Neon Genesis: Determination (Undertale/Evangelion)

[eM15]

Frisk saves the day and the underground goes empty, but the fight's not over yet. There's an Evangelion with the Fallen Child's name on it, and the human world might not be as accepting as the monsters hope.

Neon Genesis: Determination


Part 1: Respite​

We'd all gathered to watch the sunset. All seven of us: Asgore, Toriel, Undyne, Alphys, Sans, Papyrus, and myself sitting on the side of the cliff overlooking the forest. After being released from the Underground, they had all explored the mountain and a bit of the forest beyond. It had been a hard decision (it took three tries), but I had convinced them that they would need to sleep back in the Underground. Who knew what kinds of predators -- or worse -- were lurking around the forest?

With the last rays of sunlight fading, conversation began.

"It's hard to believe that we're really free." Alphys was the first to speak, awe in her voice. "After so long…"

"Well, you better believe it! The wimp here really did it," Undyne said, giving me praise that I didn't deserve. I gave her a weak smile.

Asgore reached down to put a massive hand on my shoulder. I tried not to squirm under the attention, pushing aside the thought of the fire that could so easily spring from those hands, burning and twisting and maiming-- No. Asgore was just doing what he had to do. It wasn't his fault. Besides, it never even happened. Not really.

"soak it in guys. you don't get to see the sunset for the first time every day." Sans knew. Of course he knew. There's no way he didn't. I'd practically confirmed his suspicions with his 'secret secret triple-secret codeword'. He knew and was holding it over me. I didn't blame him. How could I? I'd done so much worse.

"Hey, at least your sins never actually happened." Chara was right. I was being selfish. "That's not what I meant and you know it. You're almost as selfless as Asriel was." I nodded. Sans gave me a side-eye, but didn't say anything.

A moment after the last light had fled the horizon, mo-Toriel stood up and walked over to me. "Frisk… will you be staying with us tonight?"

I looked up at her and nodded. Of course I was. The alternative was… "not worth thinking about." Right. Chara was right.

"Then I'll go ahead and make us some dinner. Come in whenever you're ready." Another nod and Toriel left. After a little while of stargazing, Alphys and Undyne made their way Underground too.

With no small amount of hesitation, Asgore stood up and left with a muttered "Thank you again Frisk."

Seeing this, Papyrus stood up. "COME ON, I HAVE HEARD ABOUT TORIEL'S COOKING AND WANT TO SEE HOW SHE DOES IT." He was looking at us. As I was moving to get up, I felt my legs freeze in place.

"i just wanted to sit here and look at the stars a bit more. right, frisk?" He gave me a look. Ah, he wanted to talk. I owed him at least that much. Looking at Papyrus, I nodded.

"Yeah, it's a beautiful night for stargazing." Papyrus seemed to accept that answer.

"THEN I WILL LEAVE YOU HERE, WITHOUT THE COMPANY OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS," out of the corner of my eye, sans' smile softened a bit. "ENJOY YOUR STARGAZING." With that, he left.

There was a moment of tense silence where I was decidedly not looking at Sans. The stars really were beautiful tonight.

"so," he began, "you come here often?"

If it weren't for the fact that I knew he was being serious, I would've laughed.

"myself, this is only my third time or so here. sure wish that i remembered those other times." He sounded annoyed. I didn't say anything. Silence was safe. Silence meant people didn't get mad. "kid, look at me."

SAVED​

I looked over at him. He was staring at me, his floating pupils searching my face for something like answers.

"why are we back here frisk? why do you keep going back to the damn ruins? you saw how happy the surface made them. why… why do you keep taking that away?" I thought about it. I thought about the paralyzing fear that I had of moving forward, of moving anywhere past this point.

I really didn't want to tell him.

At the same time, I owed it to him. How many times had I seen his face in a rictus of anger and grief, all of it my fault. He of all people deserved to know, but the idea of actually telling him… it was almost too much to bear.

"Then bargain. Don't just give it away, make him answer a question first." That made sense. That way I wasn't just giving my secrets away, I was trading them. He wouldn't have any power over me that I wouldn't have over him. I could do that, and I did have one question that had been burning in the back of my mind for a while now.

"How do you always know?" I asked. "Every time, you always know when I LOAD. How?"

"kid, i…"

"Answer mine and I'll answer yours."

He finally looked away from me, gazing at the stars above. "you drive a hard bargain kid." Sans sighed. "by now you've probably figured out that i can be a pretty smart guy when i feel like it, right?" He didn't wait for an answer. "did you know that i'm a doctor? not the way you're thinking, doctors in the underground are people who specialize in the theory and practice of magic and souls. my specialty is in practical applications of magic. doing stuff with magic, basically. something you may not know kid, but monsters throw out magic like humans throw out heat. no control over it, just a side effect of existing. the more HP they have, the more magic they throw out. that means that in places like the underground, there's a lot of magic just floating around. makes it so we get things like echo flowers or trees that don't need sunlight. most monsters can feel all this magic going around, but only as much as you might, i dunno, feel your hair. if you train yourself to pay attention to it, you can feel the subtle changes in it. when monsters use magic, it leaves a mark in the magic around them. when you revert back, or LOAD i guess you call it, it shakes all the magic in the area up a little bit. more times you LOAD, more it shakes. i can measure how many times you've gone back by how much it shakes. after ten or so times though, it gets really unreliable."

I thought about it. It made sense I suppose, but if he could tell how many times and where then… oh. Oh no. He knew. He knew. "So, you can tell where I've died a lot?" I tried to keep the concern out of my voice. I don't think that it worked.

Sans hesitated for a moment. "yeah," he finally relented. "can kinda figure out why you died there too. like i said, i'm a smart guy when i want to be." He knew.

"I'm sorry!" It came out before I even realized it.

"kid, it's gonna take a bit more than…"

"I don't want to go home," I interrupted him. I did not want to think about my first run through the Underground. Anything, even this, was better to talk about. "I keep resetting because I don't want to go home." There, question answered, now we could go inside and--

"why not?" His voice wasn't quite blank, there was still a bit of anger there. I shrank inwards, trying not to meet his eyes. He wanted a real answer.

"I.. How many humans have you met?"

"just you, kid."

"I'm a pretty good example of what humans are like. When I came Underground for the first time, I was mad and scared and I ki- er, did a lot of things that I don't like to think about to everybody. I'm not as nice as the others think I am, and all humans are like that."

"so you don't like humanity. how does that excuse depriving everybody of their chance to experience the world for themselves? for all it's worth, you might as well be killing them all again, just with time powers." I winced. He was right, I was being selfish, and didn't deserve any of my friends.

"Cut that out. You can call yourself selfish when your half-baked revenge plan gets your best friend killed." Sorry. "Stop that, just… just tell him."

"...My parents, they worked for this place called NERV. I don't know what my dad does, but I know one day he took my mom to his lab and she never came back. He said there was an accident. That was a long time ago, but he wants me to come to his work too. He says that I can help save the world if I come, but I'm scared, Sans." I swallowed. "I'm scared about what'll happen to monsters in the human world, and I'm scared of what'll happen if i go to NERV."

There was a moment of tense silence. I was beginning to hope that I hadn't made him mad when he finally decided what to say.

"kid, i'm scared too. alphys is scared. toriel and asgore and just about everybody but papyrus and undyne is scared. it's okay to be afraid, but you gotta keep moving forward. that's what really counts." He sighed. "tell you what frisk, i'll make you a deal. i help you out with the stuff scaring you, you keep me in the loop about your LOADs, and you don't RESET." I stiffened a bit. I didn't want to give up my ability to go back. "... or at least talk to me when you're thinking about it, before you do anything drastic, okay? whatever happens, odds are we can make it better."

Sans stood up, and offered his hand. "deal?"

I looked up at him, considering his offer. He was offering to help me, and all I had to do was talk to him when I LOADed and when I wanted to RESET? I didn't deserve this kindness, but I could do that. I reached up and took Sans' hand, him using it to pull me up.

"Deal."

"good. otherwise i was gonna have a bone to pick with you." I admit it, I smiled. "come on, toriel probably has dinner waiting for you by now."

------------------------------------------

Asgore approached the doorway, nervous to step inside. It had been a long time since he had been nervous. He had been mournful, depressed, guilt-ridden, resigned, and occasionally scared, but nervousness hadn't come to visit for a long, long time. The woman he loved more than anything was in the next room, preparing a meal in his kitchen for a human child who had saved the world. A woman who had left him after he had torn his heart apart for the good of his kingdom. A woman who was right to leave him, the demon that he was. A woman whose opinion was more important to him than anyone else's.

In his humble opinion, Asgore was right to be nervous.

"Don't just stand out there, if you want to talk, we can do it face to face." Her voice was cold. She'd noticed him. Of course she'd noticed him. He didn't exactly have a small figure. Steeling himself, Asgore stepped inside.

"Tori, I-"

"Don't Tori me. You lost that right when you started killing kids." She was focusing her attention on a pot of something that filled the room with the sweet smell of carrots. Putting a lid on it and making sure that the fire magic heating it was stable, Toriel finally turned to him.

"Toriel then," he said. She gave no indication of disapproval, and he took that as a sign to continue. "I'm sorry."

"For what? Explain it to me." She pulled out a chair and took a seat, folding her arms and maintaining that glare that made him feel like he was 2 inches tall.

"As you said, I killed kids Toriel. I can never undo that. They didn't deserve to die, but I needed to do it. The people needed hope and-"

"Promising to kill all humans was your way of doing it. I know. What I don't know is why you didn't look for another way."

"I did, I looked, I had Doctor Gaster look, and we didn't find anything. It takes the power of seven human souls to break the barrier. I have no idea how Frisk did it, but the souls are gone. They weren't in vain."

Toriel snorted. "You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you?" She shook her head. "Do you even remember their names?" Asgore opened his mouth as if to speak, but stopped short. "Did you ever learn them?" He slowly shook his head. "I thought not. What, were you too weak to know the names of the children you killed?"

Toriel pressed forward, not giving him time to answer. "Charlie, who was always talking about what he had learned. Lisa, who loved to dance. Thomas, who loved fighting but hated seeing people get hurt. Denise, who asked me to teach her to cook and loved it. Beretta, who loved flowers and gardening. James, who wanted to be strong enough to save the world." Her glare had intensified, and it felt like she was staring right into Asgore's soul. "I watched them come. I taught them what I could. I saw them smile. I watched them leave. You watched them die. Just like Chara, and just like Asriel. I have had eight children die on me, and you killed six of them. The Barrier may be broken, and your insane plan may have panned out, but that does not wash that fact away. Whatever we had before, Asgore, it's done. You killed it too."

She was right. He was a demon of a man, and he knew it. He was also an old fool with too much hope. He knew that too.

"I… understand." He leaned back into royal professionalism, he could digest that later. "Then there is one question I had, Toriel."

"Can't you come up with your own brilliant answer, King Asgore?" She said it like an insult, and he felt his heart crack.

"...I am not a good ruler, Toriel. I never have been. Despite everything, I am too soft, and I have done too much to hurt the people around me, humans and monsters. What you said at the barrier, you were right. I could have easily crossed the barrier and taken the souls of people who would have a better chance of deserving it, hardened criminals, or the LOVE-lost, but I couldn't stand the thought of killing."

"You hoped that nobody would ever fall down, and in doing so betrayed every single one of your subjects and killed 5 more innocent children than ever needed to die." Asgore nodded slowly.

"Over the past several hundred years, I have proven that I can't take the responsibility. Toriel, you were a good queen, and I… I am not worthy of being king." Asgore removed his crown, holding it for what he hoped was the last time. "Monsterkind needs a leader going forward into the human world, and I don't think that that leader is me." Toriel eyed the crown like it was made out of snakes.

"And what if I decide that you need to be thrown in jail?"

"I doubt too many people would question the queen putting a murderer behind bars." Asgore approached the table where she sat, trying not to notice her stiffen. "Please, think about it." He set the crown on the table, turning to leave before stopping in the doorway. "I am sorry Toriel. For everything."

----------------------------------

I stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling, trying not to think.

"Why do you think that Mom was so distracted? Shouldn't she be happy the barrier's gone?" Chara was not helping.

It had been a strange dinner. Toriel had served up a delicious stew and been silent most of the time, staring at Asgore's crown which was on the table for some reason. Eventually, she'd asked if I was enjoying the meal, and then asked what the human world was like now. The frown on her face only got deeper as I told her about the Second Impact and what had followed. Whatever she was worried about, hearing about the human world hadn't helped.

"It makes sense. Almost half of all humans just gone like that. I mean, humans were still working out steam when I fell, so all of it's new to me. Not super surprised, though. I mean, a big rock hits Earth, so humans go to war instead of helping each other. Shocker."

I didn't disagree, but I thought about how Chara had all but admitted to manipulating Asriel into doing something that he desperately didn't want to do. Neither of us were innocent either.

"News flash, humans suck. No exceptions. It'd take something way worse than a monster to kill Sans for fun."

Shut up.

"I was right there with you. I wanted him dead. I don't anymore, but I definitely did at the time. So did you."

Shut up.

"We're gonna have to talk about this eventually, Frisk."

Luckily, we never would have to talk about it, since it never happened. My eyes flashed over to where I knew the knife and locket were. I knew that I could still access that same LOVE if I wanted to. LOVE that I'd never wrapped around me like a shield. Love that I'd never emptied the underground with. It had never happened.

"Frisk, you can't run away from consequences forever."

Time worked for me, I could run away from whatever I want for as long as I want.

"What about your promise to that bag of bones? What, are you gonna break a promise to one of your precious friends? Don't be that weak. A promise is a promise."

I… A promise is a promise, Chara was right about that. I didn't want to hurt Sans any more than I already had. Then… I guess that I'd have to move forward. See what the human world has in store. I could do that. If I didn't like it, I could try and fix it or even go back. I could do this.

I felt Chara smiling in the back of my mind.

"Knowing that the next morning will see you to the human world with all your friends, it fills you with determination."

SAVED​

--------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: This story is one that wouldn't let go of my brain. I have an outline, but specific events may change as I write them out. It will be a while before Frisk interacts with the other pilots, but I believe that I have enough to work with to make this a good Evangelion story even before we get into pilot interactions and the angels. I am, of course, an amateur and am always accepting advice/corrections. I am also looking for betas.

I hope you enjoy the ride.

 

[eM15]

Hey, so if you're the kind of person who needs content warnings, this story may not be for you from here on. It is still an Evangelion cross, after all. Sorry.

Part 2: Reunion​

"you have my phone number, right?" The concern was evident in Sans' voice. I stopped my study of the ground to look up at him, trying not to fidget with my hands.

"Yeah, everyone else's too." It was true. When we'd gathered up in the morning, two things had happened. First was that Toriel announced that she was the new Queen of the Monsters and Asgore had backed her up. Guess that explained the crown. Then Alphys had made sure to hand cellphones out to everyone that didn't already have one, with everyone else's numbers preloaded on them. After that was over with, Toriel had started talking about what I'd told her about the state of the world, the Second Impact and the mess that came after. She'd said that she and a few select monsters (which happened to include everyone present but Asgore) would travel to the nearby city of Boston and start talking to the local government.

I almost didn't know how to react when she'd asked if I would be coming with. Part of me wanted to go, but my Dad was still at home waiting for me. He'd probably be worried. When I'd told Toriel that, she'd asked me what I wanted to do. I told her that I needed to go home, and she just accepted it. Eventually, we'd decided that Sans would take me home while everyone else went forward, since he could probably find a shortcut back to the group. I hugged Toriel hard before I left.

Now I was standing here in the rain with a skeleton on the outskirts of Boston, staring at my front door.

"if anything comes up, you can call any of us. you know that, right?" I nodded. He was trying to help, even if he didn't know what the problem was. I didn't deserve friends like him. "we can always go to toriel, say you changed your mind." I shook my head. That would just make things harder.

"No, that's my Dad in there. He loves me. I gotta go in." I was staring at the door hard enough that I was certain that I should have been burning a hole through it. Unfortunately, no amount of exposure to magic in any timeline had given me superpowers.

"No superpowers but the absolute control of time. No biggie." I snorted.

"I'll… I'll see you soon, right?" I hadn't meant it to come out as a question.

"you bet, kid. just call. i'll bet that i can find a shortcut or two before then." Then he did that thing where he tried to smile without lips. It was always just a bit creepy, and he knew it. Or had I told him that in another timeline..? Either way, my stalemate with the door wasn't going to fix itself.

Steeling myself, I stepped forward. "Bye, Sans."

"seeya soon kid."

I gathered my courage and knocked on my front door. I wasn't old enough to have keys of my own yet. After a couple moments, and the sound of somebody shuffling around inside, the door opened to the sight of a tall disheveled man with messy brown hair.

Dad. His mouth was slightly agape as he saw me standing there in the rain, staring up at him.

"...Frisk?" I was about to say something when he reached down and put his arms around me. I tried not to flinch at his touch, but I don't think that I did a very good job. As he pulled me inside, I looked back. Sans was gone. Once we were inside and out of the rain, he kneeled down and grabbed onto my shoulders. "Frisk, where the hell have you been?"

"I…"

"And don't you think about lying to me, young lady." His voice was hard. I didn't like it when his voice did that. He was mad.

"I went to Mt. Ebbot." His eyes narrowed. "I made some friends." I tried to keep it vague, that way I wasn't lying.

"And why did you go to Mt. Ebbot? It's miles from here!"

"Well…"

"Don't you want to help Daddy? Don't you want to help save the world? Imagine what your mother would say if she saw you being this selfish."

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"What was that?" His gaze was piercing.

"I'm sorry," I said, a bit more confidently this time. "I didn't mean to—" His right hand came up to smack me as his left held onto me tighter. It wouldn't bruise, it was too light for that. I only ever bruised under my clothes. None of the monsters had ever asked why I was wearing a sweater.

"I said don't lie to me, Frisk. You didn't mean to leave in the middle of the night. You didn't mean to walk the miles to Ebbot. You didn't mean to make Daddy look bad. Do you even know how many people would have been seriously hurt if you had disappeared on that damn mountain?" I didn't say anything. I knew better. I knew he was worried. "Do you even know how disappointed your mother would have been?" I lowered my head. He was right, I was selfish.

"Go to bed," he sighed, standing up. "Don't scare me like that again." I nodded, going to my bedroom as fast as I could get away with without making him mad.

Chara was uncharacteristically silent as I cried myself to sleep.

–––––––––

When morning came, Dad shook me awake and told me to get dressed. Neither of us talked a whole lot as we ate breakfast.

SAVED​

Saving always felt weird. It was simultaneously the feeling of pulling on the world around me and the world hardening into place, like time was solidifying into one concrete possibility. Still, I couldn't deny its usefulness. Getting that done, I turned my thoughts forward.

On the short drive to NERV, Chara had a lot to say about the city around us.

"I can't believe that everything's so tall! I mean, I know I can see it in your memories, but actually seeing them, they're huge!" Their reaction to even some of Boston's smaller buildings was kind of endearing. It reminded me of Monster Kid's fascination with Undyne in a way. Chara wouldn't believe the sight of skyscrapers close up, and I looked forward to showing it to them. At the very least, thinking about it helped distract me from the fact that I was only a couple minutes away from seeing where mom died. Nope, not thinking about it at all. I also wasn't remembering how much I loved her or thinking about how she'd lock me in my room when Dad got mad or…

I felt tears coming out of my eyes. Okay, I was thinking about it. How could I not? The thought of seeing where mom died was almost too much. She was gone, and she left me alone! I'd been so scared for so long. I didn't know what was gonna happen to me, and I had no idea what had happened to her! What if NERV killed me too? What if people were just waiting to take me away? What if they found out about the monsters and hurt them to hurt me? The sound of voices, one from outside and one from inside my head were yelling and asking me to calm down and oh God I'm gonna die and Toriel and Sans and Papyrus and Undyne and Alphys and Mettaton and Asgore won't even know where I went! They'll think I abandoned them! Toriel will think another kid left her! They'll think I hate them! Oh God I don't wanna die again! They were gonna lock me up forever!

I was panicking, looking for an escape, tears flowing freely when I heard music. It stopped me in my tracks. It was calm, relaxing and reminded me of… Home. I'd heard it before. Chara?

"You alright?" I took a few breaths, counting down from 10, and thought about the song to distract me. Among other things they'd done in the Underground, Chara had provided music of all things. Conjurations of their idle mind, I supposed. Every room and fight in the Underground had been given music by Chara. Hell, they even had music going when they were too stunned to say anything otherwise or when I'd died. I'd never figured out when they'd had the time to compose it, but I guess you weren't limited by instruments within your own thoughts. Chara's never played anything above ground beside the one song on the mountain before. And this… It was the song Chara played when we were in Toriel's home in the Ruins. It had brought me back to my senses almost instantly.

"'Cause I could hear you panicking there, and it wasn't pretty." Right. Another panic attack. At least this one had been caused by something I could explain without getting more questions asked than I wanted to answer. I was pretty sure watching a bunch of dogs playing poker in their off-time was not normally supposed to cause a panic attack, but guilt was a hell of a thing. I don't know why I panicked at the thought of being killed or something though. Didn't my dumb brain know that I was functionally immortal and that time worked for me? I'd have thought that it would have figured it out by now.

"Might be 'cause you're not used to it with all the human-ness around you?" I mean, that made as much sense as anything else. I'd just have to beat it into my brain that I couldn't really die, humans or not. Speaking of which, my Dad was looking back at me, and the car was stopped. He looked like he'd just yelled something and was expecting a response. Oh. Good thing that I'd never really had a panic attack. I couldn't stand when people treated me like they owed me sympathy.

I felt for my soul, sparking a familiar tugging sensation. Within a moment, I was in a black void, empty of everything but three sepia-toned images surrounding me. The first was of several pillars eroded by time, seeming to hold up the cave with a speck of sunlight shining from above. The second was the view into a car, the car door open and waiting for somebody to step in. The third was the view of the back of a carseat — where I'd just come from. Focusing on the second image, I felt it wrap around me, the world becoming real again. I felt my hand opening the door, I felt my feet — one on the ground and the other rising to step into the car — and I felt the sun on my skin. Gradually, the feeling intensified as the sepia tone faded and sound sped up from a standstill. I climbed into the car.

LOAD SUCCESSFUL​

The ride was mostly uneventful this time, but I had no idea what to tell Sans. Maybe I could tell him something not quite true? A quick text saying 'I did something really stupid' and I felt that that was over with. Chara's gentle reassurance of "You can do this" was all I needed to keep my head on straight when I saw the large parking garage surrounded by barbed-wire topped chain-link fence. We pulled up to a check-point, a visibly-armed guard stepping out to meet Dad at the front window. The guard glanced at me before looking back at Dad.

"Names and Identification please." He sounded bored.

"Dr. Russell O'Bannon escorting the Third Child Frisk O'Bannon." He pulled out some papers and presented them to the guard.

"Third Child, huh? That sounds a lot like a title. Whatever's going on, they're doing it to more than just you."

Suffice to say, I was glad that my SAVE was before I'd actually gotten into the car. That being said, if they were advertising it, they probably weren't gonna kill me.

"Not killing you is always a good start in the grand scheme of things." Despite the sarcasm, I couldn't help but agree. After a bit, Dad found us a place to park. He ushered me out, keeping a hand on my shoulder and led me to an elevator. Swiping a card, the elevator began to move. It turned out to be a very slow elevator. I was actually pretty sure that the elevator from the CORE to New Home was faster than this. Watching the numbers tick by, I was beginning to wonder how deep we'd be going when Chara interrupted my thoughts. "So, any bets on what we're gonna see?"

Thinking about it, I had no idea. It could be anything. Maybe the human side of the story of the monster war?

"Maybe they want us to find and kill the monsters, might explain the whole 'save the world' thing your Dad wants you to do."

That might make sense. It might also be a second Barrier, trapping even more monsters below ground.

"Ooh, maybe it has Dad's long lost twin trapped below it, who loves him because they're twins but hates him for betraying him in the last war!" I decided that we had spent far too much time watching anime with Alphys. Despite myself, I smiled a bit as Chara laughed at the idea. After a moment Chara stopped laughing. I would never be able to properly describe the feeling of the evil grin that Chara pushed towards me then.

"Hey, if Dad had a brother who liked reading, he'd be named AsLore!" I was very glad that the cackling that filled my head head wasn't audible to anyone else. Besides that, if he had a brother who was really greedy, he'd probably be named AsMore. "You know, he always asked Asriel and I to take out the trash. Guess it was too much of an AsChore!" At this point, restraining my laughter was becoming difficult. I was pretty sure that my Dad noticed something, but didn't say anything. Honestly, I just wished this elevator would just open the AsDoor. "If he wasn't king, he might be AsPoor!" I didn't know about that, he might find a job in the AsCORE. "How many times did we fight him? It was way more than AsFour!" Thinking about it, we might have been out of bread at home. We'd probably need to go to the AsStore. Chara went silent for a moment, then began laughing harder than ever. Luckily, I was saved from more puns by the door finally opening.

I saw what looked to be a control room, filled with people sitting behind what I could only assume were state-of-the-art computers. Everybody sat facing what looked to be a large window that seemed to only look through some amber liquid. There was a dark shadow a ways away from it, but I couldn't quite make out what it was. I had no idea why they had a window to what looked like a bunch of Tang. My attention was suddenly pulled away from the Tangy window by my Dad speaking up.

"Captain Katsuragi! We have a guest." A woman who must have been in her mid-20s turned from the scientist she was talking to to face him before settling her eyes on me. Her hair was a bit strange in that it was so black it almost looked purple. Or was it so purple it almost looked black? Either way, as soon as she saw me, she smiled and began walking towards us.

"I like her. Her hair's cool." Of course, Chara liked her. Was there a word for people who watch too much anime?

"Dr. O'Bannon! I see that you brought your daughter. Good. We're one step closer to getting started." She looked at me, kneeling down to shake my hand with a smile on her face. "Hello, Ms. O'Bannon. I'm Captain Misato Katsuragi, but you can call me Misato. What can I call you?" Chara started playing a quiet, happy tune within the confines of our shared head.

I shook her hand, ignoring Chara's comments about how wimpily I did it. "I'm Frisk. Why am I here?" I didn't see the point in delaying, but Dad's grip on my shoulder tightened just a bit. Misato eyed his hand then leaned in to whisper in my ear.

"If you want to ditch these boring adults, we can." I hesitated before nodding, and that seemed to be all the motivation that she needed. Standing up, her tone immediately getting more serious. "Dr. O'Bannon, please head to your station. We need to be ready for our first Synch Test soon." Dad almost protested, but she had this look in her eye. The 'I've Already Decided What's Going To Happen And I'm In Charge So You're Going To Do What I Say' look. Dad must've noticed, because he let go of my shoulder.

"Of course. Ma'am." He hurried off. I decided that I agreed with Chara. She really was cool.

Kneeling back down to talk to me, Misato gave me another smile. "Assuming that our OPSEC worked right, you probably have no clue what's going on." I nodded. "Sorry about that, but this is kinda top-secret. Can you keep a secret?" I nodded again. Another smile. "Well, Frisk, then I have a question for you. Would you like to help us save the world?" Her smile was wide, but it didn't quite reach her eyes all the way. It was like when Toriel talked about the kids she'd lost. She was smiling, sure, but there was a sadness behind it.

"Okay, so maybe they do have noble intentions. Still, why are they asking a 10-year-old kid to help instead of an already qualified adult?" I imagined they were asking a kid for the same reasons that the monsters relied on a kid. Only the kid could do it. The thing was, I saved the monsters because I could SAVE. These people had no idea that I could do it, so there was some other reason that they needed me.

I squinted at Misato. "What do I have to do?" I was not walking into this blind. Her smile lost a bit of its shine.

"Come with me, and I'll show you." Misato stood up, offering me her hand. As soon as I took it, she began walking. "Set Cage LCL levels to default positions," she ordered in the general direction of the bank of computers.

"Roger," came the reply. A moment later, I heard the sound of large amounts of liquid flowing as Misato led me to the window. The music began amping up.

"Some time ago, the leaders of the world learned of an impending threat. At some undisclosed point in the future creatures that they called Angels would appear and would use a phenomenon known as the AT-Field to wreak havoc on all life on Earth." I could see the top of the liquid through the window now, and I could see it slowly lowering. "Humanity's answer was NERV: a classified and secret project to fight these Angels. NERV could only find one theoretical solution to the problem that AT-Fields posed: The Evangelion Unit, commonly called the Eva. Frisk, I have one question for you." She looked at me, still holding my hand, but my attention was more focused on the ominously lowering line of amber liquid. "How would you feel about piloting a giant robot?"

As she spoke, I began to see a large black object above the surface of the liquid. The liquid lowered more to reveal a head. A giant, black, robotic head with pure white eyes. Chara's song reached a fever pitch, then stopped dead.

"Allow me to introduce you to Unit-03," Misato said, the grin evident in her voice.

There was nothing but silence for a moment.

"Anime is real!" came Chara's awe-struck revelation. Okay. I'll admit. That was cool. There was still one question that that didn't answer, though, and I was not walking into this blind.

"Why me? Why not get an adult?" I looked up at Misato. Her smile turned into a slight frown.

"Not just anybody can pilot an Evangelion." She gestured vaguely at the giant robot head. "Something called the Marduk Institute goes and looks through psychological profiles, biological markers and more when deciding pilots, and they decide very carefully. Even then, it's still no guarantee that potential pilots will be able to Synch. It could be anyone, it still might be anyone if you don't work out, but it just happened to be you. Is that okay?" Misato gave me a tentative smile, waiting to see my reaction.

A giant robot that only a couple people could pilot, and I was being told that some Institute had decided that I would be the one. This very quickly stopped being a practical problem, and started being a moral one. Could I justify sending out another kid to fight these 'Angels' if I refused? Anybody else could die at any time fighting an unknown enemy who wants all of humanity dead. Not me though. If I said no right now, not only would my Dad get mad, it could kill some other kid that I'd never even met, definitely a kid who didn't deserve to die.

That was hardly a choice at all.

"I'll do it." Misato squeezed my hand and gave me that sad smile again.

"Let's get you ready."

----------------------------------------------

A/N: In which Frisk is not Shinji. Frisk is, however, the Third Child. Shinji — following order of recruitment — will be the Fourth Child. NERV-01 is of course based out of Massachusetts and was responsible for producing Unit-03. We know that dear Captain Katsuragi knew The Second Child quite well by the time that canon NG:E starts, so I don't feel that it's unreasonable to assume that she makes a point to meet all her pilots. They are children that she's going to be sending into war, after all. Getting to know them just seems like the decent thing to do. Shinji is, of course, an outlier. The reference to Tang is also an outlier and likely won't be brought up again.

There are a number of things that I am not happy with here, so if you see something that I could do better or have misrepresented, please let me know. I would hate to get something wrong due to lacking a frame of reference on certain issues.

 

[eM15]

Part 3: Beginnings​

Hours of testing, brain scans, stretching in front of strange machines, and doctor's exams later, Misato was leading me towards what she was calling the Eva cages. This complex was a lot bigger than I imagined at first, and it was all completely dull, boring, gray metal. Chara was playing around with different songs to fill the time. Dealing with boredom had never been their strong suit. From cold, dark, foreboding ambience as we approached a new door to light, airy dittys, and all of them were a play on what I felt that I could officially call Misato's Theme. Chara really had a habit of making one song and building a bunch around it. That they were doing it in real time out of boredom made me feel like they were some kind of musical genius.

At that thought, Chara sent over what could best be described as the feeling of a smug grin. Pretty cheeky for a ghost.

"Well, here we are!" Misato's exclamation broke up the silence. I looked up at the door that we'd stopped by. The only real difference that I could see between it and every other door in this place was the text reading 'EVANGELION UNIT CAGE – AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.' Ominous. I wondered briefly if there were any places in the base for unauthorized personnel. Probably not. These NERV people really liked to let you know when you weren't allowed to be somewhere.

"In here is a changing room and a locker. There'll be what we call a plugsuit in the locker, go ahead and change into that. Make sure to press the button on its left wrist once it's on. There'll also be some hair clip things. There'll be a picture to show you where to put those on." I gave her a strange look. She sighed a bit. "Yes, they're important. Once you're done, go ahead and go through the next door and have a seat in the chair. We'll walk you through it from there." Her explanation was quick, efficient, and slightly cheerful. It wasn't very convincing cheer, though. She was probably doing it for my sake. Oh well. I nodded at her, letting go of her hand, then went in to see what this 'plugsuit' thing was.

Briefly, I wondered if I should SAVE. Sure, it'd overwrite my one outside, but from what I'd been told, something could go wrong when synching with the Eva.

"Hmm, I wonder if I should SAVE before getting into the giant robot made of mostly untested tech that hasn't been turned on before." The sarcasm in Chara's voice was so thick you could cut it with a knife. "Nothing wrong with a safety SAVE to make sure that everything goes well." Chara really only just wanted to make sure that we wouldn't have to sit through all those boring medical exams again. "Nothing wrong with that either."

SAVED​

Better safe than sorry. Better SAVEd than sorry, I guess.

The inside of the locker room consisted of exactly one locker, one bench, one mirror, a shower, and a slightly walled-off toilet section. All of it was sterile white. NERV really knew how to make a place feel homey, that's for sure. Ignoring the utilitarian room, I opened the locker. A locker, I noticed, that didn't have a lock.

"Is it still called a locker if it can't lock? Does that make it an unlocker? Or is it a nolocker? Come on Frisk, these are totally important questions!" I ignored Chara's totally important questions in favor of studying the plugsuit. It was… strange. I couldn't tell what it was made out of, except that it was kinda elastic in parts and hard where it needed to be. Aesthetically, it looked pretty cool, primarily black with white and purple accents. Right at the top of the chest was a black '03' printed on a white inverted triangle. Changing into it was a bit awkward since the only real opening was the neck hole, but I managed. It kinda helped that the plugsuit seemed to be way too big for me. Really, I was swimming in this thing. Remembering Misato's instructions, I pressed the left wrist cuff. The suit began to shrink.

The feeling of the plugsuit shrinking to me was very strange and slightly difficult to describe. The latex–like–stuff that made up the bulk tightened until it was almost too tight to be comfy, then relaxed just a touch. On my chest and between my legs, hard plates flexed to meet and conform to my body. It seemed that modesty was a design feature. It honestly felt like wearing nothing at all. What I didn't know was why there were two plates on my chest, as — oh. Yeah. Puberty would happen at some point. Almost forgot.

Moving on from that totally embarrassing thought process that made me regret having a headmate for a moment, I looked at the hair clips. They were round black things with purple lines and a broad base. It looked like they were meant to clip on in a couple different places. Weird. Looking at the very thorough diagram of a head and where the clips went, I idly noted that they were called 'A10 Nerve Clips' as I put them on. Looking in the mirror, I looked myself up and down.

"You look cool!" Chara was trying to be helpful, but I wasn't feeling it. I looked like a kid in a skin-tight suit with weird black horns. "Which looks cool. I'm the animexpert here, and I say you look cool. So you do. So there." Rolling my eyes with a smile, I moved on to the next room. As soon as I did so, a voice piped up over some invisible intercom.

"You'll pretty much always be wearing your plugsuit and those Nerve Clips in your hair when synching with an Eva," Misato began, her voice crackling over the speaker. "In an emergency, you can synch without your plugsuit, but the Nerve Clips are a must. Just for future reference."

Noted.

This new room was fairly empty, but on one wall was a pod of some sort that was latched onto a slanted rail. In it was what looked to be a chair, some console looking thing, and handles on either side of the chair. Shrugging, I climbed in.

Misato's voice returned. "Okay, Frisk. A couple of things are gonna happen here. First, the inside of that Entry Plug is gonna adjust to your size. There should be a button on the bottom of your seat for that." Finding it, I pressed it. As soon as I did, the chair slid further down into the plug so that my legs were covered by the console thing and the handles on either side of me rose to become flush with my legs. Seeing no reason not to, I grabbed on. "Good. Next, the cover to the Plug is gonna slide on. Press the glowing button by your feet when you're ready." Looking behind me, I found what looked to be the cover. Looked like some robot arms would come and screw it in when I pressed the button. Seeing no reason to delay, I pressed the glowing button.

As soon as I did, a mechanical whirring started, sealing the Entry Plug in all of two seconds. The world went dark, only lit by some red lights beneath and behind my chair. Ominous.

"Alright, good. The next thing is gonna be a bit disorienting. Here in a second, the whole Entry Plug is gonna start moving. Let me know when you're ready." I nodded, before realizing that she probably couldn't see me.

"Ready." A few moments after I said it, I felt the Plug start to slide down the rail it was sitting on before stopping and raising up a bit. There was the sound of something all around the Plug. I got the feeling that something had just grabbed me.

"Cooling cycle complete," said an unknown voice. Maybe it was one of the lab techs.

"All gear inside the cage is in the docked position."

"Shutdown signal plug extraction complete."

"Unlocking Spinal Conduit System." A beat. "Connection prepared."

"Roger. Inserting Entry Plug." The whole Plug lurched forward and down, and there was a mechanical whirring before the movement stopped. There was a clunk above and behind me.

"Plug Locked in Position. Permission to initiate Level One connection, ma'am?" That voice was my Dad, sounding purely professional.

"Standby," Misato said. A small rectangle appeared on the wall of the Entry Plug in front of me, showing Misato's face and the computer room that we were in earlier. "Frisk, here's what's gonna happen. First we're gonna begin the startup, and it's gonna feel all tingly. Then we're gonna flood that whole plug with a liquid we call LCL." She must've heard my sharp intake of air, because she elaborated. "Don't worry, it's designed so that you can breathe it. Promise. It'll work with your Nerve Clips to give you control of your Eva. That being said, I'm told that it feels really weird, so be ready. Got it?"

Taking a moment to breathe sweet oxygen, I nodded.

"Good. Proceed, Doctor." Her image disappeared.

"Roger. Initiating Level One contact." Almost as soon as Dad said that, my entire body began to tingle, and the sides of the plug flashed through a number of colors. My head felt light, and my whole body felt like there was a current running through it.

"Flooding Entry Plug." That orange liquid that was covering the Eva — LCL, Misato called it — began rising from the bottom of the Plug. It took an act of pure determination and willpower, but I managed not to hold my breath despite my brain screaming at me that I needed to. Misato was right. Breathing in a liquid felt weird.

"Primary power connected."

"Doing alright in there, Frisk?" Misato's voice had a touch of concern in it.

"Yeah," I said. Huh, so I could speak inside this LCL. Weird.

"Power to all circuits established."

"Good," Misato said. "Because this is the part where it gets strange."

"Initiating Level Two contact." I felt a strange phantom presence begin in my limbs, and I swore that there were what looked to be tiny stars floating in the LCL. A moment later the sides of the Plug flashed red, looking like a picture of nerves, before going into a seemingly random series of strange images. The phantom limb feeling only seemed to intensify.

"A-10 Nerve Connection Achieved. Status: Green."

"LCL ionization levels normal."

"Approaching Absolute Borderline." There was a beat, and I felt my hands both clenched around the handles in the Entry Plug, and a phantom feeling of them being unclenched but with something tight around the wrists at the same time. My limbs were free, but the phantom feeling was restrained. I knew that I could sit up, but I felt glued to the back of the chair at the same time.

For one brief moment, I was terrified.

"Absolute Borderline Passed."

The sides of the Plug solidified into the view outside the Eva, but I got the faint feeling of sight beyond it. I closed my eyes, but I could almost still see the glass box overlooking me, as if out of the corner of my eye. It wasn't in focus, but I could almost kinda see through the Eva's eyes on top of my own. There was the shadowy feeling of the Eva's restrained limbs on top of, yet far less prominent than my own.

"Set Linguistic Default for the Cognitive Interface to English." Dad's voice, a distant part of my mind noted.

"Roger."

"Contact Established. All statuses: Green."

"Bilateral Network… Established."

"Synchronization Rate at, well, uh…"

"Spit it out."

"It's all over the place, sir."

"Hm. Frisk?" Dad. "Try to stay relaxed. We'll figure this out here. Just relax." The comms turned off.

I let my body relax and tried to let my other body relax. The second one was harder, like the neurons weren't firing properly. I still tried. I was determined to relax. I would make this work. There was no chance that I was gonna let some other kid have to risk themselves in my place.

I. Was. Relaxed.

"You can really — man this is weird — you can really tell. The gritting teeth and the focused squinty eyes are a common indicator of relaxation. Looking at your face, it's hard to believe that you're not at a spa right now. Honest." Chara's sarcastic commentary was not helping. I focused on the phantom limbs, trying to will them to be clearer, but after a couple seconds of intense focus, nothing happened.

"Pretty sure that's not how you relax. How about we talk about something to get your mind off of it?" That might work, frustrated as I was. I had no idea what to talk about, though. "Hm, how about what Undyne and Alphys will say when you tell them that you're the pilot of a giant robot?"

I thought about it for a moment. Undyne would probably say something inspirational, like 'I knew you were awesome, and you're just proving me right!'

"Yeah, she's cool like that."

If she knew the real me, she wouldn't think so highly of me at all. Alphys would have a bunch of questions, all of them shot at supersonic speed and only half of them important.

"Think she'll ask if it has cat ears?" That'd make sense. She probably would. She might even ask if Unit 03 has a tail.

Shame it's super classified. If there's one thing Misato made clear, it's that nothing about this could be talked about to anyone. I doubted that NERV'd be cool with us leaking secrets to people that aren't even human, even if I trusted them more than any human on the planet.

With a sigh, I leaned back into my seat and tried to relax.

–––––––––––––––––––––-

"Frisk, it's time to go."

Chara was wrong. One more try. I would synch with the Eva. If I wasn't able to, then someone else would have to. I was not going to put someone else in the way of an unknown opponent. Nobody else could win the way I could. Chara was wrong, I had to do this.

"It's not your fault that you can't do it."

One more try is all it would take. I had managed to get it to go a little better this time. The shadow–limb feeling had been just a bit stronger. I was pretty sure. If I focused harder, I could make it happen.

"Even Misato said that it would take a while to synch properly in that first timeline."

Misato was assuming that I only had a set amount of attempts per day. I could keep going as long as I wanted, and I still wanted to keep going.

"Frisk, even your Dad doesn't know what's going on, and he's the scientist in charge of this whole shindig. Let it go."

The failure was on my end, I was sure of it. I just had to keep trying. I would win eventually.

"Maybe it's all the magic that you've been exposed to? They don't know how to scan for that, and you can't do anything about it."

One more try to make sure. I just needed one more try. I could keep going.

"We're four LOADs into this Frisk, and no matter what you've tried, nothing's changed."

It'd taken me forever to get anywhere fighting Sans too, but I'd kept going. I beat him eventually.

"But every time you fought him, you got just a little further. There hasn't been any change at all here. There's nothing you can do. Let go. It's not your fault."

But I could still—

"Let it go. It's not worth it."

But—

"As the resident expert in lost causes here, let it go. Determination doesn't let you do the impossible, just the incredibly improbable. Besides, aren't you getting tired of the smell of blood?"

I couldn't really say that I was. Sure the LCL smelled kinda like blood, but it was sweeter. I kinda liked it. Chara may have had a point though. There wasn't a whole lot I seemed to be able to do here. I just hated giving up.

"This isn't what giving up looks like. This is you realizing that bashing your head against a wall isn't a very good way to knock the wall down."

Okay, fine. Chara 1, Frisk 0. Point made. That didn't mean that I had to like it.

I was knocked out of my sulking by the draining LCL forcing me to cough fluid out of my lungs. Not a pleasant feeling. As I recovered, the Entry Plug was extracted from the Eva and I felt it moving back towards the locker room. Getting a breath of actual oxygen as the cover to the entry plug was removed, I managed to sigh. I hated failing like this.

A quick shower and a change back into my own clothes later, I was left wondering what to do with my plugsuit. Not getting anything constructive from Chara, I left it hanging up in the locker.

I took a seat on the bench to gather my thoughts. That whole experience had been strange from start to finish, and I was probably repeating it tomorrow. Honestly, the whole day had kind of been an emotional rollercoaster. First tension, then fear, then awe, then boredom, then frustration, then failure. That last one stung. It felt like forever since the last time that I had actively failed at something that I didn't want to. I guess that in reality it had only been a few days, but those days were packed with memories and experiences.

Now all I had to do was go home.

Oh. Home. With Dad. After I'd failed.

I hung my head, cradling it in my hands.

I really didn't want to go home.

------------------------------------------------

A/N: In which Frisk fails to synch with the Eva unit. A slightly shorter chapter, but necessary setup for some of what's to come. This is all of it for now, more to come soon.

 

[eM15]

Part 4: Unwinding​

Two weeks had passed, and I was no closer to synching with the Eva. Dad and the other scientists had said the problem was due to 'inconsistencies in the AT-Field merging'. They'd told me about how an Eva could use an AT-Field to defend itself, but that really didn't tell me anything about what was wrong. I still had no idea what I could do to fix it. Everybody kept insisting that it wasn't my fault, and Misato kept telling me that I wouldn't be replaced just because we hit a snag, but I really hated the constant failure.

In less depressing news, Toriel had been on the news. She'd been up giving a speech in front of the White House with the president. Apparently, the Monster Kingdom as it was formally being called would be gifted the land immediately surrounding Mt. Ebbot. That had been a day or two ago, and the people at NERV had been talking about it. They seemed really excited about the possibilities of magic. I imagined that someone from NERV would go talk to Toriel about recruiting some scientists soon. Maybe not. I could only imagine inter-species politics being a mess.

Dad and I had watched Toriel's speech together, and when she mentioned that a human child had freed them, he'd asked me what they were like. He wasn't a dumb man, he could piece 'friends from Mt. Ebbot' and 'human child at Mt. Ebbot' together and get 'Frisk knows the monsters'. I'd told him that they were nice. That was about the end of his interest. Once he knew that I'd be safe with them, he didn't need to know more.

He wasn't fantastic, but he still loved me.

I'd noticed that Toriel had specifically avoided mentioning how the barrier was broken, and what it had cost. I also noticed that there was no mention of Asgore killing the six human children before me. Probably for the best. Inter-species politics and all. The humans would start at distrustful and work from there. I couldn't say that it would be a good idea to fan the flames.

Heh. Toriel fanning flames. I'd have to make a proper pun out of that for when I saw Sans.

That was two days ago. Now, it was the weekend, and Chara had me looking up soundfonts. Apparently you could make music on your computer with them. I really wasn't paying attention, Chara was the musical genius here. I was just clicking where I was told to click. Earlier, after a bunch of questions about how computers work, they'd tried to put some of the more catchy songs that they'd come up with in the underground onto the computer, but it hadn't come out sounding right. Some quick research had said that soundfonts were the answer, so here we were.

Absently, I noted that there was a knock on the door downstairs. Dad would get it. He preferred to answer the door, and I didn't want to get in his way.

Slightly less absently, I noted that I could recognize the voice that was talking to dad. It was kinda hard not to.

"HELLO! YOU MUST BE MR. FRISK. I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AND THIS IS MY BROTHER SANS."

I got downstairs in enough time to hear my Dad beginning to ask how they got this address. Oops. He probably didn't want me giving that out. Best to interrupt before they continued that line of conversation.

"Papyrus! Sans!" I called out, rounding a corner. "How was D.C.?"

Standing in the doorway were two figures that had given me a bit of a shock when I first saw them. Two skeletons, one short and one tall, one wearing make-shift armor, and one whose clothes hung off of him having likely been designed for a fleshed-out human frame.

Heh. Fleshed out.

They had almost normal skulls, but Papyrus' was a bit too tall with teeth that were just a bit too large. The one big difference was the complete shadow in their eye sockets with a glowing dot to mark their pupil in each socket. The effect was super creepy if you weren't used to it.

Even creepier when one of those eyes started glowing.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE HUMAN GOVERNMENT. WHY NOT JUST HAVE A KING LIKE KING TORIEL?"

"pretty sure it's queen toriel, bro." Chara put Sans' theme on. Of course.

"We used to have a king," I began to explain. "Nobody around here liked him. So we told him that he wasn't in charge here anymore."

"LIKE KING ASGORE, EXCEPT EVERYBODY LIKES HIM!"

"pretty sure there's more going on there."

"EITHER WAY. TORIEL FORMALLY REQUESTS THAT YOU VISIT. SHE MADE PIE AND EVERYTHING."

"wasn't really formal, she just kinda asked us to ask you."

"SHE'S A QUEEN NOW. EVERYTHING SHE DOES IS FORMAL."

"even when she's making snail puns?"

Papyrus took a moment to shudder. "EVEN THEN." My poor dad looked completely overwhelmed.

"Dad, can I go with them? These guys are my friends! This is Papyrus," I gestured. He posed heroically. "And this is Sans." Sans pulled a hand out of a pocket to wave. "So can I go?"

"Hold on, just one second." Damn, he'd recovered. "What I want to know is how they found out where we live." Yeah, I was paying for that one later. Dammit.

"WE WERE INFORMED BY—"

"magic," Sans interrupted. Maybe I wouldn't pay for it later. I did notice that Papyrus immediately shut up after Sans started talking. "did a good ol' 'where's my friend right now' spell. useful stuff."

"In the future, you can just call. Might as well notify me that you know where my daughter's at."

"fair enough."

"So," I began, "can I go?" He gave the skelebros another visual once-over. I didn't really blame him for that one, actually. Monsters took some getting used to.

"Be back by 6, and text me when you get there. If anything happens, call me." All reasonable, though I doubted that it'd be a long trip.

"Will do, bye!" I turned and followed the skelebros out. As soon as I heard the door shut, I pulled out my human phone and began composing the 'I'm there, don't worry about it, I don't understand magic either' text. As soon as I finished, I looked up and saw that I was nowhere even near my neighborhood. In fact, I was pretty sure that we were walking back into Ebbot. Text sent.

"so, uh, you're a girl?"

"Yeah."

"cool. never knew."

"You never asked."

"understandable."

"FRISK, I ASKED THE PEOPLE IN THE WHITE HOUSE WHAT GOES INTO HUMAN FOOD!"

I smiled. Hopefully his cooking would improve?

"And what does—"

"NOT SEQUINS AND GLITTER. THE CHEF MAN WAS VERY ADAMANT ABOUT THAT." Laughing, I found that I had to agree with Sans. Papyrus was the coolest.

"Nah, that goes to Undyne. I mean, have you seen the way she fights? And does everything else? She's a true hero."

She lived her life like she fought. As passionately as physically (and that one time not physically) possible.

"humans aren't made of magic, bro. they need not magic stuff to make their squishy meat bodies go. you know?"

"PLEASE DON'T RUIN RHYMES FOR ME."

"tibia honest, i don't really find rhymes humerus." There was an audible groan from Papyrus. Chara pushed me an idea.

"Come on Paps," I joined in. "Don't let him get under your skin."

"these puns are just gonna get worse. i can feel it in my bones."

"I'm not sure he has the guts for all these puntacular jokes."

"he never had much of a funny bone."

Have you ever seen a shit–eating grin on a skeleton? It's something else.

Several bad puns later, and Papyrus' head was in his hands. Luckily, we were at the door to Home. We were also pretty much out of puns. I had been trying to figure out something to do with Osteoporosis. It wasn't really working out.

Sans approached the door and knocked twice. Oh no.

"Who's there?" came the call from within.

"Literally hundreds of years I've been dead, and she hasn't changed a bit."

"goat."

"Goat who?"

"Best. Mom. Ever." I smiled. Hearing Chara genuinely happy was sorta a rare treat.

"i goat that kid you were looking for."

Toriel opened the door with a smile that only widened when she saw me.

"Well, then you'd better come in. I'd hate for this meal to goat to waste."

"Waste your cooking?" I knocked on the doorframe. Someday, Chara would have to pay me back for making all these puns on their behalf. "Wooden dream of it."

"Welcome back, Frisk," she said with a smile. She reached down to hug me, and as I went to return it her arms pressed against the bruises on my side. I couldn't help it, I breathed in sharply and flinched back a bit. She noticed. Pretty sure Paps noticed. Sans definitely noticed. She pulled her arms back, almost unsure what to do with them.

"I'm sorry, are you hurt? What happened?" I needed to lie to Toriel again. I hated lying to her, and the naked concern on her face wasn't making it any easier.

"No, I just fell. Still kinda sore. Don't worry about it." Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sans worrying about it. It… it was just Sans. He wouldn't pity me. I could deal with that.

The concern on Toriel's face lessened a bit, but didn't really go away.

"Well, I wanted to have a picnic outside, but now I'm not sure that's the best idea…" I needed to nip that in the bud.

"I'll be fine, a picnic sounds fun." If I kept deflecting, she might forget. Speaking of which…

SAVED​

"Well, alright then. If you're sure." She turned to look at Sans and Papyrus. "If you gentlemen could go get the others?" After different affirmatives at varying levels of excitement, they left.

"Come inside and have a seat while I finish preparing." I was happy to oblige, and found one of the small chairs at the kitchen table. I sat at the one that felt more familiar. Add that to the list of things nobody ever tells you about having headmate: you get phantom feelings of familiarity that you can only attribute to the other person.

"Looks like you got her into full 'mom' mode. Side effects may include pampering and eating too much." I snorted. Chara was the voice of experience here, they had way more time being doted on by Toriel than I did.

Taking my eyes off of her bustling around, I looked around the room. I don't know what it was, but it felt just a bit more homey than it was the other times I'd been here.

"So many memories here." Chara talking about the past. Another rare treat. "Did you know Asriel loved learning? Didn't matter what it was, he just wanted to know about it. That bookshelf there had all the books he was working through." As Chara continued to talk about Asriel's reading habits, I took a moment to soak up the present.

Between all the SAVEs and LOADs, it was so hard to just be a lot of the time. Living in the present could be hard when you knew what was happening next.

Toriel interrupted with picnic basket in hand before Chara's memories could take a turn for the melancholy.

"There we are, are you ready to go?" Standing up, I gave a quick nod. I took her hand, and we made our way back out of the mountain. The silence was comfortable, but I had no patience for it. There were questions that needed to be asked.

"So, how was D.C.?" I hadn't been expecting a proper answer from Papyrus, but I knew Toriel wouldn't sugarcoat it.

"If you're old enough to ask the question, you're old enough to hear the answer. No need to make it sound better than it is. She taught that to me."

"It was fascinating, I learned a lot. Your President was very understanding of everything."

"What do you mean by everything?"

"I told him about Asgore and his plan." Huh. I didn't expect that. Guess Toriel was more trusting than I was.

"What'd he say?"

"He said that behind closed doors, he understood the situation. He also said that if it came to his attention outside of that meeting, he would be forced to take action. He also said that if any monsters still wanted to 'destroy humanity' as it were, he would ensure that appropriate action was taken. He mentioned that he had weapons specifically meant for threats to humanity." I managed not to wince. At the very least, one of those weapons wasn't working due to pilot error. I also knew how easy it would be for humanity to wipe out the monsters if they wanted, even without the Evas. I couldn't imagine that very many of the soldiers that fought in the Impact Wars were lacking in LOVE.

"Ask about Dad please?"

"What's gonna happen to Asgore?" A shadow passed over Toriel's face.

"He has agreed to stay in the Ruins. A bit ironic that we've switched places, but neither of us feel that this new world has a place for a man who's done as he has." She looked down at me as we passed into the sunlight. "Why the sudden interest?"

"I put a lot of work into monsterkind. I wanna know what happens to everyone."

"Well, no need to waste your worry on him. How have you been Frisk?" Man, both of us were deflecting hard.

"Been alright. My Dad's been showing me his work. It's pretty boring."

"When does school start?"

"In a couple months, in August. Last time you were up above ground, there were probably seasons, so it's probably hard to tell."

"Are you calling me old?" There was a laugh implied in her voice.

"Older than me." Best not to say anything about how I knew how Boss Monsters age, and probably shouldn't share how much I knew about Asriel.

"Smart answer. Now, our picnic spot should be somewhere…" There was the familiar sound of a fish yelling in the distance, somewhere in the trees surrounding the mountain.

"I think it's that way," I said, pointing in the direction of the scattering birds. A short walk later, we came upon a strange sight.

In the middle of the forest, my friends were gathered. Sans and Alphys were standing, but Undyne and Papyrus were lying on the ground facing each other, hands clasped. Ah, they were arm wrestling. They were in the middle with neither side having any clear advantage, but Papyrus seemed to be struggling.

"Paps, dude, we haven't even started yet." I giggled.

"THESE ARE JUST… PRACTICE SHAKES. GOTTA GET THEM ALL OUT EARLY."

"Bet you that Undyne'll win." I wasn't taking that bet. Paps had strong magic, but I'd seen Undyne suplex a boulder for fun.

"alright, winner of this gets to be arm wrestling champion for eternity +1." I gave Sans a curious look. Seems like he was the only one to notice that I'd arrived. "since the table broke on the wrestling championship for eternity. on your mark, get set, wrestle." As soon as Sans said that, Undyne picked Papyrus up by the arm and bodily slammed him into the ground with a mighty yell. "both contestants disqualified for their elbows leaving the ground." With a laugh, I set about reattaching Papyrus' head to his body. Undyne got to him first.

"PLEASE DON'T NOOGIE THE SKELETON," he cried in vain. I helped his body stand up. After a moment of noogying, she dunked his head back onto his body. Papyrus took the time to turn his head the right way around as Undyne actually noticed me.

"Frisk!" After receiving a quick noogie of my own, Undyne let me go. I flashed her a huge smile, in no small part due to Chara's influence.

"How was D.C.?" It was a good question, and broke the ice pretty well. There was no shame in asking everybody who went.

"Great! While Toriel was talking with the head honchos, some uniformed guys asked Papyrus and I to show off! They never knew what hit them. Not that we actually hit them. We were pretty explicitly banned from that, actually." A beat. "Did you know most humans don't fight to get to know each other? Crazy, right?" I just nodded along.

"How about you Alphys?" I knew for a fact that she wouldn't speak up about it unless I specifically asked her.

"Well, uh, there were a couple of scientists that came in and started asking me questions, it was kinda cool. One of them really wanted to know about SOUL magic. He got… pretty intense about it."

"Lunch!" With that call, all attention was focused on Toriel. It seemed like she had set up the picnic blanket while we were messing around. I didn't need Chara's assurance that she was the best mom to feel the sentiment. I did have to remind myself that she wasn't my mom.

Lunch passed with no small amount of conversation, puns, and puns that looked like conversation. It was nice to see so many smiles. It was great to feel so loved. After everyone was done eating, Toriel cleared her throat. Conversation stopped.

"Mom mode over. It's Queen mode time."

"Sorry everyone, but this wasn't just an opportunity to have fun with Frisk. As it stands, I am the Queen, and as such have to handle some Queenly Business. First off, Undyne, I am disbanding the Royal Guard. We have been granted this small chunk of land as an independent nation due to the unique situation we have, but part of the agreement is that we demilitarize. What that means is that we are not allowed to have any person whose job is specifically to fight. The Royal Guards primary duties were to kill humans first and act as pillars of the community second. As you can imagine, the humans take issue with this. In the Guard's stead, I will be instating the Royal Police Force. Their role will be to enforce the laws of the land. Underground, we could count on people to follow an informal set of agreements and to follow what Asgore and I asked.. In a human-ruled world, this may not be enough. I will be drafting a formal set of laws, and it will be the Royal Police's job to enforce them. I will make the formal announcement soon."

"Understood." Undyne in professional mode was something else entirely. Jaw set, eyes focused, shoulders back. I'd only ever seen her like this once. Not a happy memory. Trying not to think about it, I suppressed a shudder.

"Next, Alphys." The monster in question perked up at the attention. "As Royal Scientist, you performed experiments that many would consider unethical. I will attribute this to King Asgore not wanting to burden his own conscience with what it cost should your efforts have bore fruit. You will not face the consequences for his foolishness. That being said, I will be getting rid of the position of Royal Scientist, but have a different request for you."

"Y-yes, ma'am?" Alphys' claws were shaking. She tried to hide her nervous swallow to limited success.

"There are things that humans know that we don't, and things that we know that they don't. I would like you to begin bridging that gap by instructing local experts on what we know about the SOUL. Specifically, the human SOUL. The men I spoke to were very interested in the monster perspective on what they called 'Metaphysical Biology'. As I gather, this is the biology of the soul. It would go a long way to earn monsters goodwill. I feel that you are uniquely suited to this task. Am I incorrect?"

"N-no, I can do that."

"Keep in mind that this is a request, not an order. Do as you please." Toriel took her attention off of Alphys, much to Alphys' relief, and began to address all of us. "We have an uphill battle ahead of us. There will likely be monsters who resent humans to some degree for trapping us underground. I will be doing several things to lessen the impact of this. First, I will be giving Frisk full citizenship should they—"

"she," Sans interrupted.

"Sorry?"

"Kid's a she."

"Ah, humans are biologically based, aren't they? My bad, Frisk, I should've asked. As I was saying, I will be giving Frisk full citizenship should she want it." I nodded. That sounded fantastic. "Good, that will help. If the human savior of monsters is a citizen, it should show support for integration. Second, part of the Royal Police's duties will include stopping monsters from fighting humans. Many monsters fight as a way of expressing themselves and introduction. In the human world, fighting like this is a crime. Avoiding a diplomatic incident because a monster was too friendly would be ideal. I would ask that all of you help in this goal." A series of nods and murmurs of assent arose. "Good. Frisk, I would also like to award you the 'Savior of Monsterkind' award. It's an award that Asgore and I came up with a long time ago. It has only ever been awarded posthumously to one monster for holding the line while everyone else fled underground. It's an honor that I feel you deserve. Will you accept it?"

I didn't want to. I really didn't want to. She was wrong, I didn't deserve it. But seeing the undisguised hope on Toriel's face…

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Fantastic. Frisk, you may yet be able to save monsterkind again without lifting a finger. Now, unless anybody had any other business, I think there was a pie that needed to be eaten."

Nobody had anything. Noting that, Toriel pulled a pie of intimidating size out of the basket. There had to be a pocket dimension in there for everything to fit. Dismissing it, I resolved to enjoy the evening.

Eventually, the time came that I had to go. Getting Sans to stand up was an effort and a half, but eventually I got him going. As we started walking in what was bound to be the wrong direction, I asked a question that had been on my mind for a while.

"How do your shortcuts work, anyway?"

"you remember that ambient magic floating around that i told you about?"

"Yeah?"

"well, every place kind of has its own distinct signature in that magic. it bounces off the walls in a specific way or whatever." I nodded, following. "if you gradually twist the ambient magic of the area around you as you move to look like the place you want to be, it'll cause an imbalance. reality really hates when things aren't balanced. in order to fix it, it'll kinda tunnel you to where you want to be. ideally, it's done by a computer so you don't mess it up. close second is a really smart guy with a photographic memory that can't be bothered to actually walk places."

I snorted. Made perfect sense for Sans.

"So the direction you're walking doesn't matter?"

"not really." Huh. Neat.

An awkward silence fell between us until I remembered something.

"I've got some LOADs to tell you about. Probably couldn't feel them, what with you not being in the area."

"alright, what do you got?"

"Can you keep a secret?" That earned a full-bodied laugh from the skeleton.

"yeah kid, i can keep a secret." He moved to wipe away an imaginary tear. Must've been really funny for some reason.

"Promise?" I stopped and held out my pinky. His face went rigid.

"frisk…"

"It's important." He let out a sigh.

"fine." He wrapped his pinky around mine. "pinky promise." I brought my hand down.

"That place my dad works, NERV? They're responsible for building giant robots. Apparently there's gonna be some giant things that they call Angels that are gonna attack and try to kill everybody. I was chosen as a pilot."

"okay."

"And in order to pilot the robot, you need to synch something called an AT-Field with the robots. And mine keeps screwing up so I can't move the robot. I've been LOADing so that I can try again and again."

"so what happens if you can't synch at all?"

"They find somebody else to pilot."

"so, say you can't synch up with this robot and somebody else has to pilot. what's wrong with that?"

"You can feel everything that the robot feels when you're in there and synched right. I don't want to put anyone else up to that. Besides, what if that other kid died? That'd be my fault! I basically can't die, it has to be me!"

"first off, undyne would love this. giant robots and all."

"Sans!"

"second, look, how can i help?"

"I don't know! All I know is that whatever my AT-Field is isn't doing what it's supposed to!"

"i'll see what i can do." He put his hand on my shoulder. I managed not to flinch, but Sans must have seen something in my eyes, because he pulled it back. "i need you to answer something for me first."

"What?"

"i need you to tell me where you got those bruises you were talking about earlier. if you'd fallen that badly, you'd just LOAD."

"I…"

"can't help you if you're not honest with me." At my silence, he continued. "why didn't you want to go home frisk? it wasn't just the nerv thing, was it." It was phrased like a question, but we both knew it wasn't. "frisk, mind taking off that sweater of yours? it kinda covers everything. must make it really hot out here, perpetual springtime and all"

"...It's not his fault, he loves me. He just gets mad sometimes."

"he tell you that himself?" I didn't have an answer for that one.

"Please… just drop it."

"i'll drop it, but you gotta promise me something."

"What?"

"here in a day or two, i'll need to borrow a LOAD. maybe two. would you mind doing that for me?"

"I can do that, just drop it. Please."

"consider it dropped." He started walking. I followed. Neither of us were really in the mood to talk.

"see you soon, kid. stay safe." We were home. "make sure to text. queeny worries about you, you know."

"...I'll do that. Bye sans."

––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

He'd known something was wrong. It was obvious something was wrong. Most kids didn't commit racial genocide then feel guilty. Actually, most kids didn't kill period, let alone enough to merit him stepping in. This though? There wasn't a whole lot that could get Sans' metaphorical blood boiling anymore. Ever since he'd lost Gaster and the team he'd worked with to the thing in the center of the CORE, he'd had a hard time managing anything but a tired apathy. Realizing that Frisk was being assaulted by a father that she thought loved her?

Why, that was enough to get him to get up and do something about it.

The only reason that Sans had actually taken Frisk to her house was the political implications. Daughter of what he could only imagine was some big government scientist goes missing? People are gonna notice. People find out that the monsters 'kidnapped' her? That was certainly one way to find himself in a new cycle.

He really needed to sort out his feelings towards the kid. He'd known her as the quiet shy kid who wouldn't hurt a fly and only wanted to help right up until he'd judged her. 0 LV. At that moment, he'd felt an absolutely massive shift. He'd known she was the anomaly, but there was only one thing that Sans knew of that would cause that many deaths in the judgement hall.

Him.

That judgement hall was sacred ground. No other monster would dare fight there. The Royal Judge's job was to be judge, jury, and executioner of any human who fell. It wasn't a position recognized by Asgore, but after the death of the prince, a bunch of the stronger monsters got together and decided to make it so that Asgore wouldn't get any blood on his hands that didn't need to be. The old man Gerson was the first Judge, and he'd passed it off to someone else eventually. Sans was just the last in a long line. The judge before him had gathered the sixth soul; he'd never even seen a human before Frisk.

Despite that, he'd still promised to protect the kid. And there was really only one reason that he'd step in to do his job after he'd made that promise. Then when he'd felt the jolt at the cliffside, he got even more uncertain. Either way, he wasn't gonna let a child holding the continuity of space-time in her hands be battered by an emotionally distant father. That just sounded like a bad time.

Long story short, Sans was dealing with a physically and emotionally abused kid with time powers that had used them to replay what were likely the best memories of her life and had at some point committed genocide. Not an easy case. He couldn't outright kill the father. Sure, magic didn't leave any physical wounds, but it was easy to tell when someone had been killed by magic if you knew where to look. Alphys was gonna make sure that the humans knew where to look soon enough.

He'd done some looking. The way this country handled justice was convoluted, but made certain kind of sense if you assumed that every single person was a potential criminal. He wasn't human. Maybe every single person was a potential criminal. Sans certainly wasn't the expert. What he had figured out is that he couldn't just set up cameras in the house and have the law take it seriously. There was this precedent called the 'Reasonable Expectation of Privacy'. He understood it, but that didn't make it less annoying. Sans was going to have to do some research.

No matter what he did, it was gonna affect Frisk in some way. She'd need a support group afterwards, and he wasn't any good at that.

Sans knocked on the door. Bets were, she was still awake. After a moment, the door opened.

"hey queeny, we need to talk."

–––––––––––––––––––––––

A/N:This ended up longer than I thought it would. I hope I managed to capture the difference between Sans and Frisk's voices.

Since I probably won't get into it in-story: Genders! Monsters have a far different sense of gender than humans. For humans, our 'default' comes from our biological sex and we develop from there. For monsters, they don't have a biological sex. Their bodies are made of magic. They don't have biology, period. The way I'm running it here is that monsters are not assigned gender from 'birth' (how monster birth works will be a subject for later) because there'd be literally no way to do that. At some point as they mature, they figure out if they're a girl or a boy or neither or whatever. (They got the base ideas of gender from observing humans and modified from there) They then correct people much in the way that Sans did here. In this story, the reason Frisk is 'they' up until now is because nobody ever asked because nobody in this monster society would ever think to ask. They don't know enough about humans to identify on sight, and most of them would be weirded out by the idea of kids having a gender from birth. In monster eyes, Frisk probably wouldn't be old enough to have decided on a gender, so why ask? In their society, if the subject of discussion has a preference they'll notify you.

I decided on Frisk being female because it's easier for me to identify with and write for. It also gets rid of the inevitable drama that having a 'nonstandard' gender would cause. I like to think that I will have enough story without falling back onto that. Hope that all makes sense.

 

[eM15]

Part 5: Dusk​

I like to think that I had a reasonable expectation of what puberty would bring. My body would change, my emotions would change, and flirting would become more than something that I did to get a reaction. I got all that. I'd been briefed. Between my Dad, the super embarrassing unit that they taught at school, and google, I was pretty sure I knew what was coming. I also knew that the first changes wouldn't really come for a year or so.

All that being said, nobody had told me that my eye color would change. Pretty sure that was abnormal.

Staring into the mirror I studied my eyes. It was a small change. I'd thought that it was a trick of the light at first, but no. It was real and staring me in the face.

There were flecks of red scattered around in my eye.

"Frisk, this really isn't all that."

What if I was sick? What if there was some super-rare sickness that only grew in places like Waterfall and the first sign was changing eyes? No humans had been down there and lived, so I had no idea!

"Frisk."

I could be dying!

"Frisk, I know what's going on. You're not dying, and it's not puberty." Chara sighed as best as they could. Were they a they, or were they a he or a she? I resolved to ask once they'd(?) explained the eye thing. "Sidenote: We should really sit down so that I can talk to you about what puberty's like. I was 13 when I died, I know a thing or two. Your Dad's a dude, the thing in class was lacking in detail, and you know better than to trust the internet." Okay, so Chara was probably a she what with the 'your Dad's a dude' remark. Noted. "So, I think it was Dad that told me this when I was right where you are now. Magic has all sorts of crazy effects on the human body. Makes you more in touch with your emotions, makes your emotional extremes higher and lower, that kind of thing. The big obvious sign that these changes are happening is that your eyes start changing to the color of your SOUL. They eye is the window to your SOUL, after all. This kinda stuff is apparently part of why humans were so scared of monsters. I mean, their mere presence is changing your body. Certainly scared you, right?"

Okay, that all kind make sense. I just hoped that I wasn't gonna grow a third arm or something.

"Probably not." I didn't react to the probably. I knew that it was just Chara messing with me.

"I am a bit surprised that it started happening this fast, though. Maybe it starts showing up faster the more you exemplify your SOUL's trait? It would make sense, what with you being literally the most determined thing on the planet."

My monster phone dinged. A text? Looking down, I saw that it was from Sans.

"Speaking of Determination…"

It was a simple message, and one I'd been expecting.

'SAVE please. might take me a few loads so don't get committed to anything. thanks.'

SAVED​

I let him know that it was done, hoping he wasn't planning on getting in too much trouble. What could I do with a bunch of non-existent time? Hm. Well, NERV's main base was in Japan, might not be a bad idea to learn Japanese. Sounded fun. Besides, Dad had probably passed out by now. He'd stank like beer when he came home, and he was never awake for too long when he was drunk unless he found something to relieve his frustrations on. Taking one last look in the mirror, I stopped hiding in the bathroom. I just hoped that Dad didn't notice what was happening to my eyes.

––––––––––––––––––––––––

Sans was standing in an alleyway across from NERV's base. At the very least, it was where Frisk and her scumbag father had spent the day. It was a good enough start. His phone vibrated. It was Frisk's response.

'Action A nonviable'

Action A: notify the local authorities. He didn't figure that one would work out, shady government conspiracies being what they were. With what he'd been seeing, NERV certainly qualified. It was a shame that he had to hide all this from Frisk. Sans had no idea what her reaction would be, and he didn't want Frisk to get in her own way.

The workaround for not remembering anything from past LOADs was simple enough. Just have the anomaly transfer messages. A certain level of code was necessary to make sure that Frisk didn't suspect anything too soon, but that too had an easy fix. Just come up with a code beforehand. Failing that, just hope that you could figure out your own clues. Sans took out his dad's old pocket watch, waiting for it to hit the minute exactly. 3… 2… 1…

Go.

Without a moment of hesitation, Sans pocketed the watch and began walking towards the locked chain-link fence. A twist of reality and he was past it. Making his way into the parking garage inside, he sent out the strongest pulse of magic that he could manage. There wasn't enough magic in the area to pull most of his normal tricks, but he could fix that easily enough. It wouldn't be detectable by humans, and would be subtle to most monsters, but to Sans the effects of his 'pulse' were clear as day. There was now a sprinkling of magic in the air around him, barely there by anyone's standards. It was enough.

Feeling the flow of magic around him, he found a way in. See, magic had a harder time settling in solids than it did gases, with liquids somewhere in-between. It did not, however, have a problem going through solids. With the small spatterings of magic that he was able to put out, he found what was clearly an elevator shaft hidden in what looked to be a support pillar. Bingo. Another twist of reality and he was in.

Removing his hands from his pockets, Sans reached out and grabbed the side of the elevator shaft. Sidling over to the cable, he slid down to the first door. Another pulse, another twist, and he was past it. This floor looked to be a small group of offices. Perfect. Sans looked around for the most important office and twisted his way in. He couldn't be bothered to reach out and twist the doorknob.

No sense putting too much effort into a reality that wouldn't exist in an hour. Finding the filing cabinet, he tried to open the top shelf. It was locked. Annoying. Taking a pocket knife out, he gathered what small amount of magic that there was in the room onto the blade. Sans ran through a familiar mental exercise, and the blade of the knife was Karmic.

A neat little discovery of his, Karma. Gather up magic onto any surface, set it up so that it would dissolve anything it touches. He'd named it Karma as a joke when he'd become the Judge. It's working title was 'Newton's Wrath' until then as a play on the physical cause-and-effect of it. Normally, magic attacks didn't have any effect on physical things. Most magic attacks did damage to the SOUL, or at least that's what he gathered. Not too many monsters had a better understanding of SOULs than he did either. That field of magic was poorly understood at best. Alphys specialised in it for the Queen's sake, and she was basically banging rocks together. Either way, his Karma did something else. See, when you make magic affect physicality rather than just metaphysicality, then completely remove the normal restraints of physicality, it had a violent effect on anything it touched. Completely useless against monsters, but theoretically astoundingly effective against humans.

With how many times the kid seemed to have died in the Judgement Hall, maybe a bit more than theoretically.

Moving on, suffice to say that the filing cabinet's lock didn't stand a chance. Sans pulled up a chair to stand on so that he could go through the files in the top drawer. Hmm.

Unimportant, unimportant, unimportant, there we go. Personnel files.

See, Sans needed to find out who was in charge around here. He assumed that Dr. O'Bannon was fairly high ranked, but there had to be someone above him. You didn't build giant robots without international support, and you don't get that much support without international oversight.

Settling down, he began to read through the personnel files. Might as well start at A.

A few minutes into his reading, he heard voices outside the door. Looking backwards, he saw that the lock on that filing cabinet was very obviously ruined. Damn. If they were even slightly competent, then this LOAD was a bust. He started composing a text to Frisk. He hit send just as the door opened. Smiling at the armored man, he gave a little wave.

"so, you come here often?"

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Sans was standing in an alleyway across from NERV's base. At the very least, it was where Frisk and her scumbag father had spent the day. It was a good enough start. His phone vibrated. It was Frisk's response.

'Action B: M at 8'

Guess Plan A hadn't worked out, not that he'd expected it to. So he'd been caught by a Mook 8 minutes into the operation. Good to know that their cameras would notify people if they saw too much movement. Sans took out his dad's old pocket watch, waiting for it to hit the minute exactly. 3… 2… 1…

Go.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"It must've teleported somewhere else. Search the area."

The armored man took his hand down from his ear. He must have had some form of comms. Made sense, Sans supposed. The man turned his head, and Sans froze the man's SOUL. He wouldn't notice a thing, but when the effect ended Sans would be somewhere that he wouldn't think to look again. Specifically, under the desk. He'd made sure to make it look like the filing cabinet hadn't been broken into. No sense alerting the mook. The lock would come off under the slightest bit of duress, but it had worked. While the guards searched the area, Sans continued looking through the personnel files under the desk.

After a few minutes of bored reading, he managed to find a file that was shockingly well classified. One Captain Misato Katsuragi, acting commander in the absence of Commander Ikari or Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. Born in [REDACTED], raised in [REDACTED], received training in [REDACTED], legal guardian of Second Pilot before passing guardianship off to [REDACTED], etc. There happened to be just the kind of note in her file that he was looking for. 'Currently residing in NERV Complex 003.' A quick look through some other files, and he found the address for NERV Complex 003. Now, Sans was faced with a problem. He didn't really generate a whole lot of magic on his own, his HP was way too low. Most of the time he twisted what magic there was in the area to pull stunts. With the SOUL freezes that he'd had to do earlier, there really wasn't any left, and he didn't have another pulse in him. The nearest workable ambient magic was over by the elevator shaft. The elevator shaft being guarded by two armored and likely annoyed humans.

Sans composed a text to Frisk. He couldn't just send an address over the LOAD, Frisk might know whose it was. What he could do was tell himself to focus on pooling magic before this point. Getting ready to send it if he was shot, he held his finger on the button.

He waited for an opportunity, watching them.

Steady, steady, now! One of the guards had said something to the other. They were looking at each other. Staying low behind the desks to avoid line of sight for as long as possible, he ducked out and ran at full speed towards the elevator door. Everything seemed to slow down.

He twisted the magic around the door.

The guards noticed him.

The elevator door turned into a doorway leading into an alley.

The guards leveled their weapons at him.

He was through.

He released his hold on the magic.

He'd made it. He was on all fours, panting from exhaustion, but he'd made it. Sans managed to stand up using the wall as a support. He looked around. Back in the alleyway across from NERV's base it seemed. Good. That was a panicked enough twist that it could've put him in a lot of other places. Gathering himself, Sans stood up fully. He didn't have long before the armored guys would search the area. He had an address to find. Luckily, Alphys had made her phones compatible with human tech. A quick internet search, and he was off, walking at a leisurely pace.

A couple minutes later, Sans was at the place. Address matched up. He looked up. Nice building. With a bit of a grin, Sans sent a text to Frisk. Sticking his hands back in his pockets, he waited for the inevitable.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

LOAD SUCCESSFUL​

I sent off Sans' cryptic message to himself and went to pull up the website that I'd been on before he'd texted.

"What do you figure Sans is doing with these LOADs?"

I was sure that we'd figure it out eventually. The real question was who decided that the hiragana for 're' and 'ne' should be so similar? Mixing the two up was getting annoying.

"Come on, just imagine how annoying people learning English must find 'C' and 'G'. Or 'l' and 'I'. Or…"

Chara'd made her point. Didn't make it less annoying. I was not looking forward to kanji.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Sans was standing in an alleyway across from NERV's base. At the very least, it was where Frisk and her scumbag father had spent the day. It was a good enough start. His phone vibrated. It was Frisk's response.

'Action B: Upscale 2611 ft NNW Origin 2761 325 In Charge'

Guess Plan A hadn't worked out, not that he'd expected it to. So he'd figured out where to find whoever was in charge. Looks like he'd upscaled the numbers to make it so that Frisk didn't immediately see through them. All that meant was that every digit got raised by 1. 2611 becomes 1500, 2761 becomes 1650, 325 becomes 214. A simple code that took no time at all to break if you knew the key. The kid wasn't a master cryptologist, so he felt that the code was safe enough. Looks like where he was headed was about 1500 feet north–northwest of his current position. 1650 was probably the address. Reaching down to grab the video camera that he had lying on the ground, he began walking. After a few minutes of walking, Sans found 1650. It looked to be an apartment building. He assumed that 214 was an apartment number.

Making his way inside, Sans twisted his way up to the second floor. Finding room 14, he knocked. After a minute or so of the sound of heavy footsteps and the distinctive racket of aluminum on aluminum, the door opened. Standing in the doorway was a tall woman with deep black hair. From what he gathered about human society, what she was wearing was barely decent. Looking back into the apartment, he found that every available surface was covered in cans. He was pretty sure that that was a brand of beer. Sans decided that he liked her already. He focused back to look up at her eyes.

"hey."

"So, either I missed all the months leading up to October, or you're one of those monsters I've been hearing about."

"nothin' gets past you."

"…Can I help you?"

"depends. are you the one in charge of that NERV place down the road?"

"Who's asking?" Her voice took on a suspicious tone. Fair enough. He'd probably broken into her facility a couple times by now, so it made sense.

"sans. sans the skeleton." He offered his hand to the human. She glanced at it, about to shake it when she stopped.

"Is that a whoopee cushion in your hand?"

"yeah."

"I'm not gonna shake that."

"fair enough." Sans pocketed it. "anyway, it's nice to meet you and all. what's your name?"

"Misato Katsuragi. I'm gonna be blunt. I have no idea why you're here."

"you may not know it, but that human child that saved monsterkind? that's frisky business. she's my friend, and i have some info you might want to make their life easier. can i come in?" She hesitated, then stepped aside to let him through. Justifiably worried, but cared more about the kid. A good sign. He was really starting to like her.

"Please. Excuse the mess." Sans stepped inside, Misato closing the door behind him.

"believe me lady, i'm an expert on messes. one time i made a self-sustaining tornado out of garbage that i had lying around in my room."

"I have no idea how to respond to that."

"most people don't."

"So," she began, wanting to move the topic back into something that she understood, "what was this intel?" Sans' face lost its grin. He pulled the video camera out of his pocket and handed it over to Misato.

"There's only one video on there, and you'll want to see it." Misato flipped open the camera, then took a couple minutes to watch the video on it. He'd trimmed it so that only the important parts were shown. While she was doing that, he stood there watching her reactions.

If Sans understood human expressions, and he was fairly sure that he did, then that was anger. Good. He might not have to ask Frisk to LOAD any more.

"Sans, was it?" he nodded. "Do you mind if I keep this?"

"it's yours."

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I suspected something, but had no idea to what extent. I cannot act on suspicion. This is actionable. I'm not gonna ask how you got this."

"probably for the best."

"I'm also not gonna ask how you knew who I am or where I lived."

"if it helps, frisk didn't tell me anything. i'm just good at what i do."

"That doesn't help at all."

"didn't figure it would."

"Well Sans, I have a long night ahead of me. I have to see that this problem is solved." There was venom in her voice. Sans approved.

"mind if i ask a favor?"

"No promises."

"if NERV is as big and scary as i think it is, then you can probably swing the custody case the way you want. I have a recommendation."

"You?" Sans couldn't help it. He laughed.

"i can't tell you how bad an idea that is. i'm not that bad," He gestured vaguely at the video camera. "but i'm definitely not ideal. queen toriel though? she's the best mom that anyone could ever ask for. if it helps, i'd put money on frisk already seeing her as a mother-figure. queeny adores the kid. i know it'd be hard, human–monster relations and all, but queeny can provide the kid with a loving parent, a loving environment family, and enough resources that the kid will definitely never go hungry. you'll never find someone with more experience mothering anywhere."

"…I'll consider it."

"that's all i'm asking. and hey, if you need something, here's my number." Sans pulled out a piece of paper and wrote his number down, offering it to the woman. She took it and placed it on a table, lacking pockets to put errant slips of paper in. "i don't offer that to just anybody, but you seem like good people."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"see ya' around. enjoy your night." Sans twisted and landed in his bed. Not bothering to take off his slippers, he sent off a text to Frisk.

'got a good feeling about this. go ahead and SAVE please. don't know how long it was for you, but thanks for the help. couldn't have done it without you.'

In the next moment, Sans the skeleton was asleep.

---------------------------------------------------

A/N: In which Sans munchkins his reality warping friend. A bit of a notice: 2 days ago, I had 0 school and 0 job. Starting today, I have 1 school and 1 job. Updates may slow down accordingly.

 

[eM15]

Part 6: Dark​

"hey queeny, we need to talk." Toriel looked at the clock. 11:34 PM. Glancing back at the squat skeleton, she studied his face. He certainly seemed serious.

"Come in. Would you like some tea?" Toriel opened her door wider, letting the warm light from inside wash over Sans. He stepped over the threshold, making his way in.

"nah, i'm fine." Toriel moved back into the house proper, taking a seat at the dinner table. Sans sat in one of the small chairs. Asriel's chair. She shook that memory out of her head. Her son had been dead for a long time.

"You caught me at a bad time. I'm bone-tired," Toriel said. Sans smiled. Strange. His smile was normally much wider than that. "This must be serious if a pun like that doesn't even get a laugh."

"dead serious."

"What's rattling your bones, Sans?" The smile ran away from his face.

"might wanna prepare yourself for this." A beat. "you remember those bruises frisk told us about earlier?" Toriel nodded. "she didn't fall. she didn't get in a fight or anything like that either."

Toriel froze.

"Where did she get them, Sans?" She carefully chose her words. This could mean anything, not necessarily what she was thinking.

"her daddy dearest." Toriel narrowed her eyes.

"And you took her back." Her tone was just shy of accusatory.

"doubt you want the diplomatic incident that kidnapping the kid of some hotshot scientist would cause. frisk told me that he works for a place called NERV. did some digging, and all i could find was a rebuilding project for the capital of japan. apparently NERV's involved there. there's no talk about any of the stuff that frisk says they're involved in. seems real shady to me."

"Are you saying that they might hurt Frisk?"

"i'm saying that if this is the shadow conspiracy that it looks like, then we'd have a hard time stopping her dad from hurting her. i'll do what i can to get custody up in the air."

"How are you planning on doing that? I won't have anybody hurt."

"'course not. just gonna talk to a few people, see what i can find out, see what i can get moving. i can be pretty convincing." Sans had a dark look in his eyes. Toriel didn't like it.

"I won't have anybody threatened either."

"nobody's gonna get hurt or threatened, queeny. i'm just gonna do some research, find some people to talk to. in the meantime, you should probably start figuring out ways to get the kid to feel safer and happier." Something still didn't sit right. Toriel hadn't gotten this far by ignoring gut feelings. Sure, he was a friend, but something seemed off.

"If you say so. Would you mind satisfying my curiosity about something?"

"shoot."

"What did Asgore have you doing for him?"

"me? i just sold hot dogs, manned the guard stations around snowdin. made a puzzle or two."

"I see. Thank you for letting me know, Sans. Don't get into any trouble."

"getting in trouble sounds like way too much effort. not for me. just be ready when the custody goes up in the air." Sans stood up and left, leaving Toriel staring at the chair where he'd been sitting.

Sans the skeleton was hiding something. She intended to figure out what. In the meantime, she had to figure out how to help Frisk. She'd noted the similarities between her and Chara, how could she not have? She hadn't made the connection between some of their behaviors.

When Chara had come to trust Toriel enough to tell her what the human's father had done to her, Toriel had been furious. Anger was nowhere near a strong enough word to describe what she'd been feeling. Thinking about it, she could almost understand why some wanted humanity gone. Now, Frisk was in nearly the same position, and Toriel hadn't noticed. She shied away from touch, she flinched whenever anyone raised their voices too much, she spoke so softly and tried so hard to make everyone feel happy…

It reminded Toriel so much of Chara that it hurt. She should've noticed it before. The thing was, no matter what she did, she wasn't human. There was no getting around that. Human reactions were foreign to her. She would need to put forth the effort in the future to make sure that she understood what was going on with Frisk. Glancing up at the clock, she frowned at the time. She had a feeling that sleep wouldn't come easily for the foreseeable future.

––––––––––––––––––––––

"Good morning, Captain." The Captain of the newly instated Royal Police looked up.

"Morning, Queen Toriel." Undyne saluted.

"Please, it's just Toriel to you."

"Okay, Toriel." Undyne looked around at the damp caverns around her. "What brings you to Waterfall?"

"I need to have a quick talk with you, actually." Undyne's eyes widened. Toriel let out a small laugh. "Nothing bad, though I do want to ask how the conversion is going."

"Going as well as can be expected. The dogs are enthusiastic, but I might need to recruit some people more able to make smart calls in the heat of the moment, you know?"

"Do whatever you have to to ensure that the peace can be maintained, even when humans are around. If you have a problem with your current people's abilities, I do understand that they have quite a nice severance package. I would start opening up interviews for monsters who can fulfill the duties asked of them, if I were you." Undyne shifted, trying not to let her nervousness show.

"Understood, ma'am."

"That's not the real reason that I came to see you, however. I have a question and a favor to ask of you. Which would you like to hear first?" More nervous shifting.

"What's the question?"

"What, exactly, did Sans do before Frisk broke the barrier? I talked to him yesterday, and I believe that he might have lied to me for some reason." Undyne quickly glanced left and right, before looking back at her house.

"Let's have this conversation inside." That was certainly a suspicious reaction.

"As you wish." Toriel had to admit, she wanted to know what kind of place Undyne lived in. She didn't imagine the Captain was particularly homely, but…

She did not expect this.

The inside of the house was a mess. Half of it looked like it had recently been on fire, and the other half had the shine of new paint. The kitchen table had been split in half by something, and the whole place looked like there'd been a fight.

"Who did this to your home?" Undyne reached up to scratch the back of her neck.

"Frisk and I may have hung out a bit too enthusiastically. Now, about Sans." Chuckling at the obvious change of subject, Toriel took a seat in one of the intact chairs. "Sans' job was kinda weird."

"I'm listening."

"Before we start, I wanna say that Asgore knows none of this." Toriel nodded, motioning for Undyne to continue. "So, after Asgore made his declaration and you left for the ruins, a bunch of the old-timers from the war got together. They decided that they didn't want King Fluffybuns to have to deal with anymore blood on his hands. They didn't think that he'd be able to handle it. Can you blame them?"

Toriel found that she could not.

"So, they got together with the newly appointed Captain of the Guard and made a new, secret position. The Royal Judge. The Judge's job was pretty much to judge any humans that came down for the sins of their species. The most lethal monster in the Underground was given the job, and passed it down whenever they either got too old or they killed a human. They didn't want Asgore to suspect anything because one monster killed more than one, you know? So, there's that golden hallway that you and Fluffybuns used to impress people, right? It was decided that that would be the Judgement Hall. The last resort before a human got to Asgore and he had to face them. After the last Judge killed the sixth human—"

"Beretta." Undyne winced. "Her name was Beretta."

"After the last judge killed… Beretta, he stepped down. Sans got the job."

"So, Sans is the most lethal monster in the Underground?" Toriel asked with a small amount of incredulity.

"To humans, yes. His Karma is nasty stuff. Made him a natural choice."

"And he accepted."

"Said that since the Judge received a stipend under the table from the Royal Guard, that he could be lazier than ever. He told me that he didn't expect a human to come down in his lifetime." It made a strange sort of sense, with what Toriel knew about Sans. It was still concerning that he had accepted a job where murder was the job description.

It explained why he was so reluctant to promise to protect the human.

"If it was meant to be a secret to Asgore, then why tell me?"

"Because the Barrier's broken, we're all free, and you're not Asgore. If anyone has a right to know, it's the Queen. It was a secret to a lot of people. Only Sans, the last Judge, Gerson, and I knew. Figured that since the position is null and void now, the Queen deserves to know if she asks. I still don't plan on telling everybody. The fact that there was a line of monsters whose job was to kill any humans that got too far, that could cause a ruckus if it got out."

"And you decided that I deserved to know."

"The existence of that position kinda killed all the human children that you took care of ma'am."

"Hm." The worst part of this was that she couldn't find it in her to blame the monsters. They wanted to save their monarch from guilt. The fact that they were even in a position where they felt that such a decision was necessary was Asgore's fault. It all tied back to that man's mistakes, every time. It was disheartening to see what had come of her once–husband's reign. Toriel quietly resolved to do better, no matter what. "Thank you for answering my question truthfully. Now, on to my favor." Undyne nodded, ear–flaps perking up a bit. "I have recently learned something about Frisk. In accommodating it, I'd like you to refrain from raising your voice around her. At the very least, try not to raise your voice at her."

"I can do that," Undyne said before realizing the volume at which she had said it. She winced before continuing with a little less volume. "Can I ask why?"

"I'm afraid that that is very private. Please understand." Undyne opened her mouth to say something, but Toriel began talking first. "I'm not even sure that Frisk would want me to know it. Please, don't push."

"Yes, ma'am." Undyne's face looked as if she had swallowed something particularly nasty.

"Thank you. You don't how much it means." Toriel stood up, pushing her chair into the destroyed table. "Have a good day, Captain. Let me know if you need anything. My door is always open."

"You too, Qu–" She stopped herself. "Toriel." The Queen smiled at the informality and turned to leave.

––––––––––––––

Toriel found herself standing in front of a familiar door with a not–unfamiliar change to it. 'Please come in. Make yourself at home.' read the note pinned to the door. He'd made his own. They'd had that note in New Home since shortly they'd been pushed Underground. It had fallen apart—more than once in fact—but every time it had they'd burned it and used its ashes in making the new paper. There were a couple monsters in the capital that were only too happy to help. Why, one time they'd managed to make it a family event, helping Asriel burn the old and Chara pin up the new. For a moment, Toriel could almost hear her children laughing again.

No, that was hundreds of years ago. It still looked like Asgore had kept up the tradition, since that note was still pinned to her new home in New Home, but Asgore had gone and made a copy for Home. He'd known how much she would love the original and everything that it represented. Asgore may have no idea how to lead and often let his heart do his thinking for him, but that same heart had an endless capacity for love. Looking at the copy of the note reminded Toriel why she'd married him.

Looking at the door to which so many kids had never returned reminded Toriel why she'd left.

Pushing the door open, she made her way down the too–long hallway and up the stairs. Looking around, she noted the lack of fire in its place. He must have been deeper into the Ruins. Toriel kept walking. She needed to talk with the disgraced king.

She found him looking over the only flowers in the Ruins.

"You buried her," he said, not looking back at her.

"I did."

"You buried her in the only place where her favorite flowers would grow."

"I did."

"Thank you."

"She was my child, too." He winced.

"You know that's not what I meant." A moment passed, filled with a silence that said far too much.

"You may have been a lousy king, but you were a good father."

"Thank you."

"…And I need your help." Asgore slowly, ever so slowly, looked up from his child's grave to face her. "After Chara let us know about her issues with her birth parents, both of us tried to help in our own ways. I know how I helped her get better, but I don't know how you did. I need advice."

"Where's this coming from, Toriel?"

"It's coming from Frisk's father." Asgore stiffened.

"Is it…"

"It is as you think."

"I see." He took another look at the grave and let out a short, dark laugh. "A child taken under your wing being abused by their human father. Chara would've hated it." He gathered himself up. "Let's go back to the house, I'll make some tea while we talk."

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

I stared at that damned plugsuit, hanging innocently in the locker, dripping with LCL. Every time I got into that thing, I failed. The scientists were getting frustrated. Misato had been annoyed about it since I'd walked into the building. She hadn't said anything, but I could tell. Misato was looking for someone to blame, and it looked like that someone was my Dad. He wasn't happy.

"You know, you can just go. Run away from this. Get out of the situation."

I wasn't going to do that. That would put some other kid in that Entry Plug. That just wouldn't be acceptable.

"How about you tell someone like Misato what's happening at home?"

If I did that, then they might take Dad away. I didn't want that. He loved me, I knew it. No matter what, he was still my Dad. He might scare me sometimes, but he still loved me.

"Toriel loves you. That's what love looks like."

Toriel had known me for all of a couple weeks. Plenty of time for LOVE, but not any time at all for love. There was no way she loved me like my dad did.

"She took care of you for weeks after that first run. I think—"

I cut Chara's words off with a deep frown. I wasn't going to think or talk about that first run. Besides, Toriel had never done that in this timeline.

"Frisk, we have to talk about that first run at some point. After what we did, we have to face it!"

I didn't want to hear this. I didn't want to talk about it. It never happened.

"Sans knows about it! He figured it out! He knows that we killed everybody! He knows! We can't just hide from it!"

I could in fact hide from it, and Chara would watch me do it. I pulled on my sweater—ignoring Chara's protests—and stood up, leaving the locker room behind. In the hallway was Misato, same as ever. Every time that I came out of that room, Misato was waiting with a painted–on smile. It wasn't there this time. As I approached, still not quite scowling, she kneeled quickly. I flinched. The look on her face grew darker for a moment, and I thought that she might hit me. I'd deserve it. The world was on the line and I kept failing her. She raised her hand and put it on my shoulder.

"Frisk…" There was a silence as she worked her mouth. "Let's get you home."

I followed her into the elevator and back out into the control room, just the same as ever. She handed me off to Dad and we went back into that elevator before loading into the car. The ride was silent. We grabbed drive-thru fast food on the way home.

As soon as we got home, I went straight up to my room. Dad didn't say a word. He was mad. When I got there, I looked around. Something was off, and I didn't know what. A closer inspection found that the tree outside my window was the source of my unease. There was a broken branch that had been fine just the other day. Weird. Shrugging it off, I opened up the website where I'd been learning Japanese. It was my day for hobbies, since Chara's was yesterday. Diving back into hiragana, I managed to forget my situation for a little bit.

Right up until the door opened. I knew what came next. I set my computer to shut down. There was no way I'd SAVE to try to get out of this. I didn't want to relive it or prolong the inevitable. I looked over at the door. Standing there swaying was my Dad.

"Frisk…" He walked towards me. I got up and started backing away, but it was futile. "Don't you care about your daddy?" My back hit the wall.

"I do! I promise!" He slapped me.

"You little liar. You make me look stupid. You don't synch with the Eva. You don't care about me! You don't care about your mother! A selfish child like you doesn't care about anyone." He took off his belt, and my eyes followed it. "You know what happens to a selfish child like you."

With a shuddering breath, I began to cry.

 

[eM15]

Part 7: Dawn​

"You wanted to speak with me?" Dr. O'Bannon was standing in Captain Katsuragi's office, looking vaguely annoyed. "I was in the middle of diagnostics."

"Please have a seat, this will only take a moment." He did as he was told. Good. Misato would only need to make this a mildly painful experience. The Third Child was busy with some medical examinations that she was assured were entirely unnecessary. Also good. She didn't want her to see this. "I actually had a couple questions for you about our new neighbors in Ebott. As Chief Scientist of NERV-01, you must have some opinion on them."

"Well," he began, reaching up to scratch his neck, "to be honest, I'm a bit excited. They claim to possess an intimate knowledge of how the soul works, and I'd love to talk to one of their scientists. Getting a fresh perspective on metaphysical biology might actually help us with our synch issues here. Why did you feel that you had to call me here to ask, instead of just asking?"

"Because I hear that the Third Child has a number of monster friends."

"Frisk," he said pointedly, "has some monster friends, yes. I've actually been thinking about requesting command to see if I can go with Frisk to Mt. Ebott, try and talk with some monster scientists."

"Good to know. I'll talk to the proper people, see if I can get a monster scientist on–side."

"Thank you. Will that be all?" He was being very polite. Smart.

"There is actually one more thing if you don't mind." Misato gave him a soft smile. At the doctor's nod, she continued. Misato pressed the send button on her phone. Almost immediately, two Section Two agents stepped through the door. Her face grew serious. "Dr. Russell O'Bannon, you are under arrest for multiple counts of Child Abuse and for damaging NERV assets." The man in question immediately stood up to protest and struggled as his arms were restrained by the agents.

"You can't do this! I demand to see my lawyer."

"You are NERV personnel, on a NERV base, living on NERV property, and live with an Eva pilot. So long as these things remain true, most of your rights are temporarily suspended. You will find, doctor, that I can do as I damn well please."

"You won't get that Eva to run without me! I built that thing from the ground up!" He was frantic now, grasping at straws. The corner of Misato's lips turned up just a hair.

"We'll make do. In fact, our ex–Chief Scientist just recommended me an excellent place to start looking for a replacement. I might start asking around today. Agents, please take him to solitary." As the two agents escorted their prisoner away, she could swear that she heard him shouting that he would have her job for this. Misato sighed, slouching. Now she just had to find Dr. Hunley and inform him of his promotion. She gathered up her files and walked out the door.

She found the new Chief Scientist in the command center, reviewing some data that she didn't even try to understand. A quick conversation and overview of duties later, she pointed him to his new desk. Misato bid her goodbyes and wished Dr. Hunley good luck. Now she had to do the other half of her job that nobody talked about: parenting.

Making her way to the Med Lab, she found Frisk walking on a treadmill with sensors hooked up to her forehead. She was pretty sure that there was no medical purpose for any of that. She looked over at the MD overseeing the procedure.

"Do you mind if I take Frisk from you?" She got a dirty look in response. Giving him a warm smile in response, Misato opened the door between the Observation room and Test room. "Frisk, I got a question for you." The kid in question stopped walking and looked over. "You've got friends in Ebott, right?" Her face turned from boredom to curiosity.

"Yeah, why?"

"You and I should go visit them, say hi. Besides, I haven't met the neighbors yet! Bit rude, don't you think?" Curiosity turned to confusion. "Unless you want to go through another Synch Test…" Misato trailed off, and Frisk immediately pulled the sensors off of her head.

"Let's go to Ebott!" Misato laughed. She knew that one would work. She suspected it was universal: kids stop questioning motives if the other option is a Synch Test. Her thoughts went back to a certain red–haired pilot for a moment before returning to the present.

"Frisk, what do you know about cars?"

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Misato leaned against the rock face, panting. That had not been an easy climb. That skeleton had given her directions to the Underground, had even given her the Queen's phone number, but he had neglected to mention the steep climb up to the opening. The kid had just accepted it with that same steely determination that she accepted everything that life seemed to throw at her. It reminded her a bit of Asuka.

Shaking the thought from her head, she took a moment to look around. They'd seen some of the in–construction houses on the way up, and seeing them from above was interesting. She could see the monsters below her walking around, working happily. One of them passed her, coming out of the opening in the mountain. He looked oddly like a dragon. Huh. Guess that myth had come from somewhere after all. Seeing Frisk ahead of her, Misato gathered herself up and approached the mouth of the cavern.

"So this is the way into the famous Underground, huh?" The hole led into a hallway with lights strung up on the wall. They looked to be a recent addition.

"Not the only way. You could fall." That earned Frisk a curious look. "There's a hole in a cave on the other side of the mountain. Kinda have to stumble into it to find it."

"Guessing that's how you got down?"

"Yeah. Can we go in now? I want to see my friends."

"Lead the way. You're the expert here." Frisk immediately began walking.

The hole in the mountain that they walked through wasn't very big, barely a doorway, really. They entered into a round room with a single spot of sunlight shining through, grass growing in its center. It looked like something had recently disturbed the soil. Looking ahead, Misato saw a doorway, its sides made of sculpted columns and a symbol above it. The symbol had three triangles, a circle, and two wings.

"Hey Frisk, you know what that symbol is?" Frisk looked up briefly.

"Oh, that's the Delta Rune. It's the symbol of the monster Royal Family." Made enough sense, she supposed. There was a turn, another round room, then a room filled with golden flowers, sunlight streaming in from above. In the middle of the room sat a throne. Frisk walked right around it without a second glance. Another bland hallway later, and Misato found herself in a hallway awash with golden light, pillars lining the sides.

"Man, they really put work into this room, huh?" Frisk didn't comment, but she could've sworn that she saw Frisk stiffen a bit in the middle of the hall. "Something wrong?"

"No, it's stupid."

"You can talk to me, Frisk."

"Just something that I imagined." Misato wasn't shocked that Frisk was seeing threats where they didn't exist, with what had happened to her and all. Poor kid. She'd been much the same around that age.

She wasn't going to let that happen to anyone else.

As they stepped out of the golden hall, Misato came face to face with rows upon rows of buildings, stretching on for a time until they met the edge of the cavern. Misato and Frisk were standing on a lip on the side of the cavern looking out onto the city.

"Didn't expect something like that." Frisk looked briefly at the city but kept walking.

"They had to live somewhere after it got too crowded everywhere else."

"It's just that it's really big."

"You should see Hotland."

"Hotland?"

"It's hot there. Asgore's pretty bad at names." Huh. Okay.

"I take it Hotland's pretty big?"

"Yeah. Perfectly spherical, too." Misato stopped cold. Frisk looked back at her. "Something wrong? I know this can be a lot, but it's not that hard to imagine. It's just a big cave."

"Perfectly spherical, you said?"

"Yeah."

"I might need to make a point to visit. Sounds… interesting." Not the least of which because Misato would undoubtedly need to report that to the Commander. The work never stopped.

"I guess." Frisk kept walking. Another boring gray hallway or two later, and they were at a stairway. Misato saw warm light coming from the top of the stairs. "We're here."

"What exactly is 'here'?"

"Toriel's house." She looked at the stairs, questioning.

"The Queen of Monsters doesn't have a door to her home?"

"She doesn't need one." Misato chalked that up to either supreme confidence or monsters being inherently different than humans.

"Do we need to knock or announce our presence or something?"

"Nah, just walk in." Frisk sniffed the air, perking up just a bit.

"…Okay, then." She took a step or two up the stairs before thinking better of it. The Queen might be fine with a kid coming in unannounced, but probably not a government official from another government. "Mind if we come in?" she called out. Frisk pretty much immediately stepped past her and walked up the stairs before turning a corner and disappearing. Okay. She really meant 'just walk in'. Monsters were weird. Misato decided to follow her little expert.

As she rounded the corner, a 7–foot–tall floating buff anthropomorphic horse with a fish tail passed her on his way down, winking.

What.

Recovering quickly, she climbed the rest of the stairs to find a large crown–wearing goat–person hugging Frisk, their large frame almost completely engulfing the child. Was this Toriel? The goat–person pulled back, keeping their hands resting on Frisk's shoulders. Misato noticed the so–called 'Delta Rune' on the person's dress, prominently adorning the chest. This was probably Toriel.

"What brings you here today, Frisk?" A woman's voice.

"Misato said that we should visit." Probably–Toriel looked up at Misato, almost sizing her up for a moment before greeting her with a smile. She stood up and approached.

"How rude of me not to notice, my name is Toriel. Nice to meet you." She extended her hand. After a quick check to make sure there were no whoopee cushions in the palm, Misato grabbed it firmly, shaking.

"Captain Misato Katsuragi, nice to meet you." The Queen had a strong grip. Toriel turned towards Frisk.

"Frisk, I think that some of your friends wanted to see you in Snowdin." Frisk immediately perked up. "You should call Sans. He might know a shortcut." Toriel chuckled a bit at some in–joke as Frisk nodded and got up to leave with a shouted 'thanks'.

"Is Snowdin far?"

"Between Sans, the elevators in the core, and the Riverperson, no. The benefits of being so densely packed, I suppose. Infrastructure becomes a priority."

"That makes sense. Do you mind if we sit?"

"I was actually making lunch for you and Frisk since you texted to let me know you were coming. I was hoping to finish that. If you'd like to help…?" The offer was left open. Misato laughed.

"I'm useless in a kitchen, sorry."

"Then we can talk while I work. Please, follow me." A moment later, Misato found herself in the Queen's kitchen. Looking around, it seemed that everything was in its place, and the only things left out were those which were in use. The stove was shockingly clean. Misato blinked and shook her head, refocusing on the task ahead.

"I'm going to be blunt, Queen Toriel. Russell O'Bannon, Frisk's father, is not a suitable parent. I received information proving that, and he is currently under arrest. Now, due to the sensitive nature of Frisk's position—"

"What is Frisk's position?" Toriel peered back at her as she washed a tomato.

"Classified." Misato didn't skip a beat. "Now, due to Frisk's position, I am given custody of her should her guardian be declared unfit until I can find a suitable replacement."

"You make it sound like a job."

"One of the most important, in my opinion. Now, Frisk likes you. You seem to like Frisk. Due to certain conditions, I believe that you might make a good guardian, interspecies politics aside. I will need to verify how you treat her and how Frisk responds to you before I make any judgements. I'll also need to talk with my superiors."

"Of course." Misato took a deep breath, wrapping her hand around Queen Toriel's upper arm. It was time, she decided, for one of her famous 'Katsuragi Gambits'. They were always insane, but damned if they didn't have fantastic results. Toriel placed the full weight of her gaze on Misato.

"I am going to make one thing very clear Miss Toriel. I will not tolerate any mistreatment of Frisk. One of the primary duties of my job is ensuring that the children under my care are well–cared for. My other duties give me a lot of pull in the right places. The kind of places that could make monster integration either very easy or very hard. I believe that a good way to judge a group is to look at its leadership, and this would be a very good indicator, don't you think? You get to decide whether you have my support or not." The Monster Queen's easy smile gave way to lowered eyebrows and a tight frown. Misato really hoped that this was one of those 'works fantastically' times and not a 'fails fantastically' time.

"Allow me to get this straight. I'd hate for either of us to misunderstand. You walk into my home, try to dictate how I care for my children, threaten me, threaten my people, and then see fit to dangle a carrot at the end as if that makes it all better? Captain Katsuragi, I have exactly one thing to say to someone like you."

Misato took a moment to congratulate herself for almost single–handedly screwing up human–monster relations. The monster took a moment to face Misato, raising herself up to her full height. She swallowed, reaching back for her pistol. Hopefully, she could get to it before she saw what 'magic' looked like up close and personal. She swallowed as the queen began to speak.

"A person like you… Do you like your sandwiches toasted or plain?"

"What?" Misato tensed up. The Queen was trying to throw her off her guard.

"I asked whether you liked your sandwiches toasted or not." Now she was confused.

"But, you said that— "

"Misato, may I call you Misato?" The woman in question nodded mutely. "Misato, you are a person who found a child under your care. You are not strictly responsible for this child, but they are undoubtedly under your care. Please, stop me if I get something wrong. So this child is under your care, and when trying to get them into a good home, you do everything that you can to ensure that the child in question will not face any of the issues that have plagued them in the past." The Monster Queen's face lit up in a bright smile. "Simply put, Misato, I like you. You remind me quite a bit of a younger me." She went back to making the sandwiches. "You can rest assured that Frisk will not see anything like what she faced at that damnable man's home. My second child was a fallen human. In her life aboveground, her parents subjected her to something similar. I was able to help then, and with access to human resources to treat uniquely human issues, I will only be able to help more effectively."

"You said your second child was a human?"

"Sickness took her. We didn't have a way to get her to a human doctor, and we had limited knowledge of human medicine at the time. We tried our best, and the Underground shook with her passing." Toriel's face had taken on a sad sort of smile.

"I'm sorry, it must have been difficult. What was her name?"

"Chara. All the monsters Underground loved her, but not very many remember her anymore. She died hundreds of years ago, but sometimes it still manages to hurt. Still, thank you for asking." A moment passed.

"I will still have to see how you interact with Frisk before committing to anything permanent."

"Anything less, and you would lose my respect. Now, would you like your sandwich toasted or plain?"

––––––––––––––––––––––

"hey, kid. you wanna buy a potion?" A familiar looking skeleton was leaning against the elevator, seemingly unbothered by the heat. I smiled. This was either going to be funny or embarrassing.

"Are potions real?"

"kinda. this one helps you resist heat. want it?" He opened up his hoodie to reveal an opaque bottle.

"How much?"

"for the savior of monsters, let me see…" He scratched his chin, pretending to think. "how about an answer?"

"To what question?" Sans wanted something specific here, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to promise something like that.

"dunno. i'll figure that out later." I wasn't sure about this. Sans didn't make deals like this lightly, and I didn't want to get the short end of this.

"Don't you trust him?"

Whether or not I trusted Sans wasn't the point, it was how much he felt that he could trust me.

"Frisk, if you trust him then it doesn't matter. Either you trust him, and you'll agree, or you don't." I sighed. Chara was right. I didn't believe that this 'potion' was worth anything, but still, he should feel like he could ask me stuff.

"Sure." Sans handed me the bottle.

"better drink it quick, before its energy equalizes." Well, that certainly sounded fancy. Shrugging, I opened it up and took a swig.

It was just cold water.

"i hear that stuff helps humans resist all kinds of heat." I couldn't help it, I laughed. "come on kid, paps wants to see you. follow me. i know a shortcut." With that he turned and started to walk the wrong direction. With a smile on my face and a laugh on my tongue, I followed.

 

[eM15]

Part 8: Settling​

"So, I'm sitting there watching her play this game, and I see the solution to the puzzle she's on clear as day. I try to say something and she yells about how she's got it, saying she's 'really close to the answer this time, promise'. I keep trying, and she keeps denying that she needs help! After like five more minutes of her pounding her head against the metaphorical wall, she finally lets me point out the answer." Misato laughed fondly, the sound echoing off the cave walls. Toriel chuckled along. The Riverperson kept humming. "You can imagine the look on her face. Priceless. She didn't talk to me the rest of the night."

"Sound like she has a bit of a pride issue."

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe. With what's happened in her life, it makes sense." Misato trailed off, lost in thought for a moment. Realizing this, she turned to the Riverperson. "Are you sure you don't want us to pay you?"

"You can repay me by listening to my advice," they said in a sing–song tone.

"Okay?" Misato was confused again. She noted that it had happened a lot when interacting with monsters. Sans, Toriel, that fish–horse, now the Riverperson. Thinking about it, it was actually 4–for–4 on that. Concerning. Thankfully, Toriel picked up the slack.

"And what is your advice?"

"The messengers will arrive, but beware those who warn of their coming. That is all."

"How… cryptic," Misato mused.

"Riverperson, would you have any relation to the monster who started the ferry when we first discovered this river?" Toriel, it seemed, was on to something.

"Which one?" asked the river person. Now Toriel looked confused, too.

"Were there more than one? I never realized, robes and all."

"There were two. My great great grandparents."

"I see. Thank you." At the lull in conversation, the shore was approaching. As they stepped off the boat, Toriel bowed her head. The Riverperson hummed. The two turned to leave. Once they were out of earshot, Toriel spoke up.

"Riverperson's grandparents were renowned as gifted oracles. They never told the future, per se, but they had quite a habit of knowing things that they had no way to know. If any of what they said sounds familiar, I would make note."

"Huh. Will do."

"Now," Toriel said as she gestured broadly at the small town around them. "Welcome to Snowdin." Misato looked around. Despite being completely underground, the entire town seemed to be covered in snow. The houses were made of wood, and she could see trees dotting the landscape.

"How do you get snow here? Or trees?"

"The cave was naturally cold, magic took care of the rest."

"You know, that explanation actually kinda works for me."

"I assumed that it would." Toriel began to walk deeper into the small town. "Please, come along. I believe that Frisk will either be here or in Waterfall."

"The names here seem a bit on the nose," Misato said, following. Toriel smiled for a moment before her eyes turned sad.

"King Asgore was not the best at names. I found it humorous."

"Ah."

"Now," Toriel began, changing the subject quickly, "Frisk should be fairly easy to find. Everyone here does know her, after all."

"I can imagine. Just ask around for the human kid. Might as well put up a—" Misato was interrupted by the sight of a sweater–clad child running around the corner and placing herself flat against a wall. "—sign. Frisk?" Frisk looked up, seemingly noticing the two for the first time.

"Oh, hey!" She seemed a bit out of breath.

"Whatcha' doing kiddo?"

"Playing tag. Shh, pretend I'm not here." Frisk peeked her head around the corner. Misato couldn't resist looking for herself. She saw, to her complete lack of surprise, something confusing. There was an armor–clad skeleton who seemed to be an adult but whose proportions seemed just a bit off—the head too tall, the eye sockets too wide—walking around with hands up to his 'mouth'.

"FRISK. IT'S NO USE HIDING. THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL FIND YOU!" Frisk got a wicked grin on her face. She peaked around the corner.

"Ha! It 'snow use'!"

"NYAGHHH! SANS HAS BEEN A TERRIBLE INFLUENCE ON YOU! DON'T WORRY, I WILL CORRECT IT AS SOON AS I TAG YOU!" Frisk started running from her cover immediately as the skeleton conjured an array of what looked like bones, sending them flying towards Frisk. Misato moved to draw her gun and a large white hand pressed against her chest.

"Stop. Let me explain what is happening."

"You said Frisk was safe—"

"Frisk is safe. Monsters use magic to express themselves, and often greet each other. Frisk is in no more danger than in a normal game of tag."

"Explain."

"Magic is an expression of the SOUL. When one's magic makes contact with someone, it affects their SOUL. In this moment, both monsters can feel each other's SOUL. Since the first magic that a young monster is able to do is offensive in nature, they get in fights with each other, both being careful not to let the other's HP get too low."

"HP? This isn't some video game."

"HP is the strength of the SOUL. How many hits it can take. I believe that the current theory is that it is derived from Hope. The acronym followed. Now, when someone's HP gets too low in one of these fights, they stop. They both come out of it having touched the other's SOUL, and gain a new perspective and respect for the other. By the time monsters reach adulthood, they are very good at measuring their responses so as to avoid hurting the other in any serious way."

"But Frisk could still get hurt."

"Damage to the SOUL is incredibly easy to fix. There is nothing that Papyrus can or would do to Frisk that can not be healed by the sandwiches in my bag."

"You're saying that all it takes is a sandwich to heal a SOUL, one of the most fundamental parts of a person?"

"Well, any food made with magic will do, though some work better than others. There's an entire field of study focused on figuring out what causes any particular food item to heal more or less HP." Misato watched for a moment, making sure that Frisk wasn't in any distress before taking her hand off of her sidearm. Toriel brought her arm down. "Thank you. I know that it can be hard to trust others with the safety of children that you find yourself responsible for. Your trust means a lot."

Misato looked closely at Frisk. She was running around, finding cover, jumping over fast–moving projectiles, and getting slowly closer to the skeleton. Papyrus, his name was. The thing was, outside of the odd moments of focus, Frisk was smiling. She was enjoying herself. Nothing was touching her. It looked a whole lot to Misato like someone who loved what they were doing. It looked like Frisk knew how to avoid being hit, and while she could see some improvements that could be made, Frisk was good.

It looked like that Marduk Institute had chosen the right pilot.

It made Misato feel so much less guilty when she saw that the child wanted to fight. It was the same way with Asuka. From what Misato could tell, Frisk seemed more relaxed around these monsters. It seemed like she enjoyed their presence. It also seemed a whole lot like Frisk would be getting near–constant combat practice. This arrangement was… this arrangement would be acceptable, maybe necessary. She resolved to discuss the development with the Commander.

"NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus distracted Misato from her thoughts. "THAT ANNOYING DOG HAS BEEN TRAPPED BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS' EXPERTLY BUILT CAPTURE ZONE! THIS TIME, NOTHING WILL SAVE YOU FROM MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

Misato prepared herself just in case. No need to go quietly if worse came to worst.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Ooh, this is new!"

It had taken a couple tries to get this far, but the rules were clear: whoever 'tagged' the other first won. Paps got to use his magic, and I had to touch him. Simple enough, but it made fantastic practice. I'd LOADed a couple times already. There was no way I was gonna lose at something this fun. The special attack though, that was new. I hadn't gotten this far before. Eager to see it, I stepped out of cover into the open.

"IN JUST ONE SECOND, YOU WILL FACE MY SPECIAL ATTACK, SO STAND RIGHT THERE!" I did as he asked, giving him an encouraging smile. With a wave of the hand, Papyrus called a bone to him from some hidden corner. He levitated it a bit above his shoulder, and I watched as it started to glow, elongating and widening. As the light dimmed, it revealed itself to be an elongated skull.

A skull that I had seen before. A skull that had killed me so many times. A skull that belonged to the hardest, most fun fight I'd ever had.

He brought it down in front of him, and pointed it straight at me.

"I DID IT! I MEAN, OF COURSE I DID IT. NOW, HUMAN, FOR MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" My gentle smile grew as I braced myself to run. As I braced myself for the incoming blaster, I felt a familiar sideways lurch in my gut. I fell to the left. Digging one hand into the snow, I managed to get my feet under me before I landed on the wall of a house. I looked 'up' at Papyrus just in time to see the blaster charging up and quickly dodged to the side.

"YOU CANNOT GET TO ME, FRISK! I WIN!"

"Famous last words!" Papyrus was cool and all, but there was no way I could let a statement like that stand. As he charged the next laser and I dodged again, I thought back to my options. The jetpack on the phone had burnt out after the first use, and I'd never asked Alphys to fix it. That was out. I didn't have anything on me or in my phone's hammerspace that could help, just some monster food and a knife. The knife was definitely not coming out. I couldn't climb the snow, it was too powdery to take my weight. Papyrus moved the blaster to try and attack me at a 45° angle from above.

Now there was an idea. I kept dodging, moving as little as I possibly could and spending as little energy as I could on each movement. Eventually, he brought the blaster down to my level for a new angle, a few feet away from the edge of the wall. My grin returned with a vengeance. I made a dash for it, jumping just before the blaster fired. I landed on it, grabbing on wherever I could.

"HEY! MY SPECIAL ATTACK! I WORKED HARD ON THAT." He sounded more confused than genuinely annoyed. The blaster began shaking up and down as if trying to dislodge me. Perfect. I took a moment to get a feel for the rhythm, and looked up to make sure that I knew where Papyrus was. Seeing my angle, I took a deep breath. Alright. Target acquired. Using the momentum of the blaster on its up-shake, I jumped. It carried me up towards Papyrus. He made a surprised sound, and I saw bones approaching me from the sides. Too little, too late. I managed to grab onto Papyrus' leg before they reached me. After just a moment, my gravity returned to normal. I fell onto the snow with a smile.

"That was pretty good. Didn't even have to retry the special attack." I was pretty proud of myself for that. Normally it took me some time to adapt to new attack patterns. I was really growing, wasn't I?

The sound of applause interrupted my thoughts.

"Impressive!" Misato approached, a smile on her face as she brought her hands down. "Very impressive." I stood up and brushed the snow off of myself before returning her smile.

"I DIDN'T EVEN HIT YOU ONCE. NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, I DIDN'T HIT YOU THE LAST TIME WE FOUGHT EITHER." I was confused for a moment, then I remembered. In this last run—the timeline we were still in—I'd set a challenge for myself: I wasn't allowed to get hit by any monster's attacks in a timeline that I kept. It was the only way to keep the fights fun and challenging after my other runs. The only monster down here who actually knew that I was anything but untouchable was Sans. Thinking about it, I definitely owed my ease of victory today to that little challenge.

"I dunno, guess I'm just lucky."

"That wasn't luck that I was seeing, Frisk," Misato said. "That looked more like someone who was enjoying what they were doing so much that they refined the skills involved to a razor sharp point. Does that sound right?"

"Well, I mean, playing with Papyrus is always fun." Misato made a noncommittal sound. I don't think she quite believed me.

"SO IT WAS MY EXAMPLE THAT LED YOU TO BE SO SKILLED! I SEE. FRISK, I WILL DO MY BEST TO LIVE UP TO THAT."

"Paps, you don't need to—"

"IT WILL BE HARD, BUT I WILL MANAGE. I AM, AFTER ALL, VERY GREAT." Okay, that got a laugh out of me.

"You're the greatest, Paps." Papyrus posed for a moment, looking proud, before his eyes widened. He looked at me. Then he looked at Misato. Then he looked at me. Then Misato. This continued on for a moment or two. Misato noticed, and offered her hand.

"I'm Captain Misato Katsuragi. Nice to meet you." He eyed her hand for a moment before shaking it.

"HELLO, MISS ATO. I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THE FUTURE ROYAL GUARDSMAN." I laughed as Misato's face scrunched up.

"Not Miss Ato, Misato."

"ME, SATO? I AM NOT SATO. I AM PAPYRUS."

"Mi-sato."

"MISATO." Her face grew tight as she forced a smile.

"That's my name." Sensing the obvious annoyance in Misato's voice, Toriel approached from behind.

"Now that we've all gotten to know each other, shall we proceed to Papyrus' home? I've prepared a lunch. I'm sure that fight was exhausting to both of you." Her gentle smile warmed me up instantly.

"If you're done talking about whatever stuff you didn't want me hearing," I said. Misato blushed, and Toriel just looked down at me.

"Misato just wanted to make sure that I wasn't acting inappropriately towards you." My mind flashed back to my Dad for a moment, so I stepped over to hug Toriel. When she hugged me back, Dad quickly left my mind. I let go to see Misato watching us. I gave her a smile. That seemed to satisfy whatever was going through her mind as she looked to Papyrus.

"Lead the way! I'm curious to see what a skeleton's living conditions look like."

"FOLLOW ME!" Papyrus began walking, and we followed. Not that we needed him to lead the way, since I definitely knew the way and Toriel probably did, but we followed.

"So, are we gonna address the whole 'famous last words' thing?" I thought about it for a moment, and found that I had no idea what Chara was talking about.

"While we were playing tag. When Paps said something like 'You can't get me'." Oh. That. Yeah, we were definitely not addressing that.

"Frisk…" Nope. I was taking my mental eleven–foot–pole and shoving that into a dark corner.

"You know, if my whole thing with Asriel taught me anything, it's that talking about stuff is a whole lot better than letting it fester." That may be true, but I did not want to think about my first run too hard, if at all. If I thought about it, it might put me in the headspace that I was then and…

I don't know if the world could survive that again.

Really, suppressing it was good for everyone. Chara sighed in the back of my head, but I was decided. The matter was settled for now anyway, since we were at the Skelebros' house. It really wasn't a long walk. We walked in, and I watched Misato's reactions. She seemed… unimpressed. Guess she was expecting something other than a nice cozy house. As soon as we walked in, Papyrus began yelling. Well, not really yelling, just more talking slightly louder than his usual volume.

"SANS!"

"yeah?" I looked over and saw Sans on the couch, staring at the TV. I also noticed that the TV wasn't actually on.

"WE HAVE GUESTS."

"oh, cool. could you tell them i said hi?" Papyrus looked at Sans. He looked back at us. He looked back at Sans. Looking at the non–skeletons in the room, I saw that Toriel looked amused and Misato mostly just looked confused.

"...SANS."

"yeah?"

"YOU CAN SEE THEM IF YOU JUST TURN. YOUR. HEAD." Sans finally bothered to look over with that grin of his.

"oh, hey. paps, did you know we have guests?" Papyrus, for his part, looked utterly frustrated. Satisfied with his work, Sans finally addressed us. "hey frisk, queeny, human lady."

"It's Misato."

"hey, misato lady." With a laugh, I plopped onto the couch next to him.

"Sans, stop being such a knucklehead. She doesn't know how to handle you yet." That got a chuckle out of him. "So, what's on?"

"dunno. never actually bothered to pick up the remote." I looked down. The remote was right next to his hand.

"Huh."

"yeah."

"Now," Toriel interrupted while suppressing a laugh, "shall we have lunch?"

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Misato and I sat on the rainy ledge overlooking Waterfall, the castle in the distance and an umbrella propped between us. It was nice.

"So, it'd really be that easy, huh?" Misato still seemed to be digesting what I'd told her.

"Not really. I mean, the monsters tried to do that before."

"In that Division War?"

"Yeah." I was pointedly not going to mention what Chara and Asriel had done.

"Just one SOUL."

"Yeah, but then that's just one monster with the strength of one human SOUL. Last time, they didn't get any."

"I'm shocked that they didn't even manage to kill one human." Ah. Time to clear some things up.

"Monster magic comes from their hopes and dreams. Most of the time, they don't want to kill people, so their magic is weaker."

"Most of the time?"

"Yeah." I wasn't going to explain Asgore. She could figure that our on her own.

There was a moment of silence as she processed that before she changed the subject.

"So, that Sans guy."

"Yeah?"

"Something seems a bit off about him."

"He's just lazy."

"Hm." It didn't sound like she believed me.

"She knows him." I managed not to let my shock show at that. "Seriously, the only reason that we knew at first that Sans was more than he appeared was because of the Judgement Hall." Okay, yeah, but he hadn't done anything like that in this timeline, and definitely not around Misato. "We still don't know what he was doing with those LOADs, you know." Ah. Okay. That made more sense than I liked. So Misato might have met Sans doing his hyper–competent thing. That could explain her confusion at seeing him be so lazy earlier.

"Frisk, I have a question for you." It sounded like Misato was changing the topic again.

"Yeah?"

"If you had the option of living with Toriel, would you?"

"Yeah," I said almost without hesitation. "But Dad would miss me. I don't wanna do that."

"What if your Dad didn't have a say?" Wait, hold on. She knew something that I didn't.

SAVED​

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I learned about what your dad was doing to you, Frisk. I'm not going to let it keep happening." I didn't meet her eyes. I could practically feel them boring into the side of my head, and I didn't want to see the pity on her face. I didn't need it. "It's okay, Frisk. You're allowed to be—"

"He loves me."

"That's not what love looks like."

"She's right. He's got plenty of LOVE, but no love. Listen to her." What did Chara even know, anyway? It was my life, she was just tagging along. "Frisk, my dad did… something similar. Listen to her, even if you aren't gonna listen to me."

Oh. Of course. Chara was just trying to help and I was too busy being stupid and selfish to listen. Of course. Typical me.

"Trust me," Misato said, interrupting my thoughts. "He won't be able to get to you." I didn't respond. "So, now we've got that out of the way, would you stay with Toriel if you could?"

"Why's it your decision?" I couldn't help it. She jumped into my life, thought she could help…

"You're one of my Pilots. If your parents aren't fit, I become your legal guardian. NERV is pretty big, and your father signed a lot of things away when he joined. Now stop dodging the question."

"If he signed away the rights to keep you so that he could build a robot, he wasn't a great dad from the start." I sighed. Chara could be so persistent. "In another word… determined?" And annoying. She could be annoying too. Still… I mentally pushed the hanging question on to Chara, though I bet I knew what she'd say. "Frisk, Toriel's a good mom. You know that. She's my mom. I'm always in support of her taking care of you. I'd do it." Well, that's that. Committee's settled.

"Yeah. Yeah I would."

"Do you mind staying with her tonight?"

"No."

"Good. Let's go ahead and head back."

The two of us stood up, and we made the uneventful trip back to New Home. For some reason she insisted on walking instead of taking the ferry, but it didn't hurt me any. I'd made the walk plenty of times. It was a bit easier when there were no fish, or robots, or spiders, or depressed kings trying to take my soul. A lot less fun, though. When we got to Toriel's house, she insisted that Misato stay for dinner. It was relatively small, and she'd made it with both human food and magic, so it ended up tasting weirdly different. After we said our goodbyes, Toriel made a point to tuck me into bed.

Chara's bed.

"Goodnight Frisk," she said as she turned the lights off. "I hope you enjoy living with me."

"I will," came my gentle reassurance. She smiled and closed the door. When I was sure that I was gone, I spoke up. "Hey, Chara?"

"Yeah?"

"I never knew about your parents."

"I didn't want you to know."

"I'm sorry."

"Frisk… It's gone. They're dead, and have been for a long, long time."

"How long?"

"I'm British, Frisk. Can't really tell since I did most of my growing up here, but I am." I didn't quite see how that tied in, but if Chara wanted to change topics, I was gonna let her.

"You're not from here?"

"When I was alive, here—America—didn't exist. It was just a couple colonies."

"Huh."

"Yeah. They're dead, and nothing they did then has to affect today. I didn't see any reason to talk about them before now."

"So…" I wasn't sure how to phrase this. "Are they why you climbed the mountain?"

"Yeah. The locals had this legend about how 'nobody would ever come back from Mt. Ebott'. Due to… some stuff, I wanted to not come back."

"Do you wanna talk—"

"No."

"Okay." I sensed that I wasn't going to get anything else out of Chara tonight, and that was okay. She needed space, and I was willing to give as much as I could. Turning over, I saw Asriel's old bed in the dark. Yeah, I was gonna have some weird dreams tonight. Accepting it, I let my eyes fall closed and went to sleep.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Yes?" asked Commander Ikari. Misato knew better than to take offense at his tone. He was like that with everyone. She did give the phone a sidelong glance.

"Do you have a moment to talk, sir?" Code. She was asking if he was around people who didn't have clearance to hear what she was going to say. Simple code, but vital.

"Yes."

"I have deemed Dr. Russell O'Bannon unfit for both his duties as Chief Scientist for NERV–01 and as Caretaker of the Third Child. He has made little to no progress in getting the Third to synch with EVA Unit 03, and Section Two caught him physically abusing her. I believe the two may be linked."

"I see. Do you have a suitable replacement in mind?" Misato had learned to interpret the Commander. See, this was both a question and a threat. He was asking if she had a replacement, and he was saying she better have a replacement. Simple enough.

"I've temporarily promoted Dr. Brian Hunley, pending Headquarters authorization."

"I'll see that it gets looked at."

"Now, I wouldn't bother you with this normally, but I want to talk about the Third's living situation. The Monster Kingdom. Are you aware of their unnamed savior?" He gave a grunt of what she assumed was agreement. "That savior has been identified as Frisk O'Bannon, the Third Child."

"I see."

"Queen Toriel Dreemurr has expressed interest in adopting the Third Child, and the Child is receptive to the idea."

"Hm."

"What would you like me to do, Commander? As per doctrine, I would have to brief the Child's Guardian on the Evas and their purpose." There was a long pause.

"Approved. Make sure it goes through. Make sure that she understands the need for secrecy." That was… strange. She had expected resistance, not an approval and what sounded like a happy Commander Ikari. That was incredibly strange. Sure, he'd asked her to threaten Toriel so he probably hadn't been replaced or anything, but still…

"Sir?"

"Is there anything else?"

"I'd like to get a monster scientist working on Unit–03. I have reason to believe that their knowledge regarding the SOUL might improve our understanding of the synching process."

"Do it."

"Understood. There's one more thing." At his silence, Misato continued. "In the space Underground where the monsters lived before they emerged, there is a large seemingly perfectly spherical chamber. I thought that you might want to know, since it was startlingly similar to the GeoFront."

"I see. If anything else catches your attention about the monsters, notify me immediately."

"Understood."

"Good. Keep me updated." With that, he hung up. Misato leaned back into her kitchen chair. Talking with the Commander was always a bit stressful. Now she just had to find a skilled monster scientist with a specialty in SOULs that could be browbeaten into keeping quiet, and she had to threaten Toriel. Again. At some point the patient woman was going to get fed up. Still, no reason not to jump on finding that scientist early. Misato pulled out her phone and dialed Toriel's number. She really needed a list of recommendations, and she could think of no one better.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Gendo Ikari placed the phone in his pocket, the ghost of a smile on his face. Monsters had been an… unexpected development, but one that he planned on using to their fullest. If the monsters had the greater understanding of the SOUL that SEELE's scientists believed that they did, he wanted them as involved as possible in the Evangelions. The nature of the SOUL was largely a mystery, but anything that could shed light on it was to be pursued. A twist in logic, a fresh set of eyes, a parallel development…

Anything that would allow him to bring Yui back.

The potential Moon in the mountain he would have to report to SEELE, but he didn't think they would stop him from securing good monster relations with NERV. They had already notified him that the monsters were definitely not Angels, though they were wary of their intentions. Where they were cautious, Gendo saw opportunity. He would have to be careful so as to not make it obvious that he was preparing to move against them. No one had any idea when the Angels would strike, and he needed his actions to be a secret at least until then.

Gendo stared out over the lake of blood shed from a dead god at the face which now hid his wife.

Soon, my love. I promise.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

A/N: A slightly longer one to make up for the new job and school kicking my ass.

 

[eM15]

Part 9: Honesty​

I stepped back into what was now my house in New Home, making sure to wipe the snow off of my boots before I crossed the threshold. Apparently Toriel and Misato were done with whatever they had going on, since she'd called for me to come back. I didn't mind too much. It looked like Misato had had her two guards carry in a bunch of paperwork, and I wanted no part in that. Making myself scarce and helping Undyne train the new Royal Police had been a fun way to start the day, even if Undyne had seemed a bit subdued.

"Toriel! Misato! I'm home!"

"In here," called Toriel from the dining room. Walking in, I saw Toriel and Misato sitting at the table, tea and a mountain of paperwork between them. The guards that were trying not to look like guards were standing behind Misato despite the extra chairs that seemed to have been pulled out for them. "Welcome home, Frisk." Toriel's warm voice carried over and put me instantly at ease. I walked over and took a seat at my—Chara's—chair.

"Well," Misato said, "all the paperwork seems to be in order. Frisk, you just need to sign here and you'll officially be Frisk Dreemurr." She pushed a paper over my way.

SAVED​

"Forever?" I asked.

"Well, if NERV decides that Miss Dreemurr here isn't a fit guardian, then they maintain the right to revoke her parental status."

"What would it take to do that?"

"Well…" Misato's eyes turned away from me.

"Don't you think I have a right to know?" I pushed. She sighed.

"I suppose you do. If she did something similar to what your birth–father did, that would do it. There's a few other things, but—"

"A few other things like what?" She gave me a weird look. "Please?"

"Like interfering with NERV activities or preventing you from fulfilling your role within the NERV hierarchy." Satisfied with her answer, I hummed. Feeling for my SOUL, I tugged in that oh so familiar way and faded to blackness for a moment.

LOAD SUCCESSFUL ​

I smiled up at Misato, signing the paper that she slid me with a bit of a flourish. Now that I knew the terms, I was much happier signing the form.

"There," I said, sliding the paper back over. "Done." Misato took it, checked it over and put it into the mountain of papers, seemingly satisfied.

"That's that, then." She got up and stretched. "Now, where'd that scientist go? Alphees, I think her name was?"

"You know Alphys?" I asked.

"Alphys! That's it! Yeah, I just had my Chief Scientist interview her a little bit ago. Apparently she passed with flying colors. I wanna let her know that she got the job, then we all need to go on a little drive."

"A drive?"

"Yeah. To the base. Dr. Alphys is going to be working there, and Toriel needs to see it for legal guardian reasons." I looked to Toriel, and she gave me a slight nod. Shrugging, I shot a text at Alphys, telling her that she got the job. When I received what looked to be an excited word vomit in response, I smiled up at the two women in the room.

"She's on the way."

A couple minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and I quickly stood up to answer it. I opened the door to greet Alphys, lab coat on and hands rubbing together.

"I, uh, got here as fast as I could." With a laugh, I stepped aside to let her in.

"Calm down. You're in, you got the job. Welcome to team NERV." She took a moment and breathed in before fighting her fidgeting hands down to her sides.

"T–thanks."

"Don't worry about it. C'mon. We're in the dining room."

We walked in to see Misato shoving the last of the paperwork into a briefcase and irreverently passing it off to one of those guards.

"There you are, Doctor! Now that you're here, you'll probably want to see where you'll be working."

"Yeah, that'd be—that'd be great."

"Fantastic. Let's go, I'll drive." We made our way out of the mountain, Misato and Toriel keeping the conversation light with my occasional interjections. Alphys seemed a bit too nervous to add anything. The guards were silent as they followed us. I didn't expect too much from them, honestly. As we got outside, I managed to get an eyeful of the ongoing construction all around the mountain. In a couple weeks, the homes would be ready for people to move out to the surface. Toriel and I wouldn't be moving out until everybody but Asgore had found a home. She'd apologised to me for it, but I really didn't care that much. She was just being a good ruler.

They'd decided to follow what had now become monster naming tradition, and chosen a suitably obvious name for the town surrounding the mountain: Ebott.

"I mean, it makes sense, and it's better than New New Home."Chara was right. That idea had been thrown around briefly before everyone collectively realized that that would be a bad idea.

We made our way down the mountain path—Misato complaining all the while—and got to the one paved road leading to the mountain. The guards had their own van, but the rest of us loaded into Misato's car. The car which she assured me was special for some reason. As we drove, I noticed that Toriel and Alphys seemed to enjoy the feeling of the wind. Really, I couldn't blame them. They'd done the same thing with sunlight on that first day.

"Really makes you think about the things we take for granted. You know, the scientists when I was alive were trying to figure out how long the resources Underground would sustain us. I managed to get a look once. It wasn't a happy number. I dunno how, but The CORE was supposed to fix it." Huh. Wonder how they could make food out of electricity or lava or whatever it was that The CORE used. "Magic." You know, that was probably a fair answer.

The sight of the parking garage that marked NERV-01's entrance came into view, shaking me from my thoughts. To his credit, the gate guard barely gave a second glance at Toriel and Alphys. He must've been told to expect us. As we parked and made our way into the hidden elevator, Alphys oohed, awed, and asked questions. Toriel kept her face schooled into a polite expression. When the elevator opened up to the admin floor, Misato took the briefcase from the guard.

"Before we do anything, you two—" she pointed at Toriel and Alphys "—need to follow me to sign a few more Non-Disclosure Agreements. Frisk, go ahead to your locker room and get suited up, okay?" I gave her a thumbs–up, and Misato dragged the two monsters further into the admin floor. The doors closed, and I was left alone with the guards while the elevator continued to the Observation Deck.

"So, what're your names?" The guards didn't respond, but one of them gave me a funny look. "Or not. That's cool too."

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Alright Frisk, we're gonna take this one nice and slow so that we can get Dr Alphys up to speed on how this all works."

"'Kay. I'll be here."

"Let us know if you need anything."

With that, I was left sitting alone in my Entry Plug, the cover not slid on yet.

"Well, not alone." I was alone besides Chara. Chara didn't really count. "Oh come on, I count plenty." I guessed that she made a passable co-pilot. Almost. In response, Chara huffed. Mission accomplished. I decided to settle down for a nap. This would probably take a while, and they'd wake my up when they needed me.

Listening to Chara play around with the song that had been her recent project, I drifted off with a smile.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Come on, Asriel, it'll be fun!"

"I really don't think climbing that thing is a good idea."

We were looking up the cavern where I had first fallen down, the slight sunlight warming our heads. In particular, I was looking at a particularly craggy spot that I felt would be easy to climb.

"Asriel, have I ever steered you wrong?"

"Well, there was that one time when Mom—"

"Aside from that. We agreed never to talk about that." Asriel smiled, knowing he'd won that one. "Other than that one thing, have I ever steered you wrong?"

"Well, I guess not."

"That's the spirit! Come on, help me get up to that first short pillar and I'll lower the rope for you." Asriel laughed at my insistence, but came to help anyway. The first of the climbable spots may have been too high up for one kid, but it was no match for two kids standing on top of each other!

After some scrambling, it turned out that it was in fact a worthy opponent, but I had come out on top. Literally. With a smile, I lowered the rope so Asriel could get up.

"See, told you there was nothing to worry about."

"Never doubted you!" With the tone of his voice, you'd be hard pressed to think that he ever had. After taking a moment to figure out how to tie a knot, I dubbed the rope safe to climb.

"Come on up. The weather's fine!" It took a couple tries, but we managed to get Asriel up to me. It was a bit of a tight squeeze with both of us on top of the pillar, though.

"Okay, my turn to climb!"

"There we go!" I turned to pull the rope off of the jagged outcropping that I had tied it to, but it didn't budge. I tried to untie it, but almost knocked Asriel off in the process.

"Chara?"

"Yeah?"

"I think that's a slipknot."

"So?"

"It's only gonna get tighter when you pull."

"Oh."

"Don't worry," Asriel said. "I'll climb up without it. We can do this." Looking into his eyes, I could believe it.

"Alright, yeah." At my agreement, Asriel began to climb up. He was making good progress. He was almost at the next pillar up when he lost his grip.

I watched in cold terror as he fell some 20 feet down and hit the ground. He yelled in pain as he hit the ground. I immediately turned around and made my way back down with the rope, his yell echoing in my ears. The second my feet hit the ground, I ran over to Asriel. Looking him over, I was pretty sure that his leg wasn't supposed to bend that way. I mean, it never had before, and I wasn't an expert on monsters but he'd probably broken something and…

"MOM!" I called. She was just a couple chambers over. She'd have to hear us. "MOM!" Mom would come help. She had to! "MOM!"

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

I awoke to Chara's voice in my head and the sound of Chara's panicked yell in my ears.

"Come on Frisk, they're gonna start soon."

I rubbed my eyes for a moment before blinking them open.

"I'm awake!" I called out.

"Welcome back." Misato's voice greeted me. "We'll be inserting the entry plug in a moment. Go ahead and seal her up." I nodded and did as she asked, pressing the glowing button to seal the cover over the plug. I was met with a now familiar darkness.

"So, how was your sleep?" I took a moment to recollect the memory that I'd seen. "I guess that I forgot about that. Man, all of my stupid plans ended up getting everybody else hurt." That wasn't true. "Frisk, my last stupid plan killed me and my brother, broke up my parents, killed six human children, and caused a thousand years of darkness."

That was just being unfair. It was more like… several hundred years of darkness. Okay, yeah, it was pretty bad. Still, it was no reason to give up. Chara just had to stay determined. I'd fixed it. We'd fixed it. Well, most of it. Asriel was still a depressed flower, those kids were still dead, and Toriel still hated Asgore. Still, we'd gotten the monsters free, and that had to count for something.

"Look, you're trying to cheer me up, and I appreciate the thought, but you suck at it."

"Inserting Entry Plug." The voice of some lab tech interrupted our thoughts. Probably for the best. That was going nowhere fast. I let the ambient noise of the open comm channel fade into the background. I had an Eva to synch with.

SAVED​

I cleared my mind, retreating inward. I visualized myself floating in complete blackness, clad in my plug suit. I stopped. I breathed. Slowly, in and out. After a moment, or perhaps a couple minutes, I felt liquid running up my body. LCL. My blackness became orange, and the smell turned to sweetened blood. I began to feel the shadow–limbs surrounding mine, still as weak as ever. I focused on them, willing them to become more real. I tried, and I tried, but no matter what I did they wouldn't solidify. No amount of focus or effort would make it so. Despite my failure, time ran away from me. At some point, Alphys voice cut through my mind.

"Hey Frisk, we're gonna go ahead and pull you out. I think I have an idea. Won't be able to test it tonight, so you can go ahead and go home. We'll probably have the next test ready in the morning." The LCL lowered, and once I'd managed to cough the sweet liquid out of my lungs, I responded.

"Yeah, cool." I stopped in my tracks. "Alphys, are you gonna stay the night here?" The plug began to retract from the Eva.

"Well…" I laughed.

"You get to explain it to Undyne."

"I…"

"Not it." I put my finger up to my nose.

"...I'll text her."

"Probably smart."

Well, I probably shouldn't LOAD. Alphys seemed to have a plan that nobody else had managed to come up with. She'd be proud of her contribution, and I didn't want to take that away. I'd keep the SAVE there, though. Just in case things went wrong with her plan so that I could save her some embarrassment.

After I'd showered and changed, I stepped outside of the unlocker room to find Toriel flanked by two guards.

"So," she began. "Angels." I nodded. "Who plan to end the world. That you're going to be fighting. In a giant robot." She sounded a bit annoyed, and I wasn't quite sure who she was annoyed at. The Angels for wanting to end the world? NERV for roping me in? Me for jumping in headfirst? Either way…

"Yep." Toriel shook her head sadly.

"Well then, you'll need your rest. Let's go home."

The ride home was uneventful, and the walk back into the mountain was as long as ever. On the way back I shot Sans a text from my monster phone.

'On the way into Ebott. You free to hang out?'

His response was almost immediate.

'yeah'

Well, that settled that.

Once we got into the house, Toriel reheated some leftovers and we ate in relative silence. As soon as I finished the last bite, she broke the silence.

"Angels. Who plan to end the world. And you're going to fight them." I nodded at her. She closed her eyes and sighed. "I suppose that it would be foolish to ask you not to. To hold you tight and never let go." My throat dried up, but I managed a response.

"Yeah… Probably." Toriel stood, walked over, and knelt down in front of me, arms gently holding on to mine.

"What if you die, Frisk? The threat they described… Death could happen to anyone." She looked me straight in the eyes, determination marked into her face.

"I'll be careful. I won't die." At the very least, I wouldn't stay dead for long. She let out a humorless laugh before wrapping her arms around me.

"Of course not." A moment passed, and I hugged her back as best as I could. "Why must it always be my children who go to die? I don't… I'm not strong enough to lose another child."

"I didn't die to Undyne," I lied. "Or Muffet. Or Mettaton. Or Asgore. You didn't even manage to hit me once. I won't die. I promise." She only hugged me tighter. At Chara's gentle prodding, I continued. "The others weren't your fault. You couldn't have stopped what happened." She began shaking slightly. I held onto her for a moment before she pulled away, tears in her eyes.

"Look at me, a silly old woman needing comfort from her child."

"You're not silly." She hugged me again, holding on for a little while, then let me go, the tears wiped from her eyes.

"Thank you for saying that. Now, I have some business that I need to attend to. I can't afford to take too many days off like this." She stood up. "Will you be okay alone for a little while?" At my nod, she visibly relaxed. "Okay. I'll be in my room if you need me, please don't hesitate to knock."

"Okay." She gave me a pained smile and turned to leave for her room. Leaving me alone. Really that wasn't a concern, but…

"I didn't realize how she'd take this." Neither did I. It made sense in hindsight, but that still didn't make it a happy realization. I'd have to do something to make her feel more confident with what she saw as me throwing my life away.

"Maybe train with Undyne? Or Papyrus? Or maybe even Asgore? If we show off how good we are, then she might feel more confident about our abilities. Heck, we might even try to convince Sans to train with us." That… was a plan. It might even work. I sent a wave of positive feeling towards Chara. She was perfectly capable of making good plans. It was just that the bad ones were more memorable. With that decided, I texted Sans.

'In the Dining Room, wanna get Nice Cream?'

About three seconds later, I heard two very specifically timed knocks on the door. Approaching, I called through.

"Who's there?"

"howza."

"Howza who?"

"howza bout you let me in and save us some time" I opened the door to greet Sans' face. Or skull. Facial bones? I decided that the word face would save everyone some time.

"Toriel!" I called back into the house. "I'm heading out with Sans! I'll be back in an hour or so!" I heard a muffled affirmative, and I turned to the skeleton in question. "Ready to go?"

"yeah, sure. the nice cream guy isn't too far from here, actually."

"Are you saying we should walk?"

"kinda." we took one step and I found myself in an alleyway somewhere in the capital. After we bought our Nice Creams, we rounded a corner to see that we were on top of a several story building somewhere in what was presumably Boston. No, wait, that was the Washington Monument against the background of stars. D.C. then. Sans stepped up to the edge and sat down. I followed suit.

"so, what's up?"

"I LOADed a couple times today."

"yeah."

"Undyne was letting me help train the new Police. She said that the first one to land a hit on me won."

"lemme guess. nobody won?" I felt a small smile edge its way onto my face.

"Good guess." Sans didn't so much laugh at that as rock his head backward, which was kinda his equivalent for huffing air out of his nose. Seeing as he didn't breathe. Or have a nose. "I also pushed Misato to tell me about the terms of my adoption. She didn't want to. Luckily, she never did and I just happen to know everything that I need to know."

"convenient. what are the terms?" I sighed.

"I stay with Toriel until it becomes inconvenient for NERV."

"figures."

"There was some stuff that you probably want to know about, but none of it involves LOADs yet. Alphys got recruited by NERV. She thinks she has an idea about how to fix the problem with the Eva not moving."

"good. she's a good person. she deserves some work that doesn't make morality go cry in a corner."

"Yeah. I've got a SAVE set up so that I can help her impress the other NERV scientists if I have to." Sans shook his head. "What?"

"you."

"Me?"

"kid, you're one of the nicest people on the planet. i'm just taking that in with your potential for LOVE."

"I…"

"i pioneered the magic that lets someone see LOVE, you know. i did some modifications, made some adjustments, and now i can see the highest LOVE someone could easily slip into. LOVE can fade over time, but once you've been able to get into that mindset before, it gets easier to go back to it. undyne's rests at 1 with a potential for 7. broad range there. asgore's sits at 1 with a potential for 2. toriel's rests at 2 with potential for 5. that's really high for a monster. paps is 1 with a potential for 1. love him. you, though?" Sans looked straight at me with those hollow eyes of his. "you're one bad day from needing a bad time." I felt a shiver run down my spine.

"I'm being careful."

"i know. i'm keeping an eye out. but if those angel things can't be talked down… well, they might need some tough LOVE. if you ever think about turning on the world, though…" He trailed off, but he'd made his point.

"If that happens, you won't be able to stop me." His pupils narrowed. "I mean it. I killed you once. I just… don't like to think about it."

"that's what i don't get. why? if you don't like to think about it, why do it?" I took a deep breath, and Chara gently pushed me onwards.

I supposed that it was time.

"Because I was mad. I was mad, and the only way I knew to deal with that was to hurt people. Then people kept hurting me, and I got more mad. I got mad at Toriel for trying to coddle and pity me, I got mad at Papyrus for not defending himself, I got mad at Undyne for calling me subhuman, I got mad at you for being in my way." I lay back, looking up at the stars. I couldn't bear to look at Sans right now. I just had to say it. If I started talking and didn't stop, it would be easier.

"Then I died. And I got mad. Then I died again. And again. And again. Over and over and over again. Sans, you're pretty good at your job. You killed me a lot. Eventually, it stopped being about me being mad, and more about me wanting to win the fight. Then I started having fun fighting you. I know it's screwed up, but I've never had more fun than in that fight. When I finally beat you, I started thinking about what you had tried to tell me. I started thinking about what you and Undyne and Papyrus and even Toriel had said. I thought about what I'd done. I thought about the power that had immediately gone to my head. I was huddled and curled up on that Judgement Hall floor for a while before I managed to do anything. I Reset and got to know the people that I killed. You can kinda figure out the rest."

There was a long moment of silence.

"that's, uh, pretty messed up." I didn't respond. "you're just carrying that around, huh?" I closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around myself.

"If you want to toss me off the building or something, we'd both just lose an hour."

"kid, frisk, you're my friend. yeah, sure, you've killed literally everyone that i care about in an abandoned timeline, and i don't know how i can make that better. all i got is, i dunno, some good food? bad laughs? nice friends?" I barked out a dry laugh.

"Well, you were right. The anomaly was unhappy. And then the anomaly was having the time of her life."

"frisk, i don't know how to fix this. i don't think that i can. all i can do is be here if you need to talk, help you out when i can. you… you gotta tell me about stuff for me to do that, okay? i don't want you to be in a headspace like that just as much as i don't want you to kill everyone. you're my pal. maybe we can find an outlet for some of that pent up aggression?"

"Been playing tag with Papyrus and helping Undyne."

"is that scratching that itch?"

"No," I sighed. "It's not. When I killed Undyne, she managed to Determination herself back together and became like ten times harder to… beat. You, well, you're you. Both times, the challenge is what made it fun."

"you gotta see this from my perspective here. if i help you find fun friendly fights, then you get better at fighting, and it lowers my ability to stop you if i need to."

"Sure you don't want to throw me off the building?"

"wouldn't accomplish anything."

"I guess."

Another pregnant silence passed between us.

"kid, can i trust you? with my life? with everyone's lives?"

"I…"

"because those NERV people do, and they don't know what they're dealing with. so, can i trust you? can you promise me, swear on everything that nothing like that first go through will ever happen again? frisk, look at me." I sat up slowly, and opened my eyes to find his face as serious as I'd ever seen it. "promise me."

"I promise."

"not good enough. swear on something, something important." I thought for a moment about something important enough. Ah.

"The Dreemurr name. I swear on the Dreemurr name that nothing like that will ever happen again." There was a moment where Sans' intense stare stayed focused on me before he visibly relaxed.

"well, that's settled. i trust you." With that, a weight lifted off of my shoulders that I hadn't realized I'd been carrying. "now let's see about finding you some worthy opponents."

We spent the rest of the night chatting about different ways to make fights harder while minimizing my ability to actually inflict violence. It was nice.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

I managed to catch a ride on the Sans express to NERV. More specifically, an alleyway a block or so from NERV. He knew exactly where they were, and I didn't ask why. I had a feeling that I wouldn't exactly love the answer. No need for that. Still, the gate guard's face when I walked up to the gate unaccompanied and flashed him my ID was priceless. Making my way down the elevator—turned out that my NERV ID works as a pass for the elevator—the doors opened to reveal the new Chief talking to Misato. Hunley, I think it was? When they saw me, they dropped whatever they were talking about.

"Frisk! Ready for some more tests?" I groaned in response, prompting a grin from Misato. "Oh, come on. These will hardly be invasive at all." My glare earned a laugh. "None of that now. Dr. Hunley here is confident that this new test will help them figure something out."

"Alright. Fine. Let's go."

Misato and Dr. Hunley led me to the medical lab, continuing their conversation about something that seemed thoroughly adulty. Suffice to say, I wasn't paying attention.

When we stepped into the lab, we found two things. The first was Alphys napping on the exam table. The second was a huge ugly machine covered in wires and with all sorts of plating removed. It had a thick set of wires leading up to some saucers that were hung from the ceiling to surround said exam table.

"What's that?"

"That," Dr. Hunley began, "is what we're going to be using to examine you. It's normally a diagnostic tool that we use to identify problems in the Eva, but Dr. Alphys felt that it would be worth downsizing. After taking a second look at the data, I can't help but agree. Speaking of her…" Before he could do something, I walked over to shake Alphys awake.

"Alphys, it's morning." She idly swatted in my direction, but I kept shaking. "Alphys. It's time to wake up. You have to do weird SOUL science stuff." After a moment more, she finally opened her eyes.

"Wh–what time is it?"

"Exam time." She looked up at me, then her surroundings, then at me again.

"Oh." There was a pause. "I fell asleep."

"You were working hard, you're fine. Dr. Hunley probably wants to start, though, so you should get up." She looked around, and picked out Dr. Hunley's and Misato's amused faces. She flushed and stood.

"I'm so sorry, I—"

"You're fine," Hunley interrupted. "Let's just get started."

"Of–of course." She turned back to me. "Frisk, can you go ahead and sit up here for me?" She patted the table, and I obliged. "Now I'm going to need to take any electronics that you have on you. They'll mess with the readings. Or explode." I quirked an eyebrow and handed over my phones—both my NERV issued phone and the one Alphys had given me.

"If that's what they do to electronics…" I trailed off.

"Luckily, you're not electronic." Hunley met my implied question with cold sarcasm. I decided that I liked him.

After some more checking up on the machine, the three adults retreated to the other room of the lab behind the one–way–glass. I waited for a moment. Then another. Then another. Then I waited for several moments in quick succession to spice things up. Eventually, I heard the machine around me whirring to life. It was less of a noise, and more a buzzing that I could feel in my SOUL. I wouldn't have even noticed were it not for my extensive experience having my SOUL manipulated for one reason or another. A couple minutes after that, the three adults came back into the exam room, Alphys wringing her hands.

"Frisk?" she asked.

"Yeah?" I cocked my head to the side.

"As your acting Doctor here, you know you can trust me, right?" I didn't know what this was about, but I wasn't going to let that stand.

"Of course I trust you, Alphys. Promise." She came to stand right next to me, looking somewhere between nervous and concerned.

"Frisk, is, uh, well, I don't know how to ask this."

"Just ask. I won't get mad at whatever it is."

"Okay." She took a deep breath and stood up a bit straighter. "Frisk, is there anybody else in your head?"

"Oh, shit."

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A/N: Sorry about the huge delay. I could blame school or work or whatever, but really it's just me. Sorry, folks. Better late than never, though.
As for the snip: the pacing seems rushed and I don't know how to fix it. If anyone has anything to add or any thoughts that might contribute, I'd appreciate it.