Frisk's House Two Days Later . . .

"Geez, Frisk, the volcanoes are smoking again," Sans yawned as he rolled out of bed.

"You can't prove anything." Frisk yawned and rolled off the other side. "I need a shower, I feel so grody." She smelled her shirt.

"Hot shower with lots of steam?"

"Oh, hardy hardy harrish ha and stuff." Frisk groaned as she stretched. For a whole two days, she really couldn't do much. Even getting up to get food had been the challenge that only Sans could seem to do. She ate microwavable quick food. She even found cravings for catsup, but Sans only shared one of his bottles.

She needed to go shopping for more. Maybe a large, raw tomato too to go with the catsup. Mm, that sounded good. But that craving was almost forgotten as she saw Amanda standing right by the bedroom door. "Ooh." Amanda had a spare key, but she only used it in desperate times. Frisk hadn't answered the phone or the door for several days. "Hey, Amanda."

"I don't believe this. Really?" Amanda looked at the room toward Sans and then back to her. "I have been trying to call all week, I've dropped by like three times, and you were in here in some kind of . . ."

"Some kind of what?" She looked toward Sans and herself. Sleeping in the same thing for days, with her hair all sweaty and gross, it looked kind of like. "No, what you're thinking is wrong."

"No, it's not," Sans said. "All of the smoke from the volcanoes came from Frisk."

"Sans, not now." Frisk covered her face and looked back toward Amanda. "So. Um, that's Sans."

"I see." Amanda moved over to greet Sans. "Well. You must be one hell of a guy to get this far with Frisk."

"No." Amanda wasn't getting it. "Nothing happened."

"Sure, sure. Ignoring me for days and you are all sweaty and rumpled up like that?" Amanda questioned her. "I'm surprised you did that to your boy though, Frisk. Did you break up with him?"

"No." Frisk looked toward Sans. "Will you help?"

"Naw," Sans chuckled. "I like to see how you get out of things. It can be half the fun of you."

Okay, great, no help. Not like he could say much anyway. Let's see. "That's my brother," Frisk said.

"No, it's not." Amanda looked toward Sans. "You're parents wanted your brother to move because he was tall. Plus, his name was Abe."

Cripes, that didn't work. "He's . . . " Okay, renting? No, what would she be doing sleeping in the room if he was renting it? Honesty? "He's a monster?"

"Okay." Amanda shrugged. "That doesn't explain why you're sleeping with him." She held her hands up. "You know what? Don't want to know, it's your life. If Mr. Sans is the one you want, alright, but I wouldn't play Caleb Hunter too, Frisk. That's not nice."

"Mister Sans." Sans finally said something. "Those two words never go together." He checked his coat. "Oh, my thingy turned off."

"Yeah, just turn it left," Amanda remarked.

She knew? "Amanda. You know about monsters?"

"Gee, Frisk. No, I happen to like being friends with an insane girl that claims there's such a thing as monsters on complete accident." Amanda shrugged. "I'm not a monster, but I was dating one. Can't get too far with an Onionsans before you have to figure that one out. We were never able to cuddle or sit on the couch together. I'm just lucky he could even fit in my house."

"But, why didn't you ever tell me?" Frisk asked. "It would have been nice knowing someone else knew."

"Cause your whole life was bugged 'cause of who you were?" Amanda reminded her. "Except this house. I noticed the cameras finally missing. But, still Frisk. Monster or not, I can't believe you did that." She scratched the back of her head. "How do you guys even do it? Sans doesn't have anything but bones."

"Manifestation."

"Oh, so it is the same as an Onionsans."

"Okay, let's skip back a few paces," Frisk insisted as she grabbed Amanda's hand. "I'm performing the tests to rescue the monsters of Mount Ebott, Amanda. It's very hard though."

"It's extremely hard," Amanda remarked. "I remember hearing about that. I'm still friends with him, after all. This is, you know, the last place that needs to be freed. After this, there's nothing left. All the monsters will be freed. Then comes the grand showing."

"The what?"

"A reveal. The mask comes off, Frisk, and there is something else too. Something that, um, will be initiated too? I don't know, it's been awhile since I onioned with Onionsans. Souls won't be able to be grabbed anymore against a person's will. And if the body's dead, can't be grabbed at all."

"Cool," Sans said. "I don't really want to know what I look like in a human disguise."

"So, you're actually taking the test too?" Amanda looked between her and Sans. "So, what, final goodbyes?"

"No, I'm helping her with the tests." Sans was finally helping. "I took twenty percent of her humanity and she's got twenty percent of my monster. I can get back there now, and she has better chances of healing and living."

"Wait. So, just healing after all that?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, healing." Frisk scratched her chin. "I haven't been able to move for days."

"Yeah, but your cellphone was right on the floor," Amanda pointed out. "Ignoring me?"

"I was ignoring everything. I couldn't handle anything, even if there was an emergency."

"Yes, you could! Kendrick."

Oh, not again.

"So? Well? You didn't even look?" Amanda asked as she gave her the phone.

Frisk looked at the messages. She gave him another chance, he said it was too soon and pushed her away to think about it more. "Sounds . . . better." She saw Sans looking over her shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Sounds better, really?" Sans questioned her and shook his head.

"What, you don't think so?"

"Naw."

"Hey, how does he know?" Amanda questioned her. She snapped her fingers. "Great, he's got some kind of time stopping ability or grabbing stuff from another area ability doesn't he?"

"Suppose," Frisk said, "Why?"

"Missing beer and pizza?"

"Wasn't missing out," Sans said. "Hard to get good food in a mountain."

"Frisk, you should have told me."

"Well, you never even told me that you knew about monsters."

"Fine, great. Well, what do you think?" Amanda asked him.

Great. Great, relationship advice from Sans?

"Leave him," Sans said.

"But, why?" Amanda questioned him. "I mean, he's really sorry."

"No, he's not. He got caught. He'll either take you back later, or maybe not. He's just having fun right now." Sans shrugged. "Of course, I can't say that for sure unless I see him."

"Ooh!" Amanda said excitedly. "Can you tell when someone's lying?"

"I can tell when something's up," Sans said. "I'll do that, if you can maybe give some name to some monsters? If I'm stuck up here for who knows how long, it'd be nice to have some to hang out with too. Not that humans aren't good enough but . . ."

"Yeah, totally get it. I'll call up Onionsans and get you a few names," Amanda said. "Meanwhile, Frisk. I kind of texted Caleb before coming over. He's probably coming too, so you better work out something."

"What?!"

"We were worried."

Sans watched as Frisk started to scramble around, making up the bed, insisting on a shower right then and running off. Darn. Ladykid looked like she was turning into a lady again. Way less fun. As the door rang, Amanda moved to answer it. He tagged along slowly behind as she opened the door to someone.

Taller than Amanda, with teeth even brighter than his, stood a human guy. "So, did you find out what was wrong with Frisk?"

"Yeah, not feeling real well." Amanda gestured between her and Sans. "Me and him came over to check on her."

"Oh?" He looked at Sans oddly then laughed when he looked at his slippers. "Um, coat in July in slippers, huh? Amanda, where do you pick up your guys from?" He came inside and took off his light coat. "Almost time to abandon coats all together."

"Yeah, then like two months of great weather before the snow again," Amanda said to him. "Mount Ebott, such a freezing bitch. Speaking of freezing bitch, how's Cindy?"

Hey. What was that? Caleb flinched oddly when she said that.

"She's been filling in for Frisk just fine, but if Frisk doesn't come back to work, she's going to take her job." He looked back toward Sans. "What's with that look?"

Sans didn't say anything as Frisk came back out. She had on a nice dress, nice shoes, and she was all clean again. She greeted the other guy politely.

"Hey, Caleb. Sorry about not showing for work. Really sick. Couldn't get to the phone or anything," Frisk said. Once again, too dang politely. "How are things?"

"Cindy is about to snag your job," Caleb said. "You need to call in and get back down there, honey."

There it is again. Sans noticed that strange expression again. If only he knew the guy better, he could figure it out. Sans moved over closer. "So, Caleb Hunter. Hunting for Calebs, huh? I hear those are hard to find." Frisk smiled slightly, while Amanda rolled her eyes, but still smiled.

"Calebs aren't animals. I'm not a hunter. That's my name."

"Just a joke," Frisk told Caleb. "So, how are all the patients? Any . . . any missing pets or anything?"

"I think there are three new wanted posters for a cat and two dogs that went up in the office not too long ago," Caleb said.

"Sounds like a cat-astrophe. Dog gone shame about that."

This time, Frisk seemed torn between the joke, but Amanda actually chuckled. But Caleb?

"I think catastrophe is pushing it a little strongly, but yeah, it was a shame," Caleb answered. "The cat and the dogs being gone, it's sad, but it's not real rare."

This guy doesn't even get any of the jokes. Sans just watched him. How dull-witted did someone have to be to not catch anything so far? Even if he didn't like the jokes, he should see something in his expression recognizing that he was joking with him. Annoyance was a classic response if someone didn't like it. But, there was nothing.

"Anyhow, will I see you at work tomorrow?" Caleb asked Frisk.

"I don't really know," Frisk said. "We'll see. I might still have something."

"Yep. If she doesn't stop her coughin', then she might end up in a coffin." Plainest joke around, no hidden words, and he even repeated the homonym. He looked like he felt a bit pestered, but still no notice of the joke.

"Okay. Then, maybe you should get back to bed. Get rest, Frisk. I miss you at work." He bent down and gave her a gentle kiss. Sans felt like gagging. The guy was fake, he was so fake, and he was hiding something. He watched for clues all over, then he spotted it.

He scratched behind his ear three times over. That wasn't normal for a human. Sans moved closer to Amanda and whispered to her. "Yo. This guy human?"

She looked a little perplexed by his question. "I assumed so."

"He's scratching at his ear."

"Yeah, he scratches the side of his head," Amanda whispered back. "I figured he had really bad dandruff. He's cute, and every cute guy has to have one flaw."

Dandruff? That could be, but he was hiding something. Frisk was friend's with someone who knew about monsters. If anyone heard about her that way, then maybe he is a monster?

Frisk waved goodbye to Caleb first, but he ducked down to snag another kiss from her. Insecure much? Sans watched him leave first. After he was away from the house, Sans had to say it. "I think you're dating a monster, Frisk."

"Huh?" Frisk looked at him oddly. "A monster?"

"He's hiding something. I think that's it. He scratches his head a lot too. He could be . . . " Which monster scratched behind it's ear? "Possibly a dog monster? Could be others, but I think so."

"He could be right," Amanda said, "or he could be wrong. I always thought it was dandruff, but Onionsans used to say that monsters were better at recognizing each other."

"Um?" Frisk paused for a second. "That's . . . strange. But. It doesn't change him in any way, right?"

"Heck no, I didn't leave my Onion baby for the longest time because he was incredible in bed," Amanda admitted. "So, the sooner you show your soul to him, the better."

Her soul? "Why would that matter?"

"Amanda, Sans and I exchanged percentages of souls," Frisk said, reminding her about it. "So, don't put it that way."

"Oh yeah, right. I forgot monsters can just make them pop up like that, huh?" Amanda laughed. "Sorry about that, Frisk."

"Sorry about what?" Sans asked.

"Humans don't show their souls unless they are ready to do the ultimate mambo," Amanda said openly. "We can't control when it shows, it just does it." She caught a glance from Frisk. "What? Okay, so sometimes they show up during cuddling, but rarely. And with new moms and their children. But, mostly it's for the mamboing."

"Ooh." Sans nodded his head twice. "Hey, you got any lit on a shy soul for Frisk?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll drop it off later." Amanda waved goodbye to Frisk. "See ya, just be careful about Sans. You need a way better cover story. And, good luck on the tests. I really hope you pass, Frisk. I know from Onionsans you did really courageous stuff in the past but." She grabbed on to Frisk and held her. "You just be careful, okay?"

Sans watched Amanda leave. "Good lady, ladykid."

"Well, at least she came beforehand. I'm going to lose my job though, I know it."

"It was a risk. Pretty obvious one."

"I know. Now what?"

"More hours of sleep," Sans said trotting back to his bed. "At least for me. At four in the morning, when most of the monsters are asleep, I'll sneak over and take the next test. You can either hide behind a rock or stay with Alphys. Recommend Alphys, I might be gone a bit."

"Don't take them too lightly," Frisk warned him. "We get three shots at winning, but only one life."

"I know," Sans answered. "Come on. We have 'til 3:55." He could tell she wanted to say something to rebel, but her body wouldn't reject more rest. After all, she had part of his monster energy. He just watched as she tagged along back to bed.

Frisk's Family Home . . .

Caleb Hunter pulled up into the driveway with his car, knocking on Frisk's family door. He straightened his tie as he looked in front of him. "Hello, sir. I have some news regarding Frisk Magnolia Cross."

Mister Cross looked at him intently. "You shouldn't be anywhere near this home."

"She's nowhere near where she'll notice me gone," Caleb answered. He pulled out some pictures and handed it to him. "Things have got worse, sir. She doesn't only just believe in monsters, she found them. She found a way to them, and she's taking the tests."

"I already knew that," Mister Cross said. "Frisk has determination but Ethan and Steve are up first. They'll stop her. They'll hit her so hard in her soul, she'll never come back."

"She's not the only one. There is a monster inside of her house. Frisk Cross' friend, Amanda, said he came with her but chances are slim of that. I don't see her dating someone Frisk's size. Also, he was staring at me, like he had the ability to judge me."

"Oh, not the annoying skeleton." Mister Cross popped his fingers. "She talked about him all the time in the therapy sessions. What's he doing out?"

"I don't know, but I felt something strange in her soul. I scanned her twice as I came in for a kiss," Caleb said. He took something off his tongue. "It's showing something weird about her soul, it has some monster inside with her DETERMINATION."

"Monster inside?" Mister Cross groaned. "Are you telling me that monster probably had some humanity?"

"Probably enough to take the tests, sir," Caleb said. "A monster taking tests that are supposed to challenge the human heart-"

"There is still an intelligence that needs to be mastered."

"He's a skeleton though. They are usually pretty smart. Plus, any kind of torture wouldn't phase him. He's a skeleton, and they are known to survive just about everything except a direct attack. What he can't take, Frisk could do in his place. The challenges will not be tough enough. What do you want to do?"

Mister Cross hit the side of the door. "Mount Ebott will be freed. With this mountain being the one with the royalty, the agreed upon reveal will come. People will know about monsters. Monsters will be with people again. And with the new no soul taking barrier to worry about, even now, they are starting to mix. They aren't afraid of mixing like in the past. It's disgusting."

"Yes. Sad day, sir." Caleb adjusted his tie. "What do you want to do? Regroup with the testers? Can we make more hard tests than good?"

"No. I'm not the only one in charge, and the other wishes for freedom. Such is the balance." Mister Cross closed his eyes. "Society will get disgusting. Humans will no longer be humans. It will all blend and become . . . become who knows what!"

"I won't touch a monster, Mister Cross," Caleb said.

"That idea will slowly fade away over time though. And so much. Who knows what those evil creatures will do?" Mister Cross shook his head. "Frisk! Why couldn't she have done it? She could have done it. Her chances were great that she could have done it. One monster. Scared enough to take out just one."

"Yeah, but, the past is over," Caleb said. "Thinking about that won't help you, sir."

Her father straightened up. "This can still be redone . . . but, there must be a sacrifice."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Nothing. Good day, Caleb Hunter. Great work. Keep watching my daughter." Mister Cross closed the door and headed downstairs. He tried. He believed in life, and that every human was good and able to win against anything deep inside. He had a lot of DETERMINATION to do the right thing. He took a tool and scraped some cement out between some bricks, and kept clawing it out, until one by one it started to come out. He moved behind the sealed off section over to a glass container. It was covered in layers of dark, solid panels.

As he started to remove them, he saw the radiating red coming through it. When he reached the last panel, he saw the spinning red soul within it. "Chara. I wish to reset." The soul didn't make a sound. "I am the sacrifice. Take my soul, and bring this world back to that day, eighteen years ago, when you joined with my daughter." Still silent. "Awake and take my soul."

Continued silence. "I have the others too," he said. "Six human souls plus you. With my soul, you could grant them and yourself freedom. Everything could be yours. I only ask one thing. Take this world back eighteen years."

"No human soul has that power," echoed through his head. "You are shit out of luck you turd."

"Every soul can take back time three years," he said. "I have the other six."

"Then go away. What do you want from me, Loser?"

"Two months. Let me prep her longer. I won't show my face so she won't go against me as quickly. I had always told her that monsters were evil. Give me that chance again. One more time. I know I can get her to kill a single monster."

"I get your soul either way?"

"Either way. You can change the contract, amend it so there is no test at all if you want."

"Hmm. No. Beat it."

Souls. Such a tricky bunch. "I'll reverse the decision," he said. "Flowey. I'll take back that contract, say he broke it. I'll say he changed form into an awful beast. We'll get to take all the souls we had gave him, leaving him as nothing but an evil flower. He would have been given one more upon release, and then he would have been his happy self again. Even now, he's more like his old self instead of an old unfeeling thing."

"You're such a douche."

"I could take his souls back for myself then. I could find a way to sneak them out and take them," he threatened her.

"If you had something in mind with it, you'd have done it already."

"One month then. Without more time, Frisk will just repeat the same thing," he said. "My soul for one extra month."

"Just let it go. You can't win, and you are out of souls to help. Frisk passed the test, and again, and again. You've used and sacrificed six people to try and fix it, over and over. Threatening my old brother too? Seriously? You're lucky you haven't got caught yet, and you know that. You eventually will. Don't you get it? Fate says no for you in this timeline. After turning 20 tests into a hundred. After making them hard enough to kill a human soul or destroy a human body? A monster came and helped. It's over. Accept it! Give it up."

"The other souls know you can free them." Mister Cross bent down on his knees. "You have the strongest DETERMINATION. They will each put forth three years again, if you agree."

"I will never agree!"

"If you don't, you will be trapped Underground. Again."

"Trap me then because it is over."

"Fine. Fine!" He tried. He covered the box back up, brought out his cell and a piece of paper. Everything had to be genuine for it to count. "Fine. It's over, fine. Then, all that's left?" He gulped. "Is revenge. The reckoning . . . will be paid. Now. I don't want to live in this new disgusting, putrid world anyhow." He moved back upstairs, not bothering to cover the hole, to his wife.

Frisk would pay. Frisk would pay.

Test Area 2 . . .

After the machine fire recognized him as human, Sans headed forward to test area 1. It was completely dark and the door was open ahead. He kept moving ahead into the next little pod area. Inside were two humans, talking to each other. He knocked on the door.

They were startled, but opened the door. "Hey, you're a monster. How'd you make it back here?" One of them asked. "Trace, head to testpod 3," she said to her friend before looking back at him. "Well?"

"Momma liked her men with a little more bone in them," Sans answered. "So, where's the text? Is it open book? Pop quiz?"

"That kind of humor could save you in the future," she smiled. "Come on in and take a seat. Glad to see someone didn't give up." She stood in front. "Test area one had the biggest assholes around, Ethan and Steve. You'll see them toward the end too, but in the meantime? I'm Terice, and I am cheering for you." She clapped. "So . . . human? Semi-human, as I can see, you've got about half of the tests where the testers are ready to just let all the monsters go. I mean, it's beyond time. All the other monsters are already out. This it it, and then a grand reveal." She shoved some chocolate in her mouth. "As testers, we have to make sure that we follow the rules. But, the ones that want the monsters out are going to be as lenient as possible, while dicks like Ethan and Steve are going to make it as difficult as they possibly can."

"Great. So really it's more like fifty hard tests?" Sans asked. "Then, we're really free? I mean, the monsters are all free, huh?"

"Yep. Don't worry, I'm a quarter Froggit myself." She held up her hand. "Don't ask. So. The harder you can be to the world, the easier some of these tests are. While, sometimes, it's the opposite. You'll need to search deep inside for a real sympathetic place to finish it out. And other times, you just have to have great cunning and will. So, are you ready?" She grabbed a piece of paper. "So, I'm required to give you certain kinds of mathematical problems while getting you wet. You can take as long as you need to to answer them, but no paper can be given to you." She grabbed a small tub full of water and set it down by his feet. "As you can see, there are several things I could have added to make this hard."

"Wouldn't matter, I'm more monster than human." It should be quite apparent since he was still a skeleton. He stepped into the water. "Kay. Problems?"

"You have to get all these right, okay?"

"Yep."

"Two plus one."

"Three."

"Four minus one."

"Three."

"How many cups are in a cup?"

"A cup." Ah. Sans smiled. Yep, she was making it as simple as she possibly could.

"Four times one."

"Four."

"Okay, this is trickier," she said. "So, just think for a second. It's easy, but it might be so easy you stumble. Four divided by four."

"One."

"Congrats, you passed. Trace is in the next pod." She clicked a few buttons on a remote, and the back door to the next pod opened.

At area 3 . . .

Sans balanced books on his head as he spelled some easy words. Well, now that he knew human, they were easy. There were even bonus words if he made a mistake. "F-U-R-N-A-C-E. Furnace."

"Good job, you can go to 4 now. Although, I have to warn you," Trace said as she opened the next door. "They are like Ethan and Steve. So, be weary."

"What do I have to do?"

"The same kind of tests, except extremely more difficult. If you pass area 5 and 6, then you'll have an endurance duress test. Good luck. Remember, you do have people on your side." She waved as he went out.

At area 4 . . .

He watched the human in front of him, remembering how tricky the humans could be who didn't like the tests. He didn't make much conversation.

"Area 2 and 3 were gimme's," he said as he stood up. "And what the hell, you're not human."

"Human enough."

"Mixed breed. Sick as shit. I can understand those getting manipulated into that sort of thing, but it's still disgusting. You're disgusting."

"Can we hurry this test up?" Sans asked.

"Sure." The human grabbed a tub of water. "Step on in." Sans stepped into the tub. "Now, if you answer these questions wrong?" He pulled something over toward the water. "You're going to get a bit of a shock."

Yeah, good thing Sans was doing the test and not Frisk. That could kill her. "Cool."

"You think cool." He sparked the ends of two chords together. "What is 3,921,483 plus 4,238,412?"

"8,159,895."

Ooh. The human didn't like that. "What's 432, 723 divided by 319,835 with the answer in decimals up to three places, smart ass?"

"1.353" The human had continued with gigantic numbers, but never really got to use the electricity. Not that it mattered, skeletons couldn't be electrocuted. Only a direct attack could kill him. He moved onto the next area, spelling harder words but still making it through. He had to balance several things on his head, but he was good at that, so it wasn't too bad.

Area 6. There were only 94 tests left. But, area 6 was too hard for him to do. He couldn't physically do it. "Tag team Frisk on this. It's only been maybe an hour anyway." Except for tests that a skeleton just couldn't take, Sans was feeling pretty good. At this rate, it might not take months. It might only take weeks. Maybe not even a week.

He took a shortcut into Alphys lab. Frisk and Alphys looked at him impatiently. "Not a scratch, I'm fine." They were both relieved. "But you are up, Frisk. A healthy skeleton can't go more than twelve hours without food, and it requires forty eight hours of no food." Sans shook his head. "While they keep bringing dishes out into the room, piping hot and tasty. Even if I could go longer than twelve hours, I just don't think I could do that."

"Okay. Tag me in. Is it the third test?" Frisk asked.

"Nope. Sixth."

"Six?"

"Yep. Six. Sans is good," he winked at her. "Go ahead, say it. Sans is good."

"Sans is good," Frisk admitted. Reading her expression, he finally saw some positive feelings about their chances now. "We might live."

At that moment, a huge tremor was felt throughout the ground.

"Do you think the humans aren't happy about you joining the tests?" Alphys asked.

Sans shrugged. "Come on, Frisk. Let's go check this out."

End of Chapter