Core Issues: Season Four
by Nicolle

Disclaimer: Undertale is the creation of Toby Fox. Gaster!Sans, our lovely narrator, is the the creation of Borurou. This story is copyrighted to me.

1. And here's another season of Core Issues! As in the past, I will post an episode the Thursday after the first draft of the next episode is finished. This is typically weekly.

2. This story is rated T for language, suggestive jokes/themes, and violence.

3. Today, Dec. 15th, 2016 marks the first official anniversary of Core Issues! Yes, I know that the very first story appeared on ffnet on 12/19/2016, but this day in history, one year ago, was the day I showed the original story to Borurou, the creator of G!Sans.

Ep. 1 - The More Things Change...

A vibration on my sternum jolted me awake. I sat up and my phone slipped between my ribs, hitting the couch. I sighed, picked it up, and flinched at the brightness of the screen.

"It's three in the morning, Blue."

He knew, like most Sans, I didn't go to sleep until one in the morning. I swiped the message away and paused for a moment to gaze at the photo I was using for a wallpaper: Frisk sunning herself at the beach while the kids played in the sand. Smiling, I tapped the power button to turn off the screen before shoving the phone in my pocket. I looked around for a bottle of Red Hot sauce, found one on the coffee table, and took a swig. I sighed contentedly at the burning sensation on my tongue.

I'd fallen asleep on the couch in the living room, as normal, but for the first time in a long time, I wasn't woken up by my children jumping on top of me. The kitchen light glowed, sending a rectangular swath across Frisk's vintage, cherry wood, dining table. A quick peek revealed Asriel yawning as he prepped the custard for French toast in the morning. He noticed me watching and gave me a sleepy wave as he set the blender to run, using the counter to hold himself upright in an attempt to refuse sleep. In a few minutes, the goat king would pass out on the trundle in the kids' room, sleeping until they woke their uncle for breakfast. Or cuddled him. For a big, intimidating, goat monster, he had pretty soft fur.

The red glow that accompanied C's hologram beckoned me to the kitchen table. It blinked out suddenly as Frisk murmured ascent into her phone. She smiled up at me from the table, still in her pink floral nightgown as her pen scribbled across the paper under her hand. Her long hair lay across her back and hung loose over the back of the turquoise blue chair she'd salvaged from a defunct 50's diner.

I waved the bottle of Red Hot at her. "Thanks for the refill, Babe."

She put down her phone. "Thank Az. He bought you an entire flat yesterday."

I gave the goat prince a salute only to have him sleepily wave me off. He put the custard in the fridge and wandered out the door to the kid's bedroom.

"Where is Blue sending us now?"

She smiled.

I walked up behind her, grabbing the kid's hair brush from the shelf over the table to brush her hair before braiding it down. "What?"

Frisk relaxed, letting me handle the work. "Just happy to be back on missions full time."

Finishing up the braid, I tied it off with an elastic band that had previously been wound around the brush handle. "Getting tired of Cross showing you up in the field?"

She snorted as she stood. "Please. I am a far better agent then he is." She gave me a bright smile. "Just happy to spend more time with you."

I put my hands on her waist and smirked. "You just wanted to be back in uniform."

Frisk rolled those beautiful blue eyes. "Yeah. You caught me." She ran a finger down my fur lined, leather bomber jacket, admiring it. "But it looks better on me."

I pulled her against me with a huff. "I own this look."

She blushed at the sudden closeness. Even after all these years, she still flushed at my touch, my nearness. Deciding to tease, I pulled the slip of paper from her hand and glanced at the equations in her neat script. "Any details?"

Frisk pouted, miffed at the sudden change in our 'relational momentum.' "Just that Fase isolated an anomaly." She frowned, her expression moving back onto mission. "No one's called for help, but she's pretty sure that's because the Sans involved is the one causing the anomaly."

I nodded. "Standard op, then?"

"As soon as I gear up."

Her legs were unsteady as she stepped toward the door and I grabbed her arm to steady her. "Woah there, Sunflower. Why were you up this late?"

Frisk shook herself a little. "I wasn't. I'm just groggy from waking up too early."

Following her out the apartment door, I was careful to shut it tightly behind me. I slid down the banister on my rear and waited for her at the bottom of the stairs. "Aaah. I thought you'd be tired from all the 'snu-snu.'"

She groaned. "I am not letting you watch Futurama anymore." She opened the door to the equipment room and dropped her nightgown on a bench to change into her armor reinforced uniform.

"You always threaten that and never follow up." I leaned against the door, giving her my best, lecherous smile. An easy thing to do since I was getting something of a show while she dressed. "So, no 'Netflix and Chill' this weekend?"

Frisk picked up her jacket, the one that was a replica of mine, and put it on. "I'm going to pound you into the floor now."

"Bow chicka bow wow!"

When Frisk reached for me, I grabbed her arm and pulled her against my rib cage. She flushed again as the phalanges of my left hand slid around the back of her head. Being careful not to touch her implants, I pulled her mouth to mine. Her hands slid up to fist my jacket before I pulled back.

"Ready?"

Frisk smiled bright and beautiful as she nodded. I slipped an arm around her waist as she pulled up the collar of her dark turtleneck to cover the back of her neck. Something she'd only started doing again since the 'favor' for her former CO. C's chip had been damaged beyond repair and the hit she'd taken meant several of the implants had to be replaced. I could make out the thin blue lines traveling around her neck and up to the edges of her cheeks under her skin. C's new A.I. chip had ten times the computing power of the last, so the replacement was long overdue, but Frisk was always careful of him and the damage striking it might cause either of them.

Lifting my left hand, I turned it so instead of seeing through the hole, I was gazing into my very own, very personal, rift in time and space. In the darkness I could see the twinkle of other timelines like stars in the night sky. I solved the equations, the math humming warmly in my head. The darkness in that space parted and pulled us into the void. We landed outside a violet brick house made from the clay unique to the cavern floor in the Ruins. It was the same clay that sustained the golden flowers that grew in the only place here light reached. I would have called the place Asriel's in my timeline, but it was consistently Toriel's in just about every other.

Before I could knock on the door, a bright yellow, and very familiar, flower monster appeared in front of me.

"Well it's about time! Where have you two been?" Flowey paused looking at us. "Wait. You are not my Smiley Trash bag and you sure as hell aren't my Frisk." Thick green vines covered in thorns burst from the ground to surround us, though not close enough to attack just yet, just threaten. "Who are you?"

Frisk raised an eyebrow, arms crossed over her chest. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was doing a great impression of the goat king. "We're Seraph Agents investigating an anomaly and before you do anything, you might want to check my LOVE."

Flowey blinked and then blanched with a hiss. The vines slid away with a loud rumble and disappeared under the ground. He gave Frisk a wicked little smile. "Well aren't you just a bucket full of murder! So how many tries did it take before you ended your Comedian?"

Frisk inclined her head toward me. "I didn't end him. Though we have thrown down on the training floor."

Flowey disappeared and reappeared back a ways from us. "This isn't right. I've seen Seraph agents before, but never human ones with that level of violence. You are way too happy. What's happening here?"

"I'm former military and my command provided amazing mental health care after the war." She gestured to him, welcoming him to offer information. "Want to fill us in on what's going on?"

Flowey dove into the ground and reappeared in front of us. "Sans disappeared a week ago. Frisk went looking for him and hasn't come back."

"Is the barrier open?" I asked.

The flower shook his yellow petals. "No. Frisk reset just before Sans disappeared. I'm not sure why. He refused to explain. The Trashbag certainly wasn't saying anything."

"Has Frisk killed anyone?" Frisk asked.

Another shake, though this time he looked more like Asriel then Flowey. "No. When Sans didn't meet him at the bridge, he broke script, and disappeared as well."

Frisk and I looked at each other. "Check the workshop."

"What workshop?!" Flowey yelled. Yeah. Flowey's never liked it when you pointed out information they didn't already know.

I shook my skull. "Is your mother in the house?"

Flowey frowned viciously. "Don't call her that!" he barked.

I shrugged. "Fair enough. The question stands."

Flowey drooped, looking again like Asriel. "Yeah."

I put an arm around Frisk and short cut us to the Skele-bros' house. The lights were on inside, but a check of the windows revealed the house was empty but for a small, white, annoying dog. He was chewing away on one of the bones Papyrus stored for his special attack. I pulled out my keys and tried the lock on this world's version of my old workshop. To my surprise, the lock turned and the door popped open. I flipped on the light and looked around. The lab was cleaned out. The time machine, the blue prints, everything was gone. The tile flooring had even been mopped and shined.

Wow. A Sans who actually cleaned. That made two of us!

I stepped outside and pulled the door shut, triggering the lock. "It's cleaned out."

Flowey appeared in front of us. "Warn me when you're going to do that!"

Frisk looked at him. "You're interested in coming along?"

The flower huffed, pretending to be annoyed when he was obviously worried. His words came out with a practiced venom. "Frisk's Determination still rules this world. And I'm stuck until he decides to leave it behind."

C burst to life on Frisk's shoulder. "Oh my God. I am SO glad my brother didn't become this douche."

"Chara?"

Flowey's white face suddenly looked like Asriel instead of the demonic, serial murdering flower. He shook his petaled head, tears threatening. "No. You're wrong too. You aren't my sister."

C looked at Frisk and she shrugged. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yes."

"Good to know." Frisk looked inside the nearest window, watching the annoying dog roll on the carpet. "Where's Papyrus?"

Flowey frowned. "He's been all over the Underground looking for Sans." He kind of shuffled a bit, rubbing his leaves together nervously. "I've been helping him look, but I... There are places I can't go here."

I raised a brow bone. "Even so, it's not like they just fell down a hole and disappeared."

Flowey rolled his eyes, suddenly his flower self again. "Oh like that's never happened before!"

I smirked. "So where can't you go Flowey?"

He climbed up to my shoulder, vines slithering around my arm and reaching under my jacket to anchor around my clavicle. "The True Lab and the lower levels of the Core. So what's in that room? I could never get in it."

"Sans' workshop, except it's cleaned out. He took everything before he left."

"Could he have hooked it up to the Core?" Frisk asked. "Whenever a Sans cleans out the workshop, that's normally the next step."

I frowned. "Is your Gaster dead or alive, Flowey?"

"Who?"

I looked at Frisk and C. Both had a matching frown and I sighed. "Was it that bad last time?"

Frisk shook her head and took my hand for the short cut, fingers lacing with my phalanges. "No. You're getting better at throwing off the influence. It might be because you've been spending more time in the Core at home."

I short cut us to the walkway into the Core, Flowey clutching my bones tightly. "You think so? Then why the frown?"

She smiled as C shook his holographic head. "There's a LOT of you in the influence lately."

I paused at the door and looked at her. "Is there something I should know?"

Frisk offered me her most devious smile and waited for me to huff before answering. "Nothing I haven't already told you." She pulled the door open and stopped to look back. "You do get handsy."

I groaned. I was aware that, as Gaster, I loved her just as deeply. My long time amnesia following bouts of being him subsided when I made the effort to give that part of me actual space to live and breath. It worked out well. I had access to more of my head and was able to use many of the skills Wing Dings had mastered before the split that created Papyrus and I. I also had more control over when another Gaster took me over. But if Frisk was with me when I went to the Core... handsy wasn't enough to describe it. My favorite test subject indeed.

But that, that had been bleeding over to when I was 'under the influence' elsewhere? I knew that being possessed often translated into an, at the very least, mild fascination for another Gaster. But that it had been getting... intimate... That I had not known about. I frowned and followed Frisk into the Core.

"What are you two blathering about?" Flowey asked.

"Do you know who made the Core, Flowey?"

The flower shrugged. "No."

"It was made by a skeleton monster named Wing Dings Gaster. An accident in the Core spread him across time and space in this timeline. In my timeline, it split him into two people: my brother and myself."

Flowey laughed, smile wicked. "So you're only half a person?"

I rolled my eye. "Nah. I'm a whole person and half of another one. And that half can be influenced by the Dr. Gaster's in other timelines. So sometimes I turn into a good man and sometimes I turn into a real asshole." I let my eye go dark. "Be prepared."

The Flower sank down a little and that part of him that was still a scared child appeared for a moment. His vines crept along my clavicle, unwilling to let go for the same reason he wanted too: the illusion of safety. We headed for the elevator and went down. Frisk walked ahead of me and Flowey put his face against my ear hole. "Why does your Frisk have so much LOVE? She said she was military but all the royal guard does is stand around down here."

"It's pretty up there, huh?" I smiled. "Frisk was an adult when she fell. She fought in a war, and earned her LV that way." I paused, remembering the assault on the Foundation so long ago. Her Determination to keep our fostered daughter Verdana safe no matter the cost to herself. "Well, most of it anyway." I shrugged.

Flowey frowned. "So what was in the workshop? Why take it to the Core?"

"A broken time machine that can never be fixed. Occasionally a Sans gets some strange idea and hooks it into the Core. It's never a good idea."

"You're awfully free with the information," the flower monster observed.

I shrugged. "No reason to keep it to myself since it's beyond you to do much about it."

He threw me an awful frown. Then suddenly he looked sad. "What did Chara mean when he said he was glad his brother wasn't me?"

"In our world you didn't die. Queen Toriel crossed the barrier with Chara's body."

The flower drooped, petals closing around his face. "How? How did Chara convince her to kill the humans?"

C burst to life on my shoulder, right in Flowey's face. "I didn't! I didn't commit suicide! I lost the fight to cancer! Mom took me across the barrier so I could be buried on the surface!" He backed off a little, but his voice turned dark. "Buried in the freedom she could never have. And she died for it."

Flowey leaned away from C's hologram, taken aback by the fury. C disappeared from my shoulder, but did not reappear on Frisk's. She stopped for a moment, head bowed for a moment. C must have been griping up a storm because she was fighting a smile. We were getting close. The power of the Core crawled through my bones like little fingers brushing against my ribs and spine.

"He's here," I warned.

I let the influence wash over me.

xxx

A yellow petaled, flower monster stared at me with undisguised confusion from my shoulder. His vines were wrapped through my bones, though by the way he moved, he wasn't sure if he should leave or stay. Fascinating!

I looked around. The hallway was too dusty. The tiles underneath my feet were positively grimy. I would have to speak to janitorial about sweeping and mopping more often. Very unbecoming. The hall was also empty. Where are the photos? The certificates? The schematics?

I frowned and looked to the flower monster. "Would there be a reason you're sitting on my shoulder?"

The flower shook its head like it didn't understand what I had said. How interesting that a monster would be so bold as to be physically on me and not be able to understand my speech. Obviously not an assistant. In looking at him I caught sight of the fur lining to the hood of my jacket. It was most unusual. It was black leather and had a Gaster Blaster embroidered over a Delta Rune, giving it the impression of having wings. I quite liked it, though it wasn't very practical for my work. I'd have to change into a lab coat. I noticed that I wasn't wearing a sweater or at least a button down. My ribs were completely exposed. This was less than acceptable.

"Are you all right, Bones?"

A thrum went up my spine. A very pleasurable sensation. Dark, warm, and very familiar. The voice had come from the woman standing in front of me. The human woman in front of me. There was a human in the Underground. She came up to my clavicles in height, and even covered under a dark blue turtle neck and black cargo pants, she was evidently of an athletic build. Her face was thin around bright blue eyes, softly round at the cheeks, pointed at the chin. A very long, thick braid of brown hair rested on her shoulder.

"And who might you be?" I asked.

"Your favorite test subject."

Oh? She understood me! Very interesting. She called me "Bones." While rather appropriate to describe me, it was also inappropriately intimate. Or was it? She wore a gold ring in the way wedded humans were supposed to and I bore it's match on my phalanges. She wore a fur lined, leather jacket to match mine. I found that uniquely satisfying.

The flower monster looked between the two of us. "What's he saying?"

"He's asking who I am." She took my hand. "If you'd be so kind, Dr. Gaster, I need your assistance. There's a skeleton monster named Sans who may have hooked a broken machine into the Core. It's a very dangerous thing to do and I will need your help in disconnecting it."

"Sans? My assistant? Why would he do something so reckless?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I'm not sure he's even here. It's just my best guess." She looked a little lost and I had a sudden urge to erase that feeling in any way that I could.

I squeezed her hand. "I will help you, but I have another concern. You said you were my favorite test subject, but I don't remember such a fascinating individual. If you would be so kind as to relieve me of my confusion, I would be very happy to explore how you would be a... favorite of mine." I lifted her hand to my face, nuzzling the back of her soft fingers.

The woman sighed and the warm smile she gave me made my knees a bit weak. So very interesting that a complete stranger had this effect on me. I had to stuff my other hand in my pocket to stop from reaching for her again.

A red hologram of a human boy appeared on her shoulder. "Oh my God! How many times has he fed you that exact line?"

The woman ignored the hologram and pulled her hand from mine slowly, letting the tips of her fingers gently graze my mandible. "I'm Frisk, and the way you are now, we haven't met yet."

"The way I am now? An interesting way to phrase it, don't you think? I can tell that I am not exactly myself. I am too short. I am dressed very inappropriately. And I am rather..." I leaned in toward her. "Inspired by the presence of human woman that I have no memory of. One who let me touch her freely in an intimate way." I caught her left hand, lifting it to see the wedding ring. I lifted my hand to examine the golden ring that glittered on my boney finger. "We are well acquainted."

Frisk pulled me down the hall. "The Core. We have to check the Core. We can talk about how well we know each other after we know the Core is fine. You know what it means if the reactor that houses the energy is tampered with."

I frowned and nodded. Adjusting my jacket, I strode ahead of her and deeper into the building. Froze when I entered the control room, my shock turned to outrage at the complete emptiness of the area. There wasn't even a sign of the regular staff, let alone the interns. Frisk lead the way to the mechanism that was the actual Core itself. The housing was empty and working perfectly. I gripped the railing for a moment, looking at my greatest work. Everything was in working order but something was off. I frowned.

She sighed. "He's not here. Now what?"

I trapped her between myself and the near wall. "Now we discuss our acquaintance."

Hands off my wife.

I blinked.

"You know that you aren't yourself right now. It's because you know you don't truly exist anymore. You've stolen my husband's body."

I frowned. "Then is my fascination with you his feelings alone?"

She thought about it. "Most likely."

I touched her face gently, feeling the soft skin under my phalanges. Whether this thrum running up my spine was my own fascination or another's, I was not going to lie to myself and say that it wasn't pleasurable.

I said, Hands Off.

My hand dropped.

Listen, friend. I don't mind you hanging around in here, but Frisk and I have a job to do and children to get home too. Move it along or I kick you out.

The flower monster on my shoulder watched me nervously. "What's going on? Why is his eye flickering?"

Frisk watched me, waiting patiently and completely relaxed though I had her trapped against the wall. I had a sudden and distinct feeling that I was not a physical threat to her in the least. This was both disconcerting and very intriguing.

"My husband's having a word with him."

I sighed. "What happens to me when we leave this place?"

"Your essence continues to linger here, watching over your greatest creation."

I nodded, stepping away from her. I turned and looked up at the device that I had spent so much of my life building. Everything was still in working order, but nothing had been maintained in years. That's what was wrong here. It'd been left to run with no one and nothing to watch over it. Forgotten. Like me.

I turned back to Frisk. "I will not give up this body."

All right. Play time's over. Get out.

xxx

I held my skull in my hands. "Fuck that hurts!"

Frisk put a hand on my arm, pulling me toward her and away from the railing. I gave her a pained smile as she rubbed my skull, fingers carefully tracing over the long crack on the top. I nuzzled against her, pressing my head against her touch, attempting to equalize the pressure I felt inside my skull with pressure from the outside.

"He really didn't want to leave his 'baby,' huh?"

I nodded and took her hand to squeeze it.

"Tell me when you feel okay enough to head out. We'll need a new plan."

"Why didn't you kick that thing out to start?!" Flowey growled.

Frisk gently pressed against my skull away from the crack, moving her hand to that place she knew to press gently with her palm. "Kicking out an unwilling Gaster is agonizing. Letting me talk the good doctor into leaving is our go to option. "

The Flower frowned. "So now what?"

"Give us a minute."

He groaned in annoyance, but genuinely looked worried. Frisk pulled me closer, giving me a chance to rest my skull on her shoulder, to breath in her warmth. She still smelled like the sunflower and honey soap she used when she showered before bed. When the headache went from sharp pain to dull thrum, I stood up and rolled my shoulders.

"All right. New plan. Let's try the True Lab."

Frisk nodded and yawned.

"Do you want a break?"

She shook her head. "I didn't have any coffee when I got up."

I put an arm around her, waiting while she hooked a finger in one loop of my jeans. "Oh you and your caffeine addiction."

I short cut us to right outside the Lab. RG1 and RG2 stood guard at the path up to the elevator. We gave them a wave and got one in return. Frisk knocked on the door. There was no response. Frisk shrugged and opened the door, heading inside. The lights were on, but no one sat at the computer. Piles of books and dying ramen cups littered the desk and floor.

"Alphys? Are you in here?"

A large, metal box came down the escalator. Mettaton stood on one wheel, arms snaking out when he reached the bottom. "Hello, Darlings!" He stopped short. "I don't believe we've met."

Frisk smiled, instantly happy. I don't know why she loved the tin can so much, but MTT was one of her favorite people. "We haven't but we're big fans!"

"Alphys said she was expecting someone but I was sure they'd already arrived."

"Was it Sans? He's a skeleton monster. We're actually looking for him."

MTT tapped the side of his box. "I don't know for sure, but she did take her guest down into the basement."

"Thank you." Frisk pulled out a pen and her autograph book. "Can I have an autograph?"

"What...?" Flowey watched with mouth hanging open. "Seriously?!" he barked.

I shrugged while MTT signed the autograph and posed for a selfie. "In every timeline she has the chance, she asks for an autograph. The selfie is a bonus."

Flowey rolled his eyes as Frisk put the autograph book away with profuse thanks. We headed to the elevator as Mettaton rolled away.

"You know what's down here, right?" Flowey cringed against me suddenly.

"Yeah. We know. My Alphys made them too. They're living happily with their families now."

The elevator door opened on a dark lobby and no noise but the hum of the vending machine. We went around the corner into the bunk room. Alphys lay in one of the beds, unconscious. Frisk gasped and ran for the lizard woman.

A set of glowing bones leapt from the floor in front of her and she crashed into them. Frisk hit the floor and rolled to her feet in a crouch, looking for Sans. I spotted him at the door that led to the Determination Extraction Machine.

"The door!" I yelled.

Frisk's eyes followed my direction. "What's going on, Sans?"

"*Seraph agents? Crap." Sans lifted his arm, summoning a barrier of bones between us and the door to the DT Extraction machine. "*Sorry, kids. But I can't let you stop this one."

Frisk shot forward from the crouch and made a straight dash for Sans. The skeleton froze for a moment, completely stunned at the forward attack, before summoning a volley of bones.

"Left!" C yelled.

Frisk ducked behind a bed, a line of bones missing her by a hair. She came up on the other side of the bed and jumped a set of bones coming up underneath her.

"Duck!"

Frisk hit the floor to dodge a set of GB blasts, and rolled across the floor until she was clear enough to kip up. I cut a rift in space, pulling two of my GB's through and ordered them to attack. They shot forward, engaging Sans' GB's with fast and furious bites. They both balked and ran, unprepared for an assault by combat trained Blaster's.

"Straight ahead!"

She spun just enough to dodge a volley from the right and dive toward the skeleton, smashing him into the floor with a roll. Her soul turned blue and I cut out the magic before he could throw her. She came up sitting on his rib cage.

"Behind. Catchable."

Frisk reached back and picked the bone flying toward her head out of the air. She held it over him like a baseball bat. "I'd settle down, before you go through all that HP you've saved up by sleeping so much," Frisk said.

Sans froze. "*You're 'that' Frisk, aren't you? You're Church." Defeat crawled over his face. "*Craaaaaap."

A young boy appeared in the door. "Sans? Sans!" He banged against the bones, desperate to get through. "Please don't hurt him!"

Frisk stood, dropping the bone. She knelt next to the barrier to look at the child on the other side. "You're Frisk."

The boy nodded, reaching through the bones to touch her hair. "You're Frisk too." He smiled.

She laid her hand over his, that thing that made all Frisks fascinated with each other kicking in. "What's going on?"

The boy sighed, looking at his scruffy tennies. "I want to give Asriel a piece of my soul. Make him, him again. That's why I reset."

Flowey just stared at the boy, mouth hanging open. He dove from my shoulder, parting the floor of the lab like it was water, and reappeared in front of Frisk. "Really?"

He smiled big. "It was Chara's idea! We think it will give you enough to be you again."

Tears formed in the flower's eyes, his face suddenly looking like Asriel's again. "I..."

Alphys shivered in her sleep, and one of the amalgamates appeared to draw a blanket over her. "That's a really dangerous idea, kiddo." I offered Sans a hand up and he took it. "Do you really think you can do it?"

Sans frowned and released the barrier in the doorway. "*I don't know. But for the kid, I'll try."

"Wait." C burst to life on Frisk's shoulder. "There's a not evil me here?"

The boy looked at C. "Chara helps me out a lot." He reached up, his hand going through the hologram. "Cool." He blinked eyes becoming red. "Hello."

C frowned. "So what happened to kill all the humans?"

There was a soft sigh. "I was a mess. I blamed everyone for the way only a very few treated me. Frisk helped me see that. I just wanted what was best for my family and didn't realize the harm I was causing them." He blinked again eyes returning to a green flecked hazel.

Frisk looked up at me. "Well?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Let me call Fase to be sure she can right us if it goes wrong."

Sans looked up at me. "*You aren't going to stop us?"

"Not unless Fase says it'll do something that will harm the timeline." I pulled out my phone, smiling at my wallpaper for a moment, and called.

Fase's voice of cheery doom fell from the speaker. "Hello, Father! How may I assist you?"

"The anomaly turns out to be a script break. This timeline's Frisk wants to split a piece of their soul off so Flowey can be Asriel again."

"It is possible. Let me find you the information on that." Fase hummed to herself as she searched through her files. "Ah! Here's what I've got. In timelines where Frisk split their soul to give Asriel a true existence, it lead to Frisk ceasing to be human and becoming a boss monster. In some timelines, the two were then able to break the barrier open and in others everyone remained trapped."

Flowey shook his head. "No. Frisk must remain human. I won't go through with something that will hurt his soul."

Frisk turned to me. "How did the Prime Frisk do it? How did they save Asriel? I know they did. How was it achieved?"

I could almost see Fase's digital image shake its head. "Blue has never recorded how it was done. All I know is that the Prime timeline is the only place it is achieved perfectly. In other timelines, a different sacrifice must take Asriel's place such as in your timeline, or the script must be entirely different, such as in the Shipworks and on the Colony Ship Delta."

Frisk looked up at me. "When a boss monster has a child, the child takes a piece of the parent's power which is why the child is able to grow up. As they age, so does their boss monster parent. That power becomes the child's soul, creating a new boss monster."

"And for Asriel, you need a piece of Toriel and Asgore." I smiled. "Fase, run the numbers and tell me whether or not that would work."

"I..." Fase trailed off.

I rolled my eye. "Blue's there, isn't he? Ask him if it will work."

I heard a chuckle and could see him shrugging in my mind. "*welp. it might. it might not." I could almost see the wink. "*let me know how it goes." The phone went dead.

Frisk stood. "So the new plan is to convince Toriel and Asgore to give Asriel a new soul?"

I nodded. "Seems to be."

She looked at the boy. "Frisk? You need to go back on script and open the barrier before you attempt this." She gently touched Flowey's petals, running her finger along the edges. "We need your parents talking to each other and you need your body back. The final battle grants those things."

Frisk frowned. "So how do we go back? Do I reset again?"

"When was your last save?"

"Before fighting mom."

"Going back to that will be enough," I said.

We heard the elevator ding and several feet pounding toward us. The royal guard rounded the corner, Undyne at the front in full armor, red ponytail flying behind her.

"Alphys! We've had reports of a human in the Underground. I need to know what your cameras have picked up." She stopped when she saw Alphys lying in the bed. Summoning a spear she turned it on all of us, the guard fanning out around her. "I better hear a good reason why Alphys is out cold and the rest of you are standing around."

Frisk smiled, realizing that this Undyne didn't know what a human looked like. The boy Frisk stood mostly hidden behind her. She winked at him and turned to Undyne with both hands held up. "Alphys..." She paused and looked at Undyne suspiciously. "Wait. How did you know about the elevator or the rest of the lab?"

Undyne frowned. "That weird robot friend of hers told me about the elevator."

Frisk pulled out her autograph book and looked at the signature. She flipped through other pages of the book and back to the newest autograph. "That wasn't Mettaton." She looked at me. "The anomaly isn't what they're doing here. That's why Blue was so laid back about it. They're doing what they're supposed too." She looked at Undyne. "Which way did the robot go?"

"You still haven't answered my question!" Undyne yelled.

"Sans?"

"*she was passed out at her desk when i came in. i just moved her down to a bed."

Frisk put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. I squeezed my eye sockets shut for the same reason: the time we found our Alphys asleep under the conference table in Asriel's office because she didn't want to leave the project she was working on unfinished.

Undyne lowered the spear and checked Alphys. "She is just asleep." She looked at the rest of us. "What's going on Sans?"

"*i was helping the kid here with a school project. these two are investigators out of new home. they came here looking for a perp."

"It'll need to wait. There's a human in the underground."

"Do you have a description?" Frisk asked.

"Male. Five feet, eight inches tall with brown hair and eyes. Wearing a green and yellow striped shirt and brown pants."

"A child?" I asked, keeping the buff going.

"In a striped shirt, it must be." She looked at Sans. "You'll have to cut the project short and get the kid home, Sans."

"*can do."

Undyne looked at Frisk and I. "This is Royal Guard business so I'll be asking you to stay out of it."

Frisk and I nodded as she turned, took a last sighing look at Alphys, and left with the guard.

Sans grabbed my sleeve. "Another Chara? How?"

"I'm tempted to jump to that conclusion, but it could just be someone in a green and yellow striped shirt," Frisk said. She thought about it for a moment. "When you were on the surface, were there any stand out monster haters? People who had enough Determination to remember through a reset?"

Sans and Frisk looked at each other.

"*Yeah. More than a few. But there was one man in particular who made an effort to kidnap frisk on multiple occasions. James Foster."

Frisk's jaw dropped. "James?" She looked at me and then back at Sans. "I can't imagine him acting like that."

I put a hand on her shoulder. "This is a different timeline. This wouldn't be the man we know."

Her shoulders drooped. "Oh man." She looked at the autograph again and pulled out a picture of James' family she kept in her wallet to compare the handwriting on the back. "Oh hell."

I blinked at her several times. I honestly had never heard my wife curse before.

C's jaw dropped. "Woah."

Frisk took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She put away the autograph book and the photo. "Okay." She turned to Sans. "Would he have brought people with him or acted alone?"

The boy answered. "He'd always have friends with him. People who would make it difficult for monsters to get in the way of whatever he planned."

Frisk nodded and looked at me. "Let's go find 'Mettaton' first."

We hit the elevator and when the doors opened on the first floor, we were welcomed by piles of dust. Undyne leaned against the desk, melting. Mettaton's case lay on it's side, open and empty.

Both Frisks gasped. "Oh no." They rushed to Undyne's side.

She looked at them both with a big, sardonic smile. "Well. I guess I let you humans trick me good, huh?"

Both shook their heads. "He's no friend of ours."

Undyne reached out and touched the boy's face. "I feel something... Strange. The echoes of something warm, something... Something like 'I miss being friends with you.' Why?"

The boy took her hand and held it. The reset button glowed in front of him, warm and golden.

Frisk grabbed his hand. "Not yet. We have to remove the anomaly first or you'll be doing this over and over."

The boy nodded and the reset button faded away. He he took a deep breath and choked on it, trying not to cry. He took another breath and that one came out smoothly, eyes filled with Determination. "I'll fix it, Sushi Roll. I promise."

Undyne snorted, smile changing to one of complete recognition. "Punk." She melted away. The boy put his face in his hands and wept.

Flowey wrapped thick, green vines around his Frisk. "Hey. It's okay. We can... We can fix this. Come on." He lifted the boy to his feet.

Frisk stood and looked around, eyes tracking the scuff marks on the floor. "We are looking for three people total." She looked to Sans. "Take Frisk and hide him somewhere safe. We'll call when we've pulled the anomaly so he can access his save."

Sans put an arm around the boy and they disappeared. Flowey popped up in front of us a moment later and climbed back up to my shoulder. The look on his face was one I'd seen on my Asriel's more times than I'd like to think about: a very focused wrath.

Heading out the door of the Lab was a trail of destruction. We ran across the bridge from Hotland into Waterfall, racing after the humans. The trail of dust and faded remains ended abruptly in the darkness that led into the Temmie Village. We crept to the edge of the village and looked around. There wasn't anyone outside, but there wasn't any piles of dust on the ground either. The Temmies were hiding in the walls of the cavern. Footprints led into the Temmie shop.

Frisk pulled her gun and waited. James Foster walked out of the shop with two men. He looked exactly like our James but something was infinitely off. I took a peek at him through my own personal void space and confirmed my suspicion.

This man did not belong on this timeline at all.

"We need to apprehend him and take him back with us, Babe. He doesn't belong here."

Frisk nodded.

Flowey growled. "Take him alive? Don't you know it's kill or be killed?"

I grabbed him by the stem before he could jump away, my eye going dark. "No arguments."

He turned up his nose.

"I've got Foster. Flowey, take out the man on the right. Babe, take the one on the left."

Frisk nodded. "If one of them gets away from the village, we meet here after subduing them." She looked at Flowey. "Keep your cool. Do not kill your target. Something is really wrong here and if you kill one of them, we lose the information."

"I get it. I get it. Please let go of me."

I let go of his stem.

"Say when."

I shrugged. "When."

Flowey dived into the ground like it was a pool of water and disappeared under the surface. He came up a mass of thick, thorny vines around his target. When the other two turned to help, I rushed in. Frisk fired twice, encasing her target's in legs and arms in foam core. I grabbed Foster only to have him turn and land a hit to my sternum, knocking me back. Then he got a good look at me. He reached for a gun.

Frisk shot it out of his hand, encasing the gun in foam.

I grabbed his arm and punched him hard enough to knock him out. I set him down next to his friend struggling in foam core and turned to Flowey. His vines were squeezing the life out of the man. I grabbed his stem.

"We're done, Flowey."

He kept squeezing and the man started to turn blue.

Frisk put her hand over his face, covering his eyes and forcing them closed. "We're done, Asriel. Thank you."

The flower monster shuddered and let go, vines falling back into the ground. His target hit the ground, unconscious.

I pulled out my phone and called Fase. "I need containment for three human males."

"Of course, Father. Sending them now."

Three cylinders appeared behind me along with Techno Sans. "*hey guys. want me to drop these at the foundation?"

I nodded. A bit of blue magic had our prisoners in the containers and Techno took them away.

Frisk pulled on one of Flowey's leaves. "Hey. You all right?"

"Yes... No... Maybe..."

"Come here."

Flowey looked at her for a moment before crawling up into her arms.

"You have a family. Your brother and sister love you very much and are willing to sacrifice a lot to give you your life back. I know that through endless lifetimes filled with fear, loneliness, and sorrow, you've become comfortable as you are. But that comfort is not acceptable. Not for the person you could be. You don't have that much longer to wait." She touched his petals. "If I ever come back, I would like to see the goat I call my brother back home and not the flower."

He nodded and leaned against her for a moment. "You smell like my sister did when she was alive. Like sunflowers and honey." He jumped down and looked up at us. "Thank you." He disappeared back into the earth.

I called Sans. "We're clear. Frisk can access his save."

"*thanks, bud. i appreciate the help."

"Anytime."

I hung up and put an arm around Frisk, solving to take us home.

We landed just outside the equipment room where we started. Late afternoon sunlight poured through the windows of the Foundation, bathing us in a warm yellow.

Cross came down the hall and sped up when he saw us. "What's with the three in containment?"

"We don't know yet. Only that they were on the wrong timeline." I yawned. "How long where we gone?"

"Thirteen hours. Enough time for you guys to get showered up and join everyone for dinner. My Papyrus made Blanquette de Veau tonight to go with baked Camembert. Blue wants to debrief both of you after you've had some sleep."

"And the kids?"

"Sans said they did great with their lessons today."

I nodded and Cross headed off.

Frisk trudged into the equipment room and started putting her equipment away. She stopped with her hand on a shelf. "What's going on, Bones? What happened today?"

I sighed and leaned back against the wall, hands in my pockets. "I don't know. Those men were from a different timeline. I don't know how they moved from one to the other."

She came back and slid her arms around me, resting her head on my sternum. "Hurry up and hug me before the kids see us and pull us apart."

I smirked and put a hand in her hair.

"Mommy!"

Brandon ran up to us and pushed us apart, reaching up for a hug with a wide smile.