Toby Fox owns Undertale and all associated characters. Canis belongs to Petalthorn

Once Rias was done being completely fascinated with the fusion, Frisk trailed away. The others were calm for now, but as they looked around...everyone was occupied, talking to someone. They didn't want to interrupt, but Frisk could only handle this large of a gathering for long...especially with rowdy souls to make it complicated. But from behind, a familiar voice called.

"Uh, hey yo! Other-Frisk!"

They jumped, the other souls flying to attention as their whirled, and looked up. Their ear fins twitched, and Undyne grinned, though the others managed to hold her back from making a comment...for the moment. "Hey, Kid," Frisk murmured as they composed themselves.

The reptilian Monster scampered over, grinning broadly at them. For the first time since the fusion had seen him, Chara's soul was not hovering close by.

"Yo, I was hoping I would get the chance to talk to you."

"Oh, um...privately or?" They tapped their fingers together sheepishly, their tail flicking as they spoke.

Kid blinked, confusion flitting across his features.

"Uh, I dunno, I just wanted to talk. It's not like anything's secret or anything…"

Frisk brought a hand to their head. "The other souls are awake now, so they'll hear. If that bothers you…"

Kid shrugged.

"Nah, not really. Uh… did you want to talk in private?"

"It's not a real issue for me...just warning you since you didn't have to worry about it before…"

Kid shook his head.

"Anyways, we're off topic now." his smile returned, wider than it had been before.

"I was kinda preoccupied when you came over the last couple times, so I didn't get the chance to say it, but… thank you. Thank you so much for bringing Chara back."

Frisk shook their head. "No need to thank me...you should be thanking our Napstablook and Mettaton-they recognized her soul. I just..." They shrugged, while their eyes dimmed.

"They didn't bring her back." Kid stated firmly. "You did. You saved her from where she was being-" Kid stopped abruptly, his face twisting briefly in anger and his claws digging into the hardwood floor before he composed himself.

"You brought her home."

"And they would have done the same had I not been there," Frisk assured. "...I'm just glad that was something that we could fix."

"Yo!" Kid stomped his foot on the floor. "Stop saying that other people would have done the same thing! That's not the point! They didn't fix it, you did! It doesn't matter if they would have done it, they didn't! You're the one who grabbed her and brought her back as soon as you knew she was there! So stop pretending like it doesn't matter!"

Frisk ducked their head, but a moment later, their eyes brightened as they looked back up, raising their hands as they spoke in a very laid-back tone. "Easy, Kid. Sorry, our little buddy has a hard time accepting this one due to all the circumstances-but they do appreciate the gesture."

Kid seemed to calm down a bit, then he ducked his head sheepishly.

"Sorry about that," he muttered. "I didn't mean to yell."

"Don't sweat it, buddy's stubborn with this to the point you have to force feed them."

The right eye glowed brighter. "I swear if you make a pun out of this…"

"Sorry, fresh out."

The eyes dimmed. "Sorry," the child murmured, the tone back to normal.

"You shouldn't be the one apologizing." Kid looked back to Frisk. "Yo, I dunno what… circumstances are going on that makes it hard for you to accept it but... as far as I'm concerned, you saved Chara's life." He lowered his eyes to floor, saying the last words in a near-whisper.

"And mine."

The fusion bit their lip, and shuffled close, before giving him a hug. "...she's back...take care of her, okay? If she's like our Chara...they don't like admitting things."

"Don't worry, I will," Kid promised. "I won't let anything like this happen ever again. But… listen." He looked down at the little Frisk, his eyes serious.

"I owe you… kinda everything. So I want you to know, if you ever need my help, or if there's anything that I can do, just let me know. I'll be there as fast as I can."

Frisk drew back, looking up at him quietly. "I...understand-but I hope it doesn't come to that."

The ear fins twitched and a wide grin came. "Because someone might get jealous if you come running."

"Undyne!" Frisk hissed, covering their face. "Hate you right now."

"For about five minutes."

"I hope it doesn't have to happen either," Kid murmured, ignoring the interchange. "But… I want you to remember that. Just in case."

They peeked between their fingers. "Well...actually, there is one thing…"

"What is it?" Kid asked immediately.

"Rex…" They looked around. "If...you're okay with hearing that now…" The child fidgeted, grasping at the knots on their scarf.

"Hearing what?" Kid cocked his head slightly to the side.

Frisk sighed shakily. "Why they're not here today, I...there's been...news, and I…"

Kid frowned in concern and took a step closer.

"Are they… are they okay?"

"They're fine...so is their sister, but…" Frisk took their gaze to the floor. "A few months ago...a Monster turned in Snowdin. Be...before they could be stopped...Rex's parents…" The child fell silent.

Kid stilled completely, stunned as he tried to comprehend what he was being told.

"They're… gone?" he managed eventually.

Frisk nodded slowly, swallowing. "We're sorry," the child mumbled.

Kid lowered his head.

"I guess… I shouldn't be surprised…" he muttered. "But… I would have… liked to see them…"

Frisk bobbed their head. "Rex and their sister...they're...doing all right, but I...I think, if I brought Rex here...they might want to talk to you...and...if they do, would…"

Kid looked up sadly and nodded.

"Yo, I… I know how that feels. I'll do what… what I can." He hesitated for a moment. "Yo, do they… do they know that they're gone?"

Frisk nodded. "They know," was the whisper. "They don't talk as if…" The child gave a soft sigh.

"Okay." The reptile smiled, though his claws clenched on the floor. "If I can help… I will."

A sad smile came to the fusion, and they stepped forward, hugging him. "Thank you," they murmured quietly.

"Hey, yo… after what you did… it's the least I can do."


The fusion sighed. "Need a break…" The bar was too noisy though...they glanced up. If they could just get to the roof...but...they nervously glanced to Papyrus…

The skeleton was leaning against the bar, still holding Canis, who hadn't allowed him to put her down since she had bounded on him earlier. He was stroking her head absently, but noticed the little Frisk's attention after a moment and waved cheerfully at them.

There was a pause, before they nervously raised their hand, wiggling their fingers, before striding over. "Um…" they mumbled, their blue eye dimming, while the right sparked with energy.

"Hello, small Human! How are you enjoying the party?" Papyrus shifted slightly so that he was facing the child more head-on.

They gave a little shrug. "Um...is there a way up to the roof?" they asked quietly. "I...we…"

"There certainly is! But why would you want to go up to the roof? I thought you were afraid of heights!"

"...I can manage if there's a sure way down…besides, it's quieter..."

"Well, I suppose it is a little noisy in here! Follow me, the Great Papyrus shall lead you to your heart's desire!"

With that, the energetic skeleton began to stride quickly away, heading away from where most of the people were gathered and into a quieter, more secluded corner.

'You really don't change, Bro…'

'But of course! Why would I be any different, brother? Why, I should feel insulted that you would assume that any Papyrus would be any less Papyrus than I!'

Frisk rubbed their head quietly, glancing up to the tall skeleton as they caught up.

Papyrus stopped near the wall, and reached up with the arm not supporting Canis to grab at a thin piece of string hanging from the ceiling. He gave it a small tug and a part of the ceiling fell open, revealed to be a trapdoor. From it, a metal ladder slowly slid down, extending itself until it touched the floor.

"There we have it!" Papyrus beamed. "Now, just be careful while you're up there, alright? And if anything goes wrong, simply call for me, and I will be at your side faster than you can say 'puzzles!'"

An odd smile came to the fusion, the blue eye brightening, but, the child quickly scrambled up the ladder before their Sans could upset the two tall skeletons in one go. "Thank you!" they called while Canis curled tight in Papyrus's hold.

"Any time!" Papyrus replied, his hand going back to gently scratch behind Canis's ears.

Frisk vanished up the ladder, relieved to escape the loud room, smiling when they saw Chara and Alma with Napstablook, nibbling away at sandwiches while drawing. Chara usually wasn't the artist, but sometimes, Alma could drag them in on it. Frisk smiled, and sat down away from them, closing their eyes briefly.


Alphys shrugged her lab coat on, doing the buttons up messily and looking around. It had been a few hours since she had gotten here with the others, and things were starting to simmer down, with most of the people just sitting around the tables, talking and laughing with each other.

She let out a sigh of relief and a small smile. It was good to see everyone together and happy again. And it had been fun to participate, at least for a while.

But there was only so much of this she could stomach. She was already missing her quiet lab. Well… not really quiet if she was being honest, but certainly less… people. Besides, she needed to get back to work on Chara's new body. The sooner she had that done, the better.

With that thought, she pushed open the saloon doors, and stepped outside.

Smoke caught her attention, and she spotted the feline leaning against the wall of the bar with a cigarette. His keen ears twitched, and he glanced to her, breathing out slowly. "One too many of Mettaton, or just too many people in general?" he asked, whiskers twitching in amusement.

"O-oh, no," Alphys protested. "I just umn, h-had some work that I need to get back too, you guys came through earlier than I thought so I'm a little behind schedule a-and…"

"Mind if I help?" Felix asked. "I'm not much next to you or Mettaton, but I've got a little know-how."

"Are you s-sure?" the reptile questioned in surprise. "It's n-not all that interesting, you probably… probably have better things you could be doing."

"Like listening to the Mettatons gossip about me in this world?"

Alphys gave a nervous laugh.

"Y-you make a fair point. Well, if you want, feel free to tag along, I guess."

"Yep, just gimme a minute. Cigarettes and labs don't go well together, last I heard."

"I can't argue with that…"


It wasn't long before the two arrived in Alphys's basement. The reptile immediately set to work, pulling out a set of blueprints from her desk and spreading them across it. Her eyes narrowed and she adjusted her glasses on her snout, making a quiet hum of concentration.

The feline watched her for a moment, and then glanced down at the blueprints, perking at a sense of familiarity that came with the designs. "So...for the Human soul we brought back, right?"

"Elder soul," Alphys murmured distractedly. "But yes. I've already started on the basics, but I want to incorporate a few more upgrades into the design this time, and she made a few requests of her own. They shouldn't be too difficult, fortunately enough, but it might be a bit time-consuming."

"How much of Mettaton's design was used as a base then?" the feline asked curiously. "I can work on those well enough…"

"It's the same basic principle as his. It's a shell, with enough transistors and battery power to keep the form running without her having to resort to magic to power it. A couple extra tidbits where necessary, but I don't want to do too much that'll add drain to the battery life. And I need to find some way to increase the power efficiency. I don't think we could handle a repeat of last time."

"Mettaton mentioned she had wings…" Felix mumbled, eyes narrowed. "I know we did some changes so that he could handle the power of his canon and wings...but you probably have that covered…"

Alphys looked up.

"Possibly, but the wings were always a big drain on her battery. I had a couple ideas on improving the efficiency, but… what exactly do you guys do? If nothing else, it might give me some more ideas…"

"Well," Felix murmured, leaving over the blueprints a moment. "Yeah, you see, over here, we had…"


"W-well," Alphys managed, wiping sweat from her brow and slowly sitting in a chair behind her. "I have to say, it seems like robots on your side are far different than ours. Heh… I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the differences anymore…"

Felix rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Our worlds just had to be kooky enough to cause this kind of confusion."

"It's not all bad, there's at least a few things that I can incorporate into Chara's design. If we can get her to take proper care of her body this time, we shouldn't have to worry about her exploding again."

"I think she would have found some incentive...that, or you and I need to start a committee for bashing stubborn robots over the head. Can you believe our Mettaton hasn't slept since the last time he was here?" The cat's hands twitched in irritation. "The Boss can be a pain."

Alphys stared at the feline.

"Hasn't slept in… how is that possible? How does he recharge? There's no way his body can take that!"

"He just...recharges the battery while working," Felix replied with a shrug. "So long as the battery recharges, the body will continue to function."

"'Function' is the key word there." Alphys muttered, her eyes narrowing. "There's a reason I set up Chara and our Mettaton's bodies so they have to power down to recharge. Just because he can do it while working…"

The yellow lizard tapped her claws on the desk.

"I'll speak with our Mettaton tomorrow. He'll be meeting with yours, maybe I can get him to bring the subject up. He does seem distressed that your… Boss… is in such a condition."

Felix nodded. "Thankfully, with things calming down, I don't think he's going to argue too much about resting."

"That's good." Alphys toyed with her ring nervously for a moment, looking back to the cat.

"Um, I know you two aren't exactly new to this whole scientist thing but, I've been doing it for over fifty years, so, just let me tell you... Making things more powerful, or more efficient.. It doesn't necessarily make them better. Boundaries exist for a reason, and it's important to… work around those barriers instead of just crashing through them. Does um… that make any sense?"

"I get your main point," Felix assured. "If it's any consolation, it's not like Mettaton wanted to be up for several months straight, it's just, things come up, and...at least for a little while, we didn't have the time to work around those barriers. Had we not...well...but I'll pass word on to Mettaton just so he knows. He has a better grasp on this than I do."

"F-fair enough. I certainly know what it's like to have to work under pressure…"

"Not a picnic," Felix agreed. "I'm just glad this fiasco is blowing over. So maybe for a few hours, people will be happy, and I can have a day off again."

"Y-yeah, I'm told those are kinda important." Alphys giggled slightly. "F-forcibly. By Undyne usually. Quickly followed by me getting dragged outside by my tail…"

Felix snorted. "Don't need to ask me twice! ...think I can steal your days off if you're not going to take them?" he joked.

"That sounds risky," Alphys smiled. "Undyne might decide to set her sights on you next. Are you sure you want that?"

"I'll take it over the Mettaton gossip?"

"Fair enough…"


Canis whined, her tiny claws grasping onto Papyrus's hand as her mother tried to take her. "No…" she protested. "Mine."

Dogaressa chortled. "No, you can't keep him. Now come, it's time to go."

"Mine," she stated more firmly, clinging tighter to make her point as she attempted to grapple the limb.

"Canis," Papyrus chided. "I don't want you to go either, but you do need to listen to your parents! Besides, we're going to keep the Rift open now, we can visit at any time!"

She looked up quietly. "Promise?"

"Of course I do!" Papyrus smiled brightly at her. "I missed you very much while the Rift was closed! I have no intention of letting such a terrible event happen again!"

"Hated it," she stated. "Don't wanna do it ever again."

Dogaressa smiled. "We understand, Dear...can you let go?"

"...one more snuggle?"

Papyrus rubbed her head with his boney fingers, giving a look to the parents that was both apologetic and slightly pleading.

"Well, it is just one more snuggle…"

Dogamy chuckled. "Well, all right…"

Dogaressa sighed in amusement, releasing her daughter, who instantly grappled the arm, giving a happy little sound as she did so.

Papyrus smiled, cuddling Canis into his ribcage one more time.

"She is certainly very cuddly! Her siblings ran off a while ago to play, but she seems happy to just stay here! Though I suppose it is no wonder, the great Papyrus gives the best snuggles!"

Dogamy smiled as his wife went to round up the tired pups in the bar. "I do hope you realize how much of an exception you are with her. She doesn't tend to warm up with strangers as fast as she had with you...or become clingy. That's the first time I think we ever had to tell her 'no'."

"Wowie!" Papyrus looked down at the pup in his hold. "I must really have made a good first impression!"

"You're telling me. She actually wants something for once in her life, instead of...just going with everything. Not that I'm complaining."

"Does she usually not want things then?" The skeleton questioned.

"She just doesn't actively seek out anything," Dogamy replied. "We'd give her things, she'd be satisfied...but...not like this."

"Well, I'm certainly glad she does! I am more than happy to spend time with my little friend! And you can be sure that I will visit often, now that everything is settled!"

"That I appreciate, the pups were highly displeased when I told them you couldn't come. And Canis used her deadly-"

"Not deadly," Dogaressa cut it. "But potent puppy eyes." In her arms were the other four, through she gave two of them to her husband.

"I can imagine! No one does puppy eyes better than… a puppy." Papyrus narrowed his sockets. "There's a pun in there somewhere, I just know it. Sans isn't even here and I can hear him laughing at me…"

Canis tiredly raised her head, and tilted it in confusion. She gave a grunt, butting her head against him as she tried to somehow squirm closer.

"Alright, Canis…" Papyrus gave her one final squeeze. "Your family is ready to take you home now."

She whined softly, reaching up to bump his jaw with her head, giving out the most pitiful look as she let her father take her back.

"Don't worry, little one! We will see each other again soon! Papyrus guaranteed!" The skeleton bowed dramatically before the pup to emphasize his point.

Canis stared for a moment, a smile slowly creeping across her face, and to her parents' surprise...she giggled.

"Did she just…?" Dogamy questioned.

"She did."

"Wowie! You have a nice laugh too!" Papyrus enthused, somehow smiling even more broadly. "You should definitely do that more often too!"

"I wholeheartedly agree," Dogamy replied.

"I laugh," she mumbled.

"But I never get to hear it," her father complained.

"Gotta have Uncles around…or Pappy..."

"Well, in that case, I'm sure you will hear it many more times Dogamy! It is now the great Papyrus's mission to make Canis laugh as often as possible!"

Dogaressa's muzzle twitched in amusement. "I think we found a new babysitter to hire," she chortled as Canis quietly curled up, already closing her eyes.

"You may need to get in line," Asgore rumbled good naturedly, striding over to the group, away from where his family was helping Toriel out of the bar, packing up everything they had brought. "With all the children running around now, there may be more than a few people interested in his services."

Canis opened her eyes at that, and looked up at the Boss Monster. "Mine," she clarified.

"She's quite taken with him, isn't she?" Asgore chuckled, raising a brow at the child's word. "Not that that's all that surprising."

"It certainly surprised us," Dogaressa murmured. "Though we should take our leave before she tries to find a way to bring him with her."

"Probably for the best," Asgore agreed. "Because somehow, I don't think Papyrus would be against that idea."

"Hey!" the skeleton protested. Then he hesitated for a moment. "...That's true," he admitted.

Dogamy snickered. "Not that Canis would complain-but all the more reason to hurry along," he said as she put in the effort to get on his shoulder so she could wave to Papyrus.

"Well, I have come to say my own farewells." Asgore smiled as Papyrus waved enthusiastically back to the child. "It was very nice to see you all, and if all goes according to plan, we shall do so again. At the very least, it should be sooner than last time…"

The father nodded. "It was certainly displeasing to have sealed off the Rift, but we didn't dare trifle with it."

"I suppose that is fair. But I am glad it is no longer a concern."

"Hey Dad!" the older Frisk poked his head through the doors. "Everything's set up, we're just waiting on you!"

"That would be my cue." Asgore gave a respectful nod to the canines. "I will see you all again soon, I am sure."

"We'll certainly plan on it," Dogaressa assured. "Until then…" She grabbed her husband. "Time to go before Canis suddenly learns blue magic."

"Farewell, puppies!" Papyrus exclaimed, waving to the lot of them. "Have a safe trip back! I will see you all soon!"