with a reproachful voice. “Why’d you do that, man? Stop attacking people in the street! Your parents are Royal Guards, what kind of example are you giving?”

Sniffling, the sobbing one eyed monster pointed at Frisk and Whimsun.

“Th-they started it! The small one looked at me funny and the tall one hit me with a stick!”

Frisk, still feeling the bruises of the bullets, frowned and swung her tail in annoyance.

“I hit you because you were attacking us. If you weren’t such a bully, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Loox dried their tears and pouted at her.

“You were picking on me!”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Stop picking on me!”

“Fine!” Frisk raised her arms in surrender and rolled her eyes in annoyance. “I’m not picking on you! There! Happy? Now if you’re finished feeling sorry for yourself, just go away and think about what you’ve done!”

Loox blinked in surprise and stared down, muttering.

“…Finally… someone gets it…”

They started laughing happily, picking themselves up.

“Finally! Someone gets it! Yaaah!”

Before anything else could be said, they were gone, leaving the rest of the monsters in an awkward silence.

“… This guy’s got some ‘Ice’ use!”

Frisk snorted and sent Snowy an amused look.

“Heh, okay, that was funny.”

The drake looked especially pleased at her commentary.

“Hah! Thanks! I thought of that one myself! ...I mean, hum, yeah, of course it is! My puns are always great!”

“They sure are, yo!” Artie agreed with a smile. “Now let’s deal with Migosp before-”

“Mm, cha cha cha!”

They turned to the cockroach, still surrounded by ice. The monster, Migosp, seemed to have lost all their enmity and was busy dancing all alone without a care in the world. Their eyes met Frisk and their smile widened.

“Hey, guys! Nothing like alone time, huh? C’mon, swing your arms, baby!”

Artie looked at their dancing and deflated.

“Oh, right. Forgot Migosp never attack on their own.” The lizard turned to Frisk to explain. “They’re very aura sensitive, so all they need is one single aggressive monster around to go all crazy and follow their lead, but they’re actually a pretty swell monster.” Artie looked back to Migosp one last time. “Sorry for freezing you, Migosp; but we gotta go now!”

“Sure thing, baby! By the way, Artie,” they called out the lizard before they left, “my fallen cousin is with your sis now, it’d be great to have a get together sometimes!”

“Ah…” Artie strained a smile, clearly bothered at yet another mention of their sister. “Uh, sure, l-let’s do that sometimes… hah…”

Snowy led them back to a concerned Vulkin, who looked like they had finally finished their hotdog.

“Aaaah… nice horned lady, you’re hurt!”

Frisk grimaced at being reminded of her stinging bruises. Snowy snorted.

“That’s because this brute refused to fight magic with magic!” He gave Frisk a reproachful look. “It’s one thing to be a brain frozen idiot and rushing off like that, but it’s even worse when you don’t even use your own bullet pattern! Seri-ice-ly, wet’s up with you?”

Frisk swung her stick on her shoulder with a blush. Before she had time answering anything, Artie did.

“Yo, don’t be harsh on Frisk! She only did what a future Royal Guard is supposed to do and protected an innocent! And Frisk can’t do magic! She has a condition!”

Frisk felt her heart drop. She did not know if she was more bothered by Artie’s knowledge of her weakness or Snowy’s shocked reaction.

“No magic? A Boss Monster?” He stepped back, as if in fear that she might have been contagious. “Who even heard of a magicless monster! That’s… that’s hail-resy!”

Artie straightened up, tail twitching.

“Well, that’s how she is. She’s just born that way, Snowy; don’t be a wet pillow about it, dude!”

Whimsun, back fluttering up, clasped their hand on their mouth.

“I…I’m so sorry… f-for you…”

“Aaaah… So sad…”

As the bird monster caught himself, Frisk shifted awkwardly on her feet and shrugged.

“Uh, yeah… I’d rather you guys keep this for yourself, though… it’s sort of embarrassing.” She gave Artie a curious glance. “Who told you about that, by the way?”

“Papyrus did… Also, Undyne…” They avoided her gaze. “She, uh… she didn’t want me to hurt you by mistake thinking you could defend yourself, yo…”

Snowy flapped his wings in annoyance.

“N-no, hold on! It chill makes snow sense!” He pointed at Frisk accusingly. “How can you train to be a Royal Guard without even being able to do magic?”

Artie piped up before Frisk could think up of a proper answer.

“Well, I don’t even have arms and I’m training to be a Royal Guard too!”

“It’s snow-thing like her problem!” he protested. “You can create hands with your magic; she can’t create magic with… with her snow-thing!”

“Well, maybe she doesn’t need magic at all!” Artie argued back. “You’ve seen what she did with just a stick, yo! Frisk if freaking tough, like Undyne! Undyne doesn’t even use her magic half of the time against humans, so why would Frisk need to?”

The drake made an annoyed quack as he struggled for an answer.

“B-but Undyne still has magic in case humans attack!” He pointed to Frisk. “She has snow-thing but her own strength!”

“So? Frisk may not be able to use spells, but you’ve seen she can still be affected by Soul Color Magic! Royal Guards aren’t supposed to attack on their own, anyway; she’ll just be with a team using Soul Color Magic on her!”

Frisk cocked her head at her lizard friend.

“I didn’t even know you could use this type of magic, Artie. Aren’t they supposed to be hard to master? That’s impressive!”

The wyvern blushed profusely at her compliments.

“Yo, thanks, Frisk… It’s… It’s nothing great, really… O-orange soul color magic is my main magic, after all, so… so it’s not that special.”

Snowy, seemingly calming down, frowned and huffed.

“Well, it’s impressive for monsters that aren’t Boss Monsters, but your type is supposed to be able to master this and even multiple color magic way more Ice-ily. I know the king used both orange and light blue regularly when he wasn’t a god yet.” He gave her a hard gaze. “…Of course, given you can’t even throw one single pellet to save your hide, everything must look impressive to you.”

Fisk shrugged and moved the piece of wood from her shoulder.

“Well, I still got this, don’t I?”

The drake snorted.

“Ruffian… well, maybe keep it with you fort snow… you know… in case of morons attacking… or Jerry.”

“Oh, man, we should really move on or they’ll catch up again, yo!”

Frisk nodded and felt her bruised arm in annoyance. Vulkin approached her with a compassionate smile.

“Ah, I’ll heal you, nice horned lady!”

Frisk’s face lit.

“You know healing magic?”

“Yeah!” Little balls of fire appeared around them. “I’ll help! Healing Magma!”

The only warning she had that staying where she was was a bad idea came from Artie.

“Oh man, Frisk, get out of here!”

Frisk came out of this unfortunate misunderstanding with an addition of singed fur to her bruises and a bad mood.

Never mind everything else she thought about monsters.

Monsters were dumb!

Everything was stupid.

--

The teens passed through the open gates of Greenlake. Frisk saw the darkened forests and fields and grew uneasy. Even if it was just to get to a nearby camp, she was out of the town for the first time. She knew better than to ponder the idea of fleeing through the wood, however. Not counting the wild dogs and other dangerous beasts around, her survival skills in an unknown forest was lacking… and there would be no way for Sans to let her wander, anyway…wherever the skeleton was. He had to still be around.

The lights of the Tem Camp were quickly spotted by the group and they proceeded to go down the path leading to it. Just like in town, flickering magic fires were glowing through the trees, but much less intensely so. Frisk followed the group along until she felt a familiar weight on her head.

“heya again, ya wooly-gans,” Sans’s voice rose from beside them and every teens turned in surprise to meet the skeleton’s grin.

“W-wow, Sans, dude!” Artie recoiled nervously. “D-didn’t see you here! Hahah…”

Frisk gave the skeleton and unimpressed glare and Snowy puffed his feathers in annoyance.

“Humph! Wet are you even doing there, bone-head? Are you snow-fall-owing ice?”

Sans chuckled.

“heh, not at all, kid,” he lied, “what reasons would I have in doing that? nah, i was just going see the temmies too; you know, to buy some new joke accessories. following a bunch of baby-bones like ya, now, that would be creepy, wouldn’t it?’

He winked at Frisk. Snowy looked like he was fuming enough for his feathers to start melting.

“Well, wet-ever! Come on, guys, let’s ditch that bag of bones!” He started trotting ahead, followed by Artie and Vulkin, before looking back in annoyance. “You too, goat-face! And Whim-snow, get out of her hair, you ice-block-head!”

Whimsun made an apologetic noise and fluttered away from Frisk, which was a slight relief to her. Ever since her daring rescue, the bug monster had started to cling extremely close, like they expected her protection. Frisk was still on the fence on whether she appreciated this change of attitude or not.

Contrary to Whimsun, Frisk stayed behind to glare at the skeleton silently until he snorted and patted his head.

“heh, really, kid; i can’t take you seriously with that hotdog on your hair. i know you like some unique styles, but this is ‘frank-ly’ hilarious! hotdogs are for eating, you nerd.”

Frisk grumbled and took the hotdog she had forgotten about.

“You were watching when those two monsters attacked Whimsun and me.”

It was not a question. He shrugged, hands in his pockets.

“yup, saw the whole she-bone; nice to know the first thing you think of doing in those situations is hitting people with a stick; for a moment, i almost thought you were civilized.”

She bit into the salty food, swallowed, and bared her fangs.

“… Pretty sure you’re supposed to protect me.”

“hey, i made no promises to nobody, kiddo. honestly, i got roped in this business of watching ya; i’d gladly get out if i could.”

“…So, what would you say to the prince if I died back there?”

Maybe she had imagined the slight shift in his aura. He kept his usual smile as he shrugged.

“i wouldn’t say this concerns ya, kid.” The beady lights in his orbit rested on her as he raised an arcade brow. “although, honestly, my attention was more centered around what you planned on doing with that stick of yours.”

Frisk’ hand reflexively clutched the piece of wood as she frowned. She bit and swallowed another bite, feeling the magic of the food heal her burns and bruises.

“Either way, you did nothing, did you not?”

He shrugged again. Only then did she notice that the fire-lights made small beads of sweats on his skull glitter.

“heh, yeah…” He shifted his stance and slouched. “well you weren’t really in danger with the ‘cool’ crew watching over ya. and i was here for any kind of flaring up. good thing my service wasn’t needed there, less work for me…”

He stood eerily still when he trailed off. Frisk just had the time to feel her unease grow before the skeleton continued.

“ heh… not saying it didn’t cross my mind that you going back to your old way would make a good excuse to send you back in your cell for good…” His smile widened, though with no humor. “…or that a stray bullet was all it would take…”

She finished her hotdog with a frown, looking at him intensely, trying to pinpoint his objective. The time prank came back to her mind. She shoved the ridiculous thought away and sighed.

“You’re really disgusting, you know that? Using one of your own to get to me.” She looked away, clenching the arm holding the stick. “I wouldn’t have killed anyone; I don’t… not a bunch of children!”

Soldiers and murderers were a thing… but stooping to their level? She could not…

“heh, i wish i could believe that, but we all do things we never thought we’d do in life and death situations, kid; i don’t think i would even blame ya if you did.” He closed his eye-sockets. “cornered animals are the most dangerous sorts.”

Her gaze stayed on his face for a bit, unease brewing in her heart.

“…if I died on your watch, I don’t think the little prince would ever forgive you.”

He took a while to respond to her statement, looking up at a flickering fire-light.

“…yeah… honestly, though, kid?” He cocked his head and gave her a weary smile. “maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad trade in this situation.”

She stared a bit, her gaze hardening. She huffed and looked at Artie’s group walking ahead.

“…Good to know your distaste for my existence is stronger than your stupid idea to hook me up with a friend.”

“hey,” he said with a shrug, “either options would save me and the kingdom from a big headache…”

An unpleasant feeling was brought back into her heart at his words. What was left unsaid were probably the most worrisome things. Frisk suppressed a shudder, still not over her last episode with the prince. And... in spite of her effort... the skeleton’s words from last time at the Capital were still on her mind. She looked ahead down the path where her group of teens were disappearing through a turn, sighed and swung her stick up her shoulder.

The thing was, even with all his efforts to be cryptic, she thought she could understand the skeleton’s attitude the most. He knew getting to care for your enemy was a bad thing as well.

…Still…

“Having it for me is one thing, Sans, but using innocents like that is not okay. No child… no child should suffer the burden of killing.”

Without looking back at his face, she jogged ahead, trying to get all this out of her mind. When she caught up with the group, however, she spotted the teenage monsters hidding behind a tree. Frisk walked to the not so discreet group and frowned in bafflement.

“…Guys? What are-”

“Sssshhhhh! Freeze your mouth and hide, morons!” Snowy hissed, his feathered body pressed against Artie’s, who was slumped against Vulkin uncomfortably. “They’ll hear you!”

Frisk cocked her head and tensed her grip on her stick.

“…Who-”

“BARK, BARK!”

Frisk had no time to turn before being thrown to the ground by the hellish canine body of Mx. Dogs. Its face hole was dripping profusely on Frisk’s purple and blue sweater as it kept giving her its excited welcome. Invaded by intense fright, the human monster still had the force of mind to reach the beast and scratch its neck like her life depended on it. It whined affectionately and slumped its gigantic shape-shifting body onto her. The pressure gave her a real fear of being crushed alive.

She then thought back to her lifting Artie earlier and tentatively pushed against the huge mass. It was heavier than the young lizard, and its trembling texture seemed to shift under her pads, but to her relief, she succeeded in pushing it to the side. The dog Amalgamate rolled playfully on its back and Frisk kept petting, knowing she could not stop until Doggo arrived.

She heard trotting from behind her and turned with a sigh of relief. However, the newcomer was not the visually challenged dog, but the white cream smaller armored one from the funeral. They stopped in front of her, looked at the Amalgamate, then back at her, cocking their head questioningly.

They stared at each other for a moment, Frisk still petting their reunited family, until she tentatively lifted her other hand as a salute. The cream dog’s eyes zoomed in on her palm and, mistaking the gesture, barked excitedly, tail wagging. By the time Frisk realized their intention, their neck had grown enough for their head to meet her extended palm.

 She bleated in surprise and snapped her mouth shut, keeping on with petting on both side. The smaller dog made a pleased whine and their body started to frantically run around the Amalgamate and Frisk… all while she was still scratching their head staying still from their elongated neck.

It was in the middle of this very strange situation that Doggo finally appeared, his shifty eyes darting from the running small dog to the huge trembling Amalgamate.

“Hum, from everyone’s reactions, something’s telling me petting is involved here. Who’s this?”

“Doggo!” Frisk called out, still petting.

“I know that voice… Frisk, is this you? Can you move a bit for me?”

Frisk gave a good shake of head and swung her tail until the black and white dog’s attention was on her.

“Ah, I see you now. Come on, everyone, give the lady some space!”

With a reticent whine, the smaller dog pulled their head back to their body and stopped their running. Mx. Dogs made no further move than its usual trembling, however, its multiple breathing having slowed considerably. Doggo eyed it and shook his head.

“Blast, looks like they fell asleep on the job; I bet they’ll get very excited when they’ll wake up, too.” He looked back near Frisk. “I’m sorry about this.”

Frisk nodded, picked back her fallen stick and slowly stepped away from the sleeping Amalgamate. She looked at Doggo gratefully.

“That’s okay… hum…” She scratched her head, pointedly not looking at the trees the teen monsters were hiding behind. “When you said ‘job’…”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, we’ve been requisitioned around here,” Doggo explained, nodding his head, a paw on his sword’s hilt. “A Tem Shop camp is opening tonight, you know? And those places often bring their fair share of trouble-making teens. The town’s mayor asked us to police who’s allowed there.” Doggo placed a hand around his spiked collar. “…And for my part, I’d like to find a leash at the Temmies’; I heard they were selling human items; humans have leashes, right?”

“Ah, yeah… I mean, maybe? Huh…” She scratched an ear nervously. “So, you’re, uh… you’re guarding the road… th-that’s good.”

Doggo nodded.

“It pays alright too. Well, if you have to go to the Tem shops, don’t hesitate, Frisk. And don’t wait for us, either; we have to keep watch for those rebellious teenagers for a while.”

“Ah… okay…”

Frisk stepped forward with a grimace, then stopped. She did not exactly like abandoning the teen group. Seeing her hesitance, Doggo frowned.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

Frisk passed a hand on her hair and gave him a nervous smile.

“Oh, nothing… I jus-”

“Bark! Bark!”

“Huh?” Doggo gave a questioning look at the cream canine barking at Frisk. “What is it, Lesser Dog? …Wait…” Doggo looked back at the human monster and tensed. “Something’s fluttering near your head, Frisk! I believe this may be one of those trouble-making teenagers!”

Frisk glanced at Whimsun, who had gone back to following her close, and clenched her teeth. The little bug gave the dogs a frightened stare.

“Oh… oh no…”

“The moron! Ice gonna blow our cover!”

“Let’s go, yo!”

With a battle cry, Snowy and Artie sprung from behind the trees and crashed into Doggo and Lesser Dog. Vulkin followed wobblingly.

“Aaah! Thunder! Helpful speed up!”

They sent out electric attacks around. One bullet hit Snowy, who was busy wrestling with Doggo and the drake quacked in outrage.

“Careful, idiot! You’re going to melt me!”

“No one’s gonna stop us from going to Tem shop, yo! It’s a free country!” Artie proclaimed, holding Lesser Dog’s whining head under their foot.

“Yeah! No stinking adults will stop us cold! It’s a freeze country!”

Frisk (and a shaking Whimsun) stared at the messy fight in dismay, unsure if running off or taking sides were even good options. With an annoyed growl, Doggo wrestled up from Snowy and threw him to the ground.

“Alright, now, that’s enough, kids! Enough I say!”

With a bark, Lesser dog threw Artie away from their back and drew their sword in warning.

Seeing Snowy was trapped under Doggo’s strong grip, the other teenagers calmed down. The black and white dog gave out a small sigh.

“Good. Now, I know you kids don’t like this but I’m gonna have to-”

“BARK, BARK!”

“…Oh, no…” Doggo groaned as the Amalgamate rushed around them all excitedly, foam dripping from its hole. “Mx. Dogs, I’m sorry but we’re in the middle of an arrest right now, we have no time to play!”

But the giant beast was even more shifting and trembling than it was before it fell asleep. Clearly, its nap had invigorated it as much as Frisk would expect it would a composite amount of dogs.

She watched it warily until it turned its attention to her once again and she found herself raising the stick she had picked back up in fear. Then, a crazy thought came to her when the beast stood still and turned its gaping face hole at the stick expectedly. She looked at the wooden stick, then at the dog monstrosity, and threw the stick away.

With a huge bark, the Amalgamate ran to get it. Surprisingly, even the smaller dog left their sword on the ground to run after the stick, yapping. Doggo’s ears tensed up and his tail stilled.

“H-huh? D-did you see that? Did a fun stick just appear out of thin air?”

Before Frisk could answer anything, the Amalgamate brought the stick back to her. She took it from its salivating hole and looked at the dogs hesitantly. All three of them were following the stick’s movements.

“Fun stick… fun stick…” Doggo mumbled excitedly. “Will it move again? Can I catch it?”

Realizing what she should do, Frisk raised the stick high and threw it as hard as she could through the wood. This time, all three dogs ran to get it, disappearing in the bushes with excited barks.

Once on his feet, Snowy did not hesitate to run ahead.

“C’mon, y’all! Let’s hail storm out of here!”

When they were at a sufficient distance, the teenage monster group stopped to catch their breath. Artie leant on a tree.

“Man… being a rebellious teen is hard work, yo!”

“Aaah,” the little volcano nodded. “It was a scary time.”

“Pfff yeah…” Snowy agreed after a few short breaths. “… But… looks like we, uh… were too ‘cool’ for them! And they got the short end of the stick!”

Frisk snorted, mostly due to giddiness, although it seemed to please the drake all the same. He gave her an approving look.

“You snow what? You’re alright for a Capital monster. You’re weird and magicless, but you got some chills facing an Amalgamate like that! And ice-ploiting the dogs’ weakness was pretty ‘cool’ too!”

Frisk mumbled a ‘thanks’ before heading near a tree and crouching down. Snowy tilted his head at her action.

“…Now, wet are you doing?”

Frisk brought her new small branch up.

“Better keep one around, in case of dogs.”

The drake nodded in approval.

“Yeah! Or morons… or Jerry.”

“Oh, man, we should seriously move out, yo! We’re so late already!”

“Right!”

The group kept walking. Before reaching the light of the Temmie settlement, they passed Sans yet another times. He gave Frisk what looked like an amused wink. She answered by sticking out her tongue.

Like a true rebellious teenager.

Dang straight.

Chapter Text

The wooden cardboard-made houses were a real change from Greenlake’s luscious building. Artie told Frisk this was the typical style of the Temmie housing. Temmies seemed to live at the edge of monster’s society for one reason or another; Frisk was a bit wary of learning why. Lanterns of orange fires were floating around, lightening the path of monster customers from Greenlake; Frisk recognized a few bunnies and the muscular sea horse who had harassed Undyne a few days ago.

Snowy looked around and clapped his beak nervously.

“Hmm… He’s not here? Weird, I cold have sworn he said he was coming early… hang on, guys…”

The drake pulled his phone from somewhere in his feathery coat and started texting. Artie turned away from him and their eyes stopped on a small quadruped monster. They smiled in recognition and they nudged Frisk’s leg with their tail.

“Yo, here’s a Temmie, Frisk! Since you’ve never been to a Tem Shop, you probably haven’t met one yet, right?”

She shook her head and stared at the small monster curiously. They had the allure of a cat… or a dog, she could not tell. They had cat ears on the top of their head, but also an additional pair of dog ears on the side of it. They had a white coat and a tail of average size. They were wearing a blue sweater and they had black haird. Their muzzle was short like that of a cat, and their expression was … goofy?

Their face looked like it was constantly vibrating…their whole body was constantly trembling…

Their walked up to the teens, their beady eyes met Frisk’s and they opened their little cat mouth.

“hOI!”

Frisk had no idea if she found them more adorable or disturbing. She made a nervous salute of hand.

“Uh…hoi?”

Their voice had sounded feminine, and Artie had mentioned Temmies were almost all females, so this one probably was too. The Temmie… or maybe just ‘Temmie’, jumped once excitedly.

“awAwa! welcom to… TEM!”

“yaYA!” another Temmie piped in from behind the teen; she was a perfect replica of the other one. “welcom to… da TEM SHOP!”

“yaYA! TEM!”

“yaYA! hOI!”

“hOI! i’m temmie!”

“hOI! i’m temmie! And dis is my fwend temmie!”

“yaYA! hOI!”

Before Frisk could grasp what was going on, she and Artie were surrounded by an entire group of frenetic Temmies. She found herself bumping on her wyvern friend, who chuckled nervously.

“Uh… yeah… they can, uh… they can get a bit out of hand, yo…” They cleared their throat and faced the Temmie flooring. “Uh guys? Thanks for the welcome and all, but uh, we kinda need some space, yo!”

“awAwa!” One of them said happily. “u shud check… TEM SHOP!”

“yaYA! u shud check… TEM!”

One of them bumped into Frisk’s leg and it was all it took to make her recoil with a wince, suddenly invaded by a lighting pain.

“Ow… what?”

Her reaction made the little cat-dogs step back. Artie looked as she was massaging her leg with a worried expression.

“Frisk? Yo, you alright?”

“I… yeah…” She said with a nod, still recovering from the sudden jolt. “I don’t know what happened here… are Temmies… uh… ‘electric’ or something?”

“Huh?” Artie cocked their head. “No, yo… Temmies are just like any monsters there… Why? Did that hurt when she touched you?”

“awAwa, so sad,” one of the Temmies chided in with a sad voice. “loox like yu ave… TEM ALLERGY!”

The rest of the Temmies gasped and took on sorry expressions, stepping back gravely.

“awa… TEM ALLERGY bad…”

“so sad…”

“…Ah, yeah, an allergy makes sense, yo.” Artie turned back to Frisk with a nod. “You’ve never met Temmies before, so I guess you never knew what a magic allergy feels like.”

“dunt wory, we be carful!”

“awawa, yaYA!” One of the Temmies agreed with a smile. “dats okay… tem… ALSO allergic to tem!”

As if on cue, and to Frisk’s horror, the little Temmie’s face covered itself with bright red zits. The other Temmies moved away from her as well. Before anything more could be said, Snowy came forth, fluttering angrily.

“Wet are you two doing standing around like melting snowmen? Let’s go, let’s go!”

With that, Artie and Frisk followed the bird monster until they joined back with Vulkin and Whimsun. Frisk spotted a new addition to the teenage group: another drake like Snowy, but green feathered and sporting shades. The green drake looked at the arriving group and raised a wing.

“Yo, Snowy! Took you long enough, dude! What happened, did your parents ground ya or what?”

“Pfff yeah, right!” Snowy answered, puffing his feathers. “You know I’m way to ‘cool’ to be grounded!”

“Hehe, YEAH man! Now that’s what I’m talking about!” The green drake nodded at Frisk curiously. “And who’s this new cat you’re bringing?”

“Her? That’s Frisk, a teen from the Capital; she’s come here to train with Undyne to be a Royal Guard or something.” He turned to Frisk and gestured at the green drake. “And this here is my ‘cool’ friend Chilldrake, Frisk! You won’t find more rebellious teens than him around!”

Frisk walked to the drake and shook his wing. After a bit of thinking, she smirked.

“Heh, so wait… if Snowdrake’s nickname is ‘Snowy’, does that mean yours is ‘Chilly’?”

Chilldrake huffed and readjusted his shade.

“Ah, nah, dude! I’m, like, way too cool for a nickname!”

“Heh, yeah, you’re right, ‘chili’ is much too hot for a winter monster!”

The green drake cocked his head.

“What are you even on, dude?”

Seeing the joke went over everyone’s head, Frisk blushed and scratched her head.

“Uh, well, you see, ‘chili’ is a kind of pepper that’s really spicy, so…”

“Pepper?” Artie cocked their head. “I don’t think I’ve heard of that ‘chili’ thing, yo. Is this from the Capital?”

Frisk whipped the air with her tail in embarrass.

“It’s just some… human… stuff…”

“Human?”

“Pff, whatever, Capital nerd!” Chilldrake said with a snort. “Just leave the jokes to Snowy, dude!”

“Yeah,” Snowy agreed, “just ‘stick’ to what you know best and beat up morons ‘ice cold’!”

“Wow, wait what?” Chilldrake looked at his friend questioningly and Snowy puffed his feathers proudly.

“Yeah! Goat-face’s a flaking brute with a stick! You should see how she dealt with that Ice-block-head messing with Whim-snow! …Or how she got rid of those guard dogs!”

“…Wow, man… that’s…” Chilldrake looked at Frisk and her stick with apprehension and shook his head. “I’m like… the top of rebels around here… but even I don’t beat up cops, dude! That’s, like… not okay!”

“Pfff, come on, Chill! I didn’t meant it Ice that!”

The group of teens continued moving through the settlement, arguing loudly. Frisk caught the glare of some annoyed adult monsters and self-consciously clutched her stick, trying to hide it away. She hoped Doggo and the others would not be too much reprimanded for failing at keeping the teens at bay.

Still, overall, the area looked pretty calm. The Temmies were welcoming and seemed to have spread the words of her allergy, thus giving her space. Monsters around looked pretty satisfied as well. Frisk saw what looked like a woman rabbit coming out of a cardboard home with a smile and a little bunny in her arms.

“Teheh! I found a new leash for my bunbun! Now I can get him out to the park safely!”

Frisk looked at the little white rabbit in her arms and silently pondered whether this was an actual rabbit or a monster, and whether she would be more disturbed by the mental image either way.

Monsters were weird.

“FRISK! ARTIE! NYEHEHEH! IT SEEMS OUR PATHS ARE DESTINED TO CROSS ONCE AGAIN!”

“Papyrus! Hi!” Frisk turned to the smiling skeleton once again. Before he had time to join her group, he was pushed aside by a blue and scaly familiar hand.

“NGAH! I told you they were here, Papyrus! Why are you acting surprised about this?”

“BUT UNDYNE, WHAT POLITEST WAY TO EXPRESS YOUR JOY OF SEEING SOMEONE OTHER THAN OVERT SURPRISE? ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THEM FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS!”

“GOD, PAPYRUS! You’re TOO POLITE FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!” The fish lady stomped to the group of teen and stopped with a smile and her hands on her hips. Frisk noted the beads of sweats on her front head. “NGAHAHAH! So, HOW’D THAT LITTLE TRECK TO INDEPENDENCE WORK FOR YOU, PUNKS? Did you learn anything COOL while I was away?”

Frisk crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

“So… you just decided to reveal yourself after we ditched you at the lake; does that mean you can’t swim?”

Undyne blinked and snorted.

“…What? You expect me to swim with my PHONE on me, punk? COME ON! It may have a jet pack, but it’s not WATER PROOF!”

Frisk looked sideway, unimpressed.

“Seems like a design flaw if you ask me.”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT ALPHYS’S DESIGN, PUNK?”

“Hey! Wet are you adults even doing talking to us!” Snowy piped in with a furious flutter. “Who told you you cold go and talk to a dangerous gang of rebellious teens like us?”

“R-REBELLIOUS??” The skeleton looked at each of the monster teens, until focusing on Frisk worriedly. “I-IS THIS TRUE, FRISK? ARE YOU REBELLING AGAINST THE SOCIETY?”

Frisk had a slight moment when she was hesitating in between the look of betrayal on her beloved skeleton’s face and the pressure of her teenager peers before the idiocy of the situation hit her and she shrugged uncaringly.

Papyrus’s face was priceless, in her defense. He clutched his skull and his eye constructs bulged.

“OH MY GOD! IT’S TRUE! MY DEAR FRIEND FRISK HAS FALLEN INTO A PATH OF TEENAGE DELINQUENCY! ALONGSIDE HER PRECIOUS WYVERN FRIEND ARTIE!”

His loud declaration had the effect of riling the group of teens. Chilldrake looked positively excited at the prospect.

“YEAH! Dude, we’re all the RADDEST of all rebels here!”

“You can’t slop ice down!”

“Aaah! Being a rebel… it’s so nice!”

“I…I.. m-me too! …Sorry…”

Only Artie seemed a little reticent at the appellation. They turned to Frisk.

“Yo, can delinquents be Royal Guards, Frisk?” they whispered to her. She gave them a small shrug and a reassuring smile.

Undyne snorted and crossed her arms.

“Papyrus, PLEASE! Those punks are nowhere near being delinquents! They’re just a bunch of diaper-wearing kids past their BEDTIME!”

Snowy looked at the fish lady with affront.

“What? You… you take that back!”

“YEAH!” Chilldrake agreed. “No betimes! Only DEATHTIME!”

“NGAHAHAH! YEAH! Now, THAT’s more like it, PUNKS!” Undyne agreed, a fist in the air. “Don’t let ANYONE SLOW YOU DOWN! No school, no society… NOT EVEN PARENTS! NGAH!”

Chilldrake seemed to deflate at the fish warrior’s agreement.

“Uh… yeah… actually… that’s a bit extreme…”

But the fish warrior was not listening, too enwrapped by her own speech.

“YEAH! THAT’s how I grew up in life! With a fire of passion that could NEVER be extinguished, NO MATTER THE OPPONENT! You don’t get by in life by being submitted and servile… you do it by POUNDING ANYONE IN YOUR WAY TO THE GROUND! NGAHAHA!”

Then, without any warning, she took both Frisk and Artie by their necks and brought them to her chest in a very uncomfortable parody of a hug.

“And now, YOU PUNKS HAVE FINALLY DISCOVERED YOUR PASSIONATE SPIRITS! NGAHAH! I’m so PROUD OF YOU!”

“Guh! Let go… you crazy fish-face!” Frisk managed to yell before the fish’s strong chokehold was too much.

“U-Undyne… You’re… choking-”

“Undyne, release them!”

Frisk barely registered the voice belonged to Asriel, too busy catching her breath. When her vision finally cleared, she spotted him close to a worried Papyrus.

“HAVE YOU HEARD, YOUR MAJESTY ASRIEL? FRISK HAS TURNED INTO A DELINQUENT! WHAT SHOULD WE DO?”

Asriel seemed a bit unsure how to deal with the skeleton. Before he could answer anything, a chuckle elevated from behind them.

“heh, no worry, pap, we’d have tibia real bone-heads to not snow how do deal with a bone-afide adolescent crisis.”

“SANS!” Papyrus turned to the newcomer. “WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE, YOU LAZYBONE? WHEN I OFFERED THE PRINCE TO GIVE HIM A RIDE HERE, YOU TOLD ME YOU WERE TOO BUSY AT THE LAB!”

“heh, yeah, bro, but it turned out our skeledule was put back for to-marrow, so i got some times.”

“Arg! You snow what? Enough with all those adults!” Snowy protested with a flutter. “Let’s hail out of the old geezer zone, everyone!”

“WHAT?” Undyne towered the bird threateningly. “Just WHO are you calling a ‘geezer’, PUNK?”

Snowy made a fearful quack and fluttered away, followed closely by Chilldrake, Whimsun and Vulkin. Undyne saw them run and snickered lowly, stretching her muscles.

“So… you wanna play tag, eh? Well, I’M GAME, PUNKS! NGAHH!”

Frisk and the rest watched her chase the teens, laughing madly. Artie threw a nervous look at Frisk.

“…Yo… should we… go after them or something?”

Frisk made an uncaring grunt, because the last thing she wanted to do right now was yet another training session with Undyne. Papyrus gave her a grave look.

“YOU DID THE RIGHT THING IN NOT FOLLOWING YOUR PEERS, FRISK. I KNOW OFTENTIME, A YOUNG MONSTER SEEKS ACCEPTANCE AND IS READY TO COMPROMISE THEIR SENSE OF MORAL FOR IT… AND IT CAN BE TEMPTING… BUT YOU AND ARTIE’S SOULS SHINE MUCH TOO BRIGHT TO GET CORRUPTED LIKE THAT! I… I SHALL HELP YOU THROUGHT THIS TRIAL TIME OF ADOLESCENCE CRISIS, FRISK! KNOW THAT I BELIEVE IN YOU, NO MATTER WHAT!”

Frisk had to repress a short laugh as his encouragement brought warm to her heart. She gave him a soft smile.

“Thanks Papyrus, you don’t know how much it means for me to hear you say that.”

“I MAY NOT KNOW, BUT I HAVE MORE THAN AN ACCURATE GUESS! WHICH IS WHY OUR FRIENDSHIP POWER IS SO HIGH, FRISK! NYEHEHEH!” The skeleton then looked around, scratching his head. “… SO, UH, DID YOU COME HERE SOLELY TO BE A HOOLIGAN, OR DID YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO SHOP FOR SOMETHING?”

“Oh, man, that’s right! Frisk!” Artie looked at her, tail wagging excitedly. “I know where we can go…uh…” They looked around the adult monsters’ faces nervously. “Unless you, uh… you’re too busy with your adult friends, yo!”

Frisk did not have to think much about it; as awesome as Papyrus’s presence could be, spending time with the prince and Sans was not. She shrugged and gave Artie a smile.

“It’s fine; where’d you wanna go?”

The wyvern brightened and started trotting off. She followed, waving at Papyrus, then bumped into a Temmie and winced at the sharp pain from her leg.

“awa! sory!” The Temmie apologized.

Frisk hand waved at her.

“It’s okay, I wasn’t looking.”

When she looked up, she saw Asriel look at her with a frown.

“Are you alright?”

She rolled her eyes and swung her tail in annoyance at his concern.

“It’s fine… just an allergy… Anyway, see you later, Papyrus!”

“NYEHEHEH! I’M SURE I WILL, FRISK! MAKE YOUR PURCHASES SAFELY! AND DON’T BUY ANYTHING ILLEGAL!”

She chuckled and followed Artie.

--

“…welp, with our local soccer mom away playing, it looks like it’s up to me again to babysit, huh?” When Asriel took his time to answer, Sans’s smile stilled. “hey, az? ya alright, my royal buddy?”

“…Yeah,” the prince finally answered, shaking his head. “It’s nothing.”

A Temmie allergy? What a coincidence…

…Did he ever think it could be…no, he was probably better off not dwelling on this too much.

“heh, if you say so… anyway, take care of pap for me, alright?”

With that, the short skeleton disappeared in between two cardboard houses; probably into one of his shortcuts. Asriel looked at him go with a frown. A part of him had wanted to reprimand Sans for telling Frisk about where her family's souls were, but he also could not bring himself to rationally do so. It had been something he should have done on his own since at least the day she had asked him. Sans had never shown enthusiasm at anything Frisk-related, but the prince had also seen him talk to Frisk on occasion and they were civil enough for her to have asked him. Sans probably did not even know Asriel had wanted to keep this knowledge away from her.

The prince sighed and turned his attention to the tall skeleton, who was busy chatting with a Temmie.

“… LET ME FORMULATE IT BETTER: WHAT I NEED IS SOME BOOKS FOR COOKING!”

“awAwa! u shud no cook book! paper r no gud for eatin! unless TEM FLAKES!”

“AND I REITERATE THAT I HAVE NO DESIRE TO EAT THE BOOK… UNLESS IT HAPPENS TO BE A FOREIGN DELICACY I’M UNAWARE OF… IN WHICH CASE, THE GREAT MASTER CULINARY CHEF THAT I AM WILL GLADLY TRY THE RECIPE! NYEH!” He looked at Asriel when the Boss Monster approached. “OH, YOUR MAJESTY! CAN YOU HELP ME OUT, PLEASE? I BELIEVE WE HAVE SOME LANGUAGE BARRIER GOING ON HERE!”

Asriel looked at the Temmie.

“Where do you sell your books?”

The little quadruped monster jumped on her feet.

“yaYA! book r DIS WAY!”

The Temmie started to trot off and Papyrus sighed in relief.

“WOW, THANK YOU, PRINCE ASRIEL! NYEH! AS AWESOME A CHARACTER AS I AM, I MUST ADMIT THAT I HAVE YET TO BECOME PROEFICIENT AT TEMMIE DIALECT!”

Asriel nodded and followed the skeleton and the Temmie. After a short silence, he cleared his throat.

“So, hum, you’re going to try new recipes, Papyrus?”

“NYEHEHEH! I CERTAINLY WILL! YOU SEE, COOKING WITH FRISK HAS GIVEN ME THIS IDEA: I SHOULD BROADEN MY HORISON TO MULTIPLE CULTURES! THAT WAY, MY WONDERFUL COOKING CAN ONLY GET GREATER!” He scratched the back of his skull. “AND ACTUALLY, GIVEN THE BEAUTY PAGEANT WILL BE STARTING SOON, I ALSO HOPE THAT IMPROVING MY COOKING SKILLS MIGHT GIVE ME AN EDGE; WHAT DO YOU THINK, YOUR MAJESTY?”

Asriel did not watch Mettaton’s program, thus had no idea whether cooking was a deciding ‘beauty’ factor or not, but nodded anyway.

“Probably.”

“NYEH! I THOUGHT SO! ALTHOUGH, IF IT IS, I HAVE A FEELING THAT FRISK MIGHT HAVE A BIG ADVANTAGE ON ME, AS HER CULINARY SKILLS ARE INDEED VERY GREAT FOR HER AGE!” He readjusted his scarf proudly. “IT’S A GOOD THING FOR ME THAT I POSSESS SUCH WONDERFUL PHYSIQUE AND FINELY MADE BONES, OTHERWISE, I WOULD STAND VERY FEW CHANCES OF WINNING WITH UNDYNE OR FRISK AROUND!” He then seemed to realize something and waved a hand in reassurance. “NOT THAT I BELIEVE EITHER OF THEM TO BE… UNPLEASANT LOOKING… BUT YOU HAVE TO AGREE THAT SOMEONE WITH SUCH A BLEACHED BARE-BONE HANDSOMENESS HAS A MODEST EDGE HERE!”

Knowing better than to argue, Asriel nodded. The prince was starting to remember why he had a hard time getting along with Papyrus, in spite of the monster’s friendly disposition.

He regretted not getting to know the skeleton when he was younger… before all this.

They arrived at the cardboard house hosting all the books and Papyrus started to look frenetically through the human tomes. Asriel wondered if he should worry whether or not the skeleton would ever find a human cook book and realize that Frisk’s recipe was a human one. He ended up deciding it mattered little. Human style cooking was popular in the Capital, after all, curtsey of Mettaton.

Papyrus’s eyes zoomed in on a book with the word ‘Kitchen’ written on it, looked inside, then frowned and mumbled something before putting it back. The cover and the title made the prince’s heart jump. Once the skeleton was away, he picked back the small book with a trembling hand, looking at the familiar cover.

Kitchen. It was Chara’s favorite fiction book from their mom’s collection. They had made Asriel read the two stories in it.

He found himself wondering: would Frisk like it? She liked books.

…If Asriel gave her the book, would it be for her? Or this unhealthy attachment he had for the past?

She had an allergy to Temmies; she liked Golden Flower tea.

She... almost died last night.

The prince’s throat tightened and he put the book back once more. Torria’s words and Frisk’s heartbreaking confession of attachment meddled into a mix of unpleasant sickness; guilt, sense of duty and indecision all pressed together in his soul.

He sighed and took a step away. Of all the time, now was not when he should make them more similar than they already were; what was he thinking? She was no replacement! Frisk did not need more confusion than what she already felt. He was supposed to help her, was he not? He still had trouble figuring out everything, but this would not be beneficial to either of them. She needed help to get her strenght back. She would need help no matter what the future brought her… brought them…

He closed his eyes and massaged them.

With his father’s and Torria’s pressure, the Council and the war, he could not wait for long. He had a people to keep alive; and he had to figure out how to help Frisk. He had to tell her the whole truth of her condition.

…But if he told her, would she find the will to finish her botched attempt?

Should he actually try and…

“… YOUR MAJESTY ASRIEL?”

Asriel opened his eyes and looked back at the nervous skeleton, who was holding a few book in his hands.

“ARE YOU… ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT FRISK AS WELL? DO YOU THINK SHE… DO YOU THINK SHE COULD REALLY TURN INTO A HOOLIGAN?”

Taken aback both by Papyrus’s sharp deduction coupled with his complete misunderstanding of the situation, the prince huffed a little. He smiled slightly and shook his head.

“I think… I think we shouldn’t worry about Frisk doing that. She’s… not exactly the kind of person who would stray down that road.”

Papyrus looked reassured, in spite of his confident stance.

“NYEHEHEH, YES, IF THE PRINCE HAS ARRIVED TO THE SAME CONCLUSION I DID, THEN MY DEDUCTION MUST BE THE CORRECT ONE!” He looked down to his books with a frown. “… STILL, I HAVE A FEELING THAT, AS HER GREAT FRIEND, I SHOULD WATCH OVER HER AND MAKE SURE THAT HER ADOLESCENT MONSTER DISPOSITION DOESN’T BRING HER INTO A DANGEROUS PATH… AT LEAST FOR TONIGHT… SO I WAS THINKING OF PROPOSING TO DRIVE HER HOME EARLY TODAY!” He made a move to the counter. “I BELIEVE I FINISHED WITH MY PURCHASES. HOW ABOUT WE GO DO YOURS AND FIND FRISK AND HER FRIEND RIGHT AFTER?”

Asriel thought about it, then nodded.

“I think you bringing Frisk home early is a good idea, Papyrus… however, I… I’d rather shop on my own tonight… Since I won’t be here to open the castle for her, how about you bring her at Alphys’s until then?” He then had another idea and smiled slightly. “And in fact, if that’s alright with you and Sans, maybe you can even keep her with you tonight? I’m sure Frisk would like it.”

A night with her friend would certainly lift her spirit, even with Sans around.

Papyrus’s face brightened at the prospect.

“IT WOULD MOST CERTAINLY BE FINE WITH ME! …ALTHOUGH SANS MADE A REAL MESS OF OUR HOME… BUT SINCE SHE ALREADY WENT THERE, I DON’T BELIEVE OUR HOUSE NEEDS TO MEET THE ‘HANGOUT’ STANDARDS ANYMORE, SO IT SHOULD BE OKAY! I SHALL FIND SANS AND TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT!”

Asriel smiled, watching the skeleton make his purchase. Getting Frisk out of this place soon was probably the best option; he did not like her being anywhere near some of the shops.

…Especially when he was aware of the content of one of them.

His eyes strayed on the Kitchen book again. After a small hesitation, he took it out another time.

This purchase was not for her. For both their sake, and in spite of Torria's words, he would have to give up on her, but he did not have to give up on the past, even if he never opened this book again.

Chapter Text

“Here it is, yo!” Artie entered the cardboard house and saluted the shopkeeper. “Hi, Temmie!”

The Temmie looked like any other Temmie. The only difference was her grey hair and sky-blue and yellow stripped shirt. Frisk remembered that stripes were a mark of youth in monster society and deduced she must have been around Artie’s age.

“hOI!!” she proclaimed loudly, like all other Temmies did. “welcome to… da TEM SHOP!!!”

Said shop was mostly filled with cardboards and boxes full of items. Socks were stamped on the wooden wall, and a photo of a familiar white dog was at the top of a pile of boxes. There was a glowing purple potion and a bone up the shelf; Frisk wondered if Papyrus would be interested.

The counter at which Temmie was standing in was just an open card box with the letters ‘TEM SHOP’ written on it.

Artie chuckled and approached the shop-keeper.

“Man, Temmie! It’s been a while, yo! How’s business going?”

The little monster straightened in her box.

“yaYA! busnes is OPEN! u shud by at TEM SHOP!”

“…Hehe, sure thing, dude! Yo, remember when we used to run around with Snowy and sis when we were little? Man, those were some good times!”

Temmie nodded quickly.

“yaYA! u and I have a DEEP HISTORY! Like tem! Us tem have a deep history!!!”

Frisk looked at the exchange awkwardly. Artie looked like they were going along easily, however.

“Heh, yeah, you keep telling us how deep it is, yo! But one day it’d be cool if you could tell us more about it!”

Temmie deflated a bit, her face sliding down.

“awAwa… tem want to get TEM DEGREE to tell u all about TEM DEEP HISTORY… but tem cant afford colleg yet… so I make customer pay for college! yaYA! one thousand gold!”

Artie winced at the price.

“Uh, wow, sorry Temmie, but uh… yeah, I don’t think either of us has that kind of money, yo…”

Temmie cocked her head slightly.

“dats okay, u by some item at… TEM SHOP!!! yaYA!”

“Heh, okay, dude, thanks!” They turned back to Frisk. “Yo, let’s go check some boxes; I know she has ribbons somewhere!”

Frisk followed her friend to a box curiously.

“…Ribbons?”

“Yeah…” Artie stopped looking through the content of a box with their magic limbs and frowned a bit. “It’s… uh… Sis used to like it when… when we played dress up together… so I thought I’d give… for tomorrow…”

Frisk felt her heart constrict and nodded. She crouched down to the box and helped the lizard pull out its content. Most of it was used wares of various origins, from a few cups to a broken desk lamp. Frisk pulled out an old cow toy and stared painfully at it. Those objects… they probably were not of monster origin.

Artie did tell her Temmies got their ‘stuffs’ from taken towns; until then, it had not been registering to her.

This little toy once belonged to a child… a child who was either long gone or whose soul now fueled some monster contraption.

She put back the cow toy like it had burned her.

“Yo, I found some here!”

Artie showed her the content of a small golden-lidded red box. In it were a lot of ribbons of various colors and decorations.

They pulled out the box and presented it at the counter.

“Yo, Temmie! How much for the whole box?”

Temmie looked at the box’s content before giving the wyvern a bright smile.

“yaYA! da box iz two hundred gold!”

Artie flinched back and grimaced.

“Uh, okay… hang on…” They checked their pockets and pulled out a few gold pieces. “Uh… how many ribbons can I have with, uh… ten gold?”

Temmie’s cat ear twitched and she smiled wider.

“awAwa! U can have one ribbon fur ten gold!”

“Only one? Man…” They looked at the content of the box with a sad look. “I wish I could buy more… but I spent all my money buying the jug for Undyne.” They looked at Frisk hopefully. “Uh… you wouldn’t happen to have a few spare gold pieces, Frisk?”

The human monster shook her head in sympathy, swinging her stick back on her shoulder. When she saw the stick, Temmie’s dog ears rose and her tail started shaking.

“WOA!!! U gota… STICK!!!” she exclaimed. Frisk looked at her in surprise and brought down the object with a nod. Temmie’s little paws tapped on the cardboard box counter. Sweat poured from her face.

“hnnn… I gota have dat stick… but I gota pay for golleg…”

Frisk observed the little monster’s moral struggle curiously until the cat-dog jumped up.

“tem always wanna stick!!! A hundred and fifty-one gold!!!”

Both Artie and Frisk stared at Temmie for her ludicrous offer, until the little wyvern swung their tail excitedly.

“A-AWSOME, DUDE! We could get more ribbons with all that money! And you can get stuffs for yourself, too!”

But Frisk thought about it with a frown, and refrained from agreeing to the generous offer. She looked at her branch and started to twirl it in between her fingers like she was examining the merchandise.

“I don’t know, Artie… I mean, it is a very fine stick, with the barks on the proper sides and with a good straightness to it… It is far from a low quality stick!” She passed a finger on it softly. “…Also, it has quite a sentimental value to me… It may be hard for me to separate from it.”

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Temmie sweating further, trembling with desire inside her box.

“b… but…p!!!!!!”

Artie looked at Frisk like she was mad.

“W-what are you on, dude? It’s just some sti-”

“TEM OFFER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY GOLD FOR STICK!!!”

Frisk thought about it, made a quick calculation in her head and smiled widely at Temmie, handing her the stick.

“It’s a deal, then!”

Temmie exploded in joy.

“yaYA! I got stick!!!” She started rummaging the content of her ‘counter’. “wait fur tem to get u money!”

Frisk shook her head.

“No, that’s fine, because…” She nodded at Artie. “…With the one hundred and ninety for the stick and the ten gold we already have, we will buy the full ribbon box for two hundred gold.”

The wyvern flinched in surprised and looked at their friend with gleaming eyes.

“F-Frisk… y-you don’t have to…”

“um… okay! tem agree!!!” Temmies picked Artie’s ten gold and Frisk’s stick with a wide smile. “thanks PURCHASE!!!”

With a nod, Frisk picked the small red box and turned to her friend. Before going out, she saw Temmie put her new stick on her shelf cautiously, next to the bone. Frisk had a slight hint of regret for not being able to purchase it for Papyrus, thought realistically, she did not know if it would please him anyway; what if it was a bad quality bone?

“bOI!” Temmie said as the two headed out.

“Y-yeah, bye, Temmie! Good luck with your college fund, yo!” Once they were out, Artie looked at the human monster gratefully. “Yo, that was such a nice thing for you to do, Frisk! I…” They looked down. “I’m sorry… I don’t know when I’ll get the money to repay you…”

Frisk frowned and hand waved.

“You don’t have to repay me anything; it was just a stick I found in the wood, anyway. Really, you’re the one who had to pay something for the box.”

“…I guess…” They looked back at the shop guiltily. “Man, we really did just sell her a simple wood stick! And you even made her rack the price too!”

Frisk shrugged with a smug look.

“Well, in this world we live in, we gotta learn to bargain when we can,” she answered with a wink, making her friend snort a bit.

“Man, Frisk, you’re sneaky! Still, I don’t think we needed the whole box anyway… I mean, just two or three would have been enough…”

Frisk’s expression softened; her gaze went down to the box.

“…They’re for your sister, aren’t they? You can’t… you shouldn’t let anything stop you from getting the best for your loved ones.” She handed the box to the lizard for them to put in their phone’s inventory. “Here; with the box, you can even make a nice wrapping gift for her.”

Artie took the box in between their orange energy claws silently. After a moment, they looked at Frisk again.

“S-still… you… you helped buying it, yo! You should get something from it!”

Frisk shrugged and rolled her eyes.

“Come on, it’s a gift!”

The yellow lizard ignored her protest and opened the box in front of her.

“I want you to pick one, yo! Get one for you, Frisk! It’s only fair!”

Frisk blinked and looked at the assortment of various colored ribbon before raising her hands in protest.

“N-no, that’s okay, I-”

“Consider it a gift from me, too! One ribbon is ten gold, right? You paid for the box, so I’m paying you one ribbon!”

Frisk could see the logic from their reasoning. Still she hesitated. The wyvern saw this and smirked.

“Heheh, what’re you waiting for, dude? It’s just one ribbon! I’d bet you’d look cute with it!”

Seeing they had started to tease her, she smirked back and crossed her arms with a decisive swing from her tail.

“I’m wearing one if you do.”

She saw a bit of red spreading on their cheek and wondered if she did not go too far; the last thing she needed was for Sans’s deduction to be both correct and encouraged.

“O-okay! I-it’s a dare, then, yo!” They controlled their fluster and put the ribbon box down on the ground to look at its content. “Um… L-let’s see…”

Their energy claws hovered over the ribbon shortly before they quickly pulled out a red one from it. Artie brought the ribbon to their higher spike and struggled to put it on for a bit. Seeing they would not be able to do it alone, Frisk crouched down and attached the ribbon herself. It took her a few tries to make it neatly; she had not done ribbons in a while. Once it was well attached, Artie wobbled their head to test its resistance while Frisk admired her work. She had to admit, it did look nice on them.

The lizard smiled.

“Awesome, yo! My turn now!” They picked a yellow ribbon before Frisk had the time to pick for herself. “Now, hold still, yo! I’ll attach it on you!”

Having not much room for protest, Frisk let the little lizard do so. Surprisingly, Artie did not put it in her hair. Instead, they tied it on her left horn. They took much less time than she did. When they pulled their energy limbs back and looked at her, it was with a wide grin.

“Heheh, it suits you, Frisk!” they affirmed with a blush.

Frisk forced a smile, suddenly very uncomfortable in this situation. She was feeling the strange foreign weight on her horn and was curious as to how it looked, but not enough to willfully check in a mirror. Artie meant well and she did like them… but she was a bit wary of the kind of ‘like’ Artie could feel for her.

She was part of a kind they despised enough to join the local army for… This kind of affection was a recipe for disaster.

…Granted, any kind of affection was disastrous in this situation, as Sans pointed out. She suppressed a sigh, because she really did not need this right now.

“FRISK! ARTIE! IT’S GOOD I FOUND YOU SO SOON!”

They both turned to look at the running Papyrus holding a few books. When he stopped in front of them, he took the time to put the books in his dimensional box before speaking to the teens.

“NYEHEHEH, SO, FRISK, I WAS TALKING TO THE PRINCE AND HE TOLD ME YOU COULD SLEEP AT MY HOUSE TONIGHT IF YOU WANT! EVEN SANS AGREED! …I THINK.” Papyrus’s eyes shifted to the side. “WELL, HE DIDN’T SAY ‘NO’ ANYWAY… OR ANYTHING ELSE, SINCE HE WAS EATING SOME OF THIS ATROCIOUSLY GREASY FOOD HE ALWAYS HAS IN HIS POCKETS! …ANYWAY, ONCE YOU ARE DONE WITH YOUR PURCHASE, I SHALL BRING YOU EITHER AT ALPHYS’S HOME UNTIL THE PRINCE IS BACK TO OPEN THE CASTLE, OR TO MY HOME IF YOU SO PREFER! WHAT WILL IT BE?”

Frisk took Papyrus’s information in and her heart lifted a bit. She gave him a bright smile.

“I’d love to hang out again, Papyrus! Maybe we can try some new puzzles and recipes together, too!”

She may have had a tiring day, but she loved the skeleton, and the least she could do if she could not find him a gift was spend some quality time with him. Even with Sans around, it was worth it. Papyrus’s grin widened and he embraced her into one of his bony hug.

“NYEHEHEH! I KNEW THIS STREAK OF TEENAGE REBELLION COULD NEVER STOP YOUR SOUL FOR SHINING SO BRIGHT, FRISK! AS YOUR COOL FRIEND, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU FOR KEEPING FOLLOWING THE PATH OF GREATNESS!”

Frisk chuckled softly in his red scarf until she pulled out of the hug. She noticed Artie putting their ribbon box away and taking a step back.

“Uh… well, Frisk… Since you’re as broke as I am now, it means you’re going, then?”

Frisk felt a wave of guilt at abandoning her friend, especially when they had been the one inviting her. She clenched her arm nervously as she thought of something.

“You, uh… do you have anyone waiting for you at home, Artie?”

“Huh?” They cocked their head in surprise. “N-no… I’ve been mostly living on my own since sis… you know…”

Well, if it was not a heartbreaking confession. Frisk looked at her skeleton friend for help, and from his excited disposition, found it immediately.

“NYEHEHEH! WHAT GOOD THINKING, FRISK! YES, YOUR FRIEND IS WELCOME TO STAY AT MY HOME AS WELL IF THEY WANT! I’M SURE SANS WOULDN’T MIND, AND WE COULD DOUBLE THE FUN AT OUR HANGOUT SLEEPOVER!”

Artie’s jaw hanged open a moment, before they flustered and brought their tail close to their feet.

“Y-yo, I… I don’t know, dude… I mean… can I really?”

Frisk nodded assuredly and Papyrus laughed.

“NYEHEHEH! OF COURSE! ANY FRIEND OF FRISK IS A FRIEND OF MIND BY DEFAULT, AS FRISK IS MY VERY COOL FRIEND WHO ONLY HANGS OUT WITH VERY COOL PEOPLE… AND AS THE VERY GREAT PERSON THAT I AM, I ALWAYS HANGS OUT WITH ONLY THE COOLEST FRIENDS! NYEH!” He cleared his throat and crossed his arms. “IF, UH, YOU DO NOT WISH TO PERFORM THE CUSTOMARY ‘HANGOUT’ IN BETWEEN GREAT FRIENDS TONIGHT, I UNDERSTAND; HOWEVER, ALLOW ME TO BRING YOU TO YOUR HOME WITH MY VERY COOL RIDE! IT’S THE LEAST I CAN OFFER YOU!”

Artie looked from Frisk to Papyrus with hopeful hesitance until smiling slightly and nodding.

“Y-yeah… O-okay, dude!”

“HEY, FEATHER-BAG! WHO TOLD YOU TO STOP PUSHING?”

“Y-yo, please, dude… n-no more!” Chilldrake’s voice arose after Undyne’s loud order. “I’ll… I’ll even go back to school if it means I can stop, man!”

“NGAHAHAH! Now, I KNOW you’re lying! COME ON! School is BORING! Training with me is THE BEST!”

“J-just leave ice alone you crazy fish-face!”

“NOT UNTIL YOU FINISH YOUR PUSHUPS I WON’T! GNYAH!”

Frisk, Papyrus and Artie made a sharp turn in between the cardboard homes and found the fish warrior busy torturing their teenage companions with an intense training session. Even poor Whimsun was forced to push up on their frail arms. Both Frisk and Artie winced in sympathy at the sight.

Undyne saw the group arrive and she gave them a fanged smile.

“HEY, PAPYRUS! Looks like you’re bringing in some additional FRESH MEAT in this impromptu training session! NGAHH! Take place, my punks! Show your wet-blankets of friends how to do REAL pushups!”

Luckily for both teens, Papyrus piped in.

“NYEH! AS WONDERFUL AS A NIGHT TRAINING SESSION SOUNDS, UNDYNE, I PROMISED THOSE TWO I WOULD BRING THEM HOME IN MY COOL RIDE! AND AS UNDERAGE MONSTERS, THEY SHOULD NOT BE UP SO LATE AFTER DARK!”

Chilldrake found the strength to mock, just as he was pushing on his wings.

“Heh, wow, dudes, you’re getting handled by adults like a bunch of kids! Man, that’s so lame!”

Undyne stomped her foot down in approval.

“NGAH! He’s right, Papyrus! Those kids needs to TOUGH IT UP! You can’t baby them like that! You have to FORCE THEM to stay after dark! Even if they BEG to go home! NGAH!”

“…I changed my mind, man!” Chilldrake whimpered. “Call my mom! I wanna go home!”

“Wow, you’re such a baby, Chill,” A familiar nosy voice rose from behind them. “And what’s so good about this place, anyway? The wifi just sucks here, man!”

Every teen doing pushups, plus Artie, sighed. Frisk saw Jerry trotting near.

“I can’t believe you, guys! Why are you always forgetting me everywhere? Humph… some friends you are!”

Undyne turned to them with a grin.

“NGAH! Another CHALLENGER, huh? Well, GET DOWN HERE AND JOIN OUR PUSHUP GROUP! NGAHAHAH!”

“Uh… no?”

“NOT A VALID ANSWER!”

The fish lady picked the monster by the greasy top of their head and pushed them down to the ground.

“NGAHAH! We’re starting at ten for you! Now, GET TO WORK!”

The saucer-type monster stayed on the ground motionless and groaned.

“…Man, this place REALLY sucks! No wonder you guys didn’t want me to see it; you’re just so LAME for even coming here!”

“HEY! WHO TOLD YOU YOU COULD TALK? START PUSHING!”

“Wow, it’s like Temmie said, it looks like we have some nice workouts here.”

They all turned their head at the new voice. They saw the floating muscular sea horse monster looking at Undyne’s training group appreciatively. A little Temmie at his side jumped up and down in impatience.

“nuh, aaron! u shud make da fish lady go! she no want to, but pushups r no gud for TEM SHOP!”

“That’s okay, Temmie, I’ll talk to her in a language she’ll understand,” the sea horse, Aaron, reassured his friend with a wink, before turning to Undyne. “It’s like Temmie said, I personally approve of this training regime, but I don’t think you should disturb the commerce here, sweety.”

Undyne deflated a bit and scratched the back of her head.

“Ah… uh… yeah… I guess a training field would have been more appropriate for… Hey, WAIT A MINUTE!” Her face morphed into one of disgust as she pushed the sleeves of her vest up. “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING ‘SWEETY’ YOU STABLE FREAK! YOU WANT SOME PIECE OF ME, HUH?”

Aaron raised his hands up, still smiling.

“Heh, I meant no disrespect…” He looked at her muscled arms with interest. “…Although, if you insist… ‘wink’.”

Undyne grew more enraged.

“NGAH! I’m gonna POUND YOU TO THE GROUND for that remark!” She raised her arm up and toughened her muscles. “See THIS? You got NOTHING ON ME, horse-face!”

If anything, the declaration seemed to amuse Aaron even more.

“Flexing contest, huh? Okay…” He brought his own arm up with yet another wink. “Flex more.”

“NGAHAHAH! NOW YOU’RE TALKING, HORSE-FACE! NGAAAAAAH!”

They both flexed. They flexed so hard Aaron started to literally sweat bullet patterns. They exploded in glowing splashes all around the panicking Temmies.

“N-NOOOOOO!”

“Muscles…”

“Muscle… r not… cute….”

“n!!!!”

At least one bumped into Frisk in her frenzy and she winced in pain. Papyrus took the human monster by the shoulders and started leading her away.

“I… I BELIEVE WE’VE SPENT ENOUGH TIME HERE, FRISK! COME ON! LET’S ALL JOIN SANS IN MY GREAT RIDE! NYEH!”

Frisk and Artie followed the skeleton. The group of rebellious teens took this opportunity to run away from Undyne and into the wood. Snowy raised a wing at Frisk and Artie before disappearing.

“I’ll ‘catch your cold’ later, you two! Remember to stay ‘fresh’!”

A wobbly Jerry followed.

“Man, don’t ditch me again, guys! Wait up!”

With that, they were gone.

Papyrus turned to the remaining teens with a grin.

“NYEHEHEH! LET’GO, MY BRILLANT FRIENDS! I’LL SHOW YOU WHERE WE’RE STATIONED!”

Chapter Text

Sans looked like he was asleep in the front seat of the car, preventing Frisk from sitting beside Papyrus; of course, since she shared backseats with Artie, that was okay. The fresh air of nightfall would have probably frozen over a human Frisk, but as she was now, she just enjoyed the wind in her hears again, because that was still fun.

Artie decided to stay at Papyrus’s with Frisk on the way, much to the pleasure of the skeleton. Frisk was glad for the opportunity to push them both together, like Undyne asked her to. After all, if Papyrus could convince Artie to not join the Royal Guards; that would be one less thing she would have to worry about.

Once arrived, Frisk regretfully got out of the car. She wanted to ask Papyrus if he would be fine with her driving it for a bit, but there would be no way this would fly with Sans or the prince.

“… You leave your car-key in your car, Papyrus?” She noted, an eye-brow raised.

“NYEHEH! MOST CERTAINLY, FRISK! I WOULD RISK LOSING THEM IF I TOOK THEM WITH ME!”

She let the skeleton go ahead to open his house, looking from the house to the car.

“You… You’re not afraid for someone to steal it?”

Surprisingly, it was Artie who answered with a laugh.

“Heh, what? Why would anyone wanna do that, Frisk? If someone needs something here, all they gotta do is ask!”

Sans turned his still smile at her without any warmth.

“that’s how we do things in greenlake, kid; it’d be a bone-rattling thing to lose our tranquil ways over some capital habits, don’t ya think?”

Frisk rolled her eyes at his threat. Once they were all inside, Papyrus brought his hands together.

“NYEH! WELL, SINCE THIS HANGOUT WAS IMPROMPTU, I SUPPOSE WE’LL HAVE TO IGNORE SANS’S MESS FOR NOW…” The skeleton threw an annoyed look at a single sock on the floor upon which a series of notes longer than the sock itself was attached to. Frisk kind of wanted to read what it said. “…ANYWAY, I WAS THINKING OF TRYING OUT ONE OF THOSE RECIPES FROM MY NEWLY PURCHASED BOOKS! WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK?”

Artie stopped admiring the skeleton’s house to give him a curious gaze.

“Yo! I… I never actually cooked on my own… I always get pre-made food at home…”

Papyrus looked at them in shock, his eyes full of compassion, then straightened.

“WELL THEN IT’S A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO HAVE COME HERE, ARTIE!” He raised his gloved finger at the ceiling. “FOR NO CHILD SHOULD SUFFER THE TORMENT OF PREPARED FOOD! HOMECOOKED DELICACY IS CERTAINLY THE ONLY DELICACY THAT MATTERS! NYEH!” He brought his hand down and scratched his cheek-bone in concern. “I WAS THINKING OF PREPARING SOMETHING FOR THE HUMAN AS WELL, BUT YOUR SITUATION IS MUCH TOO DIRE, MY FRIEND; LET FRISK AND I TEACH YOU THE TRUE MEANING OF INDEPENDENCE BY GASTRONOMY PROWESS!”

Frisk smiled at the skeleton’s enthusiasm and nodded at Artie encouragingly.

“Spaghetti, or even simple pasta, will be easy to learn, Artie! We’ll help!”

“NYEHEHEH! THAT’S RIGHT! WITH TWO CHEFS LIKE US, YOU WILL BE READY IN NO TIME!” The skeleton pulled out his new cook books and checked one hesitantly. “…ALTHOUGH I WAS HOPING WE COULD VARY A BIT FOR TONIGHT, FRISK; I WOULD LIKE TO TRY SOME NEW RECIPES!”

Frisk nodded and picked the other book. She flipped through the pages until a familiar image made her stop. She slowly put down the open book on the table. Artie looked at it and wagged his tail.

“…Wow, a ‘quiche’, huh? Can you cook that, Frisk?”

Papyrus closed the other book and checked the page as well. After a moment, he chuckled approvingly.

“NYEHEHEH, GOOD IDEA, FRISK! A QUICHE IS A FINE AND FILLING DISH FOR A NIGHT IN BETWEEN FRIENDS! AND ‘SPINACH’ AS A GARNMENT IS CERTAINLY BETTER THAN ALL THAT GREASE SANS LOVES TO PUT EVERYWHERE!”

“hey, you don’t have to treat it like such a ‘greasly’ affair, bro.”

“SANS!”

Frisk ignored the two skeletons’ brotherly banters and lost herself in her memory. A quiche… A fitting dish for her situation, given her history with it. She swallowed with difficulty.

Papyrus had thankfully brought many ingredients for his potential recipe tryouts earlier in the day, so the fridge had everything they needed. Frisk showed Artie how to mix the eggs and butter as Papyrus prepared the paste. Sans busied himself with a joke book, slouching on the sofa. Because she did not have as much experience with it as other recipes, Frisk followed the instructions carefully.

She had forgotten that quiche that day. She had left it under the bench and never had the occasion to take it back. She hoped someone had found it and gave it a new home; a small quiche left alone under a bench was just sad.

That day could have turned out so differently; it had only taken a few minutes for Frisk to almost be separated from the aunt that later on became her mom. Her whole life would have been affected.

...What was the saying? Something about the flap of a butterfly wings causing a hurrican on another continent?

My little Frisk… I need you to promise me something…

Frisk checked the quiche’s heating in the stove. Papyrus had started showing some puzzles to Artie.

She could have been like that little quiche under the bench…

Courage… be courageous and never lose hope.

All that made the change was a few minutes; the flapping of a little butterfly and her life would have been completely different.

Sans's prank came back to her mind. What would she do different that day, were she able to go back there? Would she kill, or would she save?

...Was Cam's life only one wingflap away?

…Was Sans truly reading that joke book, or was he watching her every moves, still?

“Man, I don’t get it, yo…” Artie said after putting the pencil they had in their mouth down with a sigh. “It’s just a junior jumble, right? Why is that so difficult?”

Frisk looked up and, recognizing the sheet they were doing, smiled and answered before Papyrus could raise his voice.

“The key you gotta know is ‘L’ in that one.”

“Huh? 'L'?” Artie looked at her questioningly, then back at the sheet. “Key? …Oh! I see now! Thanks!”

“NYEHEHEH! THAT’S HOW I MAKE MOST OF MY PUZZLES, ARTIE!” Papyrus explained while pointing to another paper. “THERE IS ALWAYS A CLUE IN THE PREVIOUS ONE! THAT’S WHY I SUGGESTED YOU TO DO THEM IN ORDER!”

“…Wow, heheh, okay, that was a clever one,” Artie complimented once they put their pencil down. “That’s pretty awesome, dude!”

Papyrus straightened in his seat.

“NYEHEHEH! YES, MY PUZZLE SKILLS ARE INDEED VERY GREAT, MY LITTLE FRIEND! WHICH IS EXACTLY WHY THEY ARE PUT TO USE BY THE TRAPPER GUILD REGULARLY!”

Frisk flinched at the guild’s mention; Artie leaned in their seat excitedly.

“Wow! You’re in the Trapper Guild, Papyrus? That’s AWESOME! I didn’t even know that! How many humans did you nail?”

Papyrus blinked his eye-sockets and scratched his jaw uncomfortably.

“N-NAIL? I… I DON’T THINK I-”

“hey, kid! when’s that quiche ready? my bones are dryin' off from stavation here!”

Papyrus turned to the interrupting skeleton in frustration.

“SANS! THAT IS NO WAY TO TALK TO FRISK, YOU BONETROUSLING BOONDOGGLER! YOU DIDN’T EVEN PARTICIPATE IN THE QUICHE-MAKING FUN TIME!”

“heh, sorry, pap, you know i think poorly on an empty stomach.”

“YOU HAVE NO STOMACH, YOU NICOOMPOMP!”

Slightly glad at Sans diverting Papyrus’s attention away from Artie’s questioning, Frisk looked up at the slouched skeleton.

“The quiche won’t be ready until a few minutes, so, uh…” She forced a fanged smile. “Why don’t you share a few jokes with us from your book?”

Sans looked amused at her uncomfortable try at casual conversation.

“hey, my reading habit is no joke, kid. i’ll ‘skull’ ya into the responsibility of adulthood: it’s no ‘funny bone’!”

“OH MY GOD, SANS! STOP THIS INSTANT! YOU'RE NOT EVEN TRYING!”

Once the quiche ready, everybody took a slice. To Frisk’s satisfaction, the dish was successfully cooked, although slightly burned on one side because the MTT-Brand-Stove had this built in tendency. She made a quick muttered prayer before eating. She did not do it alone in the lab, but it always felt necessary when eating as a group.

Artie did not bother conjuring their arms and stuffed themselves with their slice.

“Chomp! Mang! Dis ish… Munch! Dis ish goad, yo!”

Frisk had half a mind to show them the cutlery, but given they had no natural arms, her force of habit would probably be pointless.

Papyrus put down his own fork with a bright laugh.

“NYEHEHEH! YES! IT APPEARS THAT OUR TEAM OF CHEFS WAS A GREAT SUCCESS ONCE MORE! NYEH!” He started to slice another bite. “IT WOULD ALMOST BE TEMPTING TO OPEN A RESTAURANT IN TOWN! WHAT DO YOU THINK, FRISK?”

Her own mouth was full when the yellow wyvern answered in her stead.

“Yo, Frisk may be a good cook, but I bet she’ll be an even awesomer Royal Guard!”

Frisk’s tail twitched and Papyrus managed to choke on his bite before looking at Artie warily.

“…A… A ROYAL GUARD?”

“Yeah!” The lizard monster brightened and cocked their head. “Didn’t you know? The reason she’s training with me at Undyne is to be one! And she’s pretty strong, too!”

Frisk had trouble swallowing her food; she was feeling a weight on her stomach. She heard Sans huffing while eating; she did not know with what kind of emotion.

She could feel the way Papyrus was trying to hide the discomfort in his aura as he brought his gloved hands together.

“FRISK IS… TRAINING TO FIGHT? …I… I DIDN’T KNOW…”

Frisk, her mouth finally free, made a nervous wave of hand.

“Uh, yeah, nothing’s decided yet,” she told him hurriedly. Artie looked at her.

“Aw come on, dude! There’s no way you won’t get in if you try! You took on Loox so easily earlier! I bet those humans won’t stand a chance!”

The weight on her stomach grew heavier. She felt her paws sweating. She blinked away the flash of blood and dust.

“I-I wouldn’t have stood a chance without you guys here! I’m not that tough!”

“Oh, come on! You’re underselling yourself! I’ve seen what you did with that training dummy too! You’re like the next Undy-“

“NO!”

Everyone fell silent. She had stood up from her chair and slammed her trembling hands on the table, only then realizing how warm she was feeling. Struggling, she took back control of her aura and breathing. She sat down and met the worried look of her lizard friend.

“I… I mean… Undyne’s a legend of her own, Artie…” She trailed off dazedly, looked at the remaining slices of the quiche and swallowed. “H-hey, by the way… since you’re visiting your sister tomorrow… maybe you can take the rest of the quiche for her with you? Th-that is, if you don’t mind, Papyrus.”

The tall skeleton straightened and stood up.

“M-MOST CERTAINLY, FRISK! TH-THAT IS INDEED A GRAND IDEA… I’LL… FIND A CONTAINER FOR YOU, ARTIE!”

The yellow lizard nodded, still looking at Frisk worriedly.

“Y-yeah… sure thing, yo…”

She forced a reassuring smile, but she could tell Artie was not fooled, though they did not push the issue. The dinner finished in an awkward silence as Frisk busied herself with looking down at the remains of the quiche on her plate.

The psychologically damaged remains of a spinach quiche…

…What if it was only one wing-flap away? What then?

She inadvertently met Sans’s gaze. She could not make head or tail of what that specific grin meant.

--

Since the MTT program was a rerun that night, Papyrus brought the teens to his room instead; Sans following, of course. With an excited cackle, Papyrus brought them chairs to seat near his computer as he let it start up.

“NYEH! WE DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO GO ON THE UNDERNET ON OUR LAST HANGOUT, FRISK, BUT NOW, I CAN SHOW YOU MY AWESOME PROFILE PAGE AND WEB PERSONA WHILE YOU CAN ADD ME ON YOUR FRIEND LIST! NYEHEHEH!”

Frisk sat on her chair uneasily and cocked her head.

“…‘Friend list’?”

As Artie sat in turn, the skeleton nodded with a joyous laugh.

“NYEHEHEH! THAT’S RIGHT! AFTER ALL, IT WOULD ONLY MAKE SENSE FOR YOU TO BE ON MY VERY LARGE LIST OF FRIENDS, AS YOU AND UNDYNE ARE THE FRIENDS I SPEND THE MOST TIME WITH IN REAL LIFE! NYEH!” Once the computer ready, Papyrus pulled an undernet page. “SO, MY HANDLE IS ‘COOLSKELETON95’ ON THE N°1 UNDERGROUND SOCIAL NETWORK, WHAT’RE YOURS, FRISK AND ARTIE?”

Frisk had no idea what a ‘handle’ was in this context, but she could guess. She gave him an uncomfortable shrug.

“Uh… yeah, I don’t have one of those.”

Given the way Papyrus stared at her, she had the feeling she had said something at the very least somewhat culturally inappropriate.

“YOU… YOU DON’T HAVE A PROFILE??? BUT…” He started scratching his chin in concern. “BUT HOW DO YOU KEEP CONTACT WITH ALL YOUR FRIENDS AT THE CAPITAL? …ARE YOU… ARE YOU JUST COMMINICATING THROUGH PHYSICAL MISSIVES, PERHAPS?”

Frisk made an effort to ignore the lump in her throat at the mention of her friends and shrugged in vague agreement. She felt Artie squirm beside her.

“Y-yo… I used to have a profile… but that was almost a year ago, man.” They fumbled with the claws of their feet. “I… I can’t really afford a computer at home now…”

Hearing their defeated tone made Frisk reach for them with her hand, until she remembered they had no hands to reach for. Instead, she recalled their gesture from before and blindly touched their tail with her own. After a few seconds of probing, Artie reacted and enrolled their tail on hers, clearly the more proficient of the two at ‘tail-grabbing’.

The devastated skeleton quickly forced his happy mood back up.

“W-WELL, THEN… I JUST GOT A GREAT IDEA! WHY DON’T WE CREATE A PROFILE FOR EACH OF YOU TONIGHT? NYEHEHEH! YES! YOU’LL EVEN BE ABLE TO COME HERE AND UPDATE IT IF YOU WANT… OR… OR EVEN GO TO ONE OF THE TOWN’S MTT CYBERCOFEE! NYEH!” He turned back to the screen. “NOW LET’S SEE… WHAT HANDLE WOULD YOU LIKE, FRISK? HOW ABOUT ‘GREATCOOLFRIEND-NUMBER SOMETHING’? OR… OR ‘SPAGHETTOMASTERISSIMO’?”

“what about ‘ewemanyluscious’ or ‘leggindairyfartmaster’?”

Papyrus sent his brother an outraged look.

“SANS! IF THE ONLY REASON YOU FOLLOWED US HERE IS TO ANNOY FRISK, THEN YOU CAN SPEND THE REST OF THE EVENING IN YOUR ROOM, YOU FUN-STOPPING BONE-HEAD! YOU’RE EVEN WORSE THAN THAT DASTARDLY TROLL BESIEGING MY VERY DASHING ONLINE PERSONA WITH THEIR SILLY PUNS WRITTEN IN AN ANNOYING FONT!”

“aw, come on, bro, you know I’m just teasing her ‘funny bone’ a bit.”

In spite of Papyrus’s threat, Sans stayed in Papyrus’s room as the tall skeleton helped create their online profile. Frisk, having no real idea as to what this entailed, let Artie go first. After a few minutes of thinking, they chose ‘ArmlessRebel39’. They had leaned toward ‘ArmlessFighter’, but Frisk managed to steer them away from the ‘fighter’ label. She was still very wary at their will to go to the front.

When her turn came, she proposed to go with ‘Frisk’, but her skeleton friend warned her against it.

“YOU DON’T WANT TO GIVE YOUR REAL IDENTITY ON THOSE SITES, FRISK, ESPECIALLY AS A MINOR! IT’S A GOOD WAY TO GET HARRASSED BY UNWANTED PEOPLE!”

And thus, Frisk found herself wracking her brain for something, not helped by Sans’s punny intervention. She did not even care that much about some stupid profile; she was only doing it for Papyrus. She thought back to dinner and opted for ‘SpinachButterfly’, which made her friends raise their eyebrows.

“ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT? I MEAN… OH, IT’S NOT TAKEN… ALRIGHT, THEN! NYEH!’

Only one wing-flap away...

--

After Frisk’s very first introduction to the world of the net (and Papyrus’s bafflement at the notion that Asriel had no computer at the castle, not actually something Frisk was sure of, given the amount of rooms in it), the skeleton proposed different fun-time activities, most of which Frisk already did in their previous sleepover. Papyrus was leaning toward another card game, as they had yet to finish a full round of it, but Artie seemed eager to go stargazing. The tall skeleton looked a bit worried about this, understandably, and was constantly checking the night sky as the two teens and Sans went to the balcony.

“Wow, dude! You guys have a telescope?” the yellow lizard commented eagerly. “Awesome!”

They made a move toward it and were stopped by Frisk’s hand on their head spikes.

“Don’t. Trust me. Sans rigged that one for a while now,” she warned them while giving the slouched skeleton an annoyed glare. Sans responded by sagging on a chair with a mocking wink.

“Oh.” They looked down in disappointment. “That’s too bad, yo. Sis and I, we used to stargaze all the time.”

Frisk cocked her head and gave them a small smile.

“You too, huh?”

They straightened and gave her a bright smile.

“Of course, yo! Who doesn’t like wishing under the stars!” They ran near the balcony’s edge and sat on the floor, tapping beside them with their tail. “Come on, Frisk!”

Their eagerness brought a feeling of sad nostalgia in Frisk’s heart. She smiled softly and joined them on the balcony floor. Behind them, she heard Papyrus’s triumphant laugh.

“NYEHEHEH! YES! NOW, THAT IS A RESPECTABLE ACTIVITY FOR THE YOUTH! A FINE PAIR OF SOULS LIKE YOU HAS A BETTER USE OF THEIR TIME DOING THIS THAN CAUSING HOOLIGAN SHENANIGANS SOMEWHERE! …ESPECIALLY WHEN THE POLICE ARE DOGS WHO CAN POTENTIALLY TAKE THEIR FRUSTRATION ON FINE BONE COLLECTIONS LIKE MY OWN! PLEASE THINK OF THE BONES! BONES ARE AN IMPORTANT PART IN LIFE! NYEH!”

“heh, what’s more important than bone, pap? I’m incarpable of femuring it out!”

“EXACTLY!”

As the two skeletons kept talking, Artie leant toward Frisk to whisper.

“Yo; I get why you like this guy so much, Frisk. He’s actually a pretty cool dude!”

Frisk nodded eagerly. She then smiled and winked, whispering back.

“He has a tendon-cy of ribbing me the right way.”

They said nothing for a moment, then burst in restrained laughers.

 “Pfff… Man, Frisk!” Artie puffed out after calming down. “Snowy and Sans are a bad influence on you!”

“Heh, yeah…” She trailed off, rubbing her eyes. “That was bad… I’m tired.”

“Yeah…”

They fell into silence for a moment, eyes looking at the night sky. There were some clouds, but the stars were still mostly visible. Try as she might, Frisk could not spot another triangular shape up there.

“…Yo… by the way… I’m sorry.”

She looked back at her lizard companion in surprise. They continued before she could ask anything.

“About earlier, I mean… The talk about the Royal Guards… I… I didn’t know that was a sore subject for you, so… sorry.”

Frisk’s throat constricted and she looked up again, shrugging.

“’T’s fine; don’t worry about it.”

She heard them sigh and felt them raise their muzzle up as well.

“I just… I just wish I could make a difference in the war, you know? I… It’s not just about sis anymore… it’s about… it’s about Snowy and Whimsun and Vulkin and everyone, too… I want to be strong for everyone.”

Frisk felt a weight in her stomach as she was listening. Her claws scraped on the balcony floor.

“I’m still worried, you know? About… about if the humans come… invades us… I… I know they mostly lost grounds until now, but… humans are pretty scary, yo… Even… even Royal Guards can be killed by them…”

She heard them squirm on their seat. She brought her tail close to her legs.

“My wish,” they continued, “my one wish is to grow strong enough to stand in this war… my one wish is to gain the power to protect everyone… like a true hero… That’s my wish.”

Frisk closed her eyes and let the night wind shuffle with her fur, caressing her floppy ears. After a short moment of silence, she felt Artie’s tail pocking her back.

“Yo, what about you, Frisk?”

She opened her eyes to look at them questioningly.

“…Huh?”

The yellow lizard cocked their head.

“Well, don’t you have any wishes to make, too?” They looked up again. “We’re standing under the stars, after all.”

Frisk frowned in incomprehension and looked up. She knew there were some human customs to wish upon a shooting star, but she did not see any in this night. Of course, she was among monsters; this was probably some custom she was unaware of.

When she did not answer immediately, the wyvern looked to the side.

“Yeah, that’s fine if you don’t wanna tell-”

“I wish for the war to end.”

She had blurted in out, and just as she did, realized how true this was. She leaned back slightly to look at the shining lights in the sky fully. Her gaze stirred toward the crescent of the moon and she latched onto its white brilliance.

“I wish,” she continued softly, “I wish for the conflict to end… I wish for everyone to be happy and free from it all.”

Wishing for everything to end…so it could finally begin.

The wind howled.

Chapter Text

They went to sleep early. Papyrus had started to show them his figurine collection, but Frisk had managed to convince the skeleton to nap by telling him Artie was going out of town to see their sister early the next day. The tall skeleton readily helped in building a pillow fort for everyone to ‘nap’ on. They all lied here, like an indoor camping, although Frisk was more than certain Sans would not sleep that night. Regardless, it was a fun and comfy experience.

She woke up from a muddied dream of late buses and forgotten quiche on a dusty bench. The light from early morning went through her closed eyelids and she breathed out softly, snuggling on the pillows and bed sheets all around her. After the memories of the previous day came in, she tentatively opened her eyes and caught the yellow glimpse of her lost ribbon. Slowly, she stood up and picked the ribbon from the white sheet.

“heya; looks like you had a rib-eting nap.”

She turned to look at Sans, slouched on a pile of pillows.

“yeah, you’re the last one to wake up. pap is making breakfast. your lizard buddy went to prep in the bathroom, by the way, so you’ll have to wait for your little marrow-ning ritual.”

Thinking back to the last time she went to the bathroom here made Frisk frown a bit. She opened her jaws a few times to get the morning taste out of it, stretched wordlessly and stood up, followed by her jailor skeleton.

Artie finished their turn in the bathroom just as Frisk arrived. They had switched clothing and their scales were shining a bit. Frisk had nothing to change to, however; so once she took their place inside, all she could really do was wash up like she did previously. She really needed to put some clean clothes in her phone inventory for occasions like those.

She also let the door open, much to the amusement of the short skeleton at the bathroom entrance. She rolled her eyes and asked him for his comb, which he took an annoyingly long time to pull out of his pocket.

In front of the mirror, she looked at the yellow ribbon she had in her hand, then put it back on her left horn with a shrug. Artie was wearing their red ribbon back, after all; it was only logical for her to keep wearing it, until they departed, at least.

She also took the time to comb her fur using the mirror and had to admit having a better time doing so than usual, although her fur combing was definitely subpar and she still disliked whenever her eyes met her reflection. Sans chuckled at her coquettish behavior.

“wow, ewe really made some progress there, kid; now we can finally tell which kind you’re supposed to belong to.”

She grumbled and threw him an annoyed glare.

“…You really never stop, do you, bonehead?”

Sans shrugged and gave her the space she needed to get out of the bathroom.

“heh, what can i say, kid? i’m mandible-tored to quip even if there’s only one bonely person within my joke radius.”

“…Okay, no…” She shook her head with a grumble. “It’s too early in the morning for me…” She put a hand on her growling stomach. “Call my stupid pun persona once I’m full with some ‘spaghetti breakfast’ or something…”

“aw, why the ‘stupid’ label, kiddo?” Sans followed her with his usual grin. “tibia honest, i think pun-making is your bone-afide best trait.”

Frisk thought back to Snowy’s revelation about the royal child and Sans’s whoopee-cushion and stopped to stare at the skeleton. Seeing her gaze upon him made him raise one of his ‘eyebrows’.

“uh, kid? i know i’m a swell-looking bony structure and all, but i was joking when i compared ya to a dog earlier. you can stop the creepy staring.”

The question was at the tip of her tongue, but was it even worth asking? Realistically, he would probably divert her away from the truth… Besides, all this was going too far already; with too many people. Huffing, she turned away with a frown and kept walking, refraining from quipping back anything.

... What if it really was one wing flap away…

…Was it actually possible? Was it worth it to try and find out?

Or was Cam…

Entering the living room, she made two discoveries. The first was that the prince had made an early-morning visit, clearly to escort her back to her cell once Artie gone.

The second being that Papyrus had yet again tried his hand at cooking another recipe: ‘bacon and eggs’ breakfast (both with magic substitute ingredients, of course). Frisk saw the state of his first burned tryout and hurriedly ignored her empty stomach and sour mood to go and help the skeleton with the second batch. Thankfully, the prince had brought his tea for the morning; it helped improve her awareness a bit.

Artie was watching Asriel with clear admiration. Frisk realized that what was a normal presence in her life must have been pretty intimidating for an average town monster.

It probably did not help that Asriel was rivaling Undyne in skills. That was sure to get the small wyvern’s attention.

“So, yo, what was it like to train with the king, uh, your majesty sir?” They asked as Frisk slid a plate of bacon and eggs to them. They gave her an appreciative smile before digging in.

Cutting his bacon, Asriel gave the younger monster an uneasy smile.

“It, uh, it was pretty intense, I suppose.” He finished cutting a slice and brought it near his mouth. “Did Undyne tell you about her time with my father?”

Frisk and Papyrus sat with their own plates (Papyrus had sacrificed himself and taken the most burnt one) as the little lizard finished gobbling his egg.

“Munch! Shure thing, yo!” They finished swallowing before continuing. “She told me he was untouchable in combat! She also said you made your own star-bullet patterns! That is so cool, yo!”

Frisk was unsure if the prince’s aura was more filled with embarrass or pride. She rolled her eyes and concentrated on her plate. Papyrus swallowed his burnt eggs and laughed.

“NYEHEHEH! OF COURSE IT IS! WHAT COULD OUR PRINCE BE BUT A WIDELY IMAGINATIVE MONSTER WITH BREATHTAKING BULLET PATTERN ATTACKS! YOUR MAJESTY, YOU MUST COME AND ATTEND FRISK’S AND ARTIE’S LESSON ONE DAY TO SHOW THEM YOUR BEAUTIFUL TECHINQUE!”

Artie’s tail straightened in sheer excitement. They turned to their prince expectantly. Said monarch made an expression in between a wince and a smile as he shrugged.

“Um… sure.”

Artie whizzed and almost jumped in their chair. Frisk swallowed her salty food and looked at the gushing monster sourly. She cleared her throat and forced a smile.

“Hum, by the way, Artie, if you want to wrap up your gift for your sister, you can ask Papyrus. He has everything for good gift-making!”

The tall skeleton brightened at the suggestion and raised a gloved hand up.

“NYEHEHEH! AS ALWAYS, FRISK IS FULL OF GRAND IDEAS! COME ON, ARTIE, MY FRIEND!” He stood up and headed toward the Giftmas Tree. “LET ME SHOW YOU ALL OF MY FAVORING WRAPPING CONFECTIONS FOR A WONDERFUL SHOW OF SIBLING LOVE!”

“all sponsored by our local bone-loving canine visitor, given the yellow ratting scent of this tree.”

Papyrus stopped in his track, probably finally registering said scent, then put his hands on his temples dramatically.

“… OH MY GOD, SANS! HOW COULD YOU LET SUCH A TRAGEDY OCCURE TO THE GIFT TREE WITHOUT TELLING ME??? CURSES!!!”

After lamenting the poor desecrated tree, Papyrus helped Artie wrap the ribbon box, and even the remaining quiche slices. They all departed from the house quickly after.

Frisk had occasionally seen the hovering public transports flying over town, although it was the first time she was seeing one on the ground and waiting for passengers. From what she understood, all transports were free of charge for underage monsters, and overall very low cost. She was mildly curious about their functioning; probably mostly magical, like the lamps and other contraptions around.

Before boarding, Artie turned to the group of monsters with a smile.

“Yo, thanks for the sleepover, guys! And the cooking! It was really swell of you all!” They turned to Frisk and brought they tail close to their feet. “And Frisk? Thanks again, yo; for the box and all… You’re a cool friend!” They threw a nervous look at the vehicle before looking back at the human monster. “Uh… Don’t let Undyne bully you, yo… I’ll get back as soon as I can, promise!”

Frisk huffed softly and waved.

“Take all the time you need, Artie! It’s your sister, after all!” She shrugged slightly. “And don’t worry about Undyne; I’ll live.”

With a last tail wave, Artie headed in the transport before it started hovering and rise up. Once it was but a spot in the blue sky, everyone stopped their waving and Papyrus put his hands on his hips proudly.

“NYEH! AND ONCE AGAIN, A GRACEFUL SIBLING ATTENTION IS GIVEN THANKS TO THE GREAT AND THOUGHTFUL FRIEND PAPYRUS!” He let his red scarf flow in the soft morning wind with a laugh. “NYEHEHEH! NOW, THAT IS WHAT I CALL A MAGNIFICENT EXEMPLE OF SUCCESSFUL CHEERING AND FRIENDSHIP MAKING! DON’T YOU THINK SO, YOUR HIGHNESS ASRIEL?”

“Uh… yes?” the prince answered hesitantly, clearly uncomfortable with the attention, the moron. His short skeleton friend decided to throw him a bone.

“it was fibulous, pap; a bone-afide successful shin-ing of your carpability.”

“…SANS, WHILE I RARELY BELIEVE THAT THE AMOUNT OF ‘TOO MUCH SKELETON PUNS’ IN ONE GO CAN BE ACHIEVED, I BELIEVE YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE REACHED SAID QUOTA HERE.”

Sans chuckled and winked.

“i think you're fibulating there, pap; there’s no such thing as too much puns.”

“UP UNTIL NOW, THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT AS WELL. WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO SHATTER ALL MY WELL ROOTED BELIEFS, SANS? DO YOU REALLY ENJOY GRINDING MY BONES LIKE THIS?”

“nah, bro; after all, it’s nothing phalanging to do.”

“GOOD, BECAUSE YOU’RE GOING TO HELP ME CLEAN OUR POOR GIFTMAS TREE TODAY! IT WILL TRAIN YOUR GENEROUS SPIRIT AND DOUBLE AS A WORKOUT!” The tall skeleton turned to Frisk. “NYEH! I’M SORRY I CAN’T SPEND AS MUCH TIME AS I WISH WITH YOU, FRISK; HOWEVER, WHEN DUTY CALL, THE ONLY THING TO DO IS PICK UP THE PHONE AND ANSWER WITH A BRIGHT SMILE!” His grin fell down a bit. “…EVEN WHEN SAID DUTY INVOLVES THE COMPLETE ERRADICATION OF A STRANGLY GLOWING AMOUNT OF DOG RESIDUE… IN ANY CASE…” He started walking away, arm waving. “HAVE A GOOD AND EXCELLENT DAY, FRISK AND YOUR MAJESTY ASRIEL! I HOPE WE CAN HAVE ANOTHER FUN TIME TOGETHER SOON! NYEHEHEH!”

As the tall skeleton disappeared in between two building, Sans casually started strolling in the other direction.

“welp, since i’v been roped to handle the mop, i’ll let ya lead the last of the flock home on your own, my royal pal.” He winked at Frisk before disappearing into a shortcut. “and doe try to cheer up, kid; ewe could use to lift up your mood a bit there.”

Frisk had half a mind to answer him with a rude gesture, but not only would that be uselessly unseen, it would be too much effort put to care for the skeleton’s feelings. Caring to hate or dislike was both really tiring and double edged; the last thing she needed was to get out of her way to familiarize herself so much with any of those murderers.

She sighed as she turned to the prince. She was really tired of this whole situation. At this point, she was almost glad to head back to the cell; she did not even think she had the strength for Undyne’s training. Asriel did not move for a moment, seeming to ponder something, then he scratched his head.

“Actually… do you mind if we make a little detour before going back?”

At the mention of an additional trek, Frisk frowned.

“…Where?”

To her displeasure and worry, he shrugged uncaringly.

“Don’t know… the park, maybe? I…” He caught her annoyance and fumbled with his words. “Uh… you don’t have to… If you don’t want-”

“Whatever,” She cut him off with a wave of hand, because she was both annoyed at his attitude and the fake agency he was giving her. She could clearly see he wanted to talk to her; now or later, what difference did that make? “Let’s just do this now; I’m probably going to have my hands full with fish-face this afternoon, anyway.”

“Ah, actually…” Asriel scratched his ear and gave her an amused smile. “Undyne and a hippocamp monster suffered a canine arrest last night for ‘disturbing the proper commerce with bullet sweating indecency”, so she probably won’t be free for a day or too.”

Frisk blinked.

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed with a tired chuckle before starting to walk. “Anyway… thank you for your time.”

Frisk followed, eyes rolling and tail swinging.

“Please, stop pretending I have a choice in all this.”

“Sorry,” he answered softly.

They travelled the rest of the way in silence.

Caring to hate was tiring, indeed...

--

When they reached the park, the wind was starting to grow stronger; it was caressing Asriel’s ears softly, pushing them backward. The blue sky of the early morning had started to cover in grey clouds. Beside the prince, Frisk looked up and frowned.

“…Looks like some rain’s coming soon.”

“Yeah,” Asriel agreed as he looked up to the menacing sky. Rainy days had been rare for a while now. “I brought an umbrella in case it happens.”

Frisk made an acknowledging grunt as they went through the green vegetation. The park was open this time around and the Boss Monsters had to let two excited diamond headed monster kids run past them on the path. Since there were additional leaves that had been recently granted, this was a time for monsters’ families to reunite and do fun relaxing things together. Asriel thought back to Frisk’s first excursion and reflected that this was a testament of the human monster’s good heart that pretty much no one in Asriel’s group of friends would bat an eye at leaving her so close to this many civilians and children with so little supervision now.

He also reflected that this would not be something he should bring to Frisk’s attention. As if to confirm his thought, the human monster took a spot near the lake and sat down brutally, an annoyed frown on her face and her tail swinging. Knowing better than to comment on her sour mood, the prince sat in turn, trying his best to not fixate his gaze on her.

She was wearing a cute yellow ribbon on her horn and Asriel had to refrain to blurt out loud that it suited her. He wondered if it was some kind of human attempt at looking feminine. He knew her gender, but human cultures, from what he knew of it, liked to use clothing to affirm this part of their identity, even more so than most monsters. But after all, humans seemed to pay much more attention to dividing genders than monsters, for whichever reasons. Maybe without clothing, they had no way to express their gender differences apart from facial hair on male adults?

Asriel wrinkled his muzzle at his own ignorance. He really should have done more research on this; this was embarrassing to ask about.

Ah, well… this was irrelevant to why he brought her her.

He heard some joyful cries and his attention was brought onto two little slimes playing in between the trees under the attentive gaze of a mustached bigger slime, probably their father.

“C’mon!” one of them called, “let’s play war again!”

“Okay, but you’re the human this time!”

“What? No way!”

“Yes way!”

“Nuh-uh!”

They bounced around a rabbit lady holding a small bunny on a leash. The annoyed adult rabbit tugged at it when the slimes went away and the little bunny made a move to follow them.

“No, Cinnamon! Play time comes after! Promenade first!”

Asriel watched until he saw Frisk’s attention on the little slimes. She watched them chase one another impassively. When he tried to feel her aura, he could not discern anything coherent until her gaze went back to the lake and she sighed.

 Asriel looked away from her reflective expression and tried to calm the beats of his heart, pondering how to formulate the right way to bring the subject he wanted to address to her. His thoughts went to the small object currently in his inventory and he suppressed a heavy sigh. There was no easy way to bring all this up, but he could not exactly show it back at the lab, because her cell had a camera, and this was much too personal for…

…This subject was too personal for him as well.

…But she had to know. He owed it to her.

He opened his mouth, then closed it shut when nothing was coming to him. He did not like the way his stomach felt so heavy, but he did not want to say it. He did not want to break this small moment of relative peace he was spending with her.

Even Frisk had not said anything. He checked her face once again and saw how she had closed her eyes, starting to lean back on the grass.

…Maybe it could wait a bit…only for a moment.

In both relief and annoyance at his decision, the prince followed her example and leant back on the fresh grass, staring at the cloudy sky.

It could wait a bit.

Just for a moment.

Asriel closed his eyes and let himself relax.

--

“I… I don’t like this idea, Chara…”

He says this as his sibling is coughing so hard he fears they might spit their weird physical organs. They finish coughing and lift up their salivating mouth from their hand to stare at the remains of the golden petals with a mix of disgust and determination. He pats their shivering back in an attempt to make them feel better; he wishes he had learnt healing magic like mom.

Shaking on their feet, Chara gives him a look through their obvious discomfort.

“H-hey,” they rasp out. “L-look. It’s nothing … d-don’t cry your eyes out at meeh.”

He blinks his tears away and looks to the side, annoyed and relieved at the teasing.

“…W-what? N-no… I’m not…” He passes his tongue on his teeth. “…Big kids don’t cry.”

They smiles widely.

“Exactly! And you're a big kid.”

Asriel nods.

“…Yeah… you’re right.”

Chara laughs. It is interrupted by another row of intense coughing.

“ ...urgh…” They start to wobble and he has to drop the camera to prevent them from falling. His muzzle goes through their brown hair and for a moment, he cannot see their face anymore. Chara brings a hand to their mouth and looks up. Their tear-filled brown-red eyes meet with his and they are full of visceral and intence fear.

“Asriel… tell me... tell me you won’t leave me on this!”

“No!” He blinks his tears away once more and brings their shivering body into a tight hug. “I’d never doubt you, Chara… never!”

He feels them hug back as they whisper near his ear.

“We can do it… together we can do it…”

He nods eagerly. It is as much for them as it is to strengthen his resolve.

“Y-yeah… We’ll be strong! We’ll free everyone!”

He feels their arms tighten around him and he has no idea why, but at this very moment, he does not want to let go, ever.

“…I’m going to need more of those,” they whisper again.

This time, he nods assuredly.

“I’ll go get the flowers.”

“Thank you.” They huff softly. “You should answer that now.”

“Huh?”

The sound only registers in his ears at that moment; the chilling feminine laugh echoing all throughout the house.

He pulls out of the hug and looks around. Why are they at home? Should they not be outside?

The laugher comes from his room.

…No, his old room; his and Chara’s.

“Chara, something’s weird, I…”

He trails off when he turns around and there is no sight of them.

He looks at the door again. He does not want to, but he approaches anyway. He knows that voice.

His hand is on the handle. He opens the door.

It is their room, but Chara’s bed is not here. There is a bathtub instead.

It’s filled with blood.

He sees Frisk. Only her head is visible. She is still laughing mad.

Frisk!

He cries voicelessly and runs to her. He plunges his hands into the heavy liquid, then quickly pulls them back red stained, a look of horror in his face. Before he can step away, Frisk’s strong grip is on his small arm.

“Heheh, you’re going the wrong way, little prince.”

She gives him a Chara Smile and he freezes. There is a buttercup on her left horn. She pulls his small child body into the scarlet liquid and he screams.

His head is immersed and for a moment, he thinks he is drowning; but he can feel himself breathe in and out. It’s all red around. All he can see is Frisk’s smiling, laughing face.

“Heheh, They’re all here. Everyone’s here! Don’t you see them?”

“N-no…”

He tries to pull away, but nothing happens.

“Six? Right? You just needed to get six; how many did you get?”

“No…”

She is digging inside his wrist with her claws. There should be dust, but nothing comes out.

“How do you do it? How do you kill when you’re like that? Don’t you think of them when they beg at your feet for mercy?”

“No, no…”

She looks at him again. But that’s not her face anymore.

... Don’t you think of me, Asriel?

NO!

SLAP!

The burning pain on his cheek brought him out of the red liquid. Warily, breathing mad, he raised a hand to his face and tried to understand what was happening. Something was weighting him down and when he looked up, he met the intense gaze of Frisk, a buttercup on her left horn. For half a second, he panicked and tried to struggle away from her grip, whizzing mad. She barred her fangs in dismay and forced his arms down.

“Shit… would you just calm the fuck down already? People are gonna stare!” She muttered through gritted teeth.

The worry in her tone reached something within him and he stilled himself, still breathing hard. After a better inspection, he realized the buttercup in her hair was, in fact, the golden ribbon from earlier.

They were at the park; not at his old home.

He had brought them here.

He forced his tension away, letting his muscles relax. Probably seeing he would not struggle anymore, the human monster pulled away quickly, like she wanted to get away from the contact as fast as possible.

Slowly, he rose into a sitting position, still trying to calm his beating heart. He did not have a nightmare for a long time now… or at least one he remembered.

His cheek still hurt. He brought a hand to it.

“You… you were starting to talk really loud,” Frisk explained, looking away, bringing her legs near her chest and her tail close. “I tried to talk and nudge you awake, but it didn’t work, so I slapped you.”

He massaged his cheek softly.

“Th-thanks.”

She snorted.

“You know, that’s twice I slapped you now; pretty sure if I did that to human nobility, this wouldn’t fly at all. Is this a monster thing too?” She wrinkled her muzzle and threw him a wary look. “If you have some sort of weird fetish about it, please tell me now so I never do it again.”

This brought a nervous laugh to him. He was not sure if she was serious of humorous, but he decided to take it at the second option.

“...Good to know you don’t have qualm doing it otherwise.”

“You know I don’t.”

He looked down to his laps and put his two hands on it.

“…Yeah… I know…”

There was a short silence until Frisk sighed and looked up at the sky.

“Still not raining, but it’s probably going to soon.” She looked around the park. “They’re some people left, but I think everyone’s gonna be gone in a bit.”

“Thank you, by the way.”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“…For what? The slap?”

“Yeah,” he answered, still looking down. “But mostly: thank you for staying here.”

She snorted.

“And go where?”

He shrugged.

“Away? I figured you would leave at the first chance you got.”

After a short and eerie silence, she huffed.

“…It... wouldn’t have worked. I can’t go back. I know.”

Her tone was kept low and neutral, but from his aura, he caught a glimpse of her sadness and his throat tightened. Her home was gone; she could not go back into that grey town.

…Into that sea of blood.

He blinked the image away and looked at her.

“Thank you for not killing me too. You said you would if you could… so, thank you.”

Instead of answering, she avoided his gaze and stood up.

“Okay, I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t want to stay in the rain when it starts pouring.” Her stomach emitted a gargling noise and she clutched it in annoyance. “And I’m starving, so even those stupid dry noodles will do for me.”

Asriel thought about it and stood up in turn.

“We could eat outside the lab; there’re a few restaurants around.”

She looked at him like she was struggling in between her disgust for him and her desire for some good filling dishes. After a short while, she sighed and nodded, wrinkling her muzzle with a tension that could not possibly be healthy.

Asriel ignored her bad mood and took the lead, clenching his fists to prevent their shaking.

Chapter Text

Muffet’s Parlor was actually the closest food service to the lab, but Asriel knew better than bringing Frisk there, given her previous reaction to the spider donut. There was also an MTT-BRAND Restaurant close, but since Mettaton could potentially be around, this was out of question as well. Given the options, Asriel decided on one of the restaurant from the Bunny Industry. Rabbit monsters were a pretty big family and fairly widespread. Because of this, they could still compete with the bigger guns like Mettaton. Asriel had to admit he enjoyed quite a few of their products and shops; they tended to have a certain ‘home-made’ air to them he found quite charming.

This restaurant for example was built in as a burrow would have been in the old underground style. Orange lights were spread around the cozy looking wooden interior and everything had a soft roundness to it. A familiar bunny lady sporting a round hat went to greet them.

“Well, if it ain’t his majesty himself; it has been a while.” She looked from the prince to Frisk and made an amused tip of her hat. “Hiya there, travelers! Here to seek refuge from the rainy menace, I see!”

Asriel gave her a smile and a nod.

“Howdy, Grizel, you know we do.” He looked around the fairly crowded place. “Any good seats for two?”

“Sure thing, sugar,” the rabbit woman answered with a short laugh. “Follow me; I still got some warm free tables in the back.”

She led them both to a table with a red couch and a chair. Asriel let Frisk pick her seat; she took the couch. Grizel brought them two menus.

“I’d recommend lunch’s special, personally; my sister made it. Of course it’s whatever floats your boat.”

With that last comment, she left them on their own. Frisk picked her menu and started to skim through it with a frown.

“…Doesn’t look like they serve meat here.”

Asriel picked his own menu and cocked his head.

“Sorry; did you want meat?”

She shook her head.

“Nah, not really; it was just something I noticed.” She glanced at the rabbit at the counter. “I was just wondering if monsters were… I don’t know… ‘attuned’ to their animal counterparts? Like…” She raised a hand. “Those dog monsters in town, they’re really acting like dogs most of the time. They… they talk… well, Doggo talks… and they wear armors and understand stuffs… but really…” She shook her head in dismay. “At the end of the day, they just like petting and playing fetch like any dog would. Isn’t that… weird?”

Having next to no experience with animal dogs, Asriel could only shrug.

“…I don’t know; why would it be, though?” He shrugged. “It’s like you said: They’re dogs; of course they like petting.”

She frowned at him exasperatedly.

“But that’s the thing: they’re not dogs! Dogs are animals; monsters aren’t. They’re… you’re…” She scratched near her horn. “You’re beings made of magic! You’re not restricted by instincts and the like… at least, I don’t see why you should be…” She looked down at her hands. “It’s like… it’s like you’re made to… to copy nature… to copy animals… to copy us… and I can’t figure out why.”

Recognizing her questioning as one of the many times she was pondering her condition, Asriel wracked his mind to give her something to work on.

“I’m… not really familiar with most animals, but, uh…” He brought down his own menu to the table. “I can tell you that dog monsters have been acting like that for as long as I’ve known them. Even underground, they loved to play and to be pet. They didn’t really take any example from animal dogs, as far as I’m aware.”

Frisk nodded, a hand on her muzzle reflectively.

“So… I guess it’s just something monsters do, then? Acting like their animal counterparts? To those who have them, anyway… I guess it doesn’t really apply to ghosts or skeletons… unless their counterparts are humans? So, basically, dog monsters will love petting and play; rabbit monsters won’t eat meat… Wait a moment…” She made a move to touch her ears with a raised eyebrow. “Since we’re goat monsters, does it mean we should avoid meat as well?”

“Uh…”

“Ah, wait, no I’m dumb.” She stuck her tongue at him. “Goats will eat anything.”

He blinked at her sudden playful tone and she snorted at his expression before looking down on the menu again.

“Pfff, I kid. Boss Monsters aren’t really like goats, anyway. You may have a stupid goat face, but the paws and fangs don’t really have any part in goat physiology. You’re just some weird chimeras of dumb things.”

Asriel had a vague idea of what a goat was like, and he recalled seeing some sheep near taken human towns, so he could see what the human monster meant. Some old monsters underground occasionally referred to Boss Monsters as ‘goats’, but most of the current appellation actually came from human insults. He personally did not see what his face had in common with sheep, which were supposed to be close to goats, but he did not bother protesting when either monsters or humans made the comparison.

“So… what do you think midday’s special is like?” She asked him after looking at the menu again.

He shrugged.

“Don’t know. Do you want to try?”

“Sure.”

She closed the menu with a sigh. Asriel followed her example and brought his hands together.

“Do you… Did you see a lot of animals in your life, Frisk?”

Asriel’s first real knowledge of animals came from Chara and their constant teasing. Even now, he had a hard time figuring out what the relationship was supposed to be in between animals and humans, as there did not seem to be a direct equivalent in Monster Kingdom.

Frisk’s traits relaxed a bit and she tapped on the menu with her claws lightly.

“Well… I’ve seen most farm animals, since I came to live in the countryside, though I was born in a big town.” She glanced to the side. “There was this old man, John, who used to hunt, so he brought some dead wild fowls to us when he could. About once a year, he brought a deer, but this was mostly for everyone in town, because it was for a village celebration. I’ve seen a few wild boars from afar, because those occasionally come close to eat in the crop fields… and only once one that got really too close, but apart from that…yeah, mostly farm animals.”

She stopped tapping and closed her hand into a fist on the table.

“Dad… he… he made a clinic for the wounded who passed through our town… he used to be a war medic before… you know, in the battle fields? I… He made me learn his craft by watching… but also helping when he was doing vet things for farmers? We didn’t… we didn’t really have many vets in the village, so… Yeah, anyway…”

She straightened up and sighed.

“Anyway, I was taught helping with open surgeries on animals and the likes, because humans and animals are very close on the inside, after all…” She shrugged. “It’s weird, but humans have way more in common with actual sheep, goats or dogs than we do with monsters, and yet…” She chuckled. “Yet, you walk and talk like us and they don’t.”

Asriel was unsure he understood everything, but he listened to her nostalgic tone with a pressure in his throat. When she stopped, he looked down at his claws.

“…You say you’re closer to animals, but you eat animals, don’t you? You don’t have a problem with eating animals, yet, you don’t like it when spiders eat spiders?”

She snorted at his question.

“Heh, yeah, I guess to you, it must be culture shock as well, huh?” She looked at her open palms. “I guess… I guess this has a lot to do with looks. I mean, there’re quite a few animals I wouldn’t want to eat, because they’re too close to how humans look like, like chimps… of course, they’re really smart, too, so…” She huffed. “…Nah, probably mostly the look. Dolphins are at least as smart, and there used to be many humans eating them before the war…”

She cocked her head and looked up to the ceiling.

“So, yeah, it grosses me out that many monsters have no problems eating things that look too much like them, because to me, it’s a bit like cannibalism… Only, it’s not for the most part if you eat an animal that looks like you, because they aren’t monsters, after all…” She blinked like she thought of something and looked at him questioningly. “So, wait, if you eat meat, does that mean you have toilets somewhere? Because you said… you know…”

“…Ah, no.” He shook his head. “There’re some… some ‘human food’ eaters around the land… but there’re kind of rare; mostly because monster food is much more practical to make. You know we don’t exactly like…” He winced and corrected himself. “We’re not exactly made for the sight of blood, so… even human food eaters tends to limit themselves to crops.” He thought of something and he looked at her with a smile. “If you like animal meat, I can bake you a snail pie one day.”

She blinked and her muzzle twitched a wrinkle.

“…Snail pie?”

He backed off a bit at her off put tone, suddenly remembering Chara’s first reaction to his mother’s pie.

“Uh… yes?” He fumbled with his claws, “Well, we have ways to extract physical matters of small animals and turning them into monster food, so snail-based recipes are easy to make…uh…” He looked at her hopefully. “Snails don’t look like you at all, so they should be okay for you to eat, right?”

Before she could reply, Grizel came to take their order. Once she was gone, Frisk brought a hand to her front and frowned.

“…Snails, huh? You really do eat anything.” She snorted. “Well, I heard they used to be a delicacy in some places… and the chickens’ neighbor loved it when we brought some to them, so they probably aren’t so bad.”